Writers' Chasm

It's Wednesday again which means YA Highway has another blog carnival! I really liked this week's question, but before I start, I have an exciting announcement. JUMP IS COMPLETE! Final word count: 45,000 words! Which means it's time to put Jump and Hannah away for a month until I can start revisions after NaNo is over. Okay now for the question: how do you name your characters? This is a tough one. I don't have any set system for naming them, but I can't write a story without a name. Sometimes I have a name that just comes to me. Like Katie in ARML. Her name didn't require any thought at all. Hannah was the same way. Then there are times when I can't for the life of me come up with a name that I like. So I turn to my number one source for names: baby name sites. There are whole listings of names for boys and girls. The best ones even show the origins and meanings of names in case you want to choose one based on that too. If you, like me, struggle with coming...

I'm so sorry I'm late! I had one busy weekend. I wasn't home at all between noon Saturday and 9 pm Sunday so WiS pretty much fell to the sidelines. It took me quite awhile last night when I remembered to catch up on all the blog posts. So here is Week in Short, two days late. There are three Must Reads this week. This first one is from YA Highway on the weight of words and sentences . I know this is really late, but here is Nathan's thoughts on first paragraphs and the winners of his contest ! And last but not least, Hannah has her thoughts on word count . Blood Red Pencil talked about ghostwriters last week. Back before Destiny was even started, I thought the only one of my ideas was going to be finished was if I hired a ghostwriter. BookEnds agent Jessica answers some random questions . GLA has the essentials of a novel synopsis . Querytracker discussed the value of text to voice in editing . It really is a great editing tool. And unlike with reading your manuscr...

Ahhh the school year. The time when teenagers spent eight hours a day trapped in the hall of "learning", work hard to keep up with the homework, and enjoy extracurricular activities. But doing all that and keeping up with writing can be difficult. So here are some tips on how to balance writing and school while you count down the days to summer break. 1. Remember, as much as we wish it was otherwise, school should always come first. Do your homework as soon as you get home instead of *ahem* putting it off until a few minutes before it's due. This way you can relax and just write, rather than worrying about that history project or math worksheet. 2. Set aside a period for writing/editing. Maybe you write best after dinner or right before bed. Set aside an hour or two to unplug and just write. 3. If you're like me and you have trouble setting aside a specific amount of time for working, then at least try to write each day. As soon as your homework's done, open up yo...

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink Book 1 of Prophecy of the Sisters Trilogy An ancient prophecy divides two sisters- One good... One evil... Who will prevail? Twin sisters Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents' deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets. Lia and Alice don't know whom they can trust. They just know they can't trust each other. Leigh Ann's Civil War by Ann Rinaldi Leigh Ann Conners is spunky and determined. Although she often finds herself in trouble, she loves her two older brothers dearly and would do anything to make them proud. When the Yankees arrive in Roswell, Georgia, Leigh Ann places a French flag upon the family’s mill. She hopes the Yankees will then spare the mill from ...

Ahhh NaNoWriMo. If you have no idea what that is, you're missing out. NaNo is National Novel Writing Month, when writers sacrifice their sanity and personal life for one month in an attempt to write an entire 50,000 word novel. NaNo takes place during November, which means it is 14 days away. :D If you'd like more information about NaNo visit http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node. My name on there is (unsurprisingly) Horserider. I have never officially done NaNo. Whether or not I actually did or not last year is debatable. I did start Destiny in November and I did finish it at 100k in December, but I didn't actually know about NaNo at the time. So this will be my first official year of participation! Some things you can do to prepare: 1. Use a '100 questions for your character sheet.' (I've got one for Katie, my MC for my NaNo project.) 2. Outline. 3. Character bios. 4. Character pictures. 5. Anything you want, as long as you don't start the novel until November...

Contest: Nathan Bransford had his first paragraph contest last week. The finalists were announced Friday and tomorrow we'll know who won. Kidlit.com is hosting a query contest for YA, MG, and picture books . Deadline is October 31st and the prize is a critique of the first 30 pages of your manuscript. Kody is also hosting her own query contest . News: I recently learned that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (my favorite movie) is coming out on DVD December 8th! HA! I told my mom it would come out before Christmas. :D Blood Red Pencil talked about redundancy and wordiness this week. BookEnds explained why agents auto-delete mass-mailed and 'Dear Agent' queries. GLA reminds us all about Google alerts . Rachelle Gardner adds her on to what to do when an agent offers to rep you . That's all the links for this week! Short, I know. I was surprised too. Now I'm going to talk about what I read and wrote this week. I finished The Last Olympian, the final book of t...

Steampunk. If you're like me, you no idea what that means. You just know that it's some genre of books. So what is steampunk? I went to my resident expert on all that I don't know (Google) to find out. Steampunk is a sub-genre of fiction set in past centuries -- commonly the Victorian era or the Old West -- but uses modern or sci-fi-type technology. Often steam power technology is also involved. Some examples of steampunk according to this website: 1. The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling 2. The Age of Unreason by J. Gregory Keyes (a four-book series) 3. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers 4. A Nomad of the Time Streams by Michael Moorcock (a trilogy) 5. The Pesawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling 6. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville 7. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman (personally, I don't see it...) 8. Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter 9. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson 10. Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti There. I hope that cleared that up...