Category: Writing

View from the revision cave

So, I’m revising again. Because I like to. Everyone needs a hobby. This is mine.

One of the first things I did was to list out the scenes in each chapter, essentially an outline, using the method from Cheryl Klein’s Second Sight book (I’m essentially doing the exercises listed here, along with some from another book).

Here’s what I discovered:

  • Wow. There’s a lot of crap in this book. I’m not sure I’m actually the one who put it there.
  • Why is there a chapter with only one scene?
  • Why is there one with seven?

To be fair, the very first thing I did was strip out the self-contained subplot for revamping and revision. So that lone scene in its own chapter wasn’t always quite so lonely. That fat chapter hoarding seven scenes? No clue. It’s like that reality TV show about hoarders, only in manuscript format.

I’m doing a lot of work with structure. Because that self-contained subplot? It’s in diary format, which is why it’s so easy to pull from the story. Weaving it back in? Yeah. Not so much.

I think I’m going to need that T-shirt.

Taking (summer) stock

I haven’t been writing in my blog–uh, yeah, clearly–and I miss it. I really do. I have been writing. A lot, I think. When school started for the kids (right after Labor Day this week), I took stock of my summer. Just what did I do on my summer “vacation”?

Starting with Memorial Day and ending with Labor Day, I did the following:

  • Second draft of a middle grade novel I’m calling Speechless. ~ 42,000 words. This is the “that which does not kill you makes you stronger” draft.
  • Second/revised draft of my short story (The Trouble with Firsts) for the Debs anthology The First Time. Started at 7,800 and ended up just under 6,000 words. Cutting 1,700 seems like an arduous task, but once I focused on the story, it was relatively easy. I had a lot of things in there that would’ve been fine for a novel. Short story? Not so much.
  • Revised/edited Dating on the Dork side with Darcy for our agent. 83,000 words. Y’all can just keep your fingers crossed for us, okay?
  • Third draft of Speechless, which is the “draft other people can read and it won’t injure them” draft. 43,000 words (oh, I added to it!).

Bonus items:

  • Took a class on metaphors and did all the assignments. I’m so freaking proud of myself.
  • Read a terrific manuscript by my friend Joy Hensley and got to celebrate (virtually) her agent call/representation. Can you squee via email? Yes, yes you can.
  • Mentoring another writer via one of the RWA chapters I belong to.

Oh, and I bought these awesome boots:

Okay, so the boots don’t = writing progress. Still. I think the potential is there for writing awesome things while wearing these boots.

So. How was your summer?

Teaser Tuesday: Second Sight

Teaser Tuesday and the rules are simple:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Let’s try a writing book this week, shall we?

It’s as Richard Peck says: “A good YA novel ends not with happily ever after, but at a new beginning, with the sense of a lot of life yet to be lived.”

From Second Sight: An Editor’s Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults, by Cheryl B. Klein, pages 217 – 218.

Oh, I love that. It gets it just right, I think. When we did our blog tour for Geek Girl, Darcy and I would often refer to the “hopefully ever after.” But I think this is better.

And it’s not really a spoiler, since Second Sight is a book of essays, so you don’t need to read in order if you don’t want to. Cheryl also has a lot of excellent information online for YA and children’s writers. Check out her blog and her website.

Title and cover reveal: The First Time, the 2009 Debs anthology

It’s here! Isn’t it gorgeous?

The release date is scheduled for October of this year. My story is (tentatively) titled The Trouble With Firsts. It’s about first dates, prom, and humiliation. Not necessarily in that order.

I’m so very excited about this anthology and so in love with this cover, I think I want to go steady with it.

Geek Girl makes a list!

Our editor emailed us the other day to let us know that The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading was nominated for the 2012 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list, which is sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Library Association. Geek Girl is nominated in the Get Your Geek On category (appropriately enough).

Be sure to click through and check out all the books on the list. It could keep you reading all summer long. Plus, other 2009 Debs are keeping us company, such as Jennifer Hubbard (The Secret Year) and Jennifer Brown (Hate List).

Why ideas aren’t the same as books

On February 6th, I wrote the following as my Facebook status:

Last night’s dream: I was selected to write a modern retelling of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And that’s just what the world needs right now.

From today’s Publishers Marketplace:

Frank Cottrell Boyce’s CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG FLIES AGAIN, with black and white illustrations by illustrator and animator Joe Berger, featuring the Tooting family, who discover an old race-car engine and fit it to their VW Samba Bus; soon they are hurtling across the world rebuilding the original Chitty – with a sinister character on their tail, based on the original by Ian Fleming, to Hilary Van Dusen at Candlewick Press, in a six-figure deal, at auction, in a three-book deal, for publication in Spring 2012, by Zoe Pagnamenta of the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency on behalf of Simon Trewin at United Agents.

Apparently, it is what the world needs right now, to the tune of six figures, no less. So. Yeah. It kinds of leaves you wondering. Where’s my six-figure deal?

Not in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s trunk, that’s for sure.

Here’s the thing: I do this all the time. I once wondered if anyone bothered to write a retelling of Anna Karenina. Why did I wonder this? I don’t know.

A week later, a deal came through on Publishers Marketplace for … wait for it … a retelling of Anna Karenina.

That novel about a modern US civil war? Yep, had that idea–twice (two different versions). Same for a bunch of others that I’m too depressed to enumerate here.

I’m either really tied into the collective unconscious or I should start writing these things down.

That’s the key. Everybody has ideas; writing 50,000 – 100,000 words in a row so they make sense is what separates the idea from a book. And honestly, I never wanted to write a retelling of Anna Karenina, or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, for that matter, not even to the tune of six-figures.

Still. It kind of leaves you wondering.

When people used to carry rotary phones in their pockets

So, the other day I was flipping through an old manuscript (and by flipping, I mean electronically and by old, I mean, the first one), when I noticed an odd sort of quirk.

Every time (and I do mean every time) I mention a cell phone in the narrative, I made sure to spell it out, as in: cellular phone. Okay, once or twice I used mobile phone.

But. Yeah. I don’t know if I received some sort of feedback (and this would be about ten years ago) that indicated people might be confused if I didn’t spell out cellular phone, but there it is. Every. Single. Time. Apparently my aim was clarity.

The quirk is so very obvious, at least to my eye and after all these years. It’s funny how a manuscript can age in ways you don’t expect. Of course, today, I could write: He pulled the phone from his pocket and started texting his best friend.

Is that a princess phone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me.


And no one is confused or imagining that he carries a rotary phone in his pocket. But back in the day?

Apparently a few of us were very confused about phones.

What I did this weekend

Cover of "Deep Down Popular"
Cover of Deep Down Popular

What I did, the weekend edition:

  1. Took two karate classes
  2. Baked banana bread
  3. Did the laundry
  4. Finished reading a novel (Deep Down Popular by Phoebe Stone)
  5. Finished writing a novel

Yes, the first draft of what I’m calling Speechless (even though I wrote a short story with the same title–actually, the short story inspired the novel) is done.

This is less impressive when you learn that the word count is only 32,000. I did that on purpose. This is an upper middle grade/tween novel and that length gives me plenty of room for revisions. I can comfortably add 10,000 words and not freak the freak out about word count.

And of course, during all this, the kids were messing around with Andrew’s video camera on the back deck. They set it up on a tripod so it was pointed right at me (we have a series of glass doors/windows that face the backyard). Then they would knock on the door and run away (but, thanks to all that glass, I could see them–so yeah, not very subtle). Once, I stepped out on the deck and said something to the camera about trying to write.

Later, they holed up in a bedroom to watch their masterpiece with much giggling.

So, if you’re imaging me in some idyllic writer’s paradise … um, yeah, not so much. It’s me, the cooling banana bread, the dog wanting to go outside, and the kids turning me into their own reality show.

Teaser Tuesday: Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

It’s Teaser Tuesday over at Should Be Reading. The rules:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

I let out a tiny laugh; I couldn’t help it. “How can you be lonely when so many people love you?”

~p 134, Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

Secret project revealed!

Pretty excited about this! Here’s the press release for the 2009 Debutantes e-anthology:

New York Times bestselling author Jessica Verday announces an e-anthology featuring 25 authors from the writers group 2009 Debutantes

The bestselling author of THE HOLLOW Trilogy, Jessica Verday, has gathered 24 other authors for a kind of Young Adult sampler featuring a theme of “Firsts.” The eBook will be published by Verday herself and she will be co-editing with Rhonda Stapleton author of the STUPID CUPID series.

This eBook will give readers a chance to sample the stories of 25 different authors exploring what it’s like to experience something for the first time. From first kiss to first love, there’s no time like the first time.

“This is an innovative way for authors to reach out to readers in a single book that anyone can afford. Readers get the chance to find a new story from some of their favorite authors, and while they’re at it, be introduced to other authors they may not have been able to get to know yet,” says Verday.

The e-anthology will be available on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords. The tentative release date is October 4, 2011.

Contributing authors are: Jessica Verday, Carrie Ryan, Rhonda Stapleton, Cyn Balog, Lauren Bjorkman, Leigh Brescia, Teri Hall, Stacey Jay, C. Lee McKenzie, Janet Gurtler, Jenny Moss, Jackson Pearce, Kristina Springer, Charity Tahmaseb, Jon Skovron, Heidi Kling, Saundra Mitchell, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Lara Zielin, Shani Petroff, Kurtis Scaletta, J.A. Yang, Jennifer Brown, and Sydney Salter.

Cover to be revealed May 2011.

You can read a bit more over at Jessica’s blog.

You know what this means, of course. I am writing under contract. So, I guess I better get busy and do just that.

More updates to come, I’m sure.