No NaNoWriMo for me

Tip of the Day: Have a safe and happy Halloween! 


Everyone is talking about NaNoWriMo - that is, National Novel Writing Month.

I've never done it, and honestly, I probably never will.

I suppose I can see that for people who need a push, it can be a great thing. I'm generally a pretty motivated person though. Once I get a few seeds of an idea that I think I can grow into a full-blown book, I'm working on it everyday. Some books I've written extremely fast, while others are much slower going. I always let the story decide.

The one I'm working on now is going much slower than the other ones I've written this year. It has quite a few threads, and lots of characters, and all of that means I need to spend as much time thinking about the book, away from the computer, as I do actually writing it.

That's what I don't particularly like about the idea of plowing through a draft in 30 days. There's no time to stop and think about whether you're going in the right direction or not. Nathan Bransford talked a little about it HERE.

I've finally gotten a routine down that works for me and my family. It's a balanced routine, allowing me time to exercise, time to make dinner for the family most nights, help with homework, etc. It's just not worth it to me to upset that balance for a month to try and hurry up to get a draft done. I'll get my draft done eventually. I hope by the end of the year. But we'll see.

Don't get me wrong - if you're committing to it, I'm routing for you! I just don't really want to be you. :)

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

Hot Topics: "B&N Divides Out Teen Fiction Genres"

Tip of the Day: This is the best Pumpkin Fudge EVER. Try it!

I've been watching too much of The View lately. My favorite part of the show is Hot Topics where they pull some current event from the news and all weigh in on it. Really, they should do the whole show in this format. I turn it off when they move on to Blahblah celebrity promoting her great new movie. But ANYWAY, here's what I want to talk about. If you have a minute go read this article about Barnes and Nobles dividing up the teen fiction section.

Ok, if you didn't go read, here's a snippet from the article:

"In a sign of just how popular teen fiction has become, Barnes & Noble is in the midst of rearranging its teen fiction section chain-wide this week in an effort to improve the shopping experience and boost sales. Already teen fiction is the biggest book growth category at Barnes & Noble, according to Mary Amicucci, v-p of children’s books. In terms of volume, it is the second largest subject, behind adult fiction.

After testing the concept at a Barnes & Noble store in Hackensack, N.J., three weeks ago, the chain pushed the go button to reorganize all its teen sections by separating out the two most popular genres—paranormal romance and fantasy and adventure—from teen fiction."

Hmph. Honestly? This bothers me. And it's hard to explain why because maybe I'm just overreacting or whatever. I mean, on one hand it's a good thing that teen books are getting so much attention, yay for them selling so well and being #2 to adult fiction. But the categories thing? Why does this make me feel like Unless you're Twilight or Twilight-esque you suck the big suck and we'll shelf you in the back of the store right before you hit the bathroom? If you're paranormal romance or fantasy yay, you'll get all of our love and attention. But the rest of you commercial fiction books, hit the road where we don't have to look at you. Sigh. It's kind of depressing right? It feels like more of the same stuff that already goes on in publishing. Where certain books are given huge amounts of marketing money and big push from the publisher and the rest kind of struggle to get any attention. Now even at the stores, someone who might have stumbled upon your book because, yes, it was near Twilight and caught their interest, might never see it now because it's placed in a less popular section.

Okay, weigh in on this hot topic. B&N divvying up the teen fiction genres-- good or bad?

Kristina, Miss See Me on the Shelves (but nowhere near Twilight)

Goals Again? (or The Girl Who Cried Goal!)

Tip of the Day: Read a zombie book, like those I have on display at my library, in honor of Halloween!


My regular blog readers probably roll their eyes now every time I post my "goal" for the month. Why? Because inevitably something comes up and said goal must be changed/modified/deleted. I have good intentions, I swear! But sometimes proirities much change.

That said, I have a new goal for the rest of October and all of November! And TOTAL confidence that they are worthy and doable! For real!

For the last few days of October, I will be finishing up PF revisions, then sending them to my fresh reader on Nov. 1. I really want to get this puppy sparkled up so we can sub it soon!

For November, the Helper Monkeys have decided not to do NaNo, but to each do our own November goal. Mine is to complete those SS revisions that I originally said I'd complete this month (the book I'm bringing to the SCBWI revision weekend in 2.5 weeks), and to get PF back to my agent, all pretty and polished up.

Is anyone out there doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Too Much Paper...

Activity of the Week: "write in your journal using a different medium (brush & ink, charcoal, old typewriter, crayons, markers."

I'm having lots of fun on my project to Spice Up My Writing. But this past week's activity was an especially fun one, because it allowed me to use some of those dreaded scrap papers.

Early on when I started writing, I'd print a lot more of my projects out to do editing. It just got to the point where it wasted so much paper. I started to feel like I was going to have to make hundreds of paper airplanes, mobiles, collages, or any other thing you could possibly make out of paper. I've cut back on the printing, but still have tons of paper that needs to be recycled lying around. Not to mention the dozens of books I have that need to be recycled.

So this week, I decide to make a pen holder using a page from an old book and a cheap pot from Michaels craft store. And I quite enjoy the result.


--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Cheap Notebooks, I Love You

Tip of the Day: Halloween is this Sunday. This is the first year I haven't had time to make ghost lollipops, so someone do it for me, please.

So over the weekend, I went to one of those "wait while they change your oil" places. I love those places because I get some time to myself. I bring a notebook and a pen and plan my heart out.

I have a few projects going, so I wrote the name of each project (or at least it's working name) at the top of a page and started freewriting. One of the projects grabbed me so much, I had pages and pages filled up. Now I know what to concentrate on.

This is how I outline. Somehow all my outlines end up in handwritten chunks, like a synopsis gone wild in a blender. Then as I go back and plant things in earlier chapters, my outlines bristle with carets. One thing is for sure: nobody could read one of my outlines but me.

But as a sample, here's the handwritten outline for the chapter I'm writing:

more Mr. Freed--looking nauseous. CIA, David, can you believe it? next CIA John Smith, smiles a lot, nurses + parents chase them out, more Stephen, 1st impression from Paul

Jake comes in + turns off radio. S's neighbor. Volunteering for Superintendants Award. mention Duncan? ---> Who checks after Paul?

There, doesn't that make total sense? But I'd be totally lost without it, and somehow, almost every novel I write ends up coming from this cloud of handwritten words.

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

He shrugged, she nodded, he laughed...

Tip of the day: Make pumpkin bread and then eat it. One of my favorite things about autumn is pumpkin bread!

I really, really, really hate having to think about what people are doing while they are having a conversation.

Does it really matter? I know, I know, it kind of does.

The more a reader can picture the characters in his/her head, having the conversation they're having, the more real it will seem.

But. BUT... I just want to write the dialogue!! I don't want to try and figure out what the characters are doing *while* they are saying the words.

And then, it seems like when I do try, I fall back on my old standards and I end up having nothing but bobbing heads throughout my book.

I think what's hard is that as you are telling the reader what the characters are saying, you (the writer) should know what each of the characters is feeling and THEN relay those feelings through body movements and non-verbal cues.

I can't even tell you how difficult this is for me. Is there something wrong with me?

HELP!

Is there anything I can do to make this easier on myself? Should I just write the dialogue, letting it flow, then come back later and fill in the other stuff (what is that "other stuff" called anyway?)

Please tell me I'm not the only one who struggles with this. And please, if you LOVE writing the non-verbal stuff and have tips, I'm listening (and nodding. And smiling. And...)

 ~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

What is "Edgy" Exactly?

Tip of the Day:Comment at my personal blog for a chance to win Denise Jaden's debut novel LOSING FAITH.

The term "edgy" gets tossed around a lot in our industry ("The book is really edgy." "I'm looking for something more edgy for my list.") And to me it always seems to mean that there is a certain amount of language and/or sex and/or a really rough topic that makes some people uncomfortable in the book.

I'm not edgy-- not my writing anyway. Ok, not me either. I'm like the anti-edgy. :-) I would certainly say my books are pretty clean and sweet. But then isn't edgy subjective to each reader? Would one person find my book edgy and another find it tame? When I was doing copy edits last week I noticed the phrase "I'd bang that" got flagged for language in my book. In the book I go on to have the main character yell at the person who said that phrase but still. Someone might think it was too much.

With my first book, The Espressologist, the first thing I did during edits was go through the the entire book, cleaning out every single swear word. I hadn't even really realized I had so many swears in the book to tell you the truth. But I took them all out except for one-- one that I thought really needed to be there. It was the B word if you're curious. Anyway, imagine my shock about six months after the book came out when I stumbled upon a review of the book where the reviewer said she enjoyed the book but be forewarned readers, it was full of swear words. Wh--? I KNEW there was only one. So I was slightly annoyed but I read on and noticed someone had commented what are you talking about-- there are no swears in the book. The reviewer said she felt "Oh My God" was a swear and that I used it frequently. Ah. I had no idea people would feel that was a swear. Ok, I still don't think it is one but whatever. Everyone has their own opinion.

So what is edgy to you? And what are the various degrees? Can something be a little edgy? Or super hard core edgy? What would that even mean? Whats the "edgiest" YA book you've ever read?

Kristina, Miss See Me On the Shelves