Keep Moving Forward

Have you seen the Disney movie Meet the Robinson's? It's funny, you should see it. It's about a kid inventor whose inventions don't always work. He learns that if he can "keep moving forward," keep working hard trying to get things right, eventually things his creations will work and change the world.

I've made very little progress on my WIP this last month. I have a hundred excuses for why I haven't done more, and some of them are really good. I have to keep reminding myself that I am making progress, I am moving forward, and eventually this book is going to get done.

And that is kind of the beauty of writing without being published. I have time. It's not a race. I really want to finish my manuscript, but I also want to be a good mom. Last month doing both of those things wasn't possible. Hopefully it will be they will be this month. But I am happy that I made some progress, even though it was small.

Are you moving forward with your work? Do you ever have times when you don't make as much progress as you'd like?

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?

Me, as a Liar

I have a few blog awards to pass on and one of them involves creative lying, which is something I do well.

I think I'm going to have to save a few of these for next week, just so I don't have a crazy long post, but I'll do 3 today.

First up: The Circle Of Friends Award.

This was given to me by a lovely new friend and new blogger Nicole Dulcleroir.

I was thinking about all my blog friends and there are SO MANY. I always talk about my critique group girls, who are my ultimate circle of friends, but I've given them awards already so I thought I'd give this one to a new little circle of friends, my agent buddies Sarah Skilton and Miranda Kenneally. They are both represented by Sara Megibow and they are both super cool girls, so check them out. Miranda is more of a Tweeter than a blogger so you should go see her on Twitter @MirandaKeneally.

Next: The Sunshine Award

BJ Anderson gave me this little beauty. BJ has been a bloggy friend for a long time and she's a great writer to get to know.

I'm going to pass this along to a few new friends: Mariah Irvin, because she is hilarious and Derek Whisman, because he's new to blogging and he's got great taste in books.

And last: The "Creative Writer" Award

This was given to me by the beautiful and talented Erica at Laugh Write Play and sassy sarcastic Matt at Pensive Sarcasm.

Both are encouraging me to tell LIES, and I intend to take them up on their offer. But I'm going to switch up the rules and tell 6 truths and 1 lie instead of the other way around. Here they are:

1. I once threw up all over a fireman

2. I only dated my husband for 4 months before we got married

3. I've never seen an episode of LOST

4. I have several exciting things happening now that I can't share with you yet

5. I didn't like reading when I was kid and I often fudged book reports by reading only the back cover and the last page.

6. The best class I ever took in college was called "Walt Disney's Influence on American Culture." We mostly watched cartoons.

7. I love lima beans and I've never understood why they get such a bad rap.

I'd like to pass this one on to two good honest people who might enjoy a little lying: DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude and Jamie Debree at The Variety Pages.

And there you have it. I'll try to catch up on the rest next Friday. Thank you everyone! And feel free to try to guess the lie. I might tell you what it is... someday.

My Workspace

Well, I'm still a little sick and this has been kind of a crazy day, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and post pictures of my workspace. I didn't even clean it up before I took these pictures, so you can see it in all it's messy glory.

My workspace is located in a little extra bedroom, just down the hall from the room where my kids play. The walls are light green, the air circulation is good, and there's a window with a pretty decent view of the best yard in the neighborhood (it belongs to the house across the street).

This is where the magic happens:

Fancy right? I especially like the large winged horse and the fact that more than half of the screen is taken up with Dora the Explorer on Netflix. When my son is awake, I usually have to share the screen, which is why I try not to write while he's awake.

I know you are coveting my awesome flower lamp, my puppy dog mousepad, and my ghetto high school pottery too. There's nothing like looking at crappy pottery to get those creative juices flowing.

It's not exactly glamorous, or clean, but it's where I write.

Where do you write?

If Writing Weren't Hard, It Would Be Easy...

... and then everyone would do it.

My unplugged week didn't go so well. This was because:

1. I set an unrealistic goal. I needed to write about 15,000 words last week to finish my manuscript. I knew it was possible-- if the stars aligned, and the kids cooperated like never before, and my muse was operating at full strength--unfortunately, last week wasn't one of those weeks.

2. My kids were sick. I've said it many times, but they really do come first. If given a choice between snuggling with my feverish pukey child while watching a movie, or trying to get some words on paper, I'm going to choose the snuggling every time.

3. I got really sick, and I'm still not really over it. For me, sickness is the ultimate creativity drain. I can't be witty when I feel like poop.

4. The Olympics

5. American Idol (I can't help it! I'm an addict.)

So yeah, some of these things I had some control over. I didn't NEED to watch every single night of figure skating, or ski cross, or aerials, or everything else. And I could have gotten a lot more done if I had turned off the television and read the recaps the next day, but it wouldn't have been as fun.

I did manage to write about 2000 words despite all the craziness, and I feel okay about that. It feels like a drop in the bucket, but at least I'm 2000 words closer to finishing.

Do your writing plans ever get thwarted by things outside your control? What are some things you can control that keep you from reaching your goals?

And I missed you all last week! I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to.

It's All About Taste

It occurred to me about a month ago that all of the steps in the publishing process come down to one thing: personal taste.

You can write the most brilliant novel ever about sea slugs, and if you only submit it to one agent, and that agent happens to detest sea slugs, it won't get published.

Or perhaps you'll find an agent who is crazy about sea slugs and loves your chatty MC and thinks the story is wonderful, but when he submits it to editors, one editor doesn't like the chatty MC, and one likes the MC, but thinks the story is lame, and another just hates sea slugs.

And then if you manage to sell the book you have to worry about reviewers who hate sea slugs or chatty MC's or books with alternating points of view. And then readers... you get the point.

Every person in this world has their own set of likes and dislikes. I dislike books where people seem to fall in love/infatuation for no clear reason. This scenario drives me crazy. But there are a lot of books like this that are popular, so just because I don't like them doesn't mean someone else (or millions of someone elses) won't.

I think it's important to remember when you query agents, or your agent submits to editors, that in the end it comes down to taste. The agent has to love your book in order to take it on. And if one agent doesn't love it, that doesn't mean it isn't great. It could be the hottest book since Harry Potter, but it just didn't fit with that agent's interests. I think this is why we're told over and over again to query widely.

So there you go. Don't feel bad about rejection, it's all (or at least a lot) about personal taste.

Have you ever read a bestseller that you hated? Or have you ever read a quiet little book that you loved?

I was supposed to unplug this week, but I didn't. So, I'm going to officially unplug tomorrow and stay unplugged until a week from Monday. I'll miss you!

My goal during unplugged time will be to FINALLY finish this first draft. It's close. I just need some time to focus.

This Is A Contest You CAN'T Miss

I'm supposed to be unplugged this week. Unfortunately, this week has turned into a crumby week for writing, so I'm pushing back my unplugged time until next week.

And this is good, because I need to tell you about this totally awesome contest at Elana Johnson's and Shelli Johannes-Wells' blogs.

This is the kind of contest I would have LOVED to enter before I got an agent, because you can win query critiques (and partial critiques) FROM AGENTS.

I don't know about you, but when I was writing my query letter I would have done just about anything for some professional advice. I think they are giving away 6 different agent critiques(just kidding, between the two of them they are giving away 8 agent critiques-WOW) so there are many chances to win (plus, while I'm sure there will be hundreds of entries, there probably won't be thousands like Nathan Bransford's contests. The odds will be pretty good.)

I'm sure 90% of you already follow Shelli and Elana, but I'd hate for the other 10% to miss out on this opportunity.

You need to follow both blogs to enter (which you won't regret--they are both must-reads in my opinion). And they even have cool prizes for the already-agented, so you should enter too.

So I'll ask you, if you could have any leg up before you query (a referral from a client, a query critique by a professional, a conference pitch session with your dream agent, etc.), which would you choose?