Writer Interview: Meghan Drummond

Ok, so dream theories, the Trojan war, teen ghost hunters and manuscripts under your mattress?  All in a day’s work for today’s writer interview with Meghan Drummond.  Come get to know this up and coming talent!

 

AG: Tell us about your current project.

MD: I’m currently working on two. One is in the querying stage, and the other is almost complete. The one I’m querying for is about a sixteen year old who turned to paranormal investigations after the death of her younger brother. Actually finding a ghost turns out to be more trouble than she expected, especially when it follows her from the haunted house she was investigating to her New England boarding school.

The work that is still in progress is almost finished, that one I’ve been laboring over for close to six months. It’s a retelling of the Trojan war, but with a young adult paranormal twist. I don’t want to give too much away, but I did get to spend a lot of time researching the nature of dreams for it. Which was so much fun. Everyone should spend an hour reading about dream theories before going to bed, you’ll have the craziest dreams ever.

AG: Is it your first book?

MD: Nope! I’d always heard you needed at least one under the mattress. I have three. Mattress novels are really useful for a few reasons. There was one character that I absolutely loved from a mattress novel, but as I reread I realized I had created a novel that was all character and no plot. Now that character is a side character in the book I’m querying for. It’s great to have over a hundred pages of backstory for one side character. And I still read my mattress novels whenever I think my writing hasn’t improved.

AG:  How did you tackle the revision process before you queried? Did you use CP’s?

MD: I took a month off right after I finished. I was too in love with my own work to see it clearly, let alone revise it. I needed that month of believing it was perfect. Then I re-read it. And cringed. It was so far from perfect! I started sending it off to a few friends who wrote, begging them for honest feedback, and I got it. Finally, I knocked out the dents and added some shine, then I started querying. Finally an agent told me that my MC was too old for Young Adult, and I needed to change EVERYTHING. It was hard to hear, but I looked around and they were right. I changed a ton of details, rewrote the character and created a timeline for all of their new birthdays and important life events that reflected the three year backwards jump. I just finished that process and have started querying again. It took me a month to write my first manuscript. It’s taken me close to a year and a half to get it revised. I understand that after I get an agent, there will probably be even more revisions.

AG: What was the querying process like for you? Any tips?

MD: At first, I just kinda flailed my arms at the query process, and failed hard. I don’t recommend that. This time I’ve been a lot more organized.I started following a lot of agents on twitter, and made an excel spreadsheet with all of my ‘dream’ agents, complete with the agencies they worked for, and what they needed in a submission packet. I’ve been querying one or two at a time, and just slowly making my way down the list. I think a list is really important. Before I was wasting a lot of time querying multiple agents from the same agency, or querying people based on order in the alphabet on querytracker, or because they looked like they had kind eyes in the picture on their agency website.



AG: Do you blog? Where can we find you on Twitter and the internet?

MD:  I love twitter, and can be found @meghdrummond. I don’t blog much, just because my writing time is precious and usually gets dedicated to works in progress. You can find my blog at Snarkyforhire.blogspot.com.

AG:  What online resources have you used to help your writing and querying and revision process?

MD: Agents blogs are wonderful, and can be an unexpected source of revelation when you can’t figure out why your query got rejected. I love scribophile, and think that the community there is a great one if you need some help with revisions; they have provided some of the most honest feedback I have ever received.I actually pretty soundly got my butt kicked by some of the folks on Scribophile, and thanked them for my asskicking whole-heartedly. Recently I found the Teen Eyes website, which provides a lot of great services for writers.

AG: Any extra info you’d like to add or discuss?

MD:A while back a close friend told me something that really made writing less frustrating for me, and I think it was good advice. Publishing is the goal, but writing is the dream. Don’t lose sight of the goal, and work toward it, but don’t forget you’re already living the dream.

 

Ok, that’s my new favorite quote, Meghan.  Thanks for sharing!  Everyone, go follow Meghan and her snarkiness!