Happy Memorial Day!

Thank you to those of you who serve our country, and those of you who have family and loved ones in the service. May we help to bring about a free world where wars are only distant memories.

I've officially lost it

Tip of the day: Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.

Lost what, you ask?

That loving feeling.

Oh yes. I have.

Last week, I asked the question, if a writer is struggling, REALLY struggling with a story, does it mean something?

Replies were mixed, and I don't know that anyone can know the right answer, because each book is different and each writer is different.

I kept going for a few more chapters, and then I threw my hands in the air and said, "Enough!" Or maybe I said, "I need cupcakes!" I'm not sure. It's all a blur now.

I'm setting the story aside for now. Because I decided, the biggest problem with the story is, I just don't care. There's nothing there to make me want to care about the story, the characters, any of it. And until I can figure that out, and make it something I do care about, what's the point? Because if I don't care, you can bet no one else is going to care either.

The good news?

I've already started a new story. One that is going to make me stretch as a writer. One that scares me, because it's complex in a way, and really different, and I don't have everything quite figured out yet. But guess what? I ALREADY CARE. This is a story I want to tell. A story that could fly or flop, depending on what I do with it. That excites me. Can I do it? Only time will tell.

So lesson learned this week - I *have* to care. What about you?

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

Why Write YA?

Tip of the Day: Check out author Carrie Ryan's blog post from yesterday-- she very nicely outlines the process of a book going from author's head to in your hands.

This topic fits in perfectly after Deena's great post yesterday about why she loves to read young adult fiction. And it's also been on my mind because in a little over a week Kristin Walker and I are going to be giving a presentation together at a local library and one of the things they'd like us to talk about is why we write young adult fiction. I think this is really good question and I bet there would be lots of different answers from YA writers. As for me, I never thought I'd write fiction let alone write young adult fiction books. I always loved writing and got my Masters in Writing and wanted to teach writing at the high school and college level. And I did a lot of technical writing and magazine writing. But YA writing was never on my radar. Around five years ago I had an idea for a book and it happened to take place in a high school with four girls. I wrote the book and discovered, WOW, I love this! And then I just kept doing it and I'm working on my eight book now. It's kind of like dating a bunch of schmucks and then finding Mr. Right. You just know when he's the right one. And that's what happened with me and YA writing. Something clicked when I stumbled upon it and I knew it was the right fit. I think a lot of it has to do with my voice being a good fit for the genre. And I like that a lot of firsts happen at this age so I get to sort of re-live things through my characters. It's a time of big dreams and hopes and the idea that anything is possible so it's a lot of fun to write for this age group.

So tell me writers, why do YOU write YA?

Kristina, Miss See Me on the Shelves

Reading Like a Grown-up (or Can I Handle the Truth?)

Tip of the Day: Even if you don't usually read adult books or non-fiction books, I highly recommend THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot. You can learn about science while seeing how real people are often the best characters.


I am a huge reader of YA fiction. Some may say I am obsessed with the genre. They may be right -- but let me explain WHY:
1. Part of my YA Librarian job is to buy all the library's YA titles so I'm constantly reading reviews of these books.
2. Part of my YA Librarian job is to recommend YA titles to teens so I have to keep up on reading them.
3. The YA Librarians in my county lib system put together a Best Of list of teen fiction every year, so I have to keep up on my reading.
4. Because I read so many reviews of YA fiction for my job, I'm enticed into reading some of the titles based on good reviews.
5. As a YA writer, I read a lot of YA writer blogs and industry news, which entice me into reading even more YA titles.
6. To keep up on the YA fiction industry and to see what is selling, I skim the jacket flaps of many YA titles at the lib and am enticed into reading them.
7. I love the immediacy, the pace, the voice, the relatability of just "growing up" and learning about yourself and others of YA fiction and will never stop reading it.

In slightly lesser amounts I read MG fiction, and in even lesser amounts, adult fiction and non-fiction. But the proportion of adult books I start to finish is higher than that of YA or MG bc there are just a ton of great adult titles out right now. And no matter what genre of kidlit you are writing, it is important to read books for adults.

Why?

In addition to just hitting on some great stories, often trends that hit in kidlit are trickle-downs from popular or notable adult works. There are also substantial adult non-fiction titles that can get your wheels turning for kidlit fiction ideas.

I loved THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, and am also really enjoying Elizabeth Gilbert's latest, COMMITTED. On deck I have Peter Lovenheim's IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. When I'm feeling the glut of YA paranormal romance and dead sibling books, I need to remember to kick up the adult lit.


What recent adult novels or non-fiction are you reading and loving right now?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

...think positive

Tip of the Day: have you ever read a book and then thought that there is no way on earth my book is as good as this authors? Well….stop thinking negative, and think of all the wonderful things your book has that the one you are reading doesn’t :)

Due to a lack of TV choices, I’ve been watching a lot of shows on the Ion Network lately. This morning, I happened to catch a show called Positive Living. The show features visits from several life coaches. This particular episode featured Bob Proctor who talked about the law of attraction and how it pertains to our dreams, goals, and attracting people that can help make those happen.

His presentation was very The Secret-esc, but there were two interesting points he made that could be applied for those of us in the writing trenches waiting for success.

First, he mentioned that it order to make your goals happen, you should try to state something positive about what you want to achieve. And then believe it! So instead of just saying, “I’d like to have a book published,” you’d say something along the lines of “I love when people read my book and laugh or get into the characters and I’d love to be able to share that with more people by having my book published.” And repeat it every, single, day!

I guess phrasing it as a positive is supposed to not only give you positive reinforcement for all the good you are doing so far, but encourage you to strive harder for the next step.

Makes sense.

Second, he mentioned that the biggest obstacle for people achieving success is that we focus on the “obstacles” themselves when they come up. So instead of focusing on all those rejections from agents, editors, or maybe even a reviewer, try to focus on all the positive instead. Basically, just visualize your successful, while forgetting about all the barriers preventing you from getting there.

I’m all for trying new things and do thing I could use a dose of positive thinking!

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

What Are You Packing?

Tip of the Day: Thanks to Car for sending me this link to YA writer Kathleen Wall's blog post on getting readers to root for your main character.

Remember when your Facebook friends posted Top Fives instead of Mafia Wars updates? One of the most popular was "Top 5 things I never leave home without." Okay, quick, name five things you never leave home without: but not for you, for your main character.

Any of those five things can be used in your plot. The house keys can be used to stab someone in the eye. The gold necklace can be hocked. The iPod can be used to shut out an ugly conversation.

Or maybe your main character carries something special, like Miranda in Rebecca Stead's WHEN YOU REACH ME carries a copy of A WRINKLE IN TIME. Remember the magic glacial water the main character in the movie The Waterboy always had with him? That ended up being important. I love that movie.

So feel free to plant something in the first chapter or two for your main character (or any important character) to never leave home without. After all, you don't walk around without your baggage. Everyone carries something. Even Neanderthals probably wouldn't leave the cave without their special rock and sharpened stick.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

When writing is hard, what does it mean?

Tip of the day: I'm giving away four amazing YA ARCs on my personal blog - go HERE for all the details.

I like writing when it's fun. You know - when I'm excited about the story, about the characters, when the words flow like water, and I can't wait to get back to the page.

But what about when it's not fun? When you've written and rewritten and started over and done this and done that, and you're just tired of the stupid story? How do you keep going?

I'm not talking about the muddled middle in a story, where you just have to grit your teeth while you're writing, and keep going. I'm talking about the story you've been working on off and on for months or years and you're just SO DAMN SICK OF IT!

I tweeted last week that I wondered if Sheryl Crow was singing about writing when she wrote the lyrics, "If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad."

I love being an author. I really do. But some days, some stories, some agonizing sentences, it almost makes me cry out in pain.

Part of me wonders - if an author is struggling that much with the story, is there something wrong? Should it be *that* hard? Does it make any difference in the end whether a story was easy to write or terribly, terribly difficult to write? When I look at all of the books I've written, I feel like most of the time, the ones that flowed easily and didn't cause me huge amounts of agony are the ones that have been published.

What do you think? And do you think it's worth it to keep going, that an author should keep trying to make it work, no matter what? Or is there a point where you need to say, enough, and put the thing away for good?

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career