My Writing Process

So the lovely Veronica Bartles invited me to take part in this fun little blog hop. Just four questions about my writing process, and then I'll name someone at the end to hopefully keep this going. Here goes.

1. What are you working on right now?

I am working on two things. I'm finishing up edits for my MG fantasy TEARLESS, which I love so much it's almost overwhelming at times. And I'm working on coming up with the idea for my next book. Because eventually, I'll finish editing and start querying. And we all know that the best way to avoid the loony bin while querying is to start working on your next project. I have an idea rolling around in my head, but I'm not sure about it yet. I like to let these things sit and simmer for a while before I commit to them. Kind of like tattoos. I have a rule that I won't get a tattoo unless, a full year after I decide I want it, I still want the exact same thing. So far, nothing has passed this test, and I remain un-inked. But don't worry...I don't force myself to wait a whole year before starting a book. Because books, unlike tattoos, can be revised, or even put in a drawer, never seen or heard from again. 

2. How does it differ from other works in its genre?

The big difference between this and other MG fantasies (or other fantasies in general) is that I've really created a form of magic that, to the very best of my knowledge, has never been seen before. I did the same with LUMINARY, my YA fantasy, and that's really what I want for my next book, as well. I think that's what I'm especially good at. Creating really fun, original words/magic systems, and then writing characters that you can truly come to love and root for. I really hope any future readers will love Sam, the main character of TEARLESS, as much as early readers have. 

3. Why do you write what you do?

I have been told, repeatedly, since I was old enough to speak, that I suffer from an overabundance of imagination. Well, suffer might not be the right word. Though it is the word certain people have used to describe me (the people who don't get me, and just think I'm a whack-a-doo). But I choose to believe that I have been particularly and especially blessed. I write fantasy because, to paraphrase Anne Shirley, it has more scope for the imagination. And because it makes me happy. Really, truly, and seriously happy. How many people can say that about their jobs? 

4. How does your writing process work?

I am a plotter through and through. But long before I start plotting, I come up with a premise. Like with LUMINARY, color=magic. Or TEARLESS, a wizard controls everyone in his kingdom through their tears...except the boy who can't cry. Once I come up with this premise, I let it simmer and percolate. I try to let characters and plot points and worlds and rules of magic come to me naturally. And once I feel I have a firm enough grasp on what I want the book to be about, I sit down and write it all out. I prefer the program Scrivener, which has a nifty cork board page. I can put all my plot points on separate notecards, and then move them around as I see fit. It's so much easier than what I used to do (basically just writing out a bullet list in Word, with no order, rhyme, or reason to it). Then I also have separate cork boards for my characters and settings. Couldn't recommend this more. Anyway, after I have things meticulously planned out and written down, I start writing. And 99.9% of the time, I write in order. I generally find writing out of order stressful and just plain strange. And once I'm done with a first draft? Edits, edits, and more edits. This part of the process has grown particularly intense and awesome ever since I met my three fabulous critique partners. They see things I never would or could, and have made me a significantly better writer. 

And that's about it! So now I'm supposed to tag someone else to keep this going. The awesome Rachel Horwitz has agreed to take part. Go here on Friday to read about what she's working on and her writing process.  :) 

Fantasy and Science Fiction are Totally the Same Thing, Right?

Grrrr.

Let me think about that question a little more.

Hmm.....

GRRRRRRRR.

Yeah. No. Not the same thing. Often lumped together (especially in book stores) but so not the same thing.

I don't write science fiction. I've never written science fiction. I might, on occasion, read a book that could be qualified as science fiction light.

I write, read, live, love, breathe fantasy. Have for very nearly all of my life, and don't see that changing anytime soon.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I was called a science fiction writer during a meeting at work today. (In a rather derogatory (and inaccurate) context to boot.)* And apparently I've made my views on this subject known to coworkers, friends, and family. Because as I corrected my coworker for making this false statement, so did several of the other people in the meeting.

Then I got back to my desk and my darling friend Taryn asked how the meeting was.

Not long thereafter, my husband asked me the same question. 

Any of you ever have someone make a completely wrong statement about what you write/writing in general? Ever have them think you're crazy when you object, because really, they're totally the same thing, right? 

(Grrrrr.)

*Additional note following a conversation I had about this post with Delia Moran: I would like to go on the record and state that I actually don't mind explaining the difference to people who actually care/simply didn't know/are interested and want to listen. What bothers me is when people think fantasy and science fiction are the same because they're both trash anyway. Just a bunch of useless words lumped together. So why bother differentiating? I must know I write the crappiest of crap, so why would that really matter to me? This is like when people ask me why I don't try writing a "real book." Not acceptable. So once more for the road: grrrrrrr. 

Why You Should Take A Break After Finishing A First Draft

Me, to my MS, right after I finish writing it:    

My MS is as beautiful as Keira Knightly *nods*

What it probably actually looks like:

Moral of the story? Take a break. Step back. Look at it with fresh eyes. Because when you do, you'll see everything you missed when the draft was shiny and new. And it'll be so much better when you're done. So good, in fact, that you'll probably do this:

The Power of Storytelling

I realize it's been a while since I've blogged. Sorry about that, guys! But something happened the other day that I just can't stop thinking about, and I wanted to share it with all of you. (I tweeted about it at the time, but I have so much more to say on the subject than can be included in just 140 characters.)

So on the way to work on Monday, I saw a truck for a stairlift company. It had a picture very similar to this one on it:

The instant I saw that picture, this is what popped into my head:

Carl from the wonderful Pixar movie Up

The image of Carl scowling while riding his stairlift stayed in my mind for a couple of seconds. But since I was thinking about Up already, my mind very naturally went to my favorite part of the whole movie: the montage of Carl and Ellie's life together. And I seriously burst out crying while driving down the highway. If you've not seen it before, I've put the video below. Or maybe if you have seen it and you love it as much as I do, you'll want to watch it again anyway. 

Wow. I just watched the video to make sure the whole thing was there and it was loaded properly, and I was crying my eyes out. *grabs box of tissues.*

So anyway. *sniffles* The point I'm trying to make here is that there is very real power in good storytelling. I seriously saw a picture of a stairlift and, within a matter of about 10 seconds, I was bawling. Because of a picture. Of a freaking stairlift. If I'd never seen the movie Up, would I have reacted this way? Definitely not. I probably wouldn't have more than glanced at the stairlift truck on my way by. But because the image I saw on the side of that truck was associated with something else in my mind, all of a sudden I have an absolute flood of emotions running through me.

This is what truly good storytelling can do to us. (To us, or for us?) It can take the most mundane things and make them really mean something. It can turn an otherwise boring commute into something special (if exceedingly sad).

That's such a large part of why I decided to become a storyteller, guys. I mean, I write books instead of making movies, but I feel that words are every bit as powerful as images if they're used correctly. When one of my CPs told me that my most recent book made her cry, that was pretty much the best compliment I could ever remember getting. The fact that my words made her care so much that she started crying filled me with such happiness. Such pride in the years I spent on my writing to get to the point where I am today.

And I hope that, some day, my writing is good enough where someone will be driving down the highway or walking down the street, see something that reminds them of one of my books, and they'll feel something. Could be they burst into tears (if that's the case, though, I hope they're not driving too fast...safety first, you know), or burst out laughing, or even just smile a little. As long as my words, my places, my characters matter to them, I'm pretty sure I'll have accomplished what I set out to do the first time I put pen to paper.  

The Writer's Voice

**UPDATE: I was picked for the agent round of this contest! Go Team Krista! You can read my revised entry here.**

It seems I'm one of the lucky 150 to make it into the next round of a rather awesome and exciting contest, "The Writer's Voice." (You can read about it here.) Thanks so much to all of the people involved in putting this contest together! You guys are awesome! :)

(A note to my regular followers: two blog posts in one day? I'm sure you're as shocked about it as I am! I suppose it was bound to happen someday.)

And now, without further ado, here's my entry!

Title: LUMINARY
Genre: YA Fantasy
Word Count: 91,000

QUERY

Seventeen-year-old Caya Filar, like everyone else in her city, sees only in grayscale. Colors exist as magical energy, once worked by Luminaries like her father. But when a prince, terrified of magic he couldn't see, slaughtered the Luminaries and stole the king's throne, colors became something to fear.

Now little better than an outcast, Caya steers clear of the king's guards. She knows they're eager for any excuse to brand her a Luminary and execute her, whether she can see color or not. And there's no chance of leaving the city with guards patrolling the walls, murdering anyone who tries to flee. Keeping her head down, she works in a shop to feed her family—at least until the shopkeeper's son proposes. His respectable name might help her overcome the stigma left by her father's Luminary magic. 
 
If only the stone in her engagement ring had stayed gray.

FIRST 250

Every day as I left to work, Avara tried to make me feel guilty and I tried to make her feel useless. It was a daily routine for us. I kept my head high and my shoulders back as I made my way to the grand foyer, knowing she was there.

Sure enough, I was only about halfway down the curved staircase when I heard her usual sound of disgust. "Stubborn as ever," she said softly, and I followed her voice with my eyes. She was leaning against the doorframe of the parlor, arms crossed over her stomach.

"Not stubborn." After months of the same argument, my voice came out flat and disinterested. "Just not in favor of starving to death."

"You're making things worse. You have to see that." 

"Yes, because so many people were clamoring to marry us before I took a job."

She glared at me. No matter how many times I used the line, she had no response. Yet she still picked the fight, pretending nothing had changed in the six years since King Elun stole the throne from his brother.

The uprising happened the night of Avara's debut ball, ruining her plan to be betrothed by midnight. She'd known Elun's guards were coming for our father, hunting down anyone who could see the colors of magic. But all she'd cared about was getting a ring on her finger, no matter the cost.

If she hadn't argued for so long, we probably all would've gotten out of the city alive.

Shiny

So did you ever come up with an idea for a novel, and you loved the idea, and you thought it could really go somewhere, but something about it just felt wrong? Like, not something small or easy (changing a character's name, or making some tweaks to the plot, etc.). Something BIG. And it's like it's there, just on the edge of your brain, and if you only concentrate hard enough, it'll come to you.

Except you spend hours, days, weeks basically going like this:

And NOTHING! Absolutely nothing. So frustrating. So you put the story aside and you move on. Clearly, it's not going to happen with this one.

So you come up with some other new stories. For some of them, maybe you just write down a few sentences, because all you have is the basic premise. Something to let percolate and come back to later. Others, your brain is absolutely on fire and you write down plot and setting and character studies and maybe even start some chapters. But maybe your heart isn't in it. Because it's not the story you want to write. So you start to act like this:

And you sigh a lot. And you worry that maybe you're going to get frown lines. And then you actually do get worry lines from all the worrying about frown lines. And you have absolutely no idea what you're going to do because everything ever is wrong.

Until you're driving to work one day, listening to the Rock of Ages soundtrack, and suddenly, you're all, "I've just had an apostrophe." And Captain Hook says, "I think you mean an epiphany, Smee." Well, I mean, that was these guys:

But whatever. Same difference. Suddenly, out of nowhere, while you're singing Don't Stop Believing (ironic, I know), you know exactly what was wrong. And you were right. It was a BIG thing. I'm talking you had the entirely wrong person as the main character big. But if you change it...oh, the possibilities! So you write down notes and ideas and bits of dialogue like an absolute mad woman because it's just flooding your brain, and you want to get it all down as quickly as you possibly can. Then you read over everything you just wrote and can't help but go:

Which then makes you think of Doctor Who. Which only makes you even happier. And suddenly, that tarnished, old idea is shiny. Life is shiny.

Okay, I realize I probably got a bit too specific for this to apply to any of you. But, you know, if you take out the odd details, how about then? Ever go from confused and depressed to, "I'm brilliant!" in the space of a moment? Because that is one of my favorite parts of creative writing. That feeling of shiny elation when a plan comes together.

A Bit of Humor

As I did back in this post about my dogs, I'm going to tell you a quick story. Just for fun.  :)

So a week ago, the neighbors' kids were over at my house, because they were going to be taking care of Mickey (my guinea pig) and Bartleby (by gecko) while the hubby and I were out of town. They'd taken care of Mickey before, but Bartleby is pretty new, so they had to learn the ropes. 

Before they left, they asked if they could look in my office. This is because my office is full of many fun and wondrous things. For example, neighbor kid #1, an eight year old girl, oohed and ahhed over all the clothing I have for my American Girl Doll, Felicity. Neighbor kid #2, a six year old boy, found a plastic sword and ran around like a swashbuckling pirate. 

Anyway, while they were in my office, they saw a cross stitch sampler that my grandmother made me long ago, which was hanging on my wall. The following conversation ensued:

8yo neighbor girl: That's so pretty!

Me: My grandmother made that for me when I was four years old.

8yo neighbor girl: How long ago was that?

Me: Twenty-four years.

6yo neighbor boy: You're twenty-four years old?

Me: Twenty-eight, actually.

6yo neighbor boy: Were you one of the original pilgrims?

Me: -___-

I guess age is all about perspective!