What is it about fall that makes the days speed by? I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up all week. And speaking of catching up, it’s been a while since I did a roundup of useful writing links, and my Google reader is bursting with starred items just waiting to be shared with you all. [...]
Telling other people you’re doing NaNoWriMo is like signing a contract. It’s making a promise to yourself, in front of witnesses, that you’re planning on embarking on this crazy journey during November. So yes, I’m doing NaNo again, after successful runs the past two years. In terms of what project I’ll be working on, I [...]
Yes, it’s time for another installment of the “Letter to Myself” series in which authors write letters to their younger writer selves giving inspiration, advice, and words of warning. Today’s letter comes from my good friend and critique partner, YA author Alisa Libby. Dear me as a writing major in college: 1. That novel you [...]
So often I’ve heard the phrase “writers write,” meaning that in order to be a writer, you actually have to sit down in your chair and put things down on paper. But as I’ve been revising for weeks and weeks now, I’ve been feeling less like a writer and more like a construction worker. So [...]
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had more than one conversation about the pros and cons of featuring college-aged protagonists in YA. I’ve heard agents and editors say that having a YA character in college is a tough sell, that there isn’t much of a market for it. That’s why writers are often told that [...]
Over the weekend I watched The Proposal, mostly because I love Sandra Bullock and I was in the mood for something light and fluffy. As far as rom coms go, it was pretty typical. But as I was watching (and thinking about my WIP revision) I realized there were two very important lessons to be [...]
Over the summer, my creativity felt like it was coated in molasses. Now that the school year has started up and I have much less time to write, suddenly my creativity has gone into overdrive. While I’ve been trying to finish my fairy tale revision, two other ideas have popped into my head, demanding to [...]
Yesterday, there was a great question on the Elevensies site: Who do you write for? When I went to answer the question, I realized that while I write primarily for my adult and child selves, I also write for my husband. When it comes down to it, he is my ideal reader. In Stephen King’s [...]
When I first started querying agents about three years ago, I had one manuscript that I thought was ready to go. But as I kept querying (and getting rejected) I was working on a couple other manuscripts which I also completed during that time. Then I had to decide which one was my best hope [...]
On Wednesday I had the pleasure of sitting in on a school visit by Wendy Mass at the middle school where I volunteer. She was speaking to the entire sixth grade. There were over three hundred students, and I was impressed with how well Wendy was able to hold their attention throughout the presentation. She [...]
