Tips For Not Giving Up On Writing

                You open up a Word document and start typing madly, your thoughts taken over with a new idea, your head swimming with characters’ voices and personalities. After your short burst of energy, you stop, and reread. You ask yourself why you had written that and realized that you turned the wonderful idea bad, unintentionally. Basically, you completely hate it. You sigh and wish you didn’t feel driven to write, and think about giving up on writing (in addition to making whoever’s around you listen to your rants as you eat too much chocolate).

                Nobody wants to write badly, but often, they do. Everyone who writes a lot has bad days, even published authors. I’ve had many myself, or moments when I realize that what I wrote was completely below my expectations. I’ve thought frequently about giving up on one of my favorite hobbies, and what I consider my passion. I’ve given up for a while, but eventually something always makes me come back to it.

                No matter how deep you’re entrenched in your current state of irritation at your writing, you can always revise it.  Also, mulling over it for a while usually helps me if I’m not quite satisfied with a scene, and them I come up with details or a point of view that makes it better. Additionally, I sometimes choose to leave it alone for a week or so and then come back to it, when I usually have better insight. I try to look at it objectively, like I was reading someone else’s work, and then edit it from there. If all else fails, I’d save it and start a new idea that you like. You can always go back.

I promise continuing’s worth it.

Why Every Character Needs Setbacks

                No matter how brilliant and great your characters are, if they don’t have a setback, they aren’t real. Sure, your main character might be able to ride horseback and be dashing and have a wonderful secret skill, and all of that is wonderful. We want to see that your characters have skills, just like your readers do. However, if nothing is keeping him from being the best handsome horseback rider who can juggle flaming knives and save fetching damsels in distress, people aren’t going to care about reading. It needs to be relevant, and realistic. Real life has problems, and everybody has a setback of some sort. Maybe he limps, and so it was hard for him to learn to ride. Maybe he’s afraid of leaving the castle. Maybe he’s always been afraid of battle since his father died in a village accident. Hearing that characters have problems makes us want to keep reading, to hear about how the horseback rider learns to overcome his fear of leaving/odd gait/fear of battle. Having difficulties makes the victories far more interesting, as well as vastly improved.

                Here are some examples from children’s and young-adult books:

-In Esperanza Rising, Esperanza has her father die, and so she has to rise past that and learn to live without the wealth and luxury she had previously been afforded.

-In Anne of Green Gables, Anne is an orphan, and she has a fear of not being wanted and loved. However, she overcomes that once she meets Marilla and Matthew.

-In Harry Potter, he is an orphan who’s living with his relatives who aren’t exactly fond of him, and he’s not from as worldly of a wizarding background, as some of his peers are.

-In The Island of the Blue Dolphins, Karana is stranded on their island after everyone in the village leaves, and she struggles to survive.

-In The Call of the Wild, Buck has to change his ways to fit into the pack, as he is sold to a sled team in the Klondike.

                Basically, our characters have to struggle. They’re interesting that way. Everyone has friends who seem to be good at everything, which is annoying and unrealistic. They may be good friends, but everybody has struggles. If there is no conflict, then there is no reason why we should keep reading; it soon becomes boring. Also, sidekicks, villains, and others alike all need to struggle, no exceptions. To have the most realistic and likeable characters, give them struggles, so that the path to victory is even greater.

I really meant to post this yesterday. Really. Writing every day is hard, but it has made me remember and rekindle my passion again.

On that note, happy Tuesday!

Making Time to Read and Write

                When you’re a young writer, everyone tells you to do two things: write a lot, and read a lot; however, that isn’t exactly measurable or very specific. For example, reading a lot for one might be considered barely reading at all, and the same is true for writing as well. Also, when you’re busy and maintaining a tight schedule, leisure things are some of the first to get cut, which often means that you don’t write much nine months of the year. That can be changed, though. Here are some easy tips to get started again.

1.       Read different genres

-There are so many different types of writing out there: magazines, nonfiction, self-help, short stories, drama, and more. I tend to lean towards young adult books, but I also read the newspaper daily and have read several historical fictions and biographies, both of which are unusual for me. There are so many great books in so many different categories, and it may help you figure out what you really love to write if you’re unsure.

                2. Step outside of your comfort zone

- Reading different types of books helped me understand how to write nonfiction and historical writing, and how that differs from contemporary young-adult, what I usually write. I also enjoyed the deviance from my usual writing and as a result, have written more in these areas. Additionally, you could try writing from a different perspective or narrative. Recently, I’ve tried third-person instead of my usual first-person. I didn’t like it, but I learned from it, and so it made my writing and understanding of the craft better.

3. Write every day

-Obviously, everyone has busy schedules. I understand that better than ever, as I am juggling the demands of homework, sports, high school, and just regular chores. At the end of the day, you just want to collapse and not pound out a new story. However, if you write every day, you will improve much more than if you just write a few times a week. Also, if you set a pattern, it will be easier to stick to it. You don’t have to write much, either. You could just write a few hundred words a day.

Currently, I’m participating in Go Teen Writers’ 100 For 100 contest, where you write 100 words every day, for 100 days on a single work, getting at least 10,000 words written by the end of the contest. That started Monday, but you could still write unofficially with the rest of the group. It’s not limited to teens, either. Of course, there’s also the event you’ve been hearing about for months, at least from me: NaNoWriMo. It starts in a month and a half, and I’m already planning my novel. On Halloween, I have a plan: I will stay home, do my homework, and become feverishly excited while the rest of my family is (rationally) confused.

Happy writing,

Katia

Top 5 Favorite Young Adult/Teen Books

     

                Everyone remembers those books that you grew up reading and absolutely loved, that when you think back to your childhood you remember the good times with those books. Well, here are five of mine, not in order.

·         Lizzie Bright and the Buckminister Boy, written by Gary D. Schmidt

- My mom bought this at a teacher conference, and it is one of my favorite books. It follows Turner Ernest Buckminister II as he moves to Phippsburg, Maine in the nineteenth century. He is the minister’s son, and so he has to be a good example. However, he meets Lizzie Bright, who is black, and lives nearby on Malaga Island, and at age 13, they strike up a friendship. When I re-read this book, I remembered how much I love it. It made me laugh, smile, and want to cry. It is filled with humor and insight, and it is one of my favorite books ever. I love it more every time I read it.

 

·         Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson

-This book is about Melinda Sorodino, and she is excluded as she goes into high school. There was a party over the summer, and she called the cops. None of her friends are talking to her, and it’s useless to make amends, so she keeps to herself, and goes through her first year of high school with little support, the way she wants it. One day, though, she steps up, and takes the courage to finally tell the truth. This book feels so real, with all of the characters and situations, and I loved the sarcastic humor. I’m sure this book will touch many more people, as it is very well-written and honest.

 

·         My Sister’s Keeper, written by Jodi Picoult

-          At the end of this book, I cried. Only two or three books that I’ve ever read have made me do that. This is about Anna and Kate, two sisters. Anna, at thirteen, has suffered through many bone-marrow treatments as a donor for her sister, Kate, who has leukemia. Anna was literally made to be a donor, and when she decides to file a lawsuit because she has been forced to be a donor. This book explores what it means to be a family, and stem-cell treatment. It is, in my opinion, a compelling read, and worth the hype.

 

·         Copper Sun, written by Sharon M. Draper

-          This book’s about Amari, a fifteen year-old girl in Africa whose village is captured by a group of white men in the mid-nineteenth century. She is taken by them as a slave, and she is taken across the ocean and sold into the slave market and bought as a gift for a master’s teenage son. She meets a white indentured servant named Polly and they slowly begin to trust each other. I like how the point of view alternates with each chapter, and this was a fascinating premise that most people don’t choose to write about. This is a very sad book, but a very enjoyable one all the same.

 

·         The Inkheart series, written by Cornelia Funke

-          This series follows Meggie, a twelve-year-old girl who can read characters out of books, as well as transport herself into their own. Her father, Mo, is a bookbinder. He has this talent as well, and it’s not without its problems. When they read a character named Dustfinger out of a book, he presents a problem that her father has kept a secret from her for years. When they find out about the circumstances, they have no choice but to go back to Inkheart, Dustfinger’s land, where Meggie’s mother had been read accidentally by her father nine years before. This is a very inventive plot, and I loved the world and characters created by it. This is a great fantasy series, and I’d highly recommend it.

Writing Truthfully in Poetry

 

As Edgar Allen Poe once said, "Poetry is the rythmical creation of beauty in words." So true, so true. The thing is you can't always just want to write, and then write, especially with poetry. Poetry is just so full of emotions and ideas and honesty that it just can't work that way. The poetry doesn't feel as real. It's better if you get inspired, although it's not a necessity. It doesn't have to be something big. For example, I wrote a poem about an Easy-Bake Oven. By 'truthful,' I mean that the descriptions -though they can be somewhat flowery, if you'd like- are honest. As Brenda Ueland once said in If You Want To Write, "Describe something just as it is. Don't worry if it is angular or clumsy or how it comes out. Just put down what you see." You're not pretending that the person or chair or Easy-Bake Oven is something they're not. That's not how poetry works. Back to my Easy-Bake Oven poem . . . here's an excerpt:

Perching on dull counter-tops
in inviting pastel accessories,
accents of robin's-egg and lavender,
your wares, carriers
of "lite" calories
and synthetic cake mixes
(about as real as Ring Pops)
in doll-size baking pyrite

          Obviously, that wasn't high-quality. I didn't describe the magnifications of birch trees or whatever is idealized and hailed as high standards in poetry, like Robert Frost, for example. I also write poems about nature, et cetera, as well, but this one was different. I felt what I was writing, and it was honest, and so it came out better than some of my stories, which sometimes feel forced. Nobody wants that feeling, and people will notice if you don’t actually feel your idea.

Even if you dislike certain types of poems, like free-verse or ballads, I encourage you to give it a try. It might be hard for a short-story writer or novelist to switch gears, but I'd recommend it. Also, your poetry might give you some writing fodder. Or of course, you could use some of the phrases from your poem in your writing if you're so inclined. Plus, there are many different kinds of poems, such as limericks, haikus, and sonnets.

           

Here’s a haiku I wrote on the subject:

Often in poems
It isn't about trying
But expressing truth

Also, I'm going to only blog once a week from now on, as I'm busy with school and sports, et cetera. In the summer I think I'll blog two or three times a week, though. Happy Labor Day!


 

Grammar: Does It Really Make a Difference?

     According to the lyrics of one awful Hannah Montana song, and many other sources, "everybody makes mistakes." Ah, the irony, considering the fact that she's a role model for many young kids, and how Miley Cyrus has turned to the dark side . . . Well, that's another story. I can rant about Miley Cyrus another time, hopefully. I do rather enjoy ranting, I must say. All right, back to grammar.
     I personally have pretty good grammar, generally, although I don't nit-pick quite so much. I occasionally misuse hyphens and add too many commas, but I mostly stay on track. However, in manuscripts and query letters, you have to be super careful. Bad grammar in the manuscript might turn agents off, and you don't want your manuscript to be turned down because of grammar. That much, I know. If you're just not very good at spelling and grammar, and are sending out a manuscript,  I'd suggest these simple tips.

-Make sure you're not mixing up homophones, or commonly-misspelled words
-Spell-check doesn't catch everything; I'd read it again to make sure that you're using the words that you want to use, not the ones autocorrect wants
-Have a friend or aquaintance who's good with grammar look over it to proofread it, because grammar can be kind of a big thing, like with agents

Even though the big things matter most in the long run, sometimes the little things are pretty important too. I hope this grammar post helps, at least a little bit, and -as usual- if you have any thoughts, let me know!
 

The Name Game

                Choosing names for your characters can be fun, or it can be irritating. Personally, I like picking out names, but sometimes I can’t choose between two, or three, or just choose any in general. I guess all of my name-researching will come in handy if I ever decide to have kids, though! Worse, if you don’t know which kinds of names you want for your story or novel, you can spend hours poring through lists of names. I don’t know about you, but that’s not high on my to-do list.

                Here, I’ve divided types of names into four categories: Biblical, Middle-Ages and 18^th/19^th Century, Contemporary, and Futuristic.

-Biblical: Well, for this I’d do a Google search. For this time, it seems hard to strike a balance between too mainstream and so unknown that it sort of seems like you made it up. I’d suggest Behindthename.com, biblical names. Some personal favorites for this time are Arieh, Isaiah, and Adina. I’d suggest not naming any characters Jesus, though. Just a tip.

-Middle-Ages and 18^th/19^th Century: I think you should use plain English names for this time. Names like Mary, Robert, and Elizabeth work well. People at the time weren’t very frivolous, so it makes sense that their names weren’t either. For the nineteen-hundreds and twentieth-century, I’d follow this basic guideline, with a few additions. Also becoming popular were names that were slightly more current, such as Cornelia and Alexander, as well as Zachariah and Emma.

-Contemporary: Well, obviously, this is the easiest category for which you could come up with names. I would choose names that have fared well in the top 100 baby names per year, though not at the top of lists. If you’re looking for an unusual name, I’d do a twist on a conventional name. Or you could choose a name based on characteristics or the history of the name. For example, you might expect Mary’s to be bland and plain, but Mariah’s are a different type of girl, and therefore, a different type of name. You can also go by definition, using one of the many name sites.

-Futuristic: In my opinion, this is the hardest. You can look into the past to find names, but you can’t look into the future to find potential names. I’d suggest doing twists on current names, by swapping vowels or adding on a name-suffix. I usually go with one-syllable or two-syllable names, and for my futuristic novel that I’m planning, all the girls’ names end in ‘i’ or ‘a’, and the boys in ‘o’ or ‘u.’ For example, writing a character named Lonta instead of Lana.