Goldfish and Sundresses

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Currently: Paramore’s song “The Only Exception” (CLICK HERE to see the official video).

2. Sitting on an old wooden dock on a lake or a river and dipping my toes in the water.

3. Mornings where I wake up early for no explicable reason but feel completely refreshed. Those mornings are always my most productive.

4. Making up stories about cheddar cheese goldfish as I eat them (okay, I haven’t done this since I was seven or so, but I feel like it would make me really happy).

5. Sundresses!


I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday! My thoughts are with all of our veterans and soldiers.

Goals!

Alright, I didn’t quite write 15,000 words this week (I think I got to about 11,000), but I did have time to delve into the setting of the Sophie WiP and figure out more about it. I love books where the setting is dynamic (Nathan Bransford, an agent with a blog you MUST read if you are thinking about writing, has a great post about that: CLICK HERE to read). Part of the Sophie WiP is set in the real world, but part of it is set in a post-apocalyptic world that somewhat resembles ours, so that setting provides a great deal of conflict. It’s even more fun than I thought it would be to create a whole world with its own rules and problems, and I feel that I have much firmer base for my story now that I’ve written out a detailed view of its surroundings.

So, this week, my goals are:

-Write 15,000 words. I’ve almost gotten to the ending of the novel, and so this week will be focused on filling in the gaps I’ve left.

-Focus on honing Sophie’s voice. Since this novel is told from her point of view, I want her to have very distinctive voice. Right now, it’s sarcastic (but in a sweet way), and I want to make sure I have emotion behind it so that the reader can connect with her. I also need to make sure I don’t overuse some constructions. For example, Sophie apparently has a penchant for saying “the whole _____ thing,” such as “the whole embarrassing gender difference thing” when referring to why she and her male best friend don’t hug all that much anymore. I feel like that can get tired after a while.

I’m off to write my quota for the day (aiming for 3,500 words to get a jumpstart on the week). Happy Sunday, everyone!

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Samantha, a senior in high school, dies one night, only to wake up and find she is reliving the day of her death again. She relives it seven times, each time making different choices that affect the outcome. In the process, she discovers her true feelings for her friends, her family, her boyfriend, the boy who used to be her friend, and the girl she torments at school.

I didn’t actually expect to like this book. I thought it would get repetitive, and the fact that it focused on death would be depressing. But I ended up loving it. Because of Samantha’s different choices, each day is very different: one day she decides to be a troublemaker and throw caution to the wind, one day she tries to avoid the scene of her death at all costs. Though she’s difficult to like at first, especially because she follows her popular friends in all things, including publicly ridiculing a girl just because she’s different, Samantha grows exponentially in these seven days. And when she discovers the true purpose behind why she needs to relive the day of her death, it nearly broke my heart. Powerful, enchanting read.

Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: library

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Yes, I’m going to see Sex and the City 2 tonight. I never really got into the TV show (I think I’ve seen about four episodes total), but I saw the first movie and was entertained. If nothing else, there’s the fashion. And Dubai. I love traveling vicariously through movies.

2. Pottery Barn did it again! I saw this picture in their catalog, and now I want to live here:

Look at the porch! And the shutters! And the lounge chairs with books piled up underneath them! Heaven.

3. I’m nearly done writing the climax and the ending of the Sophie WIP! The manuscript is currently about half the length I want it to end up being (40,000 words out of 85,000 or so), but I want to finish telling the story. I’ve left whole chapters blank in my quest to discover the ending of this novel, but I think it will all work out fine. Next week, I’ll start going back to fill in everything I skipped.

4. Since I’m clearly into fairy tale retellings (Broken Mirrors: A Tale of Snow White), I watched the trailer for the new movie Beastly, starring Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens (full disclosure: yes, I have seen all three High School Musical movies. Not always by choice, but still.) It's based on the novel by Alex Flinn, a modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. I don’t think I’m going to go see this movie, but the trailer sure has a high entertainment value: CLICK HERE to see it.

5. I’ve started to become that annoying person who always complains about the weather. In the winter, I was complaining about the cold—well, that was totally valid. But I’ve now started complaining that it’s getting too hot, even though it’s about fifteen degrees cooler than it is in Texas right now and way less humid. So I’m trying to remember that I need to stop whining, because Boston is pretty. See the evidence below.




Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Point of No Return

I’m getting to that mark. That mark in writing the first draft where I always start asking, “Why am I writing this book again?” This has happened with the two manuscripts I’ve written before, Broken Mirrors and the first draft of the Sophie WIP (well, I turned out to be right about the Sophie first draft, since I’ve now scrapped about 90% of it). It’s around the 40,000 word mark, when I’ve written most of the plot and all that really remains is the climax. And I just start hating it. Hating the plot, hating some of the characters, thinking no one will ever want to read it. I’m not really sure why I get this feeling, and maybe I’m the only one.

So I’m taking a deep breath today. I’m going to keep writing, because I have that goal this week and because the only way to get over this feeling, I’ve found, is to just finish the thing. Then, when I have a more complete manuscript, I’ll start liking it again. I hope.

Reality Shows and Dreams of Italy

Things that make me happy, even on Mondays:

1. Breakfasts of a big cup of coffee and a pastry eaten on a comfy couch as I read a book that I’m addicted to. Right now, that book is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

2. Watching reality shows for about ten minutes at a time. That’s usually how long it takes me to start yelling at the TV because the people are so annoying, and I have to change the channel. But it's still entertaining.

3. When I wake up a few minutes before my alarm and can snuggle into my blankets for a little bit longer.

4. Those awesome times when I’m laughing so hard that I can’t stop. Laughing fits with friends are the best.

5. Dreaming of living in Italy (okay, yes, this was inspired by seeing Letters to Juliet. But look how pretty!

Yay for finally meeting my goals!

Alright, I met my goal of writing 15,000 words this week. It near about killed me, but I did it. I even wrote some action scenes! So the Sophie WIP is now about 35,000 words long, and I’m almost done with the plot. I don’t know all that much about how long a book should be, because I’ve seen so many different estimates, but my current draft of Broken Mirrors is 89,000 words long. I’m aiming for the same length in the Sophie WIP, which shouldn’t be much of a problem, since I have several scenes and descriptive passages I’ve skipped as I’ve been writing.

So, this week, here are my writing goals:

-Write another 15,000 words this week. I’m hoping this will lead me to the end of the plot, because I’m excited to write the climax scene. Plus it’ll make me feel like I’ve finished the first draft of the novel (even though I haven’t technically).
-Explore the setting more thoroughly. As I’ve been writing, I’ve discovered I haven’t imagined the world surrounding Sophie enough. I want to make more notes about everything, which will help me write the descriptive passages I’m missing.

Okay, I’m going to get to work. I hope everyone has a productive week!

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Frankie is tired of being treated like an immature little girl who can’t make decisions for herself. So, in her sophomore year at an elite boarding school, with a new figure and a new, popular boyfriend, she is determined to make people see her differently. When she discovers the all-male secret society that her boyfriend and his friends are a part of, Frankie is outraged that she’s not included and takes matters into her own hands. She doesn’t just want to be included. She wants to make the society better.

This was one of the most fun reads I’ve read in a while. I loved Frankie and her determination to be not only part of the boys’ club, but also the leader of it. The writing flows with humor and wit, and the supporting characters all have depth. I especially liked Alpha, a friend of Frankie’s boyfriend who had to take off junior year due to money problems but came back to rule the school. Throw in an explanation of the panopticon (love you, political philosophy) and a great deal of discussion about feminism and inclusiveness, and you’ve got me hooked.

Details:
Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children
Source: library

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Um, am I the only person who hasn’t seen Avatar? I really don’t have that much desire to see it. A friend of mine owns it (on blu-ray, to boot), so I could just watch it, but I’d rather read. Or watch Friends. Or do that whole writing thing. Though the cover is really pretty.
2. Okay, I’m still freaking out about the Grey’s Anatomy season finale last night. There was a shooter in the hospital, people. A shooter. And it freaked the living daylights out of me. Watching that episode was more stressful than pulling an all-nighter to write a paper (which I did a few times in college, and let me tell you, it was a piece of cake compared to watching a shooter point a gun at Bailey). I still love you, Grey’s. But don’t you do that to me again.
3. How come I don’t read National Geographic more often? I love those magazines. Well, okay, I love the pictures. They’re so pretty (or, occasionally, deeply disturbing). But the articles are so interesting, too! We used to have shelves and shelves of them when I was little so that us kids could cut out pictures for school reports, etc., and I remember looking through all the pictures and being totally awe-inspired. I might have to start my own collection at some point.
4. The writing is going pretty orderly this week. I’ve been following my outline (with a few tweaks, of course), although I’ve been doing some skipping. If I have no inspiration for a scene or a transition when I get to it, I leave several lines blank in the document and move on. So there are a lot of fill-in-the-blanks that I’ll have to do when I finish writing the plot, but hopefully I’ll be more inspired when I go back to them!
5. Khy over at Frenetic Reader (awesome YA book review blog) mentioned in this post that there are very few books set in ancient or medieval times, and that made me long to write something set in medieval England. Something that would feel like these buildings at Oxford:



Have a wonderfully relaxing Friday!

What's in a name?

One of my favorite things to do when first dreaming up a book is to decide character names. Well, really, female character names. When I was little, I dreamed of having twelve daughters so that I could name them all the pretty names I came up with. Not the best idea, maybe, but at least I had goals. I love looking into the different meanings of names and trying to decide if they fit the personality of the character. Sophie, for example. Her given name, Sophia, is Greek for wisdom, which I just love. She’s not the wisest person at the beginning of the novel, but she gains wisdom along the way.

I’m worse at deciding on guys’ names, mainly because I’ve never really cared about what to name my sons or whatever. I named one of the guys in the Sophie WIP Jonathan, until I realized that I knew two Jonathans and both were really tall, the way this character is. So that had to go. He’s now named Drew.

Is it weird that I try to avoid giving characters names of people I know? I don’t want to bring any preconceived notions into my writing. Like, if I name a character after my best friend, will she start acting like my best friend in the novel? I want to start out with a blank slate.

And with that random musing, I’m going to leave you and start my writing day. I’ve written 6,000 words so far this week (AND watched Lost and Gossip Girl and Glee and everything), so I’m doing fairly well so far. We’ll see if I can keep it up!

Salads and Rooftops

Here are some happy things that brighten my Monday mornings:

1. Creating different salads and pretending that I can actually cook (the one pictured to the left was actually not any good—smoked gouda was definitely not the right cheese for a strawberry spinach salad!).

2. Wearing rain boots so that you can splash in all the puddles.

3. Unplanned TV series marathons, when you stay up way too late watching DVDs of past seasons just because you can.

4. Views of rooftops and chimneys.

5. Sunsets of red, pink, orange, and fire (the rooftops and sunset below are from my visit to Edinburgh last August--I want to go back!).

Some More Goals!

I didn’t quite meet my goal for this week on the Sophie WIP, since I wrote 10,000 words instead of 15,000. And I realized that I needed to cut 10,000 more words out of the original manuscript. So now, the document I keep all of the cut material in is 40,000 words, while the document is only 20,000, and I feel like I’m working backwards. I love writing first drafts, I really do, but sometimes it can make you feel like a failure. So, this week will be super-productive-busy week so I can feel like I’ve actually done something. My goals will be:

-Write 15,000 words (I can do it this time! I promise!). Cut if necessary, and I know it will be, but keep on writing.

-Pay extra attention to everyone’s voice. I want to make sure all my characters are vibrant on the page—really, I just want to avoid further cutting—so I’m hoping not only to write a lot this week, but also to write well.

We’ll see how it goes. I hope all of you have the productive week you’re hoping for!

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Belly travels to a beach house every summer with her mother and older brother, Steven, where they live with her mother’s best friend Susannah and Susannah’s two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly has always felt left out of the three boys’ lives, but this summer, everything is going to change. Belly is sixteen, and Conrad and Jeremiah are both starting to see her differently. As the summer wears on, Belly begins learning the secrets of Susannah’s life, gets her first boyfriend, and discovers how much her life is about to change.

This book is one of my favorite summer reads ever. Belly is spunky and fun, the boys are swoonworthy, and the plot draws you right in. Han gives us plenty of glimpses into past summers, creating fully fleshed-out characters that you grow to love. At the beginning, broody Conrad and playful Jeremiah seemed to me like they would never push past their stereotypes, but as you learn their histories, you see the depths they are hiding. Also, I adore the cover. I just bought the sequel, It’s Not Summer Without You, and a third book is planned. Thank goodness—I’m always up for a good love story set at the beach.

Also, I met Jenny Han at the Teen Author Festival in NYC in March, and she signed my book! I have proof:

She thanks me for saying sweet things because I'm pretty sure I gushed about how much I loved the book and probably scared her. Can't remember, all a blur.

The Friday Five

1. Last summer, I lived in an apartment in the South End in Boston, which may just be my favorite neighborhood of the whole city (only if Harvard Square doesn’t count, natch). I visited it on one of my walks this week, and it’s just so pretty!




2. All of my reservations about the new season of Friday Night Lights are completely gone. Last Friday’s premiere was just so good, mainly because Tim Riggins was still there and acting all Riggins-like. Oooh, and Saracen’s there, too. And Coach is going to whip that new team into shape. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go buy the DVDs of the past three seasons. They’re only about $25 each, and you’re going to love them. Promise.

3. I need to stop reading books at night. Twice this week, I started reading a book at 10 pm only to get so addicted to it that I had to stay up until 1 am and finish it. Thank goodness I’m a fast reader. But still, it’s ruining my sleep schedule.

4. I’ve been working on my goal of writing 15,000 words this week, and it’s going pretty well. I’ve written about half of that, but I’ve also had to cut another 5,000 words, so I feel like I’m getting nothing done. Maybe this weekend will be better.

5. I’m loving Elizabeth Scott’s blog these days. She’s the author of some awesome, wonderful, beautiful young adult novels, many of them about high school life and romance (the kind of books that keep me up until 1 am). Her blog is always full of helpful links for writers, and her voice is so very approachable.

Happy Friday!

Why on Earth Can I Never Come Up With Titles I Like?

I hate coming up with titles. I mean, I really hate it. I feel like the ones I decide on are never clever enough, or meaningful enough, and so I end up putting placeholder titles in and forgetting about it. Broken Mirrors, for example, was something I just put in on a whim. It did make sense for the story at the time (with all the revisions, though, it’s become less relevant). But I’ve never really fallen in love with it, and if anyone ever comes up with a better title for the book, I’m all ears. Because I LOVE clever titles that draw me in right away. For example, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison is just something I have to read. How can you pass that up? Or The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (zombie novel!). Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl by Barry Lyga. Sigh.

Why I can't have writer's block

I did some writing yesterday on the Sophie WIP, trying to fulfill my goals for this week. And it was awful. All of it. My sentence structure felt forced, I found myself wavering over Sophie’s voice, and my dialogue was particularly pathetic. But even though I knew I hated nearly every word I was typing, I still wrote it. That way, today I don’t have to stare at a blank page. I at least have something to revise. Lots of authors have spoken about this, especially in relation to writers’ block, which may or may not be a myth. If you’re a working writer, you can’t have writer’s block. You just have to write something, anything. Even if you add, as I did, THIS MAKES NO SENSE and COMPLETELY REWRITE LATER into the document to make sure that bad writing won’t stay for too long. If nothing else, I got my ideas down on paper. And re-reading the ridiculously stilted paragraphs I wrote yesterday made me laugh this morning. So it all worked out.

Happy Things 5/10

Here are some things that make me happy, even though it's Monday:

1. Coloring in coloring books like a very contented five year old.

2. Days where, even though I stop working at 5, I still feel like it’s been a productive, full day.

3. Getting lost in a strange city and discovering it like a local.

4. The times when I read something in a book that makes me so happy I actually squeal out loud (this happens to me often when I read young adult books. And yes, it’s usually when the guy and girl get together.)

5. Listening to French jazz songs while I’m cooking and pretending like I’m in a romantic comedy montage scene.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Goals!

I managed to mostly catch up on my goals from the past few weeks and have brought the Sophie WIP to where I want it. I’ve cut 30,000 words (more will probably follow) and organized everything. Now it’s just time for some writing! So, my goals for this week:

-Write! Write at least 15,000 words. I’m hoping to just start at the new beginning of the novel and write everything in order, but that doesn’t always happen. If I get a good idea for a scene later in the novel—if I come up with a good line of dialogue, for example—I’ll start writing that scene. So I’ll settle for 15,000 words anywhere.

-Continue working on character profiles. I have complete profiles on everyone, including what their personal journeys throughout the novel will be, but I often discover new things about my characters as I write them—more stories about their past, more insight into their personality, etc.

So, this week, there will be a lot of sitting in front of a computer and NOT MOVING. I’m fully prepared: I bought Season 1 of the BBC series Robin Hood on iTunes to watch during breaks. I’m all set.

Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

Tangled follows the lives of four teenagers over a four-month period. Jena, Skye, Dakota, and Owen each narrate one month, starting with the month when their lives collide at a beach resort. It’s difficult to summarize this book, because I don’t want to give too much away, but each of the teens is dealing with some sort of insecurity or depression. Jena is concerned about her body, especially in comparison with skinny and beautiful Skye, who’s hiding some secrets about her perfect life. Dakota acts like a jerk, but maybe he doesn’t have to. Owen is more involved with the Internet than he is with his real life. After their time at the beach resort, however, all of these teens begin learning how to grow into the adults they want to be.

I’m becoming a devoted fan of Carolyn Mackler’s books. I read her debut novel first, Love and Other Four Letter Words (hooked me on the title alone), but my favorite is definitely Vegan Virgin Valentine, mainly because I identified with the Type-A protagonist in desperate need of a wake-up call. They’re all such fun reads. Tangled is a different sort of book, but I enjoyed it from the first page to the last. I love the different voices that Mackler conjures: they’re all so honest and quirky. You end up rooting for all of them, even if you didn’t think you would. I’ll be keeping a lookout for her next novel.

The Friday Five

1. We’ve suddenly received all these amazing catalogs in the mail here at my apartment, and they’re making me long for summer! All of them are set at the beach, with old-fashioned sea lanterns and comfy Adirondack chairs. I’m not the biggest fan of swimming in the ocean (mortal fear of sharks, jellyfish, and pretty much any fish), but the idea of grabbing a good book, a big hat, and a snow cone or something and running down to the nearest warm, sandy beach…heaven.


2. The new season of Friday Night Lights premieres tonight! I’m tentative about it, because several of the regulars have left and there are some big changes over in Dillon, but I’ve got my DVR set. There’s no way I’m missing it.
3. I read this New York Times article about a site called Formspring, and it just freaked me out. Kids are emailing each other insulting comments and revealing the insulting comments that they received? Seriously? Is this really what we need? Do the stories of kids killing themselves because they’ve been bullied in person or online mean nothing?
4. On a lighter, more writing-related note, I realized this week (because my room got turned upside down when we got bedbugs so we could get all the critters exterminated) that I have a whole lot of journals. And most of them are full. I have a journal or two for every work-in-progress, and I actually wrote the first draft of Broken Mirrors out completely in longhand. Is that weird? I’ve been working on my laptop more now, mainly because I find revisions impossible to do without the whole cutting and pasting technology. But there’s something so inspiring about staring at a blank page with nothing more than your pen. And the knowledge that if you don’t fill that page in ten minutes or less, you’re a failure. Just kidding.
5. I’ve been reading this blog obsessively the past few weeks: http://stiryourtea.blogspot.com/. T.H. Mafi has a great view of writing and the publishing world, and her voice is absolutely hilarious. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the writing process.

Alright, everyone, have a great weekend!

What on earth has happened this week...

Ah, how is it Wednesday already? I’ve gotten nothing done on my Sophie WIP or Broken Mirrors or anything else writing-related. I did, however, get to do about a billion loads of laundry once I got back to Boston (stupid bedbug infestation). The laundry is still going, and I am now resolved to give away most if not all of my clothes so I never have to wash them again.

Today, though, I’m going to get some work done. I’m still playing catch-up on the Sophie WIP, since I haven’t met my goals for it yet. I need to cut out a bunch of the manuscript that I have, since the plot is now radically different. This is one of my least favorite parts of the writing process, but at least it beats doing more laundry! I’ve got my potential outline printed out and ready to go, so I’m hoping that by the end of the week, everything will look a little more organized.

I’ve also finally found a plausible flaw for one of my male characters—a real flaw, something that makes him not endearing—so now Sophie has a clearer love interest that she did before. It sure does break my heart, though. I’ve gotten so attached to these characters as I learned about their pasts and their goals and their personality quirks. But I’ve given them all flaws, since otherwise they’d seem pretty inhuman and definitely unsympathetic. I’m learning every day how a strange this whole writing process thing really is.

Happy Things

I'm leaving Texas to go face an apartment that has been fumigated for bed bugs and has no real clean water (really, Boston?), so happy things are especially important today.

1. Antique stores with the most wonderful, random things (the picture to the left is of Uncommon Objects in Austin, which has the most amazing collection of everything you can imagine, from old chairs and paintings to photographs of unknown people and baby doll heads).

2. Cappuccinos or lattes where they put the cool designs in the foam.

3. People-watching from an outdoor cafe (something I can do for hours).

4. Having a clean, clutter-free room (though not the cleaning process itself).

5. Watching people on Town Lake in Austin (where my mom and I went this weekend—this guy is standing on a surfboard and paddling, which apparently is the newest cool watersport there).

Happy Monday, everyone!

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

I read Courtney Summers’ Cracked Up to Be a few months ago, but I knew I wanted to review it on this blog. Parker Fadley is one of the most original, unforgettable characters I’ve met in a long time. We meet her in her senior year of high school, when she is trying to make everyone leave her alone, though she won’t tell us why. She gets drunk in class. She manipulates her friends and her parents. She just wants to graduate and get the hell away from everyone. As new guy Jake enters her orbit, though, we begin to see the vulnerability under her acerbic wit and gradually learn what has made her so different from the perfectionist she used to be.

The strained relationships Parker has with her friends and parents feels real, and her voice is smart and readable. This was one of those books that kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. I didn’t even think about putting it down. I just had to find out what had broken Parker. And now I have to read everything Courtney Summers writes.