My Story Won't Behave

I'm still working on the first draft of the story I started during NaNoWriMo. I know, it's shameful. I wish I were a faster writer, but speed writing isn't my gift.

Back in October, before I wrote anything down, I decided I would try to outline. On November 2 I strayed so far from the outline that it became useless.

So I just wrote.

In December, I started getting a sense of what should happen later in the book. I wrote down a few of these ideas and tried, once again, to stick with the plan.

Then this Monday, I wrote 2000 words in one sitting. Those 2000 words took my story to an entirely new place, a place where many of my December ideas won't work.

The moral of this story: some people are plotters, unfortunately I'm not one of them.

Are you a plotter? If so, are you ever tempted to leave your outline behind?

A Word About Endings

They don't have to be happy. They just have to make the hours I've put into the movie, book, television show, etc. worth it.

My husband and I watched a movie last night that both of us were really into. We were invested in the characters and we wanted to see what would happen to them. When the final scene came and NOTHING was resolved, both of us pleaded out loud, "Please don't let that be the end!" But it was the end. And we were frustrated. I won't be recommending the movie to any of my friends, even though I liked the rest of it.

Endings are important. They're the last thing your readers will read. I have a really bad memory when it comes to books or movies that I saw years ago. I might forget the entire plot, but I'll remember the ending (especially if it was really good or really bad).

I'm feeling a lot of pressure to end my current WIP well. I love the characters and I want their final moments on the page to be both surprising and satisfying. I know it's going to take some work to get it right, but it'll be worth it.

Does it bother you when a book or movie ends without resolution (or when the resolution isn't satisfying)? If you've enjoyed the rest of the story can you overlook a bad ending?

Oh, and if you haven't entered Karen's awesome Valentine's Day contest (in which she is giving away books AND chocolate) please do so! You won't regret it. Karen is the coolest.

Award Happiness

Well, it's that time again. I've received a few awards this last month and I need to say thanks and pass them on!

First up is Happy 101 which was given to me by Stephanie Thronton (I'm so excited to read her historical novel about Hatshepsut, the first successful female Pharaoh--it sounds fabulous), Karen Denise (who writes dystopian YA, the genre I WISH I could write) and Marybeth (Poppins) Smith (who is hilarious, really).

I think I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy, so here goes:

1. Snuggling with my kids at bedtime (they are just sweeter at bedtime)

2. Chocolate cake

3. 70 degree weather

4. Hot baths

5. Great books

6. Kisses

7. Sleep

8. A clean house

9. Being with my family

10. Lasagna

I'd like to give this award to three happy people who are new to me and new to the blogging world. So go visit them! It always makes me happy to meet someone new.

Nicole Ducleroir at One Significant Moment

Sandy Shin

Christine Danek at Christine's Journey

And thank you to Kristin at Another Gray Day (she writes and bakes and writes about baking and books) and Roni at Fiction Groupie (who, as I've said before, writes one of my very favorite blogs about writing, it's a must read) for the Over the Top Award.

For this one we're supposed to answer the following questions with just one word.

Your Cell Phone? Tracfone

Your Hair? Brown

Your Mother: Artist

Your Father? Smart

Your Favorite Food? Chocolate

Your Dream Last Night? Weird

Your Favorite Drink? Water

Your Dream/Goal? Author

What Room Are You In? Office

Your Hobby? Writing

Your Fear? Rejection

Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Published

Where Were You Last Night? Home

Something You Aren't? Mathematician

Muffins? Yes

Wish List Item? Motivation

Where Did You Grow Up? West

Last Thing You Did? Breakfast

What Are You Wearing? Sweatshirt

Your TV? PBS

Your Pets? Dog

Friends? Many

Your Life? Lovely

Your Mood? Happy

Missing Someone? Always

Vehicle? Van

What You Aren't Wearing? Makeup

Your Favorite Store? Target

Your Favorite Color? Yellow

When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Today

Last Time You Cried? Yesterday

Your Best Friend? Husband

One Place You Go Over And Over Again? Refrigerator

Facebook? Confusing

Favorite Place To Eat? Italian

I'd like to give this award to Frankie at Frankie Writes, because I met her in person last weekend, and she is the first writer/extrovert I've ever come across. She's absolutely darling and her blog is Over The Top. And also to Elana Johnson (even though she probably doesn't do awards anymore because she's practically a professional blogger). Her posts are so helpful to me. If you aren't reading them, you should be.

Whew, that was quite the blog. If you skimmed to the end for the question of the day I won't leave you hanging! Today's question is:

What makes you happy?

What are Your Character's Faults?

One of the things I've thought a lot about since returning from SCBWI last weekend, is creating interesting characters.

In Libba Bray's keynote speech she told us to be careful of writing shallow characters. Imperfections are what make people interesting. Several of the other speakers touched on this too, and I think it's very applicable to my writing (and hopefully yours too).

I try not to write characters that are too good. They don't always obey their parents or do their homework or treat each other with respect. But I struggle with it sometimes. I have to avoid the temptation to let the good people always do good things and the bad people always do bad things, because in real life people aren't good or bad, they're just people.

My favorite books include villains who could almost be heroes or heroes that are just a few steps away from being villains. I like reading about people who are flawed. Sydney Carton (from Dickens', A Tale Of Two Cities) and Emma Woodhouse (From Jane Austen's, Emma) are two of my favorite characters ever, probably because both of them are far from perfect.

Do your heroes have defects? Do your villains have redemptive qualities? Or are they too good or too bad?

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?

Facing Fears

On Friday morning I'm going to New York for the SCBWI winter conference. I'll get up, pack the last few things, drive out to the airport and fly ALONE all the way across the United States. When I get to New York I'm going to have to find my way from the airport to the hotel ALL BY MYSELF. Then I'm going to spend the entire weekend with three girls who I email daily, but I've NEVER MET IN REAL LIFE.

I'm a little nervous. Can you tell?

I haven't ever done anything like this. I always travel with someone. I don't think I've ever been on an airplane without my mom or my husband. I've never been to a writing conference. And I've never been all by myself in New York City.

But, I know it's going to be good for me.

If you are writing and planning to pursue publication you've probably done, or will have to do, a lot of scary things. These are just a few:

--Writing, rewriting, and rewriting a book

--Letting someone else read your writing

--Joining a critique group

--Listening to your critique group

--Querying agents

--Getting rejected

--Getting manuscript requests

--Having to talk to agents on the phone

And that's just the beginning. It's quite an adventure.

Every new step has been a little scary for me. I've had to put myself out there, and I never know if other people are going to love or hate (or worse, be indifferent to) what I write. But, it's been a great experience so far. Sometimes the only way to progress is to push ourselves to the next level and do something that scares us.

Do you get scared sometimes too? Is there a step on the road to publication (or after publication) that makes you nervous? Are you going to do it anyway?

Life Without Internet

My unplugged week was extremely productive. I didn't unplug completely (I had to at least check my email everyday), but I did send my ethernet cord to work with my husband, so I had no internet access during the daytime. It was GREAT.

I made a few discoveries that I'd like to share with you:

1. Checking email every half hour is no better that checking it twice a day. It will wait for you--really.

2. Without an ethernet cord my house became clean and my manuscript became longer. It was like magic.

3. I have no willpower. Just like I can't have a piece of chocolate cheesecake sitting in front of me for more than 30 seconds without devouring it, I cannot have a working internet and not check my email/your blogs/Yahoo News hourly.

4. A while back Lisa and Laura suggested trying a program that disables the internet for a set amount of time so I CAN'T get on it (and I can write). Last Friday I tried one. BRILLIANT. I highly recommend this kind of thing if you are like me and have no willpower.

5. When I unplug all the seasoned bloggers out there start writing about stuff I NEED to read. There were some truly awesome posts last week that I missed (until my husband came home with my cord). If you didn't see them you should check out:

Jody Hedlund's series on: Why We Should Blog

Kiersten White's post about Why Being on Submission Sucks

Elana Johnson's post about How She Does it All

It's going to be a really busy week for me (I leave for the SCBWI conference on Friday!) but I'll be back for sure on Wednesday.

Do you accomplish a lot more when you unplug? Have you ever unplugged? (If not--you need to try it!)