Anna Staniszewski

I’ve been trying to ignore life and just focus on drafting Book 2. I’m slowly figuring the story out, but there’s been much more thinking than actual writing. While brainstorming is very important, I know from experience that I make many more discoveries when I’m actually writing. So this is what I’ve been chanting to myself:

Don’t think. Just write.

Thinking is for second drafts. First drafts are about getting the words out.

Don’t think. Just write.

So here I go. I’m shutting my brain off and turning my fingers on. Wish me luck!

Now that so many TV shows are back on, I’ve been struggling to not allow TV to suck up too much of my time. Here’s a sampler of what I’ve been watching.

Project Runway All-Stars

It’s oddly comforting to see familiar faces back on the show, and it’s always fun to see what wacky challenges will be thrown at the contestants.

Downton Abbey

I discovered this show after everyone else on earth did, but I love it! Last week’s episode was seriously depressing; I’m hoping things perk up a little bit soon.

Game of Thrones

Husband Ray and I just started watching this (he’s read the first book but I haven’t yet). I feel like there’s a lot of background that’s glossed over, but I’m still really enjoying it.

Face/Off

I don’t love the drama, but I do enjoy seeing how the special effects world works.

Pretty Little Liars

I’m still hanging in there with this show even though the “big reveals” don’t feel all that…revealing. I’m hoping we’ll get more concrete info soon.

The Lying Game

I keep meaning to give up on this show, but I’m still interested in the characters (and in the switching identities plot) so I keep coming back to it.

What are you watching these days? Any shows you highly recommend?

I haven’t done a roundup of writing links in a while, so I have a bunch in my Google Reader that have been patiently waiting to be shared. Here they are:

-Agent Mary Kole talks about the promise of your novel

-Adventures in Children’s Publishing shares some exercises to recharge your creativity and also looks at active vs. static description

-James Scott Bell lists two things every novel needs

-Project Mayhem gives us a chapter worksheet to use during revisions

-Natalie Parker breaks down the anatomy of a good hook

-DIY MFA talks about the role of voice in writing

Have a great week, everyone!

1. Do you see this gorgeous building?

It’s the Cambridge Public Library, and I am thrilled to be doing an event there tomorrow afternoon. If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you!

2. I have some good news that I’m dying to share with you guys. Hopefully, I’ll be able to spill the beans next week.

3. I’m happy to report that drafting UnFairy Book 2 is picking up speed. It’s still very rough, but I’m finally getting into the swing of the story.

4. I had a request from Caryn Caldwell to talk a bit more about humor, so I’ll be doing another “writing funny” post soon. If there’s a particular aspect of humor you’d like me to cover, just let me know.

5. Finally, if you need a laugh, here you go:

It’s time to announce the winner of the Oct-Dec Debut Giveaway! And the winner is:

Dani Nyugen!

Thanks to everyone who entered my debut giveaways in 2011. I can’t believe how many great books were released into the wild!

Speaking of great reads, I’ve had really good luck with books recently. Here are some of the things I’ve been reading.

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

This book had so many things I love: Space travel! Mystery! Romance! I think I enjoyed this one even more than the first book in the series. I’m excited for the final installment!

Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have) by Sarah Mlynowski

This was one of those books that totally took over my brain so it felt like I was still in it long after I finished it. I loved the voice, the humor, and the non-chronological way the story was told, and the characters felt genuine and real. I highly recommend it!

Eye of the Storm by Kate Messner

I’m almost done with this one (which I was lucky enough to get from NetGalley), and I’m really enjoying it. It’s been a while since I read a MG dystopian, and I forgot how much I love them. I could see this being an excellent book to use in the classroom: it’s a great story and it deals with scientific issues in an engaging way.

What have you been reading recently?

[New England folks: I'll be reading and signing books at the Cambridge Public Library this Saturday, January 28th, at 2pm. I hope to see you there!]

Today we continue the “Series Series” with a guest post from the amazing Jennifer Nielsen, who shares her secrets to juggling multiple series.

In the spring of 2009, my agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette, sold my first series, The Underworld Chronicles, to Sourcebooks Publishing. The first book in that series, ELLIOT AND THE GOBLIN WAR, would be released in the fall of 2010.

Which left me approximately eighteen months for…well, I wasn’t sure what. I wrote the second book of the series, but didn’t want to start on the third and be too far ahead. I worked on pre-pub promotions, but felt creatively bored. And I got the idea for a new series that grabbed me by the throat – I had to write it if I hoped to breathe again.

So I spent the fall of 2009 immersed in writing. In January of 2010, I submitted a new manuscript to Joan, which she very quickly sold as a trilogy to Scholastic. That series, The Ascendance Trilogy, would begin with THE FALSE PRINCE, to be released in April 2012.

But 2012 was soooo long away, and the idea that this might one day get very complicated was only theoretical.

Fast forward to early fall of 2011 when the vague concept of writing multiple series’ became a reality. The second book in The Underworld Chronicles had just been released and I was working on promotions for that. I had copyedits due for the third book in that series. I had the second book of The Ascendance Trilogy written and was working on rewrites from my editor’s letter. Buzz was beginning for THE FALSE PRINCE, pulling away some of my attention. And I was formulating early thoughts for the next series I planned to pitch to Scholastic.

OF COURSE I wanted to write book 6! That was a no-brainer of an answer. Besides, the idea that it might one day further complicate my life was only theoretical.During all of this, I got a call from Scholastic. Was I interested in participating in another series with them? As 39 CLUES was winding down to its final books, they had a plan for their next multi-platform series. This would be called INFINITY RING, a time travel adventure. Did I want to write book 6?

Okay yes, by then I had a much better feel for what was coming my way. I quit my part-time job, dropped my role as director of the school musical, and decided that house cleaning was mostly optional. However, everyone is crazy busy – not just me. And all writers have to adopt certain survival skills in order to meet their deadlines. Here are some of the tactics I’ve adopted:

* Commit to Meeting Deadlines. I feel very strongly about meeting my deadlines. I currently have three editors at two different houses, and believe the responsibility for meeting deadlines belongs to me. It’s not fair to make one editor wait while I work on something for another editor. So I try to build my schedule around deadlines first.

* Form a Long-Term Plan. I have 2012 carefully mapped out so that I know where my focus should be for the rest of this month, then what I’ll do next, and after that, and after that. Some parts of the plan are more flexible than others, so when necessary I can bend, but my focus always remains on that overall map.

* Fill the Empty Spaces. Empty spaces are those times when nothing purposeful is happening, or when I could multitask. So if someone calls to chat on the phone, that’s when I empty the dishwasher. If I’m waiting at the dentist office, I’ll pull out some printed pages to edit. While I’m driving alone, I can turn down the radio and play out a scene in my mind. Luckily, I love what I do, because I spend most of my waking hours either writing, or hurrying to get something else done so I can get back to writing.

* Reserve Play Time: I’ll be honest – I don’t play as much as I did a couple of years ago. My stack of books to read gets taller, I watch less television, and I head to the mall only when I absolutely need a new outfit. That’s a tradeoff I am happy to make for the privilege of being able to write books that I love. But I also try very hard to balance that with family time, an occasional lunch with friends, and allow myself to unwind in the evening with a game of Word Monkey on my iPhone.

* Stay Grateful, Stay Humble: I did a recent guest post for another blogger who declared THE FALSE PRINCE the next HUNGER GAMES (squee!), then asked how I keep my head with all the buzz surrounding that book’s release. I responded that it really wasn’t so hard. Every book contract deserves celebrating, so there are plenty of people to cheer for. Besides, I’m not so far from the aspiring writer three years ago who was hoping for even a nibble from an agent on the first Elliot book, and so I am thoroughly grateful to be where I am today. And I stay humble by remembering that THE FALSE PRINCE has yet to be released, which is when it will really be tested.

And I stay busy. After all, I’m on a deadline!

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of May B by Caroline Starr Rose. It was such a lovely book with a great main character and an engaging plot. Once I was finished, I was in awe of Caroline’s ability to pack so much setting and atmosphere into so few words.

I don’t often think of historical novels as being written in verse since verse novels are so spare and historical fiction tends to rely on a good amount of description to convey the time period and setting. But in May B, Caroline managed to put us right into May’s world in just a few telling and active details. Here’s an example:

I stop when home is nothing more

than a mound on the windswept plain.

Like a prairie hen I settle down

until I can’t be seen,

breathing comfort from grass and soil.

I listen for silence,

but there’s no room for it.

My mind’s too full.

Ma and Pa want me to leave

and live with strangers.

I love how much we get in this short passage. We have a sense of the landscape, including how it smells, and we also see May’s emotional state and the reason behind it. Talk about packing a punch! This book was a wonderful reminder for me about being concise and using each detail to its fullest potential.

Have you read May B yet? Are there other books that impressed you with their conciseness?

[By the way, if you're interested in winning a copy of May B, there's an ARC up for grabs on First Page Panda.]

I’m back from vacation and trying to get back into the swing of life again. Drafting Book 2 has been a top priority, but it’s also been a challenge. Going from polishing a complete manuscript to starting a brand new one is always a little painful; everything I put down on the page seems terrible.

Yesterday, I hit a bit of a wall, so I put aside the draft and went back to reread Book 1. This was my first time reading UnFairy Tale Life since it’s been published, so I was afraid I’d be cringing at things I couldn’t change, but it actually wasn’t so bad. And it definitely helped me to get back into the character’s voice and the story’s off-beat humor. After that, drafting became a little bit easier.

Something else that helped me with drafting was going back and perfecting the opening pages. I know some people just forge ahead with a first draft and don’t look back, but I’m too much of a perfectionist for that. I find that when I get the opening chapter feeling solid, then I’m much more grounded in the project. Once I had the first chapter in better shape, it was easier to keep going.

Right now I have four chapters written. It’s not nearly as much as I was hoping to have done at this point, but I feel like I’m finally picking up speed. We’ll see how it goes.

[A reminder that today is the last day to enter the Oct-Dec Debut Giveaway! Also, if you have a minute, swing by YA Outside the Lines where I have a post up about wrapping my brain around writing a series.]

Today I’m thrilled to kick off a series of guest posts on the process of writing a series (a series series, if you will). We start with Joy Preble, author of Dreaming Anastasia, Haunted, and the forthcoming Anastasia Forever. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us, Joy!

I’m away on vacation this week, but here’s an older post you might enjoy.

As hard as it can be sometimes, writing shouldn’t be torture. That’s not to say it’s easy. There will be times when you’re frustrated and just want to give up. But ultimately, there should be something about the project that excites you, something that keeps you going.

If you’ve lost that sense of excitement, take a step back and try to figure out why:

-Has the project gone in the wrong direction?

-Are you putting too much pressure on yourself to finish it by a certain time?

-Might this not be the right project for you at this point in time?

If you’re serious about writing, you should treat it like a job, which means writing even when you don’t feel like it. But it’s also a job that you should, on some level, love doing.

If you find yourself hating every minute of it, try to recapture whatever it was that drew you to the project in the first place. Because if you hate writing it, can you really expect people to enjoy reading it?