Ben Folds is one of my favorite artists of all time. A lot of people are familiar with him because of his mainstream hit, Brick, from the late 90s. If that’s all you know of him, PLEASE dig deeper. He’s an incredible musician and songwriter, and his songs have fantastic lines such as: “Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall, but there’s … Continue reading Be Somebody’s Ben Folds
We all know the One Hit Wonder, right? It’s a term typically used to describe a recording artist known for only one hit song. Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby, Eddie Murphy – Party All the Time, Eiffel 65 – Blue (I hate myself a little for even thinking of that song), Macy Gray – I Try, James Blunt – You’re Beautiful…you get the idea. … Continue reading Pondering the One Hit Wonder
Usually, when I sit down to write a story, I have a pretty good idea of who my characters are. I know their names, I know their personalities, I know what their general roles are in the story. But they don’t become REAL to me until I figure out what it is that makes them different from every other character in every other book. … Continue reading Creating Memorable Characters
We all know that, in my opinion, music is as important a part of the writing process as pen and paper (or, you know, fingers and a laptop). Whenever someone is stuck on a scene, I tell them to make a new playlist. The other day, that suggestion was met with the following reply, “I don’t know how to make a playlist.” STUNNED, you guys. … Continue reading Creating Writing Playlists: Where to Start?
I’m one of those people who’s wanted to be a writer since I was old enough to understand what it meant. Throughout my childhood, I wrote story after story and shared them with everyone I could. And then I stopped. I mean, I wrote all sorts of dramatic emo journal entries and some pretty terrible, angst-filled poetry throughout my high school years. But stories? No … Continue reading I’m a Bust a Move Kind of Writer
Sometimes, when I’m feeling completely drained and uninspired, I have to get away from everything. When I moved to Lexington (pop: over 300,000) from Lancaster (pop: under 4,000), I was enamored with Lexington’s abundance. Whatever Lancaster had, Lexington had more. People. Cars. Buildings. Schools. Libraries. Stores. Cars. Farms. Parks. Gyms. Restaurants. Cars. It took about two years for that to get really, really old. I … Continue reading Inspiration in Silence and Space
I know a lot of writers really love the revision process. In general, I’m not one of them. I love drafting (and I do it SLOWLY), and revisions are typically on a shorter deadline and I stress and I procrastinate and I write and I rewrite and I CRY. (I do not actually cry.) (I mean, not usually.) (Revising makes me thirsty.) I generally get … Continue reading The Write Frame of Mind
(This post originally appeared on HerKentucky.) As many of you know from my very first post on Her Kentucky, I’ve been working on a young adult novel, BETWEEN, for about two years. I wrote it, then re-wrote it, re-wrote it, and re-wrote it again. I’m talking major, beginning-to-end rewrites, not including all the minor revisions I made on those drafts along the way. Many times, usually about … Continue reading A Dream Come True, aka I GOT A BOOK DEAL!
Twitter is one of the best things that ever happened to my writing career. I met all of my critique partners there, got to know all kinds of amazing authors, learned about contests and conferences, and learned more about the business of writing overall. Twitter is also the absolute worst thing that ever happened to my writing career. Everybody is so fun and smart and … Continue reading Finishing That Draft
(This post originally appeared on http://www.yamisfits.com.)BETWEEN has been through a lot since I started writing it. Three beginning-to-end rewrites. Point of view change. Aged up the main character. Aged down her love interest. Went from past to present tense. Eliminated characters. Created new ones. And each rewrite involved a completely new ending, because I clearly hate myself.FINALLY, I sent it out to several beta readers … Continue reading Dealing with Critique
