BEDA, Day 3

I'm all distracted and busy and can't focus on making a coherent blog entry. I just want to laugh and cry and shake and sing. Hey look, I'm doing all four at once!

Wow, look how everyone's running away. Bye!

But today is day 3 of Blog Every Day in April (BEDA) so I had to put something down, right?

For the first time in a forever I fee like maybe, just maybe, I know what I'm doing. This is rare phenomenon in writers and thus deserves thorough documentation.

THINGS ARE WORKING, PEOPLE!

Like, my plot is flowing, my ideas make sense, I feel like I understand my character. I've done this before, and I can do it again. AND, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

(And I don't mean that my parents think I'm great. They do, God love them, but that's not what I'm talking about here. People unrelated to me in any way think I know what I'm doing. So it just might be true. On a side note, parents who think you are great are the best thing in life and if you have/had that, then you WIN.)

Off now to crank out a few more pages before my class deadline, then whooshing off to a big party tonight on a flower-decked patio overlooking the lights of Hollywood. (Ooh, how glamorous! There will even be fudgie oatmeal bars at this party, thanks to my friend Brian, so you know it's gonna be great. Oh, and cupcakes. And well, maybe some alcohol.)

Have a good Friday night!

Writing is Hard

It's day number two of Blog Every Day April! Once this blog is done I'll be two for two! Go, me!

So they tell you that writing is hard, that life as a writer is a hard life, blah blah blah. And you go, yeah, sure. I get it. What's the big deal? I write something out of my genius brain, people love it, it gets published and makes a lot of money. You'll see this attitude in folks everywhere. You know, the ones who don't write.

I can't tell you how often people have said something like, "Hey! I've got a great idea for a book/TV show/movie! I'll tell it to you and you can write it and we'll make lots of money!"

Uh, no.

"No really! It's the most fantastic-est idea ever! All you have to do is write it!"

Um, no. Thanks. But no.

"Okay, well, who in the industry can I sell this idea to? Just point the way and I'll go sell it and be rich, rich I tell you!"

It doesn't work like that. Get a clue.

Ideas are easy, people. Ideas are a dime a dozen. If writing them down is so damn easy, then go take your brilliant idea and write it and make your own million dollars. Leave me out of it.

Truth is - it's the writing that's hard. People can look at your book/script/poem/whatever and say - why don't you make your main character do X instead of Y? Add a lesbian scene. Add texture, add depth, add puppies and kittens and rainbows. They say this gaily, as if they know how amazing their ideas are and how grateful you are to hear them. Then they sail away, dusting off their hands in satisfaction. Problem solved!

Well, no. There's still this pesky thing called writing that has to happen. Writing is more than just jotting down ideas. It's more than characters, plot, texture, scenary, puppies, and kittens. It involves staring at a blank page, knowing that out of all the words in the English language, you have to pick the exact right words to convey all this depth, all this tension, all these rainbows and unicorns and dancing elves. You not only have to have the idea, you have to have the bricks, the mortar, and the know how to use them. You are architect, contractor, and home owner all in one. You have to entertain, enlighten, amuse. There's pacing, plotting, syntax, vocabulary, metaphor, theme and which breed of puppy to consider. The possibilities are infinite, and you have to pinpoint the perfect needle in the midst of that Milky Way sized haystack.

So writing is hard. After you're done writing, you then have to find someone who likes it enough to pay you for it. And that's just as hard as the writing. It's not for the faint-hearted. It's not for the egotistical. You will get beat down and discouraged. You will work long hours alone with no one to tell you how brilliant you are. You will be rejected, over and over again. You will scramble to find hours in the day to write, then when you do sit down, your mind will be blank. The muse will not come.

If you have to write anyway, do it. The world needs people of determination and character who can face these problems down and keep moving forward. But remember, it's no picnic. It's not even a dinner party. It's hard. Now get to work.

Favorite Poem

In honor of Poetry month, I post here what is probably my favorite poem. There are many others that come close, but I always come back to Fern Hill by the late great Dylan Thomas.

FERN HILL

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Blog Every Day April

YA author Maureen Johnson has declared this month to be Blog Every Day April (BEDA - on Twitter search #BEDA). So in addition to it being Poetry Month, it's apparently blogging month.

Any other writing demands you got, folks???

I'm in the last week of my class, trying to churn out pages, and now I'm supposed to blog every day and write a poem every day too? Can you, ya know, spread this shit out a little for me?

Yet lo, see how I have blogged today, April 1? Perhaps I shall be able to do this BEDA thing.

Perhaps not. No promises.

In the spirit of all this, here's a stab at a poem for today.

Running down Hollywood Boulevard at sunset

Plane contrail a white arrow in dusty blue sky
backlit palms
Elvis and Marilyn arm in arm
three musicians, pierced, blue hair, use the crosswalk
carrying a guitar, a trumpet, and a bass.
A woman tends white roses in the Wattles gardens
while rats rustle in drifts of leaves
beneath the avocado trees.

Breath comes hard, I limp
past an open case of beer on the sidewalk
and stop. Inside, bottles beer.
A few feet away a dog owner
has neglected to pick up after an elephant dog.

No one but me
and the old Russian ladies
leaning on each other down the block.

Sweat trickles down my back. A sign
on the telephone pole reads only:
Young Man in need of Living Situation.
All the phone numbers have been torn off.

I feel the beer.
It's cold.
But I run on.

April - a Poem a Day

Robert Lee Brewer at the Writer's Digest blog Poetic Asides in once again having is Poem a Day in April challenge.

For those that are poetically inclined, it's a great way to get those creative bats fluttering. Robert posts a prompt every day, you write a poem and put it in the comments section of his blog, and he picks his favorites.

I tried this last April and it was a complete mixed bag. My chocolate chip cookie poem got picked as a favorite, but some of my efforts were so awful that I ended up deleting them from this blog. Never to be read again!

I won't have the time to do it again this April, (too much else to do!) but I do think I'll check out the prompts and try my hand once or twice along the way. If anything I churn out is slightly palatable, I'll post it here.

If you take the challenge, let me know! And good luck!

Outlining

Thanks to a member of my writing class, I found a very useful post on Deadline Dames about outlining here.

If you've never tried outlining, I can't recommend it highly enough. The post on Deadline Dames shows a couple of fairly simple, straightforward ways to do it. One uses a fave of mine The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler to get things going.

Whenever my writing bogs down and I feel like I'm trudging through sludge to get something on paper, it's almost always because I have no idea where I'm going or why this scene exists. The answer is - outline! Every scene in the outline has a purpose, and knowing that purpose makes it ten times easier to write the scene.

Things will change as you write. You'll come up with ideas that never occured to you before, or see that things should go together differently. That's fine. The outline is not set in stone. I often reoutline, or jot notes in my old outline to indicate changes. It won't squash your inspiration - it'll foster it.

Busy Week!

Went out a lot this week, date-y things, friend-y things, civic duty things. And then there's all that working out and washing my hair and giving medicine to my ancient cat. I thought about bringing my laptop to jury duty but have a horror of schlepping things around. Plus it gave me an excuse to keep reading YA book WAKE by Lisa McMann, which is excellent, by the way!

All of which means I only have four new pages of writing so far. My class deadline (only two more to go!) to submit up to 15 pages is Saturday at 9am (realistically, that means by the end of the evening on Friday because I sleep in on the weekends, babe). I can submit less, but my teacher, Jill Santopolo (children's author and editor at Balzer & Bray), is fabulous, and I want to maximize my use of her talents by getting as much feedback as possible.

So let's be real: no way am I going to churn out 11 pages by the end of the day today. I might be able to generate 5 or 6 - if today is a good day So I'll have maybe 10 or 11 pages for Jill and the other class members to rip into. Sigh. Then just one more week of feedback before I'm on my own again.

Well, not quite. I have good friends who are talented writers who give me their feedback if I do the same for them. Halleluyah! But it's weird how I have this compulsion to squeeze every last drop of feedback out of Jill before she slips away. I guess it's just a sign of how valuable her comments are!

Busy weeks happen. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't write more, but at least I wrote something!

Think Big, Write it Down

Writing is useful in so many ways. I just read a post on The Art of Nonconformity about writing a Big Life List.

I've done variations of this and found it to be very useful. I wrote a list of writing goals here in this blog at the beginning of the year, and am on my way to achieving them - I hope!

The other day I found a list of life goals I'd written many years ago. I'd put it away in an obscure place and came upon it. And guess what? I'd achieved the majority of the goals I'd written there! And that happened without looking at the list after I'd written it. I think writing it down makes it more concrete, lays it down in your synapses somehow, so that you take in the goal unconsciously and start moving toward it.

It may be time for me to form another list of Big Life goals. Maybe it's time for you as well? Check out the links above to see ways to help yourself. Take your time, be concrete, think beyond adventure goals (climb Mt. Everest), and consider publishing the list somewhere. All these things can help you have a life that's more fulfilling as you go through it.

Anyone But Tom Bombadil

Author Neil Gaiman sat down with Stephen Colbert on his show last night to discuss his lovely Newberry Medal-winning novel The Graveyard Book. (Read it now! I loved it.) The interview below reveals the theme of the book and that Neil loves Tolkein but hates Tom Bombadil.

Because I follow Neil on Twitter, I've learned that they cut out 40 second of the interview, where Neil said his favorite Tolkein character was Gandalf, and Colbert said his favorite was Faramir. Enjoy!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Neil Gaiman

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Mark Sanford
NASA Name Contest

Indulging my Inner Archaeologist...

They are opening up the chambers in the Bent Pyramid in Saqqara! Check out the announcement here.

I did make it into the pyramid of Menkaure when I went to Egypt in 2003. You had to crouch and walk, maintaining that crouch, down a steep incline, clinging to the right hand wall, while people coming out climbed up past you on the left. As you descended, it got dark and sticky and hot. The stone above your head bulged downward. You became accutely aware of the tons of stone piled on top of you. Many people turned around and got the hell out of there after a few moments. Those tomb robbers could not have suffered from claustrophobia at all.

Now I have to go back to Egypt. And maybe write something about exploring underground tunnels beneath a bent pyramid, the tons of stone weighing down from above...

Writing with a Cold

I've been under the weather for about three days now. Hopefully today is the big finish and I'll start getting better. But it did make me (blearily) wonder - how do people write to deadline if they get sick?

I had a brief burst of energy last night and did manage to write two pages. Now I'm afraid to go back and see what I wrote. But I do figure it's better to get something down, almost anything, rather than leave the page blank. Rewriting is a certainty as it is, and you might as well give yourself more to rewrite, right?

We'll see if I have enough energy to crank out two more pages tonight. So far, no. Just typing out this blog entry is making me want to go lie down. So I'm going to lie down.

But all you writers out there, who write sick, on deadline or not - hang in there. Keep writing.

The Grace of Surprise

Okay, this really has nothing to do with writing, but I found the video clip below and am just in awe. In it, a basketball player Chris Paul dribbles the ball through rival team member Jason Perry's legs at lightning speed. It's so fast you can barely see it.



Never thought you'd see a sports clip on this blog, did you? Thank goodness for slo mo and replays. The pass to his teammate who makes the dunk afterwards is almost as spectacular. I could watch this kind of graceful athleticism for hours. It shows the benefits of hours of practice, natural talent, and determination. Writers take note!

(As a tall chick, I also like seeing really tall people show the world that just because we're tall doesn't mean we're clumsy.)

Ten Commandments for Happy Writers

Check out agent Nathan Bransford's post today about the Ten Commandments for Happy Writing.

He's pretty much nailed it.

The Impossible Dream

I haven't seen the Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire yet, but I saw a montage from the film that just floored me, and inspired me.

Getting published. Making a living writing. Impossible dreams, right? Well, take a look at the clip below of Philip Petit, the man who walked on a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. It's a lesson in how to make your impossible dreams come true.

At one point, Petit says, "I thought, okay, this is impossible. Now let's get to work."

Social Networking Etiquette - Agents

So you want to friend an agent on Facebook, or follow your dream agent on Twitter? There are some rules, baby.

Check in out here, on the Literary Agents blog.

I'm now on Twitter. Please forgive me.

At the urging of my evil friend Elisa, I joined Twitter today, and you can follow me @ Ninaberry if for some god-forsaken reason you're on Twitter too.

My excuse? I'm trying to see it as a writing exercise.

Okay, so... yeah. It's a narcissitic writing exercise. For those of you not up on the latest web insanity, Twitter is a site where people just post updates on themselves all day. Unless they block you, you can follow the updates of folks like John Cleese and Neil Gaiman (two of my faves!) and even send them messages. Along the way, you can post your own updates and get your own followers. There's a central feed where every single one of the kajillions of updates is listed as they are added.

Even just this one day of experience has shown me how valuable writing talent is when it comes to Twitter. Would you rather read witticisms from Stephen Colbert or learn that your Aunt just bought some Cortaid? Exactly. That's why Colbert has thousands of followers and your Aunt just has your obligated ass following her.

So I'm going to TRY not to bore all four (!) of my followers with dull updates. This is a challenge since my life is not all that exciting. So I must find ways to make my plodding life and dull observations sparkle and shine. This is a writer's lot, to find the universal, the funny, the beautiful, the truthful in the things and people around them.

It's not easy! But that's my excuse for joining Twitter. Later on no doubt I'll descend into narcissitic madness. Stay tuned!

Oscar Nominated Screeplay Podcast

Deceptive title for this post, ey? My friends Brian Pope and Mike Musa star this week in Pilar Allessandra's latest ON THE PAGE's podcast #76 - "Oscar Talk." You can check it out here or on ITunes - just search for On The Page.

Brian and Mike are funny and smart, and sometimes they're even right! The podcast is a lighthearted and informative. As a writer, I often try to figure out what makes a movie great, and how much the screenplay has to do with it. Of course, if the screenplay is awful, the movie won't be much good. But can a movie be great when the script is just okay? Can a truly great script lift an otherwise adequate movie to greatness? Which of the nominated films has the best screenplay and why?

I live and work in Hollywood, so the Oscars are a big deal around here. They arouse much passionate discussion. Personally, I enjoy the hullabaloo and the excuse to talk about movies, but rarely do I agree with the choices the Academy members make.

You have to remember that the Oscars are first and foremost a marketing tool for Hollywood. On Oscar is not like the hand of God reaching down to pick the best movie. It's a bunch of industry folks with their own weird takes on the people and movies involved.

Fortunately, Pilar, Brian, and Mike know movies, but they also know the truth about the Oscars. If you care about writing or movies, they are definitely worth a listen.

Exposition Central

Conveying vast quantities of exposition is fricking hard in a novel! I have a ton of info to convey on the world, the organizations in it, the people within them, their titles, names, hierarchies, conflicts - oy! I managed to hint at a lot of this in the early, action oriented scenes, but there's only so much of this stuff you can show.

And we all know showing is infinitely better than telling.

So what am I doing now?

Telling.

One character is telling stuff to another. It's logical that he would do this. But I just know that I'll need to change some of it later. This is where I have to force myself to just power onward, rather than stopping to make it perfect now. I can lose a lot of momentum worrying about things like this, and right now I need to just crank out pages, imperfect though they may be.

But exposition's a bitch, baby. Hopefully later I'll make it MY bitch.

busy busy busy

Write write, read read, edit, comment, read, write write.

Blog.

Write write write. Read, edit, comment. Write write write...

A Writer's Credo

Agent Michael Stearns has an effing brilliant quote from Raymond Carver on his blog As the World Stearns, which clearly gives a writer's credo. Check it out here, and be reminded of what it is to be a writer.

25 Random Things

There's a viral note going around Facebook that asks you to write down 25 random things about yourself. Then you tag 25 of your friends and they write down 25 random things about themselves and tag their friends. And so on. Of course, most people don't do it, but I did. And I think it could be turned into a writing exercise of sorts. How do you convey your personality in this list? How can you be creative? Maybe we should make these random lists about the characters in our novels and screenplays? Herewith, my list:

25 Random Things About Me

1. I love random things. I score very high on the random side of random vs. sequential.
2. I am a cat and dog person. I even think opossums are cute.
3. I have an extra vertebra.
4. By the time I get to the last stanza of "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, I'm all choked up.
5. I get choked up easily.
6. I feel happiest and most at home in the waves at Bellows Beach, Oahu.
7. When I'm irritable, I get clumsy.
8. I keep snacks on hand so my blood sugar doesn't drop and I don't get irritable and clumsy.
9. My favorite movie is "The Searchers."
10. I think hot tubs, illegal drugs, and Girl Scout cookies are overrated.
11. Single malt scotch is my favorite alcoholic drink, but it takes me about two years to get through a bottle.
12. I love stationery stores. All that blank paper gives me a weird happy high.
13. I often get impatient reading "great" books, so of course I was an English major.
14. But Shakespeare is my favorite writer. After him it's probably David Simon of "The Wire."
15. I once disproved Einstein's Theory of Relativity, using a sneaky Socratic method.
16. I think Socrates was full of it.
17. I once fooled a Frenchman into thinking I was French.
18. Best food I ever had was in Bologna, Italy.
19. My dentist stories are worse than yours.
20. I've worn the ring my mother gave me on the same finger since high school.
21. I'm starting to feel self conscious about writing this list. Am I revealing horrible overly narcissistic tendancies to the world?
22. I like to howl at the moon.
23. For a long time I wanted to be an Egyptolgist.
24. I can count to 29 in Turkish. If I knew the Turkish word for "thirty" I could get up to 39.
25. Currently, my favorite word is "pulchritudinous."

100 poems for 100 days

If you have any poetry in your soul, check out this site.

An Excellent Waste of Time

Was mooching around YA Author Eileen Cook's blog like the passive aggressive lurker that I am, and saw her recommendation of this site as a top-notch time waster. I checked it out and agreed so wholeheartedly, I'm passing it on to the eight people who occasionally waste time on this site!

It's called Passive Aggressive Notes. And it will remind you of all the wonderfully horrible things people do, and the hilarious notes we leave to tell them to just stop it already. I copied one, which you can see above, but that's just the beginning of the panty-raid story! Also, take note of the misspelled "steeling" with the second "e" changed to an "a" post printing. At least we know the panties aren't made of steel. Imagine the chafing!

Side note: is there a sillier word in English that "panties"? If you can think of one, post it in the comments.

Red, White, and Blue Day

I'm so proud of our country. We take for granted this peaceful transfer of power, I think, forgetting how revolutionary it still is.

It's an amazing day. I wish I could be there with the two million who witnessed the inauguration of Barack Obama, but I feel as if we are all there in spirit today. The thing with feathers is fluttering in my heart once more, and I'm a bit verklempt. It makes me realize how difficult these past eight years have been. I've been holding my breath, braced for more horror from my own government. Now, I hope, I can breathe a bit freer. And so will the rest of the world.

Writing Advice from the Master - Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon, writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, the upcoming Dollhouse, and notoriously brilliant rewriter of just about any major screenplay you enjoyed (I'm looking at YOU, Iron Man) has written his Top Ten Tips for Screenwriting.

Pay attention. Even if you're writing a book instead of movie, most of this applies to you. Pay particular attention to Tip #1. It's a doozy.

Start that Story

There are so many ways to begin. I'm starting something, and I approach it from mutiple angles, but here are a few things to zero in on:

What is the conflict? Conflict equals drama. Drama equals story you really want to keep reading (or watching.) Pile on the conflict in every scene. But figure out what the main conflict is. Are the Nazis butting heads with Indiana Jones to get the Arc of the Covenant? Voila, conflict.

Who is the protagonist? Who is the antogonist? Be sure to have one of the first, and at least one (if not more) of the second. In more literary efforts, the antogonist can sometimes be an internal struggle, an alcoholic tries to stop drinking, so their disease is the antogonist - that sort of thing. Or make your villain the Nazis. They're always good antogonists.

What does your protagonist want more than anything? This is a biggie and needs to be something vital, preferably life or death. Or at least your protag thinks it's life or death.

What does your protagonist need more than anything? They learn that they need something different than they ever dreamed. Like, the unpopular girl who just wants to be invisible in high school who gets the lead in South Pacific and learns to that she's got talent, and it's okay to be noticed. See how what she wants (to be invisible) is diametrically opposed to what she really needs?

Sometimes I lose sight of these central questions when I'm figuring out characters, day-dreaming up some cool scenes, or building my imaginary world. But if you can figure out the answers to these questions, your story will have heart and meat.

Writing Goals for 2009

2008 was the Year of Writing, so 2009 will be... the Year of More Writing. Can't wait!

I don't technically do resolutions, but I do have goals for this year. Maybe we can check in at the end of the year and see what happened. The goals are:

1. Write another novel for teens. (Completely different and separate from the one I wrote last year.)

2. Write two more TV spec scripts. Finish the first one by April, the second by July. Start another spec TV or spec feature during the remainder of the year.

3. Get a book agent.

4. Get a TV agent.

5. Do at least three writing exercises a week.

6. Write two short stories.

7. Write in my journal at least once a week.

8. Write at least three poems.

9. Eat more cheesecake.

What? That's related to writing... in a way.

January - Month of Writing Advice

YA/fantasy writer Justine Larbalestier has deemed January to be Writing Advice month in her fabulous blog. Take a look if you're in need of writing advice of any stripe.

I'm only up to the "How to Get Unstuck" post, but so far it's all so right on the money.

My own thought on how to get unstuck when you're plot seems dead comes from screenwriting. Take a break, then come back and write down any and all thoughts for scenes for your book/story on separate notecards. As Justine says - have two characters that don't meet in the story meet somehow, throw in some explosions, whatever. It's all allowed. You'll be amazed at how this starts to trigger other, more logical ideas for scenes or connections in your story. Try to figure out how to get from the scene on Card Y to the scene on Card Z. This will lead to a flurry of other ideas. Not all the cards and ideas will be appropriate for your story in the end, but I bet you some of them will be great.

New Year's resolutions - 2009

1. Broker peace in the Middle East.

I should be able to find the time in between yoga and giving my cat his meds.

2. Stop Global Warming

I've already begun the work by having my heater break repeatedly.

3. Put Hubble #2 into space.

The original took some of the greatest and most intriguing photos ever. We can't just let it die! Hubble #2 will continue to gaze upon the vast reaches of space. Perhaps we'll finally get a shot of that most elusive phenomenon - Santa.

4. Write the Great American Novel and the Great American Screenplay.

After work and during lunch breaks. It's that easy, right?

5. Find every homeless cat and dog a home.

I don't think my neighbors have a pet. I'll start with them.

6. Prove that Einstein's Theory of Relativity is wrong.

What does the speed of light have to do with energy and mass? Seems kind of random to me.

7. Buy a home.

With no money down during the worst real estate crises ever. No sweat.

8. Never be angry or cranky with anyone ever again.

I'm already so close to perfection. Surely this year I'll finally achieve it.

Looking Back at 2008 - The Year of Writing

A self indulgent look back...

January - I had a car accident (his fault, not mine!). My first YA novel began to take shape. My faithful friends and fellow Wire groupies gathered to watch at my house as the best television series ever wound to a fabulous finish. "There Will Be Blood" shook me up, and I took a friend to Disneyland. I began another year of gaming with a group of like minded geeks. Yes, I game. So sue me for having an imagination.

February - my novel's plot got clearer. I planned my trip to Europe with my friend Wendy. Our pick - Prague and Budapest in October. The flu laid me low, and I finally got the car fixed. I passed the time with a couple of very nice gentlemen.

March - more writing! Took a screenwriting class from my fabulous friend Pilar, applying the ideas generated there to my novel. I really got under the skin of my main character. My critique group gave great feedback. I underwent extensive dental hell, but it all ended up costing less than I thought. Phew! The schmoozing reached unprecedented levels at various writing and media-folks gatherings.

April brought the beginning of my 12-week YA novel writing class. I refined my plot drastically, rewrote chapter one three times, and finally started to feel good about it. I endured a root canal and rewarded myself with wine tastings, good company, and watching friends perform in front of appreciative audiences.

For May, my calendar has "WRITE!" written in nearly every day of the month. And I did. I churned out pages and got great feedback from my class, which gave me incentive to keep going. May 8, I scribbled: "rewriting like a maniac" in my worst handwriting. Along the way I had a few rum drinks at the Tonga Hut.

June brought the final chapters of my novel, which I managed to churn out in spite of five fabulous days spent in Hawaii not writing. I reconnected with some of my closest friends and acted like I was 16 all over again.

In July I finished my writing class and the first draft of my novel. Hurray! I fell for "The Dark Knight," and attended the SCBWI (Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators) conference in Los Angeles, where there was much schmoozing, attending of lectures, and writing.

In August I stepped back from my manuscript for a few weeks, supposedly to give myself perspective. But mostly I was lazy and hated my writing and figured I was doomed. My lovely mother came to visit and the latest dentist appointment revealed that I now have fabulously healthy teeth. I spoke on a panel at work about working as a creative exec assistant in Hollywood.

September brought me back to my book, and I rewrote and tightened and honed and felt the love again. I put together a website with help from a fabulous friend. Okay - so I have nothing to sell yet, but what the hey! My friend Diane visited and completed a triathlon - yay! I played poker at work, and started sending out queries. My bathroom flooded, and I hit a few Tiki bars because life is short.

From here on, I can't really discuss the query/agenting process, but let's just say so far so good. In October I ventured to Prague and Budapest with Wendy at marveled at how those countries are recovering from Communism. The men in Prague? Gorgeous! A Polish man told me that Hungarians are more passionate. Duly noted. I made notes in case I need to use those locations in a novel.

In November I rewrote a spec TV pilot I'd begun last year, and it actually got a lot better. Hey! Maybe I am learning something along the way. There was much feasting on turkey with loved ones, holding of newborn babies, and listening to live music.

December - I finished the rewrite on the TV pilot, and the beginnings of a new novel begin to appear in my brain. I start to jot stuff down - and signed up for another class, to begin in January.

So yes, I wrote more in 2008 than I ever have before, and I had my share of heartbreak, frustration and fun along the way. And I plan to write even more in 2009. The more I write, the more likely it is that something concrete will come of it, right?

I hope your 2008 was even more productive, satisfying, and delightful. Here's to a creative, adventurous, fearless 2009!

The Racoons - All Grown Up!

The little bandits aren't so little anymore!

Back in May I posted photos of five baby raccoons and their mother here, ignoring the advice of friends and family scared for my safety to venture outside to take those shots. The masked critters did not swarm me, but instead crunched in perfect concert on the dry cat food I'd left out for Miss Kitty.

Now it appears Mom has gone elsewhere, and the babies are now grown - but still together, like a furry Brady Bunch trapped in a variety show after the sitcom has died. They're bigger, they're badder, and they still all crunch in concert.

It's Hard to Type When You're Cold

And there's no heat in your apartment, so the cats have draped themselves over your lap and arms, and the laptop is your only source of warmth.

I'm just saying.

How Do I F*%&ing Start This Thing?

Is there a proper way to begin a novel?

Can you just sit down and write the thing? Some people claim to do this. They sit down with no outline, no character sketches, no idea of where there story is going, and they just write until its done. A few revisions, and - voila!

I'd hate them if I didn't think they were lying.

They may not have a laboriously worked out an outline, a calendar of events, and collected photos torn from magazines that remind them of the characters in their heads, but they fricking have more than a vague idea! It's been percolating in their brains for weeks/months/years, and by gum, they do so have an idea of where it's headed!

And the real, evil, fabulous truth? Most of them do LOTS of revising.

Don't get me wrong. Unless you're Aaron Sorkin, all writers do lots of revising. But those who do not outline/blah blah blah do LOTS of revising. (And Aaron Sorkin perpetrated Studio 60 on us, so maybe he should look into this revision thing.)

So I advocate starting with a plan of some kind. You may not have all 8 acts or follow the Joseph Campbell hero's journey, or whatever. But figure out who wants what and where they end up with it first. It'll save you grief later.

That said, I wrote the first three pages of a novel over the weekend without a completely worked out outline. It was fun! But I have been working on the character, my world's mythology, and have a vague outline of the story in my head. I just skipped ahead a bit to remind myself of the fun to come so I can finish outlining with a lighter heart.

How to Write the First Book in a Series

Want to write the first book in a fantasy series that will sell and keep the readers hooked? Tune in tomorrow for the live internet chat with several writers who have done it. Check out Fangs, Fur, and Fey's podcast/livecast here. Successful fantasy series writers like Jenna Black and Rachel Vincent will share their secrets.

Writers are strange; humans are strange

Great post by the author of YA novel Graceline, Kristin Cashore over at her blog This is My Secret, all about her writing process and the insanity that goes with it.

If you're a writer, check it out. You'll realize you're not alone in worrying, obsessing, procrastinating, and thinking your writing sucks. There's comfort in knowing you're not alone.

Vampires: Target Women

As Twilight-mania continues to dominate the world of YA fiction and mainstream movies, I continue to struggle with the amazing appeal of these storeis.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for vampires and fantasy stories and hot romantic this-and-that. But the girl in Twilight is just so passive, so uninteresting, so unable to think and act for herself that she bugs the heck out of me. The male lead is described over and over again as "perfect," until I felt all "she doth protest too much"-y.

But who cares what I think? Teens sure don't. They're sucking down the books and swooning at the movie. Heck, a lot of middle-aged women are swooning too, and probably breaking their hips when they fall.

To help us understand this phenomenon comes the hilariously gifted video reporter Sarah Haskins from Target: Women at Current. Check out her funny and slightly disturbing investigation below:

Don't Write the Sequel Until They Pay You

Here's some good fundamental advice I got from a published author. I was wondering how best to spend my writing time now.

Should I plunge into an outline for the sequel to the book I just finished? Or should I launch into something totally new. The argument for the sequel, in my head, went something like: well, once they buy the first one, I want to be ready to go with the second!

This, of course, assumes someone will actually buy the first one. Blah blah blah, assume makes an ass out of, well, me, mostly.

So don't plot or plan or write your sequel until someone buys the first book. Yes, I do have a strong idea of where the story should go. I figured that out before I wrote the first book. But it could very well be a big fat waste of time if I spent more time on that storyline if no one else likes it the way I do.

So I'm doing research and making up stuff for another book, and I'm in that happy stage where the world is jampacked with possibilities and I can do whatever I want with anyone and everything in the world. Structure and limitations come later.

I'm thankful for...

My wonderful, supportive family and friends.

My health.

My job.

That I've got the time, energy, and wherewithal to write.

Writers like Harper Lee, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Dave Simon, and George R.R. Martin.

That fragrant pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting I just ate.

The warm, friendly waves at Bellows Beach.

The Advil I just took to counteract the sugar headache from the pumpkin cupcake.

Dictionaries, thesauri, Google, wikipedia, my DSL connection.

Whoever designed my favorite underwear.

How a newborn baby feels when you hold him.

Ink on paper.

Dreams. Hope. Excitement. Laughing till I squeak.

A fat yellow full moon hovering over the Hollywood Hills.

My cat Lucy asleep with her legs in the air.

The smell of orange blossoms.

Plumbing that works.

My other cat Max insisting on lying on top of me.

Charlotte's Web, the Chronicles of Narnia, Half Magic, and all the other books I loved as a child.

Emily Dickinson, John Ford, Van Gogh, Nefertiti's sculptor, the Cave at Chauvet.

Having a wonderful place to go on Thanksgiving filled with people I love and the smell of turkey and pie.

Just Keep Writing, Just Keep Writing...

There's a character is Finding Nemo named Dory who is terribly upbeat and goofy, and one the little mantras she sings is "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

I've been feeling a bit low and sorry for myself and disappointed in some stuff. Some of the waiting is over, and I didn't hear what I wanted to hear.

So, after some wallowing, I go back to the mantra - Just Keep Writing. Thank goodness I have supportive friends, some of them fellow writers, some of them not, who tell me that I'm not insane, not to give up, and to get off my ass and keep writing.

So I'm brainstorming some new ideas and having a blast. Nothing like creating a whole new world to make you feel empowered, at least in your own imagination.

Put It Out There

Why is it so hard for me to show people my writing? That's what I want to do for a living (eventually, fingers crossed, if I'm lucky), right?

But some part of me magically wants to make that living writing cool stuff that no one will ever see. Because then no one can ever judge me and find me lacking, silly, or pointless.

Conversely, I find it super frustrating to write continuously in a vacuum, with no reward coming from all the effort.

Jeez, I'm a pain in the ass. I feel like kicking my own butt all over the planet.

But these are the contradictory feelings that I'm always battling - I suck. No I'm great. Why does no one realize how fabulous I am and pay me for it? Why would anyone pay me to do anything?

I suppose there's a middle way, and the truth lies somewhere in there. In the meantime, I'm going to keep pushing back the fear and darkness and try to put it out there, let people see my stuff, and see what happens. It's terrifying, man! But life is short, and other cliches. Just because you broke your leg last time you jumped doesn't mean this one will go badly. Just triple check your parachute.

Why Does this Feel Appropriate?

From The Onion:

Cancer June 22 - July 22
While it's true that the universe works in mysterious ways, it's becoming pretty clear what it has against you.

The Hardest Part

Remember that Tom Petty song, The Waiting? The lyrics say it all: "You take it on faith/You take it to the heart/The waiting is the hardest part."

I can't be specific about what I'm waiting for. It's just not politic. But waiting is part of what you have to do as a writer, and it just fricking sucks. So much about being a writer sucks! It's really hard, man. Don't do it unless you can't help yourself.

Write or Die

Found a cool widget/website at Write or Die/Dr. Wicked that will help you get words on the page.

Check it out here - put in your word count and the time you allocate for yourself to achieve that goal, click, and start to write. The widget will keep track of your time, word count, and even help you paste what you wrote to the clipboard to save it.

I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, but this would be very handy for any NaNo-ers out there trying to meet their word count goals every day.

Or consider this NaNoWriMo calculator to help you stay on track:

1667

Photos

I finally downloaded my photos of Prague and Budapest. You can see them all at my Flickr site, here.



That's me in front of the John Lennon wall in Prague. Back in the communist days, students started graffiti-ing a tribute to Lennon on a wall in the Castle district of Prague. Despite crackdowns and white washing by both communist and the current regimes, new graffiti continues to appear. I added: "All You Need is Love."



Here I am overlooking Budapest. I'm in a very cool series of towers and walkways in the Buda section of town, overlooking the Danube and Pest on the eastern shore.

Travel is such a privilege. I'm so grateful that I get to galavant all over creation, taking photos and soaking it all in. It's wonderful to be surprised, and every new place I go surprises me in some way, beyond anything the guidebooks could ever tell me. It keeps me humble, widens my viewpoint, and makes me appreciate coming home. If you can get away to another country - go! The flights are hell, the lack of sleep is daunting, and you get sick of looking at a map every time you want to go somewhere. But in return you get to see the world from a different perspective, like a shaft of sunlight hitting the world at an angle you've never seen before. It's revelatory. And it's damned fun.

Yes We Can

Jet Lag = Early Voting

Thanks to jet lag, I awoke at 6am today. So what the hell - I got up, got ready for work, and walked to my polling place at Gardner Elementary School in Hollywood. I'm not a morning person, so I've always voted after work. But today, with an historic, exciting election in the offing, plus jet lag from my trip to Europe, I broke with precedent and actually GOT IN LINE to vote.

I've never had to wait more than two minutes to vote. But today, with a possible victory for a Hawaiian-born black man, I had to wait a whole 30 minutes. It was worth every second.

I love voting on Election Day. I'm all for early voting, absentee voting, or voting by telepathy if that were possible. Anything that makes voting easy and available to all is fabulous. But for myself I love doing it on the official day, stepping up to that rickety little voting "booth" (really more of plastic mini-cubicle at my polling place) and using that short squat inky pen-thingie to mark my choices. Folks around me in the other wobbly cubicles were taking their time marking up their ballots.

I trucked through - click click click, and looked up, blinking. Was I really done? I made way for the next voter and handed my ballot to the wild-haired elderly Russian-American man waiting for me next to the crouched machine that ate it up and belched somehow to show him all was well. He handed me my "I Voted" sticker and a felt a swell of silly pride - in myself, and justified pride - in my country, where power changes hands peacefully at the command of the people.

Voting rocks. It's like telling, for a brief moment, the story of our country, the narrative of your state, the tale of your city.

Empty shoes - Budapest

Another great shot by Wendy. This time we're in Budapest, and the shoes are a memorial to the victims of the Nazis who were executed as they stood along the river Danube. They were forced to take off their shoes before they were shot and fell into the river.

Who were the people who once stood in these shoes? As a writer, my head spins with the possible stories that lead the people to this spot and this horrible fate. How many fascinating stories will never be lived or told because people weren't allowed to live their lives in peace.

Me at the Lennon Wall - Prague

Taken by my lovely travel companion, Wendy. This is a wall in Prague where, during the days of communism, young people would graffiti images of John Lennon. He inspired them. The tradition continues to this day, even though the government routinely white washes the wall. It only provides more room for new folks (like me) to add their own tributes to Lennon.

Interesting how popular art like this can be so moving, so inspirational. I not only had to add my phrase, I wanted immediately to listen to Lennon's music and start lobbying for peace.

Prague and Budapest

Checking in very quickly from Budapest thanks to the internet! I'll post pics once I get back, but here are my quick impressions:

Prague: Sumptuous and hard.

Budapest: Grand and melancholy.

More details to come.

One way to read to children...

Free Expert Advice

Interested in a longerm career as a novelist? Check out a free 268-page book by big time agent Donald Maas called The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success, which you'll find at Writer Unboxed.

It takes awhile to load, but it's chock full of real life advice from a top agent who knows what he's talking about.

Research

Did you know, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria let go of 14,000 employees in its secret police? At the same time, it stopped paying all the wrestlers, boxers, and weight lifters it had on the payroll. Yeah, they paid hundreds of athletes so they could dominate certain sports in the Olympics. But after the Iron Curtain fell, all those jobs went away.

What happens when thousands of secret police and hundreds of major league athletes are suddenly unemployed?

Crime. Beware unemployed young men with training in weaponry, strong arming, and criminal contacts. The Bulgarian wrestlers were soon tops in the Europe's largest car theft ring, moving stolen vehicles from countries like Germany to the Balkans and Easter Europe. Former members of the secret police used their extensive networking contacts to form multi-national organized crime syndicates that moved arms, drugs, cigarettes, and women for sale all over the world.

This is the sort of thing I'm learning as I research my next book. I love research. It gives you all kinds of ideas, sets you off on flights of fancy, solidifies the backgrounds of your characters, sends you away in different directions than you ever dreamed. It's this whole discovery phase where you start to figure out what your book is REALLY about.

So will the facts about the Bulgarian secret police, wrestlers, weight lifters, and boxers end up in my book? You know, I think they might, in an oblique way. A shadowy character is actually Bulgarian, and I just might've figured out some crucial elements of her background, thanks to this research.

But before I decide for sure - more research!

Welcome Home

Saw this on Andrew Sullivan's blog, then followed it the source. The soldier you see here called it: "My dogs greeting me after 14 months in Iraq." Andrew Sullivan called it a "mental health break," and I agree.



My dog, Missy, looked a lot like these dogs. We had to give her to my cousins when we moved back to Hawaii, but she always remembered us whenever we came to visit.

And thoughts and prayers go out to all our men and women serving in Iraq. Here's hoping you all come home soon, and that all are greeted with this kind of enthusiasm.

Time + New Knowledge = Perspective

Now that I've been working in TV development for over a year, I'm finally getting a feel for how this whole cock-eyed business works. And since I work specifically in developing for cable networks, I'm beginning to understand just how specific the networks' needs are. Each network has its own brand that they feel they must maintain at all costs.

All this is now so helpful when I take a look at the TV pilot scripts I have written myself. I went back last week and took a look at something I'd written two years ago - eons ago. It was nice to see that it wasn't half bad, but with my new perspective, I realized that it wasn't quite right for any of the networks. The writing wasn't half bad, and the idea had some merit, but it sat fat in the middle of the road, just being itself, not making a big statement one way or the other.

So now I'm tilting it more strongly in the direction I think it needs to go to appeal to a network. I've got two networks in mind in particular. I don't expect them to ever buy it or make it - don't get me wrong. But at least now I've got a goal in mind that will sharpen and focus the script. And that should make it a better writing sample.

So my unsolicited advice to would-be TV writers out there - when you write your spec pilot script, aim it square at one network or the other. That way, when someone reads it, they'll think - wow, I can really SEE this on ABC, or HBO, or TNT. You don't need to know the identities of all the networks, but if you pick one and go for it, it may help you write a script that actually feels like a real TV show.

Who Does She Think She Is?

Female artists have it tough. Don't believe me? Check out the trailer for the movie Who Does She Think She Is? (Feel free to skip the intro and go right to the trailer.)

Looks like something every female artist should show to the men in their lives, so maybe then they'll start to get it.

NaNoWriMo is Almost Upon Us

Thinking about writing a novel? Consider NaNoWriMo, that's National Novel Writing Month, which comes now every November. This is a completely free, voluntary movement to get people to write that novel that's been stuck in their heads.

The goal is to write 50,000 words (which would actually be a very short novel) the month of November, and to get support from fellow NaNo participants. You can find them by signing up at the NaNo site. Here you will find forums full of advice and hilarity. You can also sign up to join "write ins" in you area, and attend your local launch party, where you'll meet fellow NaNo-ers as you eat and drink.

I'm trying to decide whether to participate this year or not. I'm rewriting a script at the moment, but should probably get going on the next novel too. A writer's work is never done! And NaNoWriMo can be a powerful motivating force as you struggle with your writerly demons.

The Website is Up!

It's a bit early for me to have a website. I don't have anything published (yet) and thus don't have much to promote (yet).

But logic hasn't stopped me. Common sense be damned. My website is up! Check out ninaberry.com.

Woo hoo! You can link to the blog from there, see some of my fave links, learn about me me me (because websites are all about narcissism), and eventually you'll be able to buy my books there. Maintaining it isn't all that expensive, and this way it'll be ready, willing, and able to do its thing once I'm officially an author. I'll get an official, spiffy author photo to go on the home page as publishing dates near, and there'll be more about the book as well.

Note how fricking positive I am. I'm trying to note it myself because I can't quite believe it. Is it arrogance, faith, or delusion? I can't wait to find out.

HUGE thanks to Elisa, the fabulous designer, and to Meg, the technical genius behind it all. If anyone out there needs a designer or a website techie, I'd jump at the chance to recommend these talented women.

Personality Indicator = Fun

I found the Gregorc Personality Indicator test online, and you should give it a whirl if you want insight into how you and others think, and why you don't understand the way other people work.

You'll have to print it out and do it by hand, but first go here.

Follow the instructions and map out your graph. Thinking styles are broken down into four types: Concrete Sequential, Concrete Random, Abstract Sequential, and Abstract Random. You will have a score of some type in each category, but will probably lean strongly toward one or more types of thinking.

Then go here and see what it all means.

What I like about this test is that it doesn't just label you as one thing. I fell into all four categories with varying degrees of intensity. Here are my scores. Then I'll show you what they mean.

(CS) Concrete Sequential: 4
(AS) Abstract Sequential: 24
(AR) Abstract Random: 56
(CR) Concrete Random: 28

So I scored strongest in Abstract Random, then got almost equal scores in in Concrete Random and Abstract Sequential, then scored really low in Concrete Sequential.

Which means - don't expect me to solve your math problems!

And here, in order of what I'm strongest in first, is a synopsis of each type.

Abstract Randoms prefer:
Cooperative work, Assignments with room for interpretation, Balance of social activities and work, Noncompetitive atmosphere, Personalized learning, Are given personal attention and emotional support.

Concrete Randoms prefer:
Trial and error approach, Hands-on experiences, Brainstorming and open-ended activities, Produce real, but creative, products, Original and unique approaches to problem solving, Self-directed learning.

Abstract Sequentials prefer:
Lecture and reading, Follow traditional procedures, Work alone, Research, Logical explanations, Are respected for intellectual ability.

Concrete Sequentials prefer:
Order and quiet, Exact directions, Guided Practice, Know the accepted way of doing something, Can apply ideas in a practical, hands-on way, Are given approval for specific work done.

Learning style summaries
Concrete-Sequential - Organized, stable, productive, perfectionist
Abstract-Sequential - Precise, conceptual, visionary, opinionated
Concrete-Random - Curious, hands-on, impulsive, impatient
Abstract-Random - Spontaneous, adaptable, social, perceptive

AR fits me very well, I think. I love cooperative games (don't much care for super competitive ones), adapt well, and all that. But I am capable of being logical, working alone, and following traditional procedures, and having a big fat opinion in AS fashion too. And so on. I do tend to lack organization in my work, which makes sense given my low CS score, although I CAN do it if I try. It just requires more effort and isn't a high priority for me.

This sort of thing can give you insight into how you work, your strengths and weaknesses, both as a person and as a writer. I know that I need to work a little harder on my organization (as I survey the sea of paper near my desk) and on actually finishing projects.

Give it a whirl and get your loved ones to do it too so that when they get all Random (or overly Sequential) during an argument, you don't go ballistic.

Check out the new look!

Notice anything... different around here lately?

Yeah, I've updated my photo and the look of the blog so that they tie in with my long range plans.

You see, eventually I'll be a published author with a website. At least, that's the promise I made to myself, and I'm proceeding as if my desires are actually going to happen in the real world. I guess I have a lot of faith, a lot of hubris, or both!

So the changes you see are part of those plans. Eventually the look of the blog will tie in with other elements of my plan.

Gah! Can you believe I'm getting all official and stuff? But about a year ago I made a deal with myself that I'd start acting like a professional until it became a reality. So this is one of many steps. Most of the steps involve actual writing, but you also need to market yourself, reach out to possible readers, all that good stuff.

Act like a professional and take the necessary steps toward becoming one. That's part of my current philosophy of making your dreams come true. Meanwhile, enjoy the new look. I'll keep you posted.

The Crutch

In reading my book out loud to myself, I figured out that I have certain go-to phrases and ideas that I lean on whenever I've run out of ideas.

It's really annoying to discover that you do this, but I've heard from other writers that I'm not the only one. (Thank goodness!) One writer told me that she always has her characters smiling.

"Thanks!" I smiled at him, trying not show my feelings.

That sort of thing, but over and over again.

Why does this happen? Personally, I get tired of writing the word "said." In writing dialogue, it's best to use "said" when you attribute a line to the speaker, rather than obscure things like "Oh, I would never," she averred. "Said" is more unobtrusive, often invisible to the reader, so it allows your dialogue to shine. But I get sick of it. So I insert action and motion into the dialogue, trying to add layers of meaning.

How do I do this?

By having people lift their eyebrows. Voila, my crutch. In reading my book again, I found my characters lifting their fricking eyebrows at each other left, right, and center, upside down and sideways. I had a veritable army of Spocks on my hands, indicating their attention and fascination and skepticism, and anything else I could think of, with their eyebrows. Lazy of me. Shiftless, slothful, and positively torpid of me.

The problem with the crutch is once you realize you have one, then you have to go in and change it every time you use it. Ugh. What the hell else is character going to do during an intense conversation other than lift their eyebrows?

Hello, "said."

Things She Learned About Telling Stories

Writer Elizabeth Bear has a great post on her blog about the Things I Have Learned About Telling Stories.

She tackles dream sequences, killer POVs, killing off protagonists, and so on. She knows whereof she speaks, so harken, ye writers. Take note.

Another Photo Appears on Schmap!

The online travel site Schmap must be hard up for photos of York, because they selected another of my shots of that city in UK to illustrate its online guide.

You can see my photo and the overall guide here.

It's not the most exciting photo in the world, but hey - it's another appearance on the web for me, a person not exactly renowned for her photography prowess. The shot is of a portrait of a man named John Foote (I forget the artist's name, alas) in the York Gallery. My travel buddy Wendy and I spend half a rainy day there quite happily viewing various pieces of art. As it happens, Wendy knows a man named John Foote through her work, so she asked me to take this photo. And another moment of internet "fame" occurs for me...

Yeah, right.

Reading (out loud) is Fundamental

I'm onto the final stages of rewriting, which is exciting, daunting, and, well, tedious.

I'm reading the whole frakking book out loud to myself. And it's taking forever.

(Ever heard that joke?

"How's life?"

"Taking forever.")

I had a whole three day weekend to do this and I'm only about a third of the way through. Okay, so laziness and a deep desire to take naps interfered somewhat. But also, your dang voice gets tired after awhile. And the cats look at you funny. And the neighbors can hear you as they pass your front door.

However, I deeply recommend this as something to do as you get ready to submit your manuscript. I've caught all sorts of typos, missing words, bad punctuation, stilted sentences, dialogue in need of work, ideas that need clarifying, and so on.

And you can practice your otherwise terrible acting skills and facility with accents. I've got the Cockney bodyguard down cold but am having trouble with the smooth more upper class British hero. But it's kind of fun to try. Most importantly, I'm making my book look as polished and professional as possible before anyone claps eyes on it.

Oy. More reading out loud ahead tonight. Wish me luch with the Corsican mobster!

Speaking of rewriting...

Fellow writer/rewriter Elisa pointed out this genius post on YA writer Libba Bray's blog: Writing a Novel, a Love Story.

Read it and you will begin to understand the complex nature of the writer's relationship to their work.

The fricking rewrite continues

Life has been so busy lately, that the rewriting is going very slowly. Rewriting is a very hard thing to organize. There's a million ways to go about it.

Sol Stein compares it to triage and suggests you deal with the bits in most dire need of change first. So that means, sort of, in order:

Filling plot holes and problems
Fleshing out characters
Making sure it all just makes sense, for crying out loud.
THEN
Futz with the wording, phrases, sentence structure.
THEN
Read it out loud. Check dialogue again.
THEN
Proof for grammar.

That's the ideal way for me. But do I stick to my plan? What do you think? I score high as a Random thinker. (I can't find a link to this personality assessment thing that tells you what sort of thinker you are, but it's actually pretty useful. You answer questions and get various scores. Then you plot out the scores on an x/y axis as Random or Linear, then as Concrete or Abstract. I score high in the Concrete Random and Abstract Random quadrants, very low in Concrete Linear, but decently as Abstract Linear.)

So I'm all over the map when I rewrite. Just yesterday I forged ahead with my first big pass (up to Chapter 8!) to fill plot holes and fix up the characters. Then I paused, printed up Chapter 1, and went over the hard copy to fix the wording, phrases, and dialogue. Books are large creatures, like whales. So maybe you can rewrite large portions of its tail while at the same time polishing and sprucing up its head.

Well, that whale metaphor is strange and unweildy. But I'm all about the strange when the mood strikes, so tough.

So how do you rewrite? I'm both organized and messy. I can hold contradictory thoughts in my head at once AND act them out too. Talk about strange and unweildy.

Panel Panel

I was part of a panel today consisting of assistants to creative execs. The point was to share info on what we do and how we got where we are, because a lot of assistants want to move into the creative arenas and eventually become creative execs themselves.

By creative execs, I mean the executives in Hollywood who oversee development in film and television and current TV execs. These are the people who mold the scripts that become the films and TV shows you watch.

So the five of us assistants sat in directors chairs in front of about 70 people, talking about what do, what our bosses do, and how we got our jobs. Currents of freezing air whooshed out of the air conditioner. I fought off goosebumps and smiled and told folks that they need to be discreet and be nice to get these jobs, as well as to really work their contacts. I was the only one on the panel without agency experience, so even as I felt a little like an outsider, I think the audience latched onto me as an example they could follow. Afterwards, folks wanted to chat, and the organizers gave us flowers! Who knew answering phones and reading scripts could make people think I was an expert at something?

SCBWI Conference Highlight #1

I'm not a writer of picture books, but when writer/illustrator Yuyi Morales accepted her Golden Kite Award for best picture book illustration, I and 900 others attending the luncheon got teary eyed. Her speech was intensely creative, hilarious, and touching, and I wish I could remember exactly how she managed that.

She talked about trying to find inspiration for her speech, and then, in vivid poetic language, descibed how she went hiking in the hills and found it there. She told us the Peruvian story of Night which, along with her own mother, inspired her to write and illustrate her award winning book. (It's stunning to behold, this book, by the way, all blues, purples, and blacks, but somehow emanates a joyful warmth that we all could see in Yuyi herself.) She spoke of her husband and her son, and then she showed a power point presentation illustrating the thrill she felt at finding out she got the award that literally brought the crowd to their feet in a standing ovation.

Here is a woman who was once a very poor immigrant, with no friends in this country, who has used her creative energy to make a magnificent life for herself, a life where she touches the hearts of children and inspires other writers. Amazing what art can do.

Wisdom from Horst

At the SCBWI conference, prolific and best-selling author Margaret Peterson Haddix (of The Shadow Children and Missing series) talked about trying to stay in touch with your inner teen and told us a funny story about learning to ski.

Her wise old German ski instructor told her: "You will go in the direction you are looking."

And she realized how true this was for so many other parts of life, not just for skiing. Horst was right! So try to look in the direction you most WANT to go. See if it works.

(I heard another great quote during Sarah Pennypacker's acceptance speech at the Golden Kite Awards - something from my favorite author EB White saying that whenever he writes, he realizes how much he just loves human beings. Now I want to find the quote, because I completely recognize what he's talking about. The best writers write from a love for humanity. Just my humble opinion. But at least Sarah Pennypacker and EB White agree with me!)

Conference-0-rama

I took Friday off work and attended three out of four days of the big SCBWI conference here in LA. (SCBWI = Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, an international organization I belong to.) I went last year for the first time, and it was fantastic.

This year was also wonderful, although a bit less useful to me overall than last year. I think I'm sort of getting then hang of this stuff, and am no longer quite a newbie! Weirdness.

I'll report in more detail as my brains de-scramble, but if you are at all interested in writing for kids and have the time and money, I urge you to attend one of these conferences. They are valuable for their huge infusion of inspiration (I cried during two, count em, TWO speeches) and practical knowledge. For me, the best parts were meeting some nice fellow writers and getting to know more about a couple of interesting agents that did workshops there. Attending the conference automatically gives you more of an "in" with agents and editors who teach there. It's no guarantee they'll take you on, but it sure can't hurt!

Looking for Subtext? Make it Musical

I was watching the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Once More With Feeling" (That's ep 7 of season 6) last night, and it got me to thinking about how Joss Whedon uses the songs to show things the characters are thinking and feeling that they would never otherwise express to each other.

Of course, this is a longtime tradition in American musical films, and Joss is brilliantly following in illustrious footsteps here. But how does this apply to my (or your) writing? Well, bear with me. I'm going to weird places here.

The conceit in this episode is that the characters are all keeping secrets from each other. Then a demon arrives in town with the power to force people to sing and dance in musical numbers that reveal these secrets. So Buffy sings to the vampires as she stakes them, confessing that her heart's just not in it. Spike tries to get make Buffy leave, but is musically forced to confess that he loves her but knows she's using him.

When it come to dialogue, the best has both text (the actual words you're reading) and subtext, which is what's underneath the words. The classic example is a couple bickering in a romantic comedy. Sure, the text has them fighting. But the subtext is that they are wildly attracted to each other.

So how do you find the subtext? It's not always as obvious as that romantic comedy example. Even in scenes where the text is most important, I like to have a bit of subtext to add layers. There's a scene right at the top of my novel where the heroine converses briefly with her family. The text here is vital, conveying backstory and exposition. But one of these people is the villain, and I want to foreshadow that without giving it away. I also want to convey the villain's attitude toward the world and the heroine, to hint at the personality traits that make him/her a villain.

How the hell do I do that without mustache twirling or outright stating it? And just what is this villain's attitude toward these things? I need to do more character work on him/her and nail it down.

So Buffy the Musical inspired me. Here were characters singing their real attitudes and feelings. So I imagined a musical number in this problematic scene in my novel where the villain sings, revealing who s/he is and what his/her agenda might be. None of this will ever appear in print. I'm no lyricist or musician. But I did picture him/her, suddenly alone at the top of a staircase, looking down on the folks s/he considers to be ants, singing narcissistically about plans to take over the world, and the weird mixture of love and hate s/he feels for the heroine. The mood and tone of my imaginary music, the posture of the singer, how I'd shoot the number, all these things clue me in on what's going on with the villain and the subtext of the conversation.

Now I just have to somehow incorporate what I've learned into the dialogue in the scene. Still not easy, but at least I have a handle on what it is I'm trying to convey.

So what type of musical number would your problematic scene become if you suddenly made it a musical? Is it a rocking number with guitars and a heavy baseline? Or do scantily clad dancing girls appear as your hero dons a straw hat and tap dances? Just another crazy way to get inside your characters and scenes and figure out what the hell you're doing.

Private Snapshots

I was rereading Stein on Writing by Sol Stein, a terrific book on writing, and came upon a chapter I hadn't noticed before. In it Stein talks about a technique that can add a whole new layer of depth to your writing.

He recommends thinking about a snapshot from your life that you would not be comfortable showing anyone, something you would NOT carry in your wallet. Then think about how adding that snapshot to your story might help. What he's getting at (I think) is that writers must not be afraid to show readers things that are far too intimate to discuss or show people in real life. The best writing illuminates these dark corners of our secret lives in some way.

Oy. So that means I/we/writers are supposed to confess our most secret personal snapshots in our writing? Scary stuff. But Stein uses an example that isn't all that freaky. He's not trying to find out your sexual kinks. He talks about a woman writer whose book about a female cop wasn't really resonating with him. He asked her about her own personal snapshot. This writer was herself a cop, who had to be a tough cookie in her job. The shapshot she didn't want to show people was the moment where she tenderly kissed her daughter good night every night. So after talking to Stein, she added a scene just like that to her novel, adding a depth to the cop character that hadn't existed before.

I'm not sure my private snapshots would suit my lead character, but it's an interesting idea. I think I unconsciously sort of stole what I thought might be a (now deceased) friend's private snapshot, morphed it a bit, and used it as my own character's biggest fear. But right now I'm trying to flesh out my villain, who desperately needs depth. Maybe I can come up with a snapshot for him.

Wanna Write? Take a class.

I just have to rave for a second about the online writing class I just finished taking. It was a class specifically for YA writers offered by MediaBistro and taught by the fabulous Kristen Kemp.

Over 12 weeks I completely revised my outline, finished my 200 page first draft, and came away with a strong idea of what I should do in a rewrite. Keep in mind that I had about 200 pages of rough scenes written and a first version of an outline going in, so I started ahead of some of the other writers who came in with just an idea. (In other words, I kind of cheated.)

The key to the success of the class for me came from my own self-motivation, the wonderful instructor, and the feeling of camradarie and support from my fellow students. To be honest, I knew most of the info offered in the handouts because I tend to buy too many books on writing that are full of this kind of advice. However, for newbies, the handouts and suggestions for reading will be very important.

However, what I did NOT know was what worked and did not work in my own writing. Kristen encouraged us to submit as many pages as we could each week and gave amazing, insightful, respectful notes that made a huge difference. In particular she suggested I start my story later on and to start with an action scene. My protagonist is sort of an action heroine, so it made sense. But I resisted this at first because I was stuck with a vision of how I thought the book should start. I rewrote my first chapter twice before taking her advice and hitting the jackpot. Well, I least I think I did. We'll see. Beyond that, Kristen had great notes throughout, reading dozens of pages from me and other students every week. She understood my characters sometimes more than I did and pushed me to stay true to them. I now have a total girl crush on her.

Part of the class involves you reading other students work and giving them your thoughts. This made for a buttload of work because everyone was so motivated and turned out huge chunks of prose. I was reading hundreds of pages of their writing every week. But I think you can learn a lot from reading other's writing - both what works and what does not. And the other students were diong just as much as I, and many of their comments were terrifically helpful.

Getting notes from 10 - 12 people every week can be a bit overwhelming, though. And not every note is going to resonate with you. You can't please everyone! This can be a problem if you're a real people pleaser or if you get easily discouraged. In a good way, the class can toughen you, both in getting constructive criticism and in recognizing criticism that isn't helpful. Take what works for you. Think about the rest, give it a good hard think and examine your own motives, then move on if you're sure it doesn't work for you.

Don't take it personally! This is the hardest thing of all when you're in the midst of a first draft. The writing feels like your baby. But it isn't. It isn't you. It's words on paper, which almost always can be made better. Listen, nod, throw out what doesn't work, and move on.

So if you're stuck or, like me, you thrive on structure and work well to deadlines, think about a class.

How Not to Start a Story

Great post by genre writer JA Konrath on his blog today on How NOT to start a story.

My favorite is starting with weather. Yeah, don't do that, for crying out loud.

I'd add - Don't start (or ever write) with a scene where your character is looking in the mirror, describes themselves physically, or speaks to themselves.

Don't start with a dream.

You'd be shocked how many writers violate these basic rules. Sometimes they do get published. Sometimes the books are actually good and succeed in spite of beginning with a mistake. Konrath says not to begin with a description of character, but I vividly remember the first sentence of Gone With the Wind: "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful..." which goes on to describe how fascinating she is with her green eyes and inky lashes. GWTW is a terrific book and (I think) the top selling novel of all time. But notice that even if Margaret Mitchell starts with a character description, she goes against expectations by telling us the main character is NOT beautiful.

How do you start? There's no one answer, but I recommend starting with your protagonist in action. That doesn't mean he or she has to be gunning down bad guys in the first sentence. They could be picking up their handicapped kid from therapy or confronting their girlfriend about her cheating, fleeing an abusive husband, or... gunning down baddies. Action shows us who that person is in an entertaining way. Action will force you to show us who this person is, rather than tell.

UPDATE: I apologize to JA Konrath, whom I referred to mistakenly as "her" when I wrote this post. Konrath is in fact a man, so I've edited this post to reflect that.