Christmas in the South

For all my pep talking and determination, I've spent the last several days in Christmas preparations. So fun. Shopping and wrapping and baking...at one point I caught myself running around the house with my cutie apron on, listing to Christmas jazz, and wondering when on earth I stepped back in time sixty years. I have an upcoming trip up to the in-laws and in an ever and on-going attempt to break the awkward, I decided that Christmas treats would be the way to go this year. So sugar cookies, gingerbread men, and peppermint bark are filling up my kitchen counter tops. 

It's not all prep, though. My husband and I have had the chance here and there to go out and see how South Carolina does Christmas. Especially beautiful was Brookgreen Garden's Night of 1,000 Candles. Here's a few pictures of the moonlit sculptures, Spanish moss, Christmas fairies, and (of course) candles.

Brave or Stupid?

I was watching the Ugly Betty episode where Daniel decides to use all his own resources to keep the company going when they're basically bankrupt. Two other characters called him brave and it got me thinking...those two people might think him brave, but I bet the rest of us are calling him stupid. That seems to be the way of TV shows. Someone chooses something 'crazy' and we all say "Oh, that's a dumb move." Until the end of the show when it all works out and everyone is thrilled and we all say "Well, maybe not so stupid after all. Look how happy they all are!"

I was raised to believe myself brave for doing sensible, responsible things. Hard work and diligence are what move us forward in this life - Even if you don't love what you're doing or where it's taking you. Pushing ahead and being miserable is the 'brave' thing to do.

While I agree that sacrifice is a very beautiful and difficult thing to do, I don't think sacrificing happiness just for the sake of doing so is at all brave. In fact, I think it's very cowardly. It says life as it is, is good enough and can't get any better. It's proof that fear is crippling every choice to the point where risk is not an option.

Acting bravely requires risk. It involves taking a chance that it could all blow up in your face and fail miserably. Usually choosing to act bravely has one person saying "yeah, go, you can do it!" (maybe the one person is you) and all the rest saying "are you sure you want to do this? It sounds kinda stupid."

For me, I think an act of bravery would be to call myself a writer. Not a substitute teacher or a home-maker, but to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that I will get published and start to really work towards that goal. There are those in my life that say with sarcastic undertones "okay. good luck." There are also those that really believe I can do it. As of today: I'm going to choose to ignore the sarcasm, take in and learn from constructive criticism, and listen only to support.

I wonder if already published authors had those same naysayers in their life before being published. People  telling them in not so many words that dreaming of the New York Times Bestsellers list is dreaming too big. Aren't dreams supposed to be big? Isn't that why Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory watches the Nobel Prize awards?

What dreams are you afraid of voicing? Be brave: say it out loud and let the power of those words propel you towards your goal.

(Overdue) Advise from YallFest

A few things (serious and silly) that I picked up from YallFest Panels:

1. Root imaginary worlds in reality. Give your readers some signposts - it helps them connect to it.

2. Setting and landscape are super important, but don't forget about the time frame in which your story takes place. Time of day, time of year, decade, century is all important to keep in mind (even if it doesn't make it into the pages of your book).

3. Really bad writing comes from trying to write yourself: When we try to write ourselves, we're really not. We lack the distance and the result is something too perfect, or too self-debasing.

4. The usefulness of the slush pile is dwindling. Fewer and fewer books are making it out without being shredded. The solution? An Agent. It's becoming increasingly important to find an agent.

5. Finding an agent is like dating - find one who likes you and believes in your work. You don't want to go into business with someone who doesn't 'get' your work.

6. Immature poets imitate. Mature poets steal.

7. Carrie Ryan: The best weapon you can have in a zombie apocalypse is someone who runs slower than you.

8. If you're going back into history, take advantage of it. Go into the bigger cultural world.

9. Make sure your villain believes in what he/she is doing. Even the people you are vilifying need to make sense.

10. If you're stuck moving the plot forward, get out of your protagonist's head and enter your antagonist's.

11. Empathy is important: It's difficult to empathize with losing an entire nation, but very easy to feel for 2 or 3 people.

12. David Levithan: Writers don't peak, we just keep getting better with age (and experience).

13. Kami Garcia's fail-safe: Whenever the book is not working out you just need to add more making out.

The End...of NaNo 2011

I discovered that trying to write an entire novel in a month and travel for a third of the time allotted is just plain crazy. Probably just the first part is crazy on its own, but here's a few lovely things that came out of my NaNo 2011 experience:

1. I wrote over 13,000 words this month! I think that whatever we accomplished deserves to be celebrated.
2. I found joy in writing again.
3. I started to write regularly. Three cheers for creating good habits! (Which may have been interrupted by 11 days of Thanksgiving travel.)
4. I have more defined goals when it comes to writing.
5. I have most of a book outlined. (Which is against NaNo's ideas - editing should start tomorrow morning. I started early and my word count suffered for it.)
6. I'm really excited to keep working on it!

Congratulations to all who participated in NaNo! Whether goals were met or not, I'm proud of us!

Personally, I will be focusing on creating a more sustainable writing schedule in December and January. Perhaps I'll do another word count push in February. Either way, I'll keep the counter going on the blog so you can see my progress. I am one who responds well to external motivation and knowing you're watching the counter will keep me thinking about pushing those numbers up.

How did you do? What did you learn? I'm anxious to hear!

Super Short NaNo Update

I just spent most of the morning organizing the nearly 12,000 words I had so far written, because I was getting lost in them. I have a more traditional outline going now and discovered something both funny and overwhelming. The first pages I wrote on November 1st were literally the MIDDLE of my book. I've been pushing to catch up with them and just when I thought I was getting close, I realized that I have three whole chapters more to write just to catch up to them. Not to mention the string of unfinished and half written chapters before that. The good news: When I catch up, I bet I'm close to 25,000 words. The bad news: That surely won't be today. How are you guys doing?

An Adventure in Parking, or My Day In Charleston, SC

A gorgeous, sunny day greeted me as I stepped out of my door juggling purse, shoulder bag, keys, phone, ipod, and extra large cinnamon flavored coffee. A perfect morning for a drive. 

It's about two hours to Charleston and I left early knowing that there were logistics that I couldn't work out in advance, as you will see. I listened to She & Him's Christmas album and glided smoothly in a cinnamon scented, jingle-bell filled haze to the Yall Fest Charleston Young Adult Book Festival.

The Fest was based out of the Blue Bicycle Book store on King St. (It's just outside the shadow of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church - one of the many spires of Charleston.)

Okay, so King Street is about one horse carriage wide and yet they made it two lanes with parking on either side. Needless to say - I'm glad I took the Yaris. Also, once I got into downtown and found the book store, (luckily they had set up a big white tent in the gravel parking lot next door) I saw that our little Fest was not the only doings downtown that day. LOTS of people = LOTS of cars and no where to park. About a mile down the road, I found a metered spot, parked, and dug through my wallet to find exactly five nickles. Long story slightly shorter, I walked back and forth about three times getting cash/quarters to plug the meter (thanks to the girl at the Pita Pit) and looking for a more permanent parking solution. Found out there was a parking garage right around the corner from the book store and they were comping the parking fees. Phew.

An hour later, I made it to my first of five panels - DEMONS, WITCHES, AND CASTERS, OH MY!

A quick note about downtown Charleston itself: It's beautiful. It reminded me of a little London. The smell of old brick with new paint mingled with the scent of warm cement. Add to that the dozens of restaurants advertising their wares by opening their doors. It's colorful and busy, old and modern. A mix of architecture and palmetto trees. Just lovely.

Now, I took geeky notes at all of the panels and learned oh, so much. (All of which I will post tomorrow.) But here are a few things that happened:

Sarah Rees Brennan stood on her chair and reenacted how she tested the strength of the Millennium Bridge in London (for research, of course). People and guards yelling at her,
"Don't do it?"
"Do what?"
"Don't jump, your life is worth it!"
"Oh, no you don't understand, I'm a writer!"
(Very funny.)

Kami Garcia admitted her hatred of cats because, as everyone knows, "they see spirits".

I sat next to Melissa Bigner during the REALITY BITES panel. She was so sweet and introduced herself with the confidence of someone who's seen their name in print. So, of course, I had to find her on Google.

I started crying when Kwame Alexander demonstrated how you can connect to an audience in just 10 lines of poetry during the UNDEAD POETS SOCIETY panel.

I discovered the richness of Southern culture and superstition in the PUTTING THE YALL IN YALLFEST panel.

My favorite moment must have been when the panel of DON'T DIS-TOPIAN ended the session by arguing who of them would make the best Princess Leia. In an effort to end on time, the moderator decided it would be Eliot Schrefer. (The only male on the panel.)

The day ended in an all-to-quickly-over YA Smackdown where 26 authors improvised books in 10 seconds and Eliot won the 'golden pie' award. (It was literally a golden pie on a chain - flava flav style.)

Starbucks lifted my spirits and I drove home to crash. What a day. Lessons to come. In the meantime here are some pictures from my Charleston adventure. 

King St. Shops

Do you see how narrow?

The Pita Pit - my ATM, quarters, and bathroom savior.

Have you ever seen a prettier Urban Outfitters?

Marion Square, Charleston

St Matthews

Me with Kami Garcia and Victoria Schwab

The PUTTING THE YALL IN YALLFEST Panel 

(minus Katie Crouch)

Saundra Mitchell, Carrie Ryan, Michelle Hodkin, and Beth Revis

Me and Beth Revis :)

Taking a Deep Breath. NaNo Day 10.

I'm not done writing today. I promise.

With that said, you might note that I haven't added too many words to my word count-o-meter in the last couple of days. However, some really great things have come out of my 4500 marathon.

First, seeing the 10,000 mark was oddly overwhelming. A weird sense of responsibility to finish the story took over and I went to bed dreaming about my story. (Like I do when I'm in the middle of reading a really good book. So, I take that as a good omen.)

Second: The outline for my little book is extensive. My plot has thickened! I am so happy with the progress I've made and I'm already feeling proud of what I'm creating. That's a big deal!

Third. Since Sunday, I've needed to chill out a bit, but I was feeling a little guilty for falling behind just as I had caught up. Some really awesome people have written some really great stress-relieving blogs:

Jes, you're so right about the having fun part.

Sunday was super fun, but also super draining. I needed the time to really pound out a huge chunk of story. And in that way, NaNo is such a motivator for me. I am a person who needs some external motivation. But I don't want to come out of November sick of writing, either. It's all about creating lasting habits.

Beth Revis wrote about herself and other authors in the Young Adult realm of literature. It's short, but very encouraging for those of us who would love to someday be the new kid on the block.

Maureen Johnson (who is writing NaNoWriMo advise daily, fyi) in her 11/10 post writes simply that "try as you might, you can't force the voice".

Who hasn't hit a point where the words just don't want to come? It's true that sometimes I'm all 'talked' out, or maybe my characters are. It's okay if they're not speaking to me today. I have faith that they won't be silent very long.

It was good timing to read these lovely notes. After so much good progress, I took a long deep breath and now I'm ready to forge on ahead again. The big run was exciting, but slow and steady wins the race.

There's been much debate over NaNo and the quality of work that comes out of it. Personally, I'm using the word count goals to get my bum in the chair typing. I'm new at this and here's an opportunity to create good habits and network with tons of other people who are in the same boat.

I know I'll have a LOT of work to do after NaNo in order to have something worth reading. But as a new writer, I couldn't ask for a better (or more intense) network of support.

Okay, back to work.