Writing

Welcome back to #55WordChallenge! We have a lot of fun last week and I hope the fun continues this week. For those that are uninitiated, the 55 Word Challenge is a contest to write a story in 55 words or less. Not an easy task, but fun and I have been blown away by some of the entries. See for yourself, past contests can be found here. (I am a bit behind in getting this updated.) The challenge begins at noon Eastern time every Wednesday and ends at noon Thursday. The story is based on one of three photo prompts. My only request is no porn. I don't want to hear graphic details. If it is erotic, make it titillating, not obscene. I know that can be done and done well. The story is to be posted in the comment section below, along with your twitter handle or email address, so I can contact you if you are the winner. And what does the winner get? Besides bragging rights? This badge. If anyone is interested in contributing a prize, a book, cover art, whatever you want, let me know and we will work something out. If you are an artist that would like to have your work featured, let me know! Photo Prompt:Courtesy Petr KratochvilCourtesy Peter GriffinCourtesy George Hodan

By Laini Bostianfor Cynthia Leitich Smith's CynsationsLibrarian Laini Bostian blogs at The Made Up Librarian. Today she talks to Eric A. Kimmel about authors marketing their manuscripts to publishers. Learn more about Eric from Scholastic.Eric: About writing and marketing, it’s never one or the other. Professional writers do look to the market. They have to. There are always compromises and adjustments to be made during the composition process and during the revision and editing processes.The key is how does the author feel about making the changes. If you go too far and say "yes" too often, you may come to a point where it’s no longer your book.Also, some editors will tell you upfront that they may not be the one to handle a particular manuscript. It isn’t doing anything for them, or the changes they’d suggest would turn it into an entirely different story. Sometimes the writer can go along with that. Sometimes we can’t.I’ll give you a recent example that just happened with the manuscript I’m sending out. I originally conceived it as YA. Several of the editors who've responded so far made the point that it didn’t feel like a YA. It felt more like middle grade.My agent Jennifer Laughran called to talk to me about it. The editors may be right, she said. YA is edgier. The characters are older. There’s more sex and drama. My main character is finishing middle school. You might call the story YA, but it’s definitely on the younger edge of the spectrum.It’s borderline between age markets, and as Jenn pointed out, “The border is where you don’t want to be.”Editors can’t fit it into a specific genre. They can’t predict its audience or what it will do.That can be the kiss of death these days.What Jenn suggested is marketing, not literary advice: Take it down a couple of years. Forget YA and go for middle grade. It would be easy. The changes would be mostly cosmetic.She also pointed out that the YA genre is glutted right now. It’s been so successful that everyone’s writing YA. Meanwhile, there’s a definite shortage of middle grade fiction.So guess what I’ve been doing this past week? It’s a change I can live with. I see the point. It actually suits the characters, the story, and me more.Are these revisions marketing decisions? You bet! Are they artistic ones? Definitely yes, because I feel comfortable with them and actually think the manuscript is better for my having made them.Laini: So, if this work does not sell, will you be upset? What should young writers do? What would you say to them?Eric: I’d be disappointed, but it’s happened before. There’s nothing you can do about it. On to the next.However, that doesn’t mean you give up. Set the manuscript aside. Maybe you can do something with it later. Times change, so a manuscript no one wants today may become a hot item in a couple of years.The advantage I have over young writers is I know the drill. A similar rejection could be devastating for a beginner. But again, so what? Will you quit and never write anything again?Guess what? Nobody cares. Real writers suck it up and start something else. The ones that are only in it for a payoff will find something else to do.What should young writers do? Write! They think they’re going to get rich? That editors owe them something because they scribbled out a manuscript? That they don’t have to revise?Well, they’ll learn, and they’ll be better writers for it. And if they decide to spend their time doing something else, what of it? I guarantee there will be no shortage of writers or good books.

By Tiffany Reisz, @tiffanyreisz Let’s talk betas! Not the fishies, the people!. First of all, what is a beta? You often hear the term in reference to software programs or video games. Beta testers are customers or users a company chooses to try out their new product before it’s ready for the market. The everyday user might find bugs and quirks that the software engineer who designed the game or product missed. A product in “beta” is an almost finished product not ready for market yet. For writers, betas are our first readers of our new books. Many published writers, even bestselling and award-winning authors, have either a critique partner or a set of beta readers who read their books prior to publication. Not every writer uses betas, however. And usually you can tell who those writers are when you read their books. Why should you use beta readers? ’Twas a bestselling book by a bestselling author from a major publisher. I picked it up because I heard that it was full of naughtiness. Alas, it was also flush with errors. The lead female character’s name was even misspelled at one point in the book. One extra set of eyes before that manuscript went to the publisher could have caught that glaring error. This Alpha Author needed a Beta Reader (or two or three) big time. My own beta readers have caught the following errors in my books. continuity errors (he’s driving a Jaguar in one scene and in a Ferrari the next scene) incorrect words (I used “riff” when I meant “rift,” an error spellcheck missed) factual errors (soil in New Hampshire is marshy, not dry) character issues (she says she won’t do something in the first chapter, by the third chapter she’s doing it without any explanation why) bad writing (seriously, Tiffany, if you leave that paragraph in, I’ll come to your house and punch you in the nose but knowing you, you’ll like it) Do you want a book full of continuity errors, incorrect words that are spelled correctly but are in fact, incorrect, factual errors, characters whose behavior doesn’t make sense, and bad writing? Then don’t use beta readers. If you’d rather have a book free of those sorts of errors, then get eyes on your pages before sending your manuscript off to your likely overworked editor. Your editor is one set of eyes. Your copyeditor is another. Your proofreader is another. That’s not enough to catch every error in your novel. How do you find beta readers? They’re all around you. I’ve found beta readers at my public library writing group, at writers conferences, through social media (including a fan forum for my favorite actor Jason Isaacs). If you present your work to a group of other writers, pay attention to their feedback. The writers who tell you what you did wrong will make better beta readers than someone who gives you nothing but compliments. I have one strict rule for beta readers--they have to be writers. Why writers and not fans? Fans beg to read my books pre-publication after all. I tell them no every time. Fans read for pleasure, and they deserve a finished, polished draft, not a confused muddle of a work-in-progress. Also fans read with love and have trouble telling one of their favorite authors they’ve made a mistake. I did a test once where I let five random people beta read a short story. The five volunteers included two fans of mine, two professional writers, and one professional editor for an indie press. The two fans returned the short story with nothing but punctuation errors marked. The two professional writers gave me great constructive criticism. The professional editor gave me pages of notes. Fans make bad critics. That’s why I love them as fans (seriously, I love my damn fans *sniffs*) and never use them as betas. Who are my betas? I have five and each of them has their own speciality. My literary fiction writing friend Robin is my first beta reader when the book is finished. Why is she first? Her speciality is macro edits. She tells me if whole chapters or

So, today I voted here in the LA mayoral election... and I got one of those "I Voted" stickers. And I flashed back to childhood. One day in either late elementary or early middle school, a friend and I had collected enough Chiquita banana stickers to give to everyone in the class and planned that at the top of the hour (I think it was), we'd all put said stickers on our noses and continue class as if nothing had happened. My memory from here is even hazier, though I seem to recall the teacher continuing to lead the class without really acknowledging anything was amiss, though clearly aware. What I don't recall was how I felt afterwards or whether the weeks of collecting stickers had paid off for me. I do know I never organized another banana-in. But to this day I have the urge to put stickers from bananas on my nose. Nothing profound here, but it was a happy flashback for me and something I hadn't thought of in decades. And if you were there (or arranged a similar event!)... well... feel free to add your memories here. (You know... letting me know I'm not alone in my silliness!)

Late again with the winners and this time I had to be careful, we had some entries that came in after the contest closed. And they were all great entries. I promise, once the craziness of the next couple of weeks ends… after my daughter’s graduation party, I will have more time to spend on making sure I announce the winners in a timely manner. Ok, so without further ado… Honorable Mentions: @by_wjhoward: Ugh, I know how frustrating getting wet mail can be. I don’t think I ever felt like murdering my mail carrier though. @bookwormattack: Divorce is frustrating. Another been there, done that. My hat off to those couples that make it. (Of course I expect Jeff and I will… or die trying.) @LastKrystallos: Very cute story. Funny how everything always comes full circle.Winner:@JMwandering: Love the vampire theme to this! (Sorry no link provided. Twitter kept saying internal server error)Title: Unnatural Author: J.M. Mendur “How are they doing that?” “Forget what you’ve read about vampires in stories, kid. They don’t drink blood. Never have. They feast on the life force of the world, draining it of everything, including its colors.” “So, no stake to the heart?” “You’re learning,” I said as I loaded the explosive bullets in my rifle. ~~~ Author’s Note: 55 words, not including title and author lines. I used the photo prompt of the old people in the park. I went kind of dark on this one and the manipulated color vs. black-and-white of the photo jumped out at me. @JMwanderingOkay, see you all tomorrow for #55WordChallenge Week Fifty-Eight

Cyn sounds off!By Cynthia Leitich Smithfor CynsationsSurf over to author Janni Lee Simner's Desert Dispatches for my thoughts on Writing for the Long Haul, the first in a series of posts by "writing survivors." Peek: "I have a respectful patience for the inner artist but always hold her accountable."Read the whole post.

Today on the blog I have the very great pleasure and honor of hosting an author I've admired for years. Natalie Whippleis the author of TRANSPARENT, a book about a girl who's born invisible in a world where having super powers can be very dangerous indeed. It made me cry on the airplane. Twice. And it also made me laugh. On the airplane. Once, while I was also crying. The people sitting next to me thought I was insane, and I have never seen anyone leap up out of their seats so quickly after landing. While I loved the set-up of the book--invisible people are awesome, yo!--the scene that was the most powerful to me was also the most human, and had nothing at all to do with super powers. Hurry up and read this book so I can talk to you about how awesome that scene was (which, sadly, is also totally spoilerific and I can't talk about it here). In addition to being a brilliant author, Natalie's also a fantastic blogger (hers is one of the blogs I read pretty dedicatedly), she looks great in heels, and she's an amazing artist! And Natalie's here today to talk about the connection between art and words--and to showcase a beautiful piece of original art she made for TRANSPARENT's release! (Which is today. So, you know. GO BUY IT NOW PLEASE.) Art And Words by Natalie Whipple When most authors are asked what their characters look like, I imagine they have “real people” references. Actors, models, singers—I see writers compare their characters to famous, good looking people. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but I have a confession to make: I see all my characters as cartoons. This is an inevitability, since animation has been a big part of my life. Okay, it still is. Give me an animated “kiddie” show, and I will gladly watch it and revel in the art and how it gives mood to the story. Let me watch anime over CW dramas. Please, for the love, don’t make me “grow up” and stop watching cartoons. The truth is, I’m pretty sure animation has had a bigger impact on my writing than books. I wasn’t a ravenous reader growing up, like many of my fellow writers. Don’t get me wrong—I loved stories—but I found something infinitely more interesting when it was a piece of art, whether moving or still. I gravitated to comics adapted into animated TV shows, like my beloved X-men and Spiderman. I gobbled up fun stuff like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, Dexter’s Laboratory, Rugrats, Invader Zim, and The Powerpuff Girls. I had to see every Disney movie, and I still remember when Pixar released Toy Story. Blew. My. Mind. Anime entered my life fairly early on, thanks to my mom finding My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Castle In The Skylong before Disney bought rights to them (and subsequently butchered the English dub of Totoro with the Fanning sisters, ugh). Then I found Sailor Moon, and it was all over. Anime became my art of choice from about 12 years old and on. I devoured any anime I could get my hands on. I pretty much dedicated my teen years to becoming a better cartoonist, creating dozens and dozens of characters that I swore someday I’d write a real story for. And I did. The people I drew inspired me to write “episodes” of the anime I would someday create. My friends would read them and beg for more. I still have some of those old, horribly written pages—my first real attempt at long fiction. Eventually those episodes became chapters, and the chapters became books. My first published novel, Transparent, is debuting now, and I think it’s safe to say that anyone who reads it will see the comic/anime influences. Honestly, all my writing is unavoidably infused with the art I’ve spent so much of my life creating. Scenes unfold like comic action sequences in my head. My characters have exaggerated cartoon features when I imagine them. I think even my chapters end where I imagine a “commercial break” would come. So yeah, my writing is very much info

I just posted this in response to a service provider who commented on my earlier post, Ebook Madness: Don't Confuse Ebook Conversion With Ebook Formatting! In his comment on that post, this gentleman said he only charges $40-50 for the typical formatting AND conversion job, and asked if he's not charging enough. My answer was an emphatic YES, and I'm reprinting the full response here because I

There are many thingies happening in the immediate future! Thingies that I want to make sure to share with you! First: Charleston. Or, as I will no doubt be calling it, Chah'ston. Like "dahling." May 23 5:30-7:30pm ICONS Tour with Margie Stohl Featuring: Kathy Reichs, Michelle Hodkins, and Beth Revis at Blue Bicycle Books More info If you're in the Charleston area, please come say hi! And also--I won't be at this year's Y'all Fest, and this is the only thing I've got planned for the area this year. Just a heads up, since I've been at all the previous Y'all Fests. Second: Spartanburg, SC. I'll be a part of their teencentric events. Here's more information from their website: TEENS Teen Summer Reading kicks off with bang at our first after-hours teen event. Skype with authors Heather Brewer and Michael Grant, and meet author Beth Revis in person. We’ll also have a photo booth, a caricaturist, a DJ, snacks, a free autographed book for each teen and lots of other fun stuff. For teens ages 12-18 or entering grades 7-12 only. Attendance is limited to 200 teens. Contact Name: Susan Myers. Contact Phone: 864-596-3506. Contact Email: teens@infodepot.org.Saturday, June 1, 2013, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM. Headquarters Library. June 1 7:00pm-10:00pm TeenCentric Kickoff Featuring via Skype Heather Brewer and Michael Grant, and me, in person at the main Spartanburg Library More info Next! A book launch! For DEFY THE DARK, an anthology edited by Saundra Mitchell, featuring a short story by me, called "Night Swimming." The anthology features some of my favorite YA authors, as well as one of my last stories set in the world of Godspeed, called "Night Swimming," about Kayleigh and Harley and an unnamed (and gender ambiguous) narrator. Get the Defy the Dark widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info) June 18 Defy the Dark on sale! And finally, I have one more event. This is in my hometown area of Asheville, NC, and I'll be with two of my favorite people! June 24 starting at 7:00pm Book Signing With Nova Ren Suma, Stephanie Perkins, and me! at Malaprops Bookstore More info I'm super excited about this one--I love having awesome people like Nova coming to my home turf :) And I believe this is her first trip to Asheville....we'll have to do something special her to welcome her to town. I'm still working on a handful of summer events, but I'll be doing less travel throughout the end of the year as I get ready for the next big thing...

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy The hubby and I recently returned from a (long overdue) vacation in Paris. Aside from being totally awesome, our trip to the Louvre Museum was also interesting from a writing perspective, especially for this fantasy world-building gal. Seeing artifacts from cultures thousands of years old is inspiring. You'd think staring at one old pot after another would get old, but it was fascinating. One region used red clay, another white. One painted on the outside of the bowl, another on the inside. Some vases were tall and thin, others were wide and flat. Some even used animal shapes, like a chicken pitcher. Me being me couldn't help but see a correlation to how to build a fantasy world. What all of these artifacts had in common was that they were all crafted from what the cultures had nearby. Different soils, clays, flowers and minerals to make pigments, all of these things were specific and even unique to the region. That gave their art and artifacts their own flavor. Things to Consider When Building Your World Color Use Color can have a practical, aesthetic, or spiritual reason. Just like purple was used for royalty due to the rarity of the dye, another color might be scarce in your world and have particular uses and meanings behind those uses. For example, in my current WIP, color denotes status and is used as a identifier. What does color mean to your characters? Is there a forbidden color? Are some colors harder to come by? Does color affect or influence any social customs? Is there a theme with your colors? (More on themes and world building here) Material Use Different colored stones occur in different regions, or wood from the trees, or even metals mined from the ground. Coastal dwellers might use mud bricks but those who live in heavy forest areas build with wood. A desert culture probably isn't building with wood and stone, and anyone who does is likely to be wealthy or powerful enough to import them in. What materials the population has on hand goes a long way to how they create their cities and the things in those cities. What building materials are nearby? What's imported? Exported? What are common household items made from? What are luxury items made from? What are considered luxury items? (More on setting and world building here) Views on Art Different cultures have different views on what art is. Some consider any images of the human force to be taboo, why others build states in a great leader's likeness. How your people create and view art says a lot about their culture and believes. What is the purpose of art in this culture? Who are the artists? What status do they hold? How prevalent is art? What's taboo? Common? Avant garde? What form does art take? (statues, painting, beads, jewelry?) What art is valuable vs low-class "peoples art?" (More on world building and details here) Decoration Uses Just like art, how a culture decorates shows their personality. Clean lines and uncluttered gardens speak of a different kind of person than a wild garden with soft, curving paths. The character who wears all black is different from the one who dresses in bright patterns and colors. Furniture meant to stimulate the senses says things functional furniture does not. How do your characters decorate? What is decoration limited to? What is considered good taste? What is considered tacky? What is the differences between high class and low class decorations? What are the differences between gender styles? How prevalent is the decoration? (More on building a fictional town here) Details can carry a lot of weight and subconsciously clue the reader in on the subtleties of your world. They can explain elements of your world without you ever having to stop and infodump, which allows you to flesh out a world that feels rich and immersive, and still gives the reader everything they need to understand it. Next time you're building a world--even