The Lucky 13s Take Over, Week 4: Amy Tintera - Writing Advice I Ignored

It's my final week in the writing cave before I send my WIP to my editor (eep), so today, Amy Tintera is guest blogging for me. Take it away, Amy!

There’s a lot of good writing advice out there. So much, in fact, that I’m not going to talk about it. Instead, let’s talk about the advice I totally disregarded.

(But first, a quick note: Everyone is different. No one can tell you how best to write. Just because the below didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Try a few of them!)

And now, the Writing Advice I Totally Ignored:

1. Don’t rush just to get words down. There’s no point in writing words you know you’ll delete later.

            Nope, sorry, this one doesn’t work for me. I’ve moved away from word count a bit, and I do focus more on producing quality words, but I still need my messy first drafts. In fact, they’re not even first drafts. Their messy messy messy rough drafts I maybe don’t even finish.  I recently wrote 45,000 terrible words of Reboot book two. It was insanely helpful in figuring out the story.

2. Find a critique group to read your work as you write it and help motivate you to finish.

            Critique groups that meet weekly (in person or online) are not for me. I can’t have someone else’s opinion on my work when I don’t even know what I’m doing yet. My beta readers (basically crit partners who read the finished second draft) are very, very important. But I like to keep early reads to my agent and my sister (and even then, on a very limited basis).

3. Read your draft out loud.

            This one will probably come back to haunt me. I’ll probably be standing up in front of everyone at my book launch, reading from Reboot, and realize it’s terrible. But still, the idea of reading 80,000 words out loud sounds exhausting and terrifying. No thank you.

4. Publish a short story first.

            This is really great advice for people who write short stories. But I don’t. I write novels. Short stories sound very, very, hard to me. You have way less words to build character arcs and your story. (Although, I would consider writing a novella. But I haven’t tried that either. Yet.)

5. Get a professional editor to look at your manuscript before querying agents.

            I actually saw this advice on an agent’s submission guidelines and I don’t like it. I think writers do need outside people to read their work - critique groups, beta readers, your (honest) friends - but I do not think you need to pay a professional before even submitting to agents. (This, of course, does not apply to self-publishing. If you’re self-publishing I think you really do need a professional freelance editor.)

6. Print out your manuscript when it’s time to edit. It will make it easier to catch mistakes.

            It might be easier on my eyes, but that sounds like a waste of paper and ink to me. And I’m really bad about replacing my paper and ink. Let’s not make my life more difficult.

7. Write first thing in the morning, before you go to work or start your day.

            DUDE IF YOU WANT TO GET UP AT 5AM TO WRITE THAT’S COOL. I’M JUST GOING TO BE OVER HERE SLEEPING.

8. Don’t plot the ending in advance. You have to earn it.

            I can’t remember where I read this piece of advice, but it’s always stuck with me because it provoked a major WHAAAAAAT response. Of course you have to earn your ending. But for me, I need to know where I’m headed in order to figure out how to get there.  

9. Keep a diary or a journal.

            Spending that much time with myself sounds terrifying. I’d much rather hang out in my character’s heads.

10. Don’t start out writing novels.

            Why not? 

Amy Tintera is a full-time writer living in Los Angeles, CA. HarperTeen will publish her debut novel, REBOOT, in Summer 2013. Visit her website and blog: amytintera.com or follow her on Twitter: @amytintera

The Lucky 13s Take Over, Week 3: Mindy McGinnis - Sex in YA - You Know You Want It

While I'm in the writing cave finishing my WIP, some of my fellow Lucky 13s are stepping in to guest blog for me. This week, I'm handing over to Mindy McGinnis. 

"... and you know you want me to give it to you." Biff's words to Lorraine in Back to the Future had me totally flummoxed for a looong time. What was it? How could Biff give it to her? And why was he trying to touch her panties in the front seat of the car during the dance? Why was Lorriane talking about Marty's Calvin Klein's in their meeting scene? What's the fixation with underwear?

I remained in the dark about these topics for awhile. I knew sex existed, but I didn't have the whole Tab A, Slot B mechanics of the dance figured out until er... well... later. Not so today's teens. Blame it on the media, blame it on the culture, blame on parenting, blame it on the rain (how many 80's references can I get in here?) Let's just set blame aside and focus on the fact that it simply IS. My opinion - kids aren't having more sex, or earlier than before - it's simply no longer a taboo subject.

So, because it's not taboo, because they do know the mechanics - what do we write about it? Do we write about it?

It's up to you. I've read some really graphic sex scenes in YA. I don't find them offensive. I have a hard time believing there's anything in there that the average teen hasn't already been exposed to. However, I do monitor content in the books that I give out to junior high students - not necessarily because I think they're about to have their minds deflowered - but because their parents DO believe that, and they might have my ass in a sling. And I need my ass. I use it everyday.

My own philosophy runs thus; I have always believed that less is more. Why does Jaws work? 'Cause you don't see the shark. I typically refrain from physically describing my characters because I want my readers to fill in their hot guy, their hallway bitch, themselves as the MC. So when it comes to those backseat moments, or when my MC invites a guy over to "watch a movie," (yeah right, I have yet to see the end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off), I want them to fill in slot B on their own. Something happened. Unless it's imperative to the plot, does it matter what? Do they need the description? Do they need to see that shark?

Here's a great example from Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix: (I know you're saying "What!  An HP makeout scene?") Oh yeah... it's there. A meeting of Dumbledore's Army has just ended. Everyone has filed out except for Cho and Harry, who are kinda hanging out there in the Room of Requirement... and who didn't guess that thing had multiple uses? pg. 456-457:

"I really like you Harry."

He could not think.  A tingling sensation was spreading throughout him, paralyzing his arms, legs and brain.

She was much too close.  He could see every tear clinging to her eyelashes...

*PAGE BREAK*

He returned to the common room half an hour later to find Hermione and Ron..."

Hey! Wait a second!! Half an hour later? Gee... what were they doing? Now, obviously Rowling had a duty to her young readers to keep it clean, and to her older readers to keep it interesting. Not so for all writers, certainly. But I think it's a good example of letting the reader take it to their own level - of comfort, of familiarity, without being told what happened.

My own writing gives a little more detail than this highly gratuitous page break, but you get the idea.

One last thought - what do you want your readers to take away from your book? I haven't read Breaking Dawn, but I know that Edward and Bella break the headboard, cause that's all anyone wanted to talk about. Other than that - zero clue what the plot is about.

I'd love some feedback! What are your thoughts? Show the shark, or keep him underwater?  :)

Mindy McGinnis is a YA author and librarian. Her debut dystopian, NOT A DROP TO DRINK, will be available from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins Fall, 2013. She blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Lucky 13s Take Over, Week Two: April Tucholke - The Mystery Notebook

 

While I'm in the writing cave finishing my WIP, some of my fellow Lucky 13s are stepping in to guest blog for me. This week, I'm handing over to April Tucholke. 

When I was 14 I flew to CA to visit my cousins. I read a lot, a lot, of Agatha Christie that year, and made a MYSTERY NOTEBOOK to put clues in. It was just a regular lined notebook that I wrote MYSTERY NOTEBOOK on. I took the notebook with on my trip, fully expecting to find, and solve, many crimes with it. Um...yeah.

April Tucholke's debut novel, BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, is out from Dial/Penguin in Summer 2013. You can find her at apriltucholke.com.

The Lucky 13s Take Over, Week One: Ellen Oh - Swan vs Eagle

While I'm in the writing cave finishing my WIP, some of my fellow Lucky 13s are stepping in to guest blog for me. This week, I'm handing over to Ellen Oh.

So since Emma invited me to share something with her blog readers, I thought I’d share a story about my Mom and how she kept me sane during the time I was querying PROPHECY. I had just left my previous agent and was in that phase of wondering if I’d ever get representation again and I was a nervous wreck. I stressed about everything, I checked my email box hundreds of times, I stalked agents online, wondering whether or not they were reading my MS, I second guessed myself all the time.  I was not rational.  And it didn’t help that it seemed like all my writer friends were getting book deals while I still labored in the trenches. I couldn’t see clearly. Until my Mom gave me the smackdown.

My folks came down for a visit during the height of my submission craze. They'd known that I'd been under a lot of stress and were worried about me. The first thing my Mom said was to turn off the laptop. "All that computer does is give you stress. Turn it off and come sit down and talk."

I turned off the computer and sat down, heart sinking for the lecture that I knew was coming. It won't matter if I'm 60 years old, my parents will always lecture me. That's life.

"Ellen, why are you so stressed about this book?" my Mom asked. "Why don't you forget about it already."

"That's impossible, Mom. I just can't forget it."

"Not forget forever. Just for a little while," my Mom said. "Listen, don't be stuck on your book. Let it go and be happy. When you are happy, really happy, then go back to it. Nothing works when your brain is filled with stress." She rubbed at the crease between my eyebrows. "Your brain is all filled with worry and stress and miserableness. Why you want to put that in your book? You put that in your book - who will want to read it? Happiness makes you healthy. Healthy makes your brain happy. Then you write your book."

I nodded and sighed. "It's not that easy..."

"Of course it's not easy." My Mom shook her head at me. "You and your sister got your writing gene from your Dad. He's a great writer. Great newspaper columnist (my Dad had a column in the national Korean American paper for years). But then he writed 3 books and they don't do good. He's depressed and gives up writing. That's why he's worried about you girls. But I'm not worried. I know one day people will applaud me just for being your mother. You will be great one day. But don't rush it. You don't have to. I will live until I am 110! You have plenty of time. Don't rush."

I began to laugh. "Thanks Mom. Maybe one day then it'll all work out for me. It's just hard when I see all my friends succeed and I wonder when it will happen to me."

My Mom smiled and grabbed my hands. "What kind of writer will you be? Some writers will write 10 books that are all forgettable. You will be the writer that writes one book, but it will be unforgettable. I believe in you. Some people lay eggs that turn into chickens - others lay eggs that turn into eagles. You are no chicken. You are an Eagle. One day you will soar."

"Funny - I thought you were going to say swan, but I like the eagle analogy better," I said.

"Swan, BAH! Only look good on outside. Open its mouth and the ugliest sound come out. Eagle is better. Look strong, look powerful, be strong, be powerful."

"Thanks Mom, you're right."

"Of course. I'm almost always right."

Ellen Oh's debut novel, PROPHECY, will be released January 2nd, 2013 by HarperTeen. Visit her at ellenoh.com, like her Prophecy Series Facebook Page or follow her on Twitter -

twitter.com/elloecho

In Two Places At Once, Plus More Books for 2012

I'm in two places at once today! As well as being here, you can find me interviewing Sangu Mandanna about her awesome dystopian debut THE LOST GIRL over at The Lucky 13s. THE LOST GIRL released yesterday and is a gripping tale of love, loss and life with a unique dystopian twist. I absolutely love it and I'm hoping to have Sangu on this blog for a chat when TLG releases with Random House in the UK early next year (publisher siblings, yay!).

I reckon it's time for some more 20 Books for 2012 now, so here are the next three I'm adding to the list:

FROSTFIRE by Zoe Marriott

A fantasy YA about a girl who is possessed by a demon, and when she's forced to join a band of rebel soldiers and grows close to their two leaders, is terrified she won't be able to protect them from her own terrible power. I just finished reading this, and thought it was wonderful. The writing is exquisite and the heroine is brilliantly kick-ass. And the cover is beautiful!

SECOND CHANCE SUMMER by Morgan Matson

I've always been a huge fan of Sarah Dessen, but I reckon she now has some serious competition for the crown of realistic romantic contemporary. I already loved Morgan's first book, AMY AND ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR, but this one, a story about a girl whose family take one last vacation together before a life-changing event, forcing her to face up to the ghosts of her past, just blew me away. Warning: do NOT read this book in public unless you don't mind total strangers seeing you flat-out bawling. And make sure you have plenty of tissues!

THE WITNESS by James Jauncey

A gritty, near-future dystopian set in Scotland, where conflict over who should own land in the Highlands is escalating. A teenager witnesses a massacre and ends up on the run with the only survivor, a young boy. Everything about this book is just breathtaking. One of my favourites of all time.

From next week, I'm going to be AWOL (at least from blogging) for a while. My book 2 deadline is looming ever nearer, and I need to take time away from the blog to make sure I get the MS finished. However, it won't be sitting in the corner of the internet gathering cobwebs. Some of my fellow Lucky 13s are taking over, starting with a post next week from the awesome Ellen Oh, so I hope you'll still stop by for a read.

Until then, to the writing cave… see you again at the end of September!

Lots of Links!

I'm missioning on with the WIP, which is now at over 78K and moving into the last third of the story. It's over 4 years since I last wrote a first draft and I'd forgotten what it feels like to reach that point where this collection of words, paragraphs and chapters begins, at last, to feel like an actual book. A ragged-round-the-edges, riddled-with-plot-holes-so-big-you-could-lose-a-bus-in-them, going-to-need-a-ton-of-work sorta book, but a book nonetheless. It's so exciting!

As a result of all this writing, my brain has turned to roughly the consistency of porridge and all I could do when I remembered I had a blog post to write was stare blankly at the screen and drool slightly. OK, maybe I didn't drool, but you get the idea. So this week, I'm doing a links round-up.

First up, I have a board on Pinterest where I'm adding the covers for my fellow Lucky 13s debut novels as they're revealed. There are some amazing covers - I can't wait to read the books inside them! You can see them here.

I have a Pinterest board for my WIP. They're pictures that capture the mood I'm trying to create with the book. There may also be some hints at the locations and characters… check it out here and let me know what you think!

On 15th August, me and my fellow Luckies took part in the amazing WriteOnCon, offering some writing and marketing tips. If you missed them, you can find them here.

Over at Presenting Lenore, it's Dystopian August, where you can get sneak previews of some amazing dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels that are coming out next year from a few of the Lucky Thirteens: Polly Holyoke, Amy Tintera, Melanie Crowder, Amie Kaufman and her Apocalypsie co-author Meagan Spooner, Alexandra Duncan, T. Michael Martin and my writing twin (or should that be Alt?) Elsie Chapman. You can also catch up with what dystopian and post-apoc books are out now in this post.

On Ink & Angst, Pam Witte is running an incredible, international Gate Crashers' Author Appreciation signed book and swag contest. What are you waiting for? Go enter it here!

And lastly, agent-mate Dan Smith has had an offer from a publisher for his first children's book. Congratulations, Dan!

Is there any cool stuff I've missed this week? Tell me about it in the comments!

Is This Really Happening? (AKA Meeting Your Publisher For The very First Time)

It's another writing-related anniversary for me today. A year ago, I was in London, meeting my publisher for the first time. Afterwards, they asked me if I'd like to write a post about it for their Talk About Random blog - my first blog post anywhere, ever! To celebrate (and because my deadline for book 2 is looming ever closer!) I'm re-posting it here. You can see the original post here.

Train tickets: check. Note of tube stops so I don’t get hopelessly lost and end up wandering the London Underground for days, weeping and begging strangers for help: check. Email from my publisher inviting me out for lunch so they can meet me and talk about my book: ch–

Hang on. What? I have a publisher?

Every time I think about it, I have to pinch myself. My novel, ACID, a dystopian thriller for young adults, is based on a story a friend of mine and I challenged each other to write when we were fourteen. Although I didn’t get much past the first ten pages, the idea – someone breaking out of a prison and going on the run from a corrupt police force who want to silence them forever – never left me. Two years ago, after having a near-miss trying to get my first young adult novel published, I came back to the idea. Several drafts later, my agent, Carolyn Whitaker at London Independent Books, started sending it out. And Random House Children’s Books said YES!

I have to admit, when they invited me down to London for lunch, I was nervous. This was an important occasion; I had to make a good impression. Cue frantic booking of haircut and raiding of wardrobe for smart outfit…

Two weeks later, the big day arrived. I met up with Carolyn in her lovely book-lined office and then we made our way to the RHCB offices where we were greeted by my editor Jess, Commissioning Editor Ruth and digital wizard Emil. It was both exciting and surreal to hear everyone being so enthusiastic about my book – the book I wrote on my dented laptop in spare bits of time between work and dog walks and everything else – and they were so lovely that by the time we headed out for lunch, I forgot I’d ever been nervous. Over steak and chips, we chatted about books and dogs and holidays, I met Fiction Publisher Annie and even found myself agreeing to get on Twitter (you can find me at @EmmaPass). And that evening, when I got back to my sister’s house, where I was staying overnight, she’d made cinnamon whirls. It was the perfect end to a brilliant day.

Now I’m back home, waiting for my first editorial letter, the next step in my journey towards becoming a for-real published author. So I guess this really is happening… especially now Carolyn’s told my contracts have arrived. I still have to pinch myself from sometimes, though!

Some More Good News About ACID!

After discovering ACID's on Amazon, and that it'll be coming out in May next year, I have some more good news to share! Spanish rights have sold to Random House Mondadori, and they'll be publishing it next summer! They publish other RHCB authors such as RJ Palacio and Lauren Kate, so I'll be in great company.

What a week!! :D

Music To My (WIP's) Ears

When I started writing ACID, I found myself doing something I've never done before – making a soundtrack for it (you can read my post about it over at the Lucky 13s blog here). And now I've ended up doing the same thing for my WIP, AKA the book that I now have a deadline to get the first draft done by, which is exciting and scary at the same time as I've never had a deadline for a first draft before! Anyway, to get myself into the writing zone while I get this draft done, I'm listening to its soundtrack pretty much exclusively. As the world of ACID is futuristic and high-tech, the soundtrack  included a lot of electronic music; in contrast, the world of my WIP is much lower tech, so the songs I've chosen for it are quieter, with a strong leaning towards acoustic and classical music. There's some heavier stuff in there too, though – in fact, Many of Horror might now be my favourite song ever.

Biffy Clyro - Many of Horror (When We Collide)

Ludovico Einaudi - I Due Fiumi

Mumford & Sons - I Gave You All

Paramore - Playing God

Erik Satie - 3 Gnossienes - #1. Lent

Mumford & Sons - Awake My Soul

Dustin O'Halloran - Fragile No. 4

Message To Bears - Running Through Woodland

Temper Trap - Soldier On

Fleet Foxes - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

Miike Snow - Silvia 

Ludovico Einaudi - La Nascita Delle Cose Segrete

(Links are to official videos licensed under Creative Commons, via search.creativecommons.org, but if you want to see the rest you can find them on YouTube.)

In other news, ACID is up on Amazon! With an ISBN and a release date and everything! Woo-hoo! 
There's nothing much else to see at the moment (no cover yet, sorry!), but if you want to check it out (and maybe *cough* add it to your wishlist/preorder *cough*) it's here.

So, how about you? Which song or songs best sum up what you're working on at the moment? Share them with me in the comments!

Reaching The Other Side

I've blogged before about first drafts, and how I found a way to get through the you-suck moment that inevitably strikes me about halfway through every book. Well, I'm in good old first draft territory right now as, with the edits and copyedits for ACID done, I'm forging ahead with my second book and trying to get it done. And as I've been writing, I've been thinking about the whole process of first drafting, which is very different to writing a second draft, or a third, or a fourth…

It's no secret to my writer friends that I find revising much easier than writing a first draft (I may even have been known to send tweets with the hashtag #firstdrafthell at times…), because with subsequent drafts, you have something to work with. But with first drafts, you have nothing. You're spinning those words, those characters, that plot out of thin air, and inevitably, things end up going in different directions to the ways you planned. Sometimes, I find this exciting. More often, it can throw me into a panic, and I have to frantically return to my notes (some of which I make before I start, some as I go along) to figure out exactly what needs to happen, and why.

One thing I've learnt not to do at these moments is to try to think about the WHOLE BOOK. If I think about the WHOLE BOOK it will loom over me like Everest, and I'll run out of oxygen long before I get to the top. Instead, I think ahead only to the next major plot point. I don't plot rigidly, but I always have a vague idea of the complete story arc before I start, and, as I go along, I work out the plot points so they're laid out in my head like stepping stones across a river. I don't need to look right over to the other side of the water to see where I'm going – only to the next stone, and then the next. Bit by bit, I find my way across, and by keeping my eyes on my feet, there's less chance I'll lose my nerve and stumble. (Besides which, I can't swim very well, so falling into that river would be a bad idea.)

Photo by J.A. Holland via Flickr. Licensed for use under Creative Commons.

How about you? What techniques do you use to get through those tricky first drafts?