Posts filed under 'Paying It Forward'
August 10th, 2009
Happy Monday! First… I’ve been remiss in paying forward two very fun blog awards that I received from the fabulous Kristen over at Bookworming in the 21st Century. I also received one from Alex that I’ll be paying forward very soon. (Thanks, Alex!)
Your Blog Rocks Award
Kristen actually gave me this one back on July 20th and it’s taken me this long to pay it forward. Yikes! That was in the middle of us having family here for 14 out of the last 17 days so my online time has been super limited. So thank you (again!) for the award, Kristen! And here’s who I’d like to nominate for the award:
Alyson Noel
Trish Doller
Bree Despain
Chelsea Campbell
Josh Berk
Zombie Chicken Award
This one is pretty hilarious. And very flattering when you think about it. The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…
For this very special zombielicious award, I nominate:
Tera Lynn Childs
Amanda Ashby
Carrie Ryan
Melissa Walker
Sydney Salter
Also, be sure to check out Stephanie Kuehnert’s lie from her Author Spotlight interview on Friday! I’m delighted to announce that the winner of the signed copy of Ballads of Suburbia that I bought at ALA is:
Andrea!
(aka Purplg8r)
Congratulations, Andrea! Please contact me here with your mailing address.
Tune in tomorrow for the first Teen Author Challenge post in the mini-series on plotting!
August 4th, 2009
Welcome to Week 4 of the Teen Author Challenge!
Congratulations again to Mrs. V. of Mrs. V’s Reviews for being the first monthly winner of the Teen Author Challenge Contest! Keep participating for your chance to win the book of your choice from my writing shelf AND to achieve your goal of having a complete, polished manuscript when the TAC ends in June 2010. You can do it!
This week, we’re going to be talking about how to bring characters to life. But first, a bit of inspiration.
Exclusive TAC Quote of the Week
“The best advice I ever got was from a colleague of mine, M.T. Anderson. He told me, ‘Write what you think you can’t.’ For some reason, that gave me permission to take big risks in my writing. I will never forget it.”
~ Kathi Appelt
The Underneath (Atheneum, 5/08)
**Newbery Honor Book & National Book Award Finalist**
Teen Author Challenge, Week 4
If there’s one thing readers tend to agree on, it’s that characters can make or break a book. Yes, the story and plot need to be well-developed so the book doesn’t drag along endlessly. But even the fastest-paced, most intricately-woven adventure story in existence needs characters you can root for. Otherwise, no one’s going to care about all the obstacles they’re overcoming.
We’ll talk more about the actual writing process beginning next week. But today, I want to touch on the basics of character development. The first thing to know is that how much character development needs to be done in advance is different for every author.
Some authors have to know every single thing about a character–down to her favorite flavor of ice cream or whether he’s a boxers or briefs kind of guy–before they can sit down to write.
Some authors lay out only the fundamentals about their main characters and let themselves uncover more details organically as the story unfolds.
And naturally, some authors find themselves somewhere in between. It’s all about figuring out what your ideal writing process is and embracing that.
So what if you don’t have your ideal writing process all figured out? My suggestion is to begin by knowing the basics about your characters. What constitutes the basics? They generally fall into three categories:
** Physical Attributes
** Personality
** Personal Beliefs
Yes, there are TONS more things that you can know about your characters. But rather than overwhelming you with all the possibilities, we’ll be looking at three basic categories that can help you get a handle on your characters.
Physical Attributes
If you’re going to be writing about a character, it’s helpful to be able to picture that character in your mind. Why? Because readers need to be able to picture them too. In addition to the attributes that make up our physical person, our outward appearance is also affected by our choices about our appearance. With that in mind, here are a few things you may want to know about your character:
** How would you describe your character’s basic physical attributes: hair/eye/skin coloring, height, weight, etc.?
** What unique physical attributes (freckles, walking with a limp, large feet, etc.) does your character have?
** How do your characters present themselves to the world around them? (Fashion choices, sense of style or lack thereof, how much they pay attention to their appearance, etc.)
Think about twins for a moment. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen may have the same features, but they have very different appearances because of the way they choose to present themselves to the world. Those choices can be powerful indicators of the person underneath.
Personality
Moving beyond the visual, every person makes an impact on those around them by the way we interact with other people. That’s where personality comes into play. There are a myriad of facets to our personalities–same goes for our characters–but narrowing it down to the few that most influence a character’s behavior can help you get a clear grasp of who they are. It’s also helpful for making sure that their actions in the story are well-motivated and don’t appear to come out of left field. 
** What four words would best describe your character’s personality?
Witty, warm, wholesome, flamboyant, reserved, studious, cynical, manipulative, gossipy, heroic, resilient, observant, needy, self-reliant, disciplined, goal-oriented, carefree, cautious, aimless… the options are endless. Choose words that resonate with you for each character.
Yes, there may be a dozen or more words that describe us depending on the situation we’re faced with. We may be shy in large groups where we feel uncomfortable but witty when we’re hanging with friends. But if you can narrow it down to four words that paint a clear picture of your character’s personality MOST of the time, it can help ensure that your character is well-developed in your mind.
Personal Beliefs
This is where your character really comes to life. Every one of us has a unique worldview that comes from our personal beliefs. Those beliefs are largely a result of our upbringing, our environment, and our life experiences. No two characters will ever be the same in this respect, just like no two people will ever be. Unless we walk around physically attached to another person, the world we experience is uniquely our own. Here are some questions to get you thinking about your characters’ personal beliefs:
** What are your characters’ soapbox issues? (What would they stand up against all odds to defend?)
** How has their upbringing affected the way they look at the world?
** How has their environment (their town, their part of the world, the physical condition of their surroundings) affected the way they look at the world?
** What life experiences have profoundly impacted the way they look at the world?
Again, these questions are not mandatory for every writer to ask themselves before they begin to write. But when you’re first starting out on your writing journey, they can be a great jumping off point to help you get a feel for how much (or how little) you need to know about your characters in advance. You can always add more questions if you crave more intel, delete questions if you only need the bare minimum of info, or change the questions entirely if other questions feel more important to you. This is simply a list of basic questions to give you a quick start in your character development work.
Your Weekly Challenge
Grab your Teen Author Challenge notebook and answer each of these questions about your main character(s). Anyone who shares a surprising thing that they discovered about a character gets an extra entry into the Teen Author Challenge Contest!
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. Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook
3. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
4. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
5. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
6. Mastering Point of View by Sherri Szeman
7. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
8. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
9. 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!
July 28th, 2009
Welcome to Week 3 of the Teen Author Challenge!
With your fresh, wow-worthy story idea solidly in place, we’re going to talk about finding the key hooks in your story that you can build on.
Exclusive TAC Quote of the Week
“The best thing I ever did to develop myself as a writer was to keep a journal. I started when I was ten and haven’t stopped. Not only have my journals been a great resource for material (if you can’t steal from yourself, who can you steal from?), journaling was also excellent practice for learning how to describe details and tell a story.”
~ Josie Bloss
Band Geeked Out (Flux, 4/09)
Teen Author Challenge, Week 3
When you’re pitching a new book–whether you’ve been published previously or this is your first time submitting–you need to be able to describe the most marketable elements of your story clearly and succinctly. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to make sure that your blurb (think back cover blurb on a book) highlights the key hooks in your story.
What are hooks? Hooks are simply the easy-to-recognize, tried-and-true elements that make us care about the story. Here are a variety of examples to show you what I mean.
– Good vs. evil
– Second chances
– Overcoming obstacles
– Romance
– Paranormal elements
– Opposites attract
– Fish out of water
– Underdog coming out on top
– Accepting yourself
– Redemption
– Quest
– Mystery
– Glamour and glitz
– Small town America
– Hitting rock bottom and climbing your way back out
The list goes on and on. Some hooks are character-based (e.g. accepting yourself), some are plot-based (e.g. the underdog coming out on top), and some are world-based (e.g. your unique paranormal mythos). The key is that they’re all instantly recognizable and make people immediately grasp why they should care about your story.
For instance, I’m a big fan of romance, so that’s a hook I’m actively looking for in blurbs. I also love any story where the underdog comes out on top and stories about people getting a second chance at life. Those hooks resonate with me as a reader. If you can weave those elements into your blurb, I’m going to be much more inclined to read the book.
And just in case you’re wondering, you don’t have to use a particular hook term in your blurb. Describing the situation in a way where I can clearly see that the hero or heroine is the underdog is going to hook me without you having to say “And hey, look over here! This character? This guy is the underdog!”
Agents and editors have a knack for quickly identifying the hooks in a potential acquisition. In fact, my own editor (the fabulous Elizabeth Law who will be featured here tomorrow!) and I had a chat recently about a new book I’d just pitched. I gave her the basic blurb and she responded by saying “I like the X and Y hooks there” and then went on to discuss some of the finer points of the story as I’d described it. Hooks are kind of like a shorthand between you and your agent/editor and, ultimately, your reader. It shows that you understand what makes a story compelling and can articulate that in a few simple words.
Let’s take a popular book and see what kinds of hooks we can find. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot was one of the books that inspired me to write empowering YA, so I’m going to use that as an example. Just off the top of my head, I can come up with three major hooks:
– Glamour and glitz (the royal world of Genovia)
– Fish out of water (Mia being thrust into this crazy new princess life)
– Romance (friends become sweethearts)
Let’s try another one. Here are a few key hooks from Alyson Noel‘s Evermore:
– Paranormal mythos (Ever’s psychic abilities)
– Overcoming grief (dealing with the loss of her family)
– Romance (forbidden love)
Are there more hooks in these stories than the ones I’ve noted here? Absolutely. If you dig deep enough you can sometimes uncover half a dozen or more hooks all deftly woven into the fabric of the stories you love most. But often, there are a few key hooks that really stand out. Those are the meat and potatoes (or the black beans and rice for you vegetarians out there) of your story.
Your Weekly Challenge
Grab your Teen Author Challenge notebook and jot down all the hooks you have in your story. If you’re not sure if something qualifies as a hook, write it down anyway. There are no hard and fast rules about what constitutes a hook. And I promise, this isn’t a graded assignment. 
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. Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook
3. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
4. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
5. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
6. Mastering Point of View by Sherri Szeman
7. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
8. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
9. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
10. Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress
Everyone who participates via the comments on the Teen Author Challenge posts will be entered into this monthly contest.
Today we’re doing an extra special entry for the contest since we’re nearing month-end. Here’s how to get bonus entries for the TAC monthly contest:
– Comment on today’s post (+1 entry)
– Share some of the hooks that you love as a reader (+2 entries)
– Share the hooks you’ve discovered for your own story (+4 entries)
I’ll announce the first monthly winner on Monday. Go forth and be creative!
July 21st, 2009
Welcome to Week 2 of the Teen Author Challenge!
Now that you know what inspires you to write, we’re going to dive into StoryLand. This week, it’s all about creating a story idea that pops. A story idea that will get agents, editors and, ultimately, readers to stand up and take notice.
Exclusive TAC Quote of the Week
“Write the book that only you can write, something no one else has ever read before. It’s tempting to write a ‘better’ version of something that already exists, but the reason that book was a success was because it was something no one else had ever read before.”
~ Brent Hartinger
Project Sweet Life (HarperCollins, 2/09)
Teen Author Challenge, Week 2
If you want your work to stand out, you need to clearly convey why your work is special. That doesn’t mean you can only write something that has never been thought of before. There’s a popular saying: there are no new stories out there, just new ways of telling stories. I don’t entirely buy into that because I do believe there are wholly unique ideas brewing in the brains of writers. But I think the essence of it holds true. It’s about taking ideas that are out there in the ether and giving them a unique twist to make them feel fresh and new again.
It’s about creating a story only you can tell.
When I set out to write The Cinderella Society, secret society books already existed. They had for generations. But my particular take on a secret society–a secret girl empowering society dedicated to helping girls celebrate their strength, embrace their future, and be extraordinary (while defeating the mean girls of the world in the process!)–hadn’t been done before.
I’m a former corporate leadership specialist who’s passionate about helping people harness their full potential. As a sorority alum, I bring a knowledge of secret societies to the table. And as a writer, I’m all about leaving people feeling energized and inspiring them to embrace their destiny and change their world. All of these weave together to make The Cinderella Society a story that I’m uniquely able to tell.
So yes, our basic story idea may have been done before. In fact, there’s a very strong chance it’s been done many times over in one form or another. But by bringing our own experience, passions, and talents to the idea, we can create something different than anything else out there. That, to me, is our job as authors.
Where to begin then?
It all begins with the story idea itself. Let’s say you love vampires and want to write a vampire story. There are hundreds of vampire stories lining the shelves of your local bookstore. How can you possibly compete? You compete, very simply, by making your vampire book so unique and different that vampire lovers everywhere–including agents and editors–will clamor to read your version.
That can be hard to do with a subgenre that’s fairly saturated. But it’s not by any means impossible. The easiest way to begin is by thinking about what makes your idea special.
How can you make your story idea unique and special? There are zillions of ways. (Yes, zillions is a technical term.) Here are three to get you thinking:
1. Create a unique setting, somewhere that’s never been done before for your kind of book
EXAMPLE: You’ve got a quirky middle grades book about an offbeat family and their zany community. Instead of setting it in a small town as those books often are, what about setting it smack dab in the middle of LA or on a remote island in the Caribbean?
2. Take a traditional element in your book and give it a unique twist
EXAMPLE: A girl’s parents get divorced and are involved in a nasty custody battle over her. But what if instead of them both fighting for custody of her, they’re both fighting to make the other person take her? Heartbreaking and memorable.
3. Take a traditional character type and give him or her a unique twist
EXAMPLE: Instead of the superhero saving the city out of a sense of moral duty, what if the superhero is saving the city because there’s something in it for him on the side? Money, fame, whatever. Suddenly a two-dimensional character is human (figuratively speaking) and flawed and vastly more interesting.
We’ll be talking next week about how to identify the well-loved hooks that make your story most appealing to agents, editors, and readers. But for now, focus on ways you can make your basic story idea itself different and unique and memorable.
Your Weekly Challenge
Grab your Teen Author Challenge notebook and make a list of 10 ways you could tweak the setting, characters, or traditional story elements to make your story idea pop. Anyone who comes up with 15 or more ideas gets a bonus entry into the monthly contest.
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. Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook
3. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
4. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
5. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
6. Mastering Point of View by Sherri Szeman
7. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
8. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
9. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
10. Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress
Everyone who participates via the comments on the Teen Author Challenge posts will be entered into this monthly contest.
Go forth and be creative!
July 14th, 2009
Welcome to Week 1 of the Teen Author Challenge!
We’re going to kick off this week by helping you make the mental shift from being a hobby writer (someone who writes solely for themselves) to being a professional writer (someone who writes as a career choice). In fact, our quote this week is perfect to kick off this discussion!
Exclusive TAC Quote of the Week
“If you want to be a professional author you need to approach the career like you would any other job. RESEARCH THE WRITING PROFESSION. You can begin by reading: BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott, HOW TO GET HAPPILY PUBLISHED by Judith Appelbaum, THE WRITERS MARKET, and THE AGENTS MARKET. Ignore the romanticized ideal that says being an author is something magical and mystical – that you lay around, waiting for your Muse to whisper in your ear, or for your dreams to coalesce, and then you’re simply the vessel through which all the stories flow. Ugh. Being an author is a job. Writing is work. Period.”
~ P.C. Cast
Hunted (House of Night, Book 5)
www.houseofnightseries.com
Teen Author Challenge, Week 1
Rather than saying “Yeah, what P.C. said!” (which I easily could since her quote is so awesome), we’re going to talk this week about how to make the shift from hobby writer to professional writer in the place that matters most… your mind.
Like P.C. mentioned, there is a romanticized idea that writers are these amazingly creative creatures who are slaves to the muse. Who can only write when inspired.
Writing is a creative venture. And when inspiration strikes, magic happens! But if you want to be a professional writer–a career author–you need to move beyond the idea that you can only write when that moment of creative lightning strikes.
Every writer has days when they’re in The Zone. The ideas come almost fully formed, the words flow onto the page, their fingers can barely type fast enough to keep up with the images and dialogue in their head. Those are the good days. The awesome, I-love-my-job-I’m-the-luckiest-writer-in-the-world days.
But that’s not every day.
Some days, the words don’t flow. The ideas don’t come. You may sit down at the keyboard wishing you had a root canal scheduled just so you don’t have to face your work-in-progress. The good news is, you don’t have to let those days stop your momentum! There are ways to work around it when your muse goes on vacation and your brain is somewhere in Siberia in deep hibernation.
Professional writers have deadlines. We have contracts that state when a book is due and a professional obligation to meet those deadlines with a book that is the best we can make it. When you’re first starting out and haven’t sold a book yet, the only deadlines you’re facing are the ones you set yourself. You need to be self-motivated to finish the book on your own. In both cases, you need to condition yourself to be able to meet deadlines.
We’ll talk more about how to overcome the obstacles that keep you from being productive later on in the challenge, but for today I want to start at the beginning. One of the best ways to learn to write to deadline is to find motivation inside yourself. That means understanding why you write in the first place.
I’m not talking about “to be a bestselling author” or “to make enough money to feed myself and my Chihuahua”, but what compels you to write in the first place. Every writer has a unique reason for writing. It might be to make people laugh… to scare people… to make them think about things they wouldn’t normally have exposure to… to make people understand the power of love or redemption or any number of other things.
Understanding why you write is a great way to stay motivated. Why? Because when you sit down to write and would rather be doing anything else because the story is simply not behaving, reminding yourself why you write helps you find your center. It inspires you to get back to the work because you have important work to do! Your unique voice and unique vision for your work is something only you can bring to life.
It can also help you out of tough spots in your story. Very often, when a story has gone astray (despite the fact that I plot everything in advance), getting in touch with why I write… my Writing Creed… helps me look at the story more objectively.
For instance, if you’re writing to entertain and give people an escape from the daily woes of the world, a book that starts to get too deep and dramatic may be exactly what’s making you feel squidgy about it. It’s not a story or plot problem, which is why it can be hard to pinpoint. It’s a problem that stems from veering off course from why you write.
Stories can take on a life of their own (for better or worse!) and it’s the writer’s job to understand when that life needs to be coaxed and nurtured because it’s perfect for your vision OR reined in like a runaway horse because it’s taking you down a path that’s not right for you.
So what is it that compels you to write? What is your Writing Creed?
My Writing Creed is:
“I write to make readers feel energized and recognize that they have the power to change their world if they set their mind to it.”
Simple, but powerful. It doesn’t have anything to do with genre or voice or a particular high concept idea, so it doesn’t pigeonhole me in any way. It gives me all the freedom in the world and yet inspires me every day to get words on the page. At the end of the day, if my work resonates with readers that way, that’s how I define success.
A Writing Creed doesn’t have to be noble or life-altering. It just has to inspire you to keep writing.
Your Weekly Challenge
Grab a notebook and jot down some ideas about why you write. What is it that inspires you to write? How do you hope to touch other people with your stories? This isn’t something you need to share in the comments because it’s often very personal. But please do share your thoughts about week 1 of the Teen Author Challenge overall. Are you ready to adopt a pro mindset (or reinforce yours if you have one already)?
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. Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook
3. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
4. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
5. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
6. Mastering Point of View by Sherri Szeman
7. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
8. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
9. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
10. Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress
Everyone who participates via the comments on the Teen Author Challenge posts will be entered into this monthly contest.
Go forth and be creative!
July 7th, 2009
“Don’t think, just do.”
~ Reiko Horton
Welcome to the You 2.0 Teen Author Challenge!
If you’re an aspiring writer of YA or middle grades fiction, this feature was created specifically for you. It’s my way of paying it forward, giving a little bit back to other writers the way so many authors generously helped me on my own writing journey. And when you become a published author, I know you’ll pay it forward too. Because I know that’s how you roll.
Good karma is a wonderful thing.
Everyone is coming to the Teen Author Challenge from different mile markers on the road to publication. You might be toying with your first story idea or trying to figure out how to get it down on paper to start with.
Or maybe you’re well into the story, but always find yourself second guessing your choices and starting over before you ever reach The End.
Or maybe you’ve written an entire novel–Congratulations! That’s a HUGE accomplishment!!!–but aren’t sure how to go about editing it or getting it ready for submission to agents and editors.
No matter where you are on the writing journey, there’s a bit of something for everyone in the Teen Author Challenge. And don’t let the name fool you. You don’t have to be a teen to participate (though I know a lot of you are and I think that ROCKS!). You just have to be passionate about writing YA or middle grades fiction. (P.S. Teachers are welcome to use the Teen Author Challenge as an online resource in their classrooms!)
To kick things off, each week I’ll be sharing exclusive writing tips from some of your favorite authors like P.C. Cast, Alyson Noel, Rachel Caine, Susan Beth Pfeffer and more! You’ll also hear inspiring first sale stories, words of wisdom from authors about what they wish they’d known before they sold, and insider peeks at the fun/cool/amazing things that happen between that first sale and seeing your book on the shelf.
Once you’re feeling utterly inspired, we’ll dive into the official Teen Author Challenge of the week. The Teen Author Challenge is a year-long writing challenge that will take you from initial story idea to fully-polished manuscript in just one year. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never completed a manuscript before. I’ll walk you step-by-step, week-by-week through a unique writing adventure to help you achieve your goal of completing a manuscript you can be proud of. I started hosting writing productivity challenges almost five years ago, so I’m delighted to bring the best of those programs to you when we get to the “getting it down on paper” part of the Teen Author Challenge.
Here are some of the topics we’ll be covering over the next year:
** Creating a crystal clear story concept
** Plotting vs. “pantsing” and strategies for both
** Setting (and achieving!) writing goals that inspire you to keep working
** Strategies for getting your story onto the page
** Editing in all shapes and sizes
** Creating an engaging synopsis
** Crafting a stellar query
** Recognizing when you’re ready to submit
** Submitting with style and confidence
Just like with the exclusive writing tips from your favorite authors, I’ll be including tons of writing advice and strategies from successful authors and writing teachers in the weekly challenge posts. I’ll share some of my own tips as well, but my goal is to show you lots of different options for getting from Point A (the idea) to Point B (a complete, polished manuscript). There’s no right or wrong way to accomplish this. It’s all about finding what works best for you.
So what do you think? Are you ready to write your masterpiece?
To kick off the Teen Author Challenge, I want to hear from YOU. If you want to join us on this writing adventure, here’s what I want to know:
1. Where are you on your writing journey right now?
(Are you toying with the idea of writing, currently working on one or more stories, a seasoned manuscript completer, or somewhere in the middle?)
2. Which of the above topics could you most use some guidance on?
3. Fast forward to a year from now as we’re wrapping up the Teen Author Challenge. As you look back over your year in the program, what do you hope to be able to say about what you’ve accomplished?
I hope you’re as excited as I am about embarking on this writing adventure together. It’s going to be fun, energizing, eye-opening and… most of all… rewarding. Buckle in for a great ride!
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. Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook
3. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
4. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
5. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
6. Mastering Point of View by Sherri Szeman
7. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
8. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
9. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon
10. Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress
Everyone who participates via the comments on the Teen Author Challenge posts will be entered into this monthly contest.
NOTE: New participants and teachers wishing to use the Teen Author Challenge in the classroom are welcome to join at any time. All Teen Author Challenge posts are listed in a blog sidebar box to the right titled (oh-so-creatively) Teen Author Challenge. I’ve also listed them here for your convenience. Welcome aboard, challengers!
Week 1 – Be a writing pro
Week 2 – Story ideas that pop
Week 3 – Hooking your reader
Week 4 – Bringing characters to life
Week 5 – Plotting strategies, part 1
Week 6 – Plotting strategies, part 2
Week 7 – Plotting strategies, part 3
Week 8 – Plotting strategies, part 4
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