The Katacomb

Storytelling Motivations

2012-01-29T17:58:00.000-05:00

When people talk about motivation and writing, they’re often talking about the motivation to get writing, or to finish a book, or to craft that query. But motivation in your actual story can be the most important writing-related motivation of all.

Often, when I’m having trouble with a story or a character, it’s because of something to do with motivation. Think about it it—at the heart of every story is a motivation, right? In other words, a reason your characters are doing what they’re doing. It’s when two sets of people have two opposing sets of motivations that conflict occurs, and voila, a plot happens!

Of course, it’s not that simple, but it’s a handy way of thinking about it. Lack of proper motivation can result in lack of believability (but why does James HAVE to strike out into the wilderness? He’s got a perfectly comfortable log cabin to spend the night in!), un-exciting stakes (okay, so Lucy is sneaking out of her room for a cookie...and if she fails...she, um, doesn’t get the cookie), and a whole host of other problems.

outside of a picture book, generally insufficient motivation

Outlining the different sets of motivations that make up your story can help you work out a part you’re stuck on and also, if you’re already done with said story, help you write your query letter. In both cases, you’re basically asking yourself the Big Question: what does your main character want? In some cases, if the thing that’s wanted isn’t self-explanatory on this front, you then need to follow up with: Why does s/he want it so bad?

For example, “Danny wants to save his mother from dying” is pretty self-explanatory. But “Danny wants to slay the dragon” is a little less so because we can then ask, “Why does Danny want to slay the dragon so badly? It could eat him!”

Or maybe they'd rather be friends! Maybe the dragon's cute!

Of course, characters can have a myriad of complex motivations. Even something like “Danny wants to slay the dragon because it has cast a spell on his mother that will kill her unless he slays the dragon first” can be made more complex by “The reason Danny needs so badly to save his mother (other than the fact, of course, that she’s his mother) is because he dreams of becoming a shoe-maker and if his mother were to die, he’d have to give up his shoe-making dreams to tend cows in order to support his ten little siblings. Or something like that.”

The point is, the character’s motivation needs to be so strong that it matches whatever opposing motivation is getting in his way. In this case, that motivation would be, of course, the dragon’s understandably strong motivation to stay alive (perhaps he’s even got a dragon-lady love he needs to woo or something. Who knows?). This motivation vs motivation thing doesn’t always work—say the “opposing force” is a storm or something, but again, it’s a simplification.

So what was I saying about using this for query writing? Well, thinking of your story in terms of motivations is a great way to simplify it enough to contain it in a query. Danny wants what? Why does it want it so badly? Who/what’s getting in the way? Why?

If you can’t figure out the motivations in your story, or if they don’t make sense (your characters really don’t have enough reason to be doing what they’re doing), then that could end up being a big problem. And it might be the reason you’re having trouble writing said story, if you’re having trouble.

What do you think? Do you ever consider your own stories in terms of motivations? Can you think of any books that can’t be described in this manner?

Critique Auction + Book Review + Wednesday Inspiration

2012-01-25T10:49:00.001-05:00

First off, I’m auctioning off a close critique of a 10,000 word excerpt of a YA/MG (edit: just kidding. the auction post left off that detail, so looks like the auction is open to adult books as well!) story HERE.

Proceeds go to Donna’s Dream House, a volunteer-run holiday home for terminally ill children and teens in Blackpool, UK. In December, weeks before they were to welcome a number of families for a dream Christmas, DDD was broken into by arsonists, who stole equipment, then lit the furniture on fire. The building was badly damaged and many important documents and mementos were lost.

Write Dreams is hosting the auction, and my particular item will be on bid until the 27^th. The bidding had been open for a couple days already, so thank you to anyone who has already placed a bid!

It’s open internationally, though the bidding is in pounds, so you may have to find an online currency exchanger.

Today’s Wednesday Inspiration pictures are all sort of tied to a book I read recently, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green (perhaps you’ve heard of it, lol? :P). To be honest, I hadn’t read anything by him before, other than LOOKING FOR ALASKA way back in high school.

In case you haven’t heard of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, it’s about a sixteen-year-old girl named Hazel, who has suffered from cancer since she was twelve. Forced to attend a support group by her parents, she meets Augustus Waters, who also has cancer. The two spend the book playing video games, reading each other’s favorite books, falling in love, and talking about life, death, and the meaning of it all.

...It’s much better than I just made it sound, because I’m horrible at summarizing books (also, I’m trying not to spoil anything).

Anyway, if I remember correctly, this was the very first book I read in the new year, and it’s definitely convinced to check out some more of John Green’s books. It’s a book about cancer that tries not to be a Book About Cancer, and people seem to have differing opinions about whether or not Green succeeded on that count, but honestly, by the end, I didn’t really care. I cared about Hazel and Augustus and the Dutch tulip man.

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/21143224)

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/21144391)

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/20871660)

Curious to see how these images might fit in with THE FAULT IN OUR STARS? Well, you should just go read the book, then ;)

Happy Wednesday, all!

Getting a Scene from Brain to Paper

2012-01-21T21:32:00.004-05:00

Different writers have difficulty with different parts of the writing process. Some hate fiddling with background information. Others despise revising. Others can’t stand outlining. Me? I have the most trouble with drafting.

By “drafting,” what I mean is this whole “get the story down on paper” part of writing. It’s not that I have trouble coming up with new material (I can write little happy excerpts and scenes all day long), or that I don’t know where the story is going (generally, I do, and I have a vague idea of how it’s going to get there, too), it’s just that I have trouble getting what’s in my head down onto paper.

Here’s an example. Let’s say I have a scene that I need to write. In my head, the scene will be a combination of things like this:

As you can see, it’s rather a mess.

Rather than try to do anything with that mess, sometimes I’ll just sit and stare angrily at the screen, which ultimately turns into checking my email, or tweeting, or watching random videos on youtube. None of which really help get that mess get down onto the paper—or up onto the screen, if one’s being picky.

So I’ve come up with a way of coaxing scenes out bit by bit, which is actually a little similar to how someone might approach a painting. First, the rough sketch. For the very beginning of the scene depicted by the jumble of images and words above, this sketch might look a bit like this:

We entered the small store, and he went straight up to the counter. The girl in front of him in line gave him a weird look, which he brushed off with a shrug. The tubs of brightly-colored ice creams called to me only a little less strongly than they seemed to call to him. I joined him at the end of the line.

“What are you going to get?” I said.

“Vanilla,” he said.

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s boring, isn’t it?”

“To those of us with imagination, that’s a canvas,” he said.

So, with that, I’ve got a basic set-up. Guy and girl enter ice cream shop. They talk about ice cream. Nothing great, but it’s better than that blank page I was staring at a moment ago. Usually, if I’m really having trouble with a scene, or if I’m just not super interested in writing a particular scene, but I need to get it down in order to get to future stuff, I’ll write it kind of like this.

But that’s just step number one! After I get the rough sketch down, it’s time to go back and add a little color to it (some sensory detail, a little more “voice”)…and maybe straighten some of those lines:

He rushed ahead of me into the ice cream shop, but held the door open with the very tips of his fingers just long enough for me to get through, as well. The bell hanging the in doorway dinged; his sneakers squeaked against the scuffed white tiles. I glanced away from him just long enough to take in the small, round tables, the delicate-looking chairs.

When I turned again, he was no longer there. Automatically, my eyes sought the end of the line. Sure enough, there he was, one hand pressed against the glass display case, grinning like Christmas had come in July. The girl ahead of him drew away a little. I didn’t blame her. If I didn’t know better, I’d be a little scared of that crazy ass smile, too.

“What are you going to get?” I said, slipping into line after him before someone else could take the spot. The display case was cold, raising goose bumps on my skin.

He didn’t bother looking up, his eyes roaming the tubs of brightly-colored ice creams.“Vanilla,” he said.

All this fuss, and he picked vanilla.

“That’s boring, isn’t it?” I said.

He huffed. “To those of us with imagination, that’s a canvas.”

It’s hard to say what a third revision—or layering—of this scene piece would look like without knowing my plans for the story as a whole (which, honestly, don’t exist since I’m making this up on the spot). But my “notes” in the scene’s jumbled image do say “reveal old relationship” and “Character 1 (which I’m going to say is Girl) opens up a bit,” so let’s assume that the “old relationship” was the fact that she dated Guy’s best friend a year back and it ended really, really badly, and she’s somewhat suspicious he’s been sent to spy on her by his friend or something, thus her reticence.

(In this scene, Guy needs a proper name, so let’s go with Liam)

Liam rushed ahead of me into the ice cream shop, but held the door open with the very tips of his fingers just long enough for me to get through, as well. The bell hanging the in doorway dinged; his sneakers squeaked against the scuffed white tiles.

I tried to remember if he’d ever held doors for me back when Bobby and I were dating, but it was hard to recall. Most likely, he never would have needed to. Bobby had always been there to open doors, pull out chairs, hold my books, fetch me a drink. He’d been the world’s most considerate boyfriend—until one day, he hadn’t.

I glanced away from Liam just long enough to take in the ice cream shop—the small, round tables, the delicate-looking chairs. Whatever Liam had said, this was not a “Hey, let’s go grab a cone!” kind of place. This was a eat-ice-cream-in-non-disposable-silver-bowls kind of place. This was a Date kind of place.

…or a place to lull your best friend’s ex into compliance.

When I turned around again, Liam was no longer there. I blinked, searching the store, and found him already standing at the end of the line, one hand pressed against the glass display case, grinning like Christmas had come in July. The girl ahead of him drew away a little. I didn’t blame her. If I didn’t know better, I’d be a little scared of that crazy ass smile, too.

“What are you going to get?” I said, slipping into line after him before someone else could take the spot. The display case was cold, raising goose bumps on my skin.

He didn’t bother looking up, his eyes roaming the tubs of brightly-colored ice creams. If Bobby really was looking for revenge, he should have pick a smarter friend. I wasn’t sure if Liam had the intellectual capacity to pull off a—a whatever this might be.

“Vanilla,” he said.

All this fuss, and he picked vanilla.

“That’s boring, isn’t it?” I said.

He huffed. “To those of us with imagination, that’s a canvas.”

So, there’s that! There would be revising after this step, of course, but for a first draft to show to critique partners and such, I’d be pretty happy with a scene written like that :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing how a scene might evolve from a jumbled mess in my head to actual words on the paper. And I hope it might help you work through a particularly nasty writer’s block next time it happens! :)

Is your drafting process anything like this? Or is it completely different?

YAmazing Race (& synopsis reveal!)

2012-01-16T10:00:00.003-05:00

THE RACE IS NOW OVER. Hope you had fun!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Katacomb, if this is your first time here :) Hope you’ve been enjoying the YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes! (if you are visiting this page before 12am EST, the race hasn’t technically started yet but will, soon!)

If you came to this page out of order, here’s a little information on the YAmazing Race: it’s a blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors and prize packs featuring ARCs, gift certificates, swag, and more! If you haven’t yet been to the Apocalypsies website, please click here to start from the beginning and read the complete rules. (again, only works if it’s after 12am EST!)

Now, let’s get started! Here’s the necessary info for my book—hope you remember it for the quiz at the end of this leg of the race! :)

~~~

WHAT’S LEFT OF ME by Kat Zhang

HarperCollins (HarperTeen/Harper)/ September 18, 2012

[cover to come soon!]

Summary: Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn't one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t…

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she's still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable--hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet...for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

~~~

Got all that? Store it away in your brain for the quiz ahead! And remember, you must complete ALL FIVE quizzes to be eligible for a prize pack.

Click here to go to the next stop on the race!

Paranormal vs Urban Fantasy

2012-01-15T10:23:00.018-05:00

Author’s Note: Again, a reminder that there WILL be a post here on the blog tomorrow (Monday, going up 11am EST). This post is part of the YAmazing Race (with MGnificent Prizes) put on by some fantastic fellow members of the Apocalypsies. You can check out more info about the race here. The race itself will start Monday at 12pm EST (so my post will be up a little early) and will be a great way to learn about some VERY exciting debut releases for 2012, as well as an opportunity to win some fabulous prizes.

Also! also! I will be revealing my official back-of-book (or really, since it’ll be hardcover, “inside-front-flap-of-dust-jacket") synopsis for the US version of WHAT’S LEFT OF ME! Yay! The UK one is already up, and found its way to Goodreads a little while back, but the US one is still a secret, and will remain such until tomorrow, where you can then find it here.

I know, it’s not as exciting as a cover reveal or ARCs, but still! I’m excited ;)

~~~

So, during my recent trip to California, some of the other Pub Crawl ladies and I got into a (admittedly brief) conversation about Paranormal versus Urban Fantasy, which then got stuck in my head for a (admittedly overly) long time. To be more specific, we wondered how on earth one differentiated a book that should be labeled “Paranormal” from one that should be labeled “Urban Fantasy.”

So, being me, I decided to do some research on the whole thing.

First off, though, here’s more or less what I said during that conversation, before I’d really put that much thought into it or read up on it at all: in my mind, Paranormal is like Twilight, while Urban Fantasy is like True Blood. To be fair, I’ve never actually watched or read True Blood, but to the best of my knowledge, in said series, vampires are pretty much known to exist by everyone. They’ve integrated into society, and society has bent around them, accommodating them. Contrast this with the case in Twilight, where if we were to interview, say, one of Bella’s classmates, we’d get the idea that they lived in a world exactly like ours.

Vampires exist in both series, but in Twilight, they’re secret and the majority of people don’t know about them—society is basically just like the real world…In other words, technically, you and I could be living in the Twilight world and just not be in on the whole vampire-y action. Whereas we could not be living in a True Blood-esque world because in that one, vampires have become part of mainstream society.

You may or may not be shaking your head in confusion/WTH-ness by this point. But yeah, that was pretty much my definition of Paranormal versus Urban Fantasy before any and all research into the matter.

Now, let’s see what other sources on the interwebs had to say!

To begin, I did what any modern-day university student does when flummoxed by a question: I googled it. Apparently, the whole “Paranormal versus Urban Fantasy” question is pretty common, because Google auto-completed it for me. After looking through several sites, here’s what I gathered (these points are basically just pulled from the sites and represent many different people’s opinions, most of them made concise by yours truly):

Paranormal:

-Often heavily associated with “Paranomal Romance” nowadays, even if the “romance” part isn’t actually tacked on the end

-can deal with any time period

-more focused on relationships

Urban Fantasy:

-City environment

-Location is important—almost a second character

-modern and grounded and current culture

-more likely to be gritty or dark

-more focused on the plot/character arc of just the main character

It was actually pretty hard to make these lists, because people tended to contradict one another a lot, and most people weren’t actually comparing Urban Fantasy with Paranormal, but with Paranormal Romance, so there was a lot of discussion about whether or not a HEA (or “Happily Ever After”) influenced a book’s categorization, etcetera.

What do you guys think?

Wednesday Inspirations 7

2012-01-11T12:19:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Have you guys been checking out the new Pub Crawl member introductions every day? We’ve already had debut authors Jodi Meadows and Erin Bowman on Monday and Tuesday, and today it’s Rachel Seigel (a book seller!). That’s three down and three more to go!

Also, a heads up that next Monday, I’m going to be participating in the YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes, put on by some fellow Apocalypsies (MG and YA debuts of 2012). Here’s some more info! I’ll elaborate more on Monday. The post is supposed to be up all week, though, so while there will be a post this Sunday, there won’t be a Wednesday post next week. You’ll probably be too busy checking out all the other posts in the Race anyway, though!

I’m still working away on Book 2, trying to pin down the atmosphere of the thing (along with, you know, the plot, character arcs, etc, lol). Looking at pictures tends to help me do that, so I’ve been spending some free time combing through weheartit.com for ones that match the mood/setting of the story. I can’t show them to you, as they’d be rather spoiler-y for both WHAT’S LEFT OF ME and Book 2, but here are some other, less relevant but still rather inspiring pictures I found :)

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/20904477)

I sort of love the composition of this one...

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/20904435)

Would you ever go cliff diving? I’d like to think I would, haha. Maybe, maybe ;) My parents went sky-diving once, when I was too little to participate. Now that I am old enough, I keep thinking about it. Can’t let my parents beat me out on these things, you know ;)

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/20904490)

And finally, here’s a quote I read recently and haven’t been able to get out of my mind:

“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.” ~Vita Sackville-West

Have a great rest of the week!

End of Holidays & PUB CRAWL!

2012-01-08T10:01:00.000-05:00

Just got back home on Friday from a lovely, lovely week in California. It was 80 F during the day, and we went swimming. In January. It was a bit frightening, to be honest! But wonderful, and apparently, I missed a huge cold front on the East Coast, so hooray for that!

Seeing Sarah Maas and Susan Dennard again was fantastic, as was meeting Leigh Bardugo in person for the first time! I only read the first two pages of her book SHADOW AND BONE (due out this summer from Holt), but I’m already in love with the writing and the concept and can’t wait to get my grubby hands on the ARC!

Luckily, I currently have said hands on the ARC of Susan’s SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY. I first read this book just after it sold to HarperCollins, and it was amazing then. It’s even more amazing now!

For me, today’s the last day of the holidays in a lot of ways. To start, I’m beginning classes again. But also, Pub(lishing) Crawl is launching TOMORROW! I can’t even tell you guys how excited I am for this. We’ve worked really hard to get it together, and it’s going to be amazing. Our new members are still a secret, but we’re going to kick off January by introducing them to you one by one, and I think you’re going to be just as excited as we all are!! (really, I’m so excited I just start grinning like CRAZY every time I think about it!)

There will be TONS of giveaways—ARCs, books, critiques, etc.!—(one for every day of January, at least, I believe!), so do NOT miss out on the launch. The link for Pub Crawl will go live tomorrow (or, well, tonight at midnight EST if you really can’t wait!) on the old Let the Words Flow site. We’ll all also be tweeting it like crazy, of course, and hope you guys will join in the excitement :)

I’m also making good progress on Book 2 of the Hybrid Chronicles and am psyched about everything that’s happening with WHAT’S LEFT OF ME. Can’t wait to share stuff with you guys ;)

Finally, I now have an official website! A friend of mine, Scott Yeskie, built it for me, and I think he did such a fantastic job. Hope you guys think so, too! This blog is going to be revamped a bit soon so that the layout matches, but the URL and such will stay the same, so no worries about links or anything.

I really hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! 2012 is going to be amazing, guys. I’m so happy to share it with you all :)

Happy New Years Eve!

2011-12-31T13:30:00.000-05:00

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/20313929)

So, I hadn’t planned on writing a post for New Years [Eve], but I did do one last year (of a completely different sort), and who am I to break tradition?

I am so, so excited for 2012. Even if I forget the fact that I’ll actually have a book published by the end of that year, I just have to think of all the other awesome, amazing, thrilling books slated to be released. Plus the movies! There are so many movies I’m looking forward to in 2012. Most of them are geeky beyond compare.

I’ve been surfing a number of other blogs and seeing so many “Best of 2011” posts and such, but really, I’m terrible at those kind of posts. Ask me about “the best” anything, and my brain freezes as the part of me that’s terrible about making decisions comes out full force. Plus, I’m terrible at remembering which books I’ve read, haha. I mean, if you bring it up, I’ll remember if I’ve read it or not, but just asking me to rattle off a list of books I’ve read in the past year is a recipe for stuttering disaster.

Perhaps that should be my first resolution of the year:

1. Keep a list of books I’ve read (and may jot down a few notes of what I thought about them)

Second resolution?

2. Finish this darn WIP I’ve been writing on the side literally since WHAT’S LEFT OF ME was in the middle of being queried. Since then, I’ve totally revamped it a few times, started about three other WIPs (all of which I’m madly excited about), and developed an extremely nebulous idea for a sequel to said WIP, but have not actually finished the darn thing. It’s got about 50k words and 4 major plot holes at the moment, so we’ll see if I actually get this thing pinned down by 2013!

3. This should probably be about writing better blog posts, haha. Is there anything in particular you guys want to see more of next year? Are you guys liking the Wednesday Inspiration posts? (which have, to be honest, turned a bit into “Wednesday-Inspiration-unless-Kat-has-something-else-random-to-write-about posts”). Let me know if you have anything at all in mind! :)

In a few days, I’m going to be packing up and heading to California (sun! 70 F weather!) to spend a week with Sarah Maas and Susan Dennard. We might even meet up with some other lovely Cali-area YA writers :)

And don’t forget that Pub(lishing) Crawl will be debuting on January 9^th! The link to the new site will be posted on Let The Words Flow on the 9^th. As you might know, the old LTWF ladies have teamed up with some amazing new writers/industry personnel, and I’m ridiculously excited to get Pub Crawl underway.

May you all have the best 2012!! <3

Huntsville visiting & INCARNATE baking

2011-12-28T14:06:00.000-05:00

Hi guys! Guess what?? WHAT'S LEFT OF ME is now up for pre-order on Amazon UK! How cool is that? :) Especially if you actually live in the UK, hehe.

Before we continue, quick warning that this will be a very picture-heavy post. Apologies to everyone with slow modems, lol (trust me, I understand...)

It feels like it's been a long time since I last posted, but I don't think it's been that long, has it? Anyway, here's a little of what I've been up to:

Because being a snowman is my day job, you know...

...when I'm not being an astronaut, that is ;)

And why, yes, that is Savannah in that picture with me! Sooz and I went to visit her and had a fantastic time. I wish I could have stayed longer! :) But we're sure to see each other again soon!

Once I got back home though, I got started on a little baking project I'd been planning for a while...

I read Jodi Meadow's INCARNATE back during finals madness (which, if anything, ought to show you how good the book was, haha) and told Jodi I'd bake her up some INCARNATE-inspired goodies once I got the time. So, today, I'm sharing step-by-step pictures and a recipe! (why, yes, in addition to being a snowman and an astronaut, I also bake. Because I'm just that cool :P )

Butterflies are quite important in INCARNATE, and there's a very cute scene involving honey, so I decided to include both these things in this recipe. Well, not real butterflies...

Butterfly-shaped cookies! Although, they really turned out more like pastries than cookies... Either way, they're yummy :)

So, here's how you make awesome INCARNATE butterfly cookie/pastry/things.

INGREDIENTS:

-honey

-nuts (I used walnuts because that's what we had in the fridge. I think almonds would also work well, or pecans. Maybe peanuts. Cashews not so much, maybe, lol)

-puff pastry (you can buy this pre-made at the store)

And that's really it! Super easy. Here are my ingredients:

why, yes, that is a giant rice cooker in the background ;)

STEP ONE: lay out the puff pastry smooth, trying not to rip any holes in it. If you do, just pinch it back together.

STEP TWO: Pour some nuts into a ziplock baggie. This is one of those sandwich-sized ones.

STEP THREE: Make like a neanderthal and smash those nuts with some heavy object on hand. I used the original walnut jar, lol.

STEP FOUR: Pour honey all over the puff pastry. You'll need quite a lot, as you see...

STEP FIVE: Smooth the honey out so all of the pastry is covered...

STEP SIX: Pour the nuts on top, evenly. I had two sheets of puff pastry, as you can see in the first shot, so I used about half the bag of crushed nuts for each sheet.

STEP SEVEN: Carefully roll up the pastry sheet.

STEP EIGHT: Using a serrated knife (dipped in water in between slices helps with the sticking problem), slice the roll into pinwheels. Mine were about an inch (2.5 cm) thick. Put them in a pan that has been lined with parchment paper. I used a glass pan for one sheet and metal for the other, as you can see below. The glass one worked better for the temperature I used.

STEP NINE: But where are the butterflies? Well, I wasn't quite sure how they'd turn out, so I only made 3 in actual butterfly shape :P Here they are, all positioned out. The middle bit is just a pinwheel cut especially thin (1/2 an inch? A little over 1 cm?) and then lengthened a bit by stretching it.

STEP TEN: You should pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F (204 Celsius). This worked great for the glass but resulted in the metal panned ones to get a little too browned, so if you only have metal pans, maybe try 375 F or just bake for a shorter time. I took the metal ones out after 12 min and the glass ones out after 15 min.

Here are the ones in the glass pan, cooling!

And here are all 3 butterflies from the metal pan! (as you can see, they're a bit more browned, and the honey on the bottom got a little burnt)

These pastries aren't very sweet, but I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so they were perfect for me :) Jodi says they don't use sugar in INCARNATE land, but if you don't care so much for bookish accuracy and want your pastries sweeter, you could sprinkle sugar on top before they cool all the way--or just squeeze more honey on top ;)

It's a little more than a month till INCARNATE releases, and you guys ought to all check it out! And maybe bake some of these to snack on while you read :D

Hope you guys have a happy new years!!

Monday: Holiday Edition

2011-12-19T12:38:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! So, yeah, yesterday's post did not happen, and after telling you all that we'd be back on schedule, too! Unfortunately, I vastly underestimated the crazy (in absolutely lovely ways!) this Winter Break would be. I'm going to be doing a lot of traveling (and let's be honest, party-going), and trying to fit in working on that book 2!

I've also got copyedits that seriously need getting done ;)

So take these pretty, pretty winter-y pictures as my Happy Holidays and sorry for the fact that I probably won't be posting with any regularity again until about Jan 8th. I'm sure you guys have way too much craziness going on in your own lives to miss me anyway ;)

I will, however, be posting a recipe at some point. What, you say? A recipe? Yup! I've recently-ish read INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows. It was fantastic, and you should all go get it when it comes out January 31st! I've promised Jodi an INCARNATE-themed baking recipe, though, and I've got one all planned out. At some point, probably later this week, I shall bake it up, take pictures, and post it here for everyone to add to their own baking festivities this winter!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/10704217)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/15396)

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/18107474)

(found: http://weheartit.com/entry/17246315)

Yes, apparently, I do have a thing for winter-bare trees strung up with pretty lights!

Copy Edits and Author Pics

2011-12-14T14:52:00.000-05:00

So, in the midst of finals, my copy edits arrived! :D

I’m still working on them, but it’s actually kinda relaxing. Well, first it was sort of terrifying because omg-this-is-the-last-time-I’ll-really-get-to-make-changes-to-the-text! I was sure I’d suddenly be struck with the urge to change everything, and my editor would think I’d gone absolutely crazy.

Luckily, finals seem to have exhausted me to a state of relative complacency, and I’m more or less happy with what I have on the page, content to just change some things on a sentence level :) I sort of love things on that level anyway, perfecting the sentence and the paragraph.

It’s sort of funny to see that what, three years ago, I thought was editing editing is actually what’s called copyediting, haha.

Anyway, I’m super excited to be at this stage, and I think I’ve even figured out when to use “one another” versus “each other” ;) Also, am I the only one who thought “All right” and “Alright” were both correct, but used in different contexts?? Apparently, only “All right” is technically correct, and “Alright” only came about because people misspelled it so much… Somehow, I was under the impression that one used “All right” when it was like “Is everything all right?” and “Alright” when it was like “Alright, let’s get going.” Anyone else think this??

Either way, I’ll just go with what my copyeditor says ;)

Oh, and my author pictures came in! It was super hard to pick one because I liked quite a number of them, which was a nice change from things because I usually hate all pictures of myself, haha. The Pub Crawl girls and my agent (and my parents, lol) helped me out, though, and in the end, this one rose to the top!

photo credit to Mandy Whitley Photography

Hope you guys like it, and happy Wednesday!

GUEST POST: I Read Blog Feeds Over My Morning Coffee

2011-12-11T10:58:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! So, due to vast amounts of crazy-making finals studying/essay writing going on over here in Kat's corner of the world, I decided to put up two lovely guest posts. The first was last Sunday, and here is the second one. I'll resume the normal posting schedule this coming Wednesday :)

-Kat

~~~

Descending from two generations of immigrants, Asia Morela (pseudonym) grew up in France before returning to her native city, Montreal. She's been writing for a long time (both in French and English), but decided only this year to open a blog about it. Though she favours fiction, she also has a lot of opinions she likes to defend in writing.

A few weeks ago I decided to launch a second blog, not instead, but on top of my current one. This raised a lot of questions. Why do I need a separate blog, or why do I even need to post that new content on a blog at all? Do I have enough energy and content to justify having another blog? What kind of energy and content does a blog require to be "kept alive", anyway? But a blog doesn't just need a blogger: it needs readers, comments, to be shared and linked to. How do I do that? How do I seek out new readers, how do I help them find me, and how do I keep them? Having to answer those questions all over again is what gave me the idea for this post.

1) The evolution of the blogosphere

Am I the only one who used to think blogs were mainly online diaries used by teenagers to complain about life, write in horrible colour fonts, share sparkling GIFs and fish for attention? Right, maybe that's because I was myself a teenager back in the early 2000's... and that my very first blog was indeed a private journal filled with angst about what I was going to do after high school. Nowadays, with the advent of a myriad new social medias, the growing up of the first blogging generation, as well as the increased understanding of the risks and potential of the Internet, the type of personal trivia that made up most of the early blogosphere has rightfully receded (at least proportionately). In its place, a whole new model of blogging has appeared: the professional-looking, sleekly designed website whose content is defined by a search for credibility and explicit control over what information is given. Far from the intimate reflection of real life they stood for at the beginning, it looks like blogs have graduated to their own, independent existence. Welcome to journalism 2.0!

2) Blogging, a new type of journalism?

Journalism includes many types of writing*. Of course there's the news, and the supposedly objective rendition of them. But journalism also includes (political, social) analyses, columns, reviews, viewpoints, not to mention the incredible variety of articles you'll find in specialized magazines (recipes, decoration tips, travel stories, history lessons...). While we are right to treat the information we find on blogs with caution, because it has not necessarily been fact-checked or approved by peers, we should also celebrate the democratic reminder that, even when it comes to the most highly respected newspapers or sources, there is not one truth, nor impersonal, objective facts, but only meanings, interpretations, and individuals caught between them. Bloggers, unlike anonymous newsgatherers, show their colours!

Moreover, as more and more professionals take up blogging, it is also less and less accurate to claim that bloggers are random nobodies voicing uninformed opinions. In fact, many of us have credentials we could use in a resume, and we usually prefer to write within our field of (relative) expertise, be it literature, high jump, or the city we live in! But blogging is not just traditional journalism gone online. If the seriousness of some personal blogs must be underlined and praised, there is one other, invaluable thing blogs offer us: freedom. Sure, we want to be read, liked and respected, and that--surprise!--involves rediscovering some basic, age-old rules of public communication (clarity, accuracy, authority...). But we also want to be ourselves! We want to share not just our knowledge and talent, but also our doubts, questions, mistakes, and learning process. More than a 21st-century competition with traditional journalism, blogging is actually this unique, original media which allows the perfect mix of the personal with the general, of honesty with perspective.

3) Finding your place in the blogosphere

The originality of blogging owes more than a little to its comment feature. Bloggers post whatever they please, but anyone is equally free to respond, criticize, challenge, discuss, or conversely to approve, confirm and congratulate! Although the content of blogs is not controlled at its source, it is indirectly judged and rated by the traffic, interest and feedback it gets. Creating a blog is extremely easy, yet the satisfaction to own a blog only comes with having readers and creating a dialogue with them--and that's not nearly as easy! Quality posts, originality, consistence and perseverence are key (I follow a blog which now gets a hundred comments on average per post--the blog has been around for five years, and hardly got any comments at all in its whole first year of existence). So is networking.

Networking is the final reason why I LOVE blogging. Because looking for bloggers with similar interests, discovering new blogs, getting caught up in the lives and experiences of people from all over the world, finding out about all the cool stuff that's being done out there, is really, truly fun. And inspiring. The no. 1 rule to get known within the blogosphere is to read other blogs and leave comments. But even if you initially do it for yourself, you soon find yourself hooked on a multitude of blogs you hadn't even known existed. Soon you're really blogging to exchange views, to reply or echo other blogs, in short to be part of this exciting blogging world that welcomes your input so readily. I don't read newspapers over morning coffee (never did). I read blogs.

And all of this, is what blogging means to me, why I continue blogging, and why I feel ready to blog even more.

* I am deliberately ignoring TV- and photojournalism in this post, but I know they exist, as much in traditional as in social media.

Wednesday Inspiration 6

2011-12-07T10:07:00.000-05:00

Hey guys!

So, in a slight twist on things, this week I’m going to start with a poem I found, because this was really the most inspirational thing I read/saw all week. I was going to put the poem in its entirety here (it’s a very short poem), but to be honest I’m not very clear about copyright laws concerning poetry, and the poet is still alive, so I’m sure his stuff is still copyrighted, and I’d hate to mess with all that. So, instead, I’ll ask you to google the poem because you can totally find it very easily elsewhere online, in some places with permission of the author and publisher ;)

The poem is called “Poem Without a Title,” is by Charles Simic, and the first line is “I say to the lead.”

Really, go read it. It’s fantastic.

And now, for the pictures! (which, if I’m to honest, I’m not super clear about in terms of copyright either, so I’m just going to slink away and let it be known that if anyone ever has a problem with a picture, to email me and let me know…)

http://weheartit.com/entry/18822237

Isn’t that just...the most beautiful city picture, ever? If we’re talking about inspiration, think about writing a story set in that city, on that day of lights :)

http://weheartit.com/entry/18821020

I’m pretty sure this picture is at least passably popular on the webs. I’ve seen it before, as other people’s icons or something. I love the idea, though. Who’s the girl dancing on the fairy lights?

http://weheartit.com/entry/18820545

Who is she waiting for in the cold?

http://weheartit.com/entry/18820169

...and is it the same girl here, waiting in the early Spring?

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

GUEST POST: Writers Write – Sometimes more than one book at a time

2011-12-04T11:02:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! So, due to vast amounts of crazy-making finals studying/essay writing going on over here in Kat's corner of the world, I've got two lovely guest posts for this Sunday and next Sunday. I'll still be here for the Wednesday Inspirational posts :)

-Kat

~~~

Aya Tsintziras is the 22-year-old author of PRETTY BONES (James Lorimer, September 2011). She lives and writes in Toronto. Feel free to find her on twitter @ayatsintziras or visit her website, www.ayatsintziras.com.

I’m a very organized person. Usually I chalk this up to the fact that I’m a Virgo, but at the same time I doubt that astrology can really explain every single thing about you. In university, I made both daily and weekly and monthly to-do lists, constantly crossing out and adding. The other day, I was cleaning my bedroom and found about a million of those lists. I can’t believe how much studying went into my undergrad degree! Now that I’m out of school for the moment and am focusing on writing, I’m still making those lists. Case in point, today’s list, a Monday morning near the end of November: write this blog post, finish typing up changes to my WIP, meet friend for coffee at 12:30pm, send out e-mails.

It strikes me that writing this blog post and working on my current story are legitimate things for a to-do list, but meeting a friend or e-mailing is honestly just part of everyday life or something you put on your calendar. But it’s like I’m addicted to making lists. It’s like I need to be doing more! After four years of an absolutely crazy hectic schedule, where I was always really involved in artsy extra-curriculars, I’m thrilled to have some real time to work on my writing but seem to find myself in organizational withdrawal.

Which brings me to the point of this post’s topic: I think I have writing A.D.D. Since my first book was published, I’ve finished writing one novel, and have not finished three different ones. It’s not that I’m stuck or don’t like working on them. It’s just that they are all completely different, in plot and tone, and I’ve had a hard time deciding which one to focus on.

I wonder if this has happened to other writers. I’m sure it has – while we all travel different paths on the way to publication, we definitely all go through the same ups and downs, the same crazy emotions. I’ve read about authors who can’t write one book at a time, and so they write two at the same time, going back and forth. That would be creatively fulfilling, for sure, but I wonder if you would lose the magical feeling of becoming totally immersed in the story you’re working on, of just wanting to wake up the next day and enter that world again.

I think that I’m now a writer-in-transition. I was so used to writing around my school schedule, I was so used to writing first drafts during summer break and fixing those drafts during the winter holidays, that now that I have more time than I’ve ever had before to write, I’m still getting used to how amazing that feels. Because, I keep reminding myself, all that I’ve done for the past four years is dream of having real time to sit down and write. And now that I have it, it’s an adjustment, like everything else.

But I’ve turned a corner this past week, and have revised the first half of a story that I wrote a year ago. Now I’m ready to focus on it and finish writing the book. It’s easy to second-guess yourself, to wonder if the story you’re writing is really worth it, if anyone is going to like it. I think my working on three different stories in the past year is a kind of fear. Really committing to a project is definitely scary. But writers write, and you can’t get anywhere without doing the work.

So if you’ve ever had a hard time deciding which story you want to tell, I totally sympathize! People always say it’s hard to write your second novel because the first one came so easily and was such a magical experience and you will never feel that way about a subsequent book again. This is partly true, in my opinion. But maybe we don’t want every book to be like the first one. Because when we wrote our first novels, we did it for the love of the work, and we were dreamers. But now that we’re past that first one, now that we’re writing something new, we probably have a book deal or a published book or at least an agent. And that means we have a chance to make the dreams come true. And that’s so much better, isn’t it?

Release Date for WHAT'S LEFT OF ME!

2011-11-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

So, I promised some exciting news on Twitter last night, and here it is!!

...WHAT’S LEFT OF ME will be released out into the world on 9/18/2012! :D

It’s so surreal to have an actual date to mark on the calendar and count down to. As a friend of mine said, “Hey, that’s only a little more than 10 months away—it’s like a baby!” Lol. ;)

But yes! Nine-eighteen-twenty-twelve! Hooray!

It’s really entering finals madness here, and this was more or less how I felt before getting the news:

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/18525565)

And now I feel like this!

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/18557163)

Here’s one more picture that caught my eye this week. It could really have been plucked right from one of my WIPs—down to the way the guy dresses and way the girl wears her hair!

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/18525245)

Happy Last Day of November, guys! I’m coming to terms with the fact that I would have to write about 8000 words today to win NaNoWriMo...and that with classes and such, that is NOT going to happen, haha. Well, I was close this year :D And it was so much fun to write with you guys!

Wednesday Inspiration 5

2011-11-23T11:01:00.001-05:00

Hi, guys. I don’t know if you’ve already heard, but Anne McCaffrey has just passed away. She wrote the Dragonriders of Pern series, as well as The Ship Who Sang series. I’ve only read a couple of the former, but I remember the world making a indelible impression on me.

Here’s some more information about her.

And I thought, since her books were such an inspiration to me, that we might have some images today that remind me, a little, of Pern.

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/18044275)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/17826067)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/17343971)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/17845995)

Writing Advice

2011-11-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

Over time, I’ve seen some authors tell aspiring authors to stop listening to advice about how to write, how to query, etc, etc. I completely understand where they’re coming from. The journey to becoming a published author differs a lot for each person. And the “best” way to write for each person differs even more. For example, tons of my writer friends swear by writing with music. I can’t stand it. I’ve tried, and I just end up either singing along (and getting nothing written) or end up turning it off in frustration. On the other hand, I’m the sort of person who can’t do homework with music, either. People in the library, studying while wearing earbuds, fascinate me :P

And some aspects of the publishing process, like querying, just have SO many people telling you what to do that it can be exhausting. I’m meticulous by nature, and I spent entirely too much time freaking out because OMG MY MARGINS WERE WRONG. Trust me, an agent will NOT reject you just because your margins were 1.5 inches and not 1 inch. Or because you used two spaces after your periods instead of one. Or because you used bright yellow, size 8 font.

Well.

Actually.

Maybe that last one...

But you know what? I’m glad I did so much research, even if perhaps 30% of it really wasn’t essential and maybe 5% of it turned out to be flat out wrong. There are rules, and no, you don’t always need to follow the rules, but as the saying goes: you should know a rule in and out before you decide to break it.

And then there is all the writing advice: write every single day; keep a journal; never edit a manuscript before you’ve finished the entire first draft; write at a certain time every day; end in the middle of a scene, not the end, so you know exactly where you’re going the next time you start; cut out all your adverbs; never start with dialogue…etc, etc.

With all the advice out there, there’s no way it’s all going to apply to you. Certainly, not all of it applies to me! But I don’t think that’s any reason to ignore it, or try to stay away from it. There was a period of about a year back when I was starting high school when I read just about every single writing book I could get my hands on. That’s all I asked for for Christmas or my birthday or anything. That’s a ton of advice going on there. And I tried most of it. And much of it didn’t really work for me.

But you know what? Trying all those things helped me figure out what does work for me. And I keep reading advice because who knows? Perhaps I’ll find a way of doing things that works better than the way I do it now. And if not, then I’ll at least have figured out one more way that doesn’t. :)

So my advice (which you’re free to ignore!)? Do listen to advice. Do seek out as much information as you can. But try not to let it stress you out. Whenever someone says “This is the best way to do it,” what they probably really mean is “This is the best way to do it, for me—or for me and a lot of people I know.” Maybe their way will work for you. Maybe it won’t. But you’ll never know unless you take it in and try! :)

NaNo Excerpts and Hunger Game Trailers

2011-11-16T13:31:00.001-05:00

So, I don't have any pretty inspirational pictures for you today. I know. Sadness. BUT, in exchange, I have screenshots from the new Hunger Games movie trailer that prove I am at least half way to being psychic. Which, you know, is better than nothing ;)

I also have an excerpt from my NaNo piece at the end, inspired by Susan Dennard's own post with her NaNo excerpt.

So, let's take a look at those predictions I made, shall we?

1. Alright, let’s start easy. I predict that we actually will get to see all three main characters this time!

Okay, pretty obvious, right? It happened. CHECK.

2. I predict we’re going to see Effie on stage at the Reaping, probably both a long/wide shot that shows the gathered children and a close-up

hmmm? ;) Okay, so Effie's not actually IN the shot in the first pic, but close enough, right? CHECK CHECK.

3. We’re going to hear someone (Effie? Katniss? Gale?) utter the words (or see as print on the screen) “May the games be ever in your favor.” (or whatever the exact phrasing is. I admit to being too lazy to actually go look it up)

The phrase is actually "May the ODDS be ever in your favor," and though it's not in the trailer, it IS written on the itunes page for the movie, which is where I went to see the trailer, so that counts, right?? ;) CHECK?

4. There will be a train scene with Katniss looking out the window--and then a cut to the splendors of the Capitol…or maybe the capitol skyline reflected in the train window

Train!

Okay, so it's not Katniss, it's Peeta. But close!

....and, cut to the Capitol!

CHECK-HALF and CHECK.

5. Katniss will shoot at least one arrow (again). What? It worked for me last time! Okay, okay, to make it more interesting…she’ll shoot an arrow as pre-HG Katniss (as a hunter in District 12)

Arrow number 1, pre-HG Katniss

Really, I should have known they might go for the parallel. But here's arrow number 2, as post-reaping Katniss!

CHECK!

6. One random non-District 12 tribute will be jumped (but camera will cut away before the blow lands)

No check here :( I hadn't expected the trailer would be pre-games-start only.

7. Haymitch will deliver the “Did they finally give me some fighters?” line (or whatever the wording is)

I'm still shocked this didn't make it into the trailer!

8. There will be fire.

Okay, honestly, when I made this prediction, I was kinda grasping at straws for things to predict, but it came true!

Fire!

More fire! (it's in the spy-mirror, in the very back of the parade)

CHECK!

9. There will be a shot of Prim/random District 12 people watching the games on TV/some humungo screen and crying/reacting in shock

Looks like District 12 to me? Though I suppose it could be any district.

Umm, they look shocked to me? ;)

I'm not sure what Prim is actually looking at in this shot, but they showed it after the above shots, so I'm going to count it ;)

CHECK!

10. There will be the explosion from the bombing of the food (though the cause won’t be clear in the trailer)

Again, didn't expect the trailer to be pre-games-start only, so no check here :(

So, what do you guys think? Do I have the go-ahead to add "Sorta-kinda psychic" to my resume? :P

So, the second half of this post is inspired by my friend Susan Dennard's blog post today, in which she posted an excerpt from her NaNo piece and invited all her readers to do the same.

Plus, you can think of it as a bonus for going through all the craziness that was the first half of this post, haha.

So, funnily enough, though neither Sooz nor I usually write YA contemporary, we both decided to tackle one during NaNo. And ours are ALSO both about girls who have to react to boys they were childhood friends with coming back after an extended time away! How serendipitous is that? :)

Here's my excerpt in all its NaNo-rush, first-draft, never-been-edited glory:

I’ve never liked airports. Leah, who fancies herself a full-fledged psychologist just because she’s got a house full of siblings and enough neuroses among the lot of them to keep our school guidance counselor occupied for the rest of her life, says it’s because I formed strong connections in childhood between airports and my father leaving on business. Honestly, if that’s really the sort of thing people pay psychologists to come up with, I’m all for Leah getting her certification right now. At least she does it for free.

I can’t deny that Dad flying off on business was a frequent occurrence when I was a kid, or that it wasn’t exactly my favorite thing in the world, but I’m more like to believe that I don’t like airports because they’re so cold. Temperature wise and ambience wise. The gleaming silver seats. The glare of overhead lights against scuffed floors. The feeling of temporary that permeates everything, as if all the rushing to and fro has leaked into the very stuffing of the uncomfortable chairs.

We wait for Kevin and his mother next to a kiosk that sells stuffed bears and bouquets of flowers, all pink and red with sprays of white lady’s lace stuck in the middle.

“Do you see them?” Dad says as a crowd of people start spilling out of the terminal, moving toward us in one big rush of rolling suitcases and crushed hairstyles.

“Not yet,” I say and wonder if I’ll even recognize Kevin, if he’s supposedly grow so much. Does he still cut his hair the same way? Does he still dress like he’s stepped out of a prep school brochure?

It gets to the point where I start analyzing the faces of complete strangers, wondering if one of them could possibly be Kevin, changed by three long years in Chicago.

“There!” Dad says. “I see them!” He starts waving and smiling, and then, in the crowd, I see someone waving back. It’s Kevin’s mom, and she looks the same, at least. Her hair’s a bit frazzled. Her purse is slipping off her shoulder. She catches sight of me, and her mouth gives this exaggerated OH of surprise. Then she’s turning around, calling to someone, and a moment later, there he is.

He’s dragging two suitcases behind him, and they keep bumping into things and overturning. This is keeping him pretty occupied, so at first I don’t see his face. What I do see is the skinny black tie, the scuffed converses, the dark blue, almost black button-down shirt.

What do you know? We match.

Then he looks up, and he grins, and I’m pretty sure my smile matches his, too. Soon, all four of us are standing by the kiosk. My dad and his mom hug, saying all the things adults say when they haven’t seen each other in a long time: You look so good—not a day older—oh, stop it—I’m serious—

“Hey,” Kevin says, and that is all.

But he smiles, and I smile, and that is a conversation in itself.

Whew, that was a long post! Happy Wednesday, guys!

Finding Time to Write (take 2)

2011-11-13T12:24:00.001-05:00

(so, it turns out I’ve done another post on this way back when. I hadn’t re-read it before writing this post, and it’s interesting to see the similarities and differences between what I said back in October of 2010 and what I’m saying now, a tiny bit more than a year later)

So, on Friday night during the #2012debut twitter chat (which was lots of fun, so you guys ought to check it out when it happens again next month!), someone asked me how I balanced college and a writing career.

I replied, only half-jokingly, that I balanced it with a whole lot of caffeine ;)

More seriously, though, there are a lot of people out there who write while carrying on a full-time job, or who have kids, or who have a full-time job and kids, and a hundred-bazillion other things, so I guess I never really thought of writing and getting through university as a big deal compared to that.

In the end, it’s all about finding the time to write, and while I can’t attest to how people with full-time jobs or little kids running about do it, here are some ways I, as a uni student, eek out writing time:

I figure out when I write best and try to free up those times

I write best when it’s dark out. It’s weird, maybe, but true. Something about knowing the rest of the campus is asleep (or, more accurately, partying in frat row, lol) makes it easier to slip into another world.

I can write at 3pm in the afternoon, yes, and oftentimes I do, but it’s going to be a little harder, so it’s just much more productive for me to do homework or whatever else it is that needs to be done during that time, so once the sun goes down, I’m free to write.

I figure out how I write best and do it that way

I like to write knowing I have three or four uninterrupted hours ahead of me. Just knowing I need to get somewhere in thirty minutes makes me useless, writing-wise, for the next thirty minutes, especially if I’m typing. So if I’ve got half an hour free, I don’t even try to open up my manuscript document—I know I’ll just stare at it blankly and start poking at my email—instead, I get some homework done or something.

I turn off the internet

Mac Freedom? Yes, please. I don’t know what you PC people could use, but Mac Freedom will block my access to the internet for however long I set it to. It’s sad, but it works ;)

I try writing longhand

I know some people hate writing longhand, while others write entire stories that way (HOW?) and then type them up afterward. I mostly type, but sometimes if I get stuck staring at a document, I pull out a notebook and try writing that way.

Also, the whole “I can’t write in short periods of time” thing doesn’t seem to apply to pen-and-paper. I write when I get to a class ten minutes early, or when I’m waiting for a bus, or if a friend’s late to a lunch date. It’s also cool since I don’t know exactly how much I’ve racked up until the end of the day or the end of the week and I type it up.

So, those are some ways I try to get my writing done. At the end of the day, though, it’s a fact of life that my writing can be sporadic. Some weeks, I’ll have a big test coming up, and I won’t write as much (read: almost any). Other weeks, I’ll write a couple thousand a day. And I try not to stress about it. Writing is a lot of fun for me (as I’m sure it is for most of you!), and even if it’s a “career” now, and there are certain expectations in place that weren’t before, in the end, it’s what I love to do more than most everything else. :)

How do you try to get your writing done?

PS GUYS. The first Hunger Games Trailer is releasing tomorrow! You know what that means? We get to see whether or not I’m really psychic. ;)

Wednesday Inspiration 4

2011-11-09T11:41:00.000-05:00

How is everyone today? :) It’s sad to say, but after the grand writing spree on Friday, I’m behind on my NaNo word count yet again! It’s probably going to stay that way for a bit, as I start studying for this big test coming up, but once I hit Thanksgiving break, I might need to do another live blog or two to catch up! ...because I’m definitely going to have 50k by the end of the month, even if I’m stuck writing 5000k a day for a while, haha.

Without further ado, here are the pictures for today! (actually, one more thing—I unfortunately forgot to take down the web addresses where I found this week’s pictures...They were all on weheartit.com, though, and if you want to find them there, you could try searching by topic? Sorry!)

This one is my favorite. One day, I need to commission someone to make me a necklace with this wrought at the end, because I love it so much. I have no idea how they’d do the dandelion puffs, though...that would be hard.

Cheesy? Yes, but true! ;) And it resounded with me as I did some written character-sketches for Hybrid book 2 this week.

I dunno. This girl just looks so happy, and that day looks so warm and perfect! It’s all rainy and cold over here…

This is adorable. There must be T-shirts out there with this...tell me this is so! (Because I would totally buy one)

I thought this one was cute and funny. It sort of sums up love in a lot of YA, doesn’t it?

Here's your writing quote of the week: "Good writers may 'tell' about almost anything in fiction except for the characters' feelings" -John Gardner

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY Cover Reveal!

2011-11-07T13:18:00.002-05:00

Hi guys! Sorry about missing a post yesterday, but I knew I would be posting again today, and you guys had a day-long influx of me on Friday, so I figured everyone needed a break ;)

Anyway, I'm SO happy to announce that the absolutely fantastic Susan Dennard is unveiling her cover (in fact, her ARC!!) over on her blog.

Susan (or Sooz) is not only a member of LTWF with me, a CP, a wonderful friend, and my hero in many ways, she's also a fellow 2012 HarperTeen debut. I loved SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY and I'm sure you all will too. Unfortunately, the book won't be released until Summer, but in the mean time, go check out that fabulous cover and congratulate her! :D

6,000 Word Goal Live Blog

2011-11-04T01:00:00.018-04:00

(if you don't understand, look at the post below this for the explanation)

Guuuys, this is the beginning! So I decided to shoot for 6,000 words today. I've discovered to my everlasting shame that there are people out there who can spit out 15k in a day, but my brain might combust (and my fingers fall off) if I tried that, so I'm going to aim for 6k, which would make up for yesterday, when my contribution to NaNoWriMo was like...100 words ;)

I've never written more than 4k in a day that I know of (I don't always keep count), so this 6k is a goal for me! And perhaps it would be smarter to go to bed now and wake up bright and early tomorrow morning, but it's a sad truth that I've always written best between sundown and sunup, so... :)

12:01am
Word count: 0
GO!!

12:30am
Had to do some housekeeping with the main Word War page. Feeling pretty good so far...taking a break to google popular musicals for elementary school kids for story research :)

1:00am
Word Count: 1094
Not bad, not bad :) The "full screen" mode in Pages is really helping, as is the fact that nobody else seems to be online, haha. Okay, gonna go check on some of the other people participating in the LTWF Word War and leave some comments!

1:22am
...now I'm writing about koi fish...

2:22am
Word Count: 2007
Alright, guys. It's late, and this is me, pretty much:

...except that's infinitely adorable, and I'm just infinitely zombified at the moment.

However, it may be the 2am talking, but I am actually coming to think this mess of a first draft might have some serious potential!

Time for bed, though. For reals. See you guys tomorrow morning! I still have 4k to go, lol.

9:35am

I'm awake! *makes vague muffled sounds* The exclamation point makes me sound much more coherent than I really am right now...time to go get breakfast...I've got about an hour and a half before class. We'll see if I get anything written, hahaha.

10:32am

Word Count: 2430

That means, since getting up this morning, I've written a total of...423 words?? What is this nonsense?? I swear I wrote more than that. And Sav's already broken 3k despite not working at all until waking up at 7:30am this morning!

Okay, well, I gotta run to class soon (I know? Class? In the face of not finishing my words? Unfortunately, yes), but I shall be back, and then I am going to write ALL THE WORDS...figuratively...

12:18pm

Okay, back from class and have done the usual pre-writing checking of email/replying to email, etc. Apparently, Sav has breaked for lunch. I'm going to make myself reach 4000 before lunch. Food is always a good motivator, haha.

GO!

12:51pm

Word Count: 3082

This is the last thing I've just written:

I am going to die in the awkwardness that is twelve-year-old Rachel flirting with my ex-best friend in front of my current best friend, who also happens to be be her older sister. Die. Painfully. So painfully.

Halfway there, guys!!

1:42pm

Word Count: 3680

Alright, I know I said no lunch until I reach 4000 words, but I'm hungry, and that is not conductive to storytelling, lol. Will take a break, get some food, go for a walk, etc. See you guys when I get back!

2:25pm

Have eaten lunch but haven't started writing again, yet. I've been checking all the other blogs to leave comments (see the post below this one for a link to the page with a list of the other blogs participating), and it seems like just about everyone is making good progress :)

That's great motivation, and I hope that the other people participating in the Great LTWF Word War are feeling motivated, too!

I really ought to get writing now, because some of my friends are going to be getting out of class soon, and once they do, they might text me to hang out...and if they do, I might go...and then I'll be screwed for the rest of the night, haha.

And yet...*drifts toward Twitter*

4:01pm

Word Count: 4890

Whew. Just finished a particularly emotionally draining scene and realized I hadn't updated in a while. I'm 1110 words from my goal!! How exciting is that? :) Sav was 1000 words off last time I checked. Who knows...maybe she's finished by now. I'm definitely going to take a break now, then come back for the final 1000 and so.

5:38pm

I'm baaack :) It really is a beautiful day today. Yesterday was all rainy, but today's it's brisk and a bit chilly, but really lovely.

Okay, I'm all pumped up to finish this thing! Apparently, Sav not only met her 10k goal, but went a little over. She's already gone and bragged in my comments, so that means I need to finish so I can go brag in hers!!

6:12pm

Paused to do some research on painting gazebos and paint primers...it's all for the book, I swear, haha. So it counts as being on task!

6:30pm

Word Count: 5619

Once again, my plans and goals are foiled by hunger. I really ought to make sure there's more food in my room before undertaking any more writing goals, haha. I have 381 words left, but they will have to wait until after I get back from dinner :)

8:10pm

Ate dinner, chilled with some friends, and made plans for later. Which means I need to get these words done quickly!

On the bright side, there are very few left, and I just had a WONDERFUL breakthrough on this story. In fact, I've been having breakthroughs all day--subplots weaving themselves together, character histories surfacing, etc. All the lovely stuff that happens in a first draft :) But this--this breakthrough is major. It involves one of the main characters and just gave me the reason he's acting the way he's acting.

Yay!

8:44pm

Word Count: 6063!!!

Reached my word goal and finished the scene :)

Woow, okay, so that was pretty exhausting, haha. I'm so glad I did it, though. The story I was working on (which isn't part of the Hybrid Trilogy, by the way, but a YA contemp I've been playing around with), started the day still just a jumble of characters and scenes and pieces of dialogue tied together tenuously with a setting and some circumstances, but now it's really shaping up into a real-life story with plot and character arcs and everything :) I'm super happy.

A HUGE thanks to everyone who participated in the LTWF Word War with Savannah and me today. I hope you guys all had as much fun as we did!!

NaNoWriMo Live Blog Tomorrow!

2011-11-03T11:35:00.001-04:00

(depending on where you live, this might actually be happening…I dunno, today. Don’t look at me to calculate timezones :P)

So, tomorrow, in the spirit of NaNo, some of us over at LTWF are going to be live blogging our writing day as we shoot for some big writing goal (word count wise). I haven't decided what number I'm going to try for, but I'll be updating this blog with my word count as it goes up...and probably blabbing on about all the reasons why I'm not writing ;)

If you guys read the Writing Wars posts by Beth Revis and Stephanie Perkins, you'll have some idea of what this is going to be like. For links to those posts, as well as more info about what I'm doing and a list of the other people doing this (AND a chance to sign up yourself!) click HERE. We'd like to get a collection of writers to do this thing together, with links to all their blogs in the same place.

We'd LOVE you to join us, even if you're not doing NaNo. It could be like a one-day NaNo for you! I think it's a great way of looking at everyone's writing process, and we can all leave each other encouraging comments :) It'll be fun!! And you'll probably get a LOT written by the end of the day. It doesn't even matter if you're not in our timezone.

Go check it out, and then check back here tomorrow for the live blog!

(And wow, this is probably the most times I'm ever going to post in a week...)

Wednesday Inspiration 3

2011-11-02T11:42:00.001-04:00

Hi! How’s everyone this fine Wednesday? Meeting your NaNoWriMo goals?

I decided to shake it up a bit this Wednesday, so instead of a couple images, you’re getting three videos! Now, I know people are less likely to press “play” on a video than look over some pictures, but these are really cool, so you should!! And then let me know what you think :)

The first one is 100 years of fashion in under 2 minutes. There’s music! They dance! There’s lots of clothes! You have to watch it.

The second one was sent me by Susan Dennard, who, being in Europe, has access to cool things we don’t see here in the US. This video was apparently all over the place when she visited France, and she shared it with us. It’s addictive, I swear.

The last is a (very short) ballet piece to a song I really love—”Dream” by Priscilla Ahn. I love ballet, but even if you don’t, you should watch this!!

I find that I’m often even more inspired by art forms that aren’t the written word, and I hope you guys enjoy these videos, then get back to writing :)

NaNoWriMo and Other "Impossible Goals"

2011-10-30T17:28:00.000-04:00

So, today’s October 30^th, meaning those of us doing NaNoWriMo have one more day to get things in order before the madness begins. Like I’ve said before, it was because of NaNoWriMo that I finished my first ever (complete) novel. This was the book I wrote before WHAT’S LEFT OF ME. I didn’t actually finish the book that year (it was a 140k or so monster of a book—and I only say it was a monster because I tend to write shorter works), but I certainly got a head start on things.

I’d been writing orphan beginnings of novels and middles of novels and ends of novels for years and years before that, but I’d never sat down and actually completed anything. I’d always figured I would, someday, but that day was never now. NaNo got me to decide that someday was going to be now.

I’m a bit fan of really concrete goals, and I love how concrete NaNo is. It’s not “write the next great American (or wherever you’re from) novel.” It’s not “write something publishable.” It’s not even “write something coherent.” (and trust me, some parts of that first book really weren’t)

Some writers don’t like NaNo, though most people I know are either ambivalent or wildly supportive. The thinking goes: why should we encourage people to write 50,000 words of crap? Isn’t it better to write 500 good words in a month than 50,000 terrible ones?

I dunno. The thing is, at least for me, that writing those first 50,000 words made me believe I was capable of writing the next 50,000 and the next 50,000 and the 50,000 after that. And with each 50,000, those words got better. So even if each and one of those 50,000 words are terrible (and what does that even mean really?), it’s all paving the way to something stronger.

If you’ve been writing a long time but never finished a story, don’t underestimate the difference it makes in how you think about yourself. Suddenly, everything in this whole publishing/story-making business seems so much closer, so much more concrete. At least, that was how it was for me.

Obviously, people do go about this creative process in different ways. The NaNo style of things doesn’t work for everyone, so if you’ve tried it and it just wasn’t your thing, I’m not saying you’re doing it wrong or something :) Heaven knows I’ve tried a hundred different “this is how you should write” things and failed at them.

But if you’re teetering on that “should I???” I say go for it! A number of us LTWF girls are doing it, too, and we’ll be tracking our progress on the main LTWF site. I’m also going to be tracking it here. Nothing like public humiliation to motivate you, right? ;)

On the subject of public humiliation, I’ve recently decided upon another goal for myself. I’m going to work up to running a half marathon. That’s thirteen miles, I believe. I have no idea if it’s 13 point something or just 13.0.

This isn’t as random as it might seem. I ran cross-country in high school for a few years, and it was great. However, I’ve never run more than about four or five miles in one go before. I’ve always looked at my peers who did half marathons and such like they’re crazy. I never even did the annual six mile run near my home.

If you think writing 50,000 words in a moth is an impossible goal right now…well, I’m staring at the words thirteen miles and thinking it’s an impossible goal right now. So we can shake hands and start on our respective “impossible goals” :)

Happy Day-Before-Halloween, guys! Last Friday, I saw three people dressed up as mad scientists chasing after a guy in a full-body gorilla suit. It made my day. Don’t you love university? :)

And if you don’t celebrate Halloween, happy end-of-October!

Wednesday Inspiration 2

2011-10-26T11:30:00.002-04:00

Hey guys :) How’s your week going? I can’t believe it’s only five more days until the end of October. Where is this year going?

Anyway, here are some picture that have caught my attention this week. Hope one of them inspires a story or scene for you. Are those of you who are doing NaNoWriMo planning out your stories now? I just signed up: KatZhang, if anyone wants to “friend” or whatever it’s called over there, haha. I haven’t actually signed up for an account since sophomore year high school or something. I don’t remember how it works.

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/16553897)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/15811056)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/16553585)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/16553396)

(found here: http://weheartit.com/entry/16553386)

Hahaha! I just noticed this while uploading the pictures, but apparently I’m was in the mood for umbrellas and things passing this week, wasn’t I? Passing time…passing trains… :)

Here’s your writing quote of the week:

“When writers are self-conscious about themselves as writers they often keep a great distance from their characters, sounding as if they were writing encyclopedia entries instead of stories. Their hesitancy about physical and psychological intimacy can be a barrier to vital fiction.

Conversely, a narration that makes readers hear the characters’ heavy breathing and smell their emotional anguish diminishes distance. Readers feel so close to the characters that, for those magical moments, they become those characters.”

— Jerome Stern

Happy Wednesday!

Acknowledgements

2011-10-23T13:14:00.002-04:00

So, I wrote my acknowledgements page the other day. No, my editor hasn’t actually asked for them yet. And to be honest, I hadn’t thought about them at all since before the book sold. (yes, I thought more about my acknowledgements page before actually getting a book deal than after. Oh the neurosis that is a writer’s brain…)

It wasn’t that I wasn’t madly, madly full of thanks for people. In fact, I’m thinking (or at least telling myself) that it was because I was so full of thanks that I knew the acknowledgements page would end up 10000000 pages if I tried to tackle it, even mentally, and thus blocked it completely from mind.

Yup.

So why the sudden urge to write an acknowledgements page? I blame Sarah Maas entirely. It was, after all, her fault (entirely). Sarah and her sudden “omg, which one of these three dedication phrasings do you like best??” message which sent me going “Dedications?? SAY WHAT?” (well, first, I said: “number 2. Definitely number 2,” but after that…)

So, while the idea of acknowledgements was fresh on the mind, I sat down and wrote one out. And somehow, I managed to make it (a little) less than 10000000 pages long. I also discovered that having a title like WHAT’S LEFT OF ME makes for all sorts of interesting sentences. Yes, I’ve had this title now for a couple months (right? I don’t even know. Publishing time is like…not even related to real-life time, I swear. Things that I think happened forever ago really happened yesterday, and things I think happened yesterday happened six months ago), and I just now realized that there will always be really odd looks given at me when I say this title aloud in conjunction with certain other words.

For example, can you imagine me at a book signing one day going:

“Hi! Thank you for buying WHAT’S LEFT OF ME!”

Or if someone asked:

“Hi! Would you sign WHAT’S LEFT OF ME?”

Um…

I’m just saying now, if and when this happens, expect puns and lots of them. I grew up with a BFF who lived off puns, and it rubbed off. Nothing makes me laugh like a bad pun. :)

(at least I’ll probably never say: “WHAT’S LEFT OF ME is half off!” or “Please don’t touch WHAT’S LEFT OF ME.” I will make no promises, however, concerning “It took a lot of effort to wrestle WHAT’S LEFT OF ME between covers.” ...that sentence may or may not be in my acknowledgments. Ahem.)

In a herculean effort to drag this post back on topic, who would you thank right now for getting you where you are in your writing journey? :)

Wednesday Inspirations

2011-10-19T19:42:00.000-04:00

What? Yes! I am posting on a Wednesday!

My old bus driver in high school used to always call Wednesday “hump day,” meaning, you know, that you’d gotten through the tough slogging that is Monday and Tuesday and soon you’ll be sailing through Thursday and Friday. Considering the two exams I have tomorrow, I don’t think I’ll be doing any sailing, but the point still stands.

Anyway, I thought I might start posting twice a week. Only coming up with and typing up two posts a week might literally drive me under the ground, so I figured I’d do something light and fun on Wednesdays—something to really push us all over that hump and get some extra wind under those sails. (At this point, you’ve either gotten my metaphor or are scratching your head going WHAT? Hint: thinking hang-gliding instead of boats)

So on Wednesdays, I’ll be posting some inspiration stuff—mostly photos and drawings I’ve found, or quotes, or things like that. Maybe even a non-spoilerly snippet from a book I’m reading.

And hey, if you ever see anything here that inspires some art of your own—prose, poetry, visual art—heck, music—I’d love to know. If you let me, I’ll post it on the blog, too :)

So, let’s start:

(found here http://weheartit.com/entry/16364963)

(found here http://weheartit.com/entry/16365441)

(found here http://weheartit.com/entry/16365427)

(found here http://weheartit.com/entry/16324009)

And to end, my very favorite Mark Twain quote: "The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

Line Edits and Hunger Games Trailers

2011-10-16T14:31:00.001-04:00

So, there’s been some exciting stuff going on in the Hybrid Trilogy world :) I’m using that as my excuse for missing last week’s blog…I was finishing up line edits! These have now been turned in. In other words, the next steps are (I think…): copy edits, page proofs, ARCs?? Of course, these steps probably aren’t going occur with any great speed, since there’s still a bunch to do in between, and it all takes time, but still, I’m super excited about getting WHAT’S LEFT OF ME to this stage!

This also means that work on Book 2 of the Hybrid Trilogy is gearing up to start! It’s still at the outline stage for now, but I’m going to try to start writing on November 1^st and plug into the NaNoWriMo craziness. I “won” my first ever NaNoWriMo with what later became the first book I ever finished, period (the ms ended up about 140k, so NaNoWriMo only contributed the first 60k or so!), so I rather love it. Are any of you doing NaNo this year? We should cheer one another on :)

It’s also midterms time over here at school, so in the spirit of doing fun, non-studious things during test time, let’s talk about the Hunger Games movie trailer! (yes, that was random)

It’s pretty likely that a good number of you have seen the teaser trailer that was released a little while ago. I don’t think we know when a full trailer is coming, but before the teaser came out, my friend and I has this conversation (more or less):

Her: So, are you excited about the Hunger Games teaser?

Me: Yeah, but…it’ll probably be super short and reveal nothing…

Her: But at least we’ll get to see the main actors in character, right?

Me: ...or we’ll get a scene of Katniss, alone, in the woods, with scary music playing in the background. Then it’ll build and build and she’ll shoot an arrow at the end!

Her: [laughs]

…and then we saw the teaser….

So now, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m psychic. (what, I’ve learned the scientific method! This is how it works, right?—I’ve got science teachers pulling their hair out right now, I just know it)

This point of all this was the following: I’m going to list 10 predictions for the full Hunger Games trailer, and once that comes out, we’ll have to see how psychic I really am. Please list your own predictions in the comments! Do you agree with any of mine?

Alright, let’s start easy. I predict that we actually will get to see all three main characters this time!
I predict we’re going to see Effie on stage at the Reaping, probably both a long/wide shot that shows the gathered children and a close-up
We’re going to hear someone (Effie? Katniss? Gale?) utter the words (or see as print on the screen) “May the games be ever in your favor.” (or whatever the exact phrasing is. I admit to being too lazy to actually go look it up)
There will be a train scene with Katniss looking out the window--and then a cut to the splendors of the Capitol…or maybe the capitol skyline reflected in the train window
Katniss will shoot at least one arrow (again). What? It worked for me last time! Okay, okay, to make it more interesting…she’ll shoot an arrow as pre-HG Katniss (as a hunter in District 12)
One random non-District 12 tribute will be jumped (but camera will cut away before the blow lands)
Haymitch will deliver the “Did they finally give me some fighters?” line (or whatever the wording is)
There will be fire.
There will be a shot of Prim/random District 12 people watching the games on TV/some humungo screen and crying/reacting in shock
There will be the explosion from the bombing of the food (though the cause won’t be clear in the trailer)

Okay! Those are my predictions. What are yours?

Cover Love

2011-10-02T15:09:00.001-04:00

Did you guys see that DIVERGENT, by Veronica Roth, has a new UK cover? I think it’s really pretty, don’t you? It’s wonderfully atmospheric, and I really like the texture on the birds. Of course, I’m in love with the cover for INSURGENT as well! And not just because my favorite colors are white and green and blue! (seriously, that cover covers—pun, hee!—all the bases for things I love, not in covers specifically, but in LIFE…colors, storms, trees, changing leaves, fog, vague cityscapes…)

It’s funny, but I don’t think I ever paid a ton of attention to covers until I seriously seriously started pursuing publication (I say “seriously seriously” because I “seriously” started pursuing publication at like the age of 12, lol). Now, I’m obsessed with them. I get sooo excited whenever a fellow debut reveals their cover. And there are some reeaally gorgeous ones this year.

First of all, I have a thing for hand-drawn covers. I’ve done a lot of visual art over the years, so I guess I just feel drawn toward it. Hand-drawn covers seem a lot more popular with Middle Grade books than YA right now, though. But take a look at this one, called WITH A NAME LIKE LOVE, by Tess Hilmo!

I just adore the pale colors, the almost cut-paper like feel of the clouds, the scene and atmosphere—did I mention the colors?? (let’s count them people: Blue? Check. White? Check. Green? Check. I’m so predictable) I’m definitely going to need to get myself a copy of this.

You guys have probably seen this one, but I love the cover for THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER by Michelle Hodkin (okay, so this one is lacking blue, but two out of three isn’t bad). I actually went and found the photographer who took this picture because I loved it so much. It’s so evocative, so dream-like.

EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton isn’t out yet because she’s an Apocalypsie like me, but looook at that cover! It hasn’t got green OR blue in it, and I still love it, so it’s got to be good! ;P

And guys, can I just say: INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows? Wow. That’s a book that’s going to pop off the shelves. I can’t wait to read the book and figure out why butterflies are so integral to the story.

What covers are you in love with? :)

Negative Book Reviews

2011-09-25T18:08:00.002-04:00

Book reviews can be a touchy subject for writers. It’s only natural that people feel protective of what they’ve spent so long slaving over, and feelings can be easily bruised. Also, there’s a general rule that authors really shouldn’t talk about reviews because it can easily come off as either defensive or combative.

So I guess if I ever want to talk about reviews, I ought to do it now, before I actually have any reviews to come off as defending myself against ;)

Personally, I do plan on negative reviews (because I am going to get negative reviews. I might as well come to terms with that now. Every book I’ve ever loved has gotten its share of negative reviews, and mine will be no better), and I will definitely try to learn what I can from them, but I can’t run away from the fact that “learning” from a negative review of your own book can be hard to do at first.

It’s funny, isn’t it? I’m guessing reviews feel somewhat different from critique partner or editorial feedback, because I think most writers who have made it to publication will have already survived receiving lots of feedback on their manuscripts quite well, but it still doesn’t quite prepare them for that first 1 star rating on goodreads or Amazon.

Reviews on one’s own book can just be too…well, personal. And so, when my books come out, I think I’ll keep doing what I do now to learn from reviews—read reviews for other people’s books.

Because face it, negative reviews can be very instructive. Of course, sometimes someone just doesn’t like something and it’s all subjective, but read enough reviews, and you start seeing the trends of what sort of things people are getting tired of, what cliches they’re really starting to roll their eyes at, what they wish the heroine would do but she never does. I find myself finding really insightful comments in both positive and negative reviews. Sometimes, I honestly take notes.

This doesn’t even just apply to book reviews. Movie and TV show reviews are really helpful to me, too. Some of the sites I visit most regularly are ones run by really astute reviewers, and I know I secretly hope they’ll review my books in the future, just because I respect their opinion so much and am insanely curious as to what they’d think.

What about you? As a writer, do you read book reviews in hopes of learning how to write better? How about as a reader? How good/bad would a review have to be for you to immediately want to read the book/never want to read the book?

A WHAT'S LEFT OF ME timeline

2011-09-18T16:19:00.000-04:00

Someone mentioned to me today that my profile on twitter and here and just about everywhere else isn’t really accurate because it says that WHAT’S LEFT OF ME “recently sold to HarperTeen.” I was about to ask what they meant, because come on, that only happened a couple months ago, right? Then I did the math in my head, and guess what? It’s been almost SIX MONTHS since I announced my book deal. How crazy is that? It’s almost been half a year. Wow.

And if that weren’t mind-blowing enough, it’s also been a little over a year since I signed with the fabulous Emmanuelle Morgen. How on earth does time pass so quickly?

Let’s look at some more time periods concerning WHAT’S LEFT OF ME…

Early Feb, 2009: I started writing WLoM as a high school senior (procrastinating from her IB test studying)

Early April, 2010: I finished the first draft of WLoM (Okay, yeah, it was a long time. I plead IB testing and high school graduating, and a summer spent in China, and all the pre-college/freshman year madness getting in the way, all right? :P)

Late June, 2010: I sent out my very first query for WLoM

Late August, 2010: Emmanuelle calls!! (And I miss said call, which results in a lot of hyperventilating on my part) About a week later, I sign with her! Hooray!

Mid March, 2011: WLoM goes on submission to editors!!

April 1, 2011: The Hybrid Trilogy sells to HarperTeen!! (:D :D :D)

And now, September 18, 2011, I am currently in the middle of line edits for WLoM. After this, we’ll be heading into copy edits, and then I won’t be able to change the manuscript anymore. The thought is vastly terrifying, overshadowed only by how exciting it is.

And you know what’s the most exciting of all? In about one year, WHAT’S LEFT OF ME will be out in the wild (hopefully in your hands, haha), and…and seriously, I don’t even know what to say about that :)

And now, off to "correct" those profiles!

Hurricane Irene Relief Auction

2011-09-14T13:34:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! Interrupting your regularly scheduled program here to tell you about a Hurricane Irene Relief Auction I'm participating in along with some other Apocalypsies (YA and MG authors debuting in 2012).

We submitted our items as a package, so if you place the winning bid, you get:

15-page critiques from Jenny Torres Sanchez, Jay Kristoff, Kat Zhang (ME!), Debra Driza, Kimberly Sabatini, and McCormick Templeman
10-page + query critique from Nicole Maggi
1st chapter + query critique from Anne Greenwood Brown
YA ARCs: SLIDE, donated by the author, Jill Hathaway, Boy 21 by Matthew Quick and How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr, donated by Tiffany Schmidt, and TEMPEST by Julie Cross, donated by Elizabeth Norris

Pretty cool, right?? That's a ton of of critiques and some very cool ARCs.

Go HERE to bid. You have until Friday night! :D

Literary vs. Genre Fiction

2011-09-11T22:19:00.000-04:00

You guys might know this already, but I’m an English major over here at my university—specifically one specializing in Creative Writing (which gets to be a mouthful, so I tend to just say I’m a Creative Writing major…) This means that in order to graduate under this major, I take a bunch of literature classes and a certain number of creative writing workshops. These workshops are probably the most fun I’ll ever have with homework :)

The thing about these workshops, though, is that we’re only allowed to write literary fiction. To put it another way, we aren’t allowed to write genre fiction. One of my professors put it as (paraphrasing): no serial killers, zombies, vampires, aliens, witches, or ghosts.

Wikipedia (yeah, I know, not the most reliable source, but I’m not writing a term paper here) says that literary fiction “is principally used to distinguish "serious fiction" which is a work that claims to hold literary merit, in comparison from genre fiction and popular fiction (i.e., paraliterature). In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more upon style, psychological depth, and character.[1][2] This is in contrast to Mainstream commercial fiction, which focuses more on narrative and plot. Literary fiction may also be characterized as lasting fiction — literature which continues to be read and in-demand many decades and perhaps centuries after the author has died.”

I can seriously already hear people complaining through their computer monitors that genre fiction can indeed focus on psychological depth and character and style, thank you very much. And I completely agree. But I’m also sure that every one of us can think of a book or two that did forgo the above. Saying that genre fiction is defined by a lack of focus on such important aspects as style, depth, and character seems rather insulting, though.

On the other hand, the above definition could be read with a focus on how it says that literary is defined by a lack of focus on plot. Or, as I’ve heard more than one person say, “A lack of anything interesting actually happening. Ever.”

Which, in my opinion, isn’t true at all, either.

What is true is that there seems to be such a big divide between those who write literary fiction and those who write genre fiction. There are far too many groups of literary writers who think genre fiction nothing more than cheap, shallow thrills and far too many groups of genre writers who think literary fiction is just a bunch of hot air blown by people who think far too highly of themselves and just how “deep” they are. Seriously, people, I’ve seen it get downright nasty.

I admit I’m much more a commercial reader and writer at heart, but I have learned so much about writing in general from my “literary” writing workshops. I can’t presume to say what lessons a purely literary writer could learn from reading and studying genre fiction, but I’m sure such lessons exist.

In the end, fiction exists to make people feel, and think, and experience what they might otherwise not have felt or thought or experienced before, and really, I don’t believe the trench sometimes drawn between literary and genre fiction needs to be as deep as it is.

What do you think?

Anti-Heroes

2011-09-05T00:17:00.000-04:00

Recently (and by “recently,” I really mean the last decade or more), there’s been a surge of anti-heroes in literature and storytelling in general. People seem to love them. I find that I often enjoy reading about anti-heroes more than the straight up hero type, too. And really, I think there’s a couple good reasons for this.

First of all, anti-heroes are often just more interesting. I mean, when we read a story, we read it for conflict, right? Nowadays, heroes aren’t the knights-in-shining-armor they once were, and they certainly come with their flaws, but in the end, they want to do the right thing, and they’re upfront about that. The conflict then comes from their want and the circumstances of the story that serve to derail that want. But with an anti-hero, they might not even want to do the “Good Thing.” So we have the added layer of conflict.

Second of all, anti-heroes are funny. Alright, not always. But anti-heroes often come with a snarky, razor wit.

Thirdly, anti-heroes create conflict more effectively than straight-up heroes do. Of course, if a hero is going against the grain, there will be conflict no matter what, but a hero who lies, steals, cheats, whines, insults, shoots first, or all of the above will almost always stir up for trouble than one who’s good and noble and kind.

Fourthly, anti-heroes bring uncertainty to a plot that might be otherwise too-well-trodden. Hero has the bad guy cornered and the perfect shot to kill him in cold blood? The straight-up hero would never do it. But the anti-hero? Maaaybe. And maybe not.

Finally, anti-heroes get to do the things we wished we could do, but are too nice to actually do.

What, you say it isn’t true? :P

Do you like anti-heroes better than "regular" heroes? Do you think the line is blurring? What IS your definition of a "regular" hero?

Laptop Lacking and Move-in Day

2011-08-28T20:53:00.000-04:00

You know you’re addicted to your laptop when:

1. You get separation anxiety giving it to the shop to fix because OMG what if someone drops it in a pot of water or something?

2. Your scheduling comes to a standstill because you don’t have a real calender—only an electronic one.

3. You resort to reading your spanish textbook before bed because being without your laptop means being without your music, TV shows, movies, manuscripts, etc, etc.

4. Friends start offering you their laptops because you look so forlorn.

5. You finally (read, four days later) get your baby laptop back and immediately start typing up a “You know you’re addicted to your laptop when…” post

So yes, that’s my excuse for not having a post last Sunday. I handed my MacBook to the Apple store to repair the casing and didn’t get it back until the latter end of last week. It was a trying four days, really ;)

Luckily, I took advantage of the low-tech situation to come up with an...unusual way of telling you how this year’s move-in experience was like…

Happy semester, folks :)

End of Summer Days

2011-08-14T17:42:00.001-04:00

In a couple of days, I’ll be heading back to school. Last summer, I wrote up a post about heading back to classes and writing and such, so I guess I’ll go ahead and make it an annual thing :)

I haven’t gone back and read what I wrote last year—It’ll be kind of cool to read it after writing this to see how things have changed in the year since. I do remember talking about Let The Words Flow, though, and how much I’d learned in the few months since I met the girls in that group. (I really, really hope my memory isn’t playing tricks on me!)

Well, it’s been over a year since I first “met” them, and in that time, I’ve gone on vacation with some of them, chatted at all hours of the night with others, and celebrated more good news than I could have ever imagined. I still feel so blessed to be friends with them all, to have, as Sooz would put it, the best Victory Fist Pump Buddies a girl could ask for ;)

A lot has changed, writing wise, since last summer. I signed with agent extraordinaire Emmanuelle Morgen less than half a month after school started. I sold the Hybrid trilogy about a month before school let out last spring.

This summer has been really amazing, what with my studying abroad in Spain and the LTWF retreat in Florida spent screaming on roller coasters, swimming at the beach, and re-enacting broadway musicals (I’ve got videotape evidence that ensures me the total and utter cooperation of those involved for the remainder of our lives ;))

I’m excited to be back to school, too, though. It’s so strange to think I’m entering my penultimate year of college. Soon, my days are going to be filled with classes and clubs and friends living next door again. Luckily, my writing seems to operate on the rule that the less time I have to write, the more writing I actually get done (and the more I ache to write)!

A lot of exciting things are going to be happening this coming semester. I’ll have to turn in the final draft of WHAT’S LEFT OF ME. I’ll do copyedits for the first time, ever! And finally, I’ll get to start work on Book #2.

I’m so looking forward to it all :)

Who else is heading back to school? (any kind of school!) Any plans for the upcoming year? Things you’ll miss about summer?

The Characterization of Children

2011-08-08T13:44:00.000-04:00

Most writers know that three dimensional characters are generally better than one dimensional ones and strive to get their characters that way. They make sure their protagonist has failings and vices, times of heroism and times of selfishness. And on the whole, the same principle is applied to love interests and best friends, mentor figures and even villains. But one “category” of characters seems to fall through the cracks more than usual…children.

Maybe it’s because they tend to be very minor characters and thus don’t have much room for character development or complexity, but kids (and by that I mean characters younger than the protagonist, so if we’re talking YA, “kids” might refer to a twelve year old, but in MG, where the protagonist is more likely to be twelve himself, we’d be referring to someone more along the lines of six or seven) in fiction tend to be rather one dimensional, serving as plot pushers or character-growth-pushers rather than fleshed out human beings.

One common trope (and heaven knows I’m guilty of it myself) is having a kid play the role of holy angelic heart-crushing victim. The sick little sister. The Littlest Cancer Patient. The child with a heart of gold whose Unfortunate Circumstances crush every reader’s heart.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I’m not saying there aren’t kids out there with golden hearts and unfortunate circumstances, but an adult character in the same situation would be less likely to be absolutely perfect in every way, and neither should the child. Even good-hearted people have failings, and that should shine true even for children.

On the other hand, sometimes this can be excused by the fact that the POV character is merely seeing the child as perfect, and their bias comes through in the way they interpret or describe them in the text.

What do you think? Can you think of any examples of stories with under-developed kid characters? Does your story include some? And can it be explained away by POV bias?

The Consequences of a Story

2011-07-31T19:00:00.000-04:00

Life's being a bit hectic on this side of the internet, so this is a post I wrote a while ago but never put up here. It pretty much still stands, though :) While you guys read this, I'll be working on the round 2 edits for WHAT'S LEFT OF ME I just got from my editor! Yay! Also, recovering from the Jacksonville trip with the other LTWF girls. Harry Potter World was very cool, though the butterbeer made us all a little sick. It might have been the heat, though!

~~~

I was never a huge TV series person. We didn’t have cable when I was a kid, so the Saturday morning cartoon deal wasn’t much of a possibility until I was almost too old for them, and to be honest, I was a lot more excited about getting Animal Planet than I was about finally getting some good cartoons. Then I all but fell out of watching any TV at all at the beginning of high school.

But in the past couple of months, I’ve gotten into a few series, and I’ve decided that in order to make myself feel better about watching way too much of them, I’m going to call it research. And to further justify this, I’m going to write an article about it—because saying it (and publishing it for the world to see) makes it so, right? Right.

To be a little more serious, you really can learn a lot about storytelling from TV. But I’m going to focus on just one aspect today, and that’s story consequences.

There are two broad categories of TV shows in my mind: those that practically reset every episode, and those that carry a strong story arc. In the first kind, what happens in an episode stays in the episode. Godzilla comes and stampedes Walmart. Next episode, it’s all built up again. Flying monkeys of doom kidnap the mayor, but he’s always rescued by the end of the hour and no one ever mentions the incident again. In the second kind, the events of one episode impact, to some degree, all the ones after them. Actions aren’t self contained. The hero gets shot in episode one, and three seasons later, he’s still got the scar.

I probably shouldn’t be referring to these as categories so much as two ends of a spectrum, because most shows fall somewhere between the extremes. TV shows have that sort of leeway. Most of the time, however, this isn’t true for novels.

Now, there are the super long series, the ones that run for twenty or thirty books and hardly anything ever changes. But most series (and definitely most stand-alone books) don’t have this luxury. If something big happens in chapter two, readers are going to feel cheated if it’s forgotten about by chapter ten. If it’s big enough, it should have repercussions even in book two.

Repercussions and consequences give your story weight. Everything big that happens in your book ought to affect your characters in some way, not just at the moment, but for the rest of the book. I’m not saying that every tiny thing ought to plague your character forever, but really try to make sure you’re letting each event have the proper emotional and physical consequences.

This is an extreme example, but say you need your character to get badly beaten up or even tortured in one scene. If he’s dancing the tango a chapter later (and there wasn’t some major time jump), then we’ve got a problem. It might be my medical side peaking through, but I find myself rolling my eyes every time the hero of a TV show gets the crap beat out of him, hard enough to break ribs, but ends the episode without a single bruise. Or when something highly emotional happens (a death, for example), and the sadness lasts all of two minutes before it’s time to forget all about it.

Sometimes, I know I get so caught up in the plot side of things that I forget my characters aren’t automatons. Plot might dictate that they need to get from point A to point B after character C dies, and they have to do it quickly, but I have to remember to consider their emotional state. Are they going to want to be going somewhere? If not, how are they convinced? If they’re guilted into it or angered into it, what are the repercussions of that? Is this going to harm their relationship with character D? How badly? Does this mean that when character D asks the hero to do him a favor at the end of the book, the hero going to tell him to go stuff it? And is that going to end up in character D getting in some serious trouble with the local gang, resulting in the story’s climax, where the hero has to go save him?

Ok, so that got a little out of hand, but you sort of see what I mean? I’m a big believer in a story growing organically out of the choices made by the characters, which are affected by the events of the story, which, in turn, are oftentimes influenced by the choices made by the characters. This leads to a much richer story.

At the end of the day, TV shows are different from books, and what’s accepted on the screen sometimes isn’t accepted in print. But both, I think, benefit from making sure story events carry weight.

Well, how was that for an article? Good enough to justify watching more TV?

Outlining for Book #2

2011-07-17T17:09:00.000-04:00

So, I’m almost done with the first draft of my outline for Book #2. Considering I just turned in my edits for WHAT’S LEFT OF ME (eee! New title still makes me all tingly, lol), it may or may not be a little early to be working on the outline, but somehow, I suspect not. Either way, considering I go just a little bit crazy when I don’t have something writerly to be working on (especially when school isn’t in session and ready to distract me with physics and spanish and american politics), I don’t really have much choice in the matter.

The outline will need to be cured of about two or three good-sized plot holes before it’s in a state to be shown anyone. Not to mention the line “I will think of something appropriately sweet and non-cliche eventually, haha” is probably going to be replaced at some point. Yeah.

But overall, I’m pretty darn satisfied with the whole thing, and so very relieved that I am. Of course, we’ll have to see if my agent and editor and the rest of the team at HarperTeen are satisfied before it’s full sails ahead for my starting to write the actual book, but I personally can’t write a book unless I feel a certain soul in it, and I think I’ve found the right one for Book #2 of the Hybrid Trilogy.

To be honest, I’ve never written a trilogy before. So this whole process has been very much a learning experience as I try to figure out what constitutes a good sequel, especially when it also has to serve as the bridge between books 1 and 3.

I decided early on that I wanted to steer away from a common complaint people have about second books in a trilogy—that they’re the weakest ones. The ones with the least excitement. That they often only serve to put things in place for book 3. I hope that this book 2 comes to stand on its own as a story in and of itself—of course strongly connected to the other books, but no lesser than its fellows in terms of plot or characterization or excitement.

This is probably all way early to talk about considering WHAT’S LEFT OF ME is still a good year away from publication, but I’d like to keep a record as I go on writing and editing and outlining this series—both for myself and for whomever else is actually interested. So as of today, the first draft for the outline for Book #2 is just about done. I’ll let you guys know when I actually start the first true words of the manuscript.

I’ll die of excitement. I swear ;)

In Which I get a New Title!

2011-07-15T13:23:00.000-04:00

So as you guys probably know, when my book sold back in April, it was named HYBRID. In fact, when I signed with my agent, it was named HYBRID--when I typed up the very first hundred words of this nebulous new idea one morning before classes started, I saved the document under the name "Hybrid."

So to say the least, the title was pretty close to my heart, and I'm very glad I do get to keep it attached to the trilogy in some way--the three books together will be called The Hybrid Trilogy.

But at the same time, I was very, very excited to brainstorm a new title for the first book with my agent and editor and many other lovely people.

Now, dozens of titles and emails (and a hilarious 3-way overseas phone call!) later, we have a new title!

The first book of The Hybrid Trilogy is called:

WHAT'S LEFT OF ME

Well, officially, it's called WHAT'S LEFT OF ME: A Hybrid Novel, but we'll go with the shorter version, eh?

Here's the link to the Goodreads page with the new title!

So, what do you guys think? It's going to take me a little while to get used to using the new title, but I love it very much. In the mean time, I think I'm just going to sneak it into conversation as much as possible, hahaha.

Weirdest Twitter Conversation Ever.

2011-07-11T19:36:00.000-04:00

So, a little while ago, I innocently tweet the below message:

What followed next must be saved for future generations. Just saying. Minor spoilers for THE HUNGER GAMES and LOTR follows:

....We're going to be living in a house together for 5 days. Just saying.