Just Don't Do It

One thing that I have learned to avoid at at costs when it comes to writing: I should not compare my work to someone else's. It's great to read other work, of course, but when comparison comes into play, things can get ugly. I know that when it comes to me, I can guarantee that I will walk away unhappy. Feeling bad about myself, my own writing. Sometimes I'll even lose the motivation to keep pecking away at it.

Comparing the work and learning from the work are two different things. When we're learning from it, we'll see a technique or a line or a description and think, Now that's how I should try to do things. When we're comparing, I believe the thoughts are somewhere along these lines: Wow, that is such great description. Man, my description sucks. Why do I even try? There's no way anyone will ever love my work when there's stuff like this out in the world. I'm horrible. I'm a lousy excuse for a writer. Never again, I say. Never again.

And, you know, even if what you're reading does have more description, or a more twisted plot - whatever - everyone has a different writing style. Different doesn't equal bad. It's just... well, different. The writing could still be good, still be enjoyable. I made the mistake of comparing this last weekend, and I dug myself out of that hole by pounding this into my own head. So, okay, my novel isn't poetic or extensive in detail. I'm still working on it, and it still has worth.

So, my bit of wisdom this week. Learn, don't compare.

Explaining

Earlier I was thinking about genres-- and not about reading different genres, but writing them. All genres, like fantasy, dystopic, contemporary, and et cetera share similar, crucial components. They all should have a gripping plot, an interesting voice, and believable characters. The setting is usually the main thing I see setting genres apart. (That and the fact that some fantasies and scifis have bizarre names.)

By setting I mean more than just the backdrop-- I also include the boundaries of the fictional world (e.i. magic or space travel and whatnot). Therefore, the biggest different in writing one genre to another is the amount of explaining required.

In my experience, writing a contemporary requires the least explaining. I don't mean to say contemporaries have little explanation-- there could be explanation as to how belays or trapdoors work, or the setting-type explanation about how the nooks and crannies of a ski lodge hide secrets or the expanse of an Oregon beach is actually the perfect meeting place for a rookie con artist (just off the top of my head). However, for a contemporary, I like to classify those sorts of explanation as 'description," because they fall within the boundaries of a world readers already understand.

Writing a scifi or fantasy or dystopia requires more explanation-- new world boundaries, created phenomena, "impossible" locations. When writing any of these it's easy to go in circles with explanation. I always make sure I understand the basics of my imagined setting before I try to explain its way onto the paper.

Just a few thoughts on explanation vs. genres. What differentiates between genres for you?

Kieryn
www.kierynnicolas.com

My One Resolution

I'm one of those people that usually spends New Year's Eve coming up with a long list of resolutions. And by long, I mean LONG. The list of writing resolutions itself is generally quite long - finish this book, write that, rewrite this, get that into querying shape, etcetc. And you know what? None of it happens. Ever.

So this year, as I was thinking about the brand new year starting, I began thinking about resolutions and I realized something. Something really, really important.

I've gotten caught up in the terrible trap of writing to publish. I've stopped writing for myself. I've started writing and setting goals with the sole point of publishing. I decided I was too young and inexperienced to write this heart-wrenching YA I love so much so what do I do? I switch to MG. Now, don't get me wrong, writing JESSICA was definitely a good experience. I learned a lot about my writing when I attempted to write that in a week. But, I didn't write it because I couldn't get it out of my head - I wrote it because I decided it would be easier to try to publish that as a teen than a YA because being a preteen IS something I've experienced.

I've forgotten to what it's like to write because I WANT to, because I just can't get that character's voice out of my mind and I need to know what happens.

I was surprised at the revelation because I've always considered myself to know better, to know that writing to publish is not a good thing to do, that the best stories come out of loving the story, not the desire to publish.

I'm disappointed in myself.

Because, really, I'm in no place to publish. I have no life experience at all. I don't have a ton of writing experience - as much as I like to think otherwise, my writing kind of sucks right now. I know that I'm improving a LOT but I'm still not at the point where anything is publishable.

I know people will argue and say that I don't need life experience to write a good novel but Maureen Johnson said it and I agree. I've spent my entire life in a one-redlight (literally) town. I've been to ONE city in my entire life. I cyber-school, so I don't even have the day-to-day high school drama. I don't live on a farm or anything country-ish like that. I just am. And, really, it's rather boring.

So, going back to my resolutions, I decided that instead of setting writing goals, goals that focus around getting closer to publication, and instead of focusing on losing weight or any of those other 392912 resolutions I usually make, I was going to make one resolution and one resolution only - to live.

It's about time I start experiencing life, something outside of my comfort zone, and I think, with that, my writing is going to improve and someday, I'll be able to look back on my teenage years and not regret writing instead of living.

Harmony

Saturday Broke Her Brain

Or: Why the holidays were hard on me and why I shouldn't try to write two projects at once.

The holidays are stressful. We all know this. My last post before we took our holiday break was totally evidence of this. (Sorry about that, by the way. I tried, I really did. But it just wasn't happening.)

In less than a week, I made like 5 dozen cookies, wrapped way too many presents, ran a Storytime with nine kids between the age of fifteen months and nine years old, whom I then proceeded to wind up on sugar with candy canes and those cookies I mentioned earlier, packed for 2 days out of town, shopped on the 23rd (scary!), and probably a dozen things that I have already repressed. And I wasn't even that busy compared to some people!

But like an idiot, I let myself get stressed out about it. I don't know if you know this about your friendly neighborhood Saturday, but when I get really stressed, I barely sleep and when I do, I have stress nightmares (those are fun). So because of that, I was either too tired/stressed to write or I didn't have time.

Throw in trying to figure out how to balance two projects at completely different stages and you know what happens? I play too many facebook games (I love me some Frontierville), reread all my favourite Hyperbole and a Half posts (and there are a lot of favourite posts), empty my Google Reader and clean the spare room. And kitchen. And my room. (I also clean when I'm stressed or having writing issues.)

So here's what I've decided/figured out:

1. Not writing during the holidays when I'm stressed out of my mind is okay. It's going to happen and there's nothing I can do about it so I might as well accept it and not let it stress me out more, because that'll just backfire on my and make me want to write even less.

2. I'm not great at working at two projects at once. Especially not two projects at very different stages. So I'm letting Spyder wait while I finish writing this draft of Berserk. When I finish writing Berserk and I'm letting it rest before I start revising it, I'll revise Spyder more.

I don't really make New Year's resolutions, but that's my writing plan/goal. What are yours?

Peace and cookies,
Laina

It's Official

I'm so excited to tell you guys, and I'll admit, I've daydreamed about writing this post, being able to say the words. Well, here goes. Yesterday I signed with Beth Miller at Writers House.

Kelsey pauses for a moment to breathe evenly and not embarrass herself.

I think it will take a while for this to sink in, but I'm very, very excited to work with Beth. She's passionate about my work and I have confidence in her skills and abilities. As to confidence in my skills and abilities, well, I'm working on that.

So, the story. The first time I heard from Beth, I'd actually queried the agent she's an assistant to, Robin Rue. (For a project that I really had no business querying for, but that's another post for another day.) Anyway, Beth found my query in the slush pile and rescued me. She was interested in seeing some pages. I sent them to her, trying to retain my overzealous joy, and she then responded with a request to see the manuscript. Beth got back to me rather quickly with a pass. She explained to me her reasons for doing this and expressed interest in seeing more work when I had something.

Time went by. I edited the manuscript over and over again and worked on my writing overall. I then contacted Beth again, who said she'd be happy to take another look. I waited, and, again, she quickly responded with a pass. The reason was simple this time: she just didn't love the book. Which, oddly enough, really excited me. Here was an agent who wanted to feel as passionate about the work as the author.

So, finally, I left that manuscript behind. Or just stuck in in a drawer somewhere. The symbolism wasn't significant. I began work on a new novel. It took me about one, two months to finish the first draft. I then edited the crap out of it and had some of my betas help me out. It didn't take me long. I sent Beth a third query and, again, she was willing to take a look.

Beth got back to me within days stating that she loved the manuscript... but she was wondering if I'd be willing to make some changes. I tried to keep my cool as I told her, yes, I would be willing. (I think I might have failed at the cool aspect of it.) I edited again and again and sent it back within two weeks.

Days later, I got The Call. (Another blog post I'll have to do.)

Beth sent me a contract, which I read, signed, and sent back, making it all official. I keep pinching myself, thinking maybe it's a dream. But, nope, the pain reaffirms this is real and it's happening.

Now, since I'm very new at this, and there's only so much research I can do, I only have a vague idea of what comes next. I'm doing more edits on this novel, and I imagine Beth will begin submitting once we've deemed the novel shiny and flawless. From what other authors have said, being on submission sucks. And since I'm not a patient person, I realize this will be a difficult time for me. There's no guarantee someone will love the manuscript as much as Beth and I, and there's especially no guarantee any of it will be easy.

I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Journals

I'm always the first to admit it: I'm horrible at journaling. Every one of the (many) times I've attempted to keep a record of my life via journal entries, it's always been the same routine: I write a starter entry explaining that I never finish journals but this one will be different and yadayada, and these are all the important things about me and my pen and what color my wall is and yadayada... entries, spanning about a week total, fill the next few pages, growing shorter and shorter. A few words dated a month later are somewhere later, saying "Oops I haven't been keeping up...I guess I'll get back to that...in a little while..." And that's that.

But. For the holidays my friend gave me a really pretty journal. She herself is a journaler, and over break I convinced myself to give it a try. But after the first entry I could feel it happening again; everything seemed forced, like I was saying redundant, kind of useless words--why was I explaining that I never keep journals because I suck at it? I already knew that!

I ripped that page out and started again. I wrote about whatever crossed my mind at the time. And I still didn't feel completely satisfied. So I turned the page again, and at the top wrote "Dear..."

I wrote a letter. The letter flew out of my pen faster than the previous entries, and left me with both a satisfied feeling and the urge to write another one. Why had I been writing journal entries to myself? I have nothing to say to myself. But to other people--definitely. And it's definitely interesting, writing to your friends and family, especially when they're not going to read what you write in the conceivable future. My journal now has pages and pages of letters, and I've been keeping at it for over a week.

So there's a piece of advice--if you're like me and have trouble journaling, try writing to someone else.

Kieryn
www.kierynnicolas.com