The Muddy Middle of NaNoWriMo

Whether you call it the muddy middle, the saggy middle, the sticking place, or just I SUCK, we all reach the point where writing seems hopeless.

I’m there now. I’m still getting words down, but nothing is getting any clearer. I’m confused, demoralized and starting to think I’ll never understand anything again. Doubt is creeping in, and I’m beginning to suspect that it won’t go away for a while.

However, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s small, dim and is not growing nearly fast enough, but it’s there within this advice.

Struggle is Unavoidable

“Don’t take the easy way out. Don’t let your characters do it either. Great stories are about struggle, and you must endure struggle of your own to create great stories.” –The Write Practice, "I Don’t Want to Write," 10/4/13

Apparently if I’m struggling, I’m doing something right. If I sidetrack, backtrack or skirt the problem I’m facing, I'd be taking the easy way out. So I’m going to barrel through and meet the struggles as they come.

You Have What You Need

“Every theme, and character weakness, and part of the world you've built is a tool that you can use to figure out where the story should go.” –Veronica Roth, "The Sticking Place" on YA Highway, 8/4/11

If Veronica Roth says I have what I need to wrap up my story, I believe it. The parts of my story, the themes I’ve introduced, the characters I’ve created, should/can/will equal an ending. I may have to search a little to find the right one, but it’s there. And I plan on finding it.
 

Keep Charging

“This is the magic/curse of writing: That in crafting your fiction, you leave yourself open to sudden moments of unguarded truth, and you have to be willing to tolerate that again and again. You have to keep raising your sword and charging, even knowing you could retreat scorched and missing a limb. You have to keep doing it even when you don’t want to. Especially when you don’t want to.” –Libba Bray, "The Ever-Popular I Suck Playlist," 4/28/11

In the pursuit of greatness, you might be burned. You might break a pencil. You might lose a favorite line or scene or character. But don’t stop charging. Keep writing. Don’t stop putting words on the page. That’s all there is to it, really.

Thanks, experienced writers, for reminding me that not only does this happen, it is common. And it can be overcome. It may take time, effort and struggle. It may mean tears and involve doubt, insecurity and a little emotional scarring. But hopefully, it will lead to a full draft a publishable novel.

While in one hand I have doubt that I will ever see the end, in the other I have hope that it is possible. (And multitudes of proof on my sagging bookshelves.) So I put my hands together, and keep typing.

 

The Myth of Happily Ever After

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t read Allegiant and/or don’t want to know what happens, do NOT read this post! You've been warned.

Real life isn’t a fairy tale, and I believe that literature is allowed to reflect that. In most fairy tales there is a happily ever after, at some point after the main characters get past all their scruples and are together/engaged/married, and ta-da! Happy.

 

But in the real world, that’s not how it works. Marriage is not the finish line, but a starting point at a life together. And for many people, marriage is not the end goal, but maybe a career or friendship or travel or something else entirely. There will not be a point in life when everything comes together and from that point on, life is good. There will always be bad mixed with good, which is what makes life interesting.

 

A happily ever after is hard to come by in real life. So why do we require it in our fiction?

 

I understand that some people want an escape. That’s why we read books that take us to fantasy worlds or far away galaxies or the distant future when no one’s heard of the United States. We read about wizarding wars, Hunger Games and the quest to destroy the one ring in an attempt to escape from our everyday routine of work, eat, sleep.

 

The worlds to which we escape are not perfect. We wouldn’t want them to be! So, why do we want the endings to be perfect? Why do we require a happily ever after?

"As a reader, I don’t feel a story has an obligation to make me happy. I want stories to show me a bigger world than the one I know… Basically I would argue that books are not primarily in the wish fulfillment business. " –John Green

 

I was about 100 pages from the end of Allegiant when the dread starting creeping in. Suddenly, the end was upon me, I knew I was reading toward it, and I was afraid for what it would hold for Tris and Tobias. Apparently, I was right to be worried.

What Tris did for Tobias, Caleb and all those she left behind, was noble. It was brave, self-sacrificing and a little crazy. It was Tris. I truly believe she was the only one who could have fought her way into the Weapons Lab and I know she was the only one who could fight the effects of the death serum. In the end, it was a difficult irony that she survived the serum that would have killed everyone else just to be killed by one enemy with a gun.

 

Yes, life is unfair. Sometimes literature is too. But I know that Tris is the only one who could have completed it all, so that Chicago could be reborn as the fourth city. Don’t get me wrong, I was heartbroken the moment her mother came for her. But I kept reading and when I finished I took a step back and realized something important. In sacrificing herself, Tris saved numerous lives, she rescued a city from the brink of destruction and she pushed back on inequality.

 

The end of Allegiant was a different kind of ending. It was not a happily ever after, but a thought-provoking closure that was hard to swallow. It was elegant, powerful and (obviously) controversial. However, the lack of a happily ever after will not make me love Tris and Tobias, the Divergent series nor Veronica Roth any less. Because the ending was a reflection of real life. Every now and again, we need some real life in our literature. Occasionally, we need some reality in our escape.

 

Books by the Banks: Focus YA

Yesterday, I attended Books by the Banks in Cincinnati! This was not only my first visit to Books by the Banks, but my first book festival overall. Cue the milestone marker! It was a great festival to have as my first, as it’s intimate, accessible and free.

Of course, I went for the YA authors. There were 17 of them! By far the largest number of YA awesomeness that I’ve been in the presence of. After perusing their tables and chatting up some, I attended a few panels, the last of which was YA Fiction in a Flash. The YA authors in attendance gave us the down low on their fabulous books, which was followed by a Q&A session. 



From left: Emma Carlson Berne, Jody Casella, Cinda Williams Chima, Liz Coley, Lorie Langdon, Carey Corp,  Lisa Klein, Maureen Lipinski, Rebekah Crane, Mindy McGinnis, Jennifer McGowan, Tim Mettey

Here’s some wisdom I gleaned from that session:

On Being a Plotter or a Pantser

I know the first line and the last line, but the rest is a mystery. –Mindy McGinnis

I only write scenes I want to read. –Jennifer McGowan

I don’t outline the ending, because if I know how it ends, I might get bored with the story. –Maureen Lipinski

I start each novel with an outline, but as I get more confident with the story, I become more of a pantser. –Lisa Klein

I like the process of discovery. –Cinda Williams Chima

 

On the YA genre

Nobody knows what the next big thing is until it happens. –Cinda Williams Chima

YA is read by all ages because teenagers are interesting. –Mindy McGinnis

You feel your teenage years so wholeheartedly, which may be why adults read YA. –Rebekah Crane

Being a teen isn’t easy, and if you think it is, then you have no business writing for teens. –Cinda Williams Chima

On Revision

Revision is a completely different skill set than writing. –Carey Corp

Step away for six months, if you can. When you finish a draft, you’re too emotionally invested to edit, which is what needs to be done. –Mindy McGinnis

Never let anyone tell you there’s only one right way to go about this. Writing is hard enough without trying to shoehorn yourself into someone else’s method. –Cinda Williams Chima

Wade through the first draft crap to get to the gems. –Rebekah Crane

 

On Reading

Becoming a writer changes your relationship with books. –Liz Coley

My mentor is any author whose books I’ve read, as I learned to write through reading. –Mindy McGinnis

 

On Being a Writer

Up until the third grade, I used to get in trouble for daydreaming, but now I get paid for it. –Cinda Williams Chima

We are told not to read reviews, but most of us do anyway. –Mindy McGinnis

Listen to your own voice. –Liz Coley

Write the book that you were meant to write. That gives you the biggest chance at being successful. –Cinda Williams Chima

Author Pavilion

This is an annual event, so you can bet that I’ll be back next year! Thanks to all the authors (not just the YA ones) that participated and thanks, Cincinnati, for being awesome!

 

DISCLAIMER: This post in an unofficial account of the YA Fiction in a Flash panel at the Books by the Banks event with the aforementioned authors on October 12, 2013 in Cincinnati, OH. The views that I present in this article are my interpretations of the event and are not direct quotations of the author’s comments. These paraphrases do not necessarily represent the opinions of these authors or their publishers.

The Lesson of Shitty First Drafts

I used to think that writing was about getting it just right, the first time. I used to think that writers spouted genius and edits were just to hone their ingenuity. Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but over the past month I’ve learned the lesson of shitty first drafts. And now I’m taking it to heart.

"Writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts." –Anne Lamott

It all started with NaNoWriMo 2012, because no one can write 50000 words in one month without most of them sucking. In that month, I wrote simply, without flare. I used common words and cliché phrases. The point was to go back and change it later. However, I didn't get that far. Even though writing a full draft with an inciting incident, character growth and a climax was a great accomplishment for me, something funny happened in December. I realized the story that I wanted to tell wasn’t in the words I had written. The characters were right, but the plot wasn’t.

So I set it aside and didn’t pick it back up until spring, when an idea sprang (hehe) into my head unannounced. It took me months to rewrite the plot. I went through numerous outlines and utilized at least three different outlining methods. And once I got close, I realized there was only so much plotting I could do before I just needed to write. Write the story, following my plot outline but not stringently.

 

"You have permission to suck, temporarily." -Chuck Wendig

This is when the NaNoWriMo lesson returned. I had thought the NaNoWriMo style of writing was for November only. But that’s not true. This technique can be used all year, as long as writers remember one important thing: these words are not permanent, and they shouldn’t be.

Because first drafts suck. They’re bad, ordinary and likely unreadable. That’s the case with most writers (not that I’m aware of someone who spouts brilliance on the first try, but they could be out there.) The point of a first draft is to get the words down. Just as the point of a second draft is to edit. Re-read and re-write. Re-draft whole paragraphs. Move things around. Do major plot shifts. Add new scenes. Edit. EDIT. EDIT!

Brilliance happens when you have the words to craft. When you’re just about ready to throw the whole draft in recycle, it starts to make sense. It’s not like an epiphany, all at once with angels and puppies and an uplifting tune in the background. It happens slowly, building momentum as you rewrite.

"Making a difference always comes down to momentum." –Jeff Goins

Or at least I hope so. I’ve felt inklings of that momentum as I power through my first draft, but I haven’t reached the everything-makes-sense-thank-goodness stage yet. More on my plan for NaNoWriMo 2013 later this month, but right now I’m writing crap. Editable crap. For the rest of October, I’m practicing for November.

 

Publication Inspiration: Sarah J. Maas in Cincinnati

Sometimes the “bad” role models are the best ones. Sarah J. Maas doesn’t consider herself the best role model, or at least that’s what she said during her event in Cincinnati Thursday for the release of Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series. However, I think we were all there for a reason, whether because we love her books or because she’s such an inspiration with her great publication story, or both!

Her story goes a little something like this:

After being brought back to fantasy nerd-dom by a caring teacher and understanding parents, Sarah wrote fan fiction during high school until one day, while listening to the Cinderella soundtrack (the dark part after Cinderella flees the castle with guards in pursuit), she thought:

            What if Cinderella was an assassin who had just tried to kill the Prince?

This idea inspired Celeana, the main character of the Throne of Glass series and Sarah spent six years writing the first few books of the series. She posted Celeana’s story to FictionPress.com throughout high school and college, and gained many fans along the way. But, the ultimate goal was publication, so in 2008 she made the tough decision to pull her stories from FictionPress.com and spent months revising and rewriting the story.

From then on, it was continual revision, after Sarah got her agent in 2009 and after Bloomsbury bought the manuscript in 2010 then a lot of waiting until the publication of Throne of Glass in the fall of 2012. Fast forward one year, and Crown of Midnight is a NYT bestseller and Sarah’s about to jet off to the U.K. for a book tour. If that’s not an inspiring story of publication, I don’t know what is!

The story itself makes Sarah a great role model, because it’s all about focus, motivation, and never giving up. She may be a bit of a rebel, but who isn’t in the pursuit of their dreams? Here’s some advice from Sarah about being a writer:

·         Write as often as you can.

·         Write what you love, and don’t apologize for it.

·         If I had listened to the people who told me that writing wasn’t a viable career path, then I wouldn’t be where I am.

·         If it was easy, anyone could do it.

That last one sticks with me. If writing was an easy path, then wouldn’t everyone be sitting around crafting stories, playing with characters, writing love, intrigue and mystery? Okay, maybe not everyone... But if this path wasn’t difficult, then it wouldn’t be worth it in the end, right?

Even though Sarah may not consider herself the best role model, I look up to her as a writer, storyteller and inspiration in general, as I’m sure many of the people that came out for the event do, as well as many people throughout the country and world.

And, as I’m a better writer than I am speaker, I tried to tell her while she was signing my copies, but I’m not sure how intelligent/cohesive/sane I sounded. However, I know the message is in her possession, because I wrote it in the awesome copy of Throne of Glass that she has fans sign!

Great idea, right?

 

P.S. If you haven’t read this series, I recommend it highly. Action, intrigue, romance, plus the ending to Crown of Midnight is completely stellar. Usually I pick up on foreshadowing (just ask my boyfriend how many movies I’ve spoiled by whispering my guesses), but the ending floored/shocked/awed me. It was a complete surprise, which means it was immensely well done. Love love love!

 

DISCLAIMER: This post in an unofficial account of the event with Sarah J. Maas on September 12, 2013 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, OH. The views that I present in this article are my interpretations of the event. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury or any affiliates.

Writing Tips with a YA Twist

Writing tips are everywhere. Writing advice, courses, webinars, everything you can imagine is floating out there on the interwebs. Not all of it is helpful. But what I almost always find valuable are quotations from the modern and classic masters. Some I’ve read before, but usually I stumble on new ones too, which help freshen my mindset and think of things differently. I’ve taken some helpful, logical, maybe obvious but always inspirational quotes (that you may or may not have already read somewhere) and I’ve added my own YA-themed commentary, just to give them that extra UMPH!

“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever.” –Will Self

I saw a girl in a used bookstore once. She was no more than thirteen, but was chatting confidently with the workers, wearing a black skirt, boots and had a funky bag. I immediately wanted to pick her up and plunk her down in a dark yet quirky YA story. She was so unique; I wanted to craft a story around her. I wasn’t two steps out the door before I was tweeting about her. But, I failed to make a note (whether in notebook or phone) about the intricacies about why she was so interesting. Next time, you can be sure I’ll write it down.

 

“If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.” –W. Somerset Maugham

One word: Twilight. No, I jest! But seriously, stories aren’t about the words as much as they are about the characters, their relationships and their actions. What do I remember about the Twilight series (having read it almost 5 years ago)? I don’t remember how many times Stephenie Meyer wrote the word “eye.” (Though I do know it was a LOT.) But I do remember the fierceness which Edward and Jacob both loved and wanted Bella. I remember Bella standing up for those she loved. In the end, I remembered that Meyer is a great storyteller.

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” –Virginia Woolf

Writing YA is a great way to bare that misunderstood, acne-riddled, lonely teenage soul. Dive into the depth of your own secrets. Let fear take over your heart then put it all on the page. Tapping into your own angsty adolescence might just be the catalyst to discovering the truth of human emotion and motivation. And if not, at least you can say you tried.

“It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.” –Jonathan Franzen

So log off Facebook. Close out Twitter and Tumblr. Get off Google and Goodreads. Stop reading that blog—wait, after you finish this, please… But, unless you’re researching (which does not include Wikipedia) the internet is the black hole in which word count goals are lost. Great intentions or not, open that browser and your productivity levels will plunge like an angel falling from the sky.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Basically, less is more. People often think that editing is about fixing and adding and explaining. But it’s not; it’s about paring down the story to the bare essentials. It’s about leaving just want is needed to tell the story, tell it well, and get out. Don’t bog down the reader with conversations about homework, clothing, dinner dates, study sessions, basic teenage day-to-day life, unless it is absolutely (underlined and highlighted) essential to the story.

“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” –Edgar Rice Burroughs

Therefore, you must write. Daily. A lot. As much as you can get down. Just keeping going. Don’t stop! And someday, the words may be good. Great, even. And not only because the more words you have, the more the odds are in your favor, but the more words you’ve written, the more experience you have as well.

 

May the odds be ever in your favor! (I promise I didn’t select that last quote just so I could say that. Mostly.)

Now, get writing!

 

YA Beach Blast: Six Authors in Cincy!

When I travel for a book signing, it’s always been for just one author. But yesterday I journeyed to Cincinnati to see six – count ‘em—SIX YA authors, all at one place. All sitting at the same table. And it was glorious.

 

From top left:
Liz Coley, author of Pretty Girl-13
Mindee Arnett, author of The Nightmare Affair and upcoming Avalon

Julie Kagawa, author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series

Saundra Mitchell, author of The Elementals and editor of Defy the Dark

Kristina McBride, author of One Moment and The Tension of Opposites

Aprilynne Pike, author of the Wings series, the new Earthbound series and Life After Theft

 

Here are some fancy pointers they offered throughout the Q&A:

 

On Writing Time

Show up at the same every day. You can’t wait for the muse. –Mindee Arnett

Before you stop writing for the day, start the next chapter or scene so it’s easier to dive back in tomorrow. –Kristina McBride

Find ways to make time. And don’t apologize for your writing time. –Aprilynne Pike

 

On Failure

Don’t give up. Sometimes the book you think is going to make it doesn’t. –Julie Kagawa

If I’m struggling with a project, sometimes starting a new one will bring me back to the other one and help solve those issues. –Kristina McBride

If I can summarize the plot in 2-3 paragraphs, then I can write the book. But if I can’t, I won’t even start. –Mindee Arnett

It wasn’t my first full manuscript or my second that got me my agent. It was at least my fourth. And I’ve lost count how many manuscripts I’ve finished overall. –Liz Coley

 

On Dialogue

I always attempt to Joss Whedon my dialogue. –Mindee Arnett

I was a screenwriter for 15 years, so I try to propel the story with dialogue from the beginning. –Saundra Mitchell

When writing dialogue, it’s not just about the words the character is speaking, but also what’s going on in between the lines. The character’s actions and gestures are a factor too. –Julie Kagawa

On the Everything Else

There’s a lot of non-writing time that goes into being an author. The business of writing (answering e-mails to agents and editors, interacting on social media, etc.) takes up a lot of time. It’s a job in itself. –Aprilynne Pike 

Reviews are not for authors, they are for readers. –Aprilynne Pike (in the context of Goodreads and negative reviews in general)

A surprising aspect of being a writer is the way people interact online (they aren’t always the nicest), which is why I tweet about soup. –Saundra Mitchell

 

The authors were accommodating, down-to-earth and beyond amazing. I added six signed books to my shelf (don’t worry I won’t bog down the post with pictures...though I’m tempted). I’ve heard this is an annual thing, so you can count on my being there next summer. For shore!

 

DISCLAIMER: This post in an unofficial account of the YA Beach Blast event with the aforementioned authors on August 3, 2013 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, OH. The views that I present in this article are my interpretations of the event and are not direct quotations of the author’s comments. These paraphrases do not necessarily represent the opinions of these authors or their publishers.

Review of 101 Secrets for your Twenties

So the 101 secrets aren’t exactly secrets (at least not now that they’re published). But they feel like secrets. They feel like something I’d pass between cubicles disguised as some-report-or-another as to hide it from my boss, who’s parading as a real-life, half-dead adult. They’re secrets in that I didn’t realize how true they were until I read them. I knew they existed, but I didn’t know how to put them into words. But thankfully Paul did that for me.

The best thing about this book is when I realized that I’m not alone (Secret 32). I’m not alone in my lousy job, frustration, disappointment, confusion and insecurity. I’m not alone feeling as if my dream is so far away from coming true. But this book didn’t gloss over or skirt around the truth. It’s real and relatable, and proclaims truths which may be hard to swallow (like 73). However it’s what I need. It’s what most twenty-somethings need. Oh so desperately.

If you’re a twenty-something, this book has something for you. It addresses work, love, dating, marriage, relationships, friendships, faith, passion, emotional, financial, and physical health, goals, etc. The advice is concise,and comes from someone who (you can just tell) has been there, done that. Paul’s voice is clear and friendly, as if he’s sitting next to me at a bar, telling me how it is in a straight forward yet encouraging tone.

Plus, 101 Secrets for your Twenties is unbelievably quotable! Consider these great selections:

·         “You have to be on stage to win.” Secret 2, pg19

·         “Attack your insecurities before they can attack you.” Secret 33, pg74

·         “Complaining is passive and powerless. Creating is proactive and powerful.” Secret 38, pg84

·         “Change or die! …Those who know how to change will win.” Secret 62, pg125

·         “Complacency is a disease!” Secret 69, pg139

·         “Declare the truth of your bright future instead of the reality of your lackluster present.” Secret 83, pg165

·         “All explorers have to get lost. That’s when they make their biggest discoveries.” Secret 93, pg182

There were so many connections and ah-ha moments for me, including but not limited to secrets 19, 29, 68, 69, 73, 86, 87. And as I read, I found secrets to share with my boyfriend (43, 96), my brothers (55, 87), high school friends (10, 66), co-workers (11, 45) cousins (15) and on and on.

Out of 101 secrets, there was only one that I’m in denial about (52) and that’s just because I’m not a fan of wine. (I’m a mixed drinks kind of girl.) But even so, that’s a great percentage of relatablility. I can imagine that not every twenty-something would connect with every secret, but I’d bet every twenty-something could find at least one (if not dozens) that speak to their situation. There were even secrets that relate to writers like me. Secrets 4 and 21 had writer-specific inspiration, if not directly then in metaphor.

“Don’t cram your plotline into someone else’s story!” (pg53)

This book isn’t just a list of secrets that you chuckle at then set aside. It is an affirmation. It is a call to action. It’s a reminder not to dismiss your 20s, but not to put them on a pedestal either. So many of the secrets aren’t just oh-that-makes-sense moments, but they require contemplation. And so many beg to be applied to real life.

101 Secrets for your Twenties is a connection and a community. It makes life less lonely (as well as a great college graduation gift). It’s something not to keep secret, but to share. To yell about from the top of a mountain (or here in Indiana, the top of a barely-there hill). It’s something to tweet about, blog about and is worthy of a status update… or seven. It’s just that good!

To Be Released: TOMORROW, July 1

Find it here: Barnes & Noble

                      Amazon

Experience the community: All Groan Up

 

The Writing Advice I Can’t Delete from my Phone Inbox

You know when you’re sick and can’t even think about keeping up with things… like blogs? That is today. I’m under the weather, even though the weather outside is gorgeous. I’m hiding in my bed, even though it’s Easter and I fully intended to make a nice dinner for my boyfriend and myself. But I don’t want to neglect my blog. I’ve been posting here every Sunday since September and if I give up today, that might provide an excuse to stop in the future. So here I am.

I read most of my email on my phone, a slightly outdated iPhone 4 that has been glued to my hand since I got it almost 2 years ago. I try to keep the inbox clean, but there are some emails that I just can’t manage to delete. Four of these e-mails are from the Write Practice, Jeff Goins, Writer and YA Stands, dating back to August. They remain in my inbox because of their outstanding inspiration and awesome advice, and I want to be able to refer to them at any time.

The Write Practice: Why Something Has to Happen in Your Story

“For your story to be realistic, something has to happen. You don’t need to have explosions, murders, or dramatic love stories, but something has to happen.”

This is a short post, but one that is worth a read. Whenever a story idea pops into my head, I think about this post. Does something happen in this potential short story or novel? If not, it may not be worth writing. Also, this post has a great list of potential “happenings” that will guarantee something happens in your story.

The Write Practice: The Secret to Creating Conflict

"Conflict, in good stories, is not about spectacular events or painful emotions. Good conflict is about values." 

This post compounds on the previous one, even though it came three months later. When something happens in your story, it is usually a conflict. Maybe its man v. man, man v. society, society v. society, but as this post advises, good conflict is about values. This post gives a great list of potential values and some questions for you to consider when adding a conflict of values to your story.

Jeff Goins, Writer: 6 Steps to Successfully Launching A Dream

"Dave Ramsey says if you want to be rich, then you should do rich people stuff. I want to grow my platform, so I'm doing what people with larger platforms have done."

This is actually a guest post by Andy Traub, but it reads as advice from Jeff himself. This post is meant for writers that have followed Jeff's advice and proclaimed themselves writers, but maybe they haven't made it too much further. If you want to build a platform and live your dream, this is a great lists of steps to consider. However, I must admit it's been difficult for me. I'm still struggling with Step 2, as 5AM and I are not friends. I know I need more time to write and waking up earlier would help but I haven't quite come to terms with it yet. Which is why this email remains in my inbox, as a reminder.

 

YA Stands: Knowing your Characters

"Goal. Motivation. Conflict. I need to know these things for every character. If I do, the plot will be that much tighter."

This is great advice from Tonya and by extension, her agent. When writing, you have to know your character inside and out. Most importantly, you have to know their goals, motivations and conflicts. Also, this post mentions the importance of outlining the plot in advance, and even provides a link to a helpful generic outline. When I’m musing about my characters, I like to be reminded about GMC, which is why this post remains in my inbox.

Hope these posts provide some helpful advice for your writing!

Happy Easter!

The Precision of Words

There is an importance in the precision of words. I was recently reminded of this while reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. These books are about Karou, a blue-haired, artistic human girl who collects teeth for her chimaera “father.” When Akiva, a seraphim, descends into her life, the easy (albeit monster-filled) world that she has known becomes one of war and complication. Through both novels, Taylor’s words and descriptions are vibrant, passionate, and most importantly, precise. These words form clear, colorful, fresh images in the reader’s mind. As I was reading, some of the words and descriptions were so astounding that I paused to appreciate them, and made note of their location. Here are two such selections:

“The first time she’d come to Prague, she’d gotten so lost exploring these streets. She’d passed an art gallery and a few blocks later doubled back to find it, and… couldn’t. The city had swallowed it. In fact, she had never found it. There was a deceptive tangling of alleys that gave the impression of a map that shifted behind you, gargoyles tiptoeing away, stones like puzzle pieces rearranging themselves into new configurations while you weren’t looking. Prague entranced you, lured you in, like the mythic fey who trick travelers deep into forests until they’re lost beyond hope. But being lost here was a gentle adventure of marionette shops and absinthe, and the only creatures lurking around corners were Kaz and his cohorts in vampire makeup, ready with a silly thrill. Usually."
-Daughter of Smoke and Bone, page 183

“One world on its own is a strange enough seethe of coiling, unknowable veins of intention and change, but two? Where two worlds mingle breath through rips in the sky, the strange becomes stranger, and many things may come to pass that few imaginations could encompass.”
-Days of Blood & Starlight, page 491

 

When I read the first selection, I see a map of Prague that shifts around Karou like puzzle pieces. I see gargoyles shrinking away in the shadows and fairies with trickery in their eyes. These images form strongly in my mind. There is power in words like tangling, lure, cohorts, coiling and even absinthe. And when precise, pulsing words are strung together to form sentences and paragraphs, there is real magic in the imagery they create.

Word selection and usage can paint images within readers’ minds. They can bring an image to life, have it living and breathing and three-dimensional. This is why the precise selection of words is vital. Because there is a difference between anxious and nervous. There is a difference between blue and cerulean. There is a difference between happy, joyful, excited and ecstatic. And it’s not just a matter of using a thesaurus. Because some words, some descriptions are more innate. Maybe they come from a metaphor that no one has ever considered, and they pump life and heart into the story. They may come from a phrase of two or three hand-selected words that conjure something exact when put together in that fashion. Even if just one word is interchanged, the meaning may change and the image may fall.

Magic within words isn’t an everyday occurrence. It is unique, more so than the word ‘unique’ itself, which is why I am so appreciative of the precision of Taylor’s words within both of her novels. And why I strive for the same precision within my own work.

 

The Definition of Unputdownable

So I left off last time with this question: What do I write?

Well, I write teen. Usually fantasy adventure, occasional dystopian or historical. I’ve written about fairies in Ireland and resistance fighters in an alternate history of WWII Europe. I’ve written about a ghost of a girl watching her man die on Omaha beach. Did you know there’s a fairy portal in the backwoods of Kentucky? Neither did I, until I created it in my imagination.

Writing is imagination, for me at least. And I love it because it takes me away, to my own world.

So, why teen books?

I write teen because I haven’t really grown up, at least in my mind. I work 9-5, I pay my own rent and all that adult stuff, but I love the escape of teen fiction. There is something about the bravery of what teen authors are doing that really intrigues and entices me.

Just pick up Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” or Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler’s “The Future of Us” and you’ll understand.

And the teen genre—or young adult as some refer to it—is rising in popularity. Hunger Games, anyone?

As Lev Grossman, author of “The Magician," said in his New York Times article:

“Statistically speaking, most adults were young adults at some point in their lives, and some of us are still processing that experience. Young adult novels can be as powerful as anything out there. Read John Green's “The Fault in Our Stars," about teenagers with cancer. I did, and I'll be surprised if I have a more wrenching, emotional reading experience this year. Bottom line, there's one thing that young adult novels rarely are, and that's boring.”

If there’s one quality that I require in my reading (which I can hopefully exemplify in my writing), it’s that the books I read are unputdownable.

un·put·down·a·ble [adjective Informal]

(especially of a book or periodical) so interesting or suspenseful as to compel reading.

That’s what teen books are to me. So that's why I read and (am attempting to) write them.