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FAQ: Do I Need an MFA?
May 20, 2011
A question I see pop up a lot from aspiring writers has to do with creative writing MFA programs, and whether they’re a necessary or even recommended step toward getting published. Someone just asked me this question the other day, and after I rambled at the poor girl for a while I realized that it was a subject on which I have a lot to say.
Suddenly I Know Things!
May 18, 2011
Firstly I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who’s congratulated me here on my blog or on Twitter or Facebook over the past week. It’s been overwhelming to see the kind of cheer and support this community gives. Just thank you, thank you. <3
Anyway! So today I got to do something I’ve always looked forward to as part of the author gig: talk to a group of students about books and writing. To be completely honest, though, I’ve always dreaded it almost as much as I’ve looked forward to it, because like many writers I’m a naturally somewhat shy person. Public speaking gives me the heebie jeebies. Plus, I don’t actually feel different on the other side of the book deal–who’s to say I know stuff now? What gives me the right to pretend I do? I even emailed my ninth grade English teacher, who I’m still friends with, to ask for advice. Turns out, though, that I didn’t really have anything to be worried about!
Big news!
May 11, 2011
How do I even start this post? I’ve even had months to sit on this and try to figure it out, and here I am on the day and I’m still at a loss.
I could write an entire novel about this announcement, but you know what? For once I’m just going to be concise and let the news speak for itself.
This:
Books That Make You Want to Quit
May 10, 2011
Do you ever finish reading a book and just want to throw it across the room and cry and never touch paper/keyboard again, because you’ll never be that good? I was chatting the other day with my friend Caitlin about this–“So good you just want to kill yourself,” was the way she put it, though with her it’s film and animation and opera that gets her. I always end up with this unbearable desperation when I read a book like that, this fury and passion bubbling up inside me where I want to dive into my chair and write until my hands fall off, and simultaneously move away and change my name and never think about writing again.
Why YA?
May 07, 2011
Sometimes when I have the “What do you do/I’m a writer/Oh, what do you write/Books for kids” conversation with new people, I get a Look that I’ve come to recognize. It’s the “Oh. For kids. So not real books” look. (It’s similar to the “Oh, fantasy” look, but that’s another blog post.) I always find it amusing–and a little sad–because it makes me realize that these people have forgotten what it was like to read books when they were a kid.
Miscellany!
Apr 21, 2011
I’m about to head out to the wilderness (a well-established camp site on a beach) to camp out (stay in a massive tent and sleep on an air mattress) which will mean, gasp, that I will have no internet for the next five days! So I will post a few miscellaneous things today, and be back with you next week.
Is the end nigh for end-of-the-world fiction?
Apr 19, 2011
The other day my friend Ellen pointed me toward an article on Tor.com by Scott Westerfeld discussing the reasons he felt dystopian fiction–or “dyslit,” as he calls it–is so popular among young adults right now. (He also talks about post-apocalyptic fiction, as it often gets lumped in with dystopian.) It’s a great read, so definitely go check it out. Of course, it made me ponder why I think dystopian fiction is popular, but since I’ve already written about that, it might be time to talk about why I feel it will stay popular.
I return from the grave!
Mar 15, 2011
Only hopefully not, you know, zombified or anything.
So this blog has been a bit of a ghost town lately, to the point where it took me fifteen minutes to remember my password. Whoops. It’s been a weird couple of months, and unfortunately I don’t have much of a better explanation! For one thing, though, I’ve been buried in revisions, which for me involves of a lot of self-loathing “What the heck were you thinking?!” I know this is not the healthiest approach. Me and my internal editor are working on being nicer to each other. It’s a process. 😉
Community and Networking
Jan 22, 2011
Hello, friends! I’ve been pretty quiet lately, given the chaos on my side of things. Lots of travel, lots of revision work, lots of meetups with people. I’m now back in the U.S. for a couple weeks, although little has changed except that there are cats underfoot instead of a dog, and I sit at my computer in sweatpants and sweaters and fingerless gloves instead of shorts and a tank top.
I’m battling some sort of illness that the airplane inflicted upon me, while trying to do revisions. I tend to get a bit loopy when I get sick, so the result is that I keep fixating on certain passages and changing them over and over again, only to come back the next day, read what I wrote, and go “Huh?” It isn’t the most efficient system, but I’m getting it done, and I think learning to work while sick is a pretty valuable skill for a writer. It’s easy to say “Meh, not in the mood, I’ll do it later,” but if you’ve got daily word goals or deadlines or whatever you use to track progress, it’s easy to let one day of sick turn into five, at which point you’ve lost your momentum.
Interview over at Adventures in Space!
Jan 06, 2011
Hey guys! My awesome friend Caroline has posted an interview with me over at her blog, Adventures in Space. I met Caroline a couple of months ago while I was doing agent research. It turns out we live really nearby, when I’m in the U.S.–so it figures that we’d meet when I’m living half a world away!
Caroline gave me a ton of advice while I was querying, so I was really excited when she asked if I’d share a bit about my experiences.
The interview is a “How I Got My Agent” story, but it focuses on what to do when you have multiple offers of representation. I was caught by surprise when I was in that situation, so I’m hoping by sharing my experiences with it, it’ll help people to make that choice when they get there!