Rachele Alpine (whose book is out on submission right now, cross your fingers for her!!) compiled some great writing advice via a contest at her blog. My favorites:
*In the time you just spent whining about how you don’t want to revise, you could have revised two pages.
*Love your writing like you love your dog; unconditionally. It might not always be perfect, but at the end of the day, you can’t live without it and it makes your soul smile.
Natalie Whipple talked about the “crit partner arsenal.” Basically she outlines all the different types of crit partners you could have, and why you would want them. This is a really valuable guide for writers looking to connect with people for feedback that will take their writing to the next level.
And last but not least, Kiersten White, whose forthcoming book Paranormalcy is being heralded as the second coming of Edward-and-Bella-and-Jacob-only-better-and-with-less-vampires-and-adverbs-and-a-funnier-voice-and… okay, you get the point. Anyway, Kiersten had some great things to say about setting goals…
That’s important in setting goals–make sure they are things YOU control. You can’t control sales. You can’t control being nominated for or winning awards. You can control what you do and what you write to make those things more likely to happen, though. So focus on what you can control, decide what your goals as an author (aspiring author/pastry chef/world’s foremost expert on rare evolution type Pokemon/professional beach Taser operator) are, and then figure out what you can do to make them happen.
… and distinguishing between a writer and their characters/stories.
What it comes down to is this: I am not my characters. I’m not even my writing. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I’ve been answering interviews (and interviews…and interviews…), and questions about Evie’s obsession with the color pink have popped up a couple of times. You know what? I don’t really like pink. I never have. Evie, however, can’t get enough of the color. Why?
Because she’s not me and I’m not her.
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Unfortunately this advice, “In the time you just spent whining about how you don’t want to revise, you could have revised two pages,” isn’t about writing so much as it is about everything. Sigh.
Secondly, I’m pretty interested in reading Paranormalcy now. Just read the amazon blurb about it. I’m intrigued. Wish it was a vine book, although I guess there’s still time.
Procrastination is evil, really. But it’s also a skill I excel at!
Sonja-
Haha, tru dat. And yeah, I adore Kiersten, so I’m really looking forward to checking her book out. I pre-ordered like 3 months ago, lol.
Les-
Sadly, me too… :’(
Great quotes from some YA writers I respect mucho! Thanks, Kristan!
Nice. Looking forward to Paranormalcy, love the premise of the book. Now, I’m going to check out the crit partner arsenal. :)
Ugh, I embody that first quote. I think there are about two hundred pages in my arsenal that could use a polish. I’m just too lazy, I guess. Nice quote/inspiration.
Edward-and-Bella-and-Jacob-only-better-and-with-less-vampires-and-adverbs-and-a-funnier-voice-and
Yes, yes, yes. The total snob in me sees that in a lot of successful books but then the realist reminds me that most people don’t really care too much about prose. :(