Category: Writing

 I hope not. I’m in the market for your best, your gooiest love songs. Not sad ones, not somebody-done-somebody-wrong ones, not unrequited-love ones. I’m looking for songs such as Accidentally in Love by the Counting Crows and not Everybody Hurts by R.E.M.

This is just one of many lists I’m making during “downtime” before I tackle the third draft. Lists are a big part of MacKenna’s story. Believe it or not, I have a list of all the lists I need to fill in. (Because, no, they are not all filled in. There are some things you don’t do during the draft stage. Pondering every last song that could go on a list is one of them.)

The list I’m pondering now is Landon’s prom mix. I need a little help. I have and know a ton of songs. When I sit down to make a list? Mind, screen–both are blank.

So, I need your help. Landon needs your help. Now, he’s not a music genre snob. If a song fits the mood of his playlist, he’ll add it. However, he does have standards. There are certain principles one does not compromise.

So, gooey, happy, love songs. Keep in mind, this is also playlist MacKenna calls “songs to barf by.” She’s a romantic, that girl.

Ready? Bring on the love in the comments if you have a suggestion.

 Jen was kind enough to think up some interview questions for me … and here I’ve been, sitting on them for ages. And sitting on interview questions isn’t all that comfortable or ergonomic. I recommend a chair. Okay, without further ado, my interview with … me.

1.     What has been the single most exciting thing since getting your agent?

Seriously? Every time I see her pop up in email, my heart kick starts. So the excitement = nonstop. In all honesty, while I know you got to write for yourself, do it because you love it, blah, blah, blah, I’d be lying if I said some industry validation didn’t matter. Even if none of this works out, it’s nice to believe I’m on the right track with this writing thing.

2.     What is a typical weekend like in terms of balancing the kids and the writing around your house?

Well, the last couple weekends haven’t been all that typical. Between line edits and pushing to get all of MacKenna into first person, and other crazy stuff, I’ve spent way more time on the computer than normal. Usually, I squeeze writing in when I can–early in the morning, when there’s a lull in the chaos, and so on.

3.     When are your best times of day to write and why?

Well, my worst time is the evening, when I’m tired, but I’ve written then. I’m a morning person, but I probably write more in the afternoon. I muse, and stew, and turn things over in my mind a lot. I guess I need to be awake for a couple of hours before things start working in my brain.

4.     What has been the most fun you’ve ever had as a writer?

I have a couple that qualify, and I can’t pick just one, so you get both.

I love the times when it feels like everything is working. Call it what you like, in the zone, inspired, whatever. And sure, if you’re even a tiny bit self aware, you know not everything is truly working. But the writing feels great; you don’t want to stop. If you exercise/run a lot, it’s similar to that endorphin high.

The other is working with Darcy. I remember the precise moment I knew we had something, when I read the master debater line and nearly fell out of my chair. I really love how Geek Girl’s Guide isn’t my story, and it isn’t hers, but Bethany’s. Something wonderful and magical happened. I even enjoyed the revisions and line edits. (Although, I’m not sure how Darcy felt about them. D? Have you recovered from me yet?)

Not that you’re interested. Feel free to skip this post.

Today, I finished the second draft, also known as the first person conversion of MacKenna’s story (The Fine Art of Holding Your Breath). Somewhere along the way, I added ~22,000 words and I’m now looking at 81,000 for the total word count. I’m really not sure how I did that.

Then, I revamped the synopsis to The Geek Girl’s Guide. I. Was. Dreading. This. Turns out, for no reason. I wrote a new lead into the synopsis, deleted the old, added a few lines here, delete a few there, and voilà: new synopsis.

So, I’m off the edit a partial. At some point, I’ll look at another synopsis (this will be, obviously, some point soon, I’m keeping it vague so I can fool myself into thinking it’s not that soon).

Then, I toss everything in the mail and forget about it. Which, after so much work, is a strange way for it all to end.

The line edits … they are here.

Note to to Darcy: Don’t worry, she did NOT write on every page.  

Last page = intact.

Master debater line (hee,  hee) = intact.

The rest, I think, is negotiable.

Note to everyone else: At some point, I’m sure I’ll get a hold of myself and stop recording every tiny step in this process. I wouldn’t count on that being any time soon.

So, our agent (!!!) suggested Darcy and I should brainstorm a snappy name to write under, since most YA novels are published with a single author name on them. This, actually, was something we’d anticipated, so no surprises here.We didn’t anticipate that everyone would want to help.

Andrew came up with Morgan Meyers. He came up with other names, too, which I suspect are characters from the Transformers movie.

Bob thought up several he put in an email. Unfortunately, the email got caught in one of the many spam filters somewhere in the internets. Sadly, I never saw said email. Maybe this is just as well.

Kyra suggested: “Charity and Darcy likes each other.” This, while true, is difficult to file alphabetically.

We did think up a name, but we’ll keep it under wraps for now. (I know. The suspense.) We need to run it by our agent (!!!), plus, these things can and do change, so we don’t want to grow too attached, or be premature about it.

We do like it. I’m hoping it sticks.