happy new year!

Seeing as I am still sick, my brain has yet to pick up to optimal cognitive functioning capability. In lieu of a somewhat educational post, I say only this:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Raise your glass to a productive (and healthy) 2011.

And enter my contest by midnight tonight, or you are full of fail.

looking to 2011

While I wait ever so patiently for the New Year to get here, I’ll throw out another post of me rambling about things. I need to take a break from all those helpful posts I put up over the past three months and give you guys some garbage to munch on. Also, I’m sick with who knows what, so I don’t really feel like thinking today. I have to conserve my energy for writing later.

Non-writing things I’m looking forward to next year…

instinctive editing

Today's wisdom comes from my experience with editing manuscripts, whether they be my drawer full of half-finished novels, or those few short stories I write every once in a while.

When in doubt, cut it out (or, more positively, go with your gut feeling).

Now, this isn't to say hold the delete button over paragraphs that you aren't sure about. When you're going over your rough draft, and something doesn't feel right, take that word/sentence/paragraph/scene/chapter and move it to a blank document. Delete it from your original draft, and analyze the story again without it. Nine times out of ten, the story is better off. On the other hand, sometimes, what you've taken out needs to be woven into the story elsewhere, because it is an important part of your story, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. You'll usually have a gut feeling about these parts of your story, but you'll be scared to change anything, to cut anything, because you just worked so darn hard on it.

what i learned this year

Since we’re coming to the end of the year, I thought I’d share the things I learned about writing over the past twelve months. Feel free to share your learning experiences from this year in the comments.

Stowing away a freshly finished first draft for a month (or five) really does help with revisions.

I don’t think I looked away from my manuscript for more than a few days when I first finished it. I revised immediately, and at that point, I nearly had the story memorized word for word. Once I started querying (and getting absolutely no interest), I thought that maybe it just wasn’t what those particular agents were looking for. I thought I had a great story… just no one else recognized its amazingness. Meet December, the five month anniversary of my finished manuscript. I took a hard look at my story and realized that it didn’t need just minor revisions; it needed an entire rewrite. It needed to be restructured and refocused. I started on that. Would you believe that it already feels like the story I intended to write?

2011 debut author challenge

Through my lovely friend Amanda, I found out about the 2011 Debut Author Challenge. The objective is to read at least twelve Young Adult or Middle Grade novels by the end of the year. The books must be the author’s debut with a release in 2011. Here’s my list, to be read and have a review posted as I read them.

TIGER'S CURSE – Colleen Houck (1/11)

TIMELESS – Alexandra Monir (1/11)

I AM J – Cris Beam (3/1)

KAT, INCORRIGIBLE – Stephanie Burgis (4/12)

ENCLAVE – Ann Aguirre (4/12)

ALICE-MIRANDA AT SCHOOL – Jaqueline Harvey (4/12)

RUBY RED – Kerstin Gier (5/10)

ASHES, ASHES – Jo Treggiari (6/1)

POSSESSION – Elena Johnson (6/7)

SIRENZ - Charlotte Bennardo & Natalie Zaman (6/8)

BAD TASTE IN BOYS – Carrie Harris (7/12)

THE PRINCESS CURSE – Merrie Haskell (9/6)


There are a few others I may read, but these are the ones that I will definitely read and review. Dare to join the challenge?