I’m going to come clean about a part of my writing process that might look… suspicious, if you actually saw me doing it.
(And I’ll come clean about why I’m coming clean: I’m about to write a “Day in the Writing Life” post for the Apocalypsie blog, and this part of my “process” will be there. Better to make a clean breast of it, right? Haha I said breast. Sorry, I couldn’t help it.)
The part of my writing day I’m talking about is this one:
Except I'm not nearly as cute as these puppies.
I know, I know. It sounds like such a cop-out. “I’m not sleeping, I’m resting my eyes” — or in this case — “I’m not sleeping, I’m pre-writing/writing/revising.” But it’s true. A good nap – not a real, deep sleep one, but a cat nap when you’re thinking about your manuscript – can be just the thing.
Try it! Maybe you’ll have the sorts of epiphanies I’ve been having with startling frequency these days with your own manuscript. If you don’t, who cares? You still win. Because, seriously, you need the sleep.
We all do.
Now get some rest! Then go back to your crazy NaNoWriMo lives. 🙂
Happy NaNoWriMo day, or whatever those lovely people call this day. Me? I’m not doing NaNo, as usual. But I have been writing up a storm, also as usual. I have a self-imposed deadline of December 16 for the first draft of my current WIP, which now has a title I (sort of) like: Chloe Green in the Grimoire Garden. What do you think?
Most days, I write about a thousand words. Not so much on weekends, more when inspiration shows up. Yeterday was a good writing day – 2.5 K.
But there are so many ways to measure a good writing day, aren’t there? I mean, come on, is word count as important as finally figuring out how to make a tricky plot point work?
Yesterday, my son asked how the writing had gone. I didn’t bother to tell him how many words I’d written – he doesn’t care about numbers outside of video game scores. “Awesome Possum,” I answered him, in Texan Middle-Grade Boy Language. “I got to use the words ‘explosive diarrhea’ in this chapter.”
“Awesome,” he agreed. Then a pause. “Can you work ‘spontaneous human combustion’ in next week?”
Why, yes. I thought, sensing another good writing day on the horizon. I think I can.
How do you measure your good writing days? Word count? How you feel at the end of the day? By the number of empty candy wrappers around your chair?
Cool Stuff: For those of you who don’t aspire to use words like “explosive diarrhea” in your children’s fiction, check out Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog post on Picture Book Month – also November! And then go buy some picture books for all your nieces and nephews. Heaven knows they don’t need any more toys. 🙂
First off, no. I will NOT give you her phone number. But I’m going to give you something better.
Those of you who have known me for a while know that I signed with the supertalented, ninja-agent-of-awesomeness Suzie Townsend in late 2009. At the time, she was an agent at Fineprint Literary Management. I “found” her – or rather, she found me – when I entered my query and first pages in a contest for the Backspace Conference in New York.
When she called, I had no idea who she was. She’d read my pages (since she shared an office with the contest judges), she was just starting out as an agent, and would I pretty please send her the full manuscript?
I think you can guess the rest of the story. But it all started with that query, and a contest.
Now, thanks to my Agent Extraordinaire, you have the chance to get her attention JUST LIKE I DID. Or, almost. She’s having a query contest to celebrate her move to Nancy Coffey Literary. (And, yes, I “moved” with her. Of course!) So, Writer Friends, polish up your queries, and hop on over to Suzie’s blog. But be quick! You only have one hour on Tuesday morning to get your query in.
Let me explain. This weekend was the Texas Book Festival, the most wonderful, free, fabulous event ever in Austin. I did it right this year.
I sat in on panels with authors I know and love like Elaine Scott, Varian Johnson, Jeanette Larson, Chris Barton, and Jennifer Ziegler — and authors I don’t know as well, but still love, like Rosemary Clement-Moore, Jill Alexander, and Joe Schreiber. I had lunch with the amazing Mary Johnson and other writer friends at Z’Tejas on Saturday, then took the Texas State Cemetery tour after dark.
At the cemetery, I shook Louis Sachar’s hand (then couldn’t wash it until I got home and rubbed the talent germs on both my sons, not kidding, I KNOW), then hung out with Cynthia Leitich-Smith, Jessica Lee Anserson, Shelli Cornelison, Jen Bigheart, Emily Kristin Anderson, oh and let’s not forget freaking Libba Bray and Sarah Dessen and… I can’t remember them all.
On Sunday, I listened to Rebecca Stead and Kate DiCamillo talk about their writing processes and what it’s like to win a Newbery (frightening and wonderful and dangerous if you believe it means you are the bomb because of it, according to these two). They were hilarious. I skulked around their signing tent with my husband and son until we were able to snap these pics.
Kate DiCamillo talks about books to my kid. Seriously. *flails*
I love how D. can't stop looking at Kate. I'm wondering whether Newbery Germs are contagious. Hoping so.
Afterward, I went to MORE panels, bought books, visited with magazine editors – ones I’d worked with before who I’d never met (which was so cool) and ones I may work with in the future (yay!) — librarians, booksellers and even some official Penguin people. Squee!
That night, after dinner, I was exhausted, but so happy.
Then I heard that Johnny Depp was playing an unscheduled gig (who knew he played guitar?) at the Nutty Brown Cafe, a hot hill country music venue at the end of my street. (I knew he really was in town, since a bunch of my friends had their pics of him from the night before up on Facebook.) We were driving past the Cafe, the music was going, and Dave said – “wanna go?” It wasn’t even that crowded.
I thought about it.
I mean, this guy?
But then I thought – no big. I’d already been in the presence of my rock stars all weekend- the authors who write so well, feel so passionately, and are so incredibly generous with their time and energy. Johnny Depp has nothing on Kate D. or Louis S.
And it was a school night, after all. And… I *did* have a new book I’d gotten at the Festival to read…
So we drove on.
And that, my friends is how I know I am the Biggest Book Nerd Ever.
Now, I’m off to write another thousand words on my Shiny New Manuscript. I might stare at a few Johnny Depp pictures later. You know. Just for inspiration.
Some of my friends in the Writing World are going through tough times. I hate this for them — writing is hard enough without dealing with rejected manuscripts, agent-loss, and endless rounds of inadequate revision.
You may not know it, my dear sweet Writer Friends, but over the past few years, I’ve had those times, too. Really, really bad times. I just don’t blog about them.
(Someday I will, but I’ll need to sell a few more books before I feel safe enough to share those parts of my writing journey in all their gory detail. I might also need some awards or something. A Newbery, and I will tell ALL, in a long-winded, Gwyneth Paltrow-worthy speech to people eating hotel-kitchen baked chicken and white rolls.
Give me a minute to step back from that crazy fantasy. (*slaps self to regain sanity*) )
The thing is, if you’re pursuing traditional publication, there are going to be some really bad days. Bad months, even, when the novel you’ve been working on doesn’t turn out to be the next Best Book in the World.
And on those days? After the chocolate has been eaten, the wine drunk, and the kids yelled at?
Go back to the page, Dear Friends. Run back to the page, and write the next damn book.
A poem I memorized when I was a little girl came into my mind today, when I got a sad email from a friend about a manuscript that might be laid to rest soon. It’s “We Play at Paste,” by Emily Dickinson, and the line goes “…our new hands — learned gem-tactics — practicing sands.”
The next book might be the gem. And the time you spent on the last ones? Never wasted, never lost. You learned gem tactics, practicing on those lovely early stories.
Now go and write, my wonderful dear, talented Writer Friends.
You know, I find that if I just wait around long enough to blog about something, somebody else much smarter, well-connected, and well-respected, will do it for me.
Ah, Procrastination. My good, good friend.
Anyway, I’ve been wondering for quite some time how middle grade authors get the word out for their books! I mean, there are a dozen amazing YA book blogs I could list in ten seconds. But middle grade ones aren’t so thick on the ground. (Although there are some very, very lovely ones. Just not as many!)
So, last week was Banned Books week. I kept wanting to blog about it, but I was in the middle of a personal Fahrenheit 451 episode in my own writing life, so I took a break. Of course, the censorship that was going on here was contained to my keyboard… and therefore (possibly) more insidious.
I was on the cusp of finishing the first draft of a book I’ve been working on for some time* — the book that’s been scaring me to write. I think I’ve mentioned it before on the blog. Anyway, I happened to get some news about another recently completed manuscript that worried me.** Was I writing too controversially? Was my work just TOO dark?
So, I stopped the work I was doing on my current Scary Novel, freaked out… and spent two weeks carving the heart out of it with an authorial grapefruit spoon. I finished the new, sanitized draft — well, almost. I was about 500 words from the end, and I found myself thinking “What happens next?”
And then I found myself answering: I don’t care.
Wow. That stunk. I’ve never written a whole novel before where I got that close to finishing, and couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to make it to The End.
So I pulled the socks out of my Muse’s mouth, smacked myself around a little, reminded myself that I don’t write for publication, yadda yadda… and went back to the old draft. I finished it.
It scares me to death. It is full of suck right now, as all first drafts are. It may not even make sense. But I cared what happened in that last scene in this version. I deeply, truly cared.
So there. Why I’ve been AWOL. I’m back now, though. Any of you Writer Friends have big news while I was angsting away my weeks?
* Years, actually. I have been writing this story – starting over again and again, for at least three years.
Ever have one of those weeks where all the troubles of the world come crashing down on you? And your kids need you, and your house looks like a slob pit, and you haven’t updated your blog in a week, and you don’t even care, because you MUST FINISH WRITING YOUR NOVEL?
So, that’s where I’m at. I’m going to stay away from the blog until the end of the week to give myself time and permission to make a fairly major change in my Work-in-Progress, and to polish and send off some Secret Contracted Work.
But I won’t leave you with nothing to do! So, courtesy of YA Highway, here’s the Stick Man game. Do it. It’s really fun!!
And I have a bit of good news I can share. I have an essay coming out in a Chicken Soup for the Soul anthology in November! *confetti*
I’ll be back next weekend, after the amazing Austin Teen Book Festival. Seriously, check out the line-up on this one. Scott Westerfeld, Maureen Johnson, Tera Lynn Childs, and all the local YA literati! Wowza — I’m taking my niece, her friend, my son, and however many other teens I can fit in the minivan.
And we’re all going to go paparazzi on these amazing authors. There will be pictures, promise.
In advance of my own book release next AUGUST 21, 2012 (get out your calendars right now!!! Mark it with a Sharpie pen!!!), I have been going to as many signings and launch parties as I possibly can. And not just because I’m taking notes and trying to figure out how to do The Best Book Launch Ever. (Which I totally am.) I’m also friends with a bunch of these authors. 🙂
Since I live in Austin, I have the happy coincidence of moving in the same circles as some of the most supportive kidlit writers anywhere ever. So when you go to a signing/launch here, you WILL run into at least a dozen other writers, and usually plenty of regular non-writerly reader types, too.
Let me explain. Jessica remarked on how amazing it was so have all those people there to support her, her family and friends, and all these wonderful authors, and I thought — it’s just like a funeral! The people who love her most in the world are all there — and they wouldn’t think of being anywhere else. They know how important this day is in her life — like, one of the biggies. You know the ones: births, deaths, graduations, divorces… and book launches. (Did I miss any?) The coolest thing is, at your book launch, unlike your own funeral, you get to SEE who showed.*
Maybe only other writers will get this. Maybe the rest of the world will think I’m being glib, or dismissive of the whole mourning process. I don’t mean to be — it’s just, I’ve had a few “big” funerals to deal with in my life, and I remember vividly every single person who came to them.
I have a feeling a book launch would make the same kind of memory.
Am I wrong, Writer Friends? Those of you who’ve had one already, feel free to chime in!
(I don’t know what other authors would say, but Friends? I want you to know this right now. If you have to pick one of the two to attend — my book launch or my funeral — please, I beg you, pick the launch party. At the least because I can’t promise you’ll get chocolate at my funeral. But at my launch? Heck yeah!)
Now go write! Or read!
* Or you get to read their facebook and blog posts about how sad they were not to be able to attend — not everyone can make it to every event, I get that. :).
