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It’s Jocelyn sneaking in a non-weekend post because Lindsey was kind enough to let me borrow one of her WoW slots for an interview with Beth Revis and Cristin Terrill. A while back, I attended one of their
Wordsmith Workshops and Retreats, and it was amazing! In between craft sessions, critiques, writing, fellowship, and delicious food, I found time to chat with these delightful ladies. See what they had to say about being women who write science fiction.
Read more »
Today we're welcoming Jennifer Longo, author of January's UP TO THIS POINTE and SIX FEET OVER IT to the blog. Jennifer has written a great post over writing for the love of it.
Writing For the Love of It by Jennifer Longo
Honestly, the one thing that made the difference between my being an aspiring author and a published author, is one very fortunate thing: I love to write. I love it. I did not write toward being published. I write because I love to write. I was sustained through the process of finding an agent and editor by being completely distracted by doing the one thing I love most in the world: Writing. Seriously. I love to write.
Mystery solved.
I’m speaking here about traditional publishing, and about fiction, and these are the things I know.
If a person’s desire to be published supersedes their love and compulsion to write, nothing good will come of it. Nothing bad, either – basically nothing’s going to happen. A writer writes; publishing is it’s own unique and separate endeavor and only one is a possible consequence of the other. The nuts and bolts of how to acquire an agent and sell to an editor are simple - not easy - but fairly pedestrian and consist mainly of a willingness to revise, patience, persistence, and access to an email account. The only way I found to claw my way out from the slush pile to be published?
I wrote.
I didn’t go to conferences or writing retreats, I didn’t talk to anyone about anything (Though those things can be very helpful, but also very distracting from the actual work of writing) I came home from work, got my daughter to nap, and I wrote. listened to the agents and editors who generously gave their time and attention to pages I sent, and I sifted through their notes and I applied what I’ve learned all my life and I revised and wrote and read and wrote some more and the book got better. Writing is work, but work I don’t have to make myself do, because I want to, I can’t stop - because have I mentioned I love writing?
Years (yes, years) of submission and revision and rejection can be heartbreaking and will whittle one’s confidence down to a short, sharp stick that stabs you right in the ego. But if you love writing, what difference does it make? Send out the queries and then get back to writing. There’s no rush. There’s no deadline. You’re not counting on publishing a book to put food on the table. (Oh God, are you? If you are, spoiler alert: I don’t personally know any published writers who make a living solely from writing. There are like, five people in the world who do, and that’s awesome for them. But being a published author of fiction is not about making money.) Publishing is about curating and making better the stories we give to the world to make people happy, or hopeful, or excited, or less lonely, or to learn about people we’ve not met, or to laugh or let someone know, without having to straight-up say it to their face, that I’m super pissed. (You call it passive aggressive, I call it being creative and fancy. Potato, potahto.) Books and their creators (Editors, agents, artists) ought to be valued and able to make a living wage with our work, and when I’m president of the universe being an artist of any consequence will be a viable career option. But until then, you know how those writers who make their living writing got to do that? THEY WRITE.
All my life and in college I lived and breathed all the story forms I could get my hands and brain on – plays, radio theatre, short stories, essays, novels. I majored in acting and playwriting let me tell you – there’s nothing I’m worse at or that gives me the creeps more than improv and puppets and mime and mask work – but it all gave me a relentless work ethic and helped me get over myself, my limitations as a story teller, my inflated ego and insecurities, and now I can read and interpret and truly love a script like nobody’s business.
I am a natural born lover of words, lacking natural talent, but I work every day to put the words together in a story that’s worthy of readers. Because I love to read, and have I mentioned? I love, love, love to write.
About the Book
She had a plan. It went south.Harper is a dancer. She and her best friend, Kate, have one goal: becoming professional ballerinas. And Harper won’t let anything—or anyone—get in the way of The Plan, not even the boy she and Kate are both drawn to.
Harper is a Scott. She’s related to Robert Falcon Scott, the explorer who died racing to the South Pole. So when Harper’s life takes an unexpected turn, she finagles (read: lies) her way to the icy dark of McMurdo Station . . . in Antarctica. Extreme, but somehow fitting—apparently she has always been in the dark, dancing on ice this whole time. And no one warned her. Not her family, not her best friend, not even the boy who has somehow found a way into her heart.
Goodreads | Indiebound | AmazonAbout the Author
Jennifer Longo’s debut novel SIX FEET OVER IT ("SUPERB" - Kirkus starred review) published 2014 courtesy of Random House Children’s Books, Edited by Chelsea Eberly and represented by the resplendent Melissa Sarver at Folio Literary. Her next novel, UP TO THIS POINTE publishes January, 2016. A California native, Jennifer holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing For Theatre from Humboldt State University. She is a two-time Irene Ryan Best Actor award recipient and a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Best Full Length Script honoree for her play, Frozen. A recent San Francisco transplant, Jennifer lives with her husband and daughter near Seattle, Washington.
Today, we're welcoming Chandler Baker to the blog. Chandler is the author of ALIVE, and TEEN FRANKENSTEIN, which came out last week. She's writing today about an amazing technique she uses to ensure she keeps her writing goals.
The Magic of Setting Intentions by Chandler Baker
At the start of 2012, I’d been writing—or at least trying to write and by that I mean interneting—seriously for 5 years. I’d been agented for 4 of those. But I hadn’t yet sold a book. In fact, I’d only managed to write 1 manuscript of my own plus a number of half-baked short stories that I found little joy in other than the fact that they were short and therefore done.
By the end of 2012 I had 4 books under contract—a YA novel with Disney-Hyperion and a YA series with Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan (the first in that series, Teen Frankenstein, comes out this week!) So what happened to cause such a dramatic change in such a short amount of time?
The simplest answer is: I wrote more. A lot more.
But there was also some magic involved. I met a fellow writer, Charlotte Huang (author of For the Record) online. We started a plan to write an email every weekday morning in which we’d set out what we hoped to get done for the day and another one at night relaying what we’d actually accomplished. That was it. Sometimes we wrote what we said we would and sometimes we fell short. It didn’t really matter. The point was in the saying of the thing. To each other. Out loud.
Within months we’d finished whole books. We each got a book deal. We each debuted in 2015. We each have second books coming out in 2016. Is this coincidence? I really don’t think so.
In 2012, remember, I’d written 1 book of my own. I’ve written and revised 4 since beginning our daily emails.
Because these emails are a wish and a prayer that we answer ourselves every day. And they just plain work.
ABOUT THE BOOK
High school meets classic horror in this groundbreaking new series.
It was a dark and stormy night when Tor Frankenstein accidentally hit someone with her car. And killed him. But all is not lost--Tor, being the scientific genius she is, brings him back to life...
Thus begins a twisty, turn-y take on a familiar tale, set in the town of Hollow Pines, Texas, where high school is truly horrifying.
Amazon | IndieBound | GoodreadsAbout the Author
Chandler Baker got her start ghostwriting novels for teens and tweens, including installments in a book series that has sold more than 1 million copies. She grew up in Florida, went to college at the University of Pennsylvania and studied law at the University of Texas. She now lives in Austin with her husband. Although she loves spinning tales with a touch of horror, she is a much bigger scaredy-cat than her stories would lead you to believe.
You can find Chandler as the books contributor on the YouTube channel Weird Girls.
Today we're welcoming Shaun David Hutchinson, author of the newly released WE ARE THE ANTS, to talk about ideas of failure, success, and what it all really means.
Fail Big by Shaun David Hutchinson
I'm probably not qualified to give you advice. My first book,
The Deathday Letter, was, by pretty much every account, a failure. My second book,
fml, though it sold better, took three years to make it to shelves, and there's still a lot about it I wish I could change. My third,
The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley, almost ended up in a trunk. I can't take credit for my fourth book, the anthology
Violent Ends, because everything that's great about it is due to the amazing work of the authors who agreed to write stories for me. And my fifth book,
We Are the Ants, isn't out yet, and though it's getting some of buzz, I worry it's a fluke.
I'm probably not qualified to give you advice. I'm just making it up as I go along. Hell, I'm not even making it up
as I go, I'm just going and making it up after the fact so that hopefully no one realizes I have no freaking clue what I'm doing.
It's true. I don't know what I'm doing. Every time I sit down in front of my computer to start a new book, I feel like my fingers are made of sausages and that every word I write is scraped from the underside of a sewer grate. I don't have a plan, I don't have a clue. I can't even buy a vowel. For me, writing each book is like paddling against the current in a leaky canoe on the edge of Niagara Falls. Paddle, paddle, paddle. Bail some water. Paddle some more. Pray I finish the draft before my canoe sinks or I go tumbling over the edge of the waterfall.
I'm
definitely not qualified to give you advice. No one should listen to anything I have to say about writing.
Because I'm making it all up.
I spend countless hours between the time I sign a book contract and the time it finally hits shelves wondering when my publisher is going to phone me and tell me they've made a horrible mistake and they hadn't actually intended to publish my book. Each book release for me is filled with relief.
Whew! I've snuck another one past my publisher. But I figure they'll probably realize their error with the next one, and the countdown of terror begins anew.
But being a hack, being a fraud...it's kind of freeing. Sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. For me, anyway. See, the thing about making it all up and about being a fraud is that I assume every book I write is going to be my last. When I start a new manuscript, I say to myself,
Okay, kid...(and, yes, I still oddly see myself as a kid...like I never grew up but only got strangely older and rounder and achier).
..this is probably going to be the last book you write before they figure out you have no idea what you're doing. Fail big.Fail big.
If my publishers and readers are going to figure out I'm a fraud and if I'm never going to sell another book, then there's no point holding back. There's no point trying to write what I think people want to read. There's no point trying to gauge the market or chase the trends or even to try to please the people—and by "people," I mean my mom—who've read my previous books. If this book is going to be my last, then I'm going to write the weirdest, most honest book I can write. I'm going to fail big.
When people read the last thing I write, I don't want them to say "Not bad" or "Meh" or "I've read worse." I want them to shake their heads and say, "What in the name of all that is holy was he thinking?" I want people to hold rallies in town squares and build bonfires from the unsold copies of my books. I want to fail so hard puppies cry.
I don't want to go out with a whimper. I want to go out with a bang that kickstarts a universe.
I'm not sure there's a point to writing otherwise.
I don't really like reality television, but I do watch Top Chef and Project Runway. I can't cook or sew, and watching the contestants do things in an hour that I couldn't do in a lifetime seems like magic to me. But the one thing that bothers me about both of those shows is that often when a contestant is eliminated they'll say something in their exit interview along the lines of, "I'm just sad I never got to show the judges who I really am as a designer (or chef)." No. "Bother" isn't the right word. It doesn't bother me; it pisses me off. I inevitably yell at the television (because, yes, I frequently yell at my TV), "Then what the heck have you been doing for the last six weeks? Why have you wasted my time and yours?"
Don't settle for the middle of the pack. Don't try for "good enough." Show people who you really are. Write every book like you could be eliminated. That way, if it does turn out to be your last, during your exit interview you can say, "Well, at least I went out on a book I believe in."
Fail big. Write like it's the last book you'll ever write. When you sit down in front of your computer or notepad, don't write the story that makes you think, "This is nice. I bet my grandma would like it." Write the story that you know will make your tenth-grade English teacher weep into his bourbon-laced coffee. Write the story that will make the Pope excommunicate you and book reviewers everywhere throw up their hands and say, "I could've been eating waffles instead of reading whatever mind-boggling mess this is." Write the story that makes you want to throw up from fear to tell. Crack open your chest, scrape out your insides, and smear them on the pages.
Fail big. Fail huge. Because, you never know...you might just actually succeed. And if you don't, at least you won't go out on a book reviewers might call, "tenaciously mediocre."
But you probably shouldn't listen to me. I'm a failure, a fraud. I have no idea what I'm doing. My next book is probably going to be my last before my publisher realizes they've made a horrible mistake. And I'm absolutely, positively
not qualified to give you advice.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Henry Denton doesn’t know why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.
But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.
Since the suicide of his boyfriend, Jesse, Henry has been adrift. He’s become estranged from his best friend, started hooking up with his sworn enemy, and his family is oblivious to everything that’s going on around them. As far as Henry is concerned, a world without Jesse is a world he isn’t sure is worth saving. Until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that.
Amazon | IndieBound | GoodreadsABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shaun is a major geek and all about nerdy shenanigans. He is the author of The Deathday Letter, fml, and the forthcoming The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley. He can be reached at
[email protected]. He currently lives in South Florida with his partner and dog and watches way too much Doctor Who.
Methods of writing are such individualistic things, and yet often us writers can't help but get excited at a peek inside someone else's writing practice - especially when that someone is as accomplished a writer as Nancy Ohlin. Which is why we're thrilled that she's sharing her own personal theory of writing on the blog today!
The Denim Skirt Theory of Writing by Nancy Ohlin
I have two polar-opposite pieces of advice when it comes to writing. But let me back up by describing my life as a writer.
Actually, let me back up even more by describing a denim skirt I had to make for a class in junior high school.
I had a Simplicity-brand pattern to work off of. I knew enough to pin the tissuey pattern pieces to the denim and cut the cloth accordingly.
The thing about me is, I don’t like to follow orders or read instruction manuals. I like to hit the ground running and kind of make it up as I go along.
So the Simplicity pattern was the extent of my master plan. Using the neatly trimmed denim segments, I proceeded to improvise on a sewing machine (note: one can’t improvise on a sewing machine), fill in the gaps with some careless hand stitching, and in general wing it all over the place.
The result was a denim skirt that looked okay—even pretty—on the outside. But turned inside out, it was a hot mess: nests of tangled thread, lumps of excess fabric, nothing neat or straight or finished.
Still, it was a skirt—a wearable skirt that I had made from scratch.
Okay, so back to the writing stuff. I’ve been a full-time freelance writer for several decades now. I got my first big break ghostwriting for a teen mystery series; I was lucky because the editor was a friend who was willing to take a chance on me as a newbie freelancer. That led to more ghostwriting gigs and, eventually, original fiction and nonfiction. To date, I’ve written, ghostwritten, or collaborated on over one hundred books.
I’m usually juggling multiple projects. This year, I’ll be collaborating on an early-grade fiction series plus a YA novel; writing two early-grade nonfiction books; finishing up a proposal for an original MG novel; and continuing to write and talk about CONSENT. This means I have to be extremely organized …
… and also extremely
disorganized. Which brings me back to those two polar-opposite pieces of writing advice:
1.
Be super-organized. I write every day, usually in the mornings and late afternoons. I’m fastidious with my calendar; I not only plug in appointments and to-do lists and deadlines, but I flag weeks when I won’t have much time to write so I can compensate during the other weeks and also be quick to respond about dates when I’m emailing with my agent or an editor. Whenever I start a new project, I create a detailed schedule so I can make my deadline. I give myself specific daily assignments, like: “Monday, draft Chapter 4” … “Tuesday, edit Chapter 4 and follow up on Sanchez interview” … and so on.
2.
Throw organization out the window. Once I have the above structures in place, I’m free to go off-road. Which I do, big-time.
My creative process—my
actual creative process—is total anarchy. For example: several years ago, I had to come up with a complicated YA plot from scratch and write up a detailed synopsis. To do this, I set up my “office” on the dining room table and worked there all day long. I would wake up, go straight to the table, and write for hours in my PJs. I had books (for research), a zillion open tabs on my laptop (for more research), and random pieces of paper everywhere. Whenever I got an idea, I grabbed a piece of paper (even if it had my grocery list on it) and the nearest writing implement (usually one of my daughter’s crayons or markers) and scribbled away like a maniac. I scrawled illegible notes. I drew pictures. I constructed diagrams that made sense in the heat of the moment but looked like psychotic graffiti later on, with arrows pointing every which way.
I couldn’t bother with meals. I ate peanut butter out of a jar and jump-started my brain with re-heated Starbucks. I remembered to drink water only when I realized that my throat was parched and my head was throbbing.
This went on for weeks. I was a crazy person holed up in a chaotic mind palace of disparate facts, inspirations, and ideas. At the end of each day, when panic rose to the surface and told me that I would never come up with that killer plot, I closed my laptop and forced myself to go to a hot yoga class—my only healthy habit during that time—to wring myself out. I told myself that I would start fresh in the morning. I told myself to have faith in the process, in myself.
Then one day as my deadline approached, I sat down at the table, holed up in my mind palace, wrote for six hours straight and …
bam! There was my killer plot. Everything had manically, magically fallen into place.
And so there you have it, in a nutshell. For me, writing has to be both orderly and chaotic. At the same time. It’s a denim skirt that starts with a Simplicity pattern, loses its way, self-destructs, then somehow comes together. The result may not be perfect, but it’s good enough.
Happy writing!
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this sexy and intriguing novel, an intense—and passionate—bond between a high school senior and her music teacher becomes a public scandal that threatens the reputation of both.
Bea has a secret.
Actually, she has more than one. There’s her dream for the future that she can’t tell anyone—not her father and not even her best friend, Plum.
And now there’s Dane Rossi. Dane is hot, he shares Bea’s love of piano, and he believes in her.
He’s also Bea’s teacher.
When their passion for music crosses into passion for each other, Bea finds herself falling completely for Dane. She’s never felt so wanted, so understood, so known to her core. But the risk of discovery carries unexpected surprises that could shake Bea entirely. Bea must piece together what is and isn’t true about Dane, herself, and the most intense relationship she’s ever experienced in this absorbing novel from Nancy Ohlin, the author of Beauty.
Amazon | IndieBound | GoodreadsABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nancy Ohlin is the author of
Consent, forthcoming from Simon Pulse on November 10, 2015, as well as
Always, Forever, a YA retelling of Daphne du Maurier's
Rebecca, and
Beauty, a YA retelling of the Snow White tale.
She has also contributed to several celebrity novels, including a New York Times-bestselling YA trilogy.
Her favorite cures for writers' block are long walks, long showers, popcorn, chocolate, and really expensive coffee. She talks to herself a lot while she writes (you know, to make sure the dialogue zings).
To kick off our Writers on Writing post series for 2016, we're welcoming Marieke Nijkamp, author of the arresting THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS. Today, she's talking about the three things she wishes she'd known when she was just starting out.
Three Things I Wish I’d Known by Marieke Nijkamp
There are three things I wish I’d known, way back when I first started out as a baby writer. Three things that it took me almost two decades to figure out. (Beyond the usual like plot and character and what is tension even? Because I started out as this headstrong ten-year-old and none of those were really within my skill set yet. I just needed to tell stories. And I needed those million bad words to tell good stories.)
This is what I wish I’d known (and what I still tell myself with every single story). Third: it’s okay for your writing/revision process to change from story to story. Second: to recover from a writing slump or writer’s block, it helps to find what you love in a story. And most of all: everyone has a story to tell and only you can tell yours.
3. It’s okay for your writing/revision process to change from story to story There is no one way to write and there certainly isn’t one way that fits every single story and every single writer. And yet. With every story I write, I’m utterly convinced I’ve found the way for me. I’ve found the perfect plotting method! Character sheets that I love! (Once a DM, always a DM.) The right craft book or the right questions. But somehow, they never quite fit the next story. And with every story I write, I have to go through the motions to discover, I’m such fool.
There are certainly elements I need in all writing: a carefully structured plot (which currently means, spreadsheets FTW!), a sense of the characters’ hopes and dreams and motivations, and a good understanding of stakes. But how I get to those elements changes per story, and when I need them (very early on in the plotting process or as I’m drafting or sometimes only in revisions) is different every time too. And that’s okay. In fact, realizing that every story has its own process has been freeing. Because with every story it’s about what the story needs and how I, as author, can make that happen, and that initial journey of discovery—of falling in love with a story—is amazing. And it keeps me going too.
2. To recover from a writing slump or writer’s block, it helps to find what you love in a storyThere are days when I really do not like the story I’m telling. Or rather, I want to like it, but it keeps slipping through my fingers. I keep just missing it. And it leaves me frustrated and blocked.
For the longest time, I thought the best way to deal with that was to keep writing, until I connected with the story again. Even if it meant recycling all those words a few days later. Turned out… that wasn’t the most productive method. Because usually when I’m blocked, it’s not just that I don’t connect to the story, it’s that I don’t quite understand it. To understand it, I need to go back to finding what I love. Which means stepping outside a story, fast forwarding to a scene I’m excited about, writing a letter from one character to the next, switching points of view. It means falling in love again.
And that, for me, is the hard of storytelling. Especially in the knowledge that:
1. Everyone has a story to tell and only you can tell yoursNow whether you subscribe to our storytelling is based on three basic plots or seven or eight or twenty or 36 or even just one, I think we can all agree that there are very few original stories left. And that may seem wholly intimidating. Except, the more I think about it, the more it isn’t intimidating at all.
Because it’s not a bad thing when stories share commonalities, tropes, plot devices. Especially not if they work and if they work in the context of that particular story. If, like me, you love forests, you’re not going to go to one wood and say you’ve seen them all. And in the next forest, you still expect, you know, trees. We look for details we can relate to and engage with, and that is what helps us build a framework for the stories we love and the stories we seek out or write!
And besides, within that framework, you can still write the most original and truest story there is: yours. A story that explores the world, people, the universe as you see it or don’t see it, know it or don’t know it, experience it or don’t experience it, feel it or don’t feel it. A story that reflects what matters to you most. but above all, a story that is shaped by your wonder and the way you converse with and understand life. Only you can tell that story—those stories, because they are multitudes. And they matter, deeply.
About the Book
10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05
Someone starts shooting.
Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.
Goodreads | Indiebound | AmazonAbout the Author
Marieke Nijkamp is a storyteller, dreamer, globe-trotter, geek. She holds degrees in philosophy, history, and medieval studies, and wants to grow up to be a time traveler. Her debut young adult novel This Is Where It Ends will be published by Sourcebooks Fire on January 5, 2016.
We're excited to welcome Estelle Laure to the blog today, as our last writer giving us advice on writing for 2015! Estelle's debut, THIS RAGING LIGHT, released this week (and we're giving away a copy in our Monday roundup post). Today, she's talking about putting writing first.
Write First by Estelle Laure
This is my fantasy: I wake up easily, filled with energy and a general sense of gratitude and wellbeing. I meditate because that solves all my problems and stimulates the creative part of my brain. I then write in my journal, those morning pages everyone talks about, three neat composition pages of all my inner turmoil. I use writing prompts about childhood, red wagons, swings, the smell of cookies.
I follow that with a nutritious breakfast. I drink green tea because coffee is just so harsh.... I then sweat it out in a hot yoga class, squeeze the last of the toxins from my perfect skin.
I arrive home again rested, alive, well cared-for and after drinking an 8oz class of lemon water, taking the dog for a brisk walk and then getting the kids up and ready for school without a hitch, I sit down in my perfectly clean house, having tackled all distractions, having cleansed both body and mind, and I turn to the word, create brilliantly and flawlessly for the six hours my children aren’t home, and then greet them with energy and perfect love at the end of the day.
It has taken me a long time to figure out just how much of a fantasy this is.
Read more »
One of the most difficult hurdles to overcome when pursuing any creative passion is self-doubt. Today, we welcome Mila Gray (also known as Sarah Alderson) to the blog to talk about self-belief and the importance of trying.
On Trying by Mila Gray
The most important lesson I’ve learned in writing (and in life) is to try. I think a lot of people fail before they even start because they lack self-confidence. I never think ‘I can’t do that’. I naturally assume: ‘Why not?’
Obviously self-belief can be hard to come by but I don’t beat myself up about mistakes and I’m not a perfectionist either, both traits which can be very limiting. I really like the quote: ‘No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you’re still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying’ by Tony Robbins. It’s so true. And the more you try and the more you put yourself out there, the more likely you are to have success.
I know I’m not the best writer in the world but I know that I’m good enough. I try to encourage my daughter to think this way rather than putting herself under huge strain to be the best. Being the best is subjective anyway and I’m pretty sure that the journey to ‘being the best’ is pretty fraught with heartache. When we are too self-critical or we think ‘I can’t be as successful as X’ or ‘I’m not good enough’ it’s paralysing. So I like to think ‘what if…’ and try anyway, and sometimes it doesn’t work out, but I always learn something about myself or improve as a writer as a consequence.
Recently I was invited to pitch to adapt a novel to a screenplay for a huge Hollywood studio. It was a $60m movie and was way out of my comfort zone but I tried anyway. I did the best job I could and I didn’t get it. Was I downhearted about it? Sure. I had put in huge amounts of time and effort and I really wanted the job, but it was a great learning opportunity. I extended myself, I learned a lot about people in the process, and I made some great new contacts so I think it’s also about learning from every opportunity even if they don’t go the way we want them to and trying, even when we think we can’t do something.
I often get asked what I do to find inspiration for stories and how I get out of a slump. I’m actually in my first ever real slump for a long time. I wrote 14 books and several screenplays in 5 years and didn’t take a break and I’m completely worn out. I keep panicking but the small voice of calm inside me keeps reminding me it will be OK. I just need to relax, take a break and refill the well. Ideas come to me from reading the news, books, magazines and from conversations, so I’m trying to chill, watch lots of good movies, read books, meet up with friends and just take a break until I feel the buzz again. It will come. I have faith in that. The world is full of stories. It’s about finding one that resonates with you and your life at that moment.
I often feel like quitting writing. It’s a difficult industry to make a living from, and, on top of that you are putting yourself out there which requires a great deal of vulnerability. You need a really thick skin as every writer is going to receive criticism and some of it can be extremely hurtful. There have been one or two vicious reviews I’ve received that have torn strips from me and made me want to quit - but only for a couple of hours before I think ‘screw you, I’m not letting your negativity impact me.’
The quote I return to again and again is this one, by Theodore Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Daring greatly is what it’s all about.
(And if you’re struggling to deal with haters
here’s an essay I wrote about it. I hope it helps!)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Come Back to Meby Mila GrayHardcoverSimon PulseReleased 12/8/2015In this heart-wrenching tale of love and loss, a young Marine and his best friend’s sister plunge into a forbidden love affair while he’s home on leave.
When a Marine Chaplain knocks on her door, Jessa’s heart breaks—someone she loves is dead. Killed in action, but is it Riley or Kit? Her brother or her boyfriend…
Three months earlier, Marine Kit Ryan finds himself back home on leave and dangerously drawn to his best friend Riley’s sister, Jessa—the one girl he can’t have. Exhausted from fighting his feelings, Kit finally gives in, and Jessa isn’t strong enough to resist diving headfirst into a passionate relationship.
But what was just supposed to be a summer romance develops into something far greater than either of them expected. Jessa’s finally found the man of her dreams and Kit’s finally discovered there’s someone he’d sacrifice everything for.
When it’s time for Kit to redeploy, neither one is ready to say goodbye. Jessa vows to wait for him and Kit promises to come home to her. No matter what.
But as Jessa stands waiting for the Marine Chaplain to break her heart, she can’t help but feel that Kit has broken his promise…
Riley or Kit? Kit or Riley? Her brother or her boyfriend? Who’s coming home to her?
Amazon | IndieBound | GoodreadsABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mila Gray is the pen name for Sarah Alderson, author of Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, The Sound, Fated and Out of Control.
Originally from London she has lived in Bali for the last four years with her husband and daughter.
As well as writing young adult fiction under the name Sarah Alderson and adult fiction under the name Mila Gray, she also writes screenplays.
Eric Lindstrom worked in the interactive entertainment industry before writing his debut novel, Not If I See You First (Coming Dec 1), gaining a unique insight of storytelling from the gaming industry. Today, he's on the blog talking about how asking the right questions can make your story come to life.
Asking Better Questions by Eric Lindstrom
The fourth doctor of the TV series Doctor Who was my childhood hero. (He still is, but that’s a different story.) In an episode I watched as a teen, he said, “Answers are easy – it’s asking the right questions which is hard.” It was my first exposure to this idea, and it stuck with me.
Over time this perspective became a very useful tool. When I get stuck and can’t find an answer, stepping back and examining my questions often leads to a solution. This process proves itself useful in many different ways, but here I’ll focus on a key example.
Starting out as a writer, I sometimes found myself blocked, wondering, “What should happen next?” I came to understand (over years, not one Saturday afternoon) how that was the wrong question. Tornados happen. Wildebeest migrations happen. But the vast majority of events in a story don’t just happen. Characters make them happen. “What happens next?” is appropriate for the reader to ask, not the writer.
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This week, we welcome Simon P. Clark to the blog. Simon's debut novel, TELL THE STORY TO ITS END was released in the US last month. Today, he's talking about the writing advice we love to ignore, and why it's harder than it looks.
Annoying and Accurate Writing Advice by Simon P. Clark
The more I write and publish, the more I realise how wonderfully subjective this whole thing is. What works for one person can be frustrating and creativity-sucking for another, and even some of the classics - 'show don't tell', 'write what you know' - are worth taking with a heart-busting doss of salt. There's really only one piece of writing advice I've ever heard that's struck me as universally true. It comes from Neil Gaiman, and (in one form or another), it's this: keep writing. It sounds simple, but it's not.
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Today we're welcoming Diana Renn to the blog, to talk about character development... the active way. Diana's BLUE VOYAGE was published October 13th of this year.
Today, we're welcoming Lisa Maxwell to the blog, to talk about a very elusive concept that is so important to the way we create: self-confidence. Lisa's second novel, GATHERING DEEP was released on October 8th, and her third, THE STARS TURNED AWAY will be published in February.
On Self-Confidence in Writing by Lisa Maxwell
The thing that I struggle with more than anything else is self-confidence. Like a lot of other writers, I’m an introvert. Putting myself out there is probably one of my least favorite things to do. Maybe there was a point, right when I was about to finish my PhD, where I actually felt sure of myself enough to be truly confident in the future I had ahead of me. I’d worked my behind off for six long years, went above and beyond doing all the things a good grad student who wanted a job could do, and thought for sure that I’d finally done enough. I was so sure of myself and my prospects, I bought two suits and a plane ticket to California (where the interviews were going to be that year). And then… the economy tanked, there were no jobs, and I had a non-refundable ticket to California that I didn’t need. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like more of a failure, more unworthy in my entire life.
Strangely enough, that failure led to me to writing, maybe it was because that failure freed me in a way. I’d always thought, for whatever reason, that if I just did enough, worked hard enough, I could prove myself. I could eventually be as successful as I wanted to be. Not getting a job after my degree was a huge disappointment, but it was also a huge revelation. There I was, jobless, without any real career prospects in the industry I’d spent almost a decade training myself for. I’d done everything right, and it didn’t work. All the hard work in the world wasn’t enough to counteract a pitiful economy and constricting education sector I found myself in a completely novel position (for me, at least)— and the thing was, it wasn’t really about me.
From the time I declared my major as English, I spent years telling people that I didn’t want to write books. I just wanted to read them. To be honest, I never thought I did. I never thought I could. Writers were people way more talented than I could ever possibly be.
Looking back, I realize now that I was just afraid. I was afraid of not being able to write as well as the authors I so admired. I was afraid of being a failure, of not being good enough. But over-educated and underemployed,aAll those fears I’d had for so many years about writing didn’t matter at that point—I was already at the bottom, career-wise. I was in a place where I had nothing left to lose.
There was a strange kind of freedom in that.
I wrote my first book, because I needed to. I needed stories in my life, even though I wasn’t taking or teaching classes. I needed beautiful words and the escape that literature had always provided me, so I decided to try making it. And then to my utter surprise, it worked. I found out that I loved writing stories even more than I loved reading. I discovered that I was pretty decent at writing them, and that I wanted to keep writing them.
When I first started writing, I was writing with the kind of desperation that comes from having your dreams dashed. Maybe it’s because when I first started, I didn’t really think the whole publishing a book thing would work. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that I didn’t believe getting published would happen as quickly as it did for me. I expected to fail…a lot. I expected to finish books, only to box them up and store them away because they weren’t ready yet. I wrote with an almost complete lack of expectations for myself or the work, but not without hope. Something about that combination did work, though. Maybe it was because for the first time I wasn’t worried about being good enough. I was just concerned with the work itself.
Then, all of a sudden, I had a 2-book contract. All of a sudden, I was an author.
Right about then, I think the fears about being good enough started to rear their ugly heads again: was the book good enough? Was I doing enough to promote it? Could the next book be better? Did I deserve to be considered an author? Was I really enough to be a “real” author?
Those fears never really go away, it seems. There’s always someone writing better, getting a bigger deal, doing a better job of promoting. There are always multiple somebodies who look like they have this author thing down, that they are in control. And the more I see that, the more I struggle with my own self-doubt.
Four books later, I’m not sure I feel like a “real” author, whatever that means. Writing—and especially being paid for my writing—still seems like this miracle I fell into when things were at their worst—a complete surprise and an amazing gift. But when it comes to the business side, it’s so easy for self doubt to creep in. Those old fears of being enough—especially now that I know that, sometimes, all the hard work in the world won’t be enough.
I’m working on my fourth contracted book now, a book that I’ve outlined and am so excited about. A book that my publisher has approved and is also excited about. And even with all that excitement, the old fears come creeping back. Can I make this what I want it to be? Will what I do with the book be enough to make it popular? To make others like it? Am I good enough to write this story? Who am I to think I could write this story?
No surprise, the fear of not being enough has done a number on me. The writing is going excruciatingly slow right now. I know these characters, and I love their story, but all of those doubts are back, creeping in again and making writing harder than its been in a while. I’ve been letting my struggles with self-confidence get in my way, and I have to keep reminding myself to go back to the page, back to the words. I have to make myself try to remember that time when I was writing with nothing left to lose, a time when all that mattered was the work, because whatever happens—I have the work itself, and that always is enough. Even when it’s at its hardest.
About the Book
When Chloe Sabourin wakes in a dark, New Orleans cemetery with no memory of the previous days, she can hardly believe the story her friends tell her. They say Chloe was possessed by a witch named Thisbe, who had used the darkest magic to keep herself alive for over a century. They tell her that the witch is the one responsible for the unspeakable murders that nearly claimed the life of Chloe's friend, Lucy. Most unbelievable of all, they say that Thisbe is Chloe’s own mother. As she struggles with this devastating revelation and tries to rebuilt her life, Chloe wants nothing to do with the magic that corrupted her mother…especially since she feels drawn to it.
Now, a new series of ritualistic killings suggests that Thisbe is plotting again, and Chloe is drawn unwillingly back into the mystical underworld of the French Quarter. To stop Thisbe before she kills again, Chloe and her friends must learn what they can from the mysterious Mama Legba. But when her boyfriend Piers vanishes, Chloe will have to risk everything and embrace her own power to save the one person she has left… even if that means bringing down her mother.
Amazon | Indiebound | GoodreadsAbout the Author
Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest (Flux), Gathering Deep (Flux, 2015) and The Stars Turned Away (Simon Pulse, 2016). When she's not writing books, she teaches English at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.
We're welcoming the super talented, multi award winning Jennifer Donnelly to the blog today to talk about the importance of never giving up. Despite her success, Jennifer's road to publishing was long and, for all us hopefuls, proof that good things come to those who wait. Enjoy!
Just Keep Writing by Jennifer Donnelly
I waited years for The Call. Ten years, in fact.
Like my first novel, The Tea Rose, the story of how I finally got The Call is a rags-to-riches tale. Got a few minutes? Good. Pull up a chair.
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Today we're thrilled to welcome Todd Strasser to the blog. Todd Strasser is the author of more than 130 novels for children and young adults, and his latest offering The Beast of Cretacea hit shelves last week. Todd is revisiting the concept of writing what you know, offering some new gems of advice.
Write What You Know, Revisited by Todd Strasser
My first novel (written in the early 1970s) was a roman à clef about a teenager who falls in love with a “nice” young woman from another town, then gets arrested for selling drugs, and tries to hide it from her. Not aware at the time that a new genre of literature called Young Adult was in its infancy, I was worried that my story lacked the adult appeal necessary to catapult it onto the best seller lists.
Seeking to correct this deficiency, I purchased a copy of Writer’s Digest for advice on how to turn my book into something with sales that would rival those of Stephen King’s, and as a result learned that at that particular moment on the literary timeline, the two ingredients every book needed to insure vast commercial success were Nazism and cocaine.
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We're excited to welcome Mary Elizabeth Summer to the blog today. Mary's Trust Me, I'm Trouble released yesterday, and is the sequel to her 2014 debut Trust Me, I'm Lying. Today, she's giving a pep talk to publishing hopefuls.
How to Get Published by Mary Elizabeth Summer
Passing the Torch
So you want to be a published author. Well, I’m living proof that it is absolutely, positively, 100% possible. If I can get a book published, anyone can. In fact, one of the many things I’ve learned from this crazy publishing journey is that if you stick with it, stay hungry, keep striving, you will eventually get published. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. I’m not saying that as a platitude. I mean it literally. You are guaranteed to get a book published if you follow the advice in this post.
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We had a slight scheduling error on today's WOW Wednesday post. Sorry to all those who were expecting the post this morning!
Today, we welcome the wonderful Jen Larsen to the blog. Jen's YA debut, the uplifting FUTURE PERFECT was released into the world only yesterday, and today she's sharing some tips on overcoming writer's block in order to get that book out into the world.
On Overcoming Writer’s Block by Jen Larsen
Writing terrifies me.
I’ve written four books and countless essays and stories and blog posts but the idea of starting anything, and sometimes sitting down in front of my laptop and staring at a blank screen, can send me into a total panic. This you may recognize as writer’s block, and it is the worst feeling in the world.
However! It is combatable. You can learn to combat it. You can learn to feel the fear. Lean into the fear. Keep leaning until you knock it over and then sit on it and pretend to notice you don’t feel it struggling under me, bucking and kicking. And then you hang on, the best you can, until the end, hoping it was all worth it.
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Today we're excited to welcome C.C. Hunter to the blog. C.C.'s Unspoken is the third book of the Shadow Falls: After Dark trilogy, and releases on October 28th. She's here to share advice about self-doubt and rejection. There are lots of useful tips, so read on and enjoy!
Divorcing Doubt Brought on By Rejection by C.C. Hunter
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We're excited to welcome A.J. Steiger to the blog today. A.J.'s debut, Mindwalker, was released on June 9th of this year. Today, A.J. is joining us with advice on breaking the rules.
When to Break the Rules by A.J. Steiger
On my long road to publication, I’ve taken numerous fiction classes, read plenty of “how to write” books, and participated in critique sessions with other writers. There’s no shortage of do’s and don’ts on the subject of writing, and wading through these seas of information can be overwhelming. But the most useful piece of advice I’ve ever received is also the simplest: “Trust your gut. No matter what the rule is, someone is going to break it and break it well.”
Fiction is not an exact science, it’s a primal art which often emerges from a deep, intuitive place. Stories have been a part of human culture since we were painting them on cave walls. Yes, guidelines are useful. But if you treat them as immutable laws, they can easily become a gag muffling your own voice. The key is knowing when to deviate from the standard principles.
With that in mind, here are a few common rules I recommend throwing out the window (at least sometimes).
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We're excited to welcome author Jackie Lea Sommers back to the blog today. Jackie's debut
Truest hit shelves earlier this month. Today she's going to share with us what made the most difference in getting herself from aspiring author to published author.
SHOWING UP by Jackie Lea Sommers
My debut Truest, a contemporary novel for young adults, was released at the beginning of the month—a dream come true, the result of years of hard work. I work for a university, and sometimes young writers will ask me for writing advice or what made the difference in the journey to publication.
I always have the same answer: showing up.I’m convinced that’s about 90% of writing a book right there: showing up to write, putting in the work. I have learned not to wait for inspiration to strike. Inspiration is abundantly available when I show up. Inspiration learns my routine and meets me there.
Often writers become paralyzed by the fear of failure, but the truth is that we will fail. We will. But if we keep showing up to work, day after day after month after year, we will have a finished manuscript.
Winston Churchill said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” In other words: show up, show up, show up.
Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. We have to show up continually.
Stephen King wrote, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
He’s right: you’ve got to show up.Read more »
We're excited to welcome to the blog today
USA Today and
New York Times Bestselling author Wendy Higgins.
Sweet Temptation,
the companion volume to her acclaimed Sweet Evil series releases next week and has been called sensual and swoon-worthy. (It's Kaidan's story, so be prepared for LOTS of wonderful swoon!) Also keep an eye out for her upcoming fantasy duology
The Great Hunt.
Between short turn-around deadlines and young children, she knows a thing or two about managing writing time. Read on to find out how she carves it out of her busy days.
WRITING OBSTACLES – DEFEATING THE TIME MONSTER
by Wendy Higgins
My primary obstacle is, and always has been, time.I began my first book, Sweet Evil, when my son was nine-months-old (still waking during the nights) and my daughter was three and a half years old. In case you’ve never had a baby or toddler, let me just tell you straight up—those suckers keep you busy nonstop. And when you have a husband who works 12-hour shifts and is too exhausted to help you clean most days, it feels like you’re on your own. The house and errands and children and other responsibilities don’t leave much wiggle room for mommy to enjoy me-time. Writing was a long lost dream that I never thought I’d pick up again. There was simply no time.
Being busy is an obstacle for all writers, not just moms. Maybe you’re a student with tons of homework and after school activities. Or maybe you work a full time job and sit in traffic every morning and evening. Making time to write can seem overwhelmingly impossible. Here’s the thing nobody wants to hear…sometimes the only way to make time for writing is to give something up, something you enjoy but is not absolutely necessary. When my story idea hit me in full force the summer of 2009, that’s exactly what I had to do. Guess what I gave up? Television. I know, that’s a biggie. I was spending approximately 3 hours every night after the kids went to bed sprawled out like a zombie watching reality cooking shows with my husband. It was glorious. But my desire to write that story was even stronger than my desire to veg.
We're excited to welcome author Erica O'Rourke to the blog today. Erica's Resonance is the thrilling follow up to Dissonance. Today she's going to share with us the key to becoming a publishing success.
In Which I Reveal The Super-Secret Key To Publishing Success by Erica O'Rourke
As a published author, one of the most common questions I hear is, “Which conferences/classes/websites/resources do you recommend to aspiring authors?”
It’s a list I’m happy to provide. So many people have taught me essential things about the craft and business of writing on my path to publication, and I want to pay it forward.
However.
None of those resources are a magical key that will unlock the door to publication – because there isn’t one. There’s only the real key, and it’s not on any list.
The real key – the single biggest factor that helped me become a published author – was this: I got serious about writing.
If you’d asked me the year before I sold my first book, I would have said, “Yes! I am serious! I belong to a writers’ group, I read lots of books on craft , I attend conferences, I talk to my writer friends all the time! I’m polishing my elevator pitch and follow important people on Twitter! I am super-serious!”
Except… all the books and classes and meetings and writerly coffee dates…weren’t writing. Analyzing episodes of Lost wasn’t adding words to my story. Polishing my pitch wasn’t the same as polishing my own prose.
And then one day, I decided to enter a contest, and it required a full manuscript.
Which I did not have.
You may remember that Tara Sim's YA manuscript Timekeeper was a winner in our Pitch Plus Five contest last year.
Well, this year Tara has some amazing news! Not only did she find a wonderful agent, but TIMEKEEPER is set to be published in Fall 2016!
To celebrate this amazing success story, we invited both Tara and her agent, the fabulous Laura Crockett of TriadaUS Literary, to share the details of Tara's path to publishing.
1. Tara, how long have you been writing?
I've been seriously writing since I was 15, when I wrote my first book. I remember composing poems to my dad when I was six, and writing the odd short story here and there, but it wasn't until I wrote my first book that I realized I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. The last 11 years have been a long exercise in craft and finding my style/voice.
We're so excited to have Lori Goldstein on the blog today, especially since she and her book Becoming Jinn were one of our First Five Pages Workshop success stories in 2013! VOYA gave Becoming Jinn a starred review saying: "The genie theme is original and appealing. Azra is likable; her struggles--even factoring in the genie issue--are real and relatable. This well-written title . . . will not stay on the shelf."
A Debut Lesson: The Trouble with Measuring Success
We all want it even if we don’t come right out and say it: success. The trouble is, success is a moving target, constantly changing.
There was a time when “making it” was signing with an agent. When “success” was getting the book deal. “Who cares if my book hits ‘The List’? I’ll have a book on the shelves!”
Been there, said that? Yeah, me too.
Cut to two months after release. “Who cares if my book hits ‘The List’?” I do. Turns out, a lot.
Been there too? The good thing is, you and I are not alone in having hopes and dreams and goals. And those are good things to have. That’s how we got published in the first place.
Being a writer takes guts. And cojones. We who go down this path are as arrogant and cocky as we are insecure and plagued with self-doubt. Think about it: there are thousands of people trying to get a book deal every year. Agents read hundreds of query letters a week. To send a query out is to believe your work is better than the rest, that your manuscript can and should be published, that your book deserves space on bookstore and library shelves alongside household names like John Green or Suzanne Collins or J.K. Rowling (depending on your luck with the alphabet). Arrogant and cocky.
When you sign your first book publishing contract, you may think the self-doubt disappears. What few will admit is that the opposite is true. Let’s skip past the fears that come when working with an editor for the first time as here I’m talking about what happens around release.
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We're excited to welcome to the blog today author Brian Katcher. Brian's The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak has been described as a hilarious he said/she said romance about two teens recovering from heartbreak and discovering themselves on an out-of-this-world accidental first date! He's here to share with us what scares him about writing.
The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak: What Scares Me As A Writer by Brian Katcher
Writing is similar to acting. You take on the persona of someone you are not, and have to make that persona believable. You work at it for months, even years, and in the end, you either nailed it or you didn't. There's very little middle ground.
As a YA author, the challenge is twofold. The hurdle I face with every book is how to realistically portray young characters. As I just turned forty, I constantly fear that I'm going to end up writing about how things were back in my day, rather than with the voice of a present-day seventeen year old. On the other hand, some things never change. While speaking to a high school once, I said "When I was your age, we used to hang out at the mall, watch MTV, and try to meet girls. I have no idea what you all do now." A boy responded "We hang out at the mall, watch MTV, and try to meet girls."
When writing for a YA audience, never mention these things: current slang, celebrities, or technology. They'll have all changed by the time the book comes out.
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We're excited to welcome to the blog today author Jane Higgins. Jane's The Bridge, has been described as a heart-stopping novel about friendship, identity, and courage. She's here to share with us some habits of mind for writing. Habits Of Mind For Writing
When the team at
Adventures in YA Publishing invited me to write a post, I looked back over recent Craft of Writing posts and thought ‘Wow!’ The discussions here are rich and varied and immensely helpful. So how, as writers, can we cultivate ‘habits of mind’ that help us make best use of all this wisdom? Here are some thoughts on that – all easier said than done, of course. They are habits I’d love to practice much more diligently than I actually do!
Turn down the Inner Critic. Ah, but how? Try ‘morning pages’, as suggested by Julia Cameron in her classic, The Artist’s Way. They work like this. You get up in the morning. You write. Three pages, on anything at all.
What’s important for the morning pages is to do nothing that will put anything in your head between being asleep and writing your pages. That means no looking at screens of any kind, no radio, no phone calls or texts, no newspapers. No input. Not till you’ve written your three pages.
When I’m writing the pages, I tumble out of bed, make a cuppa, mumble at my husband, and then sit down and write. It takes about twenty-five minutes. I’m no company for anyone until I’ve written those pages. What to write? Whatever comes to mind. I record dream fragments, ponder plot problems in the current work-in-progress, recall yesterday’s activities, and if I’m desperate for material by page three, I write down today’s to-do list. I’m not “writing” when I do this, I’m not crafting anything, I’m just putting down what’s in my brain first thing in the morning.
I don’t go back and read over what I’ve written. It’s the activity that matters, not the product. I have friends who use their morning pages as raw material for poetry and some people might find them helpful for pushing through story problems. But the pages don’t have to be ‘useful’ in that way.
What does spilling a jumble of thoughts onto the page achieve? It clears my brain and, somehow, it disarms the Inner Critic because hey, look, I’m writing! Maybe it’s too early for the IC to be up and about. I don’t know. I do know that I write more freely during the day if I’ve written those three pages of ‘anything at all’ first thing in the morning.
Tune out the world. When you get on a plane, you know how you have to turn all your devices to ‘flight mode’, cutting you off from the outside world? That. No Facebook, no Twitter, no internet of any kind. No phone. Well, okay, leave your phone on for emergencies, but turn it to silent and put it in a drawer on the other side of the room. No television or radio. I sometimes have quiet instrumental music in the background – nothing with lyrics because they confuse the language centres of my brain that I need for writing. And, to be honest, when I come out of a writing spell, if it’s been really productive, I find that I’ve tuned out the music and can’t remember hearing it.
Don’t let the outside world fool you into connecting with it – because it will try. It’s tricksy like that. Just that little bit of research that will help you with a plot point? A quick look on the internet to resolve it? Make a note to check it later. It’ll wait. Really.
Get up from your desk and go for a walk. How is this a habit of mind? Well, strangely, it is. When I’m stuck on a plot point or a character conversation, I take the problem for a walk. At the start of my walk I formulate the problem as a question, as clearly as I can – that seems to be an important part of the process. I don’t think hard about it – my subconscious can do that – I just pose the question and walk. I’m constantly surprised by how often a solution has arrived by the end of the walk. I’ve tried other forms of activity than walking (gardening, for example, or housework), which would be useful because that would be productive on two levels, right? Sadly, no, it doesn’t work so well. They’re too task-oriented. The mindless rhythm of walking seems to tap into the subconscious in mysterious ways.
Unclutter your writing space. It’s part of sharpening your focus on writing. If you have a dedicated space, well and good, but even if you don’t, try clearing away the non-writing related stuff from your corner of the table while you’re writing. Make a little bubble for yourself that is just about writing, so that even what’s in your line of sight on the desk is writing-related.
Be attentive – to the world, to yourself. Story ideas and solutions to story problems are always lurking, so be ready to catch them when they appear in the corner of your mind’s eye. Ursula Le Guin has a lovely metaphor about this. She says that in writing, particularly in the early stages:
‘Your mind is like a cat hunting; it’s not even sure yet what it’s hunting. It listens. Be patient like the cat. Very, very attentive, alert, but patient. Slow. Don’t push the story to take shape. Let it show itself. Let it gather impetus. Keep listening. (Ursula Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind, p.227).
I can remember when the first line of The Bridge arrived. I was standing in a bookshop leafing through a book of short stories when my eye flicked past a line which, when I checked back, turned out to be very mundane: ‘We rode to the flat in a taxicab’. But the first time my eye ran over it I read it as, ‘We rode to war in a taxicab.’ My subconscious was playing tricks on me. War was on my mind. I’d been struggling with a short story about some young people in a war, but it hadn’t worked and I’d shelved it. Clearly, though, the idea wasn’t done with me. It was sitting in my subconscious, biding its time. From that moment, I was off and running with the world of The Bridge. Who was in the taxi? What was the war? I wrote the book to find out.
As I mentioned, it’s all much easier said than done! It’s a struggle to find uncluttered mental space for writing when there are so many claims on our attention. But there’s good science now to show that when we think we’re multi-tasking (particularly in things that require conscious thought), we’re not really doing that at all. We don’t – can’t – think about more than one thing at a time. Rather, we switch back and forth between tasks. It only takes a second to check a post on Facebook, but coming back to where you were in your writing before you got distracted takes more time and energy than we once thought.
Writing is mysterious, and a good part of that mystery involves tapping into the subconscious and letting the story emerge. That means sometimes letting your mind just wander about, being attentive and patient. At other times, it means having a close and singular focus on your story. It’s all about giving yourself space to think, ponder and imagine deeply.
About The Book:
The City is divided. The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation, waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside.
Nik is still in high school but is destined for a great career with the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when the Security Services come recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn't chosen. There must be an explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now the Security Services are hunting for Nik.
But Nik is on the run, with Sol's sister Fyffe, and Security is hot on their trail. They cross the bridge in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he had never dared to ask.
The Bridge is a gritty adventure set in a future world where fear of outsiders pervades everything. A heart-stopping novel about friendship, identity, and courage from an exciting new voice in young-adult fiction.
Amazon |
IndieBound |
Goodreads
About The Author:
Jane Higgins is a New Zealand writer of fiction and non-fiction. In her day job she is a sociologist specializing in youth studies, focusing particularly on young people in transition from school. Growing up, she read a lot of classic science fiction, fantasy and myth and she still loves to escape into the other worlds of these stories. The Bridge is her first novel. It won the 2010 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing. Havoc, a sequel to The Bridge has recently been published by Text Publishing (Melbourne).
~ posted by Jen Fisher
@cupcakegirly 
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By: Jocelyn Rish,
on 2/10/2016
Jane Higgins is a New Zealand writer of fiction and non-fiction. In her day job she is a sociologist specializing in youth studies, focusing particularly on young people in transition from school. Growing up, she read a lot of classic science fiction, fantasy and myth and she still loves to escape into the other worlds of these stories. The Bridge is her first novel. It won the 2010 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing. Havoc, a sequel to The Bridge has recently been published by Text Publishing (Melbourne). 
