My Favorite YA Things

As a YA writer and reader, there are some websites that I rely upon and even frequent daily. These sites have fun, interesting posts or expansive information or even both. Today, as I prepare to travel north for Christmas, I thought I’d share my favorite YA resources. I hope you find them worthwhile and please feel free to share your own favorite resources in the comments.

YA Stands

http://yastands.blogspot.com/

This site addresses YA specific and current issues. I get each post in my e-mail and I’ve grown quite fond of the informality of each post. It’s easy to read in the mornings when my brain isn’t fully functional. Also, there are multiple contributors which keeps it interesting and informative.   

YA Highway’s Publishing Road Map

http://www.yahighway.com/p/publishing-road-map.html

This road map has helpful information on all aspects of the publishing journey. I was surprised and delighted at how expansive the site is. I’ve already explored a good portion of the links, and recommend the Setting and World Building list—it’s been useful to me already!

Nova Ren Suma’s Blog

http://distraction99.com/

Distraction 99 is a blissful distraction. I enjoy reading Nova’s blog not only because she discusses her writing life and habits but because she dives into other authors’ thoughts in her writer-to-writer interviews. Her viewpoint in these interviews is one that only a published author can provide and I find it unique and helpful.

Teen Reads’ Coming Soon section

http://www.teenreads.com/coming-soon

If you are looking for new upcoming YA books, I would suggest visiting this link. It’s all-encompassing and the first site I click on to find out what’s coming soon in the YA world.

Safe travels and happy holidays!

Practice Makes Permanent

Day 4 of the Habits of Great Writers Challenge

Twelve years ago, I was a member of my middle school orchestra. (I played voila, thank you very much). The orchestra teacher was kind of psychotic, which is a great thing for a public school (please note my sarcasm) but she did teach our class one concept that stuck:

“Practice makes permanent.”

She stressed that even if you practice endlessly, you can’t guarantee that it will be perfect. If you practice the wrong hand position or the wrong finger placement, it will be permanent, and definitely not perfect. Therefore, practice makes permanent. It was a pessimistic lesson for a bunch of 7^th graders, but it was an important one.

In the case of orchestra, “Practice makes permanent” is a bad thing, or it can be. However, in the case of writing, it’s a good thing.

If you write daily, then it will become easier to pick up the pen or turn on the laptop and start pecking away. Writing 300 words a day will turn into 500 a day and even hopefully 1000 words daily. Luckily though, there’s nothing permanent in writing. That’s what editing is for. There’s just something permanent in the writing habit.

So I practice. I open my story document – saved on my Darth Vader USB drive (borrowed from my boyfriend) and I write. Some days I just stare. Some days I add comments: “This needs work.” “Describe the character here.” “WHERE’S THE TENSION?!”

You know, helpful reminders. A few days later, the document will be full of comments. Some days it so full of notes that it’s tough to look at. But with work, and a little writing, I can have it comment-clean and a few pages longer within a week. Then the writing, re-reading, editing, extending process starts again. It’s a long one, and it’s definitely confusing, but there’s always progress. And progress is the point, as well as creating the permanent, but not always perfect, writing habit.

Here’s some helpful blog posts on creating a writing habit:

Goins, Writer:  How to Form a Daily Writing Habit

Write to Done: 10 Steps to Create the Habit of Writing