They’re dynamic, and they’re a duo, but they don’t do spandex

Unfortunately I am neither a Dr. Pepper-fueled writing machine nor a ninja cyborg, but fortunately they both have blogs so I can read all about them and live vicariously through their success!

(And when I say “all about them,” I mean ALL about them. Over the last few weeks, I’ve read their entire archives, or about 1,000 posts between the two of them. Yeah, productive, I know.)

Seriously, BFFs Kiersten White and Natalie Whipple are the awesome-est. Like, I should just delete my blog now because it will never live up to how funny and talented and wise they are. (But I’m not gonna do that, because I like my blog. Good blog. Pat pat.) Both Kiersten and Natalie write YA, but their advice is applicable to writers of any genre. I won’t link to ALL the posts that I favorited from their blogs, but here are a couple gems from each:

“The Weight of Words”

I feel as though I carry around the weight of all of my words, books written and unwritten, edited and unedited. Some days it’s overwhelming. And some days there is nothing better than being the shepherd of words, guiding my little flock of nouns and verbs to become characters, actions, stories.

I love these words, this mess and mass of meaning. Because just as often as I carry them, they seem to carry me.

“Ideas”

Many aspiring writers have this belief that there is an idea out there. Not just an idea–THE Idea. The Idea that, if they just found it, would be the key to everything. Things would magically fall into place. Agents would call, sobbing, begging to represent them. Publishers would trip over themselves to buy it.

The Idea is everything. Find it, and you are set.

You really want to be a writer? Your Idea isn’t going to sell. Your WORK is going to sell.

“Some Musings on Subjectivity”

I think we as writers sometimes focus too much on the “magic formula.” We want everyone to like us, which is totally impossible. And we want so badly just to be told what to do to get published, how to become a best-seller, and on and on that we lose sight of how awesome subjectivity really is.

Here’s why: Subjectivity means there is a place for you, or several, if you so chose.

“Energizer Bunny”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about writing and attempting to publish, it would be how much stamina it takes to push through. See, it’s not “Oh, I tried once and failed, so it’s over.” It’s trying. A perpetual state of TRYING. Trying to find a good idea. Trying to finish that WIP. Trying to get all the revisions right. Trying to get an agent. Trying to get a book deal. Trying to get readers. Trying to write a sequel. Trying not to go insane. Try, try, try.

It’s exhausting. It really is—there’s no way to sugar coat it. It’s like running a marathon, but you don’t know how long you have left.

See, awesome? Now go enter Natalie’s contest, and/or her agent Nathan Bransford’s contest. Yes, that’s right, Natalie is represented by THE rockstar agent Nate B. And Kiersten’s debut book (1 of 3) is coming out in Sept 2010. What’s that? AWE. SOME.