New Blog

Hi everyone!

People keep coming to this blog rather than my new one, so I want to let everyone know my blog is now at www.writerjessica.com!

Hope you all are having a fabulous day!
Jess

3 Ways to Make it Over the Wall

Hey readers! You know what today is?

AWESOME WRITING INFO THURSDAY!


This is your brain exploding because you are so excited!

 Today, I'm going to let you know about a little something called The WALL in writing. Yours could come in any color, at any time, and its just waiting to pop out at you!

Yes, this DID just pop out of the ground to kick you in the guts.

The Wall is when you get to a point in your writing and you think "Man, this sucks. I think I'll just give up now because no agent is ever going to want to see this piece of shit." You then contemplate burning your manuscript, stomping on it until it cries out 'Uncle', then tossing it off the highest building you can find.

This person was probably working on an epic story and most likely trapped in the 1998 Matrix.

 Never fear, dear readers! There are ways to get over this! I've come up with three solid ways you can bring that wall down! None of which require a Trojan Horse.

or Brad Pitt as Achilles.

1.) Talk to a trusted friend!
You may think this has potential to be awkward. Maybe your friends don't know a whole lot about writing stories, or good story structure, but they could still be a huge help. Sometimes just saying the problem out loud allows you to get a fresh perspective on it. Tell your friend that you want them to be the Romeo to your Juliet in writing.


Just ignore that little 'death after three days' bit.
 

2.) Gain inspiration from other forms of art.
Writing does not exist in a vacuum. You could get excellent ideas by watching movies, reading other books, or looking at some fabulous photography. You would be surprised how many times I have been sitting, thinking that I'll never get my story done, until a see a great picture. I get excited to write all over again. Try to watch movies/read books that are in your genre and stay away from any movie that involves Nic Cage! There is nothing to be gained there.

There are no words. Drive Angry was an abomination against creation.

3.) Go for a walk
Yes, you read this right. I want you to detach yourself from the keyboard, shake out those old bones, and take a walk. Stephan King says this is his favorite way to get over that block. He says the 'boys in the basement' can work while your mind and body are busy. He just says to bring either a recording device or a small notebook so you can write down any ideas that come to you. You never know when magic might strike!

Raise your hand if you would hike the shit out of this place with me.

Those are my three sure fire ways to get over the Writing Wall. If you are having a serious case of Writing Wall, these remedies may not be right for you. Consult your doctor if symptoms persist or get worse, you start to rock in corners in fear of your story, or you enjoying running around town completely naked screaming the "British are coming." If these symptoms occur, the best idea would be to take a break from your writing, at least a week. Rest and relaxation will be your best remedies.

Good luck writers!

Happy Writing!

Come and Get It entry!

Hey everyone! This is not Thursday, so you know this is not a writing advice post. Today, I am blogging about the awesome Come and Get It contest going on right now at Cupids Literary Connection found here.

It's a great contest where 100 people post their query and their first 250 words and people go and critique it, including judges and agents!!

OH MY GAWD! JUDGES AND AGENTS WILL SEE MY SHIT!

I got in (basically by the skin of my teeth because of SO many awesome writers). I am eagerly awaiting some feed back on my entry from amazing people. Maybe, just maybe, awesome people like you!

Seriously though, I want you to read it.

Unlike most writers, I thrive off critique. I only want to enhance my writing. Seeing as how I am going to be entering into a *basically* life or death match with an agent's inbox tomorrow, I'm looking for some thoughts. The agent has agreed to tell all those who query her why she is passing and I don't want my reason to be because my stuff sucks. My wittle writing heart may break.

Little known fact, writer's hearts are made out of candy.

I want to stay as far away as possible from the 'you suck' bitch-slap. So fly, fly my minions and read my entry found here! Just click the bolded 'here' and it will spirit you away into the magical world of my story. Let me know what you think and I'll repay you with cookies or cake or s'mores! Maybe not any of those things, but you'll get all my love :D

Watch out for tomorrow's post of AWESOME WRITING ADVICE!

As always,
Happy Writing

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen

So, I sort of suck at keeping a constant blog day. I've decided that Thursdays are now going to be AWESOME WRITER INFO DAYS! I hope you read that in an action movie overview voice, complete with Michael Bay-like explosions.

Today, I want to talk about something that is extremely important in writing...critiquing.

Critiquing is hard, I am not going to sugar coat it for you. You've work, no slaved, over your manuscript and you decide to put it out in the world to get some feedback. Then someone gives you a little criticism and it's like being slapped in the face.

NOTE: This is a bad critique. Most people do not say this so DO NOT TELL OTEHRS THIS!

You thought your MS was a beautiful, bouncing baby that the world would enjoy and now someone is telling you it is ugly. Don't they know how hard you worked on it?


"Your baby is so....alert!"-Erica O'Rorke, author of the TORN trilogy on finding something nice to say when critiquing.  

This is a perfectly acceptable first response to a critique as long as you don't act upon it. Yes, it feels like a nasty sting the first time you read it, but there are probably some valid points in the critique. Unlike a real baby, you can go back a change the parts others don't like. You can trim off the eyebrow...er...adjectives...and tighten up the voice work. All problems in writing are fixable, so don't stress out :)

Remember, most of the time, people just want to help you. They are giving you advice from what they already learned or are letting you know what pulls them out of the story or strikes them as being odd.

These types of critiques are INVALUABLE.

 They let you know what readers really think about your novel and can help make your manuscript stronger overall. You can't assume you know it all, because most of the time you probably don't. If you find yourself getting really bent out of shape because of a few critiques, you need to step back and have yourself a tall glass of harden the hell up as my new friend Jessica would say.

It just so happens I have some on tap!

Unless someone is being downright cruel, there is no reason to not at least think about what they've said. The writing community is actually a pretty tightknit group. They want to see each other succeed and most don't want to make you feel bad. While it is hard, you need to actually think about what others are saying, not ignore them all together. We just want to see you get published!

You need thick skin as a writer. People will not always adore your work. Agents might not, editors might not, readers and Amazon reviews might not, all of these people have potential to not like your work. They might have suggestions for you to make it better and you should never ignore them. Put on your +50 armor to critiques and think about what each person has said.

This keeps harsh critiques from hurting you...and also might keep the ladies away if you wear it out in public.

So, if you have joined a critique group, competition, or conference that has a lot of critiquing involved, be prepared and don't overreact to the small stuff. Take in the critique, think about it, and decide if it is right for you.

That's my sage advice for the day!

Happy Writing!

Learning Perspective and YAHighway Massive Give Away!

Hey everybody!

I want to start off by saying thank you to everyone who reads my blog. Your patronage makes me want to continue trying to help beginning writers everywhere! Second of all, I want to tell everyone about YA Highway. YA Highway is an awesome blog site for everything YA (that's young adult for you kooky kids new to the writing game). It has everything from YA author interviews, helpful advice, book reviews, books of the month for those looking for a good read! They are celebrating their third anniversary and are giving away tons of cool prizes! You should all check them out here!

Now that I'm done informing you about a new and exciting blog about the YA world, I want to talk about perspective, which actually has a lot to do with YA writing. Perspective is what gives a novel it’s ‘voice’ which is, arguable, the most important aspect to YA. What perspective you chose can really set the tone of your novel, so I want to give you a rundown of all the different perspectives you have at your disposal.

1^st person perspective: This is told as if you/ the reader is the one going through the motions of the story. You use 'I' and present tense wording almost the entire time. Using ‘had’ in writing is a no-no in general, but it is an especially important rule when dealing with first person.

I sit on the cold, hard examination bench and watch my mom and Dr. Namair argue. I hate it when adults pretend like I don’t exist, but it seems to happen a lot. 

2^nd person perspective: This perspective is told using words like ‘you’ or ‘we’. Typically, this is not seen in writing very often, but it is worth knowing about. If you ever read ‘choose your own adventure’ books you know all about ‘you’. ‘We’ isn’t really used often, but can set a good voice for a story.

We grew up with Sally Mae Jenson, she was the prettiest peach this side of the Mississippi. We loved her, but she forgot about us. 

You walk into an abandoned barn. You look around and notice a hayloft above you and a big barn door is in front of you. 

3^rd person close perspective: This is a great perspective to write in if you are thinking of writing YA in third person. You still have all the range of third person, but the advantage of being close like a first person perspective. Instead of being 3^rd person omniscient, the narrator would be sitting on your main characters shoulder and know the main characters thoughts without going inside the character's mind. It enables the readers to get a good sense of 'voice' when writing in third person.

Andrew Vance put one foot in front of the other and concentrated on the yellow line on the road. How did the cop think he was supposed to walk in a straight line when the cop’s god damn flashlight was in his face?

3^rd person far perspective:  This is your typical third person perspective.  You go into the person’s actual head to ‘hear’ their thoughts, you also can see several people’s perspective if you so choose. The voice in typical third person is let out via their thoughts. I find this to be the most popular perspective in adult novels.

The wind howled down the mountain to bash the side of Idona Bellfower’s small cabin. Desmond Crowly, the little boy she was treating for nightterrors, whimpered in fear and clutched his mother’s skirts. ‘He’ll never be rid of those terrors if his mother doesn’t let me treat him,’ thought Idona as she stirred the pot of gruel over the fire. 

This is my basic rundown of all things perspective. I hope this helped clear up some misconceptions or helped you get a good grip on what sort of perspective you want to use! 

Thanks for reading!

The Goal of All Writers

Sorry for my long hiatus, but I'm back and ready to share information with you! What I would like to talk about today is the goal all writers should strive to achieve. You could have the best idea for a story in the entire universe, but if you can't write in a way that makes your readers feel than your book will fall flat. Think about some of your favorite novels, most likely each and everyone of them made you feel something. It doesn't matter if its hate, love, sorrow, happiness, it made you feel alongside the character.

For example, for those of us who have read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, one of the most touching scenes in the entire novel is that part where Katniss decorates Rue in wildflowers. I'm not ashamed to say that part made me cry. That's because you felt the pain of loss. Another one of my favorite examples is when Snape dies in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling. When we discover his lingering love for Lily Potter and the fact he has been attempt to save Harry all those years out of love for his mother, it really touched us.

Thanks to the Hunger Games Wiki page found here

 

 

Thanks to Flixya, original found here

Emotions are intense, everyone can agree. If you can tap into your reader's emotions and make them feel that fluttery excitement of first love, or the stabbing, gnawing pain of loneliness, you've got yourself on the right path. Now, some of you may already know this. It is rule repeated in every blog, book, and website for writing out there. The real question is how do you make your readers feel? I used to struggle with this...a lot. I mean I couldn't have made a nun smile about prayer. It wasn't until this year I think I discovered the secret. You have to put yourself into your character. You can't just be their pretend God making them go through the motions of your story. They aren't a Sim character. You've spent months, maybe even years, making this character in hopes of catching an agents attention.  You have to be them or how is anyone else supposed to?

For me, this is kind of scary. That means you are laying your emotions and experience on the table for everyone to read. What you have to do is take a deep breath and jump in feet first because it will all be worth it when you become a published author. No one wants to walk around telling everyone about every experience they've had, but we signed up for that when we decided to become storytellers. I know everyone is capable of doing this. Just lower that barrier and commit 100% to your character.

Since this has been a fairly serious post, I want to leave you with something that makes me laugh in hopes you'll find it funny too!

Thanks to the Smosh website found here

 I love the Nigel Thornberry memes, brings back childhood!
Have a wonderful day, and if you can't have a wonderful day...have a day!

The DREADED OPENER!!

So, I am a bit pumped for exactly no reason at all! This amount of energy is good because today we are talking about the dreaded first sentence grabber!!! The first sentence of your novel is one of the most important things you have to work with when you are writing a story. The first line represents the overall tone of the story as well as works as what I like to call the 'grabber' line. There is enough interest in the first sentence to grab the reader and shove their face into your book. Think about some of the most famous starting lines.

"Mr and Mrs. Dursley of number four Privet Drive were happy to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K Rowling

"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattres."-The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

"Call me Ishmael." Moby Dick, Herman Melville

In each of these opening quotes you get a sense of the voice of the novel, the emotion of the novel, and it also grips you and makes you want to read more. Well, I can understand if you aren't in to reading A Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick, but those two opening lines are some of the most memorable in literature today. I'm not saying we should all strive to have memorable first lines, it just some examples to help you see what I mean. Now, let's do some practices with our favorite stick figure PIP! We are going to give it a bit of a personality today.

This is Bro Pip. For anyone out there who doesn't know, a Bro is a person who like nothing more than beer and chicks and is often seen at a college party(usually part of the frat that is throwing it). Bro Pip is who we are writing our story about. We are going to do it in first person since last time I used third person. A Bad Opening:
 My name is Pipperson Rockwell. I like parties, girls, and beer. I go to the University of Illinois as a business major, but I spend most of my time at the bars, especially Joe's and Murphey's.

Eww, gross. First off this is an info dump. Second of all, even though I listed all that stuff about him, you still don't really get his personality and your bored as hell because they writing style did nothing to grab you.

A Good Opening:
The party was fucking wild. All I saw was Keystone cans, ping pong balls, and titties. I pop my color and shrug my shoulders because I got this shit on lock. The hot blonde screaming she loves the bitchin' Alicia Keys song that's playing will be in my bed tonight.

Here you get his personality...he is kind of a douchebag and I would like to apologize to anyone who is offended by Pip's colorful vocab. But if you've chosen to write about a college age boy you have to add in all the ways a boy would. You also kind of want to read a little further after the very first sentence. Why is the party wild? Where was it?

That is my help for today! I would be happy to help anyone if they are having some problems, just leave me a comment!