Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Work-In-Progress Wednesday: How the New Method is Working for Me

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog about how I'd been backsliding into writer's slump territory again. I felt totally unfocused and unmotivated to work on my current project, A.K.A. The Modern Myth YA. Through some writer friends on Twitter, I heard about this method to increase your word count. Though I don't really see myself writing 10K words a day, I'd love to write 2 or 3K and just be able to focus again. I was most impressed by the "knowledge" part of Rachel Aaron's "triangle of writing metrics," thinking that might be just what I needed.

The past couple weeks have been a bit busy with freelance work and visits from friends, one of whom has been staying at my house long term, so while I didn't produce as much as I would have liked, I still produced which is a miracle because generally I would have used all that as an excuse not to focus.

In the three weeks leading up to the method, I was averaging about 500 words a day. If I was lucky. I had a lot of days where I wrote more like 250 or 300 or I didn't write at all. And though I wasn't keeping track of my stretches of writing time (because I was only keeping track of words as part of this summer writing club made up of people from my college on Facebook), generally speaking I'm at my desk from 10:30 or 11 til 3 or 4 Monday through Thursday, *trying* to work on novel stuff (as opposed to freelance stuff or surfing the internet, which was mostly what I was doing). So yeah, not pleased. And the days I had higher word counts weren't satisfying either because I was just forcing myself to write really fast and shitty to account for the time I'd wasted.

Since starting the new method on June 5, I've had 10 days of writing. I had between an hour-and-a-half and four-and-a-half hours of writing time on those days, usually averaging around three. I wrote a total of 11,758 words. My highest point was last Monday when I wrote 2686 words in 3 hours and 10 minutes. My low point was last Thursday when I wrote 206. My average right now is around 1200 a day. This Monday, I wrote 1053 words in an hour-and-a-half. They were also quality words that I felt good about. The day that I wrote 2686 words (also a Monday), the words weren't really quality and I was pushing myself HOWEVER unlike forcing myself to write fast and shitty, I was writing fast and mediocre because I was excited to get through the scene, wanted to get my ideas down as quickly possible and felt confident that I could fix them later. I would definitely like to be in that mindset more of the time. It seems like a happy medium between being productive and my perfectionist tendencies. If I have a mixture of those days with days like this Monday, where I produced a respectable amount of words that I felt good about, I think I'll be in a good place.

So what made those two days happen? Not surprisingly, my focus on the "knowledge" part of the triangle. Really thinking about and planning my scene comes naturally to me in a way because that's what I did all throughout my writing classes at Columbia College Chicago. In all of our workshops, we would play word games to exercise those seeing-in-the-mind muscles and then we would "take a place" and really let the scene formulate in our mind before writing it. On Sunday afternoons, I have a writing "group" that is really just me and my friend Jenny from grad school writing together (followed by cooking and watching Supernatural) and we go through those word games and really take the time to visualize our stories. The past two Sundays I've spent between 20 and 40 minutes playing those word games and writing down an outline for what I've seen and then I wrote for an hour and 20 minutes and came up with 1069 words one time and 651 words  the other time (and I was really tired that day), again words that I was really pleased with, AND best of all, it gave me a massive jumpstart for Mondays.

The days that were also not a surprise. Thursdays were my crappiest days. I work both Wednesday night and Thursday night at the bar (which is why Friday is errand day and I don't even bother trying to write), so my sleep is always poor and I always feel like I have a ton to get done before work and I get easily distracted. Last Thursday was my bottom of the barrel day and it was terrible because A. I didn't start writing right away and B. I continued to check email and such, so I went back to work on freelance stuff, I took a phone call, etc. In other words I did not protect my writing time. Keeping close track of my writing time including when I take breaks, how many words I write before and after lunch, has really helped me see the patterns I already expected. I may write more in the afternoon, but that only happens when I spend the mornings focused on writing. A good morning is a springboard for a great afternoon. I have to remind myself of this on Thursdays when I'm hit with the urge to mess around online until I'm fully awake.

I also had bad days when I freaked out about the overall word count on the book. It is getting too big again, like The Bartender Book, so I'm kind of worried about that. Really worried actually, but I know I should just keep writing. This may be one of those books that I need to write every little scene and snippet of backstory that I see and then cut. A lot. But either way I should stop worrying about it. I know, I should. To some degree there is no method that will fix my tendency to worry myself into a state of total distraction, same with my focus problems when other non-book-writing (but essential and paying) tasks begin to pile up. Learning emotional and workload balance is a whole other issue for me, but if this method continues to get me as excited about my story as it has (because it IS, I am finally excited again, seeing and fixing some of the holes in the plot, etc.), I'm hoping the excitement will take over and smooth out some of my worrywart/stressed-out tendencies.

My real test of this new method begins starting tomorrow. I have an entire month with no house-guests and no big non-book-writing projects, just the average stuff which I need to learn to balance. I'm going to add a "How Did The Writing Feel?" category to my spread sheet so in addition to words, time, an general notes, I can keep track of that, too. The goal is for it to feel good at least 80% of the time and I would really love it if I could get up to 2 or 3K on average.

Feel free to join me. I'll try to check in here weekly and for those who want to check-in more often. Hit me up on Twitter.

Oh and here's a chunk from the WIP. It's from when I was writing fast and furious, so it's not very well-written, but I was having fun with it.

Lucy reaches for the towel dispenser to her right and nearly unravels the whole roll, stumbling again as she tears off over a foot of brown paper. Muttering “fuck” to herself, she braces herself against the wall for a second, but before I can ask if she’s okay, she begins to wad up the towel, working it between her fingers like Gran punching down dough. After getting it damp, she scrubs at her lips just as violently and then tosses it at the trash can with a flourish, cackling when she misses. Then she sets her studded black clutch on the ledge next to the abandoned drinks and begins to rummage through it.
I can’t help but watch her in the mirror. She reminds me a lot of my sister—or actually of the role my sister played in her very last play, which appropriately enough was Lucy in Dracula, the gorgeous red-haired woman whose neck everyone wanted to bite. I wonder if that’s the role this girl plays at Inferno, too, even though tonight she’s more of a porcelain doll drenched in glitter.
After carefully applying the palest shade of face powder I’ve ever seen, she pulls out a tube of lipstick. I expect it to be blood red or maybe black as the kohl smeared around her eyes, but it’s a sparkley silver and thick like paint, too, not just a gloss. It matches her silver high heels as well as the black and silver feather boa that’s draped around her neck.
She fluffs the boa, which is a little bit damp—hopefully from the water she drank and not the “fun” she puked up—and studies herself. Grimacing she says, “Well, I look like shit, but who doesn’t in this bathroom?”
“The light is terrible in here,” I agree. “You look good, though.”
“Liar,” she says with a laugh, leaning toward the mirror to examine her eyeliner. It’s smudged in a way that looked intentional, but apparently isn’t because her silver mouth twists into a scowl and she starts digging in her bag again. “I look like the idiot whose boyfriend made her cry.” She yanks a q-tip from her purse like she’s unsheathing a sword as she gnashes out the word, “Again.” 

Monday, June 18, 2012

GCC Presents: Myra McEntire (with contest info!)

Another one of my friends in the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit has a fabulous new release! Let's meet Myra McEntire and hear about her new YA novel, TIMEPIECE, a sequel to HOURGLASS!

About TIMEPIECE

Kaleb Ballard was never supposed to be able to see ripples—cracks in time. Are Kaleb’s powers expanding, or is something very wrong? Before Kaleb can find out, Jonathan Landers, the man who tried to murder his father, reappears. Why is he back, and what, or whom, does he want?

In the wake of Landers’s return, the Hourglass organization is offered an ultimatum by a mysterious man. Either they find Landers and the research he has stolen on people who might carry the time gene, or time will be altered—with devastating results for the people Kaleb loves most.

Now Kaleb, Emerson, Michael, and the other Hourglass recruits have no choice but to use their extraordinary powers to find Landers. But where do they even start? And when? Even if they succeed, just finding him may not be enough. . . .

The follow-up to Hourglass, Timepiece blends the paranormal, science-fiction, mystery, and suspense genres into a nonstop thrill ride where every second counts.


About the author

Myra McEntire knows the words to every R&B hit of the last decade, but since she lives in Nashville, the country music capital of America, her lyrical talents go sadly unappreciated. She's chosen, instead, to channel her "mad word skills" into creating stories. She's an avid Doctor Who fan and will argue passionately about which incarnation is the best.

The Interview
Q: What inspired you to write this book?

MYRA: It’s a sequel, and it started talking while I was working on the first book.

Q: The main character of my first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is the kind of girl I wanted to be (a rock star!), the MC of my second book has a lot more in common with teenage me. Is your main character someone you wish you could be, someone a lot like you, or your total opposite? How so? 

Myra: My main character for TIMEPIECE is a boy, so we’re different in that way. But I know how he thinks, especially when he’s down on himself, because I’m down on myself in the same way. It’s about changing the voices you listen to.


 Q: If there was a soundtrack for your book what are five songs that would be on it and how do they relate the story?

MYRA: Sinister Kid – Black Keys (Kaleb description) 
Suffocate – J. Holliday (Make out session)
 Numb/Encore – Jay-Z and Linkin Park (Drunk haze)
 Collide – Howie Day (RELATIONSHIPS)
 Dust My Broom – Elmore James (You can’t have a playlist without the blues.)


Q: In addition to writing books, I also write for a website for teens called Rookie, which has a regular feature called "Literally The Best Thing Ever," wherein we write about a thing that we think is super mega awesome (even if it is the type of thing that others might call a guilty pleasure, we believe there is nothing guilty about pleasure!) and explain why we think it is literally the best thing ever. It's generally a kind of unexpected thing, for example I wrote one about the soap opera, One Life To Live. I don't expect you to write a whole essay obviously, but can you briefly tell us what either you or your character (or both!) would say is "Literally The Best Thing Ever" and why?

MYRA: BEST THING EVER: Netflix. I am one of those who MUST watch all series from the very beginning or I can’t get into it until syndication. Thanks to Netflix, I’ve gotten to watch Supernatural, Firefly, Doctor Who (in order!), and so much more.

Q: What are you working on for us next?

MYRA: The third book in the Hourglass series, INFINITYGLASS!


The Contest

Myra has a contest on her site - http://myramcentire.com - that will run from June 18th to June 25th. She’ll be giving away signed copies of HOURGLASS and TIMEPIECE, signed posters of the covers, a goodie basket inspired by her characters, and signed books from other authors! Thank you!

Friday, June 15, 2012

GCC Presents: Amanda Ashby!

Continuing in what has become a fabulous string of releases from my pals in the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit, Amanda Ashby has the first two books in her Sophie's Mixed-Up Magic series out now! Let's hear about them, shall we?

The Books in Sophie's Mixed-Up Magic seris


Book One: Wishful Thinking 
Be careful what you wish for…
After eleven year old Sophie accidentally gets herself turned into a djinn, she starts to think that it might not be so bad after all. (Of course, that’s after she gets the whole orange skin problem sorted out.) Who wouldn’t enjoy having the power to grant wishes! But when Sophie develops RWD (Random Wish Disorder) and can’t STOP granting wishes, things get more than a little mixed-up!

Book Two: Under a Spell
And that spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E…
As Sophie gets used to her magic, her relationship with the adorable Jonathan Tait is blossoming. There’s only one problem: Jonathan’s twin sister, Melissa. She’s a total mean girl who seems intent on making Sophie’s life miserable. On top of that, Melissa somehow seems to sense that Sophie has powers–and manages to bind Sophie to her in a totally self-serving way. Can Sophie figure out a way out of this–without ruining her chances with Jonathan?

Book one and two are a simultaneous release and watch out for book three in October…

The Author

Amanda Ashby was born in Australia and after spending the last sixteen years dividing her time between England and New Zealand, she’s finally moved back and now lives on the Sunshine Coast. When she’s not moving country, she likes to write books (okay, she also likes to eat chocolate, watch television and sit around doing not much, but let’s just keep that amongst ourselves, shall we?) She has a degree in English and Journalism from the University of Queensland and is married with two children. Her debut book, You Had Me at Halo was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice award, and her first young adult book Zombie Queen of Newbury High was listed by the New York Public Library’s Stuff for the Teen Age 2010. Her latest release, Fairy Bad Day, has been selected by Voya as one of their Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers 2012 and is a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award finalist for the Australia/NZ region. To find out more, please go to www.amandaashby.com

The Interview

Q: What inspired you to write this book? 

Amanda: I grew up watching televisions shows like Bewitched, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and I Dream of Jeannie and I really loved how they all had this secret life that they needed to hide. To me it was the perfect recipe for comedy and I’ve always wanted to do something like that!

Q: The main character of my first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is the kind of girl I wanted to be (a rock star!), the MC of my second book has a lot more in common with teenage me. Is your main character someone you wish you could be, someone a lot like you, or your total opposite? How so? 

Amanda: Sophie is actually a lot like me! She’s a positive thinker who often has to remind herself that she is a positive thinker, she also likes wearing jeans and sneakers and can easily get obsessed by things like music and books!

Q: If there was a soundtrack for your book what are five songs that would be on it and how do they relate the story?

Amanda: Well, the first song would be Zombie Vegas by Neanderthal Joe, but since I only made up the band and the song for the book, I’ve got no idea what it would sound like (though my heroine Sophie assures me that it’s awesome!!!!!)
Jean Genie by David Bowie – obviously the title makes it perfect but I happen to adore David Bowie and I have never written a book that hasn’t somehow been connected to a David Bowie song.
The Climb by Stan Walker – Stan is a beautiful Australian singer who makes me smile everything I hear him. I love his cover of this Miley Cyrus song.
Hallelujah by Gin Wigmore. This isn’t the Leonard Cohen song, but one that a wonderful New Zealand artist called Gin Wigmore wrote when she was a teenager after her dad had died. In my books, Sophie’s dad hasn’t died, but he is missing and this song always helped remind me how she felt about his absence.
True Colors by Cyndi Lauper. Because it’s awesome and relevant to the story!

Q: In addition to writing books, I also write for a website for teens called Rookie, which has a regular feature called "Literally The Best Thing Ever," wherein we write about a thing that we think is super mega awesome (even if it is the type of thing that others might call a guilty pleasure, we believe there is nothing guilty about pleasure!) and explain why we think it is literally the best thing ever. It's generally a kind of unexpected thing, for example I wrote one about the soap opera, One Life To Live. I don't expect you to write a whole essay obviously, but can you briefly tell us what either you or your character (or both!) would say is "Literally The Best Thing Ever" and why?

Amanda: Thank you!!! You know a pet peeve of mine is when people describe what they love as a guilty pleasure. Why feel guilty when you love something?

Anyway, for me the best thing ever is an Australian magazine called Frankie! For years I’ve had very strange taste in clothing, furniture and knickknacks and the closest I could come to naming it was to say that it was Nana Chic, because basically if an old lady has had it in her house, then there is a good chance that I would like it. This goes from crotchet rugs through to ugly swan statues and just about everything in between. What I didn’t realize was that other people actually loved all of this stuff as well. Then when I moved to Australia I discovered Frankie and discovered that I’m far from alone in my tastes! And so now, every time I read that magazine I feel so happy to know that there are other people out there who see beauty in strange old retro pieces (my current obsessions are eighties digital alarm clocks and souvenir tea towels and tablecloths!)

Q: What are you working on for us next?

Amanda: I have a third Sophie book out in October and next summer I have a new young adult book called Demonosity, which is about alchemy and two beautiful, scarred demon knights, both of whom I am madly in love with!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

GCC Presents: Elana Johnson! (And a giveaway!)

Another one of my girlfriends from the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit has a fabulous new release out! Let's hear about Elana Johnson and her new book SURRENDER, shall we?

About SURRENDER:
Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi. All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

 Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque…

About the author:

Elana's work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

The Interview:
 Q: What inspired you to write this book?

ELANA:  Necessity. SURRENDER is the second book in the POSSESSION series. It’s a companion novel, so it was sort of like writing an entirely new book. But I wrote it to follow-up POSSESSION, so I wasn’t technically inspired to write it.

 Q: The main character of my first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is the kind of girl I wanted to be (a rock star!), the MC of my second book has a lot more in common with teenage me. Is your main character someone you wish you could be, someone a lot like you, or your total opposite? How so?

ELANA: SURRENDER has two narrating characters, and one of them is a guy. So Gunn’s not so much like me. Ha! But his personality is something I wish I could be more: calm and laid back. I’m so intense, and he’s not. Raine is the other MC, and I think she’s a bit like me. She goes along with what her parents want until she reaches a breaking point. I was sort of like that. Then it’s all bets off, baby!

 Q: If there was a soundtrack for your book what are five songs that would be on it and how do they relate the story?

ELANA: Crush by David Archuletta – This describes Gunn and Raine’s relationship perfectly. Waiting for the End by Linkin Park – SURRENDER is all about the rebellion movement against the controlling dystopian government. So this song is perfect because it talks about waiting for something to end, and how to start something new.

 Q: In addition to writing books, I also write for a website for teens called Rookie, which has a regular feature called "Literally The Best Thing Ever," wherein we write about a thing that we think is super mega awesome (even if it is the type of thing that others might call a guilty pleasure, we believe there is nothing guilty about pleasure!) and explain why we think it is literally the best thing ever. It's generally a kind of unexpected thing, for example I wrote one about the soap opera, One Life To Live. I don't expect you to write a whole essay obviously, but can you briefly tell us what either you or your character (or both!) would say is "Literally The Best Thing Ever" and why?

ELANA: I think one of the best things ever are cell phones. Literally. I was watching an episode of Seinfeld (also literally one of the best things ever!) and Jerry was stranded at someone’s house after a party. He had to ask to borrow their phone, and then Kramer was late, because he couldn’t find the place. All of that would’ve been eliminated had there been cell phones in the early 90s. So my cell phone is literally one of the best things ever.

 Q: What are you working on for us next?

ELANA:  I’m polishing a sci fi thriller with time travel aspects.

GIVEAWAY:

Elana is hosting a Spectacular Seconds giveaway this week! You can enter to win one of five signed sophomore books by Beth Revis, Ally Condie, Veronica Roth, Kristi Cook, and Kim Harrington. CLICK HERE for all the details and to enter.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Backsliding & a new method to get back on track

I've been in a writing slump again. It's been going on for about a month now and I'm beyond frustrated with myself, especially things were going so well before that. At the beginning of April, I met my goal, I was reinvigorated by a vacation to Seattle and an excellent experience at the RT Conference. I'd given my agent a chunk of the Modern Myth YA and she loved it... so much so that she decided that we should start submitting it as a partial. So I put together a synopsis (the bane of my writerly existence, but I was motivated so I pulled it off!) and out into the world it went.

At first I was excited. So freakin' excited! I love this book. Lovely Agent A does as well. Surely an editor will and my career will turn around any day now.

Quickly excited turned to scared. What will I do if this book doesn't sell? It has now been 4 years since a project of mine has. A large part of that was my own fault, focusing too much on the promotion stuff I couldn't control and slowing down the already slow writing process. But the Bartender Book has been on sub for a while now (or at least what feels like a while to me, this industry is notoriously slow, and as my husband will tell you, I am not the most patient person on earth) and if nothing happens with it or this project.... Fuck. I'm not sure I can keep doing this, especially since the bartending job has been stressful as hell lately (and not in that good busy way, in the not-busy-not-sure-I-can-make-ends-meet way).

There is a lot (a lot a lot A LOT) of doubt in my life right now, which I will not go in to boring, overly-emotional detail about (though I'm ashamed to say that some of it leaked out on to Facebook and Twitter during my really low moments). But let's just say that between the stress (which unpleasantly manifested in an ulcer flare-up), the too-freaking-excited-to-focus, the too-freaking-full-of-self-doubt to focus, I've been... well... entirely unfocused. Okay, not entirely, even though my friend Lindsay is staying with me again (which provided me with a great many distractions while I was in the heart of my last slump), I have been forcing myself to sit down at the computer every day, but despite my best intentions, despite my check-ins with author buddies, despite my attempts to do my usual 90 minute write sessions, I usually end up obsessively checking email/Facebook/Twitter, or looking things up... like jobs that maybe I can apply to if life doesn't turn around soon.

I tried writing fast, then slowing down. I tried backtracking and skipping ahead. I thought maybe there was just too much stress tied up in the Modern Myth YA or maybe I'm just stuck in the murky middle or ::enter the self-doubt monster:: maybe it just totally sucks, so I tried cheating on it by working on other ideas like the Contemporary YA I have on the back burner or the New and Shiny Adult Book idea and The Oft-Pondered Memoir that I just last week finally figured out a theme/structure for.

Those gave me temporary relief, the reminder at least that I do have other ideas and I haven't completely lost my ability to write (and maybe even do it well), but they weren't totally satisfying.

I want to write this book. It's an idea I've been playing with for years and I feel like I finally have it right or at least almost right and I just need to finish it. As for those larger doubts about my career and if I can continue to sustain myself as a writer/bartender/freelancer/teacher, I keep telling myself that I will figure it out at the end of this year. Since the world might end in December (I really doubt it, but who knows), I want to spend this year putting my all into the writing. It is unacceptable to keep not focusing and not writing.

Yesterday I woke up and as usual dread and determination began to battle. Dread (which always leads to total lack of productivity) was winning, but then I noticed something on Twitter. Nova Ren Suma, Holly Black, Beth Revis and Kami Garcia were having a conversation about plotting, productivity, and this blog about massively increasing your daily word count. I've said in the past that I am not a big word count person, specific word goals freak me out, I value quality over quantity, etc. But the fact remains that for the past month I've been unsuccessful tinkering with a chapter. Not cool. Not at all.

That blog post's simple formula of Knowledge + Time + Enthusiasm = More Productive Writing made sense. For me, it is not about getting up to 10K words a day. I haven't even been able to crack 1K a day in a month. I need to get focused and figure out a way to write steadily and productively. The part about "Knowledge" in particular makes sense to me. "Knowing what you write before you write it." This is what I used to do in my classes at Columbia when we went through "seeing a scene in our mind's eye" before writing it. Starting each day by writing out a sketch of what I'm going to be working on could be the key I've been looking for to hone my focus. The "Enthusiasm" part is essential as well. I feel like I have been stuck in the murky middle for a while because I'm not excited about my scenes. Hopefully doing those short pre-writing sketches will help me figure out what is excited and fix my story before I even start writing. And the "Time" aspect... well I love data. I've been trying to track my own progress and figure out things about my process through this blog, but I think something more detailed is in order.

I've made a spread sheet with the following categories:
Date, Project Worked On, Time Started, Time Finished, Breaks, Total Time, Total Words, Notes.

I may switch that around and eliminate the break thing and make a new entry for before and after lunch writing (as that is my usual break), so I can get a better sense of when I'm more productive, what kind of breaks help, what are disruptive, etc. As for the "Project Worked On" category, I thought about eliminating that and forcing myself to work on the Modern Myth YA and only the Modern Myth YA, but I've decided that I really do want to keep working occasionally on one (perhaps more, but definitely one) of my cheat projects. Maybe once a week, or a half day once a week will be a cheat day.

Anyway, I started making notes yesterday and actually figured out a big part of my problem with the chapters that have been stumping me. (I was trying to introduce an unnecessary character.) I was also trying to figure out if I would skip ahead past the point where I've been stuck or if I should start with rewriting the messy chapters I've been working on. Now that I figured out what has been stumping me, 3 of those 4 chapters will need to be entirely rewritten anyway and my decision is to give myself just the morning to write through the scene that has been plaguing me (or really it's more of a transition). Either it gets done or it doesn't and I skip ahead.

So I'm starting this new method today and so are a few of my other writer friends (ie. the people whose Twitter conversation I bombarded and my lovely CP Tara Kelly. I'll report back next week (probably on WIP Wednesday) to let you know how it goes. If you're looking to spice up your writing life and trying something new and potentially really helpful, please join me! The more, the merrier, and check-ins do keep me focused and responsible. Also if you have any other suggestions that might help me right now, I am happy to hear them.

Here goes that writing/focusing thing....

Friday, June 1, 2012

GCC Presents: Melissa Walker (and an awesome contest!)

Melissa Walker is not only one of my Girlfriends Cyber Circuit sisters, she is one of my favorite YA authors and an amazing writing bud. I'm super excited to read her new book UNBREAK MY HEART and to share this interview with her about it so you can learn more!

About UNBREAK MY HEART 

Summer will be the season for Melissa Walker fans to fall in love all over again. UNBREAK MY HEART is told in alternating chapters that chronicle the year that broke Clementine Williams’s heart and the summer that healed it. Inspired by Melissa’s own experience sailing with her family as a teen, this is the perfect beach read for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Susane Colasanti.

Usually Clem would dread the idea of spending an entire summer sailing with her family—two parents, one annoying little sister, and no internet, all on one tiny boat; however, right now escaping her life on land sounds pretty good. Clem did something bad during her sophomore year, even though she didn’t mean to. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and thought that he was falling for her too. Now the school year is over, the truth is out and he’s been excused while she’s been exiled, leaving her with no friends and zero social life.

When she and her family set sail the last thing Clem is looking for is another romance, but perhaps it found her anyway. His name is James. He’s cute, funny, and best of all, doesn’t know anything about her past. He and his dad are sailing the same route as Clem and her family for the summer and he's just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem's walls and unbreak her broken heart?

About the author

MELISSA WALKER is the author of Small Town Sinners, the Violet on the Runway series and Lovestruck Summer. She has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. Melissa manages I Heart Daily, an e-newsletter and blogs for ReaderGirlz, an online community for teens. A Chapel Hill, NC native, Melissa now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

The Interview

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

MELISSA: A painful friend breakup I went through has been on my heart forever, and I wanted to write something that captured those emotions.

Q: The main character of my first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is the kind of girl I wanted to be (a rock star!), the MC of my second book has a lot more in common with teenage me. Is your main character someone you wish you could be, someone a lot like you, or your total opposite? How so? 

MELISSA: Clem feels a lot of the emotions I felt when going through a situation similar to hers, in terms of losing a friend. But though my characters start out somewhat like me, they always end up being wholly their own person.

Q: If there was a soundtrack for your book what are five songs that would be on it and how do they relate the story?

MELISSA: There is one! It's here, with explanations for each song: http://iheartdaily.com/novel-playlist-unbreak-my-heart/

And if you create your own breakup playlist, you can enter to win a copy of the book plus an IPOD loaded with songs!

Q: In addition to writing books, I also write for a website for teens called Rookie, which has a regular feature called "Literally The Best Thing Ever," wherein we write about a thing that we think is super mega awesome (even if it is the type of thing that others might call a guilty pleasure, we believe there is nothing guilty about pleasure!) and explain why we think it is literally the best thing ever. It's generally a kind of unexpected thing, for example I wrote one about the soap opera, One Life To Live. I don't expect you to write a whole essay obviously, but can you briefly tell us what either you or your character (or both!) would say is "Literally The Best Thing Ever" and why? 

MELISSA: Clem would probably say that "literally the best thing ever" is Root Beer in a glass bottle. I don't go into it at length in the book, but she has serious love for the thick glass that the old-fashioned root beers were served in, the way the coolness clouds the bottle when it's ice cold and condensation drips down the sides. The first sip of a soda served that way, out in the cockpit of a sailboat on a hot summer day? Heaven.
 Q: What are you working on for us next?


MELISSA: I have a letter in DEAR TEEN ME, an anthology of YA authors writing letters to their teen selves, which is out in late October. And I've got another book in the works for 2013, but I'm keeping mum for now. (Aside from the "ack! This book is so hard to write!" rants on twitter.)