Jessica Hill

On Making Excuses

2012-02-17T10:24:00.001-05:00

Hey, yeah, hi.
So, I'm totally still alive.

When I first started working on this post, I said that school was eating ALL my spare time. Don't get me wrong, I have been busy. But I've still been managing to find time to tumbl and watch at least an hour of TV every night, so I must still have SOME free time, amiright?

So let's talk about what this post is really about. It's something I've been thinking about and wanting to talk for a while, and now seems like the perfect time.

Basically, saying that school was eating all my spare time was an excuse. An excuse for not blogging and for being hit-and-miss on Twitter. An excuse for not reading and writing as much as I'd like to.

Making excuses was something I first thought about a while ago while talking with my sister. I have a short story that I've been sending out to a few literary mags and haven't gotten any bites. I have another short story that I've been planning to send out to mags and haven't submitted once yet. I'd told my sister that I thought the stories weren't strong enough and that I should go back and fix them before submitting.

So I'd said I was going to work on them. I pulled them out and read through them. And had zero ideas for how to actually improve them. I'm not saying they're perfect, because they're not. I'm just saying that what I've got is what I've got.

The thing is, as artists, we're always going to believe and know that a piece of work can be better. It can be easy to fall into the trap of tweaking something to death without ever actually changing it, improving it. I've always been fearful of falling into this trap. That's why I tend to write something, edit it as best I can, and stop. Move on to a new story. And what I've got is what I've got.

I realized that I was sticking my toe closer and closer to that trap to see how close I could get without actually falling in. I was actually pushing myself closer to the trap that I was so fearful of just so I had an excuse to not send my work out. Because if you don't put your work out there, you won't be rejected.

So now I'm trying to work up the nerve to put my work out there by starting little. Send out just one thing at a time. When a rejection rolls in, send it (or something else) right back out. I'm not sure if it's a good approach, but it's what I've got right now. In the meantime, I'll work on other stories. That's the best way to deal with the stress of putting your work out there. Keep writing. Keep working.

Do you ever find yourself making excuses? How do you break out of it? ♥

HOLD STILL

2011-12-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

You guys have probably realized by now that I only review books that I totally fall in love with, and it's usually more gushing than reviewing, right? Well, HOLD STILL by Nina LaCour is another one that I absolutely adored.

The blurb from Barnes and Noble:

In the wake of her best friend Ingrid's suicide, Caitlin is left alone, struggling to find hope and answers. When she finds the journal Ingrid left behind for her, she begins a journey of understanding and broadening her horizons that leads her to new friendships and first love.

I love LaCour's writing. She doesn't overload it with a ton of details, but gets more to the emotion of the moment. At any given moment, you know exactly how Caitlin is feeling, how hard she's struggling to come to terms with her life without Ingrid, how she feels guilty for not being able to help her friend.

There are a lot of things that people hide beneath the surface and keep to themselves, and HOLD STILL really explores that. Ingrid had all these fears and emotions that she hid from Caitlin, and because she hid these things, Caitlin couldn't understand certain aspects of Ingrid's personality.

What I really love about this book, and what I think makes it unique, is the fact the Caitlin finds Ingrid's journal in her room. She reads it slowly, because it's the last piece of her friend that she has. Once she's read the journal, she will have nothing new to discover about Ingrid. Through the journal, Caitlin learns about all the things that Ingrid kept hidden from her, and through it, maybe understands her friend better than she had before.

Photography plays a huge role in this book. I'm a firm believer that there is healing in art, and that art is a great way to express things in life. LaCour does a fantastic job illustrating this throughout the book. And maybe I also love the use of photography since that's a hobby of mine that I'm pretty passionate about. :]

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Cursing In Books

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

More specifically, cursing in YA books. It's a common debate, and a conversation on Twitter got me thinking about it again when author Sara Zarr tweeted about an email she received about "the vile language" used in her book, HOW TO SAVE A LIFE. She then tweeted: "I disagree w/the basic premise that swearing is vile. It's very effective in the expression of human emotion, especially the painful present."

This is something I thought about while drafting my first YA WIP, and something I'm thinking about now as I revise. My male MC, Garrett, curses. Not excessively, but enough that it gets me thinking. I've been making an effort to remove all unnecessary cursing, but some of it I honestly feel needs to stay. One such use I felt needed to stay involved Garrett using the f-word—the only time that word appears in the entire novel. It was difficult for me to write it and difficult for me to leave it, but I felt taking it away would diminish Garrett's emotions. Also, I felt removing it wouldn't be true to his character.

@theames said it best in her response to Zarr's tweet: "Also even if you agreed it was vile, it's not as if all characters you write will agree."

I think we need to be conscious of our characters. We need to allow them to act and talk they way they would act and talk and not the way they would act and talk with us censoring them. We shouldn't censor our characters. Yeah, Garrett curses. You know why? Because he is hurt and he is angry. And to censor his language would take away from those emotions and, I think, would make him feel false as a character.

As with so much in writing, it's subjective. It depends on the writer and the character and the people who pick up the book. Not everyone is going to like it, not everyone is going to agree. It's the nature of all art. All we can do as writers is what we feel is right for our characters and their story.

Do you think it's acceptable to swear in YA books? How much is too much?

The Relationship Between Reading & Writing

2011-11-29T17:30:00.000-05:00

Everyone says that if you want to write, you need to read.
Read extensively.
Read every day.
Read good books.
Read bad books.
Read everything in sight.
They're absolutely right.

I've been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. Reading often and a wide range of books has certainly helped me become a stronger writer. I've learned what makes a good book, and what makes a bad one.

But I've found the opposite is also true.
Being a writer has helped me become a stronger reader.

I can analyze books in a way now that I wasn't able to before. Not just structure (although definitely structure). I've always been able to say "I liked that book" or "I didn't like that book" but I couldn't always say WHY I liked it or disliked it. Now, most the time I can. I can say that I liked a book because of strong, identifiable characters, because of imagery, plot, etcetera. Just as importantly, I can point out what I don't like about a book. I can point to a character that didn't feel believable, a plot that could have been stronger, a poor ending, or simply to the fact that I didn't care for the writer's style.

Basically what I'm saying is, it's not just about READING to WRITE BETTER. It's this whole relationship between the two, this whole cycle. You read to know how to write. Writing makes you read better, more critically. You read more critically to write better. And on and on it goes. During each cycle, you get a little stronger in both regards.

So, yeah. Read a lot. Write a lot.
Never stop practicing. Never stop getting better and stronger. ♥

NaNoWriMo: Weeks 2 & 3

2011-11-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

My productivity on my NaNo novel has dropped significantly. Work and school started taking over during week two.

I wrote a grand total of 1,120 words for NaNo during week two. FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK. Yep. Week three went a bit better, with 6,782 words. Right now, I'm at 20,928 words total. This puts me roughly 14,000 words behind. I'd have to write over 3,000 words a day between now and the end of November in order to finish 50k. Which is just highly unlikely.

The thing is, I knew this would happen. I knew work and school would take over and I wouldn't have as much time for writing. So I'd headed into this month thinking that I would be happy with whatever I accomplished. 25k would be nice (which I am still hoping to reach at least that). But then I did so well that first week, I'd secretly started hoping that I would reach the 50k goal. But it's starting to look like that's just not going to happen.

Also, I've been revising another novel while doing NaNo and I still feel more "into" that novel than I do my NaNo novel (not that I don't like my NaNo novel), so I've decided I should focus most of my writing time on it. I'm still going to work on my NaNo novel and pump out as much as I can into it in my spare time. We'll just have to see what happens. And hey, you never know, right?

How's NaNo going for all of you?
Hopefully better than it's going for me, ha! ♥

STRING BRIDGE

2011-11-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

My review of STRING BRIDGE is below, but first!

Today is THE day to help Jessica Bell's debut, STRING BRIDGE, hit the bestseller list on Amazon, and receive the all-original soundtrack, Melody Hill: On the Other Side, written and performed by the author herself, for free!

All you have to do is purchase the book today (paperback, or eBook), November 11th, and then email the receipt to:

jessica.carmen.bell(at) gmail(dot)com

She will then email you a link to download the album at no extra cost!

To purchase the paperback:

Amazon USA / Amazon UK

To purchase the eBook:

Amazon USA / Amazon UK

To listen to samples of the soundtrack, visit iTunes.
If you are not familiar with String Bridge, check out the book trailer.

Rave Reviews for String Bridge:

“Jessica Bell’s STRING BRIDGE strummed the fret of my veins, thrummed my blood into a mad rush, played me taut until the final page, yet with echoes still reverberating. A rhythmic debut with metrical tones of heavied dark, fleeting prisms of light, and finally, a burst of joy—just as with any good song, my hopeful heartbeat kept tempo with Bell’s narrative.” ~ Kathryn Magendie, author of Sweetie and Publishing Editor of Rose & Thorn Journal

“Poet and musician Jessica Bell's debut novel String Bridge is a rich exploration of desire, guilt, and the difficult balancing act of the modern woman. The writing is lyrical throughout, seamlessly integrating setting, character and plot in a musical structure that allows the reader to identify with Melody's growing insecurity as her world begins to unravel … String Bridge is a powerful debut from a promising writer, full of music, metaphor, and just a hint of magic.” ~ Magdalena Ball, author of Repulsion Thrust and Sleep Before Evening

“Jessica Bell is a brilliant writer of great skill and depth. She doesn't pull back from the difficult scenes, from conflict, pain, intensity. She puts it all out there, no holds barred, no holding back. She knows how to craft a scene, how to develop character, how to create suspense. This is an absolutely brilliant debut novel. I look forward to reading her next novel, and next and next.” ~ Karen Jones Gowen, author of Farm Girl, Uncut Diamonds and House of Diamonds

Connect with Jessica:

String Bridge: http://www.stringbridge.com/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jessica_bell
Website: http://www.jessicacbell.com/
Blog: http://thealliterativeallomorph.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/author.jessica.bell
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MsBessieBell
Publisher: http://www.luckypress.com/

Please TWEET and/or FACEBOOK this post using #StringBridge!

♥♥♥♥♥

And, now: my review!

STRING BRIDGE grabbed my attention from the very beginning. The imagery in this novel is wonderful and Jessica Bell does a fantastic job painting the picture of Melody's life. What Melody is experiencing is something I think everyone has experienced at some point and to some extent—life hasn't turned out quite the way we'd hoped, we're wishing things had gone a little differently, and we have no idea where to go from here. As a result, we feel our life is sucking the air right out of us.

The emotion in STRING BRIDGE is raw and powerful—and real. Bell makes it easy to envision the characters as real, living, breathing people, makes it easy to feel what they're feeling. I would definitely recommend this book, even if you're not typically a fan of literary/women's fiction.

Author Bio:

Jessica Bell is a literary women's fiction author, poet and singer/songwriter who grew up in Melbourne, Australia, to two gothic rock musicians who had successful independent careers during the '80s and early '90s.

She spent much of her childhood travelling to and from Australia to Europe, experiencing two entirely different worlds, yet feeling equally at home in both environments. She currently lives in Athens, Greece and works as a freelance writer/editor for English Language Teaching publishers worldwide, such as HarperCollins, Pearson Education and Macmillan Education.

In addition to String Bridge, Jessica has published a book of poetry called Twisted Velvet Chains. A full list of poems and short stories published in various anthologies and literary magazines can be found under Published Works & Awards, on her website.

From September 2012 Jessica will be hosting the Homeric Writers' Retreat & Workshop on the Greek island of Ithaca, home of Odysseus.

NaNoWriMo: Week One

2011-11-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

I mentioned I was participating in NaNoWriMo this year, right? So far, I've given zero updates on how it's going, either here on the blog or on Twitter. I guess because it's just...going. Not exceptionally well, but not poorly, either. I managed to stay on target (even a little above) until Sunday.

I know a lot of people use the weekend to crank out extra words, especially if they have a day job during the week like I do. But I kind of do the opposite. I'm actually more productive during the week while I'm doing the day job and then when the weekend hits, I'm all, "YAY! WEEKEND! NO WORK!" and then I don't get a lot of writing done, either, and just recharge over the weekends. I'm not sure why, but it works for me, so I just go with it.

So, I fell a little behind. By Sunday night, I was about 800 words behind. But! I made that up today and then some. Right now, I'm at 13,026 words, about 1,357 above target. Not a lot of cushion, but I'm not worried about getting ahead, I just want to stay on target.

Actually, as of now, I've written a total of just over 15k words in the past week. The other 2k were added to another novel that I'm revising right now. Oh, yeah. I'm doing NaNo and my first round of major revisions on another novel.

Because I was revising another novel, and because of work/school/etc, I went into NaNo saying I didn't care if I "won"—that I would be happy with whatever I accomplished on this new novel. But after a week of NaNo-ing, a week of [mostly] staying on target, a week of Hey, I can actually do this!, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm thinking I just might be able to not only finish NaNo, but that I can finish NaNo and finish my first round of revisions on that other novel. It's way more than I've ever done in a month before, but we'll just have to see how it goes. :]

For those of you NaNo-ing, how's it going?!
For those of you not NaNo-ing, what's new?!

♥

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE

2011-11-04T12:18:00.000-04:00

This book. THIS BOOK. I have so, so many hearts for this book.

Here's part of the blurb from the author's website:

Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery sister Bailey. But when Bailey dies suddenly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, finds herself struggling to balance two.

Jandy Nelson has an MFA in poetry, and it shows. The imagery in this book is powerful and rich and oh-so-amazing. You know those authors that you wish you could write like? Nelson is totally one of those authors for me. I found myself wanting to drink in all the words in hopes they'd become a part of me and I could write imagery like that, too. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Her death is all over me, I can feel it and everyone can see it, plain as a big black coat wrapped around me on a beautiful spring day.

That's just one example of the many, many ways Nelson creates wonderful imagery. And that's just the beginning of this book's awesomeness. Nelson does a fantastic job at depicting grief and shows how each character handles it differently. I love books that incorporate music into them. Music is huge part of Lennie's life. In fact, art in general is huge in this book: Lennie and Joe have music, Lennie also has poetry, and Gram has her paintings. This book illustrates the healing in art.

Nelson is incredibly witty. She makes you cry and then makes you laugh through the tears. I love that there's humor in this book. Not only does it lighten the book and offer some much needed comic relief in places, but I personally think it makes the book feel more real. Because even when you're grieving, there's still humor in life, sometimes you just have to look a little harder for it.

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE is basically all about finding yourself. Stepping out of the shadows and living the life you're meant to live. On that note, I'll stop gushing now and leave you with my favorite quote from the book:

You can tell your story any way you damn well please.
It's your solo.

♥♥♥♥♥

NaNoWriMo

2011-10-27T12:30:00.000-04:00

Hey! So I've decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year!

I've wanted to participate the past two years, but haven't been able to because of school, the day job, life, etc etc. I wanted to participate this year, too, but I wasn't sure if I could swing it. But, I also knew if I didn't do it this year, it would be a couple years in the future before I could consider it because come January, I'm going to be picking school up again—full time. I've never done school full-time before, and I'm sure I'm going to be super swamped.

So! I decided to just go for it. We'll see what happens.
Also, my sister may or may not have helped me talk myself into it.
It went something like this:

Me: I already have TWO novels to edit. Do I really need another one?
Her: Of course!
Me: *taps finger to lip* You're totally right.

She's such an enabler, that one! Okay, maybe I didn't need much pushing, but. still. Seriously though, I don't know what I'd do without her. She also helped me decide which project to do for NaNo (I was tossing around three ideas).

I'm also doing something a little different with this project. I'm usually a 'tweener—I outline a little, I pants a little. I do have the beginning, middle, and end—all the BIG THINGS—planned, but other than that, I've decided to pants the whole thing. I wanted to do a whole no-idea-left-behind thing. I'm pretty excited to see what happens.

Are you NaNo-ing?! Buddy me at jessicahill! =D

Research!

2011-10-20T17:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of my current WIP. Which means I get to move onto one of my favorite parts of the writing process—RESEARCH!

I do very little research before starting a first draft. The bulk of my researching is done immediately before diving into the first round of major revisions. Since I've decided to do my first round of major revisions right away with this novel, it means I get to move on to the research. I don't normally start revising right away, but I thought this way, I'm still fresh in the story, and I already have a pretty good handle on what needs to be added/expanded.

Which is where the research comes in.

The first thing on my list of things to research is place to set this dang thing. I mean, I know it's going to be somewhere along the Mississippi or Ohio Rivers (but not in Ohio), but I don't have a specific location picked out. I'm also tossing around the idea of creating a fictional town in a real state.

Then I'll move on to researching all the special stuff. For example, items on my list so far include football and death investigations.

Once I've done all my research and have stuffed my brain to capacity with knowledge, I'll hit the revision, which will include using all that knowledge to expand and add depth to the story.

When do you do your research for a given project, and how much research do you do? ♥

Storing Writing Notes

2011-10-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have a binder that's overflowing with copies of writing articles and blog posts. I have tabs to separate the articles by topic. But I don't really have any place where I keep notes from magazines and books. Basically, if I even write notes from those sources, they're scattered to the winds and I have no way to systematically find my notes on any given topic. Now, I know what you're thinking—"Why doesn't she just write the notes on three-hole-punched paper and add them to her binder?" Well, because...I don't know. It just never works out that way.

Side note: I really like trees. So part of this also stems from the fact that I'm trying to do my part to save them and reduce the paper in my life.

Anywho! I wanted to find a way to store all my writing notes together. So I started a new Word doc, which right now looks a little something like this (you can click through for a larger image, though it is not the greatest; sorry!):

The major headings (Heading 1 in Word) are the topics the different articles cover.
The subheadings (Heading 2 in Word) are the titles of the articles.
I add a hyperlink to the title name that will lead me back to the original article online (the underlined bright blue text).
Then, add my notes!
Turn on the Document Map (done by checking the Document Map box under the View tab). This lets me see a list of both headings. I can click from topic to topic and article to article easily using the map.

You might notice that the title of this doc is Writing Notes From Articles, Blogs. I don't foresee myself keeping ALL notes in this one document. It might get a little out of control when I start adding notes from books. So, I'll probably keep a separate doc for each book, using the headings to the same manner to separate topics, etc. But, all the docs will be stored in the same place on my computer.

So! Once fully implemented, this will render my overstuffed binder obsolete AND give me a place to store all my notes together. In an organized fashion. My OCD will be pleased.

How do you store your writing notes? ♥

Changing It Up

2011-10-05T17:43:00.000-04:00

Since finishing the first draft of JUMP, I've kept quiet about what I've been working on since, except for briefly mentioning that I had started a new novel.

There's a couple reasons for this, but the biggest reason is because it's a little different from my previous novels—in the fact that it's my first young adult novel.

Since I started writing seriously, I've shied away from YA even though I read YA extensively—I probably read more YA than I do anything else. I've thought about it for a while, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to dive into those waters. I was wary of them. I stuck my big toe in one time. You might remember it, you might not. Probably not, because it only lasted a few days. A FEW DAYS was all I could take before I yanked that big toe out of the water. Writing YA terrified me. Because, to write YA the way I want to would require me to face experiences and emotions from my own teen years that I just wasn't ready to face.

Then something happened. Over the summer, there was a minor explosion on the interwebs about YA and whether it was "too dark." You might remember it. Guys. I said zilch about it online. But I was fired up. And I began to realize that YA is where a huge part of my passion lies. I care about YA literature and about the teens who read it. About the difference it can make for those teens. And you know why? Because of those experiences and emotions from my own teen years. The very reasons I shied away from YA turned into the reasons I decided to write a YA novel.

So I thought, screw just dipping in the big toe.
And I dived in. It was terrifying. It's still terrifying.
But I feel good about this novel in a way I haven't experienced before.

Am I saying I'll never write another adult book? Absolutely not. I have a lot of passion there, too. And I have several other ideas for adult novels that I care about too much to abandon forever. But I figure: I read both, I love both, so why the heck can't I write both? Especially now. Hopefully someday I'll have an agent and an editor and a publisher to worry about, but why not explore this now while I have to freedom of being able to write anything I want, without having to worry about anyone other than myself?

What are you working on? ♥

Solitude in Ohio

2011-09-07T19:13:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago, I re-read I AM NUMBER FOUR. For those of you who haven't read the book, it's set in Ohio. Which, if you don't know, is my home state, and the only state I've ever lived in. And there's one quote about Ohio in the book that really sticks out to me:

The solitude in Ohio is different from that of most other places. There is a certain silence to it, a certain loneliness.

Guys. I cannot explain how true this is.
I'm not even sure why it is so true. But it is.

I've learned that some people who aren't native to the state are surprised when they visit, that they didn't realize what a rural state it is until they've seen it themselves. The didn't realize that Ohio is such a huge farming state. I live in mid-western Ohio, and it's surrounded by farmland. When I go for a drive, I'm met by farms and forestry. Everywhere. It's even that way around the cities. When you're in the cities, it feels very city. But it doesn't take long once you're out of the city and back in the country. Back in the middle of nowhere.

Here are a few pictures I've taken on drives:

I love going for drives. I love the scenery, but it does feel very isolated. Very in the middle of nowhere. It's beautiful out there, but also kind of sad. I don't know. Maybe for me it has something to do with the fact that I've never lived anywhere else, and that I've always wanted to. The fact that I've always had that desire to be elsewhere. Or maybe not. Maybe Ohio really is just that isolated, that lonely. After all, I'm apparently not the only one who thinks so.

Are there any misconceptions about where you live?
Anything non-natives seem to think about it that isn't accurate?

♥

Blogiversary: Then and Now

2011-08-18T18:12:00.001-04:00

So, apparently, my blog turned one at the beginning of the month and I forgot all about it until now. Whoops! In light of my blogiversary, I thought it would be cool to do a little then and now post, as far as my writing goes.

Then:
I was barely writing. I had a hard time committing to any one project, and I thought that I sucked, sucked, sucked (and, let's be honest, I did). After starting an epic fantasy, I pushed it to the backburner at the next shiny new idea, though I didn't dive into that one, either, but instead just played around with ideas for it, and did a little bit of drafting. Nothing serious. I'd pretty much coompletely forgotten about my poetry. I read agent/industry blogs. Aaaand, that was about it.

Now:
I still read agent/industry blogs. I'm writing regularly, nearly every day. I have a finished first draft of that novel (that would be JUMP) I was barely toying around with last year, and I've started a new novel. (Which I haven't revealed yet, but I will! Eventually!) (ALSO, which is not the EF. That's still on the backburner, but I will return to it! Someday!) Sometimes I still think I suck, but I can see improvement, and that's what's important, right? And, I can tell you what my problem areas are, which means I can focus on fixing them and getting stronger in those areas. I also have several completed short stories, and several more in various stages. And, I'm working on my poetry again. Three cheers for progress!

I've met a lot of great writers online, and I'd like to think that I could even call you guys my friends. Having a community and other writers to chat with has made all the difference in my writing journey. It's quite likely that I could still be where I was this time last year had I not dived into the online writing community waters. So thank you. :]

How long have you been blogging?
Do you think being a part of the writing community has helped you grow as a writer?

♥

Multi-Tasking

2011-08-10T17:36:00.000-04:00

I usually have a few projects going at once. Right now: a novel, a short story, and I try to work on my poetry all the time (not that that always happens). And, I'm going to start editing JUMP soon. Not to mention all the other projects hanging out on the backburner. (Although, they're so patient...er, usually.)

That's a lot of spinning plates. It's tough to figure out how to be productive on all those projects at once, without dropping any of the other plates. And when you add in all the other obligations life throws at you, it gets even tougher to balance all those plates.

With my writing, I know which projects are the most important to me, the ones I feel I need to focus on the most at any given time. They all have a priority, an order of importance. So I work on the most important first, and once I've gotten what I need to get done with that project completed for the day, I move on to the next project. And so on. Needless to say, though, there are a lot of days when I don't get any further than project one or two. But that's okay, as long as I know I'll be able to get to the others too. Someday.

Do you work on multiple projects at once?
How do you balance them all?

Happy writing! ♥

How can I write thee? Let me count the ways.

2011-08-01T16:43:00.001-04:00

We all know there are many different ways to write a story. Plant the same idea into two different writer's heads and get two completely different books, right?

But what about the many different ways the same writer can write a book?

When I’m brainstorming an idea, I always have so many ideas—oh, I could do it this way! it could end like this! or this! maybe I should do dual-POVs!—and then I have to stop and think about which way to actually write the book, which way is BEST. For me, I usually go with my gut. As with a lot of things with my writing, I believe that when I’ve found the right formula, my gut will tell me. It will feel right. But there's still always a nagging voice in my mind that says, "Maybe do it this way." Which I must then squash like a bug.

What about you?! How do you decide which way to write your book?

Do you decide with your mind or your gut?

JUMP: The First Draft

2011-07-26T18:44:00.002-04:00

So last night? I finished the first draft of JUMP. *cues streamers and confetti*

You know what this means, right? Yep. I thought I'd share a few stats.
Because nothing is more fun at a party than some numbers, AMIRIGHT?*

*crickets chirp*
Ahem. Anyways...

Chapters: 32 plus an epilogue.

Word Count: 67,161. Which is normal for me. I always tend to write shorter and then add stuff in revisions. I already have several notes about things that need added/expanded.

Draft Time: March 25, 2011 to July 25, 2011. I think this is really cool for two reasons. Not only did it take me four months to the day to write this draft, but I finished one year later TO THE DAY of when I saw Inception in the movie theater and first thought up the concept for this novel. Now. Let's just hope it's not another year before I have a finalized draft.

Random Stuff: Before starting this draft, I had started and abandoned two drafts (one of which made it to 22k -- which is a nice chunk of writing to pitch, I think, and it was terrifying to do so -- but totally worth it). I've had four different endings planned, and it's gone from an urban fantasy to just a plain 'ole fantasy and back to an urban fantasy. It's had two different titles. I've changed so many details so many times that I've lost track of what they are and how many times they've been changed. This novel has been a complete headache at times and I've even thought about ditching it a time or two.

But I'm glad that I didn't. Now it's time for the real work to start. Just not today. :D

*Don't let my love of stats fool you. I really hate numbers and all things math related. I'm a walking contradition, you say? Yes, yes I am.

When the End Disappoints

2011-07-18T19:35:00.000-04:00

I've read a couple of books lately in which I was disappointed by the endings. Overall, they were good, but the ending just didn't do it for me. And it got me thinking.

Everyone talks about how important beginnings are—and I completely agree. Beginnings are important. Extremely important. But I would be willing to argue that endings are just as important.

Why? For the same reason beginnings are important. Beginnings are important because they need to hook the reader to continue reading the book. Endings are important because they need to hook (and impress) the reader so that they buy that authors next book.

If I'm unhappy with the ending of a book, that crucial part of the story where everything is supposed to come together, then I'm definitely less likely to buy that author's next book. Because the author had a job and they let me down. So why give them a chance to do it again?

But that's just me.

What are your thoughts?
I'm sure they're much more interesting than mine are.
♥

Writing and the Five Stages of Grief

2011-07-11T19:08:00.002-04:00

Oh, hello there. *waves* It's been a while.

I've had this post written for nearly three months, and every time I think about publishing it, I chicken out, though I'm not really sure why.

Some of you might have noticed (or maybe not) that I've been absent from the blogosphere for a while. I haven't posted in a month. I haven't been reading/commenting on other blogs for about as long. Because sometimes the Internet is a bad place for me. And I think this post sort of explains why. So I'll finally share it.
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There's the writer I wish I was, and then there's the writer I am.

There are tons of amazing writers out there—writers who can do things that I can't. Writers who can consistently write every day, and write thousands of words a day. Every. Day. Writers who can pump out first drafts in just a few short weeks. And I wish—oh, I wish!—I was one of those writers.

But I'm not. There are reasons why I'm not. And while I realize the grass isn't always greener on the other side, it's not always easy to accept. There's still that writer I wish I could be. I'm even making my way through the five stages of grief:

I denied being a slower writer and I pushed myself—too hard. I physically couldn't pump out the amount of work I wanted to, so I got angry. Paper throwing and wanting to quit commenced. I'll admit, the bargaining stage didn't last long, maybe because I didn't really know who I was supposed to be bargaining with.

So I quickly slid into depression. Right now, I'm somewhere between this stage and acceptance. Sometimes I still think that I'm not good enough, passionate enough, and that I should just quit. But I'm getting a little closer to accepting that I am who I am, I can only do what I can do, and that I need to make the most of MY ABILITIES. Not other writer's abilities.

Because I'm just a different kind of writer than they are. Not more or less, just different.

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Tell me! What have you all been up to?!

Doubt

2011-06-08T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes when I'm writing, I'll just be typing along, feeling great about my story, and then something flows from my mind through my body and out my fingertips and I stop—

and wonder—

"Was that too much? Too unbelievable? Was this the moment I just went overboard?"

And then I start to doubt everything about my story and wonder if I should just scrap it and begin working on something else—or maybe not. Maybe just quit altogether.

This is something that, I think, happens to every writer...a part of the process. The difference between writers who hang up their hats and those who don't is how they use that doubt. So how can you use this doubt to your advantage?

The way I use doubt as a productive tool is to stop using it as an excuse and use it to look at my work logically. Look at that sentence/paragraph/scene/whatever I just wrote and ask myself, logically—okay, does that make sense? If not, why and what can I change so that it does make sense? If I'm not sure, I take a break and come back to it later. If I still feel off about it, something needs to change.

That's just one way to use doubt to your advantage—I am sure there are tons of others. So tell me, how do you use doubt to your advantage?

May 2011 Stats

2011-06-01T07:00:00.001-04:00

I can't believe it's time for May stats already! Man, how time flies.

In May, I wrote 8 poems, and a total of 17,510 words. Which makes me really happy because aside from March, that's the highest word count I've had in a month all year.

15,444 of those word were added to JUMP, while the rest were either poetry or wordage added to miscellaneous projects—though a little more than half of those non-JUMP words went into the short story I'm working on, tentatively titled MOON PEOPLE. Which means I think I've finally worked out that snag I ran into. It's a sci-fi story, and even though I usually stick to fantasy and tend to struggle with sci-fi, I'm really excited about this story and I'm ready to see how it turns out.

Progress on JUMP is still moving forward. I just passed 30k last night! *throws confetti* And I've sent the first 80 pages off to my sister for feedback. *bites nails* Other than that, there's not really anything new to report on that.

How's your writing going?!

Finding "The One"

2011-05-25T07:00:00.005-04:00

As writers, we often discover new story ideas faster than we can write them. Inspiration can strike any time and any place, whether it’s sitting at our desks brainstorming or standing in line at the post office. Sometimes we have so many story ideas that we must pick and choose which ideas to work on, and which ideas to save for a rainy day.

With all these ideas floating around your head begging for attention, how do you know which idea is “the one"?

An idea might be “the one” if:

You can’t stop thinking about it—maybe you even find yourself living in your story rather than in real life.

Your idea keeps you awake at night—or wakes you in the middle of the night.

You are excited at the thought of discovering where this idea will lead you—discovering the characters, the journey, and the ending.

You find it difficult to procrastinate—you steal moments to work on your idea, and you are willing to make sacrifices in order to do so.

It is important that writers take the time to listen to their ideas. Don’t get distracted by how shiny and pretty they are, but instead focus on what the idea is really about, and what the idea means to you. Don’t choose an idea because you think it’s the one you should work on—choose an idea because it’s the one you have to work on.

How do you know when an idea is "the one"?

Throwing X Out the Window

2011-05-18T07:00:00.050-04:00

I used to do this thing. With goals.

I'd say, "I want to finish this draft by [insert specific date]." By creating a "tracker" using Excel, I would determine the number of words I needed to write each day to meet that goal.

Too bad my Godzilla wasn't this cute!

Then this thing started happening: Life would get in the way and I wouldn't meet my goal one, two, maybe even three days. So the average words I needed to write each day grew and grew and grew until it became Godzilla hell bent on chomping my head off.

And then this other thing started happening: I'd get overwhelmed and I'd know there was no way I'd be able to meet my goals - and I got depressed.

So I'm forcing myself not to focus on a daily goal, and rather to do what I can. Hopefully I'll have to worry about making deadlines someday, when I have a book deal. But the great thing about right now is that I don't have to have any deadlines, I can work at my own pace, and give myself plenty of time to really explore my story. There's something just as exciting about that to me as there is with the idea of finishing a first draft.

Don't get me wrong, I still have goals, and I still use my Excel tracker, but the goals are much broader and I got rid of those two annoying little cells in Excel that told me how many days I had remaining and the daily word count I needed to write in order to meet said goal. I don't do the "I HAVE to write X number of words today" and "I didn't meet my goal yesterday, so I have to add that to my X number of words today" or whatever.

That just doesn't work for me. All that does is bury me. So instead, I'm trying to take my time and truly enjoy the view. And the wonderful thing is I'm discovering that without these self-imposed goals, I'm actually being way more productive than I was before.

What works for you? Do you have daily goals, and do you just pick away at it whenever you can?

****

Also, a housekeeping note: I've finally gotten the resources page up and running! There's a link at the top if you'd like to check it out. :]

Not There, There!

2011-05-12T08:15:00.000-04:00

Hey, guys! I'm not posting here this week, but I am over at Ali's blog today, where she's given me an opportunity to share my writing process!

Big thanks to Ali for this opportunity, and I'd love to see you there! :]

Trusting in Your Characters

2011-05-04T07:00:00.011-04:00

I've talked before about how characters like to take things into their own hands. I, for one, love it when my characters lead me in new and unexpected directions. I certainly don't give them everything they want, but I love to hear what they have to say, and they often open my eyes to possibilities I never would have thought of on my own.

There's a BIG difference between giving in to your characters and trusting your characters to lead you in the right direction.

In the same posted referenced above, I mentioned that Jackson wanted an entirely new ending. While I tweaked the ending and am not giving him the exact ending he wants, he did open my eyes and led me to the right ending for this story.

I've been struggling with getting my word count in recently. Last week, Karina pointed out that she was a great fighter, and now I get to add a couple of awesome, badass fight scenes, which is great because I love writing fight scenes. (Uh...let's call it anger management, shall we?) So this gave me that little push of excitement I needed to get back into it.

Those are just a couple of examples.

I trust in my characters to lead me. Because even if I don't always give them exactly what they want, they've still led me to the right answers.

Do you trust your characters?

April 2011 Stats

2011-05-02T07:00:00.001-04:00

Stats time again!

827 words of poetry written
183 words of short stories written
9,529 words added to JUMP
10,539 total words written

19 poems written
1 short story started

I started the Poetry Challenge off strong, and stuck with it for about the first 2.5 weeks. While I'm a bit disappointed I didn't make it all the way through, I'm still happy that I ended the month out with 19 poems since that's way more than I wrote in March.

I did start a new short story, but as you can see, I haven't gotten very far with it at all. I hit a bit of a snag right from the get-go, and I'm still sorting through that in my mind before I dive into it full-force.

A JUMP update: Obviously, I'm nowhere near to finishing the new draft as I'd hoped. But I'm okay with it going a bit slower than I had hoped. I've realized that I cannot completely ignore the internal editor while I'm drafting, so I've been editing as I go along, which is slowing things down. I'm mostly just looking and fixing plot discrepancies right now, so I'm hoping that I'll end up with a much cleaner first draft this way, and am hoping that I won't have a ton of plot editing to do before starting line edits.

How's your writing going?

The Write Music

2011-04-18T07:00:00.020-04:00

Original image here.

Though I am one of those people who writes to music, I'm not one of those who creates playlists for their novels. In the past, I've not been picky about the music I listen to while writing, so long as there was music.

But with Jump, I've really found the perfect album to write to: the Inception Score. I mentioned before that Jump was partly inspired by the film, so I started listening to the score as a way to keep that inspiration, that link between the film and my story.

And a strange thing has happened. When I don't write to the score, sometimes the writing still flows freely, but sometimes...sometimes, it doesn't. And then when I turn on the score, it all comes back. It's one of the unexplainable things and you'd have to ask my muse why it works so well for her.

What about you? Do you write to music? Create playlists? What type of music do you write to if you do?

Where She Went

2011-04-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

I'm sure most of you know about this book. But, if you don't, it's the sequel to IF I STAY, which is basically about a girl (Mia) who was involved in a car accident with the rest of her family, and she must choose between living without them, or dying with them. I read IF I STAY last summer and fell in love with it. I stayed up late one Friday night and read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I bawled at the end. It was definitely one of those books that will stay with me for the rest of my life, one of those books that makes you think and makes you feel. And not just for the characters (which it totally does), but also for life in general.

So when I heard there was going to be a sequel, I was thrilled. But! I was also nervous. I loved the first book so much that I was afraid the sequel might not live up to it (for me). And then, WHERE SHE WENT was released, I went out in a semi-bad thunderstorm to buy it, and I read it that night...in one sitting because I just couldn't put it down.

WHERE SHE WENT is told in the perspective of Adam, Mia's boyfriend in IF I STAY. The second book takes place three years after the accident, and we quickly learn that Mia left Adam after moving to New York. In a chance meeting, the two are reunited for one night.

I think Gayle Forman made an excellent choice in writing the second book from Adam's perspective. Through his eyes, we get to see how the accident affected him even though it wasn't his family, and how losing Mia afterwards affected him. We can share in his grief and experience how he tries to accept what happened while trying to find answers for why Mia left him. Forman's writing in both books is beautiful and heartfelt; truly spectacular writing to go with a truly spectacular story.

So. Yeah. Huge 5 stars. Two really fat, enthusiastic thumbs up. Read IF I STAY if you haven't already. And then go read WHERE SHE WENT. You won't regret it.

Follow Up to My Experiment/Poll/Questionnaire/Thingy!

2011-04-04T09:14:00.001-04:00

I got a grand total of...five...responses to my Experiment/Poll/Questionnaire/Thingy! *crickets chirp* Is it because I gave it such a weird name?

Anyway!

These were the questions:

What made you start writing?
How did you choose your genre?
What's your audience (adult, YA, MG, etc)? Why did you choose this?

Results:

This is a difficult one to summarize. A couple people said they've been writing since they were young, a couple said they started writing one day, and one was inspired after reading a novel.
3 out of 5 write fantasy!! Fantasy for the win! (Sorry, I'm biased.)
3 write adult, and 1 writes YA, and 1 writes adult and YA.

As for my answers?

I wrote a post a while back about how I got here. Basically, I got the writing bug in the fourth grade, but I didn't start writing novels until 2008.
I started out writing women's and after one project realized that just wasn't for me. I really wanted to write fantasy, but didn't think I was creative enough...until an idea hit me one day. And I've been writing fantasy ever since. :)
Adult, though I hope my books might appeal to upper YA as well. I might wander into the YA waters someday, but right now, I think adult is more for me.

You can still share your answers in the comments below!! If you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them!

March 2011 Stats

2011-04-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

It's time for March's stats already!

501 words of poetry written
21,992 words added to The PJ*
22,493 total words written

6 poems written

As you can see, I've definitely run out of steam on my whole poem-a-day goal. I hardly worked on my poetry at all in March, and that's something I definitely plan to change for April. I also didn't work on any short stories this month, but I do have an idea for a new short story that I'm excited to start playing around with, so hopefully I'll start that in April as well. I also have a short I wrote in February that I'm going to try to get some feedback on so that I can tweak it and start sending it out on submissions.

Speaking of submissions! The other short story I completed in February is currently out on submission. And I also have a few of my poems that are out, as well. It will be quite a while before I hear back on either, but they're out there in the world!

I mentioned in my February Stats that I applied for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop. I was not accepted into the workshop. *sigh* But that's okay!

I spent the bulk of the month working on my WIP. A couple weeks ago, I finished my bare bones draft. And then...I hit a wall. I was planning my subplots and could not for the life of me figure out how to get them to work. Finally, after a week of flailing and sleepless nights, I pieced the puzzle together. Last week, I finished a FULL outline (yay!) for my novel, and I'm back to drafting. I started a fresh draft (under a new title) because a lot of what I had written is going to be changing and I thought it would be easiest to start fresh. However, I do still have a lot of usable material that just needs to be tweaked, so I'm hoping to still finish the first draft by the end of April. *crosses fingers*

*The PJ is now titled JUMP. I've decided to change it to make it less place-specific and hopefully capitalize on the fantasy elements of it. So since it is less place-specific, I needed a new title. And I think JUMP is perfect and multi-faceted. To me (and hopefully to the reader) and how I envision the novel going, JUMP will mean something at the beginning of the novel, and something different at the end, while still incorporating the concept of time jumpers. It's simple, but if it works!

So. Enough about me.

How's your writing going?

String Bridge Trailer!

2011-03-28T11:51:00.000-04:00

Hey all! Just stopping in to share the trailer for Jessica Bell's upcoming novel, String Bridge. The trailer is amazing (as is Jessica's singing!) and the novel sounds amazing. I can't wait to read it!

To help promote the trailer, Jessica is doing a contest on her blog. It's super easy to participate, so be sure to check it out! And it's a great opportunity to help spread the word about an amazing woman and writer!

An Experiment/Poll/Questionnaire/Thingy!

2011-03-24T09:13:00.000-04:00

So I'm always curious about other writers - why they started writing, what made them choose the genres, what their processes/habits are, etc etc.

As the title suggests, this means I have three questions for you all, if you'd indulge me? *bats eyelashes* I'm leaving them open-ended, so you can share as much (or as little) as you'd like!

What made you start writing?
How did you choose your genre?
What's your audience (adult, YA, MG, etc)? Why did you choose this?

Thanks for participating! I might do a follow-up type thing posting my findings!

Getting Down the Bones

2011-03-16T17:52:00.000-04:00

I've been a terrible blogger as of late, both posting- and commenting-wise, for which I apologize. I've been hard at work on my WIP, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things!

Original image here.

I've talked about a bare bones "skeleton" draft a time or two (which, btw, I have finished the bare bones draft of The PJ! and am cleaning it up a bit before moving forward - but it's no where near a complete first draft, as you'll soon see).

So what exactly do I mean by a bare bones draft?

What I have completed on my first draft is the main plot line. There's very little description and zero subplots. There's also very minimal development of character arcs. Basically, what I wanted out of my bare bones draft was just that - the bare minimum.

As far as word count goes, once I get this cleaned up, I'll be at roughly 30k on my WIP, which is right around or just over 1/3 completed of my word count goal for the first draft. So, yeah, lots of work to do yet. But, I have the skeleton done, and I think my it's pretty solid and strong. *insert happy dance*

So what am I doing now?

I am trying to clean what I have up a little bit before I move on. But I'm also taking lots of notes. Notes for character development, subplots, etc. I'm working up an outline of what I have so far, and once I've planned all my subplots, I'm going to update the outline to include all of the meat of the story. And then, back to drafting.

Do any of you write the bare bones before moving on the meat of the story?

Get Excited

2011-03-07T11:37:00.000-05:00

I've been working very hard on The PJ, and getting a bare-bones skeleton draft completed (which I hope to have done by the end of this week! *crosses fingers*). And something new and wonderful has been happening.

I'm excited about this novel. And I'm excited to work on it. Like, really excited.

This is technically my third novel, but because I put The Design of Dragons on the backburner temporarily to work on this, I call The PJ novel #2. It will be the second novel that I will write THE END on. So, it has been dubbed novel #2.

I "finished" one novel previously. By finished, I mean I completed a first draft and then shelved it. It sucked and it wasn't the kind of novel I wanted to write. And that's okay. It was a great practice novel and I learned a lot while writing it. But back to the point, while I was working on that first novel, I would get excited from time to time - when I discovered a new plot twist or something like that. But there was no overall excitement. I was eh about the story itself.

And that's where the difference comes in with The PJ. I'm excited about the story, and that excitement keeps growing as I think of each new subplot or alternate ending or character development. With novel #1, I was so rigid with myself, so point A to point B. It was kind of fun. But with The PJ, I've allowed myself room to play and expand and create as I go along. I'm having a lot more fun writing this novel than I did with novel #1. And isn't that what this is all about? Having fun? I'm excited. I steal time to plug away at it. I watch that word count creep higher and higher, and it makes me feel AWESOME. I just feel like I've found my writing groove (finally!), and I love it.

Did it take you a while to find your groove? How did it feel when you did?

Write it Out

2011-03-02T07:00:00.001-05:00

Original image here.

I bought the book a while ago, but I am finally getting started on The Artist's Way. Which means I'm back to doing the morning pages. I'll confess, after my two-week trial, I stopped doing them. Mostly just out of forgetfulness.

But one day last week I realized something. While it might not be the exact concept of the morning pages, when I'm facing a difficult decision or situation, I tend to "write it out." I'll go to a blank page or a blank computer screen, and I'll start writing. I talk about what it is that I'm facing and why it's difficult and what my options are.

These writings are never meant to be seen by anyone else; they're just for me. But I find that in doing this, I usually will stumble across the answer to the situation I'm facing. I'm not sure if this works so well because I'm a writer, or if this is something tons of people do. I know a lot of non-writers practice Cameron's morning pages, so I'm sure there are others who practice some form of what I'm talking about here.

Do you practice morning pages? When facing a difficult situation or decision, do you "write it out"?

February 2011 Stats

2011-03-01T07:00:00.002-05:00

It's time for my monthly stats! Here's February at a glance:

1,533 words of poetry written
2,584 words of short stories written
3,493 words added to The PJ
7,610 total words written

24 poems written
2 short stories completed

My word count for this month is way down because I spent most of the month editing and completing two short stories for my application to the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop, which is a six-week long workshop in San Diego. And they accept only 18 students per year. Eighteen. My shots of being accepted are pretty slim. And honestly, the only reason I had the guts to apply is because I know there is no way I'll ever be accepted. But maybe I'll be surprised.

I shared on Twitter that I passed the 10k mark on The PJ last week. Woot! It's coming along pretty well. My goal is to have a bare-bones skeleton draft done no later than the end of March (but hopefully by mid-March). By bare-bones skeleton, I mean practically devoid of any description and subplot. I'll go back through and add that afterwards to round out the first draft.

And how's your writing going?

Revision Process

2011-02-21T18:01:00.000-05:00

February has been a month of revising for me, so I thought it might be a good time to share my revision process. Keep in mind, the process is not always the same, but this is basically what I do.

Step 1:
I have my completed, craptacular first draft. I do a read through. During this, I don't worry about grammar, misspellings, or how many adverbs I use. All I'm doing during this read through is making sure the plot is whole and strong. I make notes on any plot changes that need to be made.

Step 2:
I save the craptacular first draft (saved as StoryTitle_Draft01) as a second draft (StoryTitle_Draft02) and type all my plot notes, and then make the revisions.

Step 3:
Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until the plot is fabulous.

Step 4:
Now that the plot is solid, I'll make a storyboard showing which characters show up in which scenes. I use Excel because I haven't found a program that does this for me. (PS - If you know of one, please send me a linky link. I'd love you forever.) I do this so that I can get a visual for how often a character is hanging out, and whether they should be around more or less (basically, I want to make sure the flow between minor characters is smooth) and it looks a little something like this:

Step 5:
If I only had to do one round of revisions on plot (which is highly unlikely, but for the sake of simplicity we'll say that's the case) then I take completed, less craptacular second draft (StoryTitle_Draft02) and highlight all the adverbs and -ing adjectives I used and save it as StoryTitle_Draft02_Highlighted.

Step 6:
Open StoryTitle_Draft02_Highlighted and save as StoryTitle_draft03. Then I start going through the draft and polishing up those sentences to get rid of the messy writing.

Step 7:
Once Step 6 is complete, I remove all the highlighting that still remains and save the file as StoryTitle_FinalDraft. Then I do a last one, two, or three read throughs and make any minor tweaks or changes necessary to really get that story to shine.

Whew. Revision is A LOT of work. And exhausting. And evil. But a necessary evil.

What's your revising process like?

Making Writing Time

2011-02-16T07:00:00.006-05:00

It goes without saying that we all have lives outside of writing, and those lives can be hectic. Sometimes you can't wait for spare time to write, you have to make time to write. This can mean making sacrifices, but if you're passionate about your writing, you should be willing to make sacrifices.

What do I do to make writing time?

I've started using my dishwasher. Now, you might be wondering why I have a dishwasher and am so crazy that I didn't use it. Well, I'm just one person, so it takes me quite a while to dirty up enough dishes for a full load in the dishwasher. It was always easier (and more cost efficient) to hand wash them every couple of days instead running a half-empty dishwasher. But, to free up some time, I've been running the dishwasher instead of hand washing. I figured it was worth the extra bit of money to run the dishwasher to have ten or fifteen extra minutes of writing time.

The other big change I've made is not watching (most) of my TV shows as they air. There's one show a night that I sit and watch (M = Hawaii Five-0, T = NCIS: LA, W = Justified, TH = The Vampire Diaries, F = Supernatural), but otherwise, I let them record on the DVR and watch them on the weekend.

And, I've found that just with these two changes, I've freed up A LOT of writing time (mostly from not watching hours of TV a night).

What do you do to make time for writing?

****
Also, I'm looking for one or two people who would be willing to critique a short story I'm finalizing for a workshop application. It's SF/F, 4600 words. If you'd be willing to take a look at it, please email me at jessicahillwriting (at) gmail (dot) com. I'd really appreciate it!

Writing Weaknesses

2011-02-14T07:00:00.001-05:00

Last week I shared the story of how I got here, in which I mentioned that I can now clearly identify where my weaknesses are in my writing.

So what are those weaknesses? Description and messy writing.

Plot I usually do okay with. But I have a hard time with description. As in, I usually forget to include it altogether. And when I do, it's spotty and minimal. When I'm writing that first draft, I just have to get the words out. I know what the scene looks like in my mind, so I often forget to write that part down. Basically, when I write a first draft, I'm only writing the skeleton. When I go back to edit, that's when I add in description, all the meat and muscle that I left out in the first round. And that's okay, as long as I know that I will have to add in description later.

This also kind of leads into my other major weakness: messy writing. During the first draft (and sometimes during editing) I really struggle to find the right words to describe what's happening. I've been editing a short story during the past week, and as part of my revision process, I went through and highlighted all of the adverbs, -ing words, and passive phrases I used. You. Guys. It was awful. I would show you a screen shot of what a couple of those highlighted pages look like, but it's kind of embarrassing. But, once I had all that weak writing highlighted, I could go through and rewrite and make them stronger.

Now that I know where my weaknesses are, I can seek them out and fix them. Personally, I wait to do this until the revision process. For me, the first draft is always about writing the skeleton. Once I know the skeleton is whole and strong, I worry about making sure the body looks terrific.

What are your writing weaknesses? How do you tackle them?

A Post That's Not Really a Post

2011-02-09T07:00:00.002-05:00

I'm slammed at work this week. Seriously, I have so much work to do that I don't have time to do my work. As in, I have so much work to do, I need to be, like, two people. Maybe even three. And my evenings are filled with me working on editing/perfecting two short stories for a workshop whose application deadline is March 1. I'm a little behind because I was going to apply, then decided not to, and THEN decided that yes, yes I did want to apply. *sigh*

I'm going to skip posting today, because I don't have anything of substance to contribute. My brain may have actually melted. I'm also way behind on reading all of your posts, but I will read them. Promise. But if I'm not around much the rest of the week, you'll know why. Hopefully I'll be back on track next week.

I hope your week is going well!

How I Got Here

2011-02-07T07:00:00.007-05:00

I wrote my first short story in the fourth grade. I loved it, but between fifth grade and my freshman year in high school, I can't remember writing creatively at all. I was probably too busy trying (and failing) to fit in.

In high school, I picked up poetry. Again, I loved it. Perhaps even more than I loved writing short stories in the fourth grade. It was in writing poetry that I learned there was healing in writing. My sister tried to tell me that I had talent for it, and should try to get published, but at the time, I had no desire to see my writing in print.

Between high school graduation and when I began taking my writing "seriously," I continued to work on my poetry, though not nearly as much as I had in high school. Through all these years, I never once thought about writing as a career.

Until the fall of 2008. I could attempt to explain how I came about it, how I decided to write novels and attempt to get published, but honestly, it probably wouldn't make sense. I barely remember how it came about exactly, except that it was ignited by a song.

I started writing a novel, and quit three pages in. Then I immediately started working on another novel, which I shelved after completing the first draft because I realized it wasn't the type of novel I wanted to write. And that's when I started working on my two current fantasy projects. Around this time was also when I started writing short fiction again, and this year I picked my poetry back up in full swing.

At the end of last year, I decided to take this semester off from school. And I can honestly say that I am so glad that I did. For the first time since I started this journey, I am writing every day, the words (usually) flow much easier than they ever have before, I can see my work is improving, I can clearly identify where my weaknesses are, and for the first time in just over two years, I actually feel like a real writer.

So. That's how I got here. How did you get to the point you're at in your writing journey?

January 2011 Stats

2011-02-02T07:00:00.001-05:00

I've found that talking about my writing progress helps to keep me motivated. It's much easier to keep pushing forward when you know you're going to be sharing your progress with other people. So, as a way to sort of keep me accountable, my first post of each month here will be my "stats" for the month prior. I hope you all don't mind too much.

original image here.

So, here are my January stats:

2,669 words of poetry written

6,522 words of short stories written

1,224 words of flash/micro fiction written

5,646 words added to The PJ

16,061 total words written (I think this may be more than I wrote in all of 2010. And sadly, I'm not kidding.)

38 poems written

2 flash or micro stories written

I also wrote a first draft of one short story, have started first drafts of two others, and am in the middle of revising another. The novel is coming along well, although I've been taking breaks from it here and there to work on my short stories. I mentioned that the ending I have planned now is different, and I'm still really excited about it.

How was January for you?

Jessica and the Art of Blogging

2011-01-31T07:00:00.003-05:00

original image here.

I've noticed that The Art of... Blogging? is by far my most popular post. And by far, I mean, like, four times more popular than my second most popular post. While trying to figure out why that was, I wondered if it's because people think that it is an advice-post rather than an asking-for-advice post.

So, since I came to this conclusion and I've gotten some experience under my belt, I thought I would write a post about blogging.

Now, I've only been blogging for six months, so I am by no means an expert. Far from it, in fact. I am just a speck in the blogosphere. But! Here are a few tips that I do have about blogging:

Keep it short and sweet. I will be the first to click away from a blog post that is four feet long. It sucks, and I'm sorry, but it's true.
Make your blog interactive. I always leave a post open-ended, either with a question or by simply asking for reader input, to encourage readers to leave comments. I also encourage (or at least I think I do) people to email me if they have questions on anything I post or to leave a comment with their questions.
Be sincere. When you're leaving comments on other blogs, be sure to leave sincere, thoughtful comments. It will make it much more likely that the blogger will return the favor if you do.
Reach out to others. Seek out other writers. Comment their blogs. Don't wait for others to come to you.
Be consistent. Or at least semi-consistent. All of us here know that we have lives outside the blogsphere and we realize that sometimes things come up and blogging gets pushed aside. But if you're consistent, people will know when to expect new content on your blog and visiting on those days will become a habit. Right? Maybe?

Okay, now that it's clear that I have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll leave it open to you all. What tips on blogging would you like to share?

Voice

2011-01-26T07:00:00.002-05:00

Voice is something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

Original image here.

The elusive voice. We're told repeatedly that, in our writing, our voice has to be unique and strong. But what exactly is voice? Voice (by my overly simple definition) is your style of writing. It's how you convey your story and the emotions in that story to your readers. It's the tool you use to make your readers care about your story. If you'd like to hear a professionals' take on what voice is and (better yet) how do develop a good one, check out this super awesome post by Nathan Bransford.

The question I've always struggled with is, does voice have to be a conscious thing? Personally, I don't think about voice when I'm writing. I just write, and tell the story in my head as though I were talking to someone. Sure, when I edit, I might think about it a bit, but even then I don't put that much conscious thought into it.

What are your thoughts? Is voice something that you consciously think about when you're writing, or do you let it flow naturally onto the page?

Who's Writing This Story Anyways?

2011-01-24T09:00:00.003-05:00

Original image here.

A week or so ago, I was diving into The PJ pretty hard. I had just come back to it after a break, and I was writing the scenes that involve the MC's best friend, Jackson. The scenes were just flowing from me, and I quickly fell in love with one of those scenes in particular.

As I wrote those scenes, I fell in love with Jackson more and more. And, then he decided to take the story into his own hands. Now, thanks to Jackson, the book is going to have a completely different ending, one that I love and feel really excited about.

The original ending was okay, but it was very obvious. I just never thought outside the box to realize that there was this other ending there until Jackson forced me to see it.

Last week, I had one bad night. In my ~~post~~ rant about that night, I mentioned that sometimes we need to sit back and let the words write themselves. And, sometimes, we need to let the characters take control for a moment (like we have a choice, right?) and let them show us their ending.

Do you have characters that like to change things up on you? Do you let them, or do you fight them over it?

When You Feel Like Quitting

2011-01-20T23:52:00.000-05:00

I know this is way outside of my normal blogging schedule, but I feel like I need to throw this out to the world and get it off my chest since it's keeping me awake tonight.

My posts here tend to lean towards (I think) the positive and upbeat. At the very least, not negative. It's very easy for me to do that here, but it's not always true to what my writing life is really like.

I get up in the morning and go to a job that is just ten different kinds of exhausting. I get home no earlier than 5:30 in the afternoon, and that's on a good day. Once home and settled, I have about four good, productive hours a night that I can use to get things done. Just one of these things is to work on my writing.

Tonight, I got home around 6:00 and immediately sat down at the computer. I opened a short story I've been needing to edit. All of my editing notes were already written up, so I thought it would be a fairly simple task. I was struggling to find the right words, so it was going a little slower than I had hoped it would. At 8:09, I looked at the clock and realized that half of my night was gone. And realized there was no way I would be able to meet my goal for the night. Out of nowhere, I took the printed draft that I was looking over on my desk and threw it across the room. As the pages scattered across the floor around me, there was a voice in my head that said, "I cannot do this." In that moment, I was ready to throw in the towel. I thought there is no way that I can work full-time at this miserable, exhausting job and try to become a writer too.

The fact of the matter is writing is tough. It's a lot of hard work. There are times when we question ourselves, and our abilities. There are days or weeks or even months where we feel that every word we throw up onto the page is complete and utter shit. And that we'll never write anything good, let alone great. At least I know I do.

But then I took a deep breath, and looked at the Word doc pulled up on my computer screen, and that little black cursor blinking steadily, waiting for me. And then a sentence for my story popped into my head, so I typed it. Then I gathered my scattered pages and went back to my notes. A few minutes later, I decided to call it a day. But I didn't feel like throwing in the towel anymore.

I guess the point of this, if there is a point, is that even though writing is tough sometimes, it's also a part of us. It's not like we can just say "Okay, I quit" and then we'll never think of another story idea or write a sentence in our heads or create another character. Being a writer is part of who we are, and we can't quit being who we are. So when you feel like quitting, or if you're just struggling to find the right words, maybe all you really need to do is take a step back, and let the words write themselves.

"The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel." - Piet Mondrian

Write or Die

2011-01-19T07:00:00.012-05:00

I don't know how many of you have heard of or use the Write or Die program. I've known about it for quite some time now, and sometimes I use it when I'm writing a first draft, and sometimes I don't. It depends on how easily I'm making it through that first draft.

If things are going smoothly, I typically won't use it. But, if I feel like I'm fighting tooth and nail to get every word down, or if I just need a first draft done now, then I'll turn to Write or Die.

From the Write or Die website:

Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.

These are the settings I use when I use this program: I do bursts of 10 minutes, with a 200 word goal each time. I use Kamikaze Mode and the Evil Grace Period. Basically, I keep writing or I lose words. There are less dramatic settings than that, if you think that's a bit extreme. But for me, it works the best. When you start losing those precious words, it's a pretty good motivator to keep writing.

This program is really just to help writers get that first draft down on paper, but I've found that it does help in getting me "unstuck" if I'm having trouble getting the words out.

Do any of you use this program? What do you think of it?

A Short and Sweet Post

2011-01-17T09:30:00.002-05:00

I don't really have a post planned for today, so this should be real short.

Over the weekend, I bought Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. I think a lot of you have already heard about and/or read her book, and I've heard nothing but good things about it. I'm excited to dive into it, and will probably share some things I learn there along the way.

Since I have the day off today, I am going to try to get out and finally try out my new camera. Hopefully, I'll come back with some photos to share with you all!

Also, Hannah is starting a SUPERNATURAL re-watch series on her blog! If you're a Supernatural addict like me, check it out! It starts February 3, and I'm sure it's going to be buckets of fun.

How was your weekend?

When the Muse Turns

2011-01-12T07:00:00.006-05:00

And I don't mean, when the muse turns its back and ignores you for days on end (because I'm quite used to that). I mean, when the muse turns evil. When the muse makes you question your work, instead of helping you create it like a good muse should.

My current novel WIP, The Portland Jumper, was inspired by several different things, but the biggest source of inspiration for The PJ came from Inception. I saw the movie in theaters last summer with my mom, and I instantly fell in love with it. I was still pondering the movie on the drive home, when I remembered something my mom had read and shared with my sister and I from one of the Conversations With God books by Neale Donald Walsh (unfortunately I don't remember which book).

I'm constantly having experiences of déjà vu. What Walsh said in his book was that everyone time travels in their sleep, and when we experience déjà vu, it's because we've already been to that time, in our travels during sleep. Those who experience déjà vu more often are simply more sensitive to the time travelling than others are.

And, suddenly the idea for my novel clicked into place: jumpers who time travel in the dream state and if two jumpers traveled to the same time and place at the same time, a supernova would result and their spirits would be sent to limbo.

While I was watching the film for the second time after its release on DVD, doubt began to creep into my mind. "Is the hook for my novel too similiar to the film?" I wondered. The reason I thought this was for one reason only, and it wasn't because of the use of the dream state. It was because of the concept of limbo.

Now, when you get into the details (which I won't), my book is nothing like the film. It has similiar concepts that were used in the film, but the plot is nothing like the film. And I know that the concepts will change and adapt as my novel evolves. What I was really worried about is my one-line pitch. I'm worried it sounds too similiar to what a one-line pitch for the film would be. I talked about this with my sister, because she knows what I have planned for the novel, and what she told me was simple: "Finish it. [Your pitch] could be totally different once you've finished it." So true.

And then, I was reminded of this quote:

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to." — Jim Jarmusch

While I never had any doubts about finishing it (I never once thought about shelving this project), I was just worried. Worried way before I should have been worrying. Because that's what I do.

And now I'll leave this open for you all to share your thoughts because I've been rambling on for way too long. :)

An Update, Because I'm Forgetful

2011-01-10T07:00:00.002-05:00

The other night as I was failing to fall asleep, I thought of a super awesome topic that I wanted to post about today... and now I can't remember what it was. I should have turned the light on to write it down. *sigh*

So instead, I'm going to talk about the first week of the New Year writing-wise for me, which I consider a success.

By the end of the day on Friday, I'd written a grand total of 3500 words. Seven hundred of those words came from the nine poems I wrote during the first week. Three hundred were from a micro story I wrote, and the remaining 2500 were words that were added to the short story I'm currently working on.

I consider this week so successful because there was not a single day that I did not write at all, and I also wrote no less than a couple hundred words each day. Each day, I wrote for at least an hour. Consistency is something that I've been struggling to find with my writing, and I feel that this week, I've found it. Now the trick will be to keep it. ;)

How about you? How'd your writing go during the first week of the New Year?

Creative Exercises, Part 2

2011-01-07T07:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday I talked about creative exercises that are writing-related. Today I want to talk about creative exercises that aren't writing related.

My main non-writing creative exercise is practicing photography. Sometimes I scrapbook or cross-stitch. One of my goals for this year is to start learning to play the keyboard (which will probably be pretty entertaining with my short, chubby fingers). This would be another creative exercise; music is a big inspiration for me.

Playing any musical instrument would be a creative exercise. Another creative exercise that I will never be able to participate in is drawing and/or painting. I wish I could, but I just don't have the talent for it. It's best for me to stick to photography, something I know how to do.

Really, I think practicing any type of art is a good way to exercise creatively.

I think it's important to partake in creative endeavors that aren't writing related. The reason is pretty simple - I think it helps keep our writing fresh, and gives us the needed breaks that are necessary to keep writer's block at bay. Plus, they could be a source of inspiration to your writing. I cannot count the number of times a photograph has inspired a poem, or story. Also, for me at least, the peacefulness I gain from a photography day gone well is a huge help when I go back to my writing. I feel fresh when I sit back at the desk.

What are your thoughts? And, what non-writing creative exercises do you practice?

Creative Exercises, Part 1

2011-01-05T07:00:00.002-05:00

When I first decided that I wanted to get a novel published, I forgot something. I forgot the simple joy in just writing. Writing without thinking, "When this novel is finished, I'm going to have to query it," or "When this story is finished, I'll need to figure out what literary magazines to submit it to." To simply write - for me.

Throughout high school, I practiced poetry. I slowed down a bit after high school, but then when I decided I wanted to write novels and try to get published, I forgot about it all together. I had already decided to start working on my poetry again, so the Poetry Pact Jessica started couldn't have come at a better time. Now that I'm sinking back into the flow of writing poetry, I remember why I love it so much. The joy it brings me. And it's feeding motivation into other aspects of my writing as well, like that novel for example.

So my goal for myself is to remember to write for myself, too. That not everything I write has to be written for any reason other than for the simple pleasure of it. To partake in creative exercises, per se.

There are several writing-related creative exercises you could practice. For me, they include poetry, journaling, and short and flash fiction pieces. Writing prompts would be another good one that I might have to give a whirl and would feed nicely into inspiration for short and flash fiction.

Do you practice creative exercising? What are some others you can think of?

-----------------------

I'm going to go against my schedule and post the second part of this on Friday, which will go over non-writing creative exercises. Be sure to stop by! :)

Why Social Networking (and Sharing Your Work) Is Important

2011-01-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

original image here.

I know a few of you are also participating in the Poetry Pact 2011 group that Jessica Bell created on Facebook. Only two days in, and I'm already so glad that I decided to participate.

I've always been very hesitant to share my work with others. I'm always worried that my work is so crappy, and everyone will hate it, and blah blah blah. In the Poetry Pact, I'm writing a poem a day. Both days I've been so nervous when I uploaded my work, afraid no one would like it. Yet, I came back later in the day to several positive comments.

It's already made me appreciate the importance of sharing your work with others. Getting those positive comments back on my work has been such a motivational push for me, inspiring me to write more and to continue to push myself to come up with better and better stuff. And, isn't that the whole point of this? To have others read and [hopefully] like our work? And to better ourselves as writers?

Also, a couple of days ago, I was talking to my sister about why I was so glad that I started blogging as a way to "meet" other writers. Having this blog, and this network I've started creating with other writers, has been a tremendous help for me. It's inspiring to connect with other writers, to talk about the trials you experience in your writing, and to have people there who understand. I also find it inspiring to read the success stories of those writers I "know" who get published. It inspires me to keep working, to keep pushing myself to be better.

And that's why I think social networking is so important for writers, and why I'm glad I started networking myself.

Why do you think networking is so important for writers?

Books Read - 2010

2010-12-31T10:00:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! I'm just popping in to do my first books read for the year post! I read nearly 50 books this year, so I won't bore you with the entire list, but here are my top ten reads from 2010 (in no particular order):

Kushiel's Justice and Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Naamah's Kiss and Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey
Hush, Hush and Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Wake Trilogy by Lisa McMann
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobosky
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters

Okay, so I cheated a little by putting series or parts of a series together, but it's so difficult to choose just ten!

Jacqueline Carey is my favorite author, so of course every book I read by her this year made the list. If you're a fan of fantasy, I'd highly recommend checking her work out!

Several quickly became part of my favorites collection because of the brilliance and/or the fact that they truly spoke to me -- The Bell Jar, If I Stay, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead. Others were simply wonderful and entertaining reads.

(Side Note: You can read my reviews of I Am Number Four and By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead.)

This year I gave out a lot of chances to authors I'd never read before, and overall, I'd have to say I found more treasures than duds. In fact, the only author that is on the list that was not a first time read for me is Jacqueline Carey. All of the others were books by authors that I had never read before, be it because I just hadn't or because the book(s) I read this year were their firsts. So, I'd have to say that 2010 was a very good reading year for me!

What were your favorite books of 2010?

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

To Resolute or Not to Resolute

2010-12-28T07:00:00.008-05:00

The New Year is just a few short days away, and I'm faced with the same question I face every year: Do I make New Year's Resolutions?

Original image here.

The thing is, every year that I do make resolutions I follow through on about, none of them. For example, let's look back on a few of the resolutions I made this time last year (which, a step up from previous years -- I actually wrote my resolutions down last year so that I would remember them).

Edit/Complete Novel #1 and write/edit/complete Novel #2
Get an agent for either said novel
Get back in shape

Here's how those turned out for me.

I decided to shelf Novel #1 about a week into editing because I decided that it wasn't the kind of novel I wanted to write. I began Novel #2 and a few months later abandoned it (for the time being) because Idea for Novel #3 crept up and Would. Not. Go. Away. and is still in progress. In summary, I haven't completed a single novel.
Um, yeah. See #1. No completed novel = no agent. I'm not anywhere near that train station yet.
Okay, I actually succeeded at this one... for like six months. And now I'm back to the same kind of shape I was in at the beginning of the year.

Not a good turnaround on my resolutions. And this is how it always goes for me.

But, because I'm me and I feel the need to at least always be attempting to better myself/my life, I'm going to make resolutions again this year. Well, sort of. Rather than making specific resolutions, here's my hope for 2011, as far as my writing goes: That this year my writing will take on a forward motion rather than standing still, and I resolute to work as much as possible to make sure that happens.

Here's to hoping that we all have a great 2011!

What are your resolutions for the New Year?

Story-to-Writing

2010-12-21T07:00:00.008-05:00

I've been a terrible blogger the past couple weeks. Things have just been nuts. But I promise I haven't forgotten anyone and I'm sorry for the semi-silence. I had a plan for this post all set up, but I think it's just going to take too much time to write, and I want to read all of your blogs. Plus, I don't have the software I ordered yet so that I can edit the photos for it. So, I'm switching what I wanted to talk about around and I'll try to keep this one short and sweet.

Image from Bo's Cafe Life.

This comic kind of hits home for me. Not that I think by story-to-writing ability is bad, but just that I always have multiple ideas floating around at once, and I feel like I always have to make a choice as to which idea I'm going to pursue, leaving the other ideas to simmer.

The thing is, I'm kind of a slow writer. I know some of you can pump out a first draft in just a few short weeks. I can't. And I'm okay with that. But it leads to problems like this one.

I can never finish one idea before another idea hits me and starts crowding my mind, begging me to work on it instead. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. It depends on the projects. I try to weigh each one, and decide which one interests me the most, and which one I think has the most potential. And I work on that one. But part of me still feels bad for ignoring the others, and I'm afraid that they'll just continue to simmer and I'll never get to them because I'll always have more ideas crowding in before I have a chance to. I know part of being a writer is having to choose which projects to devote yourself to at any given time, but that doesn't mean that it's an easy thing to do. At least not for me.

What do you do when you have multiple projects begging for your time?

Print Books vs. E-Books

2010-12-14T07:00:00.002-05:00

original image here.

Nathan Branford's Will You Ever Buy Mostly E-Books poll shows that over the past four years, there has been a steady decrease in people who say you can pry their print books out of their cold dead hands and a steady increase in people who say they welcome the e-book overlords. I, for one, find this very interesting.

As a reader, I don't think I will ever buy all e-books, although I do have the Kindle app on my iPod (which I admit, I do love just a smidgen) and several e-books downloaded. But, I still adore my print books and dream of having a library in my home someday.

As a writer, I'm torn. I don't think it truly matters if my book is in print or electronic format, or (much more likely) both. Though, I love the idea of going into a bookstore and seeing my book on the shelf, and the idea that I'll be able to pick it up and feel the pages. To me, that would make it all that much more real, that much more exciting.

And you? How do you feel about the impending e-book age? As a reader, do you prefer print books or e-books? As writers, do you think it matters which format readers prefer?

Also, I've ventured into the world of Twitter! I'd love it if you came and hung out with me. :)

The Hating Game Book Review

2010-12-07T07:00:00.002-05:00

Talli's web splash was a wild success. Congrats Talli!!

And, now I'm back with my review of The Hating Game!

Here's the blurb:

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy.

After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £200,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes.

Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end.

The characters are well developed and all bring something specific and fresh to the story. I instantly liked Mattie, as she is unlike most female protagonists in romantic comedies. She's strong, spunky, and, well, a ball buster. However, as you follow Mattie on her journey through reality TV-land, you learn there is a whole other side to her - one that is vulnerable and caring. The more you learn about Mattie's vulnerability, the more you care for her.

Talli's debut is original and funny. Most romantic comedies are so predictable, but not The Hating Game. There was a new twist at every turn. I found myself staying up late to read, anxiously turning the pages to see what would happen next, and, of course, rooting for my favorite guy.

I can't wait to read Talli's next book, Watching Willow Watts!

The Hating Game

2010-12-01T07:00:00.003-05:00

Just popping in to let everyone know about Talli's book! The Hating Game is available today as an e-book. I've downloaded it to my Kindle app, and I'm really excited to start reading it. Congrats Talli!

Help Talli Roland's debut novel THE HATING GAME hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers.

Amazon.co.uk: click here!

Amazon.com: click here!

No Kindle? Download a free app at Amazon for Mac, iPhone, PC, Android and more.

Coming soon in paperback. Keep up with the latest at http://www.talliroland.com/.

About THE HATING GAME:

By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead Book Review

2010-11-30T07:00:00.004-05:00

I always intend to do book reviews here, and then I just never do. Until today! I read By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters Sunday and was sucked into it. In fact, I boycotted homework just so that I could finish it.

Here's the blurb from Peters' website:

Daelyn’s been the victim of bullying throughout her life and now she’s simply counting down the days until she can commit her final act on Earth. It’s destiny that she finds a Web site to help her in her quest. She has the motive, the means, and the determination. Then she meets this boy, Santana, who makes her examine her choice of death over life. But is he too late to save her? And is she too damaged to save him?

There are statistics at the end of the book. Seventy percent of all students say they feel affected by bullying, or about 25,000,000 students in the U.S. alone. In ages 15-24, suicide is the third leading cause of death.

That fact is, bullying happens. Often. And many times, no one knows that it's happening besides the bully and the bullied. This book is all about the serious consequences of bullying, of keeping silent if you are being bullied, and of adults brushing bullying off as though it weren't a big deal.

I think anyone who has been bullied (regardless the severity) can relate to the feelings that Daelyn experiences. Peters tackles a sensitive issue and brings attention to the fact that bullying is a big deal. It does happen, and it should not be ignored. Although this is a young adult book, I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

----------------

A big thanks to Colene for the Magical Blog Award! I'm especially honored to receive this award because it has the Eiffel Tower on it! (Which I love, think is beyond beautiful, and am dying to visit someday.) I pass this on to Jemi, L.T., Jessica, and Melissa!

Also, a quick scheduling note. Throughout December I'm going to continue my once a week posting due to the end of the semester, being out of town for a few days, and the holidays. Starting January I will be back to two a week!

Writing Process

2010-11-23T07:00:00.023-05:00

original image here.

A couple weeks ago, I finally finished the outline for my current WIP. It took - Oh, about a month longer than I was hoping for, and I ended up doing just a simple outline instead of my detailed outline, but it's done! And that means it's time to move on to writing the first draft.

Since I'm at that point in the process, and since several others have shared theirs, today I'm going to share my writing process. It's messy. It's ugly. But it works for me.

So!

Here's what I do:

Open a blank Word doc next to my outline Word doc (or, if I'm going longhand, a blank journal next to a print-off of my outline).
Scan the outline until I find a scene that sounds fun.
Start writing.
Cross scene off on outline.

Once that scene is done, I'll take a break to check some e-mail or watch some TV. Then, I start my four-step process again.

One thing I have started trying to do is to write all of the scenes that involve the same characters at the same time. For example, if my MC's best friend is in scenes 2.1, 5.3, and 8.2, I will write all of those scenes, and then move on to scenes that involve different characters. This helps me stay in the mind frame of each character and helps keep me from changing their personality or hair color from scene to scene.

Then, when I've crossed off all the scenes on my outline, I patch all the scenes together. Throughout the entire process, I let my internal editor go to work from time to time, but before I print off the first draft, I'll do a quick run through to check spelling, etc. Then it's on to revision!

What's your writing process like?

Reorganizing Priorities

2010-11-16T07:00:00.001-05:00

So, I've decided to take next semester off from school. This move might be incredibly genius, or it might be incredibly idiotic. Time will only tell which.

original image here.

I came to this decision because I've been feeling pretty stressed lately. So, I thought of the things with which I'm pushing myself too hard. There were two: work and school. Because I can't exactly take a break from work, I'm taking a break from school.

This will give me a good eight-month break from schoolwork, which will free up a lot of time in the evenings for me. So, what am I planning on doing for those eight months? Aside from trying not to push myself to the limits as I currently am, I'm going to be using this time to truly focus on my writing. Right now, by the time I'm finished with work and schoolwork, I don't really have anything left to give to my writing.

And I want to change that.

So, my goals for this eight-month period are to finish the novel I'm working on so I can start querying and to try to get up and moving on freelance writing.

Even though I feel like I have this all planned, every responsible fiber in my body is trying to talk me out it. But my heart is saying go for it. And, for once in my life, I'm going to listen to my heart. Because listening to my responsible mind hasn't gotten me to where I want to be yet.

Have you ever had to make a difficult decision that involved reorganizing your priorities? Are you more likely to follow you head or your heart?

Honest Scrap

2010-11-09T07:00:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Jolene for this award! I think I'm supposed to share ten things about myself, so here goes.

I'm a Mountain Dew addict. It's pointless to even try to talk to me before I've had my can of Mountain Dew. For some people it's coffee, for me, it's MD.
I've wanted to be a million different things when I grow up. Writing is the only thing I've stuck with for more than a few months (it's been a couple of years since I decided I wanted to write for a living), which is how I know (or why I hope) that this is what I'm supposed to do.
I'm not that big into chocolate *gasp*. I would much rather have cookies or cake.
I have an obsession with Supernatural. I care about that show more than any normal person should care about any show. Proof that I'm not normal.
I recently graduated with my associate's in Business Management. Now, I'm not sure why I chose that program.
I've worked in higher education on the administration side for the past six years. Oh! That's why I chose to pursue my AAB in Business Management.
You all know that I own a lot of books. I also own a lot of movies and shoes.
Speaking of which, my all time favorite movie is The Boondock Saints. And, someday when I live in a place where I can have pets, I'm going to get a chocolate lab and name him Rocco.
I hate talking about myself or talking in front of a bunch of people. Most people think it's because I'm shy, but I'm really not. I just hate getting attention. I guess that makes me an unattention-whore?
It took me two entire days to think up 10 little things to tell you all about myself.

And, now I'll pass this award on to Kelly, Talli, Colene, Jennifer, and Jen!

Also, if you're interested in reading it, Hannah posted the short story I wrote for her Horror at Hannah's Contest!

The Post That I Can't Think of a Name For

2010-11-02T08:25:00.000-04:00

NaNo has officially begun and I think it's safe to say that the blogosphere is going to be pretty quiet this month. So, I've decided to take this month to cut back on posting. Instead of posting twice a week, I'm only going to post once a week (Tuesday).

I wish I could say it is because I'm participating in NaNo, but unfortunately, that's just not the case.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've mentioned to a few of you that I was on the fence about NaNo. I'd love to participate, but I just wasn't sure that I had the time to truly dedicate to it. November is the last full month of the semester, which means it's crunch time in my classes. I also just found out that I'm going to have to start putting in quite a bit of overtime at the day job. NaNo just is not meant to be this year. But, even though I'm not officially participating in NaNo, I do still want to try to get a lot of work done on my WIP. Between work and school, I'm going to need any spare minute I can manage to do that.

I'm still going to be checking blogs and commenting all week, I will just only post on Tuesdays. I already feel that I have been neglectful of the blogs I read, so I would rather post less and still get to visit you guys rather than post the same and get to spend even less time checking out all of your lovely blogs.

Good luck with NaNo for all those participating!!

Books Galore!

2010-10-28T07:00:00.001-04:00

So, Lindsay had this post Monday about TBR piles. I tried to think of how many were in my own pile, and I came up with a rough estimate of a couple hundred. But, it got me curious, so that night I went home and checked the exact number.

Before I share my TBR number, here's a peek at all of my books (not including my writing reference). Because I'm a listaholic, I keep a spreadsheet of all of my books and I mark them as read as I read them. So I can tell you that the pictures below show the 586 books that I own.

Because I have my TBRs mixed in with all my read books, I can't show you pictures of just my TBRs. But! I can share the number.

My TBR list consists of . . . *insert drumroll here* . . . 339 books!

This means that I buy books more than twice as quickly as I can eat them! Luckily for me, they wait patiently for their turn. ;)

How many of your books are waiting to be read?

List Mania

2010-10-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

My name is Jessica, and I'm a listaholic.

original image here.

Whew! I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest.

I keep lists for practically everything. It's how I keep track of things, and how I keep from going insane trying to remember things.

For my writing, I keep a list of all the characters I've created, and places I've used in my stories. I try not to use the same names/places more than once. I also keep a list of my works that includes the title, genre, word count, etc. for each work. For each novel, I keep a style sheet, which for me is a list of people and their roles, places, and pronunciations, if needed.

I like to have an outline of each project, even if it's very basic. Just so long as I have some kind of outline (or list) of how the story is going to go.

Are there any other listaholics out there? Or do any of you have any of your own confessions you need to get off your chest?

Fictional Characters We Love

2010-10-21T22:30:00.001-04:00

Is anyone else having a crazy-insane week? I hope it's not just me. Anyways, since I'm posting super late today, I thought I'd talk about something fun.

We all have them, those fictional characters we just love. I don't think a character has to be lovable to be loved. Personally, I love Deak in Broken Arrow, and he's the epitome of a bad guy. But, let's be honest, John Travolta plays the. best. bad guys, does he not? Others are the characters that we would just love to know in real life or ones that we would love to be friends with, if only they were real.

Some are those characters that we fall head over heels for. Or those couples that we love as couples. I think Phèdre and Joscelin make the most amazing couple ever. Why? Because they're not one of those in-love-all-the-time-no-matter-what couples. They fight, and at times, they hate each other. But in the end, they find out they can't live without each other. And, really, what's more romantic than that?

Some of the fictional characters I love the most (aside from the three mentioned above, of course) include Sweeney Todd, Esther Greenwood, the Winchester brothers, Peeta, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Dexter.

And this list could go on for ages.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters?

Motivating Environments

2010-10-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

As you might know, I recently moved into a new place. And, I have to share something with you.

I've always wanted a home office. I've also always wanted to be able to put my desk in a place where it looks out a window. Well, I've never been able to have either.

Until now.

Okay, so the office is really the dining room. So, I'll eventually be sharing it with a breakfast table and it will really only be a half-office. But, still. I'm happy. Oh, and the window thing? Totally got it.

Okay, so it's not the greatest view. But, still.

Now. On to the point of this post.

Last semester, in my business management capstone course, we were talking about what supervisors should do to motivate their employees. And someone in my class mentioned that no one can really motivate someone else. Rather, all the supervisor can do is create a motivating environment, and the rest is up to the worker.

It got me to thinking about writers. We don't have people working beside us who have any say in our working environment at all. So we're not only responsible for motivating ourselves, but we're also responsible for creating that motivating environment.

For me, a motivating environment is having a designated workspace, even if it is only a half-office. A motivating environment is also having my desk in front of a window. I have a couple of Ansel Adams photographs hanging in this room, who is my favorite photographer and a source of inspiration in my own photography. But, a motivating environment is also the music I play while writing, and whether the window is open to allow in a breeze.

All of these seemingly small things can make a significant difference in my motivation level.

What's your motivating environment like?

When "It" is MIA

2010-10-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

After I finished writing this one short story earlier this year, I just felt as though something was missing from it. While I couldn't put my finger on what "it" was, I knew what was on the pages wasn't what I had envisioned when I started the story.

original image here.

So, I put it aside. I decided to let it simmer in the hopes that whatever it was missing would come to me with fresh eyes. I've written several drafts, and I still haven't been able to figure out what "it" is and the story remains a completed draft, but yet unfinished. Every once in a while, I think about that story again and try to determine what it's missing, how I can make it complete. As of yet, no luck.

This story was inspired by something that is very important to me, and I wonder if I'm simply too close to the story to write it properly. I wonder if I should just let it remain in its virtual file uncompleted, dusty and unfinished. On the other hand, I think it has a lot of potential, and I'd really love to finish it and be happy with the outcome.

Have any of you writing something that was missing the elusive "it"? What do you do when you're own story is missing some important element?

The Writer's Imagination

2010-10-12T07:00:00.001-04:00

As writers, we have to have very open, active imaginations. My imagination may be a little on the ridiculous side. I can't even begin to explain all the crazy things my mind comes up with. I like to think this means I'm meant to be a writer. Hey, whatever helps me sleep at night, right? ;)

I have weird habits. In my new place, for example, you can see directly into the part of the bathroom that has the sink and medicine cabinet from the hallway. Therefore, when I'm at the sink, I can see into the living room in the mirror. When I get in the medicine cabinet and I go to close it, I cannot look into the mirror. Instead, I look down at the sink. I've seen horror movies, thank you very much. And the bad guy always appears in the mirror of the medicine cabinet when you close it. Fact.

I like to people-watch. Then, I like to make up stories about those people and what their lives must be like. I see thought bubbles above people's heads. They'll be doing/saying something, and a thought bubble will pop up with whatever it is I imagine they're really thinking. I play the what-if game, only no one ever seems to want to play it with me, so it makes me look even stranger.

Those are just a few examples for me.

What about you? What crazy goodness does your imagination come up with?

Escape the Everyday

2010-10-07T07:00:00.002-04:00

Have you guys heard the term "place-bound?" If you haven't, be glad (well, if you're like me anyways). Every time I hear it, I cringe.

I cannot stand that term.

This is something that's been floating around in my head for years, since I first heard it used. I'm sure part of why I dislike the term is because I am place-bound. Since I've gotten older, I no longer mind being place-bound, but sometimes... it can be a suffocating feeling. I've also been able to get a better handle on why I dislike the term so much since reading Kelly's post last week where she shared that she's always wanted to be elsewhere.

Elsewhere.

That's the word that did it for me, that filled in all the blanks about why I dislike the term "place-bound." I've always felt that desire to be elsewhere, too. To just get away and get away fast. But I've always felt bound to where I am, to what I'm doing.

It's why I fell in love with reading, and later, with writing. For hours on end, I can slip between the words into a world other than my own and escape. It's these temporary escapes that have kept me grounded.

Because during the time that I spend immersed in that other world, I am no longer place-bound.

For a while, I'm free.

I Eat Books for Dinner

2010-10-05T07:00:00.001-04:00

I don't know about you guys, but I have a habit of tearing through a book as quickly as possible.

For example, I finally read Mockingjay this weekend. I've been trying to find time to read this or weeks now, but just hadn't had time to get into it. But, I had some spare time this weekend, so I tore into it. Afterwards, I wished I had savored it longer.

This is usually how it goes. I devour a book as quickly as possible. And, if it tastes good, I devour it even more quickly.

But then I always have that feeling of "Oh, I should have savored it... I'll never feel that suspense of not knowing what's going to happen again." (I'm reminded of this cartoon by Inkygirl, except I don't feel it until after I've already read the book.)

Sometimes I wish I wasn't a devourer. Sometimes I wish I could savor a book longer. But, I can't. It's just not the type of reader I am.

What about you? Do you savor your books or do you devour them as though you're starved for words?

Tag and Blog Award

2010-09-30T07:00:00.002-04:00

Thanks for all your advice on The Art of... Blogging? I really appreciate it and got some wonderful ideas from you guys!

I'm still getting back into the swing of things after my hiatus, and Lindsay tagged everyone who read her post to do this, so I'm going to do something different today. It should be fun. Oh, and if you read this... tag, you're it. :)

1. If you could have a superpower, what would you have? Why?
The ability to absorb other people's superpowers. You know, like Peter on Heroes. Because it would be, well, awesome.

2. Who is your style icon?
I don't really have a style icon. I follow trends and all that to a point. Mostly though, I just wear whatever I like and what's comfy.

3. What is your favorite quote?

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."

4. What is the best compliment you've ever received?
Hrm, I really don't know. I'm not exactly the best at receiving (or giving, for that matter) compliments.

5. What playlist/cd is on your ipod/cd player right now?
I'm listening to the new Stone Sour album, Audio Secrecy.

6. Are you a night owl or a morning person?

Night owl, for sure. If it weren't for the day job, I'd stay up half the night all the time.

7. Do you prefer dogs or cats?
Honestly, I love both.

8. What is the meaning behind your blog name?
Um, it's my name. HA! I thought about trying to come up with something cool once, and just never did.

Also, I'd like to give a big thanks to Kelly for passing on the One Lovely Blog Award to me! I'd like to pass this on to these lovely bloggers: Laura at Wavy Lines, Hannah at Musings of a Palindrome, Theresa Milstein, and That Amy Saia.

The Art of... Blogging?

2010-09-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

First off, I just want to say a big thanks to all of you for your supportive comments when I announced my hiatus last week. It truly made me feel better about taking the much-needed break!

And, in light of my hiatus, and my attempts to get/stay caught up with all the blogs I follow, I realized how truly difficult it is for me to stay caught up on reading all of these blogs, let alone commenting and checking out new blogs. The time I spend commenting and checking out new blogs is often sporadic and minimal.

Between work, school, writing... and you know, at least attempting to have a life, blogging/social networking often gets pushed to the side. But I figure that surely I'm not the only busy person here. That thought is just ludicrous, right?

And so, I have a blogging-related question for you guys. How do you keep up? How do you keep up on posting brilliant things, reading other blogs and finding new blogs, and commenting... not to mention, a lot of you also twitter and facebook, etc. Whew. I'm out of breath just thinking of it all.

I try creating a schedule, but of course, other things always seem to come up. And, if I do try to stick to the schedule no matter what, other things have to be put aside, often times my writing. Which I'm not okay with. If there's an art to blogging, I haven't found it yet. Which leads me to my question for you guys.

How do you do it?

Hiatus

2010-09-21T09:21:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I was trying really hard not to do this. But, for the sake of what little sanity I have left, I'm going to be taking a break from posting this week.

I haven't been online since Thursday because I've been working on moving and getting settled into my digs while trying to stay caught up with my classes. Because I've been so busy, I hadn't gotten a post ready for today, and I'm honestly not prepared to talk about anything writerly right now. And, when I got into my Google Reader today, I realized that it exploded over the weekend. So this week, I'm going to try to get caught up with reading all of your blogs, and I'll get back to posting first thing next week!

Phase Three: The Outline

2010-09-16T07:00:00.001-04:00

Today I'm talking about the third (and last) phase of my pre-writing process, The Outline.

Now, as I mentioned in the first post of this series, I've not been much of an outliner in the past. For previous projects, my outlines were very basic and minimal, or sometimes I just outlined a few chapters at a time. And that's if I outlined at all.

So the semi-new thing I mentioned is that for my current WIP, I'm working on a real outline. As in, working on it right now. And it's terrifying. And it gives me a headache. But I feel like it will give me a much better handle on the story, particularly since this project is more complicated than previous projects. Having a solid, detailed outline also appealed to me because I like to write different parts of the story depending on my mood, and having a detailed outline would make that jumping from one part of the story to another much easier and more organized.

To the left is a sample of what my outline looks like for one chapter. I try to have three scenes per chapter, so I break the scenes into the second levels of the outline. The third levels include Action, Purpose, Characters, Setting, and Weather. The last four of those (all but the action) are just notes for me; things that I need to keep in mind while writing the scene. Then the fourth, and final, levels contain my notes for each of those elements.

So that's an overview of my pre-writing process! I hope that you found it helpful, interesting, or... something. :) And, of course, if you have questions on this or any other phase of my pre-writing process, please feel free to ask! You can email (jessicahillwriting@gmail.com) or ask away in the comments.

Phase Two: The Mind Map

2010-09-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

On to Phase Two of my pre-writing process!

Phase Two is The Mind Map. This is something brand new I'm trying out with my latest project, using mindmeister. I'm currently using the free option of mindmeister, which gives me all the tools I need for this phase.

Even though the mind map will be a fluid piece of my process, continually changing and evolving as I work on my project, I consider it a phase of my pre-writing process because the bulk of the map is done before I start writing. I use the mind map to iron out ideas and it helps me to see where my plot holes lie.

I got the idea of mind mapping and the mindmeister recommendation from a post (which explains this much better than I can!) over at Write For Your Life, and since this was my first time mind mapping a novel project, I ~~stole~~ borrowed the general set-up that he mentioned in his post.

I started with four elements: Characters, Plot, Setting, and Backstory.

On each of those nodes, I added new nodes. For the Characters node, I added each character I already know, and then any important information about that character. For Setting, I add each place I know I'll be using in the story, and then add any important information about that setting. For plot, I add the major plot points I'll be using, and then add important information. Whereas Paulo used a Timeline node, I used Backstory. The Backstory node is really just for me. Things that will not show up in the story, but are important to some aspect of the story. Some nodes I highlight in yellow. These are questions that have come up that need to be answered, or plot holes that need to be filled.

To expand the mind map, I use information that came up in The Flash Fiction, and then any other information I also know at this point. Once the mind map has grown, I move on the Phase Three: The Outline. I'll use the information in the mind map to create the outline, which I'll talk more about on Thursday!

Blog Award!

2010-09-12T16:00:00.000-04:00

I'm just popping in to say a big, big thank you to Laura for giving me my first ever blog award!

When I started this blog, I really didn't think anyone would be interested in reading about my journey, so every time someone reads/comments my blog, it's a huge compliment. So thank you to everyone who stops by! It really means so much to me.

And, I'm passing this award on to Lindsay. Her blog always has fun stuff going on, and lots of useful information.

Phase One: The Flash Fiction

2010-09-09T07:00:00.002-04:00

Today I'm going to talk about the first phase in my pre-writing process, The Flash Fiction.

original image here.

As I mentioned in my last post, the flash fiction piece gives me a very general overview of how I want my story to go. I write the piece as a free flow, allowing the ideas to come fast and furious. I like the free flow, because I feel like it lets the story come out the way it wants to, and it really opens up ideas that I probably wouldn't have thought of if I'd gone right into outlining my story. Because I do this as a free flow, I make sure that I have at least 45 minutes to an hour before starting so that I can write the flash fiction piece in one sitting.

I first tried this idea with my last WIP idea and I liked the outcome a lot and found it very helpful, so I decided to keep it as part of my process. With my newest idea, I was having a really difficult time working out how I wanted the story to flow and how I wanted it to end. And I mean, a really, really difficult time. I was pretty much slamming up against walls, getting nowhere. I almost set it aside to work on something else. But I decided to pull out the flash fiction piece of my process, and now I have a general idea of how the story will flow and I know how I want the story to end. The free flow really helped loosen up my mind and get the ideas flowing.

So what do I do with that flash fiction? I'm glad you asked. Besides getting the ideas flowing, it gives me a definite beginning, middle, and end. With this 1000-2000 word piece, I have a general outline of how the story will flow. So I use the flash fiction piece as a jumping point for Phase Two: The Mind Map, and then I'll also come back to it in Phase Three: The Outline.

Stayed tuned for those posts about Phases Two and Three, which will be coming up next week!

Pre-Writing Process

2010-09-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

Today's post is the introduction to a short series I'm planning. The topic: the pre-writing process!

I'm sure we all have very different processes that we go through when beginning a new project. I'm just going to share my own process, and I'll go into more depth on each phase in later posts this week and next week.

Personally, after an idea strikes, I'll usually write a few pages to get a feel for the voice, etc. and then I start my three-phase pre-writing process.

Phase One: The Flash Fiction
I write a flash fiction piece for the project, which gives me a very broad, very basic outline of how I want the story to go. It gives me my definite beginning, middle, and end. It also gives me a lot of starting points to get the brainstorming going for Phase Two.

Phase Two: The Mind Map
This is something new I started with my current WIP. I'm using the free option on mindmeister, which has all the capabilities I need for a writing project. The mind map will be something fluid and continually changing as I'm working on my WIP.

Phase Three: The Outline
AKA, The Dreaded Outline. I've done very minor outlining in the past, so this is also something semi-new that I started for my current WIP, but I'll talk about that in more detail in my Phase Three-designated post.

So there's a very brief overview of my pre-writing process. Stay tuned for more in-depth posts on each phase!

What's your pre-writing process?

The Successful Writer, Part II

2010-09-03T07:00:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned in Part I, there were two things that have stood out to me so far while reading Bly's Getting Started as a Freelance Writer that I think can apply to any writer and how we define success.

The second was in Bly's section, The Publishing Conundrum. Bly says:

Writing is odd in that it is one of the only arts or crafts in which practioners do not feel validated unless they attain exposure at a professional level.

I know when I was writing my little About Me for my profile page, I simply wrote: "Writer. Photographer. Life enthusiast." And I immediately took it down, and it's still blank now. Even when I wrote my About page, I made sure to put "aspiring writer" and "amateur photographer." Why must I put those words there? Because without them, I felt as if I was telling a lie.

How many of us have questioned whether we're a "real" writer? Come on, show of hands. Don't be shy. I know I have, and I still do. But what makes a writer a "real" writer?

Okay, let's break it down. According to Merriam-Webster, a writer is "one who writes." That's it, that's all it takes to be a writer. To write. Now, I tried to find a definition for a real writer, and I'm telling ya, I couldn't. It's nowhere to be found. So, that tells me there's no such thing. A writer is a writer, plain and simple. A writer and what we view as a "real" writer are one in the same and we need to break away from this view that we have to be the next Stephenie Meyers or James Patterson before we can consider ourselves successful. Rather, all we have to do to be successful writers is to write.

Agreed?

The Successful Writer, Part I

2010-09-01T09:15:00.001-04:00

The first thing I started after making my decision to start pushing towards a career in freelance writing was researching. Naturally, right? Over the past couple weeks I've been making my way through reading Robert W. Bly's Getting Started as a Freelance Writer. I've gotten a lot of information and ideas out of this book, and I may have a post later on about those things.

But there have been two things in particular that have stood out to me that I think can be applied to any writer, and they both tie to in to how we, as writers, define success.

The first was in Bly's Ten Secrets of Success. What topped #1 on his list?

"Define what success means to you."

Bly says that once you've defined what success means to you, then you should pursue success based on that definition rather than by the definition others have for success.

For me, success is be able to make a living doing something that I love to do (write), and someday to get a novel (or more, of course) published. The last thing success means to me is the amount of money I make. I have no need or desire to be rich, I simply want to live comfortably and do something that I love to do.

So that's the success I'm pursuing.

How about you? How do you define success for yourself?

P.S. Since I reached my ideal post length focusing on the first thing that stood out to me, I'll talk about the second on Friday. :)

Morning Pages Trial Wrap-Up

2010-08-30T08:30:00.000-04:00

My morning pages two-week trial is over! I shared what I learned during the first week, and now I'm back for a wrap-up.

original image here.

This second week hasn't seemed to have been quite as fruitful as the first week. I'm not sure why that is, if it's because I've gotten into the swing of it, or if I've just not had anything new that needed uncovering. This week I've seemed to have been giving myself a lot of grief about one thing in particular: my general lack of follow-through. I'm the kind of person who gets some crazy, [I think it's] terrific idea and with that initial spark I kick arse. The idea generation, the planning, organizing - all of that set-up stage - I'm on it like there's no tomorrow. But when it comes to actually putting ideas to action, I get tripped up. Which I suppose leads back to my intense fear of failure.

So that's what's new with the morning pages.

Wrap-Up Time! I'm still going to continue my morning pages, although not every day. I'll probably shoot for a few times a week and see how that goes. Oh, and I guess I should actually call them my night pages now, because I've been writing them right before bed rather than when I first wake up. It just seems to make more sense for me, since I'm such a zombie first thing in the morning, whereas right before bed I'm still semi-fresh (okay, maybe that's a stretch, but. still. I'm not quite a zombie then) and everything is still whirling around my mind. This way, I can get it all off my chest and get a good night's rest. Right? Okay, maybe I'm being a little too hopeful there.

So, there's my insight on morning pages. I hope that you found them at least semi-helpful. If you're considering your own morning pages trial and want to ask me questions, feel free to do so either by email (jessicahillwriting@gmail.com) or in the comments. I'll do my best to answer them!

There Was a Tragedy Here

2010-08-27T08:43:00.000-04:00

There was a tragedy here.
A loved one took a bullet
just above the ear.
On the floor, a burnt out cigarette.
There are stains on the inside;
Carpet caked and dried with blood.
Those who loved him cried,
their emotions a flood.
We see those mourning, dressed in black.
We watch the scene so quietly.
See the exterior front and back,
but how it tells its lie, we can’t see.
We on the outside never able
to guess there was a tragedy here.

The One Basket Syndrome

2010-08-25T08:43:00.000-04:00

original image here.

I have this bad habit of putting all of my eggs into one basket, hoping that something fruitful will come from that one basket. Of course, it usually doesn't. If logic could, it would say "Duh" to this habit of mine.

I've been trying to figure out why I do this. I think it has something to do with my fear of failure. If I put everything into one basket, or one idea, and that idea fails, I only failed once. Okay, I can deal with that. But, if I put my eggs into a bunch of different baskets, and none of those provide success, it's a lot more failure, and a lot more disappointment.

One of the reasons I want to get into freelancing is because I don't want to put all of my eggs into one basket anymore. I know it's a bad practice, and I want to change that. Although, when I made the decision to start pushing towards freelancing, I didn't realize this was a reason, at least not consciously. All I knew was that I wanted to write, and I wanted to be able to a living at it.

And my thought was if I can break into freelance, then if I don't ever break into publishing, it would be okay because I would still be writing. My other thought was that I know most published writers don't quit their day jobs. If I do get published and I can't quit my day job, then I at least want a day job that I enjoy.

So here's to me not putting all my eggs into one basket.

How about you? Are you focused on just one dream, or do you spread your net wide?

Morning Pages Update - Week 1

2010-08-23T09:24:00.000-04:00

The first week on my morning pages trial is already over! It seems like it went by so fast. A couple of you mentioned that you were looking forward to my update, so I'll try to be insightful here!

In all seriousness, though, this practice has already helped uncover quite of few things. Some of these discoveries were how I felt about things that I wasn't even aware were bothering me. Others were things that I was aware of on some level, but the morning pages really helped to iron out exactly how I felt about them.

So, here are the writing-related discoveries (and one non-writing discovery) I've found over the past week:

I need to take my fiction writing less seriously. I've been so focused on The Dream, that I've forgotten that writing should be fun, first and foremost. I need to sit back, relax, and bring the fun back into it.
But at the same time, I need to write. Seriously, I get down when I don't write. And when I do write, I feel anywhere from peaceful and content to near-manic.
I want to start freelance writing. This is still in the "Hmm, how am I going to do this?" stage, but it's something that I'm really serious about and am going to start pushing towards.
I want to start working on my photography again. This came up nearly every day. When I started working on my writing seriously, my photography continuously got pushed to the back burner until it eventually fell off the stove altogether. And I miss it. So I'm going to get back to it. I also want to save up and buy the camera and software I wanted and never got, because I really need both of them to take my photography to the next level.

And a couple of things I've done because of the above discoveries:

I changed my method of writing. Instead of writing on the computer, I'm writing with good 'ole pen and paper. When I try to write on the computer, I get easily distracted and before I know it, I'm on the Internet and have completely forgotten that I was trying to write.
I've created a Flickr page to share my photography.

Whew! I know this was a lengthy post, and I apologize for that. I'll have an end-of-trial post next Monday, so be sure to come back for that if you're interested! I've been pretty happy with the results I've been getting so far, and I've already decided that I will probably continue my morning pages after my two-week trial ends, though perhaps not every single day. We'll see what this next week brings!

The Secret Writer

2010-08-20T08:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I stumbled across this guest post on Rachelle Gardner's blog about secret writers. I'm definitely one of those. While I talk about my writing here, I don't really talk about it with others. I think it's easier here knowing that the people reading this are also writers, so they can understand the journey of writing pretty easily. But non-writers might not understand so easily. And that's why I have a difficult time talking about it.

What's particularly odd about this for me is that I have no problem sharing other things that I love to do, such as my photography. I've always been rather open about my photography and sharing my photos. But with my writing, which I'm much more passionate about, I close down. Why?

I loved Maureen's pros and cons list. I definitely realized that the last on her con list ("Allows others an opportunity to squash it") is probably the main reason why I have a difficult time sharing. There's this fear that someone is going to say your idea is dumb, or that your writing is simply terrible. And keeping up motivation to make the climb is difficult enough when you're trying to break into publication, that sometimes it just takes something small to kill the motivation, to make The Dream seem silly and childish.

It's just easier not to share. To make sure that nothing kills your sweet dream.

But eventually you'll have to put yourself out there. As Maureen pointed out, "Once a book is public it’ll be read by all kinds of people. Some will love it, and some won’t." So perhaps putting yourself out there now by being open and sharing could be a good practice to take up.

What do you all think about this? Do you share to help develop that thick skin, or are you a secret writer?

I Am Number Four

2010-08-18T10:14:00.000-04:00

I finished reading I Am Number Four over the weekend. This was a fantastic read, and it was really difficult to put down. I especially liked it because it's set in my home state, Ohio. O-H! Okay, okay, of course I have better reasons than that for liking it. It's fast-paced and intriguing from page one all the way to the end. No boring parts here.

It's unique. I really didn't read anything where I thought, "Gee, didn't something like that happen in X book?"

The main character, John (aka Four) is really likable and easy to relate to. Even though he's, ya know, an alien, he's also just a teen trying to find himself and a place where he belongs and can call home. He has to stand up against his enemies and, of course, snag the girl.

My favorite quote: "No. Don't give up hope just yet. It's the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope."

Here's the Blurb:

Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books--but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing.

But "they" know.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next.

Do you really need to know more than that to want to pick up this book immediately? Seriously, go get it. Now. Before "they" come for you.

Morning Pages

2010-08-16T08:26:00.000-04:00

original image here.

Saturday, Write for Your Life posted about stream-of-consciousness writing, or the morning pages. Basically, you write three pages of whatever is on your mind each morning, allowing you to go into your day with a clear mind.

I'm always up for trying new things, and I immediately wanted to try this. My mind is so cluttered, I don't know how I can fit any more in there, and sometimes I find it difficult to find anything that is already there. So yesterday, I started my own two-week trial. For two weeks, I'm going to write my morning pages each day. I feel like it's way too soon to post anything about the experience today, but I will be posting an update here next Monday, and the Monday after that when the trial is complete.

Let's unclog this mind of mine.

Reading vs. Writing

2010-08-13T16:43:00.000-04:00

Like most writers, I'm an avid reader. I've loved to read -- well, ever since I learned to read. Reading is important for writers; it helps us learn the craft of writing and storytelling. But I have a hard time balancing my reading and my writing. Because I love to read so much, I tend to spend most of my spare time reading, rather than writing.

original image here.

I realize this should change if I'm ever to become a successful writer. I need to actually write more. I'd like to get where I'm at least splitting my reading and writing time 50/50, even though I think to spend more time writing would be ideal.

I'm curious. Do you spend more time reading, or more time writing? How do you balance the two?

I Write Like

2010-08-11T17:47:00.001-04:00

I think I'm probably the last person to hear about I Write Like. But I finally stumbled across it, and of course had to give it a whirl.

I pasted in the few pages I've written of my latest WIP, and got... (drum roll, please)

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Personally, I think this is insane, but hey, I'll take it. :]

Apparently, I also write like Dan Brown (analyzed from the text of Nightmare), and I must really write like Stephenie Meyer (who I got twice, once with the text of a flash fiction piece called "Saying Goodbye" and once for a finished draft of a short story I'm working on). Who knew?

So, who do you write like?

What To Be When You Grow Up

2010-08-09T16:49:00.001-04:00

original image here.

I've wanted to be about a hundred different things when I grow up. There was the ER doctor, the medical lab tech, the criminologist, the psychiatrist, the rock star drummer, the photographer, the gallery owner, and the bookstore owner. Just to name a few. I never stuck with one thing for more than a year or so (if I was lucky to make it that long) until I was moving on to the next "I wanna be [insert crazy idea here] when I grow up."

Up until about a year ago, I always thought I jumped from idea to idea so much because I was just plain indecisive. But then someone told me that it was because I was creative. Me?! Creative?! I thought she'd lost her mind for a moment. Then she went on to explain that creative people jump from project to project, they leave projects unfinished, because they can't focus long enough to finish the project because they're on to the next idea just like that. Talk about describing me perfectly. That's when I accepted the fact that maybe I truly am creative.

I first discovered my love for writing when I wrote my first short story in fourth grade. Throughout my life, I've always practiced writing in one form or another, but writing as a career had just never crossed my mind before. There are still times when I worry that I'll move on from this, too. But I've stuck at it for nearly two years now, and I still feel passionate that a writer is what I'm supposed to be. Maybe I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up for real.

How about you? When did you decide you wanted to pursue writing as a career?

Nightmare

2010-08-06T22:57:00.000-04:00

I wrote this is flash fiction piece a few months ago. My short fiction tends to sway towards the "darker" side, and I think this piece kind of illustrates that. But out of those pieces of flash I've written, I'm the happiest with this as far as how it turned out.

I was going too fast, I knew that. My foot had the pedal pressed to the floor, but I couldn't get away fast enough. In the light of the headlights, I could see the dark pavement stretching out before me, and the trees rushing by in a blur on either side. Beyond the scope of the highlights, it was simply black.

I looked at B sitting in the passenger seat next to me. His body was rigid and he was staring straight ahead, though I doubt he saw anything. "Should we go back?" I asked him, already knowing the answer but dreading it just the same. He nodded once, and that was it. I brought the car to a screeching halt and pulled into a driveway to turn around. Once I was facing the way we had been coming from, I pressed the pedal back to the floor.

Too soon, we were back at that dreadful house. Ignoring the driveway, I brought the car through the front yard and stopped with my headlights shining on the door. There was no time for the driveway – he was in there with her. And as much as I wanted to turn and run again, I had to get her out of there.

I was out of the car in a flash, and I could only hope that B was following me as I ran for the front door. Before I reached it, though, R.T. came running out from the house. Him. I tried to run past him to get inside but he wouldn't let me.

He was shouting. "Stop!"

I fought against him, but it was no use. "What did you do to her?!" I screamed at him, punching his arms because I couldn't reach his face.

"It was an accident, I swear. I didn't mean to…" R.T. was still talking, but I didn't hear him.

Somehow, my arm came loose. I swung and got a lucky hit. It was enough – R.T. stumbled back and I wretched myself loose. As soon as I was free, I ran for the house. I vaguely heard R.T. shouting behind me, his voice muffled behind the hand cradling his jaw. I ignored him. I ran through the partially open front door, hearing it slam into the wall behind me. I froze. There she was, lying at the bottom of the stairs, her body in an inhuman tangle.

R.T. and B came in behind me, slowly. R.T. was saying something, probably to explain himself. But I didn't hear it – it didn't matter. It was too late.

Making the Climb

2010-08-04T18:29:00.001-04:00

My sister and I visited Atlantic City over Memorial Day weekend. That vacation held a lot of firsts for me. So many, in fact, that I won't bore you by naming them all. But one of those firsts was climbing a lighthouse, the Absecon Lighthouse, which is the third tallest lighthouse in the U.S.

To get to the top, we had to climb 228 steps, which the Lightkeeper told us compares to approximately 17 stories of a modern building. That's tall. And I have this fear. Not so much of heights, but of falling from said heights. For someone like me this is completely rational. Trust me.

I don't know how long the climb took, but it felt a lot longer than it probably was. There was more than one point during the climb that I thought I wouldn't make it and I wanted to turn and flee down the stairs as quickly as was safely possible. But I didn't, and the climb was totally worth it once I got to the top... and I was at complete ease at the top - proof below!

I think there are a lot of journeys in life that are similar to the climbing of that lighthouse. This includes writing. We all start at the bottom, and we have to learn and climb our way up. I also think that's the reason why I fall into slumps with my writing where I don't write much for weeks at a time. Fear.

So this is my goal from now on. To climb.

Yeah, it's scary, but the view from the top will be worth it. And it might take a long, long time, but that's okay. I might not even end up as high up as I wanted to get, and that's okay too. I'll count the successes no matter how large or small. Because at least in the end, I'll be able to say that I did it. I faced my fear and I climbed.

First Things First

2010-08-02T18:03:00.001-04:00

I'm never sure what someone's very first blog post should be about. I mean, do you jump right in, or do you give a little back-story first?

But isn't that what writers face every time they start a new project? And that's what I'm trying to be, even though I'm lots of other things, too.

The funny thing is, as unsure as I am about what to write in this post, I never have much doubt about where to start a story. Sure, it may (and quite possibly will) change during edits, but for whatever draft I'm working on, I know where to start it.

So often we're told to start with the action, and we all know how important it is to hook our readers right out of the gate. Action is a good place to start, but I think there has to be some back-story there, too. Otherwise, how will our reader know if they should care about the action happening to our characters? I usually try to find a happy medium between the two; start with the action, but share a little back-story here and there where relevant.

What about you? Where do you start your stories? In the middle of the action? Do you lead up to it first? Or do you try to find that happy medium, too?