Inspiration and... Cemeteries?

Sorry for the lateness of the post, guys. This last week and weekend was utterly killer.

(As an aside, my response to Sarah's post on Tuesday... I'm such a pantser it's not even funny. Even when I try to plot, I'm a miserable failure. This last WIP I wrote out the entire plot from beginning to end on stickies, worked on it for ages, but already I've deveated from it. Tragic, right? So many sticky-lives, lost.)

I thought I would talk a little about inspiration today, and what inspires any number of things in writing. When I first started getting into actual novel writing (as opposed to short pieces of work that were never finished, along with fan-fiction) I heard a lot of more seasoned writers talking about how they would often use real-life experiences and weave them into their work. At the time, I thought, "I could never do that. It would be too weird."

But the more I write, the more I notice little signs of my real life woven between the lines. Places are especially important in my current WIP, which is set in a fictional version of my city and has some fantastic and interesting locations. (Like the underground tunnels in Old Sacramento where the original city was built.)

Now and again, it will be one of these places or a line that someone says that inspires a scene, no matter how small and insignificant. This last weekend, I went to the Old City Cemetery here in Sacramento and it, too, inspired me to set a scene there. (I also learned there are possibly hundreds of bodies buried under Broadway Street just outside the cemetery. Random fact. You're welcome.)


To switch gears a little... easily my biggest inspiration, though, is music.

I have a hard time writing if something isn't playing that matches the mood. It's why I keep a running playlist for all my works, so I can put the right music on and immediately get myself in the groove for any particular scene or character.

(Someday, I hope all these fancy e-readers have some kind of interactive tool where authors can assign songs to certain parts of the book if the reader wants to listen while they read. WOULDN'T THAT BE COOL? ... I thought so, anyway.)


For anyone wanting some awesome mood music without real vocals, I would check out the band E.S. Posthumus. You might recognize some of their work from a lot of movie trailers, like the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean series. Some amazing music.


What inspires you? Music, people, places? Do you people-watch and listen in for authentic dialogue? Do you like visiting new places in hopes of finding your next story or scene setting?

Pros & Cons of Online Writing Forums

Inkpop, Authonomy, Fiction Press, Figment! There are so many websites dedicated to writers. Some are privately owned, while some, like Inkpop and Authonomy, are owned by companies such as HarperCollins. There is a lot of speculation and fear about posting one’s writing to the internet. I uploaded my writings to Inkpop, but I respect others who fear to do so. Please do what feels comfortable to you, but I’m here to explain why, for me, the benefits outweigh the possible downfalls.

Cons:

Stolen Work or Ideas - This is understandably very scary for writers. Until we are published, we don’t want anyone getting their sticky fingers near our ideas. This is an honest danger, and there are horror stories out there, but I didn’t worry so much about this one. For one, Inkpop has disabled the copy and paste function, which makes it a lot more work for someone to steal. Majority of online writers are focused on getting feedback on their own work. I have a hard time imagining that someone is hard-up for a story idea, so they take the time to read through a bunch of unpublished works for inspiration. If this is a fear for you, one way to bypass is not to upload your entire project. Only share the segments on which you need critique. My best advice: do not post your entire story online!

Copyright - This concept is often misunderstood. In the US and many countries, you own the copyright on everything you write the moment it hits the paper. Posting to an online site actually gives a better record that it is, indeed, your work and has been since at least the date you posted. You own it and you can remove it at any time.

Online Work Loses Value with Agents and Publishers - If this was true, HarperCollins would not have started two writing sites, and they certainly would not be publishing anything that they find on said sites. From what I’ve seen, agents and publishers don’t care if you’ve had a team of online writer friends reading and critiquing your work. My agent did recommend not to post the ending, but I’d already taken that precaution. In fact, my agent said that sites like Inkpop are a good way to build a network and “fan base”. Leigh Fallon’s writings are still sitting pretty and available to read on Inkpop this very moment.

Pros:

Better Writing - My personal experience with Inkpop has been amazing. Posting my first book on there was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Why? I have a problem writing those introductory chapters. I can bang out the body of a story, no problem, but the first chapters are a bumbling mess. Within a month of posting my story online, I had received so much honest, helpful feedback that my introduction took on a complete facelift, turning into something beautiful that I don’t think I could have managed on my own. You have to be willing to take the critique without feeling insulted, though.

Motivation - I can’t count the number of comments I received that lifted my spirits. As writers, positive feedback is our fuel. There is much needed encouragement available from online writing groups if you’re willing to invest the time. Some of the people I met on Inkpop have become valued beta readers outside of the site, and even more importantly, they've become friends.

Helping Fellow Writers - You can’t join an online writing group and expect to receive without giving. Inkpop was like a part-time job for me during the Spring of 2010. In order to continue getting feedback and moving up the ranks, I had to give feedback of my own and support others in their journey. There is something soul-satisfying about helping one another reach our potentials.

Use it!

Before I start my post - we have a winner!! Bee the Book Crusher won the Shirley Marr contest! Shirley will be in contact soon.

Now onto Using it:

I had a very bad day. Well actually, my very bad day started yesterday when the taxi service decided to bump down my priority for people going to the airport (where did they think I was going!) and made me miss my flight. Then my flight home was delayed by two hours and when I drove home the engine light came on.

When I rang my boss to tell her that I'd missed my flight her words were "Sharon, you just can't catch a break can you." She's right. I've indeed had not just a bad couple of days, or even a bad couple of months but a year. The low-lights being the death of my Grandma in June followed by my father's terminal cancer diagnosis a week or so later.



Dad had to have his first blood transfusion on my son's birthday, he had a biopsy on my mother's birthday and he died five days before my birthday. I've never cried so much in my life.

I thought after everything I'd been through I was owed some good things in my life, but instead I have thing annoying little things still cropping up like missing my plane and two-hour delays.

It hit me after my boss spoke about how unlucky I've been, it would be a great concept to explore for a novel, are people owed good things if they've had a run of bad luck or are people who have gotten away with something terrible really going to get their comeuppance. I've started plotting the story.

So the lesson for me is, no matter what life throws at you, as a writer you can use it.

Speaking of which I have something special for you. It's the fast-fiction I wrote the day after Dad died.

The First Night Without You Here

The night is silent without you here. The house feels empty. Immediately I look to your bed, expecting to see you in it – but I know you are gone.

I embrace her for you, but my arms are not the ones she wants. She wants yours. Not mine. I move around the house in a comatose state – like you were before.

We finally go to bed, exhausted after hours of talking about you. Dreams come to take me, but her howling cries break the silent night and I rush to her in your place.

I hold her like I would my child, her body shaking from her sobs. She misses you already, even though it has only been hours. I stroke her hair and speak calming words, while my sister holds her hand. The hand you held for years, the hand that will never hold yours again in this life.

She calms.

“Would you like me to sleep in here with you tonight?” I ask.

She nods and whimpers a yes in response. I am lying where you lay, where you died, where your last breath was drawn, where you expired.

The three of use lay there as she rambles through her shock, talking about your last days, hours, minutes. We were told twelve months, then a few months, then a few weeks, then a few days. In the end it was a few hours.

Pantsers and Plotters

If you're looking on advice on plotting, you may want to go somewhere else. Before I write a book, my summaries sound like this: "So there's this person in this kind of world. THEN! Bad things happen." Usually, something explodes. OK, if I'm being honest, lots of somethings explode.

Pantsers vs. Plotters is the aspect of writing methods I find most fascinating. There are Pantsers like me and Nora Roberts (yeah, see what I did there?) who start with a general idea or snippet of something, sit down at their chosen media and let the story take them down whatever road it chooses. Then there are Plotters who I imagine have plotting systems that take more time than it takes to write the actual book. And then there are people at every single little miniscule point along the spectrum. Somewhere in between the Plotters and Pantsers there are the Plotsers, Plantsers (a word I'm not entirely convinced wasn't made up by Corrine O'Flynn last night), and even the Panters (a word I made up two minutes ago because it makes me giggle).

The reason why this fascinates me so probably has something to do with my education. In school (especially those run by the DoD), we're often told there's only one correct approach to a task - the way the teacher does it. I honestly think it took me so long to get serious about creative writing because I felt that I was "doing it wrong."

Remember the creative writing assignments where we had to submit the outline for the story a few weeks before the story? I LOATHED those. It's not that I couldn't do it, but - even then - I knew the quality of my plot was far inferior when I was forced to outline ahead of time. These plots were contrived, cliched and boring. It didn't take long for me to discover - sneaky little over-achiever with nothing else to do that I was - how much better I did if I just went ahead and wrote the story first and base my outline (by then it was really a synopsis though, huh? I hate those too) on that.

(and teacher-friends, please don't get mad at me. I understood the point, what you were trying to teach us. I just also understood that it sucked.)

I did this (and got good grades) but it made me feel dirty, like I was a misfit. It wasn't until, while researching before signing up for my first NaNoWriMo, I read Nora Roberts discuss her plotting (or lack thereof) that I thought maybe I wasn't such a freak after all. She says:

"Honestly I don’t do a thing. I have a basic idea in my head, I do whatever research needs to be done – and will continue to research throughout the course of the book – and then I sit down and start. That’s it. Oh, and I try to make sure there is a good supply of Diet Pepsi in the house. And pretzels or some salty thing. And chocolate."

(side note: after reading thisinterview, I've decided that Nora Roberts and I are the EXACT SAME PERSON. I'm just the personality that prefers Coke Cherry Zero over Diet Pepsi. And minus some romance, add some magic, and lower the MC's age. And, you know, without one of those pesky little publishing contracts. But whatever. Other than that...)

On the plotting side, I know there are writers who are as in to it as I am against it. Though I can't possibly understand how Plotters can do their thing, I'm not going to tell you it's a bad idea. Some can't start a book until they know the ending. I met a girl who was starting her book after finishing the 75 page outline. There are entire books written about methods involving color-coded index cards on multiple cork boards connected by interweaving pieces of yarn that represent something I can't even imagine.

And what I'm trying to say is: That's cool too.

If you've always used the same method, I'd suggest to give the other side (I like to think of Pantsing as the Dark Side - that's right: I'm a Sith writer) a try. But once you find a method that works for you, don't let anyone tell you you're doing it wrong. Because my ex-Marine drill sergeant sophomore English teacher is the one who was wrong: there is more than one way to arrive at a great story.

What about you? Are you a Sith Pantser or a Jedi Plotter? Or somewhere in between?

PS: When we reach 200 followers, I'll do a giveaway!
<---- Clicksies over there :-)

Awesome sequels

You get book one and read it. Instantly you fall in LOVE with the story. So, you anxiously await book two in the series, rushing down to get it the day it releases. Crack it open...read... and you're let down. Of course this is a taste thing. What could let me down, others might love. But when this does happen to you, it's incredibly frustrating, isn't it? I don't know if it's just you lose that first feeling of love in the second book, or if you go into it expecting certain things unlike when you go into the first book, but this has happened to me a few times. It breaks my heart each time.

I like to be positive though. So I'm not going to spend my time talking about sequels I didn't love, I want to talk about sequels I DID love. One such book is Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting.




I don't know why people aren't talking about this series EVERYWHERE. I absolutely loved both books. The bad guy was creepy in book one. In book two troubled but still in a way that made you uncomfortable and when it all comes down in the end, there are SO many emotions.

Not to mention Jay. Heart him. Love him. Such a cutie. I'm a sucker for best friends falling in love and Jay and Violet are one of my favorite such couples.

I was so happy that this sequel was just as wonderful as the first book. The Body Finder was one of my favorite reads of 2010 and Desires of the Dead is definitely one of my favs so far of 2011.

What are some of your favorite book twos? What do you think it is about them that makes them work?

PS, sorry for the late post. I have a kiddo with the flu and completely spaced it.

Contest winner!

Just a quick note to announce my contest winner...


Are you curious....




Do you really want to know....



Tired of my stalling....


LOL. The winner is vivien! Please email me at kdvitollo@yahoo.com with contest winner in the subject line!

First Sight

Have you ever seen or met someone who you're instantly drawn to? Like they have a specific gravity to them that draws you closer. Your heart starts racing, beating so hard you hear it in your head, and a tingling feeling starts in your stomach before spreading to the rest of your body. And then you meet the person's gaze and everything seems to stop just so you can bask in each other's eyes. Suddenly, you're face to face with this person and you know, you both know, that you have fallen in love at first sight.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? :-) I'm one of those people that truly believes people can fall in love practically instantly. I think that's why I don't hate YA stories where the two leads fall in love quickly. I will admit, though, that some instant love stories are rather unbelievable, but for the most part I don't mind them. Love is something everybody wants, especially teens and I think that's why the YA romance genre is so popular right now. I think falling in love at first sight is ridiculously romantic, but some think it's impossible and that all these YA novels give teens skewed perceptions of love.
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Do you all believe in love at first sight? Do you like books where the characters fall in love in a span of, like, two chapters? :-) I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts!

When Love is Too Easy (& winners!)

Disclaimer: The opinions I'm about to give relate ONLY to literary love and not the real kind that you may or may not be going through...

I had to put the above out there because, like most people, I think love is a great thing. I think that having someone, a partner, who is not only your best friend but your soul mate is something you don't get to experience very often and when you do, it's priceless. I believe that when you have it, the real kind at least, you should hold onto it with both hands and never let it go.

But...I think that kind of love is very boring to read about. Now, before you think 'what the hell is this girl talking about', let me explain.

Hypothetically, I'm reading about Sam and Laura. They meet. It's a very straight forward introduction to one another. Maybe they meet at school. He's new and she falls madly in love at first sight. They begin to talk and wow! Sam admits he likes her too. Dating ensues, a little bit of hesitant kissing and they become boyfriend and girlfriend. And then NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS.

Maybe the plot isn't centred around Sam and Laura and so it's like nothing needs to be dramatic between the two of them. Maybe they are just THAT perfect. No arguments, no difference in vocal opinions. Laura might narrate that Sam was being a little harsh, but to his face she's supportive. Maybe Laura is actually a vampire slayer who kicks butt and the plot focuses around her saving the world. Not around her relationship with Sam.

But I still find that boring. If a relationship is too sweet and too perfect - I get bored FAST. I stop rooting for the couple. I lost interest and I begin to roll my eyes at some of the things they say and do. I lose focus on the actual plot and start to pick holes in the two perfect relationship, longing for some substance, some kind of issue that may make the couple have to step away and think only to realise they can work through it. Call me odd, but I like an argument every now and again! Making up is the best part of breaking up after all.

So as much as I love a good romance, I will not enjoy a book if the romance isn't developed realistically. Who here can ever say they've never had an argument with a partner? Or entered rocky grounds where they panic for maybe a day that this isn't their soul mate because he left the toilet seat up? Easy love does not lead to good entertainment for me.

Onto you guys. Who agrees? Who doesn't agree? Who likes to read about easy, sweet love because it's nice to read about it when they're not experiencing it themselves? Or who likes problems so our literary couples can overcome it?

WINNERS!!

The winners of the Angelfire giveaway are...
*drumroll please*

Shannon the Bookstalker wins a copy of Angelfire!

Grig wins some Angelfire book swag!

Look out for an email in your inbox at some point today/tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

The Tuesday Twaddle - The Anti Valentine's Day

Firstly, I have a confession to make. I totally forgot it was my turn to post today. Oopsie! AND the YAtopia gang has been doing the whole homage to love and romance, and after a somewhat crappy Valentine’s Day, I’m not really feeling the love. So, I’m breaking ranks with my fellow bloggers (sorry guys) and I’m going turn viciously on the day that is all pink and fluffy.

I’ve always hated St Valentine’s Day. From the moment I hit puberty, I was painfully aware that I was not one of lovelies who was going to be inundated with balloons, cards, messages of undying love, and heart shaped chockies. There were always the groups of squealing girls in school showing off their Valentine's swag and trying to guess what hottie from the boy's school next to us fancied the pants of them.

So I ignored all things teen romance and scorned anything that came close to resembling pink and heart shaped. Let’s be honest, most of those girls probably sent that swag to themselves. I kind of guessed it at the time, and I’m fairly sure of it now. Fourteen year old boys have better things to spend their cash on.

And if there’s one thing we learn from all these gorgeously romantic books that we read (and write), it is that life isn’t supposed to be roses and chocolates. All the best romantic couples from both film and literature had to suffer for their love. Indeed, in most movies the pink and fluffy couples are usually first to bite the big one. It’s the hopelessly mismatched, seemingly doomed relationships that capture our hearts.

They say romance is dead… well I say, yeah they’re so right! In fact, in a lot of the most amazingly romantic stories it helps to be dead. Let’s face it, zombies, vampires, and ghosts make for the best boyfriends/girlfriends, and I believe them to be a product of the imagination of the thirteen year old in all of us, who secretly watched the pink orgy that is Valentine’s Day and quietly seethed.

Happy Valentine's Day!

In the spirit of Valentine's Day (and I get the joy of updating on the actual holiday, too!), I'm keeping with the YAtopia ~love~ theme!

I'll admit, I've never been a huge fan of the obsessive can't-EXIST-without-you kind of pairings, be them in books, games, movies, anime, whatever. The co-dependency, such as that seen in Twilight (don't hurt me!) and the way Bella completely shuts down without Edward around really doesn't do it for me.

Me? I like the couples who aren't afraid to oppose each other. The ones who don't necessarily love everything about one another. In fact, there are things that drive them absolutely nuts. It's the girl who comes home and chucks her diary against the wall because her one-true-love isn't perfect.

Howl and Sophie are one of my all-time favorite book couples for this exact reason.

(Nevermind that Howl is also one of my literary crushes...)

Sophie can be pushy and naggy, while Howl is... well, in Sophie's own words:

"You talk, mighty mistress of magics," he quavered. "Tell me of this Wizard Howl of yours."

Sophie's teeth chattered, but she said proudly, "He's the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he'd only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he's sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can't pin him down to anything."

"Indeed?" asked Abdullah. "Strange that you should speak so proudly such a list of vices, most loving of ladies."

"What do you mean, vices?" Sophie asked angrily. "I was just describing Howl."

There's even a line where Howl comments about how Sophie isn't at all pretty. (She's incredibly plain.) But they compliment each other so well, and there's no one either of them loves more than each other.

On top of that... I'll admit, I'm a sucker for trios. Whether it's a strong friendship bond or a romantic one, I fall all over it. Sadly, I haven't read many books yet where this is done, since the recent YA trend tends to be an MC with two potential opposing love interests (but it's common in the anime and video game world). Which sort of drives me nuts. Not because I think having two love interests is bad, but because of the MC's who are too wishy-washy to make up their mind and lead both interests on – and the interests put up with it.

The above also ties into my last romantic love: the best friend bond. The two who have been friends for ages, who may or may not end up together, but most of the time I'm rooting for it to happen.

What about you, darling readers? What kind of relationships do you find yourself rooting for the most in your favorite books?