Guest Post: My Writing Journey by Kari Lynn West

K: Hey all, I am so pleased to welcome Kari Lynn West, author of The Secrets of Islayne, to the blog today. My review for her book can be found here, and if you'd like to connect more with Kari, you can reach her at her website, here. I hope you'll join me in welcoming Kari to The Underground.

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Hi there,

First off, thank you Katie for hosting me on your blog today! I appreciate the chance to introduce myself and talk a bit about my novel with all of your lovely readers J

To all those lovely readers, my name is Kari Lynn West, and I recently released my debut YA fantasy, The Secrets of Islayne. You should also know that I love coffee much more than is probably good for me. One of my favorite things to do is to curl up on the couch with a cup of strong coffee and a good story.

At some point in the past few days, I hope you've also had the chance to do just that.

Speaking of stories, I'd like to share a short tale with you about my writing journey and how my debut novel, The Secrets of Islayne, came to be. If you want, feel free to brew some good coffee first and find that favorite spot on your couch. I don't mind waiting.

...All set? Let's begin. :)

A Young Story Fanatic

It was a dark and stormy night...

Kidding, everyone, kidding.

Let's start that again:

Books have long been my obsession. As a kid, I could spend an entire Saturday curled up on the couch with the latest Little House on the Prairie, Redwall, or Dear America novel. The adventure, friendship, and fun I found between the pages opened up my imagination and sparked a never-ending search for my next favorite story. 

In college, I majored in English so no one could fault me for reading so much. One summer, I worked weekends at a tiny, mostly-forgotten used bookstore where they paid me in books (which served as my inspiration for where Ronan finds himself working at the beginning of The Secrets of Islayne). There is a kind of magic in well-penned words that I’ve been drawn to my whole life. For me, the desire to write novels was just a natural extension of my love of reading.

The Glimmer and the Grind

Have you ever had an idea that you just can't get out of your head?

Years before I put pen to paper (or more accurately, fingers to keyboard), I watched a news story about a woman who could remember each moment of her life as clearly as if it had just happened to her. For months after I saw that news feature, I couldn't stop thinking about what it would be like to remember your life that clearly. The concept was utterly fascinating to me (in part because I have a terrible memory). 

The seed for The Secrets of Islayne was planted in that moment, but it didn't come to fruition for quite a while. Like a lot of would-be writers, I had big dreams but little self-discipline when it came to my craft. It took several years for me to consistently sit down at my computer each day and add to my word count. But slowly, I learned the art of faithful creativity in the midst of the craziness of life (aka working my day job, having two kids, and moving twice).

Fast forward a few years. After several drafts, a lot of helpful feedback from trusted, story-smart readers, hundreds of hours spent re-writing and editing—and an embarrassing amount of time banging my head against a wall, crying that I would never get the story right—I finally had a novel worth sharing. 

Happy Readers, Happy Life

But I'm the author of the story, so I may be a little biased (nobody's perfect). If you'd like to know what a few other readers had to say, feel free to read the quotes below or check out the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

"It's one of those books where 'just one more page' turns into you reading the entire chapter. The Secrets of Islayne is full of unexpected turns and whimsical writing that will pull you in from the first page. Highly recommend it!"

"...a wonderful tale filled with adventure, romance, intrigue, and beauty that you won't be able to put down!"

"A must read for anyone with an appetite for suspense, humor, young love, and just great storytelling!"

Want to Join the Fun?

You can grab a copy of The Secrets of Islayne today to see for yourself how the adventure unfolds. You can get your paperback book on Amazon, or download your ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or iBooks.

If I were you, I'd be sure to read it in that same comfy spot on the couch, with a fresh cup of coffee in hand.

Happy reading,

Kari

P.S. If you’d like to stay in touch and get some free preview chapters of my story, I’d love to have you join my readers’ group! http://bit.ly/2qPQqkU

Sympathetic vs Likable Characters

In my reviews, I talk a lot about characters and whether or not they're sympathetic. Many writers want their characters to be likable, especially their main character. After all, the reader has to spend an entire book with the main character, and why would they devote that much time with a character they didn't like? It can sometimes get tricky to keep a character likable, especially when characters begin doing unethical things in the name of the greater good. At what point does a character stop being likable? At what point do they stop being sympathetic? Though the two are related, they are definitely two different concepts that many writers get mixed up. Writers can sometimes become so obsessed with making their character likable that they forget to make their character sympathetic.

But what is the difference? 

When your character is likable, they are someone your reader enjoys reading about. This relies more heavily on personal preference and so it's sometimes impossible to create a universally liked character, though many writers lose sleep trying to create one. A character can be two dimensional, crude, rude, erratic in their actions, and completely unsympathetic, but they may still be likable if there is something about the character the reader connects with and enjoys. A character can be likable because they are sympathetic, but they don't have to be sympathetic to be likable. 

When your character is sympathetic, they are doing something or expressing ideas that the reader can approve of. They are working to save their world, rescue their parents, save their love interest, etc. Even if as a person, they are incredibly unlikable, your character can still be sympathetic by doing the right thing. 

For example, in my review of The Outliers, I talk about how much I disliked the main character, Wylie. This was mostly due to personal preference, as Wylie did things and said things that I thought were rude and uncalled for. However, her overall motivation throughout the story-- saving her best friend-- was something I could sympathize with, and therefore I could continue reading. It's like the idea of people working together in a crisis-- I can deal with not liking a character based on who they are, so long as their actions or ideas are sympathetic. 

But where do you draw the line? How do you know if you're writing a likable character, or a sympathetic one? Or neither? Or both? 

As I said, creating a likable character can be frustrating and nearly impossible, mostly because it generally comes down to personal preference. There are people who love Voldemort, despite the fact that JK Rowling made no attempt to make him likable. You cannot control how people will respond to your characters, just as you can't control how people respond to your personality. So don't even try. Don't focus on making people like your character, make your character consistent with who they are. If you want a stubborn character, don't tone down that trait to make them more likable. Embrace the stubborn part of your character, make it consistent through their actions and reactions, and readers will like your character for being true to themselves. 

On the other hand, creating a sympathetic character is something a writer does have control over, and should pay attention to. Generally, it's not hard to make your character a sympathetic one. Plot motivators tend to make for sympathetic situations-- needing to rescue a loved one, stop a catastrophe, free people from suffering, etc. But you don't need those external motivators to create sympathetic characters, as their beliefs and ideas have a big impact on how the reader views them. For example, your character may be a high class thief only out for personal gain, but their decision not to hurt people while on the job instantly makes him a sympathetic one. 

External elements to create sympathy are the easiest to do. Internal motivators to create sympathy have a much stronger impact. Your character can have both external and internal motivators to create sympathy, or only one or the other. Toeing the lines can create interesting character dynamics and is something authors tend to do frequently. 

In the Second Sons Trilogy by Jennifer Fallon, the main character, Dirk, has external motivators to make him sympathetic, but no internal motivators. He is working to save the kingdom by toppling a corrupt system, not necessarily for the betterment of his fellow people, but more because the structure of the royal court puts him in danger. He is all around unlikable-- arrogant, snobby, and really doesn't do a single nice thing throughout the whole series unless it serves him, despite the fact that he is doing the "right" thing. Jennifer Fallon admitted that she intended to do this with Dirk-- she wanted to see how bad a main character could be while still keeping the reader on his side. And it certainly worked! By the end of the series I thought Dirk was pretty much the scummiest guy you could meet, but he somehow still managed to remain the hero of the story. 

On the other side of the coin, in Vicious by VE Schwab, the main character Victor has internal motivators without much in the way of external motivators. He chases down his best friend who has become a serial killer, and though his expressed motivation is based on revenge (which doesn't make him overly sympathetic), he does acknowledge that he thinks what Eli is doing is wrong. So even though his external motivation is a choice of him getting revenge, his internal motivation makes him sympathetic as it shows he cares about others. 

Characters can be a hard balance. I speak from experience, as they've always been something I've struggled with. But managing that balance, once you have it, makes your book so much stronger overall. 

So, since I threw a lot at once, to sum up: 

Likable Characters are those who are liked by the reader, for one reason or another. All characters are likable in some way. Likable characters are based on reader preference. Generally, good deeds = people like your character, but the reasons a character is likable are as varied as types of literature. 

Sympathetic Characters are those whose actions, motivations, or beliefs, whether its proclaimed from the rooftops or inserted subtly, create sympathy and approval for the reader. They approve of the hero's journey, or at least their reasons for the journey. 

External Motivators for Sympathy are external forces that put the character into a situation that garners sympathy. They can be as literal as people locked in a cage needing to escape, or pressures from other characters to do things they don't want to. 

Internal Motivators for Sympathy are more the beliefs and morals held within the character that propels them to take action and creates sympathy in the reader. They can be stated outright or implied. They still inspire sympathy and originate from the character's belief system. 

Hopefully this helps to shed some light on what I mean when I talk about sympathy vs likability. So writers out there, relax, take a deep breath. Stop pulling your hair out trying to make your characters liked by everyone, and just make your characters true to themselves. 

Four Ways to Spark Inspiration

As writers, we are often bombarded by ideas for books. Sometimes we have so many shiny WIP ideas we can't get a handle on the book we're writing. And that's great. But sometimes there aren't that many ideas. Sometimes there are NO ideas.

Sometimes it's writer's block. Sometimes there are family or emotional issues that keep you from coming up with anything. And sometimes you're just stuck.

Unfortunately, we can't wait around for inspiration. This doesn't just apply to writing, this applies to coming up with ideas, plotting, creating characters, all that jazz. Sometimes we have the luxury to wait around for another idea, but if you're a professional writer, people may be waiting for your next book. You may be under contract. The world won't wait for you to come up with an idea.

Here's a short list on ways to inspire inspiration. Four easy ways to kick your butt in gear.

1) Compile a list of the things you want to write. Go through your favorite books and write a list of everything you've always WANTED to write. Have you toyed with the idea of a western romance? Have you had a character lingering in the back of your mind you wanted to try writing? Write it down. Once you have a list, try and match some together. Pair the sci-fi with Chinese culture and add an OCD main character whose petrified of space ships. How many aspects can you weave together? Can you create a story from that?

2) Write from prompts. Tried and true, but it works. You can find prompt generators online, or you can even just ask the people around you for objects, situations, and locations for story ideas. Go to three separate people, ask one for a location, as one for a profession, ask the last for an object. Taking those three ideas, can you weave a story out of that? For a different approach, you can take word prompts and write short blurbs to timed sessions. Let the words unravel without planning anything out. If the ideas come, run with it.

3) People Watch. This is my favorite and the easiest. It's best done in public with strangers. Pick someone from the crowd and watch them. Study their clothes, their behavior, the way they talk or stand or walk. Then create a story for them. Create a name, create their family, create a backstory. Figure out why they are there, and be creative. Your character profiles can be mundane, or fantastical. That woman may be a spy from a British Academy waiting on orders from the US division. That man could be meeting with his wife to tell her the results of the chemo treatments. Create them as characters in your mind and build your story from there.

4) Bounce ideas. This one's difficult for me, but every time I do it, I'm always amazed and delighted at the results. Talking to other people, especially writers or heavy readers, is a great way to generate ideas. Even if the other person doesn't give you ideas, sometimes they ask questions that can get you thinking, and lead you to your own epiphany. This is definitely my favorite method, as it works wonderfully. Whenever I'm stuck, just a few hours with my beta and there's nothing we can't solve.

Happy Writing,

What's in a Number?

Just an average day at work

I work in a mental health office for kids and their families, but my immediate surroundings are filled with people at least twice my age, and most of my correspondence is with people who could probably be my grandparents, let alone my parents.

I'm 23 and work as the file manager in an institution filled with kids with severe mental health issues, Talk about inspiration for writing, am I right? I've been in this position a few years and worked very hard to get where I am, and in the last year or so I've encountered some prejudice from some of the people I work with. These are some of the most caring people in the world, those who devote themselves to trying to help people, who work non-profit, and yet I still encounter what you would call "micro aggressions" from them. All because of my age.

It's nothing rude, mind you. Just talking over me, talking to my boss or coworkers on issues and departments that I not only approach them on, but that I am the sole person working on. It's frustrating to be treated in a way that undermines all the work I do, simply because of my age. It reminds me of my teenage years, fists clenched, eyes blazing, demanding to be treated like an equal and not an idiot.

Back in those days, I wrote furiously. Every free moment (and during the classes I skipped), were filled with furious typing. Even back then I was obsessed with having an authentic voice. I was determined that as I grew older, I would never allow myself to resent kids and look down on them. But more so, I never wanted to forget what it felt like to be a teenager. I didn't want to turn into an adult that didn't think teenagers had opinions or issues or dreams.

I never wanted to become what I hated.

As I grew into a young adult, graduated high school, dabbled around in university, it all seemed too easy. It felt like growing up was impossible, but even then I knew my voice had shifted. What I wrote was and is so affected by my life because those issues and ideas are what's writing from my heart. I let my voice shift and experimented with new things, But I also kept writing YA, right up to when I got my job at the mental health agency and began a shift of focus in my life.

I began volunteering with the kids at the agency, those who lived on the campus where I worked, some who had undergone unspeakable tragedies, abuse, had lost their parents, were parents themselves, and on and on. Yet at the heart of it these were still just kids, and I saw a lot of myself from just a few years ago in them. I'm close enough in age to some of them that a kid will play a song that's on my iPod and I can't help but bust out a jam. Yet despite how close in age I am, there is a world of difference between me and them, between who I was and who I am. And it made me realize something.

Adults cannot write young adult fiction without having some contact with kids and teens. Whether you're a parent, a teacher, work in child care, have friends who have kids, volunteer with kids-- you cannot create an authentic voice and story for kids and teenagers without actually talking to some.

Yes, yes, we were all kids once. And that experience is vital to creating fiction for teens. But you also have to accept that you're looking at it all through the lens of an adult. Your experiences since you were 16 have vastly changed you and how you view the world. There is plenty of adult fiction out there starring teenagers-- it's not considered YA because it is written with an adult audience in mind and so touches on thoughts and experiences that teenagers won't relate to as much.

What makes YA, YA? The target audience.

A "positive thought" left in my Positive Thoughts Bowl at work, written by a teenage client. Sorry it's crappy quality.

It's great that so many adults read young adult fiction these days. Hell, I'm an adult that reads YA. But I'm not who it's written for. The voices and experiences it needs to reflect are for those teenagers out there looking for something to relate to. They want a reading experience that speaks to them, and that is the entire point of young adult. It's to give a voice to teenagers and children. And the only way to successfully do that is to talk to teenagers, interact with them in some way or another. Consider it research, a very important kind.

Yeah, I hear you. Sometimes teenagers suck, Especially the ones that roll their eyes at you, or call you a little c**t, or get charged with assault. But just reading other YA novels as research into the "current" teenage experience isn't enough. That's a dangerous way to create a circle-jerk of outdated or false information. If you don't actually take the time to relate to those you're actually trying to market to, you run the risk of talking over your audience instead of giving them a voice.

What does that look like? It looks like creating a 'moral' for your readers to take away. It's purposefully forging characters to be perfect role models instead of creating true to life people. It's minimizing what might be 'offensive' or 'inappropriate' or  what you 'don't think kids/teens can handle.' It's assuming you know what's best for them and undermining their intelligence. It's inauthentic and kids can always tell.

If you really want to inspire a lifelong love of reading and literature in kids and teenagers, you have to create authentic experiences they can relate to, and touch on ideas and emotions that will leave lasting impressions on them. If you only focus on imposing a moral or lesson on them, on speaking over them, then it feels too much like work or school or the rules they're used to at home. If they sense the catch, they will drop your book in a heartbeat and probably drop reading not long after, if every other book they read is the same experience.

When you start to think you know what's best for young readers, you take away their autonomy, which is so vital in a world where young people seem to have so little of it. It's such an easy thing to do, and I'm certain I'm guilty of looking down my nose at those younger than me at times. In order for me to keep my promise to my younger self, to keep my voice authentic and true to the teenage experience, I will get to know my target audience and do my best to always be the conduit to their voice, and not its silencer.

I hop you will too.

Art and Truth

There are bars on the window of my hotel room.

The room sits on the sixth floor of an older building, and the brass framed windows open large enough to slide through, without a screen to feign the idea of security. Three white bars stretch across only the opening, bolted to stone and porcelain, with a bold-type logo stretched across the bottom reading ‘Guardian Angel.’

The bars make me want to jump more than the inviting cement waiting at the bottom of the six-storey drop.

Not that I want to die, mind you. I actually enjoy my life and am quite happy with the way things go, most of the time. But it’s difficult to fight that urge to leap from a rooftop, to play chicken with a transit train and lose, or to pull the steering wheel and send my car into a tree. I think it’s that adrenaline of oncoming death, that brief moment before tragedy hits where everything seems to hang still, that I’m really aching for. Something beyond the mundane, the trivial conflicts and strife that do more to drag you down rather than make you feel alive.

Of course, it’s not something that I talk to many about. Urges of destruction are rarely a socially acceptable topic to entertain at tea time, and yet these impulses are very real, and very there. It joins the many other dark little secrets of mine that are not tea-time worthy, and despite the fact that I know others face similar demons and entertain morbid thoughts, we all keep them tucked away, out of sight and out of mind.

But things don’t stay buried. Not in the mind and not in the world. And when wild dogs dig up our skeletons, we have no choice but to answer for them. I believe the more frightening option, however, is that these skeletons stay buried, that we harbour them in secret until the day we die, and those we leave behind have no idea what really took place within us.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I am not able to silence the demons for long, or keep these morbid thoughts from bleeding out. Most often these themes and ideas creep out into my art. Stories of war, racism, utter despair, and struggle are those that I’m drawn to write. I want to look into the abyss and see what looks back. I want to know what’s hiding beneath everyone’s tea-time demeanour. I don’t want those secrets to stay secrets.

And today, as I leaned against the bars of my hotel room, looking out over the gloomy downtown Seattle and imagining a moment of free falling, I realized: you can’t lie in art. It is pure truth, and the things you create are a reflection of all you are within, the nice things and the not so nice things. It is impossible to create art without truth. Whether that truth is a well-known and accepted one, like the love between a mother and child, or something not so talked about, like the daily struggle against depression, you cannot make art without a reflection of soul taking place.

And perhaps that’s where I’ve gone wrong for the last little while. It’s difficult as a writer to sometimes share your work with others, as that is a piece of raw, unprotected soul that you are offering to them. It can be crushing to have others dismiss or criticize it, and I believe as we grow older, it makes us more guarded and less willing to show those pieces of ourselves, whether in art or otherwise. Without realizing it, we quietly censor ourselves more and more as life goes on, until we are nothing more than our tea-time demeanour, our polite little masks. For me, it’s become more and more difficult to share and create my work, being so overwhelmed by the opinions and criticisms of others, not necessarily about me or my writing, but about what I’m actually trying to say.

Is my message too dark? Will people be offended if I talk about these subjects? How do I portray this in a way that doesn’t make people think that I’m a monster?

On a walk with my boyfriend the other night, we discussed art and what made something “real” art. He made the point that art wasn’t to be shared, that “real” art was something created by the artist, for the artist. And though I argued vehemently, (“Of course art should be shared! It can’t be locked up in a box and forgotten!”) I think there’s definitely some truth in there. When you become so overwhelmed by what everyone else wants, which is very common when getting into the business side of art, you can’t hear your own inner muse. You can’t find your truth, because it gets mixed up in everyone else’s truths. And when you lose your own truth, you either can’t produce anything, falling prey to the devil’s “writer’s block,” or you lose all love for the craft.

I like to think diversity in art isn’t just about the artists themselves, but what you’re really saying. I like to think that the stories and truths within need to be as individualized as the artists, and we should be mindful of looking over each other’s papers too much. When you have too many people trying to stick their thumbs in the pie, you only get a crust full of holes. Inspiration is great, but there’s always a balance to things, and too much outside influence dilutes your individual style.

So, at least for me, that’s what I need to do: write truthfully. Be honest about what I feel and experience as a human. There are always those out there who feel just the same, who need those stories or that art to make them feel connected to someone else. To make them feel not so alone.

At the end of the day, what keeps me from pulling the steering wheel, from taking a swan dive, from leaping to dark impulses, isn’t some stupid ‘guardian angel’, but the fact I know I’m not alone. I know there are others out there like me, because I’ve shared my art and they’ve shared theirs. I know the world is dark and morbid and so am I, but it’s also full of incredible people, whom I hope to understand and who can understand me.

So I’ll be honest, even when it’s not easy. I’ll try to remember the feeling of art as a child, when it felt like my skin was as thick as steel. Because, let’s face it: I will have zero control over my demise when the time comes. I could die tomorrow, and I couldn’t bear to leave anything left unsaid.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Why Edgy Gets Me Excited

So, currently I'm reading Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver, and boy, am I smitten. The characters, story, and tension are all wonderful, but what really gets me are the parts most people may consider "edgy." I love the language-- the swearing is few and far between, but it feels accurate. The mentions of sex and sexuality, as well as what goes along with it-- sexual assault and porn to start. Then there's the drug mentions. One main character may only do a little pot or smoke cigarettes, but the harder stuff exists on the fringes-- it's there, mentioned in passing, just another part of the atmosphere.

But why do I love that this book touches on all of that? It's by no means an edgy story-- not about drug addicts or the like-- it's a story of sisters and their relationship. Truthfully, I may be a bit of an angst bunny. I love it when things get a little dark, but really, these things make books more real (when done well) because they were a part of my teenage experience. As a teenager, these things weren't the forefront of my life. I wasn't a druggie or had a lot of sex. In fact, aside from a little underage drinking I was a fairly straight laced kid. But I knew these things existed. I knew kids in my grade who would experiment with drugs, who were caught having sex in school (and thus, suspended). The gritty realities of life were in my line of sight, even if I didn't participate in them.

Perhaps that's why I'm so attached to VG. Most of the plot does not involve those things, but they do have an effect on their lives of the characters. As teenagers, sex, drugs and the like are relatively new experiences, and they don't always know how to react or how to stay away from them. After all, it can be hard to look away from a car crash. Even if you consciously know it is bad, you don't always have the willpower needed to turn away from it.

Yes, a lot of parents and publishers would like to keep YA fiction clean, hence why most of these subjects are referred to as "edgy." They tone down real life in the hopes of keeping teenagers naive for just a little longer. It's something that I'd consider "edgywashing," an attempt to focus in on things that won't be offensive. I have nothing wrong with a G rated story, but it often feels unreal, like the author has stuck blinders up on readers to only focus on certain areas of life. Sure, there's a time and place for it, but much like Hollywood's whitewashing, it feels as something's missing. When we get whitewashing, we ignore the diversity in our world and suddenly, a whole bunch of people don't have anything to relate to. Often, that is how I feel in an edgywashed story. Sure, I can enjoy the ride, but it's hard for me to relate to a lot of these characters. They feel unreal, because my experience as a teenager wasn't nearly as sheltered as some others'.

I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. I work in a residential treatment facility for traumatized children, who have come from horrible backgrounds. Some have been abandoned by their parents, abused in innumerable ways, others have serious addiction problems, whatever. These kids are definitely the exception to the rule, but they often relay a similar issue as many POC-- they don't feel like they can relate to characters in most fiction. They don't know what it's like to live in a normal house with normally functioning parents, something that can be found in many YA novels. Because they have a hard time relating, they don't pick up a book as often. It doesn't feel "real" to them. They want to read about characters who have similar experiences as they do, and they want to learn from how the character deals with that situation.

I'm not saying every book should have sex and drugs and rock and roll. There's a time and place for it, and there's a right way to do it. Some books definitely don't need it. But, there's a plethora of conflict within those subjects, innumerable things to be done with it and kids out there who need those stories-- not because they want things that are "cool" and "edgy," but because that is their lives, and they're trying to figure out how to deal with those struggles. They need to know they're not the only ones dealing with those issues, and that there is a way out. Because like POC, like LGBT, like children with disabilities, they just want to see someone like themselves in fiction. They want to know they're not alone.

Writing Resolutions 2015

I'm a few days late with this post, but as it's the New Year, I know my fellow writers are setting their goals for 2015. I've set some of my own goals as well, but with a certain degree of caution, as in previous years I've been a little overzealous with my writing goals. When you set goals that are outside of your control and then you fail to meet them, it can be pretty disheartening year after year. And why would we waste time setting goals that we can't even meet? The point of new years resolutions isn't to make us feel bad, or to abandon them a week into the new year, but to set ourselves on a path to success.

To make 2015 your Best Writing Year Yet, take a look at your goals and ask yourself: can I achieve this? If the answer is yes, then it's time to make a plan.

You're setting goals, not labeling dreams. A lot of the time when making goals (and I myself am very guilty of this) I get a bit of a big head and begin planning all sorts of things. "I'm going to write nine books this year!" I would exclaim, completely neglecting how on earth I would fit that much writing and that many words into such a (relatively) short time frame. It would be lovely to conquer the world in 2015, but unless I can figure out how to accomplish this and be able to visualize myself achieving this, then it's likely going to remain a dream. Take a look at your own goals and visualize yourself accomplishing this goal and, based on your previous experiences, how long this will take. Just because a goal is overzealous doesn't mean it's not a goal worth pursuing. Sometimes it's just about adjusting the scale.

Don't set a goal that hinges on someone else's decision. This can take a lot of forms. Many writers make the mistake of trying to obtain an agent or editor as one of their new year's goals, when in reality, you have little to no control over it. This goal can mean, as it did for me in previous years, sending out more queries, working on researching more, entering pitch contests and attempting to engage more with potential agents, and that is where you should focus your goal. On actions you can take. If that means 2015 will be the time you perfect your query writing skills, then set that as your goal. Because even if you do everything right, it is still up to the agent/editor whether or not the time is right for the particular work you have. A lot of this business hinges on luck and timing and personal opinion. Just because you didn't snag an agent doesn't mean you didn't spend hours perfecting your pitches, sending our queries, doing research. If you hinge your success on that yes, you're often forgetting all the hard work you've put in. Don't sell yourself short, kids.

Goals need to be obtainable. Don't tell yourself you'll read 100 books this year if last year you only managed five. If you want to set a goal to improve productivity, look at how much you did last year, and then attempt to double that number. Or set a schedule you can keep in order to reach the set goal you want.

Make a plan. If you don't have a plan for obtaining your goal, it's probably going to stay a dream. Plan to read ten pages a day. Or write 1000 words a day. Don't just make a goal to "write more blog posts." Make a plan to "write one blog post a week." When we get into these routines, they become habits and then something we do without thought. More than that, though, we have to use that schedule to push ourselves through those times we'd rather be doing something else. Writer's block, feeling blah, busy work life, too much housework-- the excuses are innumerable, but if you have a set time to sit down and work, it's easier to push those other things aside. After all, just as housework and real life and self-care are all important, so is writing, so we have to make time for it.

How are your writing resolutions going? What did you decide on this year? Share your thoughts and tips in the comments, as I'd love to have your input.

Happy New Year, keyboard kritters, and may all the best muses make nests in your brain.

-Katie

Marketing vs Writing: Where Categories Fall Short

During my daily browsing, I came across a rather rude article about young adult fiction entitled How to Write a Shitty Young Adult Novel. Now, aside from me calling it rude, it is just a satire of many troupes and cliches found in young adult writing. It makes some very solid points, and there's a reason why nearly everything the writer outlined strikes a familiar chord with readers of YA. It left me between a rock and a hard place, because although I was raving mad and spouting my usual "YA is not a descriptor of quality!" I also saw that there was some valid points being made.

I was stuck. What to do. I could have gone to Twitter to post rants squashed down into 140 characters, or I could've ignored it entirely, choked it up to someone else's opinion and moved on with my day. But as I pondered, it occurred to me: why do I feel I have to defend myself? Why do I have to defend YA?

I could scream it until my face turns blue. YA, MG, NA, or adult is not a descriptor of quality. There are bad books everywhere. The title of that article could have been changed to at least a dozen other things. After all, isn't SF/F mocked for being "unrealistic" and "using magic or science to solve problems without difficulty"? Isn't romance and chick lit often thought of as just as wooden and hollow? Isn't literary and contemporary mocked for being dull or pretentious? It doesn't justify it, and mocking any genre or niche of fiction seems like the childish thing to me. Do you really have to elevate yourself above others just to feel good about what you enjoy? Then perhaps you need to reevaluate yourself before you start looking at others.

But why do people feel the need to dictate for others what is appropriate and not? 

We're told to avoid trolls. The internet is full of them, as well as real life, and they only wish to make people angry with whatever fodder they can come up with. Articles like this are no different. Sure, they may be accurate in their criticisms sometimes, but I fail to see what is being gained by shaming others for what they like. Whether its reading YA or MG, or enjoying My Little Pony, or falling in love with 50 Shades of Grey, or playing video games when you've become "too old" for something so silly, we all have or do something others may consider "childish" or "inappropriate" because you are not the target audience.

It comes down to, in my opinion, a lot of marketing bleeding into our perception of what is "normal." The marketing department of a publishing house decides vampires are the new hot ticket and begins to sell them to teenage girls, but when teenage boys begin reading them-- or adults, or even young children-- suddenly there's a societal problem. The books were not made with teenage boys or adults or children in mind, so it's not approrpaite for them. We use different shaming tactics--"Kids shouldn't have access to books with content like that." "Do you feel smart reading that book? Because obviously it's meant for kids and kids are stupid." "Ew, you actually want to read about ponies/vampires/X, isn't that for girls?" At the end of the day, content is content, and people don't fit into neatly made categories. Again, everyone else seems intent on deciding what is right for you.

Yes, there are people with their own opinions, and though they don't have to be wrong, it doesn't make the opinions of people who love, read, and write YA any less valid. Just because someone sets up a blog or works as a journalist does not mean they know what they're talking about. Hell, that includes me. I think it is important to remain aware of the effect categories, trends, marketing, and "target audiences" have on our writing. When we only focus on the idea of categories and what's appropriate for who, we forget that our art needs the freedom to grow and change, just as we do. If we get used to our comfort zones and never try to break boundaries, try something different, try to create something instead of just manufacturing something, then teen fiction has already been left to rot.

Ursula Le Guin said it best in her acceptance speech at the National Book Awards:

"Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between the production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship.

[...]

Books, you know, they’re not just commodities. The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art."

 Don't create the "Chosen One" story because you know it will sell. Don't sacrifice the needs of the story because someone else gets squeamish. Create art, then worry about where it fits later. Once you publish something, it's in print and there forever. Would you rather your debut be something you really care about, or an old story repackaged with different names?

If you're practicing art and not producing products, then you'll never have to defend yourself, because if you care about the craft, you'll always intend to improve. In my opinion, it's the beauty of art: it inspires growth, change, and emotion. But products don't inspire anything. They fill a need and are forgotten about when it no longer has use.

Even then, I can't bring myself to mock a book I feel is nothing more than a product. The business is subjective and there are many people who were touched or inspired by books that have put me to sleep. That's the magic in reading and the shortcoming of categorizing. A category only tells us the most basic of information. A shirt may be orange, but there are thousands of shades of orange. We put words like "Sunset orange" or "Urban fantasy" to try and narrow it down, but just as it pales in comparison to actually looking at a colour, a category cannot begin to encompass what's really found between pages.

Writer Anxiety

As writers, I think we all share a tendency for anxiety. After all, if you want to be published, there's a lot of waiting you'll have to do. Waiting on beta readers, waiting on agents, waiting on editors, waiting, waiting, waiting. With waiting comes a lot of time to think, and that is where the anxiety comes in.

Anxiety can affect a person in many different ways. At my child services agency, I get a glimpse of how anxiety can play out. Sometimes it's with physical/verbal assault, withdrawing, screaming, pacing, destroying property, lashing out at people-- it's incredible how many reports I get about the kids doing INSANE things, and the only explanation the report offers is "This client suffers from anxiety issues."

Sure, we may not be jumping people in the street (and yet as I write this, I remember, a writer did this recently...) but anxiety does still affect us, and can cause us to act without thought.

For example, anxiety may cause us to:

--> Respond to an unsavory review (Always a bad idea, even if you're trying to be civil.)

--> Prod a agent/editor for a response (Not always a bad plan, but if you're nudging a week after they got your manuscript, they may think you're not as well-versed in the industry as you should be.)

--> Jump to conclusions. (This is a big one. Anxiety can eat away at your thoughts, until you think, "So-and-so MUST think this, because it's been so long/hasn't been long enough/ect" This can cause us to act impulsively, which may reflect badly on our professionalism.)

--> Vent. (Venting is a good thing, but there is a TIME and PLACE for everything. Venting to friends and family? Go for it. Venting about an agent on a public forum? NOT SMART.)

--> Lash out. (Sometimes we get it in our heads that these gatekeepers in our way just want to crush our dreams. NOT TRUE, but thoughts can worm their way in when we least want them to, and this may cause us to send a hurtful email. Also a major career killer. Industry professionals talk, remember that.)

Even good writers make mistakes, and it's never a bad thing to take care of your own well-being. There's no sense in being miserable, so here are some tips to combat those nasty voices in the back of your head:

--> Do something else. Distracting yourself is the best way to get your mind off publishing issues. Write something else, work on your next project, or spend some time away from the writing world. Go for a walk, build a birdhouse-- do something productive. You get nothing done by worrying.

--> Kill those thoughts. Anxious thoughts can leak in at any time. I've found the best way to handle them is to shut them down immediately. Whenever I start to think, "Why hasn't my agent responded yet?" or the like, I immediately sweep them from my mind and tell myself, "This is something I have no control over." And I change my train of thought. I can drive myself mad if I don't change my thought process.

--> Relaxation techniques. Sometimes that tension worms its way into your muscles. Take some time to de-stress. Enjoy a bath, write in your journal, do something you enjoy that will not add any stress or anxiety.  If you're kinder to your mental health, it's easier to get back into that writing flow later.

--> Process through your worries. If you have some fear you cannot shake, start at the beginning and work through logically. Don't try to catastrophize the worst situation. Work it through and reassure yourself that patience is the best option (or perhaps it is time for a nudge-- just make sure you never send an impulse email.)

--> Educate yourself. The more you know about the publishing process, the less stress you'll face. Learn about wait times, etiquette, and the things agents/editors expect from you. That way, when you face a tough situation, you know how to handle it and you'll deal with less stress and anxiety in the long run.

What are your ways of dealing with writer anxiety?

Happy writing!

Peace,

-Katie

So You Want to Write a Novel: Part One -- The Idea

So you want to write a novel: Part 1 – the Idea

I’ve come across dozens of people who, after I tell them I’m a writer, say to me, “I’ve always wanted to write a book.”

Why don’t you?

If you’ve somehow stumbled onto my blog, then you’ve made the conscious decision to start reading up on this marathon that you want to undertake. Because writing a book is a marathon that lasts a few weeks for some, and a few years for others. But how do you get started? I’m about to start writing a new book myself, so I thought I’d catalogue the step-by-step process, from idea to agent, to give some of you a glimpse into how the process works.

Disclaimer: This is my process. It’s different for every person. Do NOT feel pressured to conform to one way of writing. We all have to find our groove, this is only one option.

What do you need when you get that brilliant idea? How do you go from inspiration to chapter one? Honestly, this is the craziest part of the process for me. For several weeks beforehand, I go through a “musings” phase. This is when I absorb as much inspiration as possible, stretch my creative muscles and let my ideas take form in my subconscious. Often I need some time to sit back and think about everything before I even get started.

Once I’ve got all the Thinking done, I move onto writing some of this down in note form. Before I start a novel, there are some things I NEED to know. I’ve learned it’s far easier to plan, plan, plan than to go back and try and fix major plot issues later down the road. Some writers don’t like to do as much notes as I do—often they take an idea and just run with it. I do this too in some ways, but in order for me, personally, to take writing from a hobby to a profession, I need to stop saying to myself, “Ah, I’ll figure it out later” and start with, “Let’s deal with this now.”

Many things change from beginning to end, but before anything happens, I need to know The Bare Bones:

Characters:

 Main Character

è Who are they when they’re alone? Are they quiet? Easily bored? Extroverted? Introverted? Do they prefer a loud party or a quiet walk through the park?

è Who are they with people? How do they act around those they like? Those they hate?

è What motivates them? What do they want more than anything in the world?

è What makes them angry? What gets them depressed? What makes them want to give up?

è What is their biggest dream? Their biggest fear?

Once I’ve answered all these questions, I move on to secondary characters, a love interest, and antagonists. Planning out things like appearance, nationality, sexuality, ect., are just as important, but I find those very easy to plan out, so I try to focus on the things that aren’t always so obvious to me.

Note: Antagonists don’t necessarily have to be characters, but they must be well-thought out. Your antagonist is just as important as your protagonists, and must have wants and desires that are as believable as your MC’s.

Plot:

 Main Plot:

è What is the major problem at hand?

è Who/what stands against the MC? Why?

è How does your MC plan to fight back to achieve his/her goals?

Subplots:

Subplots can be a great thing, so long as they don’t overcrowd your story. I always tend to overdo it, so I try and plan out which subplots will play an active role.

à Decide on what kind of subplot you want. Is it a romance subplot? One of self-discovery? One related to the MC’s family/home life?

è Why is it in your book? Is it really necessary, or is it simply a darling you don’t want to kill?

è What does it add to your story?

Setting:

Your setting is, in a sense, its own character. It should receive just as much attention as the other components of your novel.

Basic:

è Where are you setting your story? Why?

è Does this setting have a connection to your characters/plot?

è How does your atmosphere reflect your story?

Worldbuilding:

è How does your world function? Even if you’re writing a contemporary novel, the town/city you set it in should have its own unique characteristics.

è Where do people get their food/water/medical supplies, ect?

è How does the landscape affect how the people live?

è What is unique to the world you’ve created?

è What beliefs/prejudice/myths are prominent in your culture?

Voice:

è What POV will you use? Is it 3^rd person, 1^st, or 2^nd? Do you have an omniscient narrator? How many narrators will you use? Is this in present or past tense? (Or perhaps future tense?) And of course—WHY?

è What tone will you use? How does your narrator affect your word choice, diction, style, ect?

è How will these decisions affect the story you’re trying to tell?

Research:

è What don’t I know that will better my story in some way or another?

è What things could I incorporate into my story? What is something I’ve been interested in that might work well with what I’ve already chosen to write about?

Anything else?

è Is there anything I want to plan out before I start writing? (Certain deaths, character traits, plot twists, ect?)

 

Once I've answered all these questions, and I feel I have a decent grasp on my idea, the characters and the world, I move onto the opening pages.

 

Oh joy. Those damn opening pages.

 

TBC...

"Oh My God, They Killed Kenny!"

Character death. For some writers, the best part of the job. For others, one they dread the most. Personally, killing off characters holds a very special place in my heart. Not to say I get warm fuzzies whenever I hack someone to pieces, but I do get a profound sense of, "This is a very important moment." (If I wasn't a writer, I might have some explaining to do for that sentence. lol!)

I'm a combination of a pantser and a outliner. I outline to a degree, let my imagination fill in the rest, and deviate from my plan if my characters feel so inclined. However, the one thing that I have never gone off-track with in my writing is when I kill off characters. When I sit down to write chapter one, I know exactly who will die, when, and why.

My philosophy on character death is very simple. I love it when a great character gets a wonderful death scene, because it can really give that character one final hurrah before they leave the story. However, if a character death feels contrived or put in simply for dramatic effect, I get really angry.

Whenever you decide to kill off a character, at whatever stage you are in your story, you have to ask yourself a few important questions.

1) Why am I killing this character off? You need to know this answer. This should be the FIRST question you ask yourself when character death pops into your head. WHY are you doing this? Will their death progress the plot? Give your MC more motivation? Give them heartache? You can have a dozen reasons for this, so long as you have one. Using character death to eliminate someone whose become unnecessary to the story is NEVER okay. Find some way to work them out of your story, or back in, or get rid of that character all together.

2) What effect will this have on the story? This is a little different than why. Think of a ripple effect. Everything a character does in a story has consequences, and so should this. If this character is important to the MCs, or villians, or just a primary player, their death will change the dynamic of the story. This is also how the reader will get hit with that solid emotional punch. It's not just that the character's gone, but in their absence, everything has changed, either for the better or worse.

For example, in Shell, one of my main characters is killed off, and the dynamic of the group of friends vastly changes. They went from being very close friends to each drifting away and falling apart on their own. It was more than just killing someone off. It was how that affected those left behind.

3) What do I want the readers to feel? This is my favorite question, and the one I have the most fun with. When this character dies in the story, how do you want your reader to feel about it? If this is a traitor's death, you may want your reader to be happy that this evil person is gone. How do you do that? Set up the character as sympathetic, and then take away all the sympathy during the betrayal. When we get to the death scene, watch your dialogue, watch every detail. Think of how your character is feeling as they die. What are their regrets? Their wishes? Their last thoughts? Now combine that with what you want your readers to feel. If you want them to feel remorse for your traitor, highlight sympathetic traits as he's dying, or shortly beforehand. Maybe show regret, so that even when they're gone, your reader feels some pity for them. Or, you can elimate all symathy during the death scene, and have him go down snarling and screaming, which will leave a very different last impression for your reader.

This is a question you must ask yourself as you write all the way through. Every time this character comes into play, consider that they are going to die. Their screen time is limited, so you have to make the best of it. Amp up the sympathy, but don't make them into a whiny baby. Craft them into a hero, so their death has that extra punch.

If you need to think of a good example of this, Rue from the Hunger Games is a perfect example. Her character is extremely sympathic, and coupled with her gruesome death, it leaves a heartbreaking last impression on your reader that resonates with them.

Always remenber: Someday, somebody reading your book will fall in love with this character, and when they die, you need to make sure their death is justified, so that reader will put down the book and admit the story is so much better for it.

Know your Writing

Whoa. Been a while. *blows dust off blog* How're all my lovelies out in the blogsphere tonight? It's been a while since I've posted anything, but it's not because I haven't been doing anything. I've finished ZAP, my YA steampunk with dragons, and got the crits back from Le Agent. I'm waiting to dive into it, but first up I'm finishing Riot, my YA thriller/sci-fi/I don't know what the hell it is. These two books have soaked up my attention for quite a few months. They're very different, and I've learned a lot from both of them. Mostly about the importance of knowing your novel. It seems like a pretty basic things for writers to do, but I don't think writers are diving deep enough into the story. They don't realize that as the creators of these worlds, writers should know absolutely every detail.

ZAP was a first attempt for me. Not necessarily my first steampunk, but definitely the first time I'd written a book so clean. It was heavily a romance, (new) and had a girl MC, which is often unusual and frightening for me. It's a tale of first love, competition, family, and dragons. There's lots of action, lots of characters.... and a lot of issues.

Riot, on the other hand, is a first person, present tense (new) novel from the POV of a boy growing up in Colorado. There are NO supernatural elements (new) and it's almost contemporary the way it's coming out. (new) It's the night to ZAP's day, dealing in edgy content, mucho death, and some nasty POVs on some touchy issues.

ZAP just came back from the agent with a lot of edits. It's a fun story, but it's not perfect. I spent a total of six months writing, editing, tweaking, and reading over ZAP, and by the time I sent it to Michael, I got a tepid, "I like it, but yeah, no." It can be salvaged, but it will take another whole draft and a hell of a lot of rewriting. The trouble is, I knew something was wrong with the foundation of the story when I was writing, and then editing, I just had no clue how to fix it.

Riot, though it's still being written, is a much more solid book. The characters are stronger. The plot makes more sense. It's all around a better book, and I have confidence it will go far. I haven't had such feelings for a book since I wrote Shell, the book that won me my agent.

So I've been thinking over these last few days: what am I missing? What component do Shell and Riot have that's missing from ZAP? And then it hit me.

With both Shell and Riot, I spent at least two months planning before writing anything. I planned out characters, I planned out the settings, background info, foreground info. I did research, I planned out some of my scenes, I did a bit of outlining. Granted, I did all this with ZAP. What I didn't do with ZAP was acquaint myself 100% with my story.

I didn't know every detail of ZAP's world. I didn't know every little thing about my MC. I knew most of it, but when it comes down to it, most of it doesn't isn't good enough.

As an author, no one knows our books better than ourselves. It's our job as the story's creator to know the world we're building, know the characters-- every little detail.

I couldn't tell you what Charlotte's (ZAP) favorite color is, because I didn't take the time to get to know her, her motivations, her dreams, her passions. I didn't look at where she came from or tried to think of how she reacted to events in her past. What did these events do to her? How has that shaped who she is now?

Whereas Riot? Ask me anything about my main characters. You could ask me what their favorite fish is, and I could tell you. I don't have to know every detail about the boys, but I do have to know them well enough to make an educated guess on what it would be.

So writers, here's my tip: Know your writing. If you think you know everything you can about your book, its characters and its rules, then ask a friend to test you out. Explain your book and have them ask questions. Anything from the functions of your world (How do the people get food? How do they travel?) to what your characters like to do for fun. You should be able to answer pretty much anything they ask you. If you can't-- especially to big, vague questions like "what is your character's biggest dream?" then you have more work to do.

I wrote ZAP when I wasn't certain on it, and it led to big problems. But starting Riot and Shell, I knew what I was writing, and it made the words-- and confidence-- flow a hell of a lot easier.

Peace,

-Katie

The Year My Book Didn't Sell

This post is about 2 weeks overdue, but I know you'll all forgive me. ;)

So, some pretty amazing things happened this year, and some pretty amazing things didn't happen. About this time last year, my manuscript Shell scored me an agent, Mr. Michael Carr, whose know-how and agent-ness has helped me through some sketchy, author-related moments of flail.

I think every book, before I started querying, I sat down and said, "This is the one." I believed in every book I submitted to agents. How could I expect an agent to sell my book if I didn't even believe in it? But with Shell, things always seemed a little different. Writing it was different, editing it was different, and I knew when I held the printed off, finished version, that this one was going to get me an agent.

And it did. So why didn't it get me a publisher?

It's easy to focus on getting an agent, but the real fact of the matter is getting an agent is never the endgame. The endgame has always been to sell your book. Getting an agent is an achievement, but it's by no means a guarentee of success. Sometimes the book just doesn't sell.

Sometimes? Let's be real here. Most often, the books don't sell.

So, like many others, I'm kind of drifting through a strange limbo between submission #1 and submission #2. I think once we've come this far, we expect to go all the way. We expect the book to sell once we have an agent, because if one person likes it, why won't everyone else? Part of the problems stems from only hearing the success stories. The book that sold in a week. The book that went to auction. The book that's got a six-figure deal. But 99% of first books don't sell. Most second books don't sell either.

That's not to say that there's anything wrong with your book if it doesn't sell. The great and terrible thing about this industry is it's incredibly subjective and time sensitive. Perhaps your book didn't sell because one too similiar landed on the editor's desk earlier that week. Maybe it didn't sell because the editor doesn't like your vampire/elf crossover. Maybe an editor on the fence about your submission got some bad input from an intern and decided to pass. Whatever the reason, it's not a reflection of you as a writer. Rejection is an unfortunate side-effect of publishing.

I will say, setting aside Shell has been really difficult for me. Rejections are one thing, but shelving a book altogether feels kind of like giving up. I know it's not though. Shell was the first book I've ever written that's graced an editor's desk, but it won't be the last.

I think the most important thing I learned this year was how to let go. Not just when it comes to shelving Shell, but also about letting go of my control over the process. As writers, (unless we're co-writing) we have 100% authority over our world, characters and plot. But as we pursue publishing, slowly that control slips away. With an agent submitting my work, there was no querying to be done, nothing to keep track of, and I didn't have rejections rolling in every other day. I poked Michael every week in the beginning, just for some sort of update on what was going on. Of course, all he could ever provide me with was, "Nothing yet."

2011 was the year my book didn't sell, but I'm letting that go too. It's hard because it almost feels like accepting defeat, but it's anything but. I'm letting go of Shell, I'm letting go of 2011, and I'm letting go of my control-freakishness. I'm doing all this so I can start 2012 right-- by looking towards the future and writing new things.

Maybe 2012 will be the year my book DOES sell.

Peace,

-Katie

4 Ways To Get The Ideas Flowing

As writers we are often bombarded by ideas for books. Sometimes we have so many shiny WIP ideas we can't get a handle on the book we're writing. And that's great. But sometimes there aren't that many ideas. Sometimes there are NO ideas.

Sometimes it's writer's block. Sometimes there are family or emotional issues that keep you from coming up with anything. And sometimes you're just stuck.

Unfortunately, we can't wait around for inspiration. This doesn't just apply to writing, this applies to coming up with ideas, plotting, creating characters, all that jazz. Sometimes we have the luxury to wait around for another idea, but if you're a professional writer, people may be waiting for your next book. You may be under contract. The world won't wait for you to come up with an idea.

Here's a short list on ways to inspire inspiration. 4 easy ways to kick your butt in gear.

1) Compile a list of the things you want to write. Go through your favorite books and write a list of everything you've always WANTED to write. Have you toyed with the idea of a western romance? Have you had a character lingering in the back of your mind you wanted to try writing? Write it down. Once you have a list, try and match some together. Pair the sci-fi with Chinese culture and add an OCD main character whose petrified of space ships. How many aspects can you weave together? Can you create a story from that?

2) Write from prompts. Tried and true, but it works. You can find prompt generators online, or even just ask the people around you for objects, situations, and locations for story ideas. Go to three separate people, ask one for a location, as one for a profession, ask the last for an object. Taking those three ideas, can you weave a story out of that? For a different approach, you can take word prompts and write short blurbs to timed sessions. Let the words unravel without planning anything out. If the ideas come, run with it.

3) People Watch. This is my favorite, and the easiest. It's best done in public with strangers. Pick someone from the crowd and watch them. Study their clothes, their behavior, the way they talk or stand or walk. Then create a story for them. Create a name, create their family, create a backstory. Figure out why they're there, and be creative. Your character profiles can be mundane, or fantastical. That woman may be a spy from a British Academy waiting on orders from the US division. That man could be meeting with his wife to tell her the results of the chemo treatments. Create them as characters in your mind and build your story from there.

4) Bounce ideas. This one's difficult for me, but every time I do it, I'm always amazed and delighted at the results. Talking to other people, especially writers or heavy readers, is a great way to generate ideas. Even if the other person doesn't give you ideas, sometimes they ask questions that can get you thinking, and lead you to your own epiphany. This is definitely the most fun, as it works wonderfully. Whenever I'm stuck, just a few hours with my beta and there's nothing we can't solve.

Happy Writing,

Between-Book Blues

Every writer has faced it. That moment when you finish one book before beginning another. For some, the wait period is only a few hours before they begin on a new project. Sometimes it's months before they sit down and write another book.

For me? Well, I usually edit the book during the wait period, which kinda feels like writing, if you squint and turn your head to the side. But after that? It's usually about 1 & 1/2 to 2 months of planning for my next book. In which I write... nothing.

Frightening, really. And it does disrupt my life. When I'm working on a project, I'm constantly thinking about it, tweaking it, working on it in my free time. When I'm between projects, suddenly there is a big, gaping hole where most of my life used to fit.

I spend a lot of time out of the house during these months. I spend a lot of time on twitter, facebook and my email, waiting for SOMETHING to happen to capture my attention for the next few minutes.

Being between projects drives me nuts, and after a few months, if I don't start on something, I usually look something like this:



Some people write short stories. (WHAT? Write something SHORTER than 100K?) Some people read. (Can't complain there.) Some people spend time with family. (What family?) Some even have different projects that they juggle. (You lot are never really BETWEEN projects, are you?)

So I wanna know: how do you handle the between-book blues?

Me? I just go bat-crap crazy.