Welcome 2013!

It's 2013 and I can hardly believe it. This year is already off to an amazing start. First of all, I started a new position that I'm in *love* with. I'm a publicist for Spencer Hill's new line: Spencer Hill Contemporary. Have you checked out the website yet? You should. Seriously. Go now. Or you know, after you are finished reading this scintillating post. (LINK HERE)

When I was approached about the job, I couldn't say yes fast enough. I just knew I'd love it and I really, really do. I'm enjoying getting to know the authors and brainstorming with them on what they'd like to do to spread the word about their books. I can't wait until you are able to read them all. They're going to be amazing!

This year also has some exciting things happening personally. I don't want to share that news just yet, but sometime soon I hope. :-)

Last year was a very busy year with editing and revising and writing and querying and signing with an agent. Oh and then more editing and revising and writing. It was productive and lots of fun. This year promises to be more of the same with probably a little more of all of it.

Oh! And in in month's time I will be a writing retreat with my favorite writing peeps in the entire world. There are NO WORDS for the excitement I'm feeling. 3.5 days of all out writing. I'm not one to rush time, but honestly, just this once, I'd like to. I can't wait!

So how about you? What are you looking forward to in the new year?

My Word(s) for 2013

As the new year begins many people have been defining their goals and resolutions for 2013 in one word. I really love this idea of choosing single words because it requires you to really distill your dreams and hopes down to their simplest form, to think about what they really are. Never one to be succinct, I can only narrow it down to two words (though, in my defense -- they are related).

My words for 2013 are: BALANCE and EFFICIENCY. 

I have always had too much to do at any given time, but I've also always been really good at organizing my time and using it wisely. The past few months have been difficult for me, partly because I seem to be sick for what feels like months at a time and partly because I just haven't been good about making the best use of my time (which has mainly been due to feeling drained after being sick so much). As anyone who has ever been a student can tell you, the problem with falling behind is that it is a slippery slope -- one that in many cases, can rarely be hiked UP. 

So as I begin 2013 (with the flu unfortunately, but you can't plan everything...) my goal for this year is to regain my footing and keep moving forward efficiently. This requires me to balance a number of things: my day job with my publishing job. Running my new contemporary imprint, Spencer Hill Contemporary, with my continued projects at Spencer Hill Press. Discovering new writers with being the best, most supportive editor I can for my current clients. Supporting my clients who have book coming out this year (YAY!) with my clients who are just now beginning edits (also, YAY!) Reading for work and beta reading for my incredibly talented writer friends. And most importantly: Working with spending time with my unbelievably supportive husband and our wonderful kiddos. 

For me, the trick to both balance AND efficiency can be found in planning and making realistic goals. In these first few weeks I am laying out my schedule very clearly -- making sure that I have time allocated for each of my commitments and then holding myself to the deadlines I've set. And while I'm setting up my schedule to maximize efficiency, I'm also leaving room for the unexpected -- trying my best to balance what I know I need to do with what the surprises the year has not yet thrown my way. I'm also beginning the year with a new staff at SHC, each of them helps to make this dream job of mine a more realistic venture and I am so grateful to have them and so excited to really get started working with them! (I'm looking at YOU everyone listed on this page: http://spencerhillcontemporary.com/Our_People.html)

So here's to 2013 and anyone striving for balance and efficiency! It's going to be an amazing year and I cannot wait to see what it holds -- both in the things I know are coming and the wonderful surprises I have yet to discover.

~Patricia

What is your word(s) for 2013? What one thing from last year do you hope to do better in the coming year? What are some of the ways you hold yourself to a schedule or self-imposed deadlines?

 

My Dream Year

There are very few things in life I want badly. 

One of them, top of the list, is definitely to write. 

Luckily, I’ve been doing that regularly since a trip to South Africa. It’s a journey but it’s a good one so far. I want to be published, to learn the craft, to teach it. I want to share the stories in my head with people. 

It’s a big dream but for the first time in my life I feel like I’m moving toward something. 

- written June 17, 2010 

This post is supposed to be about 2012, about things that we're looking forward to in 2013, and all I can think is "look at where I came from," and "OMG, I get to do this now."

Life sure works in mysterious ways. In 2010, I would never have imagined that my fun hobby would turn into a passion. That passion would turn in discovery. That discovery would turn into skill. That skill would turn into work. That work would turn into a book deal. But it did.

In 2010, I never imagined it would end up this way (book deal, editor, nanny, author) but here I am and I think that's what 2012 did for me. There were a lot of struggles, but there were even more surprises. Things that happened that I didn't even know I wanted, but now that I have them, it's hard to imagine life without them.

2013 is going to be different. 

I dreamt once, when I was living in Nashville and trying to figure out what being a writer meant, that 2013 would be my year. I never had a clear vision on that specifically, the dream didn't give me details, but I remember telling my mom that some amazing things were waiting and that 2013 was the year my life would change. My mom--who's not really one to look forward like that, but is always one to encourage me to look forward--said to me, "Then, I guess you better get ready because everything is going to be building you up for that moment."

And I definitely feel like it has. I've spent so many of my years, especially in college and after, feeling like Alice in Wonderland--lost in the dark and not really sure where I'm headed. Even after I found writing, I had no idea how it would turn out. But standing here on the cusp of the year I've (literally) dreamed about, I can say that I feel ready--and that I'm beyond excited to see what happens.

For the first time at the start of a new year, I am in a good place. I live in a city that I really love. Have a good job. Have fun and exciting things on the horizon. Have wonderful people and authors and projects coming out. Have a book that I wrote that all of you will get to read. (And sure, it's not until 2014, but it's still a very affirming thing.)

I have high expectations for 2013. 

I know that could be a dangerous thing, but I firmly believe that it will live up to those expectations. I want to live this year. I want to hope and keep dreaming and challenge myself and be challenged and try things that seem like stupid risks or feel out character that stick with me forever. That's my goal for 2013. I want to experience the year instead of dreaming about the next one. (I promise you being content is really hard for me.) I want to live every moment and never take it for granted.

In 2010, I was just starting this journey as a writer. In 2013, I'm starting a new journey as an author. I'm excited to see what lies ahead.

Hopefully, 2012 was my last year as Alice, and 2013 will be exactly what I dream it to be. I don't have a list of goals, but I'm looking forward to the new things--and all the people I get to share them with.

The Bittersweet End

I hate endings.

I still have the last half-season of Battlestar Galactica hanging around on my DVR because I can’t bear to watch it end. (NO DON’T TELL ME WHO THE FINAL CYLON IS.) The more I’m enjoying a book, the slower and slower I read it toward the end, savoring every word, dreading the point when I reach that last page. 

I hate writing endings, too. I feel like we lifelong aspiring writers are bound to be better at starting a book than finishing it. When we first take a stab at writing a novel, we inevitably end up with 800 first pages and then, only much later, are we fortunate enough to carry a story to its completion. So we’re already better practiced at launching our plot than guiding it safely back down to earth.

Fortunately, there are a couple things we have going for us as we reach THE END.

Momentum. When I’m really into the draft I’m writing, right around the time I hit that third act marker, the words are flying. Every plot thread is untangling itself in my head and I have a good enough of an idea of what needs to happen to conclude all the various components that it becomes a frantic race to the end before it all unravels in my brain again. Of course, the downside is that you inevitably forget something, which makes for very annoying revisions.

Inevitability. In a lot of ways, endings write themselves—there’s only one way the story can end, and chances are good you had some idea what that was when you started writing it, though you can and should do your best to obfuscate it from the reader. When the book ends, they should have both never seen it coming and also know that it could never have ended any way else. (Not asking for much, those readers, huh?)

Closure. You love all the wonderful plot threads you put into your story, right? You want to give each one of them their due. So if you find that you just can’t sort out a good way to close something out that builds off of the overarching plot, then maybe it doesn’t really belong there in the first place. Make a note to yourself, drop it, and trim it out in edits.

I hope these tips will help you get through your own endings! I can’t make them any less bittersweet, but hopefully you can use these guidelines to end them on just the right bittersweet note.

Make The Last One Count--A Little Something I Learned From Friday Night Lights

If you've followed me at all on Twitter over the last week, you know that I've been watching Friday Night Lights. I've seen a few episodes here and there over the years, but I have never sat down and watched the whole series (despite my mother's insistence during high school that I would love it.) She was right, of course. I do love it.

***I feel I should mention there are no spoilers below, but I do use pictures...***

What makes this series amazing? For me, it's the characters. Jason Katims, producer of FNL and currently Parenthood, makes all of his characters real and vibrant and multi-dimensional. I could seriously do a breakdown of FNL characters, but this post isn't about characters: it's about endings. And as writers, our endings have to count. 

I completed all five seasons of FNL in one week, and the finale episode - Always - got me thinking about lasts. Last moments, last images, last lines, the last time you will see the characters that you love in their element. It has to count. By the end of the show (or book) despite all the comings and goings of the characters, you love them. You're invested. And you want the payoff to be something worthy of your time and passion. FNL is one show that delivers.

The final episode of Friday Night Lights was one of the best hours of television I have ever seen. (And trust me, I've watched more hours of TV than some people have been alive.) TV is such a great tool to learn about story-telling--from characters to plot to pilots to endings. 

What makes the end of this series so good? Well, I have a few ideas and I think they apply to us as writers. And I swear, it only has a little bit to do with my love of 33 & 7. (Props if you know who they are & if you don't, then google!)

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It's circular. 

For this show, the way things ended reflect a similarity to the way they began. It all felt true to them, from the slogan of the show to the characters' reflections, to the final sequence. It made every moment in the show feel like it mattered, like nothing was forgotten or lost or unexplained. Even as the characters grew from the beginning to the end, it still reflected a piece of who they were in the beginning--if only to show a difference in that piece at the end. A good ending will do this. It will be circular, a motion of growth and giving and finality. Everything connects, even in a small way. Plus, great endings answers all the big questions. 

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It's believable.

I believed everything. That's really pretty self-explanatory. The places the characters ended up, the way they said goodbye or hello, where they traveled throughout the show to get there, the peace in their eyes or lives or hearts, the open-endedness of it all--I believed it. A good ending will be believable. You'll write it or read it and know there was no other way that could've happened, especially after all the crap the MCs had to go through to get there. 

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It's memorable.

A good ending sticks with you. It presses something into your soul and your heart and even months later or years later you can still feel it and see it and love it. When you tell people about it, you'll tell them about that ending.

• The first season finale of The Vampire Diaries
• The end of Friends
• David Tennant's last episode of Doctor Who (or heck, all the companions in DW)
• The last scene in Titanic 
• Remember Me
• Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry. 

Those are some of my memorable endings. They are things that will always be talked about, always be part of me, always be something that connects me to that part of that story. Whether it's an image or an emotion or a goodbye, endings should be memorable.

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It's final.

Even if it's not the end of a character, it's the end of our journey with the character. Like in Always, the characters in FNL are left in places that felt full circle, believable, memorable and final--even though in many ways their stories are just starting. We don't get to see what happens next, but we do get to think about it and hope that based on where the show ended, they are all in the path that we've wanted for them. It's not the end of their story, but it's the finale. And it's final. And I think, even in writing, we want that final place to be a place where the reader is left feeling that it's the end, but it's also the beginning.

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It's forever.

Even if you don't watch Friday Night Lights, you probably have a show or a movie or a book that you love the ending of. Something that when someone talks about said show or movie or book, you connect with it because of X and Y. It's forever a part of you, a part of someone else, a part of history. Endings are forever, and as a writer, your story will be part of someone's forever. Be true to yourself, to your characters, to your story, and give it a great ending. Greatness remains forever.

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So whatever you are working on, when you get to the end: Make it believable. Make it memorable. Make it great. Make it last.  

Always.

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Side note: Here are four really great posts that talk about the ending of Friday Night Lights with more depth. If you've seen the show, you should check them out because they really break down what made that ending (and show) so believable and unforgettable.  One || Two || Three || Four