Author Thoughts from a Figment live chat

I participated in my first "live chat" the other night. It was like sneaking a peek at somebody's Gchat (although apparently 500 other people were doing it, so I guess I'm not that big a creep). The chat, run by This Is Teen and Figment, went down between two of my very favorite authors: Maggie Stiefvater and Lucy Christopher. It was supposed to be about voice, but their answers spanned a whole range of writerly topics that had me taking avid notes. 

On Character:

- You don't always have to know how the story ends, but you should know the end of the characters' emotional arc. In other words, what do they learn? Everything that happens to a character in the story leads to the realization they come to by the end.

- It's OK to steal people. (I liked this one...because I'm constantly stealing sayings and nervous gestures from people from strange and familiar). Keep writing fresh by watching how people react to things; their speech patterns and movements; their turns of phrase.

- Read out loud to see how a character's voice is shaping up; it's great for objectivity and for 'hearing' what isn't working for your characters.

- The most important thing is that your character be consistent and believable and true to themselves...

- I think it comes back to being true to the individual you're writing. You don't ask "would a teen say this?" you ask "would my character say this?"

- Ask yourself: who is it that your character projects? Who are they really on the inside? You need to know the 'why' when you're the author. WHY are your characters acting the way they do? Don't worry about the physical things like eye color and hair length...worry about motivation, what propels them.

- Reading out loud helps you to know if you're being yourself, or if you're being your character.

Quotables:

From Maggie: "...the key to true storytelling is to be specific". You can find a character's 'truth' when their reactions become predictable, and you know what it is that drives them

LC: "I write stories about places I want to explore / think about more / have issues with / have an interesting cultural resonance."

MS: "Absolutely. A setting is like a character where you have to ask yourself, why are things that way HERE. Not anywhere else, but HERE."

MS: "So if there is something peculiar and interesting about you, something cool you've done, that is what you should mine for your novels."

MG: "In my head, the story already exists, and my job is to dust carefully away until I find it beneath all the silt. And if I smash too hard and impose my will and bust past writer's block without thinking about what is really stopping me from writing, I'll smash off the statue's arm. So I need to go carefully and trust my gut, and when they are right, I can FEEL it. I see it right there. The story I always meant to write."

MS: "If you know how a character is going to react, you know what they're going to say."

It was a fantastic chat, and well worth sipping wine through. If you want to replay it in all its glory. go here! 

World Book Night

Tonight marks the first year that World Book Night has come to American shores. The idea is one that seems beautiful to me: volunteers all over the country will be showing up in random public places and giving out free copies of a book they love to strangers. I think it's an amazing means of promoting several things you don't see every day: meaningly interactions between strangers, free gifts with no strings attached. I think that it's a beautiful thing to love a story so much that you want to share it with others. That's the mysterious, magical power of the written word that made me fall in love with reading, a love that has been one of my life's most profound and important constants.

I signed up too late to participate, but I thought I'd spread the love for the one book out of the selected group of 30 that I would have handed out tonight.

This is a story about a boy who thinks his father can perform miracles. But when his older brother is suspected of murder and the family must journey across the country to find him, the boy discovers that maybe his father can't always make things right. This story is a grown-up American tall tale that invites the reader into the strange, beautiful mind of a unique young mind as he navigates an emotional landscape that tests and scratches away at his faith.

This book is very much about believing in the miraculous; and, like most of my very favorite books, that is precisely what makes it difficult to describe. Trust me when I say it's a beautiful book. If I could, I'd give it to you...free of charge.

Oh hi, World.

I have been April's worst. Blogger. Ever. But I have been doing a lot of two things I love: writing and traveling. I'm a little too fried for thought-provoking posting, so I'm going to let this video do the talking for me. It's everything I love about travel, and everything a travel narrative should be: moving, exciting, inspiring.

Here's to making life an adventure.


MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Writing Process

So I had plans to post about my writing/revising process to date, but I've been lost writing queries. Apparently writing queries makes me not want to blog, or something. During the last two weeks of query writing and agent research, I have:

1) Confirmed to my complete satisfaction that I am bad at waiting for things.
2) Eaten an entire tub of Trader Joe's peanut butter cups.
3) Woken up in the wee hours of the morning wanting to work on my new writing project.

Oh, new writing project (that I will henceforth call GhostNovel) - I've been waiting several years to be ready to write you, and now I think I am. I've posted here before about Lev Grossman's comment that authors are like magpies: they collect things that shine at them funny because they know they'll need them later. I've found that to be inescapably true. So here's what my desk is looking like:

Yes, that's a book fan. Yes, I'll blog about it later.

I keep note cards in my purse on which I write quotes, plot points, and anything and everything I think could be useful to an upcoming project. It's pretty satisfying (and immensely helpful) to lay them all out when I'm ready to start.

Research/Inspiring Pile.

Currently listening to: "Bilgewater" by Brown Bird

Music Magpie

I recently read a blog post concerning Lev Grossman's writing process, and liked this very much:

"... when you’re in a certain phase of novel-making, you’re like a magpie: when something gleams at you funny, you swoop down and grab it and take it back to your nest, because you know, you just know, you’re going to need it later." 

I've always found this to be true: I pick up images and snatches of words until they start to click into place, transforming themselves from snatches to stories. I've been collecting shiny things for my next writing project for several years now, waiting to be ready to write it, and I've found some music that I know I'm going to need. This is music that begs to be shared.

The Civil Wars - "Barton Hollow"

It's not every day that my mother introduces me to music that I fall heartily in love with. We have different tastes, but my thirst for haunting, rich bluesy music has me loving this duo an awful lot. If there was a book trailer for my WIP, this would be playing in it.

Boy & Bear - "Moonstone"

Oh, Australia. I love you in so many ways, specifically for introducing me to some of my favorite music. I love every song on this album, although this is one of the catchiest.

Book Spine Friday

I currently find myself teaching 8th, 11th and 12th graders, which is proving an interesting challenge and, sometimes, a genuine pleasure. Amidst the chaos of trying to squeeze thought out of 8th graders and singing Dickinson poems to the tune of Amazing Grace, I always look forward to my creative writing class. I'm on a mission to find ways to make my classes both inspirational and useful (suggestions gratefully accepted). To that end, I had my students make book spine poems today. They could only use the books I'd brought in and borrowed from the library, and it was interesting to see what kinds of things they came up with. I can't claim to have dreamed up this idea, but I loved it so much I made one of my own.

Happy Friday!

Being Awesome

Have you guys heard about the blog 1000 Awesome Things? If you haven't, you should: it'll be good for you. Check out this video. I hope it brings some shine to your day!

YALLFest 2011

I recently had the opportunity to hop down south and go to YALLFest: the first annual Young Adult book event held in Charleston, SC. I got to stay and hang out with my fabulous critique partner, Ryan Graudin, who posted a lovely recap of this amazing festival. I got to meet (and by meet, I mean skulk near) some of my favorite YA authors: Carrie Ryan, Michelle Hodkin, and many more. Alas, a certain literary crush of mine with lumberjack chic wasn't able to come to the festival, so I wasn't able to woo him as I'd planned. Next time?

I brought back a lot from my weekend in Charleston: new authors to read, books to rave about, and a healthy dose of writerly inspiration. Oh yeah - some pictures, too.

On The Bright Side

So, Australia isn't all flowers and chirping birds. Lately, it's also cyclones and floods and mosquitos the size of my fist. It's also unemployment and other unfortunate pitfalls (but that's another story). But, on the bright side, it's still got its charms. I've gotten to sample several of them since I got back from my Christmas vacation.

I went on a day trip to Double Island Point, hiking up to the lighthouse for magnificant views like these:

I've spent two fantastic weekends camping on the beach. The first was on Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. After a wind-blown night in which our inexpert tarp-tying left us very cold and very wet, we finally got the hang of the campsite set-up and enjoyed some pretty prolific stars. We even saw a giant sea turtle scuttling along the beach (with English tourists trying to take pictures of themselves high-fiving it... poor turtle). It rained almost the entire time, which did not leave a lot of room for good picture-taking. But the rain quit long enough for me to take these:

The view from in front of our campsite.

Wading down crystal-clear Eli Creek during a very brief break in the clouds.

The Maheno wreck at high tide.

And then there was our weekend on Stradbroke Island just off the coast of Brisbane. The weather was perfect. We took our beers down to the beach and caught two nights' worth of amazing sunsets. We played a little coconut shot-put in the sand, and on our way back to our campsite, we saw a lady kangaroo chewing on some dinner grass.

Resolutions 2011

I've been just a little slow in making new years resolutions this year. I usually start thinking about these things around my birthday, but Christmas heralded some really unfortunate, game-changing events that temporarily took away my will to live, let alone to make resolutions. But now that the Year From Hell is officially behind me, I'm game to start setting some new goals for the road ahead. I'm pretty passionate about that fact that goals are important, no more so than when your life has been turned upside-down and shaken.

So here are my resolutions for 2011:

1. Finish a polished, (hopefully) publishable novel #2 and shop it around to agents.

2. Develop a professional website and start marketing my freelance writing & editing services.

3. Participate in a half-marathon or mini-triathlon.

4. Write an adult fiction novel.

5. Find a place to nest and make it my own.

6. Do some work with kids (maybe coaching or tutoring).

7. Go somewhere I have never been before and write a travel article about it.

8. Help out wherever I can.*

* I was incredibly moved and inspired by my friends and family this year. They extended themselves in a million different ways to help me; their thoughtfulness really blew me away. I was so wrapped up in my own issues during the Brisbane floods that I don't feel like I helped out as much as I could have. I'm making a promise to myself this year that I will help those who need it where and when it is within my power to do so, whether they be family, friends or strangers.

Someone Ate My May

... it's been three weeks since I last blogged?.... really? My calendar must be lying to me. I'm almost three months into my first big-girl editing gig and I'm STILL struggling to 'find the time'. Granted, my editor decided to go and have babies a week and a half ago, leaving me to pretend to know what I'm doing at her desk. But I mean really- where are all of these days going? I'm feeling slightly swallowed alive. (I am alive, by the way, dear friends whom I haven't spoken to in many weeks but that I love deeply.)

I could bore you with more complaints about full-time employ, but I think I'll tell you about my new camera instead.

I bought my first SLR yesterday! It's a Canon Rebel T1i 500d, the first digital camera I've invested in that hasn't just been point-and-shoot. I've always loved taking pictures. I took a photography class in high school that has always stayed with me. I loved going out and exploring through a lens, then watching the photos take shape beneath my hands. My teacher was a little old lady who really liked photos of puppies. Most of my pictures were of old headstones. She wasn't a fan.

Since I started traveling, I've found myself wanting a camera that could do... well, more. I can't tell you how many times in the past few years I've taken a picture of a breathtaking vista, looked at my camera's screen and gone, "You just don't quite get it." I'm working my way through the manual (Moby Dick, anyone?) and am looking forward to learning the manual settings as I go. Here are a couple of the practice shots I've taken:

Brisbane as seen from the Cliffs at Kangaroo Point.

Manfriend looking model-y.

Lilies from Manfriend in dim lighting.

I'm AMAZED by the difference in quality. These were photos I shot on automatic settings without knowing what I was doing, and I still think they turned out pretty OK. The camera shoots hi-res video, too, so maybe you'll even get to suffer through a video montage of me doing something silly in the not-far-distant future. Who knows? More to come!

How Cool Is This?

I found this awesome video clip about the making of a book cover. It seriously makes me want to hurry up and get published AND learn how to do web design. Mostly the getting published thing. As a side note, the book being promoted here falls under a sub-genre (that I just had to Google because I had no idea) called "steampunk". How did I not KNOW about this before?

Seriously?!

Reads That Feed

I recently read this post from the venerable Maggie Stiefvater about books that feed her creativity while working on a project. There are those writers who don't like to read while they're writing because they don't want to 'corrupt' their own authorial voice (there are those would-be writers who hardly read at all... say what?). That's something I can understand, to a point, but not something I resonate with. If anything, I read more when writing something new.

This is, undoubtedly, a procrastination tool ("It's OK that I'm not writing. I'm reading"), but it is also something else, something important. When I'm writing, I feel compelled to turn back to the writers that rocked my world with their words and their stories. I can turn to these beloved reads and know that I can crack them open to any page and come across passages like this:

He flapped again at the flies and looked out the window at the first smear of foggy dawn and waited for the world to begin shaping up outside. The window was tall as a door, and he had imagined many times that it would open onto some other place and let him walk through and be there. - Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain

And this:

"Hello boys."

"Hello, Mrs. Lisbon" (in unison).

She had the rectitude, Joe Hill Conley later said, of someone who had just come from weeping in the next room. He had sensed (this said many years later, of course, when Joe Hill Conley claimed to tap at will the energy of his chakras) an ancient pain arising from Mrs. Lisbon, the sum of her people's griefs.

- Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

And then this:

I loved hearing Anatole speak English. His pronunciation sounded British and elegant, with "first" coming out as "fest," and "brought" more like "brrote." But it sounded Congolese in the way it rolled out with equal weight on every syllable- a pig in a sack- as if no single word wanted to take over the whole sentence.

- Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

These books are what I want my writing to be: they are powerful without being overpowering, elegant without being flowery- every word and detail adds something powerful to the story and the flow. They inspire me, chiefly, because they are beautiful examples of voice. These are voices I can pick out of a crowd, so strong and assured that they literally sweep you off your feet and into the world they are creating. These voices have a unique and undeniable pull.

There are moments when I find this exercise deflating, especially on a bad writing day ("My writing will NEVER be this good. In fact, in comparison, it is two inches shy of abysmal"). These moments are almost always overridden by feelings of awe and inspiration. Every time I open these books, I learn something new that I can bring to my craft. I am challenged to rise above my best and reach for something even better. These authors feed my creativity in ways that make me want to be better.

Other books I like to return to are The Time Traveler's Wife, Bel Canto, and (for travel writing) Confederates in the Attic. Are there reads that feed your creativity? What is it about them that brings you coming back?

Good Read to the Rescue!

I was sitting on the train the other day listening to Bill Byson's A Walk In The Woods. As I listened (and laughed, inevitably), I looked out the window at the once-foreign city I currently call home and was reminded of another trip I'd made.

If you've ever travelled alone, then you may have experienced that moment: the moment when you realize that you are disconnected from everything you know and love. No one knows you where you are (I didn't have a phone, so this felt especially true at the time). You could fall into a ditch and expire loudly and dramatically, and no one would know to start looking for you. That moment when you realize that you are completely out of your element. The knowledge slams into you so hard that you are rendered terrified, temporarily helpless.

So it was for me in Vienna. It was the third stop on my first trip abroad, but it was the first time I truly felt panicked by what I was doing. I was in a country where I didn't know the language, where the transit system was so overwhelming that I couldn't even think about trying to use it. I didn't meet anyone at the hostel where I was staying (unless you count the five permanently half-naked Germans with whom I shared a bunk room). In the two stops before, I had made friends or met up with one, so I was never really alone. For the first time, I was forced to fend completely for myself. I felt like the world was going to swallow me up. I spent two days wandering around on foot, not really enjoying myself, fending off tears and my frustration at being such a baby.

These are the moments when you grasp for the familiar. So when I saw an English language bookshop, I stopped and picked up Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There. I marched over to a Starbucks I'd passed earlier, got myself a pumpkin spice latte, and read away the afternoon. That sounds like a horrifically touristy thing to do, and I suppose it was (later, when I was up to it, I did go to some of Vienna's famed coffee houses. They were amazing). I dove into my first Bill Bryson experience with the concentration of a drowning person clinging to a raft. I was hoping that Bill's travels through Europe would help to ease my mind. It did that, and a whole lot more.

Bill Bryson made me laugh out loud, something I hadn't done in days (I'd barely spoken, let alone laughed). His cultural blunders made me realize that my foreigners' awkwardness was normal, even expected. It was OK that I hadn't had a real conversation in over 24 hours! It was normal to eat alone while eavesdropping on strangers! He let me know that these things were just a part of the process. His insights lightened my heart, made me realize that traveling alone wasn't always supposed to be pretty, and that it was as much about discovering your own limitations and strengths as the place in which you're traveling.

That afternoon, Bill Bryson saved me. He allowed me to take a deep breath and think, "OK, then. I'm not really alone." After that, I had a great 'ole time. I threw away my map and let myself get lost. Getting lost in Vienna was how I fell in love with Vienna, and how I captured these:

It wasn't until now, years later, that I realized how much that book saved me. I'll always be grateful to Mr. Bryson, even though he'll never know it. That's the kind of book I'd love to write: the kind in which people see themselves and feel just a little bit less alone.

Has a book ever come to your rescue in a time of need?