If it wasn’t clear already, here’s the official announcement: the blog’s going on hiatus for the foreseeable future. Too much school/work/writing going on to have any spare time for this. But to anyone with questions on the Scholastic A&W awards, feel free to message me or leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Happy writing, everyone!
Anna
Mariah said,
October 3, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Sad
We will miss you Anna!
Good luck with your writing!
Anna W. Waggener said,
October 18, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Thanks, Mariah! I’ll be sure to stop by your blog now and then.
Mariah said,
October 29, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Huzzah! I think my writing would wither up and die without your expert advice
By the way… are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I am, and I’m scared to death!
Anna W. Waggener said,
November 3, 2009 at 12:19 am
Haha I don’t know that my advice is very expert, but I’ll take the compliment
I’m trying to do NaNo, mostly because I really regret not trying last year. I have all of… four hundred words written. This is not going well.
Mariah said,
December 7, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Did you finish?!?!?!
Anna W. Waggener said,
December 7, 2009 at 5:05 pm
HAHAHA
I only wrote about three thousand words before I realized that it was impossible with my schedule.
I did write a twelve page paper this morning, though. Which is good since it’s due tonight.
How did you do?
Mariah said,
December 24, 2009 at 12:58 am
I actually made it to 50,000 words! Trust me, my schedule was insane too. Luckily, some annoying characters wouldn’t get out of my head. The book isn’t finished yet, but it’s still exciting!
Anna W. Waggener said,
December 28, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Yay! Congrats; I admire your ability to cram everything in. I will strive to do the same next year, but I have a feeling it won’t happen.
xxaliasxx said,
October 5, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I’ve peeked at your stuff and it looks so awesome! You’re really creative abut writing and art, like me. I did come here at firstabout scholastic, but I promise to come back and look into your projects! I am wondering, tough, if Scholastic would take a project like mine, Titled ‘Trmellow’ on my pages list. Please visit my site and tell me what you think. Keep on creating!
(Don’t you love how I say this under your post titled hiatus?)
Anna W. Waggener said,
October 18, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I’d love to get to your site, but I’m not sure how– you haven’t left a link…
And I’ll still get emails when replies are posted, so anyone interested in contacting me can certainly comment on this post!
ailey said,
December 25, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Hello! I just had a quick question about the submission format (which might seem ridiculously obvious) – would you happen to remember if your submission was single or double-spaced?
Anna W. Waggener said,
December 28, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Hi Ailey! I would definitely double space anything you plan to turn in. Other than cover-letters and queries, double spacing is standard in the world of publishing.
Thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you have any other questions!
ailey said,
January 29, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Thank you so much! One more quick question about formatting – did you use line breaks (where new paragraphs start at the very left, with a space in between each paragraph) or the formal formatting found in novels, with proper indenting? (I feel as though I am possibly being a little obsessive about this, but I have to know because I am a crazy person!)
Anna W. Waggener said,
February 9, 2010 at 12:25 pm
The “formal formatting” you mention is really just standard formatting–and standard is always good in a business where people have to read pages and pages and pages. So I’d go with that.
And it’s good to be obsessive sometimes!
luminouzz said,
January 8, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Hey, I’m a junior interested in submitting a novel to Scholastic Art and Writing. I’m wondering if you’re supposed to write consecutive chapters from the start. The guidelines ask for a max of 50 pages, or 5 chapters.
Do the 5 chapters have to be the first five chapters in your novel? Or can you choose to write 5 chapters from different points in your novel?
Also, what did you do? I would like to choose chapters from my novel that stand out.
Anna W. Waggener said,
January 10, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Hi Luminouzz!
I chose to go with the first fifty pages of my novel for a couple of reasons:
Publishing industry standards encourage samples from the beginning of the book–because that’s generally where people start reading when they pick something up off the shelf. Editors and agents want to know that an author can hook them from the start, and since the beginning of the book is often the hardest part to write (and to get right), it’s important for a writer to show that they’re capable of building characters and interest from the start. And even though a writer might think that chapter seven of their latest novel is the best thing they’ve ever typed, the reader who doesn’t know their characters or plot will likely just be confused.
That said, the choice is totally yours, and I’ve heard of entrants going with both approaches. I can promise that you won’t gain or lose points according to which chapters you include–the only thing judged is your writing–but the presentation of your writing is important, and the order in which someone reads a novel can totally change their perception of it. I’d tend to suggest heading from start to finish because, after all, we don’t pay money for books with scrambled or missing chapters (that’s just not how a story is meant to be read), but the presentation that best shows off your talent is the presentation you should go with, whether that starts with the prologue or with chapter ten.