Skip to content
Posted
September 1, 2015
Category
Uncategorized
Tags
,
Comments
0 Responses

The Organized Writer

I’ve resorted to spreadsheets!

I’m cringing at the idea of this. Not because I don’t plan out my novels, because I do, but it’s a loose informal thing that changes often. The spreadsheet is supposed to help me organize my thoughts. I hope.

This summer was supposed to be a focused effort on finishing my MS. And I did–sort of. I finished it, I read it, I revised (majorly), wrote some more, and now at the end of summer, I’ve decided on some pretty major changes. Which means I’m not done. Now, I’m disappointed and trying not to beat myself up over it. Hence, the spreadsheet.

If you’re curious, you can find the one I’m using here. Thee are a few of them on this site, so take a look!

Posted
July 18, 2015
Category
Uncategorized
Tags
Comments
0 Responses

Shelfie Obsession

Simply put, a “Shelfie” is a picture of your bookshelf. I’ve seen it on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and now I am jumping in with my own Shelfie, but with a slight twist. My book shelf is an ever-changing reflection of my personality. I go to the library, find five or more books I want to read and then they are shelved until I get to them. I have weeks where the only thing I want to read are about teens with emotional drama and weeks where love conquers all. Or weeks where I want to be scared out of my wits or transported to as many dystopian societies ever written. Do the books a person reads tell something about them? Most definitely. So, here’s a little peak inside my head with this first Shelfie shot.

Oh, and because this is such a great way for book recommendations, show me your Shelfies too!

IMG_3928

Posted
June 6, 2015
Category
Uncategorized
Comments
0 Responses

Choosing a Setting

 

A few weekends ago, my family and I went on a little trip. It wasn’t far, maybe an hour or two away. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot because we go on these excursions pretty regularly. It was for a BMX competition, which I had no idea was even a thing until my husband enlightened me. Anyway, it’s basically a time where we sit in the dirt and watch boys, girls, men, and women race around a track on bmx bikes. And there’s a lot of downtime between their races–sometimes over an hour. In this time, I read, I write, and I edit. This time though, I wanted to do something a little different. You see, we were near a town I visited quite a bit when I was a kid and I remembered liking it. So, I scooped up my daughter and her and I went on a side trip in between races. My kids are quite adventurous, so the mention of it got her really excited.

We got in the car, turned up the radio, and sang our way down a two-lane highway covered in trees and run-down farmhouses. I parked and we did the rest on foot. Let me just say, there are places and then there are PLACES. PLACES are characters. They live, they breathe, they exist in a unique way that just feels different somehow. We found a park where a bunch of long-hair-dreaded teens played instruments and kids dipped their feet in the fountains. I took pictures and my daughter played. And then we walked. We found a post office with a hidden entrance which led up to a bell tower. We found a farmer’s market where local gypsies sang and sold trinkets. We bought fruit and breads and then walked some more. None of the stores and restaurants were chain establishments. They were all mom-and-pop type places with character and individual flare.

In that hour, I felt like I had found a true gem and I wanted to return the next day. The next time, the rest of my family came too. And my husband didn’t like it.

He couldn’t put his finger on it. He said the whole place made him uncomfortable. Well, I couldn’t let it go. I started researching this small town with all of its charms and found something more. This town had history. I love histories–especially old ones. As it turns out, there are a number of ghost stories that are popular in some of the exact places we visited.

My wheels were turning! I could do something with this. And I am. This is how I found the setting for HBY–my current young adult WIP.

Posted
April 22, 2015
Category
On Writing
Tags
,
Comments
0 Responses

Skipping to the End

I am officially halfway through my rewrite! It feels amazing. So, guess what I’m going to do? I’m skipping to the end. Why, you ask? Because, after many rewrites of many first drafts, I’ve learned (finally) that writing the middle is almost impossible if you don’t know how the story is going to end. Some people say you should even write the end first.
I tried that and it didn’t really work for me. It didn’t work because the beginning is my favorite part to write. It’s the dating stage of a relationship where you get to know all of the little quirks that make your characters tick. It’s the foundation of the story. It’s world building. And it’s no fun if I know how it’s all going to play out. In the beginning, I just write. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not. I’m a pantster (no plan, no outline) at this stage. At about thirty pages, maybe more sometimes, I start to work out an outline and some character bios. The outline is loose, but I like to have a general idea about where I’m going.
And by the middle, I need to know EXACTLY where I’m going. That’s why I am starting to write the ending now. Then, if I need to throw in some earlier clues or a stronger lead-up, I can do this without having to rewrite the whole darn thing.

Posted
April 15, 2015
Category
On Writing
Tags
,
Comments
0 Responses

Writing Life…Starting at the Beginning with an Authors Platform

Today, I began the journey of building my “Authors” platform. I knew this was an important step, but I’ve been dragging my feet a bit because whenever I get minutes on the computer, I usually try to write. If I’m blogging or posting pictures or telling everyone about my day, then I’m not writing. And those minutes are precious.

Smeagol

I’ve already got a bit of a head start–I started this blog a bit ago. And some of the other pieces are in place, though not used very well. My first step was to change my screen name to these different sites to be closer to my actual name (without a lot of numbers or nicknames in them). I had no idea how much this work this was going to be or how many sites I should be a part of.

The first was Facebook. That one was kind of a no brainer, but I truly don’t like Facebook that much anymore. I got so tired of reading about the trivial nuances of my friend’s lives that I gave up on it. And now, it looks more like an informative magazine. Either way, I started a professional Facebook page and you can find it here if you’d like.

I already have a Twitter. So, that’s done.

I read somewhere (actually lots of places) that I need a Google + account. I haven’t done that yet, but it’s on the list.

I already have a Pinterest account. This one is my favorite. I love Pinterest! Maybe it’s all of the pretty pictures.

Next, was Tumblr and Instagram.

This was starting to feel like a lot of work. The last thing on my list was to get a website using my first and last name. I went on to GoDaddy.com and signed up.

Okay, step 1: Building an Author’s Platform is started. It’s a work in progress, but at least I started it!

Posted
April 4, 2015
Category
Uncategorized
Tags
,
Comments
0 Responses

It’s A Sad, Sad World

Last night I attended my school’s annual film festival. On this night, we (the audience) got to watch all of the short films from students in our district. There were about ten of them, ranging anywhere between 30 seconds and 30 minutes. The acting was awesome, the camera angles were creative and unique…but, all of the storylines ran the same depressing path. Maybe it was a fluke. But, what if it’s not? What if this is what teenagers are into right now?

Now, I’m always up for a good cry. I just read “If I Stay” by Gayle Forman and I loved it. I loved the relationships, the intensity of losing someone you love, and I loved that it made me cry. But last night was different.

Last night’s movies were all about suicide and feeling alone, about the pressures of being in high school, not having friends, and trying to figure out how you blend into the world you’re creating. I wonder if this is the future for storytelling.

Posted
February 23, 2015
Category
Uncategorized
Comments
0 Responses

What teaching has taught me

I’m a teacher. Sounds like some sort of weird admission. Yes, that’s right. I’m a teacher. And guess what, I actually love my job. There’s not a lot of people that can say that, but it’s true. Now, believe me when I say it’s not all rainbows. It’s most definitely not. I have tough days and tougher weeks and even tougher students that like to challenge me until I don’t think I can take it anymore.

Last week, I got this email from a mom and she proceeded to tell me how her son is intimidated by me because I made this comment: “People like you never make it in life.”

I sound like an awful human being! First, I never said anything like that. Second, there’s a whole lot of backstory that led to this. This boy has missed roughly one months worth of classes BEFORE any of this ever happened, and when he does show up he’s at least 30 minutes late. On this particular day, he came in 30 minutes late and then told me that he needed to go somewhere else. He eventually came in around an hour later with only 20 minutes left of class. That’s when he decided that he needed to know what he missed while he was gone. I shook my head and said, “I’m worried about your future.”

Okay, I know what some of you may be thinking. “HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO A KID?” “YOU’RE A TEACHER, YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO ENCOURAGE!”

And my answer to you: This kid is 18 years old. Someone needs to tell him to figure it out. I don’t believe he’s intimidated by me. I think it’s an excuse he’s giving his mom to get out of coming to school. And mom’s being mom’s, believe it. I have kids too, and I know I have a hard time hearing anything negative about my kid.

So what have I learned from all of this. I’ve learned that sometimes you have to ruffle a few feathers to get through. That’s what I’ve learned from this one kid. But from countless others, I’ve learned what it’s like to be different, to be gay, to be depressed, to have anxiety, to feel pressure, to be on drugs, to have a baby at 15, to get accepted into your dream school, to find out you’re not going to have a home when you graduate, to go to jail, to have parents who go to jail…the list is endless. It’s also given me first hand experience for the characters I like to create!

For those of you considering teaching, it’s rewarding and it’s challenging and it’s awesome.

Posted
February 21, 2015
Category
On Writing
Tags
,
Comments
2 Responses

Inspired

I’ve gotten lazy. Not the type of lazy that warrants sitting on the couch all day though. I’ve been creatively lazy. I didn’t even realize it happening at first. My mornings always felt rushed and afternoons were spent at work. I spent evenings making dinner and cataloging a crazy amount of time watching Breaking Bad, American Horror Story, and Peaky Blinders. I gazed at Pinterest boards and read blogs. I designed pretty To-Do lists and calendars. On the weekends, I gardened and cleaned.

This last week, I sort of snapped. I started to feel myself becoming the person I didn’t like. I was grouchy and moody. I was mean. I didn’t know what to do. I felt the pent up energy bursting to be free and had no outlet for it. I tried running and went to a yoga class everyday this week to find some sort of balance. It helped. Like a band-aid on a gushing wound, it helped a little.

Then, a writing buddy asked if I could beta read for her. I figured since I wasn’t doing much writing of my own, I might as well carve a space of time to help her out. At first, it felt like a chore. But, the more I edited the hell out of her manuscript, the better I started to feel. It may not have been my work, but it was the outlet I needed. I needed to see the words, to shape them into something, to help them breathe life into a character. It was awesome!

I picked up Only the Dead (my current manuscript) and started to read, and soon I’ll start to write again.

The burden of being a creative person is the necessity to keep doing it. So keep doing it people and never stop.

Posted
February 17, 2015
Category
Uncategorized
Tags
, ,
Comments
3 Responses

Are Word Counts a Blessing or a Curse?

Word counts seem to be one of those things that very few writers understand. They look at the Twilight books and the Harry Potter series and think that a 2-3 inch book is acceptable. Well, the Twilight book was a huge exception to the rule, but the first Harry Potter book was right around 80k–it was, I promise!
Here’s the thing, though. You can’t count on being the next exception. It’s a risk for any publisher to take on a book that is too costly to produce. As a new author, don’t you want the best possible chances? Of course you do! So, here are the acceptable ranges for different genres:

Adult novels: commercial and literary–80-90,000 is a safe range. Give or take 10,000 words on either end is probably okay, but more than that is risky.
*Chick lit can go as low as 70,000

Sci-fi and Fantasy–100-115,000 is good for this genre.

Middle grade: 20-55,000

Young Adult: 55-70,000.You can go a little higher if you are writing sci-fi or fantasy, but be careful not to go too high.

Again, all of these word counts are guidelines and there are always exceptions to the rules. Some agents say not to pay attention to word count and to focus on your story and pacing. But most get so many queries a day, they are looking for reasons to dismiss your manuscript. Your goal is to not give them any.

This information is readily available all over the web. You could find it on the different literary agent blogs too. So, why do so many people struggle with keeping their words within range?
When I first started writing, I struggled to keep my words within a certain range. At one point, my WIP bloomed well past 100k, which is way too high for a debut young adult novel. If you go to any of the writing forums, you’ll find that so many writers ignore the basic guidelines too. I often see numbers skyrocketing at a 150k. I’ve even beta read for a few of these bloated manuscripts. And what do I see?
Word vomit. Huge word vomit. Overused adverbs, weak verbs, lots of purple prose. Get rid of it people. You don’t need it. And your readers don’t want it either.

Posted
February 14, 2015
Category
Uncategorized
Tags
,
Comments
0 Responses

On Writing Horror…do characters matter?

I grew up on reading horror novels by authors like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and a few others that wrote one scary as hell novel and then disappeared forever. I remember feeling scared and shaken enough to make sure the windows were locked and the area under my bed was clear. I remember thinking about these stories the next day and hoping IT could never happen to me or in my town. It’s funny how some stories stick with you and some don’t. Why is that? Is it the story itself? Is it the characters?

I’ve read three novels in the last couple of weeks that claim to part of the horror genre (I’ll talk about these three books in another post). None of them were particularly memorable. All were written well. They had the right amount of eeriness, the plot moved forward at a heart-pounding pace, and in some instances I felt scared. A little bit. What did they lack? Characters. Oh, they were in there all right, but they felt so flat and one-dimensional that I forgot about them the moment I stopped reading and I never really cared if they lived or died. The stakes change a little when you don’t care what happens.

You see, as a writer, I read books for entertainment and to learn from. Lately, I’ve been choosing books to learn a little something. Unfortunately, I’m learning that horror novels don’t care about character development, and they should.

Now, I can’t say that ALL horror novels fail at this, they obviously don’t, but the three I read hoping to educate myself in the genre, sure did.

1 2 … 10