I'm always telling myself I won't review any more books, but then I read something that feels a bit special or makes me think days after I've turned the last page and I want to talk about it. This is what happened when I finished Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Generally, when I've mentioned reading this book, I've gotten very positive feedback. Everything from "I'm dying to read that!" to "I like that book so much!" I agree that there's a lot to like in this well-written novel.
From the beginning, this book made me hungry. Literal, stomach-growling hunger. I loved the descriptions of meats served with rich sauces, pastries and baked goods iced and studded with fruits, the fresh produce abounding. The food in this novel is just one part of a world that Carson beautifully builds. I loved the landscapes, the Spanish influence, the cultural extremes from one region to the next.
Perhaps the most striking part of the worldbuilding, however, is the religion. Carson develops and presents a religion that is absolutely central to the story, and yet doesn't feel in-your-face. She shows how dogma can be interpreted differently across regions and how those interpretations can lead to simple misunderstandings - or to war. How very realistic, for a fantasy novel. Elisa, the main character, struggles mightily with her faith, with her (Christ-like) role in her religion, and her questionings and uncertainties feel genuine. Although the novel's religion is fictional, the journey may feel familiar to some readers.
As much as I love the worldbuilding, I do feel there were storylines that could have been strengthened. The more simplistic of those concerns wonders why, since Elisa is lauded as an exceptional strategist, are her political and battle strategies so terribly simplistic? I expected sophisticated and multi-layered strategies but got guerrilla warfare with little thought behind it and poison.
My deeper concern centers on Elisa's weight. The character lets you know right off that bat that she's fat. Quite obese, judging by the descriptions. She's an emotional overeater who uses food to compensate for feelings of inadequacy. From the beginning, we know Elisa is bothered by her weight, doesn't like public functions because of her shyness and doesn't think her new husband will have any interest in her when he has a thin mistress by his side. And he doesn't. No interest in her body, at least. Since it's a political pairing, I can understand that reasoning. My concern, however, is that Elisa's growth into a strong woman, capable of leadership, is directly paralleled by her weight loss. A weight loss that is caused by a kidnapping, a desert trek and starvation. As she's rapidly/unhealthily dropping pounds, she's becoming more confident, more athletic and, finally, finding romance. I worry the story reinforces the idea that thinness, beauty, romance and intelligence are irrevocably intertwined. Why wasn't this character, who we are told possesses an amazing intellect, stronger from the get-go? Of course character growth is essential to a novel's progression, but I felt the way her weight was tied to her self-worth and the way others (especially romantic interests) viewed her was not as explored as it needed to be to be satisfying. To be sure, one blog review can't possibly address the complexity of this issue, but I will say I expected it to be more and better addressed in the novel.
Despite these misgivings, I enjoyed this novel for its rich setting and fluid pacing. The Girl of Fire and Thorns hits stores in September, 2011.
Shameless plug: Looking for more great reads? I'm doing a five-book giveaway on my blog. Enter by telling me what pop-culture story you think would make an awesome YA novel. ~Kristin
Inspiration is the driving force behind artistic creation. We've all got our standbys- favorite movies, books, music, locations, and websites that can reignite the flame and help us push through that last quarter of our book. All we've gotta do is seek 'em out, take a long hard look, and drink in the awesome. Instant fix, right?
So what happens when your good old standbys lose their pretty sparkle and start leaving you wanting more? You could revisit old inspirations, hoping for another fling, but everybody knows that sought out inspiration isn't quite the same as the real thing- spontaneous and staggering, unexpected. Come on, that book needs to get finished, GET INSPIRED BY SOMETHING QUICKLY OR YOU'LL LOSE IT ALL FOREVER AAAAAAH!
Obviously, I've found myself in the pickle that is the Empty Creativity Gas Tank my fair share of times. After going on a seemingly endless quest for inspiration, I sat down and decided that I needed to do something differently, because the usual stuff wasn't cutting it for me this time with this particular book. I reread old favorite books, watched movies, listened to more music that matched what I thought the tone of my book should be.
Then something weird happened. Something equally remarkable and terrible. Something unexpected.
I got inspired by a roaring woman who had fake blood dripping down her front.
Thanks to Gaga, pop music swept me away in a fury that I never thought possible. Gwen Stefani, Fergie, Nicki Minaj, Lily Allen, and Katy Perry. Some people say that pop music is pointless, stupid, and insulting, yet the brightly colored videos and infectious beats and entertaining stage presences fill me with the urge to create something truly kick ass.
Inspiration at an unexpected time is awesome, but inspiration from an unexpected source is even more so. The feeling you get when you are being mesmerized by something you always swore you'd hate is humbling and freeing.
So yeah, I'm guilty of waking up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. Haters gonna hate, but the effect it's had on my writing has been more than worth it.
It goes a little something like this:
-EXPECTED INSPIRATION: The Nightmare Before Christmas. Movie, soundtrack, still images, whatever.
-UNEXPECTED INSPIRATION: Desperate Housewives. Another horribly written, super soapy dramedy? Think again. This one's filled with gems.
-EXPECTED INSPIRATION: Pictures of nature. 'Nuff said.
-UNEXPECTED INSPIRATION: Chopped on Food Network. There's just something special about feeling for a guy who has to figure out how to make a dessert with goat brains and Nutella.
Alright, it's confession time. What are your most unexpected inspirations?
- Imagine sitting down to work on your MS, only to find that the words have become gibberish. It happened to author Esmerelda Santiago, who has since relearned her native Spanish as well as the English she writes in.
- Barbara O'Neal at Writer Unboxed has tips for unplugging. "This is not me being superior," she says (which is what rubs me the wrong way about most posts like this). "This is me saying I hate doing it, but it works." (via @4kidlit)
THIS WEEK IN READING
- EW presents a first look at the big three from The Hunger Games.
- Publishers Weekly presents the United States of Writers, with fifty representatives and the requisite regional jabs.
THIS WEEK IN PUBLISHING
- The cruel hoax we mentioned last week, in which a writer was tricked into thinking she'd signed with a major agent and publisher, is explained in detail at Writer Beware. I admit, I was one who thought it was a publicity stunt at first. Maybe I need to re-read "6 Ways to Bring Civility Online."
- As YA writers, we talk a lot about attitudes against teen writers, but what about ageism against older writers?
- Writers don't get no respect, says Chuck Wendig.
"...Maybe what we need is to go so far down respect’s throat we come out the other side, surfing an effluent tide of flaming typewriters, LSD habits, and public badassery. We need literary rock star heroes to swoop in and save publishing. And here's how we get 'em."
- Totally unrelated except that the pictures made me cry and I couldn't believe that with all the time I spend online, this was the first I'd seen of it: Famine in east Africa. Donation links at the bottom of the page.
I'm not known for my excellent sense of direction. As a matter of fact, if you ask anyone in my family, they will likely tell you that I suck at navigation. If I say "Go right," there's a good chance you should go left. I'm constantly running in circles, staring blankly at street signs, and sheepishly buying maps at convenience stores.
So it will probably come as no surprise to anyone that I got lost on my way to the airport yesterday.
I dragged myself out of bed at six to catch an early flight to D.C., to visit my parents and sister. Someone forgot to remind me that there is currently a buttload of road work in Colorado Springs surrounding the airport, and that road work caused many detours and backtracking and cussing at vehicles which didn't do anything besides get in my way, and by eight-thirty... I had missed my flight. Not the best way to start a vacation.
The good news is that I caught a flight only an hour later and managed to get home to my parents. The bad news is that this detour drove me to think of other things that I'm bad at navigating.
I'm going to be completely honest: first drafts scare the shit out of me. Once upon a time, I got excited at the possibility of starting a new novel, pounding out plot points and discovering characters. Now, after long months of revisions that only resulted in trunked books...it's hard not to be scared. What if I take a wrong turn? What if I wreck this story? What if I write the best book I possibly can, and it's just...not good enough?
I need to learn to be brave. I need to learn how to drive through all those detours, to follow where my characters lead, to backtrack if necessary. I need to honor my process (thanks, Phoebe) even if it takes me years to find the way to a better book.
Because I have to believe that, ultimately, the destination is worth the detour.
Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.
We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link -- or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.
This Week's Topic: What was the best book you read in July?
And today, the first 10 participants get SHATTERED SOULS by Mary Lindsay bookmarks-- and one of our members is giving away an ARC of Sara Zarr's How to Save a Life!!
Dangling or misplaced modifiers are one of those grammar issues that most writers have heard of, but may not understand. But if you ever watched Letterman’s segment (or was it Leno?) in which he read amusing, poorly worded headlines, you’ve probably seen plenty of them.
Modifiers
Let’s take a look at regular, non-danglin’ modifiers first. These are words or phrases that, um, modify something. Imagine that! Grammar Girl points out that “almost” is a modifier that, depending on where you place it in a sentence, can change the whole meaning.
She almost finished every book she started.
She finished almost every book she started.
Not the same thing, eh? Good thing we're writers and we obsessively scrutinize each and every sentence we write, choosing and placing each word with absolute purpose.
Look at it, just hanging there
Dangling modifiers commit the crime of describing something that isn’t mentioned in your sentence, so they sound (often to amusing effect) like you’re describing something else.
Walking into the bar, the vodka called to me.
Do you picture a bottle of vodka walking into a bar and calling your name? A better way to phrase this would be to specify who walked into the bar.
I walked into the bar and the vodka called to me.
Alone, that mistake seems obvious. But when you're having one of those 2k+ writing sessions, those darn danglers can really sneak in there. Line editing is a great time to check and correct these guys.
Get it some bifocals
Squinting modifiers are tricky little things. These are modifiers placed in a sentence between two words or phrases it could modify, and the reader doesn’t know which you mean.
Writers who drink often are successful.
So frequent drinking makes a writer successful? Or drinking makes a writer successful frequently? All this squinting has made me thirsty – pass the vodka.
So why are we so ecstatic at the YA Highway today?
Because our own fabulous Kristin Halbrook has some pretty fabulous news to share...
Ahem.
From Publishers Marketplace:
Kristin Halbrook's debut WILL AND ZOE, featuring two teenagers who, in search of a better life, run away to Vegas, but realize they can't run fast enough when they end up wanted by the police, out of money, and out of options, pitched as a YA Bonnie and Clyde, to Sarah Dotts Barley at Harper Children's, in a two-book deal, in a very nice deal, by Suzie Townsend at FinePrint Literary Management.
So excuse us while we are off doing cartwheels and generally tripping the light fantastic around this place. We're pretty darn excited!
And if you're excited, too, be sure to stop by Kristin's blog here. She's having a contest to celebrate, and she's giving away some great reads, including signed ARCs. Check it out!
*Initially this blog post was going to be accompanied by a short video of the resident meese attempting various dramatic actions commonly employed in books. But it was set to resemble an episode of Jackass and, strangely, no one wanted to volunteer. Instead we'll employ a fun, and much less harmful, tactic.*
As writers, we don't get to create our death-defying 'moments' with CGI. Or have a broken heart montage set to the World Spins Madly On by the Weepies (seriously, that song is in every Mandy Moore RomCom). Which means sometimes we pluck the string of tension and drama in other ways. Ways that out of context might seem a bit unrealistic. . .
The Scale of Pain (for a little reference):
1--Eh.
5--I'd rather stub my toe.
10--Would make the Zombie Apocalypse feel like a vacation
s#$t!--That's gotta hurt.
Nail Biting Often makes an appearance as "Bitten to stubs" "Ragged" "Jagged" etc.
Likelihood:Very
Pain rating: 1
Though I've never had the palate for fingernails myself, I have several friends who are nail biters. They seem to enjoy it so it's hard for me to believe it's all that painful.
Digging nails into palms
Likelihood: Moderate
Pain rating: 4
I've curled my fingers into a fist on a few occasions over the years and discovered the tell-tale 'half moon shapes' left behind. But then, I find punching a pillow much more satisfying and less painful (at least for me. The poor pillow takes quite the beating). But speaking of punching . . .
Punching through a wall/knuckles bleeding
Likelihood:Moderate/Low
Pain rating: 6
I've seen this on television a couple times, but have never witnessed it first hand. Granted, the houses here are strictly made with concrete and my husband can barely get a nail into the wall, much less his fist, should he ever try. But I've read books where a couple of young bucks take out their rage against an innocent piece of sheetrock, and while it's not unbelievable, one must be careful using this tactic. Reserve for very dramatic scenes. Or make sure the reader knows your character is also employed by WWE.
Biting lip/drawing blood
Likelihood: Low
Pain rating:10
Ever been munching away on your revision bowl of Lucky Charms with whipped cream (don't judge) when all of the sudden WHAM! you bite right down on your lip, tongue, or inside of your cheek? Maybe I've been drilled on too much at the dentist, but I'd rather battle zombies than willingly take a chomp. Try it. Right now. Draw your lip in between your teeth and see if you can muster up the nerve. (Not really. I'd feel awful if you hurt yourself). But this is a common reaction used to show fear or anger in very dire scenes. Don't know about you guys, but were I face to face with death, it's likely I'd loose bladder control first.
Heart bursting
Likelihood: Very low
Pain rating: s#$t--that's gotta hurt!
Okay, okay. This is rarely (never) used in the literal sense. But for real. If we all went around bursting our hearts with happiness, it'd make for a very pessimistic world ;)
Don't take any of this random musing to mean writers shouldn't put these actions to use in our work (it was more for fun than anything). But write with caution. Otherwise your characters will end up resembling contestants on MTV's Bully Beatdown pretty quick.
What are some common dramatic reactions you see in books? How would you rate them in real world pain?
I can't deny it: I love my writer-friends. Whether it's the ladies I met during my two-year stint in an MFA program, the authors I've connected with over goodreads and the Absolute Write forums, there's nothing quite like finding other writers who are also undertaking the same strange, terrifying journey—traveling down the road to publication with you.
But I also can't deny that writerly friendships can be particularly fraught. When you're chasing the same brass ring, it's easy to feel like you're in direct competition with your peers. Sometimes, in concrete terms, this is true—like when two members of your writing group both have fulls out to the same agent, or when you and a writer-pal's books are released at different publishers targeting the same audience. Inevitable and quite naturally, jealousy can set in.
And in a writer's world where many online activities—from word sprints to NaNoWriMo—are focused on producing a lot of words, fast, in the hopes of getting us all to stick with the adage of "butt-in-chair"—it's easy to focus that jealousy on something as tangible as output. "Oh," many a writer has been heard to sadly lament, "I'm slow. It takes me months to finish drafts."
(I've written before about the insane expectations of commercial publishing—but I think it bears repeating that the idea that drafting one book for months is a low output is crazy. Crazy! As John Scalzi says, authors are not word machines.)
Output is an easy thing to focus on when you're feeling insecure—and it's an easy way to cut down others, too. It's simple to sneer at someone and say she writes her books too fast; I bet they're a mess or it's taken her years to finish one draft; she'll never publish! And if we feel like rolling in the self-hatred, it's easy to let these thoughts blossom out of control: I write too slowly. I'll never be able to make my deadlines. My readers will all abandon me. Or I'll die before I see book 3 finished. Those other writers who churn out words faster are more professional than I am and so on, and so forth.
The problem with this is that every writer is different—every single one of us has a unique process that wouldn't—no, couldn't—work for any other writer. That's not to say that you should disregard all writing advice wholesale, but you'll know instinctively what advice is good, solid, and applicable to your process and your situation. Forcing yourself into other molds, even molds that are highly successful for other writers, is just an exercise in lunacy. And comparing your process to the process of others—either to disparage theirs, or cut your own down—is likewise madness.
Personally, my process goes something like this: I draft for anywhere between one month and nine (what?! You mean my process isn't identical for each book? Of course not! Different novel, different needs) without an outline but with the whole shebang more-or-less worked out in my head. Then I send to betas, revise, send to more betas, revise again. Sometimes I won't even figure out major plot points until a final revision, but that's okay—my process works for me.
They’re not necessarily a symbol of rebellion. I have a couple tattoos, and I promise you I didn’t get them to stick it to the man; I just happen to like art. Don’t use a tattoo as a way to make your character seem like a bad boy/girl.
2.Clothes
Hip clothes and thrift store skirts don’t automatically make someone edgy. Some people wear baggy pants because they like to be comfortable, not because they’re gangsters. Some people shop at thrift stores because they can’t afford JC Penneys, not because they’re trying to be “alternative.” Clothes are like costumes; they’re not built-in personalities for your characters.
3.Quirky Names
Christening your love interest Darien Marco Silver doesn’t mean that readers will automatically believe he’s a sexy rebel with a motorcycle. A name is just a name; your character needs a personality as well.
4.Sarcasm
A little snark goes a long way toward rounding out a character’s personality, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that your character is One Bad Dude. Sarcasm is a form of humor – it’s not always about defiance.
So, how do you give your rebel characters that extra edge? What tricks have you seen in YA literature that are used to make characters seem more interesting?
- Have questions you'd like answered at the end of Looking For Alaska? Submit them to John Green on his Tumblr.
- The Book Lantern takes author P. C. Cast to task not just for using one of my least favorite insults ever, but for her reaction to the mother who pointed it out. Don't miss the interesting stuff in the comments.
- Sometimes the red flags aren't there, and sometimes they are. Victoria Strauss has a cautionary tale about a seemingly legit publishing company, and Phoebe North summarizes a bizarre and sad story of one writer who was either scammed into believing she'd signed with a major agent, or wants to scam us into buying her self-published book. EDIT: Writer's House put out a statement confirming that fake emails are being sent, impersonating their agents. The link is here, along with a Stacia Kane's thoughts on how ridiculous it is that online culture makes pranks like this okay.
Sometimes, you write a book that seems awesome at the time, but turns out to have problems that can’t be fixed in revisions—even big revisions. Maybe you tried to do something with it, and things just didn’t work out, so you trunked it for a while, and now you’ve pulled it out with a brilliant idea for how to reshape it into something awesome.
My latest project has been a massive rewrite of something I wrote a couple years ago. I kept only the skeleton—the setting and a handful of characters—and completely tore out the guts, replacing them entirely. However, there were a couple of scenes from the original that I thought/hoped could be repurposed.
This can happen in revisions, too. You have a scene you just adore. It is a perfect, beautifully written scene. But there’s a problem: the story doesn’t need it. It might be great all alone, but when you shove it in with the rest, it’s made less perfect by its purposelessness. Sometimes it’s hard to see that you've done this. I had a scene last through multiple revisions, until one beta said, “Not sure enough happens in this chapter.” It was a scene that had worked really well in the original version of the story, and one that I had loved, but when I went to figure out what more should happen in the scene, I realized that in this version, maybe the scene just shouldn’t happen at all. It was still cute, but it did nothing for the story.
Rewriting is a big undertaking. Sometimes you get tired, and you think, well, there was some good stuff in that last version! Maybe I should just look through and see what I can use…
And that’s fine. Sometimes there are good scenes you left behind. But when you decide to paste in one of your darlings and smooth it to fit the rest of your rewritten version, make sure it really does fit. Does it move the story forward in some way? (It should.) Did you have to come up with some crazy convoluted subplot to make the scene necessary? (You shouldn’t.) When you read through the finished product with the scene in place, does it flow nicely, or does something about it feel wrong?
It’s really easy to let those darling scenes sneak in and try to ruin your story. Scenes can be even sneakier than those darling sentences you know you should cut when revising and sometimes don't. They're so big, cutting them feels daunting. But don't be afraid to take out those scissors and make a bloodbath of your manuscript--I promise, it will thank you later.
Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.
We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link -- or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.
This Week's Topic: Who are your favorite literary villains/antagonists, and why?
Road Trip Song of the Week: “Brand New Day" by Dr. Horrible
Bonjour, YA Highway readers! I'm writing to you from a Wifi-enabled cafe in the center of Paris. My travel/backpacking partner is currently composing some postcards; I wanted to take this chance to talk to you guys in the middle of the most exciting trip I've ever been on. We have to leave for le Centre Pompidou (modern art museum) soon, so I'll be quick... but I'll hopefully get something meaningful across!
Ever since it started in London last week, this trip has been wow-worthy - probably because everything is so NEW. When you're a little kid, everything is new and exciting. But as you get older, things start to get slightly stale. Isn't this the same thing you've always seen and done? Maybe it's technically new, but... haven't you done something similar before? Where is the adventure?
Well, it's rare - real adventure in life is rare. And the standard for it rises after little-kid-dom. It seems like in YA, a lot of plots consist of the teenage main character going on their first, high-standard Grand Adventure. Whether said adventure takes place across the world (yay!), or right at home (perhaps dealing with a challenge beyond normal scope), the character will: A) stake out on their own, B) face down obstacles, C) experience new exhilaration, and D) gain an exciting new viewpoint.
I'm unbelievably happy to say that I think this trip counts as my Grand Adventure. There are no adults present, which makes me the adult, responsible for my own problems. This side of the world is SO new and amazing - it's across an ocean! And I can already feel myself changing from the experience... in a good way.
What was your first Grand Adventure? Have you had one? IMO, it's never too late. Does your favorite YA main character have one? What about the main character in your book? Paris is my new favorite city in the world (it's so incredibly beautiful!), and I can't wait to check out Venice and Rome either (three weeks of backpacking total). Love, hugs, and more love from Paris. Yay!!
I think every writer at one point or another wishes for a few extra hours in the day. We can't go to work, go to school, cook dinner, make lunch, write papers, tuck the kids into bed, and write a novel with only twenty four hours in the day. I've spent the last three years trying to figure out how to balance a fifteen hour class week (excluding all the papers I have to write), a 17-20 hour a week job, a compulsive need to write all the time, and the itch that is my social life. I like to think that I've figured it out, at least a little.
Don't sleep in: I don't know if this is a writer thing or a Sumayyah thing but I love to sleep in. Friday nights I used to stay up late, and Saturday mornings I used to sleep in until someone thinks I've died. I've since tried to cut that habit. I stumble out of bed, make coffee and use those few extra hours that I was going to be sleeping throw to bang out some words.
Make enough dinner for two nights: This might seem silly, but in the past year it's saved me a ton of time. Instead of having to make lunch the next day, I just stuff it into tupper ware, put it in my bag, and save both time and money. It frees up 45 minutes the next afternoon or night that you can use to write - whether it's a paper on Chaucer or a few pages for your WIP.
Make a schedule: This might seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how much it can help. A mountain of work can be worked down into a mole hill even with a very flimsy 'do these things at some time' sort of list. Whether you're a Monica Gellar sort of person, who needs color coding, and works in bathroom breaks or someone who scribbles in 'write for 2 hours at some point' - attempting to break down your day will make everything more doable.
Know how to say 'no': Whether this is to yourself or to others, saying no has saved me a lot of time. Whether it's to your urge to write or to that dinner invitation, prioritizing what is important to you and your schedule is really important. On the other hand, know when to say 'yes'. We all need a break from the to do lists, the schedules, and yes, even the writing. Knowing when enough is enough and when you need a break is important to keeping yourself sane and your mind functioning.
Relax! This is the most important! We make mistakes, we run out of time, and we can't do everything. And you should be okay with that. A constantly stressed mind will over heat and explode - and then it's useless. So be unafraid to close your manuscript, put away your text books, and just drink tea or enjoy an evening out with friends.
How do you balance your life with your writing? I'd love to know!
Most writers will, at one point or another, ask themselves: revise, or trunk? Meaning: do I put in the work to fix this manuscript up, or do I put it aside and start something new? And how do I know if it’s time to trunk?
There’s no one correct method of figuring out an answer to that question, but there is a place to start, and it’s with love.
CONGRATULATIONS! You got an offer from an agent and sign with him/her. And after that, he/she wants some extensive revisions. You work on them for months. You turn them in. Agent says, “Great! Now how about fixing this, and this, and this?” So you work again. You turn them in. And if you are lucky, Agent says, “Sweet. This is ready to go on submission. Peace out, I’ll talk to you later.”
(Does anyone say ‘peace out’ anymore? I digress.)
Weeks of rocking back and forth and checking your inbox ensue. Perhaps months. But then, the day comes: your agent tells you that a publisher wants your book. SWEET.
And then you begin another overhaul. One round of revision turns into two. Two turns into three. Three (or more) turns into line edits. Line edits turn into copy edits and first pass pages and holy crap, how many times have you read this book? At least a bazillion.
Finally, you’re done. But wait. It’s still 12-24 months until that book comes out. And people are asking you about it. And you talk. You do as many blog interviews as you can. You anxiously await the book’s release. It’s what everyone asks you about. You summarize it for your dentist, your doctor, your neighbor, your mom’s friend, your friend’s brother.
The book comes out. You talk about it more. If you’re lucky, you get to go to different places and talk about it to groups of students, or groups of readers waiting for you to sign it.
(Okay, I think you get the picture.)
THE POINT IS THIS: if, with your current project, that scenario sounds tiresome to you, and you believe that you will get sick of your book after the fifth round of revisions, or the ninth time you’re asked the same question about it…trunk it.
Maybe all of that won’t happen for you. But maybe it will. And if it does, you will become frustrated and unmotivated if you do not love your book.
So don’t work on something just because you have worked on it in the past. Don’t work on it just because you don’t want to admit defeat, or because you think it will sell better than your other ideas. Don’t work on it for any other reason than that you love it wholeheartedly and believe it is amazing, because if everything goes well, you can’t ditch it and you can’t put it aside if you get tired of it. It is yours and it will always be yours.
You must, must, must be in love. All other considerations are secondary.
A book that can trigger that kind of emotional response, for whatever reason should be lauded. As much as it’s mildly embarrassing to tear up in front of a roomful of strangers, there’s always a bathroom to hide in. Too often people aren’t affected enough by the humanity in everything—life, literature, music—it doesn’t matter, so when the waves come over me, I always kind of love it. Simply being able to feel things in a world where people have come to pride themselves on their thick skins and jadedness makes me just fine about being a weeper.
- I'm a few months late, but I had to share the Random Acts of Kindness meme over at Book Soulmates. Sign up, post your book wish list, and make someone else's day.
- Kudos to Teen Vogue (words I never thought I'd say) for featuring 25 diverse YA titles in their must-read summer books feature. Not only did they genre right (in other words, they recognized that YA is the reading level, and listed individual genres like sci-fi, romance, etc.), they also featured a wide variety, and scored bonus points with me for including nonfiction like the Grammar Girl series.
- Our girl Sarah Enni has a great guest post about taming phone anxiety-- very helpful before an agent or editor call.
- Internet providers are cracking down on piracy. The NYT discusses effects on Hollywood and the music indistry; should be interesting to see how publishing gets in on the act, if at all.
- Pretty sure I couldn't disagree with this article any harder if I tried, but The Atlantic discusses how the HP movies succeeded where JK Rowling failed. (Seriously, I had trouble typing "JK Rowling" and "failed" in the same sentence.)
- Matthew Lewis (aka Neville Longbottom) is pretty much having the best. week. EVER, as VH1 names him a "WILF." I'll let you go find out what that stands for, if you can't guess.
- Can't stand to see the magic end? Pottermore has launched a blog and Twitter feed so you don't have to miss a minute of JK Rowling's next venture.
From the beginning, this book made me hungry. Literal, stomach-growling hunger. I loved the descriptions of meats served with rich sauces, pastries and baked goods iced and studded with fruits, the fresh produce abounding. The food in this novel is just one part of a world that Carson beautifully builds. I loved the landscapes, the Spanish influence, the cultural extremes from one region to the next.
