Good Reads

I've gone a little crazy with the reading this last week. I normally read a few books at a time to match my moods and it takes me awhile to get through some that way.

But this week I hammered through three incredible books:







It helped I was on a road trip. These are the type of books I want to write. I could re-read these over and over again and still love them. I couldn't, like, not read them. Whenever I put them down for whatever reason, I had to find my way back to them again. As soon as possible. They were so addicting.

Maybe, somewhere, deep down, I have it in me to write stories like these. And all three are so different, you know?


What amazing books have you fallen in love with lately?

Punching Bag

In my writing room, I have a punching bag.

There is a reason for this.

I've hit a wall in my revisions. I'm trying, sometimes literally, to punch through it.

The Love Triangle

Eclipse mania is upon us again. Didn't we just do this with New Moon? Geesh.

Anyway, this got me thinking about what is so great about Twilight. I think so much of the tension in these novels stems from the love triangle. Every girl wants the agonizing decision of choosing between two hot guys, right? Right.

The Vampire Diaries? Love triangle. True Blood? Love triangle. Gossip Girl? Love triangle. Um, I think. More like a love octagon? I don't know. I don't really watch it.

But my favorite show, LOST, has got one the best love triangle's eva:

TEAM SAWYER. TEAM JACK. NO, TEAM SAWYER. OKAY. I LOVE THEM BOTH. BUT I HAVE A FEELING, JUDGING FROM PAST EPISODES, NO ONE WILL GET A HAPPY ENDING IN LOST ANYWAY.

But when I was a teenager, my favorite shows also had great love triangles. I may not have been into the vampire stuff then, but heck if I didn't love the drama:

Love Triangle: Joey, Dawson, Jen
Love Triangle: Pacey, Joey, Dawson
I loved this show. I miss it. But we all move on...

And...

Felicity. I was Team Ben all the way. I was never much of a Noel fan, even though he was "the nice guy." Hmmmm....

The thing is, there has to be admirable qualities about all in a love triangle. There has to be flaws too. There has to be room for debate. Who would you choose? Oh, goodness. The love triangle never fails. Because there's a choice. Someone will always get hurt. Drama. Drama. Drama!

Any great love triangles I'm leaving out? Probably. Leave them in the comments!

DOUBLE DIGITS

Dude. Thank you followers. I have now reached double-digits! Yes! I am so happy that I feel as powerful and free and awesome as this:

I am powerful and free and awesome!

Thanks for following! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!

And one more thing...

It's almost Friday.

I bet you thought I was going to say Thanks again, no?

Until next time, my double-digit following army, until next time.

Sweet.

Instinct

These last few weeks, I've learned a little about myself. Mainly through my wonderful critique partners but also through writing flash fiction pieces, I feel like, maybe, just maybe, I'm starting to get to know myself as a writer. I'm noticing my "ticks." For example, I really love to repeat the same lovely adjective over and over again. Oh, lovely redundancy. You are a tough, and lovely, one to shake. Lovely.

But I'm also learning to trust my gut. We've all got instincts. But I don't always trust myself. I second guess, a lot. It's okay to become inspired, but I don't want to imitate too much. I struggle with this. Just because I loved Going Bovine, doesn't mean I should sit down and say, "Oh. I can do that." Because I can't. In the words of Jerry Maguire: "What does your heart tell you?" Trust yourself. It'll be better in the end.

When I saw John Green and David Levithan speak/read/sign a few weeks ago, David made some great points about voice. He said he tried writing like Raymond Carver, but it wasn't him. It's okay to try on different skins, so to speak, but, in the end, you've got to find your own voice.

The point is, if there really is a point here, is that if you like something in your writing, someone else will like it too. But I need to stop cutting corners and settling for: "Well. That's good enough. The sentence has a subject and verb and that's all you really need. And my MC is okay. Her love interest is okay. Basically, it's okay, these words form sentences and all, and I'm tired of working on this, this is my third draft, so I'm going to go ahead and query to see what I get."

Not a good idea. Because once it's out there, it's out there. And you don't get second chances on one project. At least I haven't! I want to get so excited to send my story out that I can barely hold still, but at the same time, this is all subjective. It's so weird, how someone can love something, and another hates it. But this isn't just true in writing. It's true about EVERYTHING. So I might as well get used to it!

Here's my point, really:

Don't be an echo of someone else's story or writing. Be the shout.

Don't become a ripple. Be the stone.

Easier said than done, right?

I Love You, But This Is Going to Hurt a Little

In general, I avoid conflict and confrontation. I don't like to stir things up. I'm a why-can't-we-all-just-get-along type of person.

In stories, this is a very bad quality to have. It literally sucks away all tension from the story. And without tension/conflict/suspense...what do you have? BORING.

I like my characters. I want them to be happy. But, unfortunately, I'm going to have throw some rocks at them, as much as it pains me to do so.

I love the show LOST. And last night's episode got me thinking about how cruel I am to my characters. Compared to the writers of LOST, I am a softie. Big time. I don't throw enough at my characters. LOST has such great tension/conflict/heartbreaking moments because of the major, mind blowing obstacles thrown in each character's path. I found myself yelling at the TV: I HOPE THEY MAKE IT OUT OF THERE ALREADY!

I think the success of this show has more to do with the characters rather than Smoke Monsters and the unexplained mystery stuff. It's all about the characters. That's the backbone of the series. It wouldn't work without them so deeply sketched.

So, dear present and future MCs of mine, I love you, I do, but this is going to hurt a little. Maybe a lot. I'm sorry!

Good Will Editing

My horse lost the Kentucky Derby. BUT. I picked the right trainer! He had four horses racing and I picked, well, the worst one. But I'm beginning to think one must bet on the jockey (he has won the last 3 of 4 Derbies) and not the horse. I will remember that for the Preakness and Belmont. And next year.

Anyway! I'm editing! I have awesome critiques partners who point out things that I never realized because my eyes start to skim my own work! Yeah!

BTW - I WON SCRIPT FRENZY! I got to 100 pages of complete slop. But, whatever, I worked through the story and got a better idea of what I want it to be. I hadn't written a screenplay in FOREVER (Novel sort of take up a ton of writing time.) and so it was nice to at least get some words down. I'm going to start on Draft One soon. But my main focus is editing my WIP with the glorious help of critique partners.

I also need to go through my closet and send off some clothes to Good Will. This, you probably saw this coming, is a lot like editing. What do I keep? What do I need? Yes, I really like this bejeweled trucker hat, but I never wear it, I don't need it, so that baby's gotta go! It's sort of heartbreaking. And sometimes I can be very mean and do this quickly. I just toss things in a pile and cut, cut, cut. Same with editing. Although, at this point, I think I'm being more careful. The second and third acts are in need of major plot revisions. I'll get there. We will all get there.

Coming this Summer: NEW WIP. WOOT.

HAPPY EDITING!