Just Write Something

Sometimes I get busy.

When this happens I'm often frustrated that I don't have enough time in my day to write a respectable 2-4 pages, so I don't write anything.

That's dumb.

I should just write a page, or a paragraph, or a sentence, because writing something is better than writing nothing.

This month will be crazy with family visits, back-to-school stuff, birthday parties, and appointments, but I WILL write something every day.

Do you have days when you don't write anything? Do you want to join me in August and write something every day?

The Author Website

We've had a whole lot of yuck at my house this week. The baby had an ear infection and now he and my 3-year-old have RSV, and my girls are recovering from strep. Not fun.

So I'll keep this short and sweet.

For months I've known I needed to create an author website.

My agent recommends that ALL writers who want to submit their work have a website (not just a blog). Websites are nice because agents and/or editors can look through in just a few minutes and get a pretty good idea of who you are and what you write.

I worried putting up a website would be a ton of work and/or super expensive and/or very time consuming. I didn't want to think about it, so I put it off for months.

Last week I finally decided it was time. I now have an author website www.nataliebahm.com. It's nothing fancy, but I think it will be sufficient for now. And to my surprise, it wasn't hard, it wasn't expensive, and I got it done in just a couple of days.

Do you have an author website? If not, have you thought about creating one?

Why We Should Diversify

Some of you may know that my first completed manuscript was YA fantasy. It was also REALLY bad.

Just a few days after I "finished" it, I got the idea for a middle grade story. I'd never written middle grade. I hadn't read much middle grade since I was in elementary school and junior high. I had no idea what my middle grade voice should sound like. But I knew I couldn't query my first novel (because it sucked) and this new idea felt exciting and fresh, so I changed genres and transitioned from a world filled of anxsty teens and fairies into a world of happy-go-lucky real world sixth graders.

It was scary at first. I had no idea what I was doing. But as I wrote, I learned. And as I rewrote, I learned more. The voice came easier than it had with my attempt at YA. In the end I had a manuscript I felt confident enough about to start querying agents.

I've been thinking a lot about genre changing recently. I'm not planning a change anytime soon, MG is still a happy place for me, but it seems like a lot of blog friends have been reinventing their writing and several of the agents and editors at SCBWI talked about how it can be beneficial to diversify what we write.

So I wanted to share with you three good reasons to write something different.

1. A different genre may be more salable.

It seems like a lot of people decide to write because they fall in love with a super popular book and they think, "maybe I could do that." I think this is a great reason to start writing--a love of reading spills over into a love of writing. But if you decide to write YA paranormal because you loved TWILIGHT, you are going to have a lot of competition if you decide to pursue publication.

People don't talk about it much, but there are areas of publishing that are super saturated. Getting a book published in one of those genres may be harder than a less popular one. I don't know what the least competitive markets are (I bet agents and editors may have a clue though), but I do know that way fewer people write MG than YA.

That's something to think about.

2. You may be better at writing something else.

I started writing YA fantasy because it was one of my favorite genres to read. Unfortunately, loving to read something doesn't always translate to being good at writing it. I can tell you without a doubt that I am a better MG writer than fantasy writer, but I never would have discovered that if I hadn't tried to write MG.

3. Changing genres keeps things interesting.

Do you ever feel bogged down with your writing? Does it ever feel boring? Maybe a new genre is just what you need. Writing romance is WAY different than writing picture books, and writing middle grade is a huge departure from writing grown up thrillers, (have you seen the news about John Grisham's latest project?) Switching genres may give your writing new energy and make it exciting again.

So there you have it. There's a lot out there about the need to brand yourself, to stick to your genre and build your reputation on it, but maybe there's some good to be said for occasionally reinventing your writing.

So what do you think? Would you ever consider leaving your genre behind and trying something totally new?

Write what YOU write

I spent the last three days in New York at the SCBWI Winter Conference. It was awesome.

The best thing about the weekend was that I finally got to meet my writing group girls in person. They were everything I'd hoped and more. We spent pretty much the whole weekend together going to classes, watching speakers, having a group critique session (which was awesome--I'll share details in a few days), eating, and sleeping (and talking in our sleep).

Here we are:

From left to right: Karen, Me, Megan, and Marie

We also ran into a few familiar blog faces like Frankie from Frankie Writes and the lovely Carrie Harris.

The best thing about the conference wasn't the AMAZING speakers (though there were several that were incredible) or the great information (though I learned a LOT), it was the time I got to spend with friends and be among over 1000 people who were passionate about writing.

Over the next few weeks I want to share some of the things I learned at the conference. I'm not going to give any rundowns about what the speakers said, because you can find all of that at the SCBWI Conference Blog (which is packed with fabulous information). I'm going to share what I got from the experience.

If you asked each of the 1000+ writers and illustrators at the event what they felt the main message of the weekend was, I wouldn't be surprised if you got 1000+ different answers. But, I came away with one very solid impression about how to make my writing better.

Write what YOU write.

We listened to a lot of editors, writers and agents talk about the current trends in publishing. They told us about what is selling and what isn't, but they'd always, always followed this up by saying: DO NOT WRITE FOR THE TRENDS. If you write what you love (and what you're good at) your chances of making it in the business are so much better than if you write what you think editors are buying.

I need to be more confident in what I write. I admire so many writers in so many genres and I often wish I could write fantasy, or brilliant literary fiction, or picture books, or dystopian YA. But I love middle grade fiction. It is what I write well. My characters don't go to wizarding schools, they aren't vampires, and they don't speak in chatty teen slang, but they are unique and relatable and I hope someday people will love them.

What do you write well?

Maybe They Don't Know Everything

I wrote my 1000 words Monday through Wednesday of last week. I tried to be diligent and not get sidetracked by Twitter/blogs/"news articles" etc. I forced myself not to go back and edit what I'd written. Then came Thursday.

Thursday I had a self-doubt day. Roni posted about her "I am a Total Hack" day last Friday and she pretty much nailed how I'd felt the day before. Do you have these days sometimes too? Days when you feel like you will NEVER be able to write anything worth reading? I have one every few months-- they stink.

Anyway, part of the reason I was so frustrated with my manuscript was that it is a first draft (which means it's crappy). The scenes are incongruous, the writing is weak, and I don't know how it's going to end (because I abandoned the outline before I'd finished the first 5 pages).

I wanted to go back and edit. I felt like I needed to muck out all the junk and fix all the problems with the first half before I could go on. But I felt guilty doing this for two reasons.

1. Every single thing I've read about writing first drafts tells me I shouldn't go back and edit until it's done (and had a month or two in a drawer)

2. I made the goal to finish the first draft by the time I go to SCBWI (January 29th), and if I stop to revise I won't meet that goal.

Then I decided I'd do it anyway.

One of my problems with general writing advice (be it from books, blogs, conferences etc.) is that I take nearly everything I read as absolute truth. I think, "Oh, she says I'll be a better writer if I don't edit until I'm done with my first draft," or "he says adverbs are the devil" and think it must be so. But the truth is there is no "best way" to write. There's the best way for him and the best way for her, but that doesn't mean it's the best for me.

Maybe I need to edit and rewrite as I go in order to find the story. That is what happened with UNDERGROUND. At about this same point I went back and edited the first half before I went on. I'm pretty sure there is someone out there who can use "was" instead of more active verbs, and still write a bestseller. I KNOW there are successful writers who don't write everyday. And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some people are able to write great stories using truckloads of adverbs (in fact I'm reading a book right now that I think is fantastic, despite--or maybe because of--the adverbs). I think I tend to look at these, and many other pieces of writing advice, as absolute, but they aren't RULES--they're just guidelines.

I'm not saying it isn't helpful to know how one person writes (or how most people write), but I think I need to start taking writing advice with a grain of salt. I am the only person who can write the stories in my head, and I need to do it in a way that works for me.

So, yeah, that's all I got. From now on I'm going to edit and rewrite whenever the fancy strikes me. I think I'll still be able to write 1000 words a day, but I'm going to be deleting a lot of words too. As a result I probably won't make my January deadline, but who cares!

What do you think? Is there a piece of common writing advice that doesn't work for you? Do you feel pressured to follow a certain process because "everyone" says it's the best way?

So your (dad, brother, husband, mother etc.) tells me you wrote a book...

I live in a family full of big-mouths. Since I signed with Sara they've enjoyed telling anyone and everyone who has ever met me that I am a writer.

Then I run into these people at the grocery store or the movie theater or church and the first thing out of their mouth is, "So your dad told me you wrote a book and I hear it's a bestseller."

Yup, that's pretty much how it goes.

Then I have to correct them and say, "No, it's not even published yet."

Then they say something like, "So when is it coming out?"

Then I have to explain that I have an agent but not a publisher (yet).

Then they look at me like I'm lame, and try to save the conversation with something like, "Well, I'm sure it will work out for you someday."

Yeah. Tomorrow night is my husband's company party. It's going to be filled with conversations like this--which will be fun.

How do you respond when someone asks you about your writing? Do you have a quick and graceful way of explaining just how long and difficult the non-vanity publishing process is? Do you just nod and smile?