Update

Hey all, 

In case you haven't noticed we're a little....er....absent. 

This is not without reason! 

Cindy is revising her MS for her agent. Christina is teaching summer school. Patricia and I are re-vamping a ton of stuff for Spencer Hill, as well as neck deep in edits for some of our upcoming books. 

Summer got away with us. 

We apologize. 

We promise that we'll be back in August--which is insanely close now. Insanely close.

Hope everyone is doing well! Leave us a comment and tell us about your summer. 

Christina the Absent

I've been pretty absent lately. I'm sorry about that. I feel kinda like a slacker and that sucks. So, what have I been doing? (1.) I went to visit and help out my twin sis because she just had another baby, and then (2.)summer school started and I'm teaching that, and (3.) I've been patiently (coughgoingcrazycough) waiting to hear from agents that have my ms, and (4.) I've started a new WiP.

1.-It was awesome to see my sister and her kids. They are so cute. It's also strange to have an identical twin with kids b/c her little toddler reacted differently to me than to his grandma (who came down w/ me also). He trusted me more b/c I looked like her. Weird and awesome. :)

2. Summer school is less hours of work, but still soooo tiring. But I love my students.

3. I might be developing an eye twitch while waiting to hear back from agents (and that might only slightly be a joke). I'm so excited and so nervous cuz these agents are awesome and obviously getting agented is something I'm hoping for. Plus the ms they have I love so so SO much and want to share with the world someday. But yeah, *eye twitch*

4. I started a new WiP, and I love it and it's terrifying. It's a contemporary that's got snark, a hot boy, a broken girl, a cute little brother with autism, Japanese candies, and insects. (And of course, so much more too.)

To wrap up, I miss my sister and her kids, summer school is tiring, and to keep my eye from twitching out of its socket while waiting to hear from agents, I've started a new WiP that I'm in love with.

What about you guys? How are all of your summers going? What do you do when querying and waiting for agent responses? (Because really, that is like 97.4% of my life right now)

Finishing, Waiting, Moving On

Last week, if you were around, I wrote this post about making choices. In it, I said I had no job (still don't) and was going to use all of last week to write. My goal was to finish the book--and it was a realistic yet challenging goal. Accomplishing it would take discipline.

After cranking out a day of 3k, a day of 4k, a day of 2k, a day of 10k and spending Friday writing the last 5k---I finished my first draft!!!!  (I also completed the manuscript I was editing on that 2k day in one sitting. Brain death.) BUT I DID IT!!!!!!

HAPPY DANCING ALL AROUND!!! 

I've written books before, but Hotboyalicious (not real title) was so hard for me. It was mostly a mental thing. This was scary because it was a lighter, actiony, sassier story and I'm more dark and twisty. I started and restarted twice. I lost a lot of great scenes. My character's motivation changed (or was fixed rather) and the pacing had to be adjusted in each re-start. It was a frustrating book and for many, many months I just HATED it because it was so annoying. But I kept writing because I wanted to tell the story.

When I wrote that last line, I called Cindy and I cried a little. I've never cried before upon finishing (even after two years and seven drafts of my last book.) But it was SO MUCH of what I hoped it would be when I started and felt like I could never achieve. BUT I DID. :) 

Now the story is finished, and I spent the weekend reading through it, fleshing out some areas that needed it, fixed some errors, made some more connections in the beginning to things that happened at the end. My fantastic CPs (three of whom are my blogmates!), an author friend, a writer friend and Patricia's sister (who NEVER reads anything) all have Hotboyalicious. I can't wait for the feedback and to jump in for revisions. 

Since I'm waiting, I'm faced with the NOW WHAT? dilemma. Well, yesterday I caught up on most of the editing stuff I have to do with Spencer Hill. I'll be working on that throughout the week. And this morning, I plotted a new book.

YES. I *do* know this is crazy. AH! 

I'm really excited about the new story--which does not yet have a working title or secret title. Remember when I said Hotboyalicious was scary because it was so different? This is even scarier. A tense I've never written in and POV that I have never worked with, (Two POVs actually!), and topics I don't know much about! Needless to say, I have a lot of character development ahead and even more research...

But this is the joy of writing. You get to try new things and you get to grow. I think it's supposed to be scary!! And just know that you are not alone.

The Choice is Yours

The 4th of July is just around the corner & I've been thinking a lot about choices. Every day we make choices. Right or left. Take the job or don't. Move or don't. Dance or sing. Eat that cupcake or dont (though that answer is always do!) Write or don't write.

Choices define our time and our passion and once we've made one we usually can't take it back.

My choice this week is to write. Since I am newly moved, currently jobless (& running out of money) and Patricia is on vacation--all I have to do is writing/editing work! Yay me.

This "I want to be a full-time writer" thing is a dream for all of us. But guys, I've only been doing this for three weeks (this is the third) and IT IS HARD. Like, so hard.

For one, you actually have to DO the work. It's really hard for me to do that at home, so I ventured out to Starbucks or Panera (or both) each day last week. I did GOOD work but my budget was NOT happy. (And apparently they frown at you sitting there without buying anything! Go figure.)

For two, when you waste time you feel really bad--and it is SO easy to waste time. I mean, stay up late. Sleep in. Then it's noon before you get out of the house/bed. Plus you have to eat and you didn't watch those shows from last week and you need call your mom...& then the day is almost over and what did you do??

There are other things I could add to this list. So many. But I won't because in the end it all comes back to or choices. That first week I made some bad ones. I slept, unpacked, I don't even remember. But you mess up and you learn and each day is a new day. The second week was better as I split my time between writing and editing an MS for Spencer Hill. These weeks of not working are not by choice. (Someone hire me!) but as my friend reminded me this weekend: how I use them is my choice.

And this week, I am determined to make good choices for my time. Since last week was so good for my writing/editing, I decided that I need to lay the smack down on myself. This week I have to write at least 2k every day. That's writing only! And I have to finish editing this MS by Sunday, which has 200 pages left to go after today. I'm hoping to do 40 pages a day of LINE EDITS. Needless to say this is motivation week.

It seems like a lofty goal when I think about it--but I have nothing else to do. Literally! I have ZERO excuses. Plus, my WIP is in that place where I feel like I can start tying all the ends together and finish it. I'm so close. I know the whole remaining story and I only need to write it!

And I am! I can't wait to Finish this draft. To send it to my betas. To start revising. I truly think I will finish it this week or next week at the latest. And I have to finish edits.

And if you guys see me on twitter, feel free (aka please please please!) ask me how it's going. 2k a day & 40 pages of edits is totally doable. Totally.

We have the freedom to make choices and writing is a choice. How you use your time is a choice. I hope that I have the discipline to accomplish my goal and that you have the joy of making whatever choices you have to make.

 Happy Independence Day!

I Write...Therefore I am Crazy?

Writing can make you, well.....crazy. As if hearing voices inside our heads all day long isn't enough, there are plenty of other things about writing that can make us writerly types more than a little loco. Here's a (short) list of things that may make me a little crazy.

In the name of writing:

• I've skipped meals and/or eaten pita chips, grapes and a Clif bar throughout the entirety of a day in order to get the most writing done with the least amount of distraction;
• I've given up sleep--like enormous amounts of sleep that before I began writing I could have never imagined I could live without;
• I've fist bumped the air in excitement over a particular idea/line/scene/character;
• I've danced, like full-on cabbage patch (please tell me you know what that is), in excitement over a particular idea/line/scene/character;
• I've given up on TV shows that I once never missed a single episode of;
• I've allowed my children to watch *way* too much TV;
• I've gotten up at 3 a.m. to work on a scene that just won't leave me alone (yes, I know this is similar to giving up sleep, but waking up at that hour for any reason is just crazy in and of itself);
• I've started the four hour drive home from a writing retreat at 1 a.m. just so I didn't have to give up a single moment of writing time;
• I've cried, screamed, paced, erased, rewritten, and just generally freaked out at various points during the writing of a novel;
• And despite all that, I'm still doing it and LOVING it. 

How about you? What have you done that's crazy in the name of writing?

Missing the Target: A Lesson for Writers About How BRAVE Failed to Deliver

In the trailer to Brave, the story of Merida looks really awesome and intriguing. The young princess, who loves adventure and is an excellent archer, is bethrothed and three princes have to fight for her hand. But Merida is stubborn, and determined to change her fate, and she steps up to fight for her own hand in marriage. Also in the trailer, there's mention of her world being a land of magic and a brief nod toward "a spell to change my fate", but it's such a minor detail and glossed over that it doesn't seem as important since they spend more time painting the princess as stubborn, than anything else. (You can see the trailer here.)


I went into this movie with high expectations. I mean, a Disney/Pixar film about a girl protagonist who is a) a Princess b) knows how to shoot arrows and be awesome c) is Scottish/Viking and d) takes a stand to fight for her own hand in marriage and change the course of her life. It can only be good. However, I don't think I've been so disappointed in a movie for a long, long time.


As a writer, editor, and general reader/movie lover, I had to write this post. Ever since my viewing of the film on Sunday, it has bothered me so much. Brave was full of potential and missed opportunities--and this is something that every writer can learn from.

Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers to Brave (and Brother Bear) so if you haven't seen them and plan to and don't like spoilers, then you should probably stop reading this.


Based on the trailer, the story really seems to be about Merida fighting for herself. But, that's only the case for the first 30 minutes of the movie. After an argument with her mother, who fiercely wants her to marry, Merida storms off into the forest and the magic wisps lead her to a witch's house. There, Merida tells the witch she wants to a spell to change her mother so she can change her fate. And then, when the queen takes the potion, she turns into a bear. The rest of the movie is spent re-building the mother/daughter relationship as daughter/bear and trying to break the spell before time is spent.


(Note: There's also a subplot involved about a past king and his princes who were in battle with each other and destroyed the previous kingdom, as well as the current King who wants to get revenge on a bear who ate his foot.)


The major, over-arching problem with Brave was the "Promises Made Promises Kept" I talked about Monday. Brave had so much potential. So many things were introduced: the magic of the world, the wisps, Merida being bethrothed, her archery skills, the tournament for her hand, the story of the past kingdom with the princes, the witch, the bears, the mother's tie to the magic and the dad's disbelief in the magic. However, none of them were developed.


The focus of the story was not Merida's quest for to change her fate, but the story of her and her mother. While this isn’t a bad idea for a story, it’s already been done. Can anyone say Brother Bear? Instead of a boy turning into a bear and trying to save himself before he’s stuck as a bear forever, a girl turns her mother into a bear and they must save each other or be stuck that way forever.


In many ways, it was as if the writers had three ideas for a story: a girl fighting for her own hand, the story of the bears and the mother/daughter relationship. There was a lack of cohesion between story lines, and while they try to bring them together, the strongest story (the one Disney advertised) was left abandoned. It's the curse over plotting and unneeded subplots.


The major promise of the movie, which is part of the tagline, Are you brave enough to change your fate?, was the biggest disappointment. Merida was brave enough to change her fate--but the attempt of it is what causes all the problems and she was only brave when faced with loss. Did her fate actually change? We don't know because while she changed tradition (in a thrown together and unbelievable sort of way) we never see what was supposed to happen. I think, for me, I was promised this awesome adventure of a girl fighting for her own life and place in her world--but we never see that.


Again, she's painted as brave, but she was only brave when facing the bear who was really her mother. When she was facing actual danger, she never saved herself. She was saved by her mother or her father or her triplet brothers or the entire clan--but she never does anything to actively save herself. What is this bravery that she's supposed to have? Even in the end, when she is taken down by the bear and he's inches from her face, all Merida does is scream. Then, someone else saves her...again.


There was also a lack of character development. The queen and Merida are excluded, because since they were the major characters then they were the ones that changed. But the brothers, the boys who were fighting for Merida's hand, the other Vikings, the witch--none of them were more than side characters. They had lines, comedic relief, and names, but their involvement in the story was more decoration that an important aspect of moving the plot forward.


There was also no clear antagonist, which I believe you must have to move a story forward if you expect the antagonist to overcome something. They tried to make the antagonist the bear, but it wasn't an effective threat because it was not seeking to destroy or thwart the specific plot line. The mother was originally the antagonist, but only for the first 30 minutes. Once she becomes a bear, they attempt to have Merida play the role of antagonist but the protagonist can’t effectively be against herself for an entire movie.


By the end of the story, most of the promises were kept, but most of them were kept in unsatisfying ways. The major theme is that she didn't get to change her fate. Here's a story line, here's another, here's another--and here's the end. It was sloppily tied together as if it was one thing, but it obviously wasn't.

Disney/Pixar really missed the mark with the story, and blew a lot of potential. But they also failed to hit their target audience. Not only were things that were really inappropriate for small children, but the six year old that came with us didn’t like the movie. His favorite part was when the bears were fighting at the end—which had no relevance to the story. It was the subplot that they failed to develop and one of the moments where Merida was “brave” without being brave at all.


While I didn’t enjoy the movie, I think there are a lot of things writers can learn from Brave. All of them are what NOT to do. This movie could have been saved. It could have been an amazing movie. If they could have picked one plot line and developed it (preferably the one they advertised) then Brave could have lived up to the promise they made to me.


Writers, if you promise something and promote something, please, please, please deliver. Don’t have extraneous plots that don’t go together. Don’t have characters that you do not develop. Have clear roles for the world and the characters in the world you’ve created. Your story (and it’s audience) will thank you for it.


Did you guys see BRAVE? What did you think of it??

Promises Made, Promises Kept

There's a concept that, when I edit (or write) a book, I share with every author I work with. It's something I learned during my (almost) semester of graduate school from my professor, Jacqueline Davies. I'm not sure if she penned this idea or just carried it with her, but it's incredible and so important for a writer. I'm sharing it with you now because it's completely applicable to every story. (And honestly, I can't believe I haven't yet!)

It's called Promises Made, Promises Kept and it's pretty simple: Promises that are made in the book must be kept by the end. I'm going to use two examples to explain: Doctor Who and a children's picture book.

Doctor Who. 


**major show spoilers ahead! I'm warning you.**In the beginning of season one, we are introduced Bad Wolf. It's a minor thing throughout the season, mysterious and random, but as the season ends, we learn that Bad Wolf was a warning sent from Rose back into time. It's a perfect example because something is introduced, and resolved in one series arc. *end spoiler*

Anything that is introduced needs to be resolved. If you make a promise, then throughout the story the promise must have a purpose and must be resolved before the ending. There should be nothing that’s left unanswered if it is introduced. (Thought it's not exact, a promise is similar to a plot thread because each plot thread is sort of a new promise that has to be resolved.) 


Making a promise and keeping it, however, doesn’t mean that the answer cannot be changed later. As a story develops and characters grow, the promises can be answered in failure, in the character changing their mind, in someone deciding that what they want isn't really what they thought, etc. 


Back to Doctor Who **another spoiler ahead** jump ahead to season four and Bad Wolf makes a return. We learn then that what we thought it meant in season one has changed a little. Before, it was sent to the past as a warning, it then becomes something bigger that it is sent across universes as a signal. This is just one example. DW has a lot of them where something appears to mean one thing, but then ends up meaning something else, like Doctor Donna and “he will knock four times”. These are examples of promises that change, but are still kept. **end spoiler** 


 Doctor Who isn't the only example of this concept. In fact, look at any children’s picture book and you will see examples of a promise made. I'm going to talk about this book, because it's a simple example of promises made, promises kept. 

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

The picture book, Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, (which you can click here and read it on youtube) is a prime example. The promise made: Kitten wants to get the moon because it looks like milk. Throughout the book, Kitten attempts to reach the milk (the moon) and fails. The promise kept: Kitten returns home to find some milk waiting outside. Despite the trials, Kitten still gets the one thing she wanted. 

Promises Made, Promise Kept is a valid concept that's true (or should be true) in any story--be it a YA novel, a short story or a movie. The promise can't be compromised. It's much like in the theater where if a loaded gun is brought onstage it must go off before the final act. If there's a door, it must be opened. If there's someone seeking a cure, it must be found or not found by the end. If a character is seeking something, then by the end the character must find something--even if it's not what the character expected to find. 

The point of all this is to say: anything you introduce in this book must be explained and/or serve a purpose that is accomplished in the same. If you find you cannot explain a reason for something or have a use for it later, then reconsider its importance. Do not set your readers up to expect something big and then not deliver. 


It's the best writing advice I've ever received, and it's changed the way I read, edit and write a book.