'Writer' vs. Writer

Top Ten things most people who like to call themselves writers do:

1. Research publishing/querying stats
2. Join writing forums
3. Change/create social media to fit the 'author' profile
4. Start a blog about writing
5. Look for new/cool writing supplies
6. Research all the blogs they hope to one day try promote with
7. Follow/Like other aspiring writers, authors, agents and publishers
8. Read books about writing
9. Think about what their book cover will look like
10. Plan out which places they will try to book signing and events for their book release, tours, and parties

Number 1 thing most people who like to call themselves writers don't do:

1. Write


Food for thought.

Happy Wednesday! :-)

Conference Conundrum

Let's talk about conferences.

Attending conferences and conventions, whether they be writing, publishing, genre specific, or somewhere in between, can be one of the best things you can do for yourself as a writer and for your writing career. You learn, you grow, you inspire and you get inspired. Experts are there to guide and teach you, agents and editor are there to listen with rapt attention while you pitch, and publishers and booksellers are there to give you free stuff and try to earn your business. Best of all, conventions are one of the best places to recharge your writting batteries, so that when you head home, you are ready to plot, write, revise, edit, and polish until your fingers fall off!

Unfortunately, for as great as conferences are, there is one major downside...

$ $ $ $ $
The Price
$ $ $ $ $

Most major conferences and conventions cost upwards of $400 just to attend, not to mention your travel to said conference and your lodging while there. It can be incredibly expensive, making it out of the question for many writers. I have attended RWA National conference two years in a row now, and I can tell you that, while amazing, it was not cheap.

(And by the way, for those of you out there saying, "Once I sell my book,I will have plenty of money for conferences!", cuz... you won't. Trust me, I thought that too.)

However, to those of you who are still considering attending a conference (and I recommend that you do), I have a few tips that might make the dream a bit more attainable.

1. Stay local - Most of the larger conferences move locations every year, and if you can find one near to home, all you have to do is pay the registration fee. Or if there is one not in your own city but near enough to drive, then you save the cost of a flight.

2. Bigger isn't always better - When looking for a conference to attend, you may immediately gravitate towards the Writers Digest Convention, RWA Nationals, RT, or one of the other big dogs. Sure, big is great, but every year there are dozens of smaller conventions put on by local organizations, or even local chapters of larger organizations like RWA. For example, the Chicago chapter of RWA holds a conference each year. It is always in Chicago, they always have big name authors and publishing experts in attendance, and registration is less than half the price of the national convention. Plus, since many of the different chapters  sponsor conventions every year, you are far more likely to find one that is local to you. RWA posts a list of all upcoming conferences, both large and small on it's website, and no you do not need to be a RWA member to attend.

3. Think outside the genre - "Sure there is a RWA conference near me, but I don't write romance." Just because a conference has a theme or is sponsored by a specific group, doesn't mean you won't get anything out of it. RWA may stand for Romance Writers of America, but the conference focuses on writing as a whole. This years RWA conference had workshops on plot, structure, query writing, synopses, dialog, as well as specialized topics like writing thriller, medical, YA, and historical.

4. Choose wisely - No matter which size or style of conference you attend, make sure it is the best choice for you and your writing. Ask yourself, "Is there a reason I am choosing this conference," as they are not all created equal. Make sure you do your research. Do you want a conference focused on writing and honing the craft like Writer's Digest, or would you prefer something for both writers and readers with the serious writer-focused panels as well as fun parties and fan events like the RT Convention? (Personally, I recommend RT for the first timer. It is informative and educational while also being loads of fun!)


I hope this helped some of you, or at least got you thinking, and hope to see some of you on the conference trail next year!

Project Wrap-Up

Well ladies and gents, it's over. My family is back, and the solitude, productivity, and cleanliness that have been the last two weeks of my life are gone. This has also brought an end to my Twelve Day Project, and while due to computer issues that I am still in the middle of (grrrr...) I wasn't able to post everyday like I wanted, I was able to stick to my general productivity outline.

To catch you up, in twelve days, with no family in the house, my goal was to finish my WIP. Did I do it? No. Did I honestly think I would? I hoped I might get close, but honestly, no. Does it matter? Not at all.

I knew my goal was basically impossible when I started out. My word count for each day, with out fail would have had to been more than 7000, and at my best I am at 4000 to 4500 max. So why set such an impossible goal? Here, I'll show you:








See that? Not where I wanted to be, but at over 16,500 words in under two weeks, not at all shabby! And if I hadn't have set a goal, I know myself well enough to know my number would not even be close to that high.

Goals are supposed to be hard. They're supposed to be too hard, at least sometimes. Otherwise, how else will you know what you can really do? We've all heard the 'shoot for the moon, land in the stars' line, but for me it have more to do with not selling myself short. If I would have set a smaller goal, I may have made it, but I would have wondered if I could have done better. Now I know.

Twelve Day Project ~ Day Twelve

Quick Update. This is my last official day of writing for my project, and thus far I am at 26,466. That may be it for the day, it may not, we'll see.

Full project recap tomorrow, but for now, Happy Memorial Day!

Twelve Day Project - Day Ten

Long overdue update, but I am still having major computer issues, so thanks for hanging in there with me. :)

Just to you know (and don't think I am totally delusional) I am more than aware I will not be reaching my goal, but I will also not be giving up. Not reaching goals is fine but giving up is for squares. :)

Bah!!!

All right folks, update time...

I know I've been lax the past few days, and as it turns out, my computer has decided she wants to turn onto a piece of crap. Took her into Best Buy today, and we may even have to put her down. This is being posted via my iphone, so forgive me it's riddled with errors, it's kinda hard to type this way.

Can't upload the ticker, but my word count is 19,748. Not shabby considering the circumstances, but not great either. I'll keep you posted, and thanks to those who have reached out to yell at me for slacking off! You guys are awesome!

But wait... do you hear that? No reliable computer... no way to write... yep, must mean the edits to my books  from both my editors will be here any minute. That'd be about right.

Bah!

Twelve Day Project ~ Day Four

Haha... yeah...

So, word count for yesterday is a big old 0, but you know what, I'm fine with that. Had a great time playing board games with my book club, and it was a nice day. Needed a breather, you know?

Plus, I am happy to say that I have already been going pretty strong today, so I have added my words from just this morning on to my ticker getting me to 17,188. More to come, but not bad so far! :)

Twelve Day Project ~ Day Three

Did well yesterday with 2205 words, but still not what I would have liked. Today is likely to be even worse, as I have my book club coming over for a game night this afternoon.

Though that isn't my biggest problem. My biggest problem begins and ends with a GIGANTIC mistake I made last night. It was something everyone has been telling me about for months, and I've been putting it off, but for some reason, I thought last night would be a good night to start it.

Huge mistake--called Once Upon A Time.

Yeah...

Twelve Day Project ~ Day Two

Here we are at the start of day two and at 14,248 words, up 1,255 from yesterday.

Sucky start, I know, I know...

I got a bit stuck yesterday on one of those chapters that is no fun, and tricky to write because nothing really happens, but it still has to be there... You know the kind I mean?

Yeah, that. :-/

But I am past it now and actually really excited for the next couple of scenes, so I'll see if I can't bang a few chapters out today and have a more satisfactory word count for you tomorrow!

Twelve Day Project ~ Day One

Okay, here we go! 12 days from today, I will have a new ms! (For explanation behind this project see previous post)

For a little story background, it is a YA Historical Romance, and while I'm not going to tell you what it is about, you can go here http://pinterest.com/juliannalscott/wip/ and check out my inspiration board if you are so inclined.

At the moment I am in the middle of Chapter 5, and at a word count of 12,993. I was not able to add one of the word count widgets to the side of the blog as it didn't fit right, but I have made a lovely little ticker that I will put on the bottom of my post each day.

I've got snacks, I've got tea, let's do this! :D

Freedom...

Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make...

At 6:40 pm last evening, my Husband and two daughters boarded a plane for Orlando Florida without me. The three of them have gone to visit my in-laws for... ready...

TWO WHOLE WEEKS!

That's right folks, I am the only person in my house for the next two weeks, and since writing and being a mom are my only jobs, I have two weeks of freedom! A freedom I haven't had since my first daughter was born, two and a half years ago!

Guess what time I woke up this morning?

WHENEVER I WANTED TO!

Guess who I had to make breakfast for?

ME!

Guess who can curse, whenever she wants, as loud as she wants, without having to worry about little ears?

I CAN!

HAHA! :D

But don't worry, great as the break is, I will not be squandering my time. Any writer I know would kill to have two weeks with nothing to do but write, and I promise you all, I will take full advantage of my gift. In fact, I am counting on all you guys to be my accountabili-buddies.

My Goal: To have my WIP finished before my family comes back. At the moment I'm only a few chapters in, so it's an ambitious goal to be sure, but I think I can do it. When I get into a book, I write fast, averaging a chapter or more a day, so if I buckle down and don't let myself get distracted by, you know, picking a TV series to start watching from the beginning, or watching a ton of movies on Netflix that I can't watch with my kids around, etc., I should be good.

Every day I will post my progress. I will be honest, and if I start to suck, it is your job to let me know it and, yell at me, call me names, etc. I will even get one of those WIP progress bar widgets for the blog, (which I normally hate as I think they are incredibly ugly).

Tomorrow will be my first official day--as today I need to focus on cleaning this house--and I will post my start stats then.

"The End", here I come! (But in the meantime, cookies, cleaning, and loud, inappropriate music, hear I come!)

(Disclaimer: The only thing that could possibly derail this plan is if I get edits on one of my two books from one of my Editors, as obviously those will have to come first.)

Over the Hump!

I am happy to announce that this morning I made it over the hump! :D

I think we all have 'humps' when it come to writing, or the part of the story that you really have to struggle to get through. For me it is always the beginning. I never know how to start a new book. I always know where I want to start, and what will be happening in general, but am usually unsure how to do it. And this last hump was particularly hard, because my WIP is historical, and I had to 'set the scene' in addition to pulling off everything else the beginning of a story has to do.

But happily, once I make it over the hump, I can fly, so with any luck this new book should be finished by the end of the month--provided I don't get edits in the meantime, as they will have to come first.

So my question is, what's your hump?

Woe To Me ~ or ~ The One Page Synopsis

You hear it all the time: 'How can they want only one page?', 'That's not possible for my book.", 'That is what a query is for.', etc, etc, etc... Now, I am by no means an authority on the subject, but I have written quite a few one pagers in my day, and know of a fact that it is possible. I have also found a few things that have helped me along the way, and think maybe they could help you too. So here it goes...

Yes, more and more agents and editors are wanting one--yes one--page synopses of your book, and yes it is possible.

Is it easy? No.
Is it fun? No.
Does it make your book, which you have spent countless hours writing, editing, crafting, and perfecting sound like an utterly horrible piece of crap that no one would ever want to read? Yes.
Is that bad? No.

What you have to remember is that agents and editors are not reading your synopsis--or your book, for that matter--for enjoyment. Sure, they want to enjoy it, but that's not really the point.  It is your job interview. They are using these items do determine if they want to go into business with you. The point of the one page synopsis in this process is to determine, without having to read the entire book, if you know how to craft a story. To see if you know how to create a satisfying and engaging beginning, middle, and end.

Sidebar: While we are on the subject of endings, never, ever, EVER leave out the ending of your book in a synopsis. No, you are not ruining the book, agents and editors need to know this information. Leaving the ending off is the equivalent of going to a job interview, and the boss asking you, "What do you believe you can bring to our company," and you reply, "Lots of great stuff, but you will just have to hire me to find out what." Needless to say, you will not be getting the job.
End Sidebar.

"But,it's just not possible, my book is too long/involved/too many characters/too many years pass/too much subplot to be summed up in only a page.

Okay, let's get real for a second. If War and Peace, one of the longest books ever written can be summed up by Wikipedia in five pages of 12 pt. Times New Roman font (and it is, I've checked) then your novel can be summarized in one.

But nothing. It can.

How, you ask? Easy, just tell what happens.

ONLY what happens and in what order. NOT how the characters feel about it. NOT what the characters think about it. No emotion; just what happens and when. Yes, it will be dry, and boring, and dull, but agents and editors know how to read through that. They will know that your book is not boring just because your one page synopsis is.

Those of you that know me have probably heard me use that War and Peace example before, so here is another: The following is the short synopsis for Jame Eyre, courtesy of Wikipedia. This is a book which has approximately 500 pages (anywhere from 433 to 646 depending on the edition), and the following summary is one and a half pages in length at 12 point Times New Roman.
(The synopsis is in purple lettering. Skip to the end of the purple if you do not wish to read.)

     The novel begins with a ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre who is living with her maternal uncle's family, the Reeds, as her uncle's dying wish. Jane’s aunt Sarah Reed does not like her and treats her like a servant. She and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically and emotionally. One day Jane is locked in the red room, where her uncle died, and panics after seeing visions of him. She is finally rescued when she is allowed to attend Lowood School for Girls.
     Jane arrives at Lowood Institution, a charity school, the head of which (Brocklehurst) has been told that she is deceitful. During an inspection, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, and is branded a liar and shames her before the entire assembly. Jane is comforted by her friend, Helen Burns. The eighty pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, and thin clothing. Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes. Jane's friend Helen dies of consumption in her arms. When Mr. Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty are discovered, several benefactors erect a new building and conditions at the school improve dramatically.
     After six years as a student and two years as a teacher, Jane decides to leave Lowood. She advertises her services as a governess, and receives one reply from Alice Fairfax, the housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. She takes the position, teaching Adele Varens, a young French girl. While Jane is walking one night to a nearby town, a horseman passes her. The horse slips on ice and throws the rider. She helps him to the horse. Later, back at the mansion she learns that this man is Edward Rochester, master of the house. He teases her, asking whether she bewitched his horse to make him fall. Adele is his ward, left in Mr. Rochester's care when her mother died. Mr. Rochester and Jane enjoy each other's company and spend many hours together.
     Odd things start to happen at the house, such as a strange laugh, a mysterious fire in Mr. Rochester's room, on which Jane throws water, and an attack on Rochester's house guest, Mr. Mason. Jane receives word that her aunt was calling for her, after being in much grief because her son has died. She returns to Gateshead and remains there for a month caring for her dying aunt. Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, Mr John Eyre, asking for her to live with him. Mrs. Reed admits to telling her uncle that Jane had died of fever at Lowood. Soon after, Jane's aunt dies, and she returns to Thornfield. Jane begins to communicate to her uncle John Eyre.
     After returning to Thornfield, Jane broods over Mr. Rochester's impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. But on a midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. As she prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage-looking woman sneaks into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two. As with the previous mysterious events, Mr. Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of Grace Poole, one of his servants. During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is still married to Mr. Mason’s sister Bertha. Mr. Rochester admits this is true, but explains that his father tricked him into the marriage for her money. Once they were united, he discovered that she was rapidly descending into madness and eventually locked her away in Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse to look after her. When Grace gets drunk, his wife escapes, and causes the strange happenings at Thornfield. Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, and live as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves Thornfield in the middle of the night.
     Jane travels through England using the little money she had saved. She accidentally leaves her bundle of possessions on a coach and has to sleep on the moor, trying to trade her scarf and gloves for food. Exhausted, she makes her way to the home of Diana and Mary Rivers, but is turned away by the housekeeper. She faints on the doorstep, preparing for her death. St. John Rivers, Diana and Mary's brother and a clergyman, saves her. After she regains her health, St. John finds her a teaching position at a nearby charity school. Jane becomes good friends with the sisters, but St. John remains reserved.
   The sisters leave for governess jobs and St. John becomes closer with Jane. St. John discovers Jane's true identity, and astounds her by showing her a letter stating that her uncle John Eyre has died and left her his entire fortune of £20. When Jane questions him further, St. John reveals that John is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance, but have since resigned themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding her family, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins, and Diana and Mary come to Moor House to stay.
    Thinking she will make a suitable missionary's wife, St. John asks Jane to marry him and to go with him to India, not out of love, but out of duty. Jane initially accepts going to India, but rejects the marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as brother and sister. As soon as Jane's resolve against marriage to St. John begins to weaken, she mysteriously hears Mr. Rochester's voice calling her name. Jane then returns to Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Mr. Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with him, but he fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, Mr. Rochester again proposes and they are married. He eventually recovers enough sight to see their first-born son.

There you have it. Jane Eyre is one of the most romantic books of the era--do you get that from the synopsis? No, not at all. It is simply what happens and when. Very matter-of-fact. No thoughts; no emotion.

Now just so we are clear, everything I have said applies only to the one page synopsis. Longer synopses of the 3, 5 or more pages will be much more interesting, and 'meatier', if you will. These longer synopses are the should have some emotion and style to them, and will be used to sell your book. They will not only tell your story, but also portray the feel and atmosphere of your book. But this is not a problem, because you have more space to to it in. And trust me, once you master the one page synopsis, anything more just feels like gravy. :)

Well, I suppose I am done preaching. I hope some of this was helpful to a few of you out there, and for the rest of you, if you are still reading, consider this a pat on the back from me. *pat*pat*pat*  :)

RIP Partial Requests

Are partial requests a thing of the past?

I read several articles over the past few days that say yes. More and more agents are skipping over the partial request and going directly from query to full request when considering a manuscript for representation. The reason that the articles caught my eye in the first place was that I'd started to notice that very thing myself, and was wondering if it was simply a fluke or a real trend. I still spend a lot of time on QueryTracker.net reading comments, and more and more writers are reporting getting full requests from queries--which used to be practically unheard of. The initial reaction is, "Wow, they must have really loved my query!", but the truth may be simply that there is a new protocol emerging.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Back in the day, when we had to print and mail out all of our submissions through the post, of course we wouldn't want to pay to print and send an entire manuscript, only to have it rejected before the reader got past the first chapter. But now in the digital age, there is no difference between emailing a partial and a full.

It really could be a time saver for both the agent and the writer. If an agent likes a query, why not ask for the entire manuscript in advance? They will still start reading with the first three or so chapters(the partial), and if they don't like those, then  they can stop reading and send a rejection. However, if they do like it and want to see more, they no longer need to ask the writer and then wait for it to arrive, possibly finding tons of other things to do and new projects to work on in the meantime. It really would make the entire process faster.

It will also force writers to be on their game, and weed out those few who think it's okay to query when you haven't finished the book. How many times have you seen a querying writer say, "Agent X loves my partial and requested a full! I'm going to spend the next few weeks cleaning it up so I can send it!" No, folks. It should be clean. It should be spic-and-span and ready to go out before you send your first query. Asking for a full instead of a partial will help the agent separate the men from the boys, so to speak.

The one problem I do see writers having with this, is the fact that there will now be a substantial rise of form rejections on full manuscripts. Usually, a form can be expected on a partial, but for a full, writers expect some sort of critique from the agent. However, this expectation is based on the assumption that the manuscript was read from beginning to end, which now, many more will not be.

Honestly, problems aside, I think this 'query to full' procedure makes a lot of sense.

You? Any thoughts?

Researching Woes...

Too much researching. There is such a thing, and sadly, I am there. It has been frustrating me the last few days, and since my kids are 1 and 2yrs old, and are currently too busy fighting over a Cinderella doll to listen to my woes, I thought I'd pour them out to you all.

Since I am currently waiting on edits for both my books, I've decided in the meantime to work on a new project totally unrelated to my previous two. I love the idea, and have been hard at work researching as it is historical, and part of it involves a Native American tribe, the Shawnee.

Never heard of them? Probably not, and hence my woe. They are a fascinating race, however unlike the Cherokee, or the Iroquois, or the Navajo, they are not generally well known, and there is very little information out there about them. That in itself is frustrating, but what's worse is that the information that IS available contradicts itself at every turn! One book--written by a true Shawnee, mind you--says one thing, while a second book--also written by a Shawnee--says something completely different!

Who's right?

Honestly, they are probably both right. While there were major beliefs and practices that all Shawnee adhered to, lots of other things varied from village to village. Certain things like marriage, pregnancy, etc., may be handled in one way at one village, while those same things in other villages may have been handled in totally different ways.

Grumble, grumble, grumble...

Generalization is another problem. Think about what a person 200 years from now would say if asked about the custom of marriage in our time. That person would probably have to say that marriage was legally binding but casual, most marriages ending in divorce, with the majority of people being married more than once in their lifetime. Does that represent your life? Your marriage? Maybe not, but as a generality, sadly, it's correct. Imagine what a third grader in 2300 would write in his or her report about marriage in our time having read only that one sentence. Pretty bleak, no? So generalizations are usually inaccurate too.

Grumble, grumble, grumble...

Okay, so to recap, no one right answer, and beware the generalization.

Yeah sure, that's all well and good for a book report, but... oh, that's right, I'm writing fiction.

So what the hell am I supposed to do? How can I be sure I will get it right? After all, if you get it wrong, you are liable to offend someone. But what if there is no 'right'? How can there be 'wrong' if there is no 'right'?

Sigh.

I think, for me anyway, the answer for now is to jump off of the researching roller coaster and just write the story. I don't need to worry about details that I am not going to use, and I can't know which ones I will use until I write the story. Then I will go back, fact-check what I need to, and worry about inconstancy and generalization then.

Oh course, this is all easier said than done, as even as I write this I continue to worry and stress about it...

Anyone else have this issue? Any thoughts?

Horrible Advice Writers Hear All the Time - or - In which I May or May Not Rant

Advice: Once your work is on submission to agents/editors, work on your next book. That way, you won't obsess about your submission because you will be focused on your WIP.

Truth: This is a lie. NOTHING will EVER take your mind off your queries/submissions. Ever. Period. Just accept it. Yes, it can help to have distractions like other hobbies, or a new WIP. However, trying to dilute yourself into thinking you will somehow forget that there is someone out there who currently holds, not only your dreams, but potentially your entire future in their hands, and may or may not be deciding your fate right now at this very second, is not only impossible, it's ludicrous. Furthermore, the people who tell you that you should be able to 'distract' yourself are really doing nothing more than making your stress worse. It makes you think that something is wrong with you; as in , "Everyone else seems to be able to work on other things and not obsess, why can't I? Is something wrong with me? Maybe I'm not cut out for this." And that, my friends, is bullshit.

Querying/submitting will take over your mind. You will think about it countless times, every day. Embrace it. If you don't find yourself obsessing over the agents you query, and the publishers who have your work, going to their websites and looking up their stats, and 'about us' sections, and doing pointless searches on Google trying to find out how long it will take to hear back, even though you know that no matter what you find it won't make you feel any better, then YOU are the one who is not normal. The normal people spend most of their days wearing out the refresh button on their e-mail user face. In the world of the aspiring writer--that IS normal.

Advice: Show, Don't Tell

Truth: Now, before you point your fingers at me and screech blasphemer!, let me explain. Yes, 'show, don't tell' is excellent advice for many writers on many occasions. I have gotten many a comment bubble on my MS from my agent during revisions that said exactly that. However, too many writers lately have taken the phrase 'show, don't tell', and translated it to mean that 'telling' is this horrible, terrible thing that should never be done ever--which couldn't be less true. Tell is extremely important in writing. You can't possibly show every little thing that happens in a story, or your book would be the size of a cinder block. I recently read a story where there was a scene in which the main character was meeting her friend for coffee. The author described the MC's arrival at the coffee shop, getting in line, standing in line, looking at the menu, deciding what to order, arriving at the register, placing her order, taking the money out of her purse (I kid you not), paying for the order, walking over to pick up her drink, looking over the open tables, choosing a seat, and sitting down. THEN her friend arrived and the scene actually started. And no, there was no symbolism, or deeper meaning behind the process, and the book was filled with other pointless wordy descriptions that addend nothing to the story but word count. Instead of showing us everything, she could have said, "Mandy arrived at the corner coffee shop, ordered a caramel latte--her favorite--and took a seat by the window and waited for Sarah to arrive. There; in one sentence we've summed up what was literally three and a half pages of writing.

Some writers, like the above author, seem to believe that all you have to do is 'show' everything, and you will be good. What is rarely explained is that the idea of 'showing, not telling' usually applies more to emotional content, as in, 'don't tell me Sally loves Greg, show me', or 'don't tell me that brothers Matt and Bill have a tense relationship, show me.' Show me what should be seen, but it's okay to tell me the rest. A good book is about balance. Finding the right combination of showing AND telling that allowes your story to come to life.

Last, here is a little advice from me: Do what works for you.

If Nora Robbers, or JK Rowling, or Stephen King, or (insert wildly successful author here) gave you advice about writing, would you take it? Why? Because they are successful, or because it's good advice? What it it wasn't good advice, would you try to do it anyway? How many of you out there have tried to force yourselves to 'write everyday', because it's what everyone says you should do? What about social media, how many of you have joined sites you never would have simply because you 'should'?

Well I say to hell with that. I am taking a stand.

Twitter is one of the social media avenues I 'forced' myself to join, but now very much enjoy, and in the spirit of writers everywhere who are tired of being told what to do, I am starting the hashtag #DoWhatWorksForYou. I invite all of you and anyone else you would like to share it with to join me and stop taking crap from all the writing world's know-it-alls. I am sick of reading tweets where people do nothing but post their word count for the day (because come on, we all know you are just bragging, and want us all to say, 'wow, good job!' Well I say screw you!), or the people who say I need a 'special writing space', or that I should schedule my writing time and allow for to no interruptions (yeah, tell that to my kids' diapers!), or anything else that people 'in the know' say I need to do if I want to be 'successful'. I write on my couch, whenever I have time, sometimes not at all, can't write past 8 or 9 o'clock on most days because I am too tired, and that's what works for me. So there.

#DoWhatWorksForYou  Join the uprising.

*End Crabby Rant*

Inspiration Wall

In the style of Pintrest--which everyone seems to love, but I refuse to join, as I don't need any more excuses to waste time online--I have decided to introduce everyone to my new book with an inspiration wall. All of the following pictures inspired my story in one way or another. Some of them I found while planning, others I came across later, but they all represent some person, place, theme, or object from my new YA romantic fantasy; Emerald Awakening: A Black Iris Novel. I hope you enjoy!

Cliffs of Moher in Ireland

MC's brother

MC's father. Direct result of both Jane Eyre and X-Men First
Class coming out the month I was writing. :)

St. Brigid's Cross

Closest I could find to Alex: main guy.

As for my MC Becca, combine the following two pictures, make her 17, and you'll be pretty close to what I see in my head.

Note: I own none of these pictures, and they were found using Google images. Some of the people pictured are actors, some are models, and some are regular folks. All the images were marked as 'no permissions needed for use', and were available on multiple sites.

I have a confession to make...

I am in an abusive relationship with the first few chapters of my WIP right now. We don't understand each other and we are both fighting to have things our own way. Unfortunately, my characters have taken the story's side so I am left a bit outnumbered.

It shouldn't be this hard. I know exactly where the story is going, I know what is going to happen, and everything else that I need to know, except where to start. And that is only a problem because this is book two in a continuing series and I can't decide what or even if I should recap from the first book. Personally, I HATE when books do that, as I never need a recap, and it's impossible to throw little bits of recap into a story without it sounding forced. Or that is to say, I've never read one that wasn't forced sounding. I know that is a personal preference, but I am having a hard time writing something that I think sounds fake and forced, even if it is in fact the correct way to do it.

There is also the issue of having too much information. When I researched how much recapping to do, the general consensus was to tell the reader what they need to know if they didn't read the first book. Problem is, that is WAY too much information! I'm seriously considering going Vampire Academy style and writing a recap of everything important that happened in book one as a prologue. That may seem like the easy way out, but I am banging my head against the wall here, and I can't take yet another fight today:

Characters: You are not seriously going to make us say this stuff, are you?

Me: I have to.

Characters: No you don't, this is stupid. People don't talk this way. They don't discuss past events like a highlight reel.

Me: Just do it, please. It's the way it's supposed to be.

Characters: Nope, not going to happen.

Me: I am in charge here, and you'll do as I say!

Characters: Screw you. No.

Branding

As I'm sure you've noticed, there have been some changes around here. It's taken a while, but I love it, and hope you do too!

Still some things to finish up, but in the meantime, I wanted to talk about author branding. Branding, in its simplest terms, means identity. You can look at something and with no explanation, know what company/person/brand it belongs to.

It doesn't say Disney, yet simply because of how it looks, you know it is.

Now, Disney may be something of an extreme example as they are the grand masters of branding, but it works on a smaller scale too. In this day-and-age, the idea of branding is incredibly important for authors. Take Emily Giffin, author of Something Borrowed. All her books are styled exactly the same, each in a different color, and the colors on her website match those of her books. Obviously, in the grand scheme of things, it takes more than color matching to achieve a successful brand, but you get my point.

Where am I going with this?

I'm going to the countless hours of thought I've given this whole idea lately, and the realization that there is only so much you can do. I have been working hard to be consistent--blog, webpage, and twitter all now match--but as a yet unpublished author, there isn't much more I can do. I was bummed until I came across a picture today that helped put it all in perspective. Take a look back up at the top of this post. Everyone all over the world knows those guys--The Muppets. You could see a Muppet--even a brand new one like Walter from the most recent movie--and know immediately that he or she is a Henson Muppet. It's an internationally recognized brand worth millions of dollars. And yet, for all the success the brand has had since, it all started like this:

That is Mr. Jim Henson, with the original Kermit the Frog(and God knows who else), who now currently sits in The Smithsonian.

Moral of the story; branding doesn't happen overnight, and you can't force it. All you can do is your best, and make sure that branding and consistency are always in your thoughts as you continue to cultivate your career.

World Under Construction

World building sucks.

That's right, I said it. It's fantastic when done well, horrible when done anything but well, and doing it well is harder than a witch selling wrinkle cream. (It's Halloween, give me a break.)

World building can be as simple as adding a few elements into the real world that we are already familiar with, to creating an entirely new world from scratch. With my current WIP I find myself somewhere in the middle, and it really hard. Not coming up with the world itself, anyone can do that. The hard part is portraying it in a way that is true to what I envision, but also something that people would actually want to read. In my case--as it is with most major world building projects--it is for a series, and I am fast realizing that, not only is world building difficult enough on it's own, but it is also a plot killer. I've heard that for every paragraph of world building you add, you have to remove a paragraph of plot. Is that true? Can you have expansive world building and an involved and intricate plot?

Yes, of course... but not really.

I have always noticed that the first book in a series with a large amount of word building is always considerable shorter and simpler in plot then any of the books that follow. I had assumed that was due to the fact that publishers want first books--and in some cases multiple books--in a series to be able to stand on their own in case the sales aren't high enough to justify continuing publication of the series. However, only recently have I realized that that is only part of the reason. The other reason is that a good majority of that first book has to be devoted to world building, not leaving as much room for plot. Sure, you could have a huge information dump in the first chapter or two and lay out your entire world for the reader, then jump head first into the story--but I wouldn't recommend it. Not if you are looking for someone to sign/buy the book, anyway. Ideally, you want to spread your world building, and character building for that matter, out over the course of the book, weaving into your plot. With plot having to share the stage with your world and character creation, obviously, there won't be as much room in your first book for an involved plot, but if you are building your world in an interesting and engaging way, your readers won't care.

Look at the first Harry Potter. It is vastly simpler in over all plot compared to any of the following books, but you don't care because the wizarding universe that is being introduced is so interesting that it makes up for what might be lacking plot-wise.

The good news, is that once that first book is done and you move on to the subsequent books, you can dive straight into plot from chapter on, giving you more than enough time to create as involved a plot as you want. Don't get me wrong, world building should never stop entirely; your world should continue to expand and become more detailed as the series progresses, but after the first book, the major work should be done. Think about it, why do you think that writing fan fiction is so popular? Because it's easy! The hard part is done, and all you have to do is come up with a story! Lets say I go to write a Twilight fan fiction, do I have to introduce the charters? Do I have to set the scene, or build the world? No! All I have to say is Bella, or Alice, or Forks, or any other character, place, or idea from the series, and you immediately have in image in your mind that I did nothing to put there.

Having to be the one who puts the images there without boring or confusing the reader is the trick, and at the moment, it is kicking this writer's keister.

Anyone else?