Teen Author Challenge, Week 19 – What to do when you’re stuck…

Happy Thanksgiving week to those of you in the U.S. and good luck in your last full week of NaNoWriMo for everyone who’s participating! This week, I’m thankful for three great authors who are full of terrific advice. Thank you Tina, Janet and Kimberly (and Saundra and Ellen too)!

Exclusive TAC Quote of the Week

“The best advice I can pass along to aspiring writers is that which I still fall back on myself: don’t be afraid to be bad. Sometimes, my best stuff has come from my worst drafts or my absolutely terrible attempts at humor. No one has to see what you’ve written until you’re ready, so relax and let yourself go… you’ll be surprised at what you find.”

~ Tina Ferraro
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys
(Delacorte, 1/09)

Teen Author Challenge

This week’s challenge advice comes from fabulous author Janet Lee Carey! What should you do when you’re stuck in the story? Here’s what Janet has to say:

Don’t Talk Out Your Tale – Write Your Way Out

Think about the times you’ve shared a dream with a friend. If you’re anything like me, you left out certain parts of the dream because they seemed too strange or because they didn’t fit into any kind of logical story frame. Or maybe, like me, you were embarrassed about just how weird your dream images can be. But what if the very part you left untold, the strange, exotic vision, is the key to the dream? What if somewhere under the crossed out image, lies buried treasure?

So too, when a young and developing story is spoken aloud, ideas that come to us in the dark, that are harder to understand or explain in the daylight hours, will be left out of the conversation. Instead, certain more logical images take shape and become set in our minds. Plot ideas that seem very good and fitting to the storyline will win out over more mysterious ideas that are harder to explain.

Over time, as we discuss the tale, everything becomes quite reasonable. Our friends have a positive reaction to the story. They add some of their ideas and questions. We convince ourselves that we really understand what the story is about. We can even condense the idea into a few neat sentences! And this will surely come in handy later on when we try to sell the story to editors and agents. So what’s wrong?

In talking out the tale, all the story fire begins to slowly sputter out. Instead of courting a mysterious lover, we are now married to an idea. Suddenly the plot and characters have become quite sensible, and all the writing ahead seems less like an act of love, and more like plain hard work. Because let’s face it, sensible stories are crashingly, boringly, dull, dull, dull. So what’s the remedy?

Go inside the story, listen, and write.

~ Janet Lee Carey
Stealing Death
(Egmont, 9/09)

Buzz Tip of the Week

Three cheers to YA author (and YABC founder) Kimberly Pauley for her illuminating post about children’s book author royalty statements. And more cheers to Saundra Mitchell and Ellen Hopkins for accepting the challenge and sharing theirs too! If you’ve ever wondered how much a debut author makes, this is a great example of the phrase “Your mileage may vary.”

kimberlypauley.com/2009/11/21/a-challenge-for-my-fellow-authors/

Your Weekly Challenge

How did you do on your writing last week? Comment below with your weekly results from last Tuesday through today so we can cheer your progress!

The Teen Author Challenge Contest

Throughout the year-long Teen Author Challenge (TAC ends June 2010!), I’ll be giving away a book of the winner’s choice from my personal writing shelf. Why am I doing this? Because becoming a skilled writer has two important parts: learning about your craft and practicing your craft. That’s why active participation in each weekly challenge is so important!

So what can you win? Books to choose from include:

1. The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
2. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
3. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
4. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
5. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
6. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon

Everyone who participates via the comments on the Teen Author Challenge posts will be entered into this monthly contest.

Go forth and be creative!

Entry Filed under: Teen Author Challenge