“An Editor’s Wishlist” presented at Making it in Changing Times by the dashing Jessica Morrell
* I really tried to take these conference notes word-for-word–but naturally something will be lost or manipulated along the way. My apologies. In addition, I added my own special formatting to the notes. For example in this first post I will do a simple “bullet list” since the topic was editor’s “wishlist”.
———————————————–“Editor’s Wishlist”:
———————————————-A writer who:
- #1. Has Voice!
What is Voice?
-Your character’s consciousness
-A character who has more personality than you do
-In harmony with your roots
-Changes depending on the circumstances
- Can promote their own work via personal blog, goodreads.com, Twitter, Facebook. One more time: CAN PROMOTE THEIR OWN WORK VIA PERSONAL BLOG, GOODREADS.COM, TWITTER, FACEBOOK
- Has realistic expectations about editors and publishers (piggy-backing off the former bullet)
- Is shocking, surprising, and uses “fire-fly” words (i.e. magical, special words. No clichés!)
- Uses word combinations that make you feel something, one example is “he huck-finned his way across the nation”
- Has a “high-concept” story–a story that gets across a single point such as Cheryl Strayed’s WILD: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. A story about a woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Another example is Jurassic Park. A story about Dinosaur’s living in the modern world.
“There is a dramatic question at the heart of every high-concept story” – Jessica Morrell
A story that is NOT high-concept makes the reader say “wait, what is this story about exactly?”
In closing:
“The traditional publishing world has changed–but editors need you, publishers need you. You are teenage girls and publishers are teenage boys.” – Jessica Morrell
TERAH RACHELLE VAN DUSEN 