Tag: fun

Writing on Writing

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It’s almost two weeks into the new year, and your resolution is write more is lagging a little. If you need some writerly inspiration, check out these great books on writing. My favorite is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. She’s encouraging, offers solid advice, and adds more than a dash of humor throughout.

A couple of others I’d add:

  • What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by By Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter
    Pam was one of my professor in grad school, so I might be biased, but honestly it’s an excellent book with fantastic examples and exercises. I used it in an undergrad fiction class as well and loved it then.
  • Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
    More on the literary analysis side, but still very helpful.
  • Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
    A workshop classic. Lots of great advice about writing as a practice.
  • 2012 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market by Chuck Sambuchino
    A fantastic collection of information on agents, publishing houses, magazines, and more. Plus lots of articles on craft. A new one is released every year, so make sure to get the most up-to-date info.

What are your books for literary inspiration?

Stories of Story of a Girl

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One of my very favorite contemporary YA novels is Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr–which was published almost five years ago! (Five years exactly on Tuesday.) To celebrate, Zarr is sharing some of the novel’s journey to publication on her blog this week. After the first post alone, I’m stunned that Zarr didn’t just shoot to success. Her writing is so good! How could anyone have rejected anything she wrote?! But that’s the fun and inspiring part of the “inside scoop” from writer’s–as always, it’s a tough job and you never know when your work will find that right agent/editor. Loving the back story so far!

Plus, Tuesday she’s hosting a giveaway on Twitter:

“Tweet something about Story of a Girl–a favorite line or moment, a memory of reading it, a response to the story, a comment about a character, etc., and use the hashtag #storyofagirl (easy to remember). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will randomly pick from these tweets and give away five signed copies of Story of a Girl.

Obviously, if you have a memory or favorite line or comment about the book, there’s a good chance you don’t need a copy. Play anyway, and if you win you could give your copy to a friend, or donate it to a school or public library. If you haven’t read the book, you too can play along. You can tweet something about one of my other books that makes you want to read Story, or straight up beg for a copy. Just be sure to use #storyofagirl in your tweet. Tomorrow. Tuesday.“

So get your tweets ready and help celebrate five years of this awesome novel. Congrats, Sara!

The Q&A Period

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Outside of literary circles, I don’t talk a lot about my own writing. I never mention to my parents what I’m working on. I don’t bring up key points of my novel to my friends. Even here, most of my posts are about the general writing life as opposed to specifics about my work. Even with that reticence, questions about my writing comes up. So I thought this post about how to deal with questions about your novel over at Writerly Life was helpful and hilarious. My favorite:

Is it about your life? Am I in it?
Inevitably, this question is going to come up in varying forms — and I find it the most irritating. I don’t really want to go into how the novel relates to my most personal inner life, and I especially don’t want to flatter you by telling you you’re in it, uncle Fred, or offend you, Aunt Alice, by telling you that that cold, cruel character is you!

How to deal
Most non-writers simply don’t know that novels don’t have a one-to-one relationship with reality. It’s difficult to characterize the complex, blurry way fictional worlds tend to overlap with our real lives. Again, the invasiveness of the question is unintentional, but I’ve found questions to be surprisingly pushy. For example, because I’m writing about Buddhism, I get asked point-blank whether I’m a Buddhist, and then I have to succinctly explain my feelings about religion. In cases like these, I think it’s fine to note (politely) that the question is a little more than you’d like to answer. Or else settle for “it’s complicated.” Sometimes it just none of the questioner’s business, and you’ve got to use your writerly verbal skills to find a tactful way of saying so.

That one is the worst! Even if I take bits and pieces from my real life, it’s called fiction for a real–it’s not real. It’s a novel, not a fun quiz about which character you’re most like. I’m sure lots of other writers base their characters/plot in real people and experiences, but I tend to stray far away from anyone I know in reality.

For the most part, people are very nice and just curious about the writing process. But I did get a good laugh out of this list.

Other questions I’ve been asked: Is it part of a series? Have you ever thought about writing about ___? Is it available on Amazon? Are you going to be like JK Rowling? (Um, I WISH.)

What novel questions are you asked and how do you deal?

First Friday Fifteen

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Although I appreciate them, I don’t tend to write a lot of book reviews. I have some on Amazon, maybe one on Goodreads, and probably none on my various blogs. So I figured I’d try something a little different here. Instead of trying to craft thoughtful, well-worded reviews of recently read books, I’m going to write about every book I’ve ever read. In 15 words or less.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Friday Fifteen.

I figure this will be a fun way to share thought about books without too much pressure. There’s no particular order to this; it’s mostly just whatever books I remember in the moment. Plus I get to share all the embarrassing tween novels I read back in the day.

Onto the reviews!

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
Lovely writing, compelling plot. And it’s about rabbits. Love!

2. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
History humor at its best. My jury duty book.

3. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
My long-distance relationship novel. The new Gone with the Wind?

4. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Probably read this ninety times in eighth grade. Still breaks my heart.

5. Watchmen by Alan Moore
Engaging twist on the classic superhero, plus the apocalypse. The movie was terrible.

6. Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney’s Book of Lists by McSweeney’s Publishing
Not all winners. but I cry with laughter at some of these.

7. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please by Raymond Carver
Read this for class. I’m sure we had a nice discussion about craft.

8. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
This is probably what it feels like when you’re the cute girl in ninth grade.

9. Letters from Amelia, 1901-1937 by Jean L. Backus
Research for a certain YA novel. Lots of thoughtful correspondence.

10. Angels in America by Tony Kushner
You can do a lot on stage, apparently. And a hopeful ending.

11. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Probably my favorite of the series, with a fantastic twist.

12. Mary Anne Misses Logan (The Baby-sitters Club #46) by Ann M. Martin
My first BSC book. I didn’t realize it was a series at first.

13. Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room Cookbook: How to Have People Over Without Stressing Out by Kevin Mills, Nancy Mills
How to prepare a meal, with a side of humor and common sense.

14. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Not as depressing as everyone said. Stunning writing.

15. Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina
We read this a lot when I was little. Still love hats, don’t trust monkeys.

And there you have it! Feel free to share your own fifteen-word reviews as well.

Start Thinking of Your Thoughtful Comments

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You know that feeling of hope when you craft a new blog post and hit Publish? Ah yes, you say, this will truly get them talking! This will be the post all my readers love! Viral, here I come.

And then you wait. And wait.

That’s the nature of blogging. For the most part, you put it out there without any kind of response. That’s why it should be something you find personally fulfilling, not just fulfilling because it gets you attention.

But!

The Fourth Annual Comment Challenge is all about spreading the blog love. The details: you comment on (at least) 5 kid lit blogs everyday for 21 days. Get conversations started. Let bloggers know their work is appreciated. Maybe they’ll even comment back!

Head over to MotherReader to sign up. I’m excited to find lots more awesome children’s/YA blogs to add to my rss feed. Please share any cool blogs you think I’d like!

Guten Tag, Liebsters!

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In college, my roommate took a semester of German just for fun. She’d come home and teach me phrases she’d learned. I’m not great with languages, so all I could remember was “Guten tag!” which we would say cheerfully as one of us entered/left the room.

But now I know another German word: Liebster, meaning “dearest.” Why? Because Lisa of Writer’s Block Party so kindly nominated me for the Liebster Blog award. Thanks Lisa!

The Liebster is designed to encourage bloggers who are new or don’t have a huge following, which I think is awesome. There are a lot of lovely bloggers out there, so let’s get them followed! Some Liebster rules:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog. Check. Lisa, you rock!

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you. Also check.

3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.  Check #3.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed. (some say just 3 or more blogs of less than 200 followers each). Man, 200 followers? You have to be a celebrity for that, right? Honestly, I have no idea how many followers these blogs have, but I’m trying to avoid some of the huge ones. If you guys all have 1,000+ followers or have gotten book deals based on your blogs, just pass along the love to smaller blogs.

5. Let them know they have been chosen, by leaving a comment at their blog. 

Onto the blogs! In no particular order:

LibriCritic
Lots of wonderful thoughts on reading and writing by a librarian/bookseller. (Who better to get book recs from?) Add in some Sherlock clips and I’m sold.

Lollygag Blog
 A Chicago playwright/nanny/awesome-er shares the hilarity and joy of everyday experiences and challenges.

Looks and Books
Jill combines the best of literature with a sharp fashion sense. I love her outfits based on characters/covers. It makes me want to dress up everyday.

Girl Meets Formosa
Kim went to Taiwan to do research for a book about her family. Lots of great info on living abroad, finding family/self, and the writing process.

Emily Kaye Lazzaro
Emily is a playwright and is so funny that I have to hold back from commenting on her blog because otherwise I might look like a blog-stalker.

Please check out all of the above blogs. They’re awesome and written by fantastic people. And keep spreading the blogger love, no matter how many followers you have.