This book is about me, no not really, but maybe a little

So in keeping with my epiphany theme (since I seem to have them quite often, lately), I thought I'd share the latest thoughts from yours truly.

The other day while I was getting my hair cut, my lovely hair lady and I were yapping about life (as per our normal routine). Being as I'm a mother of three girls (about to start 5th, 6th and 7th grade - eek!), we tend to discuss our children and life as mothers quite a bit, whether it's stressing what the chitlins are doing, discussing how well they're (kind of) getting along, or sharing the interactions we have with our husbands regarding decision making for the kids.

I was telling my story for the billionth time (not billionth time to her, but to people in general), just a little part of the overall picture that lead Lovemuffin and I to be where we are now. Didn't think anything of it at the time really either, I was just making conversation.

Then a while later when I came home, I was on blogger (of course), commenting to a bloggy friend who's around the age I was when Lovemuffin and I started going out, and for some reason, this idea popped into my head...

What if I used *my* life as a sort of loose example for another YA story?

As I'm typing this, I think I know where the epiphany came from - I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing and am at the part where he's said some of the books that he wrote really had a lot to do with his life at the time.

Now, I'd like to point out this may never even come to fruition because

1) I'm in the process of working on two other projects at the moment anyway

and

2) The idea that anyone would even follow a story like that might be completely ridiculous.

But still. It got me thinking. My high school years weren't that crazy or anything, but there were definitely ups and downs that could be embellished enough for entertainment.

The only problem is, since Lovemuffin and I *are* raising three girls, and we're way over there on the *strict* side of the parenting spectrum, would this kind of story (made fictional, of course) be something I would want my kids to read, if it were YA? Or any other kids, for that matter?

And if not, is there a place out there in the literary world for an adult book starting out with a seventeen year old girl as the MC?

I don't know. And I'm not going to think that far ahead at the moment anyway. I think I'll just entertain the whole idea for a while and see if anything comes out of it. Maybe nothing ever will. But here's the cold hard truth to the craft of writing - often times, it's easiest to write what you know.

Friday Focus: The inescapable form of a plot

Today's Friday Focus is all about the plot (which is uh, kind of the most important part of a story). This formula may seem simple and oh-so-obvious, but sometimes it's harder than it really looks! Take it away, Mr. Gardner!

In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all but inescapable - plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition (perhaps including his own doubts), and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw.

- John Gardner

Summer contests and other informative stuff

I've come across a few things worth sharing, and decided to post them all in one blog. Feel free to pass the info along.

Here they are, in no particular order...

* Pure Imagination's Summer Celebration Giveaway

* Roni & Julie's contest - According to their blogs, here are the prizes up for grabs:

Hannah Moskowitz's Break

Lisa Desrocher's Personal Demons (ARC)

A query or first five pages critique from Fine Print Lit's intern, Gemma Cooper

A query or first five pages critique from Janet Reid's assistant, Meredith Barnes

A query or first five pages critique from agent Suzie Townsend

A query or first five pages critique from editor Brendan Deneen

* Win a copy of Mandy Hubbard's new book, You Wish (also author of Prada & Prejudice, and other books) at C.A. Marshall's blog. To read more about Mandy Hubbard, check out her interview at the Lisa and Laura Write blog here.

* Julie P., author of Booking Mama blog, is giving away a copy of Fragile by Lisa Unger, here.

* Noah Lukeman of the Ask a Literary Agent blog has just combined all of his wonderful advice and knowledge into a free ebook for us lovely writers, here.

There are tons more contests going on around the blogosphere as we speak, but I've run out of time. If anyone would like to share a contest they are currently holding, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Happy Thursday!

Where would Spongebob be without Patrick?

Secondary characters add a touch to your story, be it comedy, raw emotion, conflict, or whatever else.  Take TV shows, for example.  Sometimes the characters we enjoy most aren't even the main one, yet their personality shines through almost more than the main character's does.  

Being as my three girls watch a lot of Nick, I've clocked in many hours of listening time on the old tube.  I say listening instead of watching because, for the most part, the shows they watch are background noise while I'm working, cleaning, ect.  

But there's one particular character on the show iCarly that will pull me in front of the TV almost every time.  He's not one of the main characters, who are two girls, but actually the Carly character's older brother,  Spencer.  (If you aren't a parent like me who is "lucky" enough have this show practically playing 24-7 in your home or on your computer, feel free to view the link in order to get an idea of the Spencer character's personality, who is played by Jerry Trainor.) 

Jerry Trainor makes the show, in my opinion.  Those two girls' lives would be boring without him.

Some books have characters you don't pay much attention to - your sole interest is invested in what happens to the MC, and that's about it.  Maybe you skim through that part of the book, in order to get back to whatever got you sucked in to begin with, or maybe you even find them a distraction.  

Others, however, are unforgettable.  They may make you laugh, shake your head and wonder why they do the things they do, or even think they're just plain weird.  (A lot of times the MC wouldn't be who they are without them.)  And they stay with you, long after you've stopped reading, sometimes longer than the actual story replays from memory.

Not too long ago I made myself laugh out lout at something an MC's father had said.  He wasn't in the book a whole lot, but it was enough to where even quite a while after reading it, the line came back to me again.  

I would love to be able to write like that.  I try to write like that.  

Do any of you have a favorite secondary character in a book?  And if so, who are they in relation to the MC, and why did you like them?

Friday Focus: Scrutinizing a scene with full concentration

This baby cat is so... kitten-ish.   And black.  And... brown.

How many times have you, as a writer, stopped mid-sentence and visualized the scene in order to explain it just right?  

How many times have you observed an expression on someone's face at the supermarket, or noticed the bad guy's body language on a movie, then written it down the second you had a paper and pen so you wouldn't forget?

Lately I've been doing a lot staring at the screen when I am stumped, unable to make a description sound the way I'd like.   Sometimes I come up with the *perfect* wording eventually, but most of the time I end up changing the words in question to red font, and move on for the time being.  

 

This Friday's quote comes from John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist.  

"The bad writer may not intend to manipulate; he simply does not know what his characters would do because he has not been catching the subtle emotional signals that, for the more careful writer, show where the action must go next.  Both because the cogency of his story depends on it and because he has learned to take pride in getting his scenes exactly right, the good writer scrutinizes the imagined or remembered scene with full concentration.  Though his plot seem to be rolling along beautifully and his characters seem to be behaving with authentic and surprising independence, as characters in good fiction always do, the writer is willing to stop writing for a minute or two, or even stop for a long while, to figure out precisely what some object or gesture looks like and hunt down exactly the right words to describe it."

Great quote, right?  Here's what I got out of it:  We writers should never take the easy way out.  (I'm a fan of the easy way out, by the way.)  What we should do is take whatever means necessary, no matter how frustrating or time consuming it may be, to ensure our final product is not only true to the story, but that the writing is also our absolute best.  

Does that sound about right?  Yes?   Okay great.  Now if only my absolute best would stop trying my patience...

The funniest thing happened on the way to my WiP...

So, first of all, as of the day I'm writing this, which is Monday evening, I'm about to reach the 45,000 word count on Flora, my YA WiP. Hopefully I'll even be past that by the time this posts. Honestly though, I will say, I'm shocked. Three quarters of the way done! That's a humacious *woot woot*, in my book. =) (Get it? Book? Hee hee)  

Anyway. I've been working on Flora for a while now, obviously, and as of last week, I still hadn't been able to decide on the MC's mother's name. She's a nervous woman who's been through a lot, is always worrying about the family, wringing her hands, crying about little things. 

Then finally, a few nights ago when I was trying to fall asleep, her name came to me. I realize I am saying this often, that things keep coming to me when I'm trying to sleep, but it's true! (And even though this happened when I was working on ILYU, it's happened much more with Flora, which I have found excitingly odd, as a lot of the book has to do with her dreams. Coincidence, my dear readers? I think not! Okay, maybe.) So, usually I'm at least thinking about things already, but this was different. It was a sudden, out of the blue sort of thing. I was going over the plot, trying to connect things in my head the way I always do to make my mind stop working, not even thinking about the mom, and then BOOM! The name hit me.  

I wrote her name smack dab in the middle of my journal in big letters (the journal I keep under my pillow for just that kind of occasion), and within a few minutes, I was fast asleep.

Fast forward two days. I'm sitting by the pool Saturday afternoon, working on info, adding little tidbits to the family tree as the girls were swimming. There are so many hidden meanings in Flora, things most people probably won't even notice, but they mean a lot to me. So I was going over names again, scrolling down page after page on a website, when the funniest thing happened.

I'd like to point out here that I wasn't paying attention to the names. The names were in the column on the far left on my screen, and I was looking at the meanings on the far right. When I came across this one meaning, it jumped off my cell phone screen, practically slapped me in the face.  

"That's it!" I thought, "It may even be better than the one I thought of! I wonder what the name is!"

And guess what? It was the exact same name I'd thought of two days earlier.  

Isn't that the craziest thing?

Writerly terms: A reader's handbook

We writers have our own lingo, but to those who aren't in the writerly loop, it may sound somewhat foreign.  When I first began my whole writing journey a little over a year ago and started following writers' blogs, it didn't take much for me to get confused.  MC, WiP, and so on... what in the world did these strange abbreviations mean?

In order to keep my non-writing followers from getting confused lately, I've been translating the shortened terms in most of my blogs.  Then, a few nights ago, when I was trying to fall asleep, I had an idea.  Why not post a blog explaining what all of those darn things mean?  

So here we go, a quick breakdown on writerly lingo.  For a more detailed explanation, click on the definitions with attached links.

MC - The main character.  Think Harry Potter, Isabella Swan (The Twilight Series), Josephine March (Little Women), Jody Baxter (The Yearling) and Romeo (Romeo and Juliet).  In my YA WiP, it's Dahlia Kennedy =)

Protagonist -  The lead character, like the MC, a hero or heroine, usually.  

Antagonist -   The protagonist's adversary

WiP -  work in progress

MS - The manuscript, also known as the WiP once it has been completed and is ready to be shown to agents and publishers!

ARC - advanced readers copy

YA - young adult category

MG - middle grade

So that about covers the main ones that used to confuse me.  If anyone can think of more words, feel free to mention them to the comments, and I'll put add them to my list:)