Why Writers Matter

Confession: I've forgotten most of the titles, characters, and even major plot points from the million books in my junior high school library.

Books, books, books = a glimpse of heaven?

But I still remember "Pop-eyes," a breakfast mentioned once in one of those books: bread with a hole cut out of the middle (using a drinking glass) and fried with an egg to fill the center, topped with stewed tomatoes. This sounded so cool, I had to try it and it has since become one of my favorite comfort foods.

I still remember Caitlin: a romantic trilogy about a girl who thought she needed to be in control all the time, until she crippled a little kid in a car accident. I may be remembering some of the details wrong, but I remember Caitlin's abrasive, snobby personality--and that it was the first time I realized the snobby girl is just as insecure as the shy one. Everybody needs love, even if we're taught different ways of attracting it.

I remember being grossed out by a line from Jurassic Park that some boys in the library showed me just to see my reaction.

I remember having my library books confiscated in math, science, and yes, even English classes.

I remember being the weird kid who--people actually noticed--had a different paperback book every day or every other day.

I remember Anne of Green Gables dying her hair, hating her freckles, but secretly liking her nose. I remember her insisting that Ann with an e was more elegant than Ann without it. I remember Gilbert Blythe pulling her braids and hanging out with Josie but secretly loving Anne all the time.

I remember Elizabeth Bennet being witty and strong and a little irreverent in private. I remember Darcy being a jerk and then turning out to be a nice guy after all.

I remember Brittany being raped, and learning how to live all over again afterward.

Books shaped my life and, at various times, saved it.

Writers matter. The words you put down to explain, describe, embellish your reality matter. Writers help to shape the generational discussion! But they also influence a little seventh- and eighth-grader girl to think about the nerd, the snob, the jock, and the emo kid in a more compassionate, accepting way. They teach her fun new recipes and weird social rituals she would otherwise not be privy to.  They give her hope that someday she won't be the odd one out, that it gets better.

So I have to say thank you.

Thank you to the writers who reached me in the frailty of my adolescence. Thank you to the writers who are just beginning, but who will yet reach my children. It's not easy, but it's important.  

You're awesome. Consider yourselves validated.

If you're looking for other ways to make a difference, Angela Ackerman has one opportunity for you kidlit lovers. Read my interview with her, and then head over to the Critter Palooza! It won't be a party without you.

Taboos for Aspiring Writers

(Picture from this website)

Confession: I'm a nerd.

This won't be a surprise to my friends who have been following this blog for any length of time. I've always been a dweeb, but now it's getting dangerous.

Because now the cool kids are actually waving to me in the halls and signing my yearbook. And now they're going to notice if I do something horribly taboo.

So, I need your help to compile a list of taboos for aspiring writers. What are the common-sense no-nos that dweebs like me don't have the common sense to avoid?

I'll start it out with a few I've heard of (or maybe at some point actually committed myself). I'll let you guess (silently, in your head, please) which ones I've committed. Add your own suggestions in the comments. Here I go.

TABOOS FOR WRITERS

1. Complaining about writing/querying/agents/publishers/bestsellers in the public eye. Jonathan Franzen, I'm looking at you.

2. Responding to a rejection or a bad review, even politely.

3. Being too familiar or chummy with an agent or editor in email, blog comments, twitter, or facebook.

4. Querying a book that hasn't been written (unless it's non-fiction, of course).

5. Querying a non-fiction book without a platform.

6. Talking about yourself more than your book in the query letter.

7. Giving agents parenting advice using twitter @ replies.

8. Fangirling (fanboying?) over favorite authors/books/movies with excessive squee-ing and OMGoodness-ing on your writing blog.

9. Posting bad writing on your blog.

10. Publicly disagreeing with the mainstream of agents or others in positions of power ("And that's why, you see, agents should be querying writers.").

11. Querying a novel in a tweet.

12. Pitching an incomplete book idea in a tweet.

13. Proposing marriage to an editor in a tweet.

14. Emailing an agent at more than one email address, for any reason.

15. Putting a smiley face in an email to an agent or editor who hasn't first smiley-faced you.

Okay, that's a good start. I'm relying on you guys to fill me in on what I've missed. 

Other interesting links and tidbits: 


Operation Awesome (always something fun going on there)


Elana Johnson (she's been writing about her writing process--good stuff)


My logline contest has closed. THANK YOU to everyone who entered. My final decision will be posted Friday. I'm excited to read somebody's awesome Nano novel this December!


And my Nano update: 8,360 words


Yes, I am some odd-8,000 words behind. I'm aware of the problem, and technical representatives are standing by to.... I'm working on it, okay! :) Have a nice day, and happy writing!

The Most Influential Writers Ever

This is a lemming. What does a leader look like?

Guess what's happening at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog..Period next week?

Oh you don't know? 

Fine, I'll tell you. ;-)

News from Tom Dhorman, the managing editor:

Cortnee Howard, the editor in chief, is hard at work compiling the internet's first official "twitter list" of the Top 100 most influential writers on Twitter. There will also be several "sublists" broken down by category (including things like YA fiction, poetry, romance etc). 

I'm very excited about this project, which is slated to launch on Monday. 

Spread the word and follow @BDCWB  and @Artlifefreedom on twitter to send suggestions. 

Who do you think is the most influential writer on twitter?

I'm gonna go ahead and say @kierstenwhite! I also love @staceykade and @gailcarriger. If you don't know, these are the authors of PARANORMALCY, THE GHOST AND THE GOTH, and SOULLESS, respectively.

And just for fun, tell me who you think WOULD be a twitter author celebrity if the internet had existed during their time. C.S. Lewis, for me.

The Joy of Community: a writer's haven from the cruel world

Didn't know what I was missing, till I found you...

I love my critique group. We just got started and my own work hasn't made the rounds yet, but the sense of community already has me smiling--and working harder on my writing. There are six of us in Operation Awesome, which is just the perfect size for a writing community that won't overwhelm its members. I've joined a few writing sites in my day, but have always been overwhelmed by the obligation of reading and critiquing dozens of other authors in order to receive critiques in kind. Writing novels is hard enough without adding that kind of unnecessary load. Of course I love reading other people's writing, but if you've ever tried the quid pro quo atmosphere of writing.com, thenextbigwriter.com, or authonomy.com, you see what I mean by OVERWHELMING. It's like this:

And only after climbing that stack can you actually get back to your OWN writing, which is kind of important if you plan on making a career out of this.

A well-organized critique group has writers taking turns submitting portions of their novels, or the whole thing one at a time. As a member, I have weekly "homework" of reading and critiquing two other writers' work (a chapter or two) plus working on my own WIP. It's manageable, it's fun, and it's educational. In between, we have discussion about each book in an online forum one of our members created. This model has already proven itself to be awesome (Operation Awesome, hee hee). We're only one week in, and I've been introduced to two very exciting books, done some serious revision on my own WIP, and had time to read some of the published books in my TBR pile. I couldn't be more excited to be part of this group.

How did it come about? It was magic. Well actually, it was Kristal's idea. :-)

I was hanging out on http://www.querytracker.net/forum/ --a very cool place to be! And Kristal mentioned needing a group to motivate her to write. Don't we all need something like that? It took me a while to get back to her because of summer vacations, but when I did, everything moved really fast. I invited Amparo, who invited Lindsay. Kristal invited Angie and Kelly. After some entertaining name discussion, we settled on OPERATION AWESOME and Kristal made our forum on grou.ps.

Two of our members are agented. One is multiply-published, and one has professional experience as an editor. All are talented writers, just from what I've seen so far! I'm feeling lucky/honored/unworthy to be part of this group, but I ain't gonna complain. Here they are if you want to check out their blogs/websites and support their writing journeys:

Angie, agented by Jill Corcoran of the Herman Literary Agency
Kelly, agented by Mary Kole of Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Kristal, in the agent market
Amparo, in the agent market
Lindsay, in the agent market
and then there's me, Katrina, also in the agent market. :-)

*whispers* We have a secret plot to take over the published world.

Contest for ARC's from YAHighway.com

Run on over to YAhighway.com to enter their fabulous contest and win Advance Reader Copies of exciting books like The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins!!! There are more, of course, but you have to check it out.

Follow them on twitter: @yaHighway
From their twitter page:
"Bio We're YA novelists from all over the world. Chat us up about travel, what you're writing, and of course, YA novels!"