To have a little fun, we've got a Round Robin story going on this week at the YA Rebels. I love it because we all have such different methods of storytelling. Here's my part below, and you can find Tuesday's, which precedes it, below:
Please ignore the fact I wrote this around midnight after a VERY long day, a week with too little sleep, and an impending final exam this morning.
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And now, your lesson for the day: When all else fails, trust in the simple act of writing to relieve the weight.
I've been REALLY stressed lately. If you follow me, well, ANYWHERE online you probably noticed. And the frustration/exasperation/temper was getting worse and worse and I couldn't figure out what I needed to do to relieve it. And then I sat down, and wrote. And just like that, the stress began to bleed away. It's the simplest reminder that this is what I'm meant to do. This is what I'm made to do. It's so easy to forget that all this stuff that surrounds writing, the industry, the (mostly awesome) people, what it all comes down to, what's at its absolute center, is WRITING.
This week on the YA Rebels we're talking ADVICE. Of the good AND the bad variety.
I also polled the interwebs to see what they had to say, too.
Deb Harkness: Best: write every day. Worst: write every day. Sad, but true! Sometimes, the words are just stuck and it's better to take a walk!
Paul Greci: Best advice: Never give up. Worst advice: Don't even start.
Shelley Watters: Best: From Colleen Lindsay a month is like a minute in publishing. Worst: Publishing is luck and who you know, not how well you can write.
Maria Sweet: Worst: worst advice EVER I've been given regarding writing/publishing was to query before I finished a MS and to query even if what I have is only one chapter.
Sara Winters: BEST: To listen to the characters and not worry about everything so much. Let the first draft write itself.
Christopher Morris: Best: Write drunk, Edit sober- Hemingway.
Angela Cerrito: Best: From Markus Zusak "put something unexpected on every page", From Kathleen Duey "keep going, don't stop, be true to your story"...
Kristi Cook: I think the very best advice I've ever gotten is that the very best thing you can do for your career is to simply write more--rather than driving yourself nuts and wasting all your energy trying to promote a book, you're better served concentrating on writing the *next* book, and the next, and the next. Good writing is the best "promotion" there is.
This week the YA Rebels seem to have...misplaced on of our team. On Monday, we realized she was missing. On Tuesday we were disturbed to find her chair empty, her phone unanswered. And today, I try to piece together the last time we saw her...
Hey guys. My YARebels vlog this week: a quick look at abuse/manipulation in YA.
Now I'm off to Memphis for the weekend to help my aunt move! So busy! BUT you should be very happy to know that this morning I *gasp* SLEPT IN. Yes, yes, I know, it's a MIRACLE.
This week on the YA Rebels we're talking about how we get our ideas, and for some reason I kind skirted that question and instead talked about what I do with my little ideas once I have them :p
You should watch, because I actually committed to an analogy for once!
Today on the YA Rebels I look at the query letter that first got me my agent.
And the query:
Dear Ms. Tipton,
I understand from your agency's website that you enjoy young adult fiction, and so I hope you'll consider representing my 56,000 word YA novel, "The Shadow Mile."
When their car hit the river three years ago, Nell's mother died, and Nell went to sleep. A deep, dreamless, sleep. The doctors called it a coma. She called it coping. But when Nell woke up a week later, something stayed behind. Since the accident, shadows have begun to bend the wrong way, the seams of the world glinting on the edges of her sight. One day a shadow peels itself straight off the wall and flutters away, like a moth. Even to Nell, this is a bit peculiar.
A world away, Death is growing restless. Bound to the Shadow Mile, the place between the living world and the one beyond, the reaper has grown sick of its mundane occupation. When the reaper decides it wants out, it calls in a professional. Death enlists recently departed scholar Lucas Bradley Link to devise a plan that could not only free the reaper, but ultimately lead to the downfall of the living world. Step one: Lure a living soul into the Shadow Mile, and steal their life
When Nell stumbles into Death's trap, she finds herself in the dreamlike Mile, where doors are one-way, people are shadows, and when it rains, the sky actually falls. A shifting space where getting out is much harder than falling in, and the price for staying too long is steep.
"The Shadow Mile" is a cat-and-mouse-game that forces Nell to confront her mother's death and her own disconnection as she tries to find her way back home before the reaper steals her life.
I am a rising senior in college, and this is my first novel. Thank you in advance for your time.
This week at the YA Rebels we're doing a Q&A session, and we're also holding a query contest. Anyone who wants a query critique can enter, just by leaving their favorite line of the WIP in comments section on the youtube page.
Today, I talk about how I start books, pseudo-outlining, being inspired by other authors, and my hatred of waiting...
...hopes for residues, fears lunch tables, and announces a contest winner!!
As usual, if the above isn't working, you can click HERE.
AND!
Next week the YA Rebels are answering questions, so if you have any, either for me personally or someone else in the group, or the group as a whole, ask them now!
This week the topic on the YA Rebels was just that, what makes us Rebels? The answers will vary from the silly to the sincere, of course, but this one is actually really important to me.
So I've been a stressed out Pout Monster lately, but I have a reason. What could turn this calm, composed young author into a cupcake-scarfing ball of angst?
This week I'm taking on the topic of "Hardest Scenes to Write" over at the YARebels. As usual, you can see the video below or via the link.
But I'm also curious to hear your thoughts. Our Monday Rebel said major climaxes, Tuesday said the quiet, in-between scenes, and I say scenes involving death/loss.
So much to tell! Still in NYC! Have stories! Have pictures! Will do a big, huge trip post when I get home! But first, it's Wednesday again! How did that happen?
Come into my blanket fort and learn about BAD ROMANCE. *starts singing Lady Gaga to self*
So, it's Wednesday again. And that means that, just like last week, I made a vlog. I also made a blanket fort. Actually, it's a SECURITY BLANKET FORT. And this week I'm talking about the balance between ATTRACTION and REPULSION in "bad romance".
My blanket fort is cushioned. And stocked with chocolate. And I have a diagram I use to talk about bad romance involving a stapler, a photo holder, and raisonettes.
I actually had to THINK really hard about this post, and you all know what state my brain is in during tennis (edits), so please come say hi. Or at least click the play button :p It would make my day.
