Love Triangles

LTUE was...interesting. I definitely learned a lot, and the keynote speaker was amazing and worth all the money and attending all three days to listen to. Truly inspirational. The conference was, dare I say, a bit of a nerd-fest that I wasn't quite prepared for. Seeing as how it was for fantasy and science fiction writers, I shouldn't have been surprised. :) Still, I'm glad I went. Share with you some of my newfound wisdom, I will.

Since this is the week of loooove, I want to focus on one class I attended about Romance. The first two books I've written have a clear cut love interest and focused on whether or not those MC's should be together or not. Alas, I am a happy ending kind of girl, so you can guess what happened in the end. The third book I wrote was a middle grade adventure that has no romance, and served as a learning experience for me...I really missed that romance. So this go-round I'm back to Young Adult--and a love triangle.

I am madly in love with BOTH of my boy characters and I know my main girl is going to have just as hard a time choosing between the two as I would. Of course, I know who she will choose and why, and I'm already aching for that other guy. I have been afraid to make that other guy too desirable so my readers won't hate me forever when she chooses the one she does. A writer friend also told me that readers tend to attach to the first boy introduced in a story, so you need to be careful if the other guy is in the story first. Uh-oh.

Someone asked the panel at the conference about this, and here is what every single author there said: Do whatever you can to make your readers hate you for who the MC ends up with. What??? Yes. They said to make the choice between the two boys so difficult, both perfect options, and divide your readership across the board between Team One Boy and Team The Other Guy. Don't make one boy worse, make them both awesome.

Cue my maniacal laughter. My WIP just got THAT much funner to write. It makes so much sense to make both of these boys amazing, I'm not holding back. And I'm not worrying about readers hating me anymore. Because if I can get them to care that much about my characters and story, I've done my job.

So how do you all incorporate romance into your stories?

And oh yeah, my critique partner TARYN JUST SIGNED WITH AN AGENT! Aaaaaah! Head on over to her blog and give her some love. She deserves it! ***so excited for her***

oh happy day

I've got SIX great things to share today from the Ka'ao blogfront.

1) I reward myself with a book cover design (which may or may not involve begging the husband into designing it for me) when I finish the first draft of a book...it's amazing how motivational this can be. Now that I'm querying my first novel, I decided as a reward for whipping it into query-shape I'd order myself a tangible copy of the book with said cool cover. And look what I got in the mail last week:
Talk about satisfying. I think I spent five minutes just smelling it and running my fingers across each page. Isn't it beautiful?

2) I hit 50 followers last week, and still growing. Who-hoo. I love the blogging community and the many friends I've made. You guys rock! Stay tuned for a fun giveaway when I hit the elusive 100 followers!

3) I finally got past the planning stages of my new WIP, the YA sci-fi, and started writing the dang thing. My notes are only about 22 single-spaced pages...I told ya...*anal writer here*. But I am so excited about this first chapter. I am revising it heavily, and it usually takes me a while to get that start right, but wow, I can't sleep at night because I'm so pumped. Also, my first chapter alone includes the following words: breasts, sex (twice), naked, damn, hell (twice), and genitalia. Not a big deal for the YA market, I know. But when the worst thing in my first book was the word damn three times (and one of those is in a different language, so doesn't really count), this kinda makes me laugh...and nervous for what else I'm gonna have to write in this one. *still excited though*

4) I am going to the LTUE conference at UVU this weekend. It's my first time and I'm so excited! Anyone else going? I hope to share some helpful notes I learn there on the blog so stay tuned.

5) I've been awarded some fun blog awards from Kelley at Between the Bookends and Victoria at Confessions of a Twenty Something Fiction Writer. Thanks ladies! Go check out their blogs right now--they are fantastic.



Each blog award comes with a slightly different set of rules, but for the sake of simplicity, I will just share 5 random facts about moi:

a. My favorite food is avocado, and if I could eat an avocado-tomato-cucumber sandwich every day for the rest of my life, I would.

b. I have a degree in Physics with a minor in both Math and Dance. Naturally, I became a writer. But, you never know when my mad tap-dancing and astronomy skills may come in handy.

c. I am part-Hawaiian and grew up on the north shore of Oahu. Of course, it took moving to the 'mainland' as an adult to realize how cool that really was. Now I get to write about all that coolness whenever I feel like it (and take frequent trips home to see my parents...for research purposes only, of course).

d. I have four amazing kids...and we homeschool. Do not ask me how I find time to write, because I honestly don't know. It involves a lot of late nights.

e. I can do hard things.

I want to pass these awards onto four of my favoritest peeps in the world, my critique partners Emily, Katherine, Taryn, and Robin. We all met in a class taught by the wonderful author Louise Plummer at a writer's conference, and it was one of the best things to ever happen to me and my writing. I LOVE these girls, so go and check them out right now.

6) And my final bit of great news: One of those lovely CP's of mine has some BIG NEWS to share very VERY soon. I can barely keep it in. I will let you know who and what as soon as I am allowed. Ooooh it's so hard for me to contain.:)

Have a happy day, all!

To trilogy, or not to trilogy--that is the question.

A question I often hear from aspiring writers is whether to lay a project to the side and move on to that Shiny New Idea they can't stop thinking about. My advice is always the same: do whatever the heck you want. Especially if you're unagented/unpublished. Without deadlines to bog you down, why not do what you are most passionate about at the moment? Writing is fun. It doesn't mean that other manuscript is dead. Alas, you are a fiction writer--revive that zombie when you're good and ready.

This month, I've decided to take my own advice. I have two books in much need of revisions that I'm shelving...for now. I am the anal, outlining, detail-oriented, obsessive perfectionist type of writer. So this is hard for me. And I feel like I'm being a total rebel. Sad, I know, but let's just embrace the dotted i's and crossed t's persons of the world for a moment. The most important part is--I'm super excited to start on my Shiny New Idea. It's a science fiction story that has been floating around in my head for about a year. I've been researching/outlining for a few weeks now. And here's the problem, it's gonna take more than one book to tell this story.

A multiple book project (in my case, a trilogy) is extremely common. Especially for science fiction or fantasy. But for an unpublished writer? Ugh. Cue my annoying sensible self. How do I query a book that is the first of a series? Do I just write all three even if the first one doesn't snag an agent? I know a lot of you have written a series or at least the first book in a series. How does one cope with these doubtful thoughts of a confessed stickler? Advice, people, advice!

Also, this trilogy is NOT going to sit well with a lot of people. The kind of thing that if published, will probably bring in hate mail and death threats. Okay, maybe not really. But some will get mad at me for writing it, I have no doubt.

I'm writing this thing whether it's sensible or not. And whether it ruffles feathers or not. Am I crazy? Or just your typical barmy writer?

Querying Woes

I'm querying right now. And I think I might explode.

Back up the query train for a moment.

I started writing in 2010. Finished (and polished-or so I thought) it within 6 months and was feeling pretty darn good. Started querying...oh maybe 25 agents. Generic rejections across the board. What??!! How could they not love my perfect manuscript, you know the one that all my friends and family said was fantastic. The one that would turn the publishing world on it's head because of its fresh concept, amazing characters, and nail-biting plot.

Yeah. Whatever agent people. So I started writing another book.

Then I went to a writer's conference. Then to another writer's conference. I learned hey, maybe starting out with dialogue in a prologue with a character whose name I didn't want to give away in an otherwise boring childhood scene was not the way to start my story. Maybe I could go with a few less adverbs, adjectives, passive voice, being coy with the readers. And wait, where is that hook? Yada yada yada...my book sucked. So I started studying (books and blogs on writing), paying attention to feedback, got myself a critique group and revised that baby to death.

Which brings me to today. Again, I'm feeling pretty darn good about that first book. This time around, I hope I'm not deluding myself. I started querying a couple of weeks ago. Generic rejections across the board.

Except, wait, what was that? Oh yeah, I got a full manuscript request. What the ??!! Yipeee!!

(Edit...um, make that 2 full requests. Just got another this afternoon...who-hoo!)

Regardless of what happens on this querying roller-coaster I'm on, at least someone in the writing world thought my book was worth a look, right? I know the reality of the business. I'm probably in for at least a few more years and a few more books before I break into the world of publishing, but I'm in it for the long haul. Not giving up. Despite these querying woes.

Any advice to get through querying? (And online agent contest rejections too...yuck) I could use some motivation.

I heart YA

A few days ago, I read this. I thought yes, yes, heck yes. I heart YA. Always have. Always will. YA literature is made of awesome sauce!

Then today, I read this.

Sigh.

It left me in tears. I want to rub my eyes out with bleach and forget I ever read it. I'm cringing, knowing there are teachers out there, squeezing all the awesomeness out of that awesome sauce.

What is wrong with YA? Why do some people think the only books worth reading are written for adults, preferably by a long dead author?

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the classics. And my kids do too. So much that they turned our basement into a Shakespearean theater in order to act out his plays. Make stop-motion videos of Charles Dickens' stories. Beg to learn more about the adventures of Odysseus.

But they also hide in the bathroom to get in just one more chapter of Harry Potter. Write their own cartoon-rendition of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Jump up and down in giddiness when they get to meet a favorite living author in person. Snuggle in bed with me at night, red-faced, to tell of their crush on a fictional character from a favorite book.

How could these experiences be considered inferior just because they do not come from a "classic"?

Mumble and grumble and grrrr and outright blast it all.

A much more intelligent response (compared to my frustrated ramblings that may or may not make sense) can be read here.

Sigh.

I'm off to write more awesome sauce.

And to leave you on a happier note, have you seen this yet?:

Favorites

Here are some of my favorite things when it comes to writing--

Favorite quote (read as advice to writers):

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.

-Lewis Caroll

Favorite book cover:

Favorite novel:

SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, by Orson Scott Card

Favorite author:

Shannon Hale

Favorite critique partner:

Hahahahahaha

Favorite writing snack:

Diet Coke...um...I mean carrots and celery

Favorite thing to write about:

Cute boys

Favorite thing to read about:

Cute boys

Favorite writing music:

Dustin O'Halloran

Favorite time to write:

All the time, which isn't a good thing--mostly

What are some of your writing favorites?