On writing to trends

It seems that anytime I'm at a conference, the question gets asked "What's selling right now?" or "What trends are you seeing?" or some variation of it.

And even if the question came from someone who may currently be on sub, and the reason for their question was really, "Are editors buying right now what I'm currently selling?," it's always interpreted as "I want to know what's hot right now, so I can write that."

And we all know that's a bad question to ask, because the books coming out right now were bought two years ago, and whatever trend there was two years ago is no longer what's trending right now, and you'd always be behind the eight ball if you went off that.

But really, the better reason not to follow a trend is that the people who really do well in writing are the people who SET the trends. Because trying to write what people are asking for isn't always the best idea. Writing what people want, when they don't even know what they want yet is where the best successes come from.

I ran across this quote that I absolutely love, because everything it implies illustrates this so very well:

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

~Henry Ford

Yep. I say that like it's a piece of cake. (Or a tasty cookie. ;)) When really, it can be far from easy. *Raises cookie* Here's to hoping that we all become trendsetters!

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Have a great weekend!

Quotes & Cookies: The First Time

"The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right
the first time, unlike, say, brain surgery."

~Robert Cormier

Ha! I have to admit, the term "Dude-- it's not brain surgery," has never come to mind in regards to writing for me. But dude, it's not brain surgery. It's SUCH a good thing to remember! Especially if you just came off intense revisions, where you made your book all pretty, and slaved over each sentence to make sure it flows just so and accomplishes heaps. (Erm-- anyone else really struggle most with remembering that a first draft stinks when you've just spent forever revising?)

So that's my new mantra, going right above my monitor. IT'S NOT BRAIN SURGERY. The first draft can be far from right, and that's just how it should be.

I was going to give us cookies. Honest. And then I saw this, and I wanted to sink my teeth into soft, gooey, crunchy, sweet, (is that sea salt?! yum!) salty goodness. So today is brought to you by Quotes and Caramel Apples.

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Happy fall, everyone!

Quotes and Cookies: Books aren't written, they're rewritten

I mentioned on Tuesday that my second book went to copy edits. After massive amounts of edits, it's finally to the point where it's only minor things that will change. I cannot even begin to tell you how awesome this makes me feel! It has taken rewrite after rewrite, round of edits after round of edits to get just right.

Want to know what makes me happy right now? The fact that someone like Michael Crichton said this:

Books aren't written, they're rewritten. Including your own.
It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh
rewrite hasn't quite done it.

~Michael Crichton

Because if he spends rewrite after rewrite to get his books the way they need to be, then we all should expect ours to, too.

This calls for a really indulgent, comfort food-ish cookie. Enjoy!

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Quotes and Cookies: Easy reading

Guess where I am right now? Here.

Hanging out in a cabin in the mountains with a group of writers, writing our butts off. Or, in my case, revising my butt off (I have third round edits due in three weeks). I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I LOVE revising. Moreso than drafting even. I love seeing the ms get better and better with each round.

But just because I love it doesn't mean that it's easy. In fact, sometimes it's bang-my-head-against-the-keyboard hard, you know? Which is why I love this quote:

"Easy reading is damn hard writing."

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Yeah it is! But at least all that work comes with a payoff as sweet as easy reading. Hey, speaking of sweet payoffs and hard things, how about we commiserate over some hard, crunchy cookies that are just begging to be dunked in milk.

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Have a fantastic weekend!

Quotes and Cookies: Time

Holy busy summer, Batman! Are you guys having tons of problems finding time to write, too? It can get a little frustrating, that's for sure.

Which is kind of why this quote is so awesome.

You don’t need that much time. You just have to do it consistently. You could probably write a story in ten minutes a day if you did it for enough days.

~Susan Breen

Lovely, isn't it? Lack of time doesn't matter-- consistency does. Eventually, of course, we need to spend more time if we want to finish this decade, but at times when everything else takes precedence, it's fine to just shoot for consistency.

Now to celebrate summer and all its busyness with some summer-themed cookies! Man. Some people's preferred methods of expending creative energy makes me happy.

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Nom nom. Have a fantastic week!

Quotes and Cookies: The best you can

Hello from Comic Con! I can't wait to give you guys an update! But for now, an awesome quote.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

~Ernest Hemingway

I LOVE when this happens. That feeling when you read back through your stuff and think, "Wow! This rocks!" The way I see it, it's a percentages thing. Like for every X number of words you write, you get the good luck zing, and you write better than you can. The more you write (or rewrite)(or edit), the greater your chances of getting that zing, no?

Here. Have a cookie with zing. Maybe eating this will up our chances for the zing. What? It couldn't hurt, right?

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Quotes and Cookies: Dream

Remember when you were a kid and summer meant more time for daydreaming? Yeah. I miss those days, too.

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Except do you know what? We're writers, which means that it's OUR JOB to daydream. Terry Brooks says so.

Dreaming opens the doors to creativity. Dreaming allows the imagination to invent something wonderful. Don’t cheat yourself out of a chance to discover how well this can work. Don’t shortcut the process. Make dream time the linchpin of your writing experience.

~Terry Brooks

I'm not going to go count how many books Terry Brooks written, but it's a lot. Twenty-three of them have been NYT bestsellers. And he has over 21 million of his books in print. Dude knows what he's talking about. So I say this means we should pretend like we're kids again and spend our summer daydreaming!

Daydreaming, and eating these. (It'll help the feeling like a kid again thing, I'm sure of it. ;))

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Cheers!

Quotes and Cookies: Fat Books & Thin Books

"Inside every fat book is a thin book trying to get out."

~Unknown

I saw a thing on Facebook once that said, "I like fat books and I cannot lie" and I laughed and laughed because, come on-- that's funny.

But I cannot lie.

I do not like fat books.

Okay, that's a lie, too. I sometimes like fat books. But I have to REALLY be in the mood for it. And the writing has to be so very fan-freaking-tabulous that walking at a really slow pace is okay. Because it feels like stopping to smell the roses.*

But mostly, I want to feel the wind on my face (especially if the wind smells like roses, and I swear it can be both). Once upon a time, I used to look at a thin book and think it had less substance and depth. I've been reading books faster and more frequently than I ever have in my life, and through it I've come to realize something: if written well, a thin book does not lack substance and depth in the least. It just has incredible pacing.

And pacing means a lot to me.

It's what pulls me through a book. It's what makes me want to read just one more chapter even when it's late. An expertly-paced book is very important to me. And when I read a book that's not paced well, I just keep stopping on all the extra stuff in there. The stuff that doesn't add to the story, and makes me feel like I'm trudging uphill through cold tar, and now that I've seen that quote, I think "There's a thin book in here, trying to get out."

How about you? How high does a well-paced book rank for you?

While you're thinking about it, have a big fat cookie.

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And remember that I love you the same, regardless of how fat you like your books. :)



*(And for the record, I have read fat books with incredible pacing, too-- I'm mostly talking about books that are fatter than they should be, you know? The ones where the author included ALL THE THINGS, but then never took out the extras that, in the end, just bog it down.)

Quotes and Cookies: Am I really a writer?

I'm in the middle of a really tough round of revisions. Let's just say I needed this today. Anyone else?

And cookies. Yes, cookies. I'm sure we could use some cookies.

photo credit: Curtis McCormick via photopin cc

In fact, want even more cookies? My sweet hubby sent me this link for COOKIE WALLPAPER. How great is that? You should definitely check it out. (Especially the ones with M&Ms and the Oreos. They're both made of happiness.)

Have a fabulous weekend!!

Quotes and Cookies: Failing... And succeeding

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot...and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's precisely why I succeed.”

~Michael Jordan

So... you're saying, MJ, that you have to keep taking shots? And that those who are really successful keep taking A WHOLE FREAKING LOT of shots, and even when they fail, they keep taking more and more shots?

And that keeping taking shots no matter how many times you fail is the key to succeeding?

Thanks for putting it into perspective, Michael.

Here. Have a cookie.

It's a slam-dunk, just for you.

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Happy Friday!

Quotes and Cookies: Of eggs and patience

LOVE this:

“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."

~Arnold H. Glasow

Which I'm pretty sure translates into writer-speak that you should edit your book instead of throwing it out the window when it's giving you grief.

And then you can get the book version of this:

photo credit: Roger Smith via photopin cc

Something unique looking with awesome hair that everyone will Ooh! and Ahh! over. And who doesn't want that?

Just be warned that he/she will probably want a cookie. You better take two.

And then set about revising! And NOT throwing your manuscript out the window.

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Have an awesome weekend, everyone!



P.S. Thank you so much to Neurotic Workaholic for the Liebster Award! I can guarantee my answers wouldn't be nearly as hilarious as hers were.

P.P.S. I'm at The League of Extraordinary Writers today, talking about using a sense of wonder in speculative fiction. Come hang out! Yes, you can definitely bring your cookie with you.

Quotes and Cookies: My new favorite quote on critiques

New York was INCREDIBLE! So. Very. Incredible. I am still lagging way behind in the game of catch-up, and haven't even gotten a chance to look at my pictures yet, but I will do a post on it soon.

I recently ran across a quote that I think is brilliant! For a long time, I've heard (and totally believe in) two different pieces of advice that I've had a hard time reconciling.

The first piece of advice is that you need to have a good (and very strong) sense of your book, so when critiquers suggest you do different things, you know which voices to listen to. If you don't, your book will head a million different directions, trying to please everyone, and it'll end up worse than when you started.

I totally believe in this.

The second I'm not sure if I've ever heard, or if it's just the way I feel. Whenever I hear about an issue from a critique partner, I figure that person represents a slice of the bigger pie that will one day be my readers. If I don't find a way to address that issue, then all the people that critique partner represents will have the same issue.

I totally believe in this, too.

Yet they seem to be at odds with each other.

Then I ran across a quote from Neil Gaiman that explains why those two can both be true, and coexist. Are you ready? Here it is:

"Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."

~Neil Gaiman

I had never heard this quote before, which surprises me. The thing is pure gold! There's a big difference between a critique partner bringing an issue to your attention, and them telling you how to fix it. (Which explains why you sometimes really bristle at a suggestion.) And of course, asking a critique partner to brainstorm ways in which the issue could be fixed is something else entirely, and can be so so so helpful.

Now that we've had such a breakthrough, let's skip the cookies and go straight for the donuts, shall we?

Thank you, Shutterstock.com!

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!!

SKY JUMPERS Winners, Quotes & Cookies, and the League

First of all, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all the cover love! I really appreciate all the tweeting, sharing on facebook, liking, blogging--- everything. You guys are the best!

The Rafflecopter gods have spoken, and the people who apparently sacrificed the most cookies to he/she/it/them, and have won themselves a hardback copy of SKY JUMPERS (as soon as it's available) are:

From Literary Rambles:

Donna Weaver!

From Icey Books:

Amanda Ray!

From here:

Alyssa Hamilton!

Congratulations! I'll be emailing you soon.

And now, onto quotes and cookies! This is one I love.

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” 

~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

This applies to so much, too! Definitely those hardships that come so fast and hard that they knock you off your feet. But also the ones that come slowly and steady. The ones that are there for a moment, and the ones that hang around long-term. Simply not surrendering makes you stronger and stronger, and makes the struggles easier to overcome.

*Grabs cookie* Here's to not surrendering!

photo credit: Renée S. Suen via photopin cc

And today I'm at The League of Extraordinary Writers, talking about the movie that triggered my love of post-apocalyptic fiction. Come join me!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Quotes and Cookies: Have patience already!

Quotes and Cookies today is all about me and what I need. :) Actually, I suspect it's something every single one of us needs-- PATIENCE.

I'm actually a really patient person. I had no problem at all being patient enough to improve my craft while writing several books, not querying them, until I got to the skill level where I knew I had a shot. I didn't send out my first ever query until my manuscript shone and all my ducks were in a row. Querying didn't phase me. Neither did going on submission to editors. In my initial phone call with my editor, she offered me a January 2013 or a September 2013 release date. I had no problem turning down the earlier date, because I knew the later one was better for my book.

Buuuuut.....

Guys, I am really struggling with patience right now. Turns out there are a million things in this industry that try our patience--- some to incredible lengths.

So I guess the point is, it doesn't matter how much patience we have. Things will come along that require more of us than we had. There's not a box we mark if we've got it or not. We will ALWAYS need more. And I suspect that the only way to really get it is to make it through times that really try our patience.

Sigh.

I did find a ton of great quotes on patience, though! Here's a few gems:

"Have patience with all things, But, first of all with yourself."
~Saint Francis de Sales

"How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success."

~Elbert Hubbard

"Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy."
~Saadi

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
~Leo Tolstoy

Here. Let's stare at cookies. I hear it helps.

....Or something like that.

How are you with patience?

Oh, and on a completely unrelated but interesting side note, do you ever wonder how other people come up with character names? Curious about people's processes and resources? I asked the Lucky 13s how they came up with their character names, and got some incredible responses. It's definitely a fascinating read. You can find everyone's answers here: The Lucky 13s: Friday Q and A-- Character Names.



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Quotes & Cookies: Priorities

At this time of year, I think this is a very fitting quote:

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

~Stephen Covey

It all sounds so easy when he says it, doesn't it? I think I spent the last year trying to do EVERYTHING. (Hint: that never works out well.) This year, I plan to a) know what my priorities are and b) schedule them in. Ahh. That's the nice thing about a new year. You feel like you've got a fresh start to do things differently.

Like stare at some very large and in charge cookies, and try not to salivate. ;)

Is there anything you've decided to do differently this year?

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Quotes and Cookies: Sometimes it's a shock

"Success comes to a writer, as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed."

~P. G. Wodehouse

Have you looked back lately to see how far you've come? Does it surprise you? I think it helps to look back! Sometimes it really just feels like you're trudging forward, never making any progress, but when you look back to where you started, you realize that that trudging is actually making a difference! And sometimes you see a really winding path with tons of backtracking.... but that's okay, too, because still-- that starting point is WAY back there. It's kind of cool when you look back to that green writer you used to be, and see the progress.

Makes you want a cookie, doesn't it?

By Veganbaking.net [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Have a fantastically spooky weekend, everyone!

Quotes and Cookies: Be the bee, not the mosquito

I made a goal this week to write 8,000 words. And all this week, I've been working SO HARD! Seriously-- sunup to sundown, I've been working on writing-related stuff. Guess how many words I've written? 400. Not kidding. There's just been so many things that have come up! Then I came across this gem:

It is not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. Remember the bee is praised but the mosquito is swatted.

~Mary O'Connor

Of course there are a million things that can make you busy that aren't the most important things. For me this week, the biggest culprit was something SMALL, but very HARD. The defeated perfectionist in me made me procrastinate it so much. Find all those million little things that just had to be done. And I couldn't write, because that other little thing HAD to be done before I could. So call me a mosquito. Do you ever have this problem?

Here. Have a freshly baked cookie. It might distract you from the guilt of not getting the right things done. (Or maybe you're not a defeated perfectionist / mosquito at all. In that case, you can take this as a reward for good behavior.)

By Kevin Lawver (originally posted to Flickr as Cooling Cookies) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Have a fabulous mosquito-free weekend, everyone! I'm off to write 7,600 words.



P.S. Guess what? THROUGH THE BOMB'S BREATH is going to be an audio book!!! It'll be released simultaneously with the hardback. :) :) :) And Random House is keeping it in house, which makes me ridiculously happy. And before you even ask--- I have no idea who is going to be the voice. I am open to guesses, though.

Quotes and Cookies: Don't be lazy!

I recently read SAVE THE CAT for the first time. Ohmygosh. I wish I would've known about this book 4 1/2 years ago when I first started writing! It is nothing short of brilliant. Blake Snyder's fifteen "beats" are one of those things that once you read them, you think Of course it needs to be that way! It just feels right. If you haven't read it, I'd definitely recommend it. I wrote a synopsis of my book 2 my usual way and sent it to my agent. Then I wrote a synopsis of the same book using the beat sheet to send to my editor, and it's about a billion times better! (Sorry, Sara, for sending you the crap one first.) I'll never write another synopsis (or another book!) without using the beat sheet. So, in honor of my new found love, today's quote comes straight from SAVE THE CAT. It's one of the paragraphs at the end, after he suggests all the things you should do to make your manuscript shine.

If you are having any nagging doubts about [your manuscript], you now know what to do. You have the tools to go back in and fix it. But will you? That's the rub. Here's a tip: When in doubt, do it. Don't be lazy! Don't say "Oh well, no one will notice" because... they will.

You only get the one shot at a first impression. Try to get over the love affair you have with yourself and your work and do what needs to be done. This is what separates the pros from the wannabes--- that nagging voice that says: "It sucks!" And the mature, adult, professional voice that quickly chimes in: "And I know how to fix it!"

~Blake Snyder

So I guess that means we need both the nagging voice and the professional voice to get us through it... And possibly a cookie.

By http://www.flickr.com/photos/rusvaplauke/ [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Have a fabulous weekend!

Quotes and Cookies: Getting it just right

Have you ever written a scene-- one of those really pivotal ones where it has to be *just* right, because the whole story hinges on it, and you just can't seem to? So you try something different, and it's still not working, so you keep trying something different until you think the frustration just might kill you?

Well, there's this man who's pretty darn brilliant, and he had something to say about those kinds of scenes. (Or possibly he was saying it about something different... but I'll only believe that if he tells me so himself.) Anyway, so this guy says that all of that work-- all of those times that the scene came out wrong-- weren't wasted. All those times existed so that you could find out how to do it just right. So you should quit thinking that you stink, and quit getting down in the dumps, because if you have a more hopeful attitude about it, you'll get it right. Except he said it in a lot fewer words, because he's cool like that. Check it out:

"I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

~Thomas Edison

Grab a cookie and let's raise it in a posthumous salute. Thanks, Edison! *sniff* We love you, man!

By Tamara Manning (orig. posted to Flickr as Shortbread Cookies) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

Quotes and Cookies: Scary

"If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough."

~ Lowell Lundstrum

Scary thought, isn't it? Dreaming big enough that the dream scares you. It takes a lot of guts to dream big! But the big dreams--- those are the really awesome ones.

So... What about you? Are you scared? If you are, have a cookie. It helps. ;)

Daniel Schwen [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons