Month: July 2011

RTW: Visual Inspiration

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Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where the ladies at YA Highway post a weekly writing- or reading-related question for participants to respond to on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic: It’s been awhile since we shared inspiration pictures. Show us yours!

Well, I’m on the downhill slide of revising my contemporary young adult ghost story, Where Poppies Bloom, so it just so happens that I’ve got it on the brain.

I’m a very visual person so once I had an inkling of an idea for the story (late last summer), I began trolling the internet for inspiring pictures. Here are the one’s that had the biggest impact on the initial drafting of Poppies:

The ever-mysterious poppy meadow.
Oregon coast cliffs.
Main character Callie spends her summer at an old Victorian that looks something like this…
The car Callie’s eventual love interest drives. She dubs it the Hippie Wagon.
I took this picture of Cannon Beach, Oregon last fall.
A main character wears a jacket just like this. A lot.
After a long hiatus, Callie attempts to reconnect with her passion: competitive swimming.
Callie’s blonde. There are poppies. And this one’s just pretty.

Now that I’m looking at these lined up all pretty, I’m surprised by how closely I stuck to the story these early pictures inspired. Sure there have been plenty of revisions and edits, but wow… the core of the original story is definitely still there. I’m also starting to wonder how completely random these pictures look to those of you who haven’t read Where Poppies Bloom… I swear it all comes together quite nicely!

What do you use for writing inspiration? Photographs? Music? Something new and exciting? Do share!

Quotables

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First and most importantly, a HUGE congratulations to my adorably Australian, super supportive, and terrifically talented friend Amie Kaufman, who has recently signed with Tracey Adams of Adams Literary. Amie writes YA and MG, and if the snippets of her work I’ve read during blogfests and contests are any indication, she’s amazing! Amie also runs a fantastic blog that you should definitely be reading. Learn more about her signing HERE. Congrats, Amie… I’m so very happy for you!

In other news, Monday blogging is always sort of hard for me. I often find myself wondering, What to write, what to write, what to write? But while procrastinating online the other night (something at which I’ve become alarmingly adept), I came across a website full of quotes on writing. Some were inspirational, some were snarky, a few were pretentious, and some were humorous. Several are worth sharing…

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.  ~Anton Chekhov

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector.  This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.  ~Ernest Hemingway

One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.  ~Hart Crane

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.  One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.  ~George Orwell

A good style should show no signs of effort.  What is written should seem a happy accident.  ~W. Somerset Maugham

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you.  And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.  ~Arthur Polotnik

Be obscure clearly.  ~E.B. White


Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.  ~Hannah Arendt

I love writing.  I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.  ~James Michener

And my very favorite, from “Great Rules of Writing”:

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don’t start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid clichés like the plague.
~William Safire

What are your favorites quotes on writing?

Cliches and Would You Rather…

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Paper Hangover is a fantastic group blog offering writing tips and advice, book reviews, weekly blog topics, and teen interviews. I recommend you spend some time exploring the site–they have so much to offer!

Here’s today’s Friday Five prompt:

Oh, there are so many literary clichés I love, particularly in YA! Hmm. So hard to choose only five, but I’ll try…

1) The  childhood-best-friend-newly-rediscovered-romantic-interest, a la The Body Finder. (I’m totally working on a story that makes use of this cliché, but I PROMISE it won’t actually be cliché!).

2) The quirky and unique BFF, because what heroine wouldn’t want a quirky and unique BFF? Sort of like Frankie, from Twenty Boy Summer.

3) The neglectful, dead, disengaged or workaholic parental units. Yes, it’s convenient and annoying, but it works so well for YA self-discovery, like in Shiver.

4) The tombish or self-proclaimed awkward girl who’s actually gorgeous but lacks confidence until her one true love helps her realize her outer beauty. Oh geez, the examples here are infinite… let’s go with the most obvious: Bella from Twilight.

5) The asshole bad boy who turns himself around for the shy, sweet girl he’s suddenly falling for. Yes, I recently watched Beastly. (Yes, it sucked.)

Cliché or not, I chose these five because in the right authorial hands, they can definitely work. See the examples. 🙂

Do tell… what are your favorite clichés?

And in other Friday Fun, literary agent Rachelle Gardner asks this compelling Would You Rather…

She give you one million dollars for your entire body of written work, but then lock it away where no one will ever read it…

OR

Make sure at least one million people buy your books over your lifetime, but you will never make a single dime?

I’ve actually discussed this topic with my husband before and the answer is easy. I’d definitely rather have one million people buy my books but never see the profit. That might sound stupid, but for me writing is about the story, not the money. Sure, a generous advance and hefty royalty checks would be amazing perks, but if forced to choose, I’d rather have people read (and enjoy!) my work.

What about you? Money or love?