Super Powers

Now this is just cool.

Poem For A Neglected Blog

My poor little blog
I wrote you a poem but
it's not good. Sorry.

(and i'm still busy revising so all i could manage was a haiku. sorry about that too.)


Fun Fact: Haiku spelled backward is Ukiah, the name of the city I live in.

More soon*
Kat






*more blog posts, not more crap poetry.

Halfway

I have reached the halfway point of my massive revision! Woo hoo! *celebrates*

I do hope the revision on the second half moves along a little faster. I think it will, because half of my total revision time was spent on the opening chapters. And I think I've finally gotten them down. In fact, I re-read the first chapter every week or so and the only change I've made to it in months was removing a comma. Which I later put back in again.

So yeah. The first half is done at just over 30K and I think the second half will be a little longer (I'm counting by chapters and acts, not word count). The finished ms will probably be close to 70K words. Which is nice, considering my NaNoWriMo draft closed out at 26K.

Because I outline, I thought revisions would be cake. But the revision cake is a lie. Thus far I have:

Added one major character and two minor characters.
Added four new chapters.
Completely changed the inciting incident.
Completely re-worked the fantastical aspects.

And I still have a lot to do. Not only do I have to completely revise every scene of the second half so it works with all the above changes, but I also have to add another four chapters and fix the entire last act, ten chapters of which are written like so:

"At a party or something with friends. What happened to the family? Still learning, getting better at managing. Ends with lots of potential."

[That is the actual last chapter in its entirety. I know. It's bad.]

I'm setting a tentative goal of finishing by the end of June. I think I'll be able to revise the second half faster than the first. Especially now that the groundwork is all in place.

But I still have lots and lots to do. It's a good thing I love this story so much. Sometimes it's hard to get myself to work on it, but usually I'm just excited about it. I want to finish it. I want to make it amazing. And I want to share it. (I really want to share it. I cannot wait to send the completed ms to my crit partners. Like, seriously cannot wait. Jade's already read 14 chapters.)

Anyway. Here's my bi-monthly blog letting y'all know I'm still alive and revising. What have you guys been up to?

Why Buy?

Hi.

So I was looking through my shelves and receipts and I noticed that I had a lot of new books. Like, A LOT. Like, I-bought-over-30-books-in-3-months A LOT.

The upside: I'm supporting booksellers and authors and I get lots of shiny new books.

The downside: An empty wallet. And a TBR pile that is taller than me.

Anyway. I've been caught up in editing and haven't been blogging much (or reading much *guilty face*), but I thought it would be interesting to figure out what made me buy all these books. What specifically was it that compelled me to hand over the money for each individual book?



The Recommendations - These are books that I bought based on recommendation. Something that normally might not catch my eye, but a trusted book blogger/friend loved it, so I thought I'd check it out.

When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead
Read a great blogger review about it, and then the next day my crit partner recommended it to me.
Unearthly - Cynthia Hand
Read LOTS of good reviews about this one. Not real big on the angel thing, but thought I'd check it out based on all the rave. (I read it in one day and absolutely loved it.)
Perfect Chemistry - Simone Elkeles
I'd heard so many great things about the romance in this one, I wanted to check it out.
The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson
Read a few blogger reviews that raved about this. (With good reason, it's an amazing book.)
Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler
Strangely enough, the whole Speak Loudly event brought this book back on my radar (it was an 09 debut) and some recent reviews convinced me to buy it.


The Debuts - These are the 2011 debut books that I've bought or pre-ordered so far this year. I'm not going to individually detail why I bought these ones because it's all pretty much the same reason: Awesome sounding premise and/or great ARC reviews, and of course I like to support debut authors :)

Clarity - Kim Harrington
Liar Society - Lisa and Laura Roecker
Across the Universe - Beth Revis
Hourglass - Myra McEntire
Awaken - Katie Kacvinsky
Blood Magic - Tessa Gratton
Wither - Lauren DeStefano


The Sequels - Sequel or series or companion books! Also, the three books at the end, which aren't sequels, but were bought because I loved the author's previous books.

Demonglass - Rachel Hawkins
I would have picked this up eventually, but the reason I bought it NOW was because it was released on the same day as two other books I wanted right away (Liar Society + Clarity) so I bought them all together.
Gone - Lisa McMann
I bought this with Cryers Cross. Also, I'd been waiting for the paperback version so my trilogy would match.
Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld
I knew I wanted to get this one at some point, but the reason I bought it NOW was to fill out the subtotal requirement for free shipping.
Desires of the Dead - Kimberly Derting
I received a finished copy of Body Finder from the publisher, so I wanted to purchase the second book right when it came out.
Red Glove - Holly Black
White Cat was one of my favorite books of 2010, so I am very eagerly awaiting this one.
Rules of Attraction - Simone Elkeles
Hardcover was on sale and I know I'll want to complete the trio so I bought it.


Beauty Queens - Libba Bray
I'll probably buy any novel Libba Bray puts out.
Cryers Cross - Lisa McMann
Read a great blogger review about this one, and I loved the Wake trilogy. Lisa does third-person present tense so well.
Delirium - Lauren Oliver
Before I Fall was another one of my favorite 2010 reads, so of course I had to get this one.


The Others - Books I bought because of a mix of price, impulse, and interest in seeing how the author handled certain elements in the book.

Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Heard a lot of mixed reviews on this one, so when the price dropped I decided to buy it to check out.
Pretty Little Liars, Flawless, Perfect, Unbelievable - Sara Shepard
Box set of PLL. I've heard these books are addicting, and I'm really into mysteries/thrillers these days.
The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff
Heard good things about this one, wanted to check out another YA book from a male pov.
Invincible Summer - Hannah Moskowitz
I haven't read Break, but I like Hannah on twitter and her blog, and I've heard good things about IS. I like that it has a male pov, and the family dynamics sound interesting.
Give Up the Ghost - Megan Crewe
This one was marked down to bargain price and I remembered reading some good reviews about it.
Mostly Good Girls - Leila Sales
This one is sorta funny: I read an interview with Leila Sales and she mentioned this song I'd never heard before so I clicked through to check it out. It became my new favorite song and Leila became my new favorite person for introducing me to it. Then I decided that anyone with that great of taste in music must write an awesome book. So I bought it.


Contemporary Craze - Last month, I was looking at my bookshelves and was suddenly dismayed by the lack of contemporary novels I had. So I got a few contemp recs from Jade (who came through on twitter like a BOSS) and bought a few other contemps I'd come close to buying before but hadn't.

Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta
A rec from Jade. Also, it won the Printz and has a ton of good reviews.
Going Too Far - Jennifer Echols
I've seen good reviews about Echols' work, and I remembered reading the first chapter of Going Too Far and enjoying it before.
Hold Still - Nina LaCour
Another rec from Jade.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart
Another Jade rec! Though I loved the Boyfriend List, so I probably should have checked this one out sooner.
Hate List - Jennifer Brown
I'd thought about buying this before and I remembered an author I liked saying good things about it.
Waiting For You - Susane Colastani
I'd heard great things about Susane Colastani and some of her books were on sale so I picked this one up.




So.

This is what I've learned today:

Trusted book bloggers/friends can easily convince me to hand over the cash for recommended books.

Often I buy books that have stayed in the back of my mind when they go on sale or I need to make a subtotal requirement to get free shipping or something. My "impulse buys" are all books I've actually considered buying before but held off.

Even if I didn't LOVE the first book, as long as I liked it there's a good chance I'll pick up the sequel. It fills out my collection and I know I'll read it eventually.

And finally, I've learned that I should probably start reading all these books before the TBR pile tips over and crushes me to death.

Cheers!
Kat

(P.S. Can I claim books as a tax deduction as an aspiring author? Just wonderin'.)

Editing

I'm editing. It's maddening.

My tendency to swing between cheerfully loving it and wanting to give up and become an accountant has never been so extreme. Usually these mood swings take place over weeks, or days at the least.

Yesterday at 11:00 I was all ecstatic, THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER, Oprah's gonna have to do another season just to interview me!

And by 11:05 I was curled up in bed because the book is so bad and I'm never going to be a real author because all my ideas are TOTAL CRAP and why are my characters talking about nuns? THERE ARE NO NUNS IN MY BOOK.

This particular moment, I'm kinda in between. I feel good about it today, but I also feel like it is going to take SO MUCH WORK. Hence, procrastination in the form of a blog post.

Only... I'm in editing mode, so it's hard for me to think in blog mode. But the meager three posts here in two months haunts me. So I must blog. With nothing to blog about.

So I'll just leave you guys with something I wrote then had to cut because I felt it was a little over the top for the character. But perhaps it will amuse you? I hope so.

I've got to stop thinking about Jack. About his lips. About kissing him.

I just have to get over this little crush, and fast. I mean, it's not even a real crush, never was. I'm already over it. There was barely even anything to get over, anyway. He is my dead best friend's older brother. I'm not even sure there's etiquette about this sort of thing, but if there is I can only imagine one word: DON'T.

So I won't. It's not like it's a problem. It's not like it isn't as simple as rolling over and forgetting all about him and his stupid lips and going right to sleep. I twist around and bury my face in my pillow. Okay, now... sleep. Just fall asleep. Any second now. Come on, Liv. Think about pleasant things. Like puppies, and a meadow full of purple flowers, and fresh white sheets blowing in the wind, and soft down feathers. And kissing Jack.

NO. Bad Liv.

I groan, and flip onto my back. Apparently my list of pleasant thoughts breaks down into two categories: Jack, and things found in laundry detergent commercials.

God I am never going to sleep.

On Rule Breaking

I spend a lot of time studying writing craft. I devour non-fic books on the topic. I analyze novels-- what works, what doesn't, what is brilliant, what is crap. And I think about craft a lot, writing in notebooks and filling pages with my thoughts on all different aspects.

Like, what makes a good twist? How do I put tension behind every piece of dialogue? How can I use any single mention of a character to further develop them? What elements am I using to hook readers from the start? (In my current wip, I'm using imagery to pull the reader right into my world, and tension to make them wanna stay.) How should I end the first book in a series? (Actually just wrote a long musing email to Jade about this one. Verdict: End the book in a way that doesn't affect reader expectations too much. Yeah it's A LOT easier said than done.)

Anyway, lately I've been thinking a lot about writing rules, and breaking them. You always hear, "Learn the rules, master the rules, and then-- and only then-- can you break them."

And my reaction was basically:

Psh, whatever, I do what I want. I'm a REBEL.

At first.

But the more books I read, the more I started to realize... There are a lot of good books that break the rules, but they do it WITH PURPOSE, and that's what makes it good.

This means: THINK about every decision you make, and give every broken rule a PURPOSE. Actively choose to break the rule, instead of just letting happen, and know why you made that choice. It's not about breaking the rules because you know the rules and that gives you a free pass to break them.

For example, don't have your character talk constantly in run-on sentences just because you want them too, or just because you think it's FRESH and QUIRKY. And don't use a cop out excuse like, "That's just their voice" or "That's just the way they talk."

WHY do they talk that way? Are you trying to capture the stream of consciousness in first person present tense? Or maybe the character talks that way because when they get excited they forget how to switch off their mouth. Or maybe you're using a long run-on sentence to PURPOSEFULLY make the reader feel a little breathless or rushed.

In my current wip, my main character had just received some bad news, and her head was spinning. So I CHOSE to use a run-on sentence here because I wanted the reader to grasp that she wasn't really thinking clearly. That her mind was wandering and she was going off in this tangent and was so intent on NOT ending the thought because then she knows she'll be brought back to the present, where the bad news is right in her face.

In fact, in revisions I added about twenty words to this already very long sentence to make it more of a run-on. And immediately after this very long sentence, I used a couple of very short sentence fragments, to bring her back to the present. Which is cold. And hard. And painful.

Of course this isn't just about run on sentences or fragments. Creative punctuation usage, intentional lack of punctuation, big blocks of text, lots of white space, super short chapters, exceptionally long chapters, and any other rules you can think of.

Go on. Break the rules. Break them all, if you like. Just know WHY you're breaking them, and let that reason add power to your writing.

Six Reasons I Don't Blog

In order from least to most likely.

6. I'm actually, legitimately busy with real life and do not have computer access.
Honestly, on any given day, I have AT LEAST five hours of uninterrupted computer time. (I know, I should be putting out like a book a month.)


5. I am WRITING and it is going WELL!
This almost never happens, but when it does I am quite happy to say eff blogging because the words are flowing and my story is actually making sense and oh, I just love it so much!


4. I have nothing interesting to say.
I am of the idea that you shouldn't blog just to blog. Who wants to read something you barely wanted to write in the first place? And while I do believe that having a blog and online presence is important, I will say this: I have NEVER not bought a book because the author didn't have a blog, but I have lost interest in a book because the author was kinda annoying with the self-promotion and pointless posts just to fill in a M-F schedule.


3. I used up all my clever on emails to my crit partners.
I have somehow convinced these people that I am humorous, so it takes some work to keep it up. Also, I tend to ramble. A lot. Just ask Jade. Seriously, though, we get into the longest, FUNNIEST email chains, and I need a loooong time to write each one. I mean, it takes me like 10 minutes to write each tweet because I keep revising and revising and revising until I realize that the moment has passed and it's not even funny anymore and then I have to come up with something new.


2. I'm procrastinating.
Youtube, reading, watching TV, alphabetizing my bookshelves, organizing the refrigerator, reading blogs, counting stars, browsing amazon, watching the moon wane, refreshing twitter, wandering around the apartment aimlessly, reading web comics, blowing really big bubbles with gum, indoor cartwheels (bad idea, FYI), deciding I need arbitrary items like a new desk lamp or a passport or In-N-Out before I can bring myself to write, and MANY MORE!


1. I'm lazy.
And Buffy is on Netflix instant stream. But mostly the lazy thing.