YA Author Stacey Kade

I’ve been getting some emails lately asking for writing advice, so I thought I’d post my reponse(s) here in case others are interested.

These are just some general thoughts about writing, of course. If you want to talk more specifically about developing characters, creating conflict, or even publishing type stuff (finding an agent, etc.), let me know. We can do that, too.

1) If writing is really important to you, don’t quit. You’ll have a million and one people telling you how hard it is to write a book, and they’re right…but don’t let that stop you. All of us–every single published author out there–had people telling us it couldn’t be done. It can be. You have to be persistent and BELIEVE.

2) Don’t worry about it if you don’t know what happens next in the story, just keep going. I spent years starting stories and never finishing them because I thought if I didn’t know what happened next then it was doomed and I’d better start another one. Finishing the story, even if you think it’s not very good, is super important. Writing, especially in the beginning, teaches you through the experience of writing. In other words, you may hate the middle or the end of this book you just finished, but you’ll learn from it so the next one will be better.

3) Read. A lot. Look at your favorite book and figure out what makes it your favorite. Is it the realistic characters? The funny dialogue? The mystery? Whatever you enjoy about that book is most likely an element you’ll want to incorporate in your own writing. And you should always write what you want to read. Write something that would entice you to pick it up off the shelf, even if it’s not something that’s popular right now (e.g. vampires).

4) Have fun! Don’t worry about pleasing anyone else, especially not at first. Tell yourself the story.

5) Always keep learning. There are lots of good books and articles out there about writing. The Writer and Writer’s Digest are two magazines that most libraries carry, and they have great articles, especially if you’re just starting out. Other books I’ve found helpful are: On Writing by Stephen King, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, and Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon.

My mentor, Linnea Sinclair, also found these very cool story cards. We’ve used them in workshops, but I also think they’re incredibly handy for sorting out a story idea and seeing how the pieces fit together.

Okay…back to revising! Oh! That would be another good topic for discussion someday.

Here’s the latest tour info:
- June 18: 6pm, Davis Kidd, Memphis (Daniel Waters, Elizabeth Rudnick, and Brendan Halpin)

- June 18: 7pm, Keplers, Menlo Park, CA (Kristen Tracy, Stacey Kade, and Brent Crawford)

- June 19: 7pm, Books & Books, Coral Gabels, FL (Daniel Waters, Elizabeth Rudnick, Emily Franklin, and Brendan Halpin)

- June 19: 1pm, “Meet & Greet” at Copperfields, Petaluma, CA (Kristen Tracy, Stacey Kade, and Brent Crawford)

-June 20: stock signings tk

- June 21: 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA (Daniel Waters, Elizabeth Rudnick, Emily Franklin, and Brendan Halpin)

- June 21: 6:30pm, Pudd’nHead Books, St. Louis, MO (Kristen Tracy, Stacey Kade, and Brent Crawford)

- June 22: 7pm, Anderson’s Bookshop, Naperville, IL (all authors)

- June 23: 2pm, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, KS (all authors)

- June 24: 6pm, Books of Wonder, New York, NY (all authors)

- June 25: 6pm, ALA Convention, Disney Book Group booth #2654 Washington, DC (all authors)

-June 26: 3:30pm, Politics & Prose, Washington, DC (all authors)

As kids, my siblings and I were always told, “Be good and mind your manners.” As the children of a minister, we were often the focus of more attention that most kids. I don’t mean in a child-star sort of way, but in a “people will pass judgment on your father based on your bad behavior, so you darn well better behave and be polite” kind of a way. (Once I wore a skirt to church that was too short for one parishoner’s taste, and he did not hesitate to inform me of this to my face, and then report it back to my father as well. I was fourteen.)

There’s nothing wrong with good manners and being polite, but it has occasionally left me with trouble when it comes to deciding between being polite and responding on instinct. Because of those early years of training, I tend to worry more about hurting someone else’s feelings–even if they’re being rude or creepy to me–than following my gut.

And I don’t think it’s just me. I’ve witnessed many girls and women ignore insults or threats or bad situations because they don’t want to be confrontational or “cause a problem.”

It’s taken me years to get to the point where I can recognize it when I’m ignoring good sense for the sake of being polite. I’m still not great at it, and I truly hope that all of you out there are much better about it than I am/have been.

And yep, I’m telling you about this for a reason…

When I’m working on a first draft–or playing with new ideas–you’ll frequently find me in the cafe area of my local Barnes and Noble store. It’s easier for me to concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing, rather than getting caught up in all the tasks piling up at home. And they serve hot chocolate!

When I’m thinking (read: staring off into space), I also catch myself doing a lot of people watching. Two weekends ago, this kind of strange looking guy caught my attention. Initially, I think it was because he met my gaze and held eye contact for just a fraction of a second too long. I realize that seems weird to notice it, but I bet it’s happened to you. It gives you that oogey (to use a friend’s word) creeped out feeling. Because this was not “I’m staring at you because you’re attractive” or “I’m staring at you because you just ordered your third hot chocolate in an hour.”

It’s “off” in some undefinable way that whispers in your brain.

In any case, I kept an eye on him because I just was getting a bad feeling. Two college-age girls came in and took a table near me. And he noticed them. I noticed him notice them, and that bad feeling increased.

He walked back and forth by them several times–getting books and returning them–before finally stopping to talk to them.

At this point, I was getting concerned. I pulled my headphones out and listened in.

He complimented one of them on her shoes. (They were cute. Red with a tiny kitten heel.) He asked where she got them, how much they cost, and what size they were.

Okay, in theory, this could be fairly normal conversation, but he’s just too darn interested. Do you know that feeling I’m talking about? It’s just not right.

So, when she takes her shoe off to check the size, he’s kneeling down next to her…far more interested in her foot than her shoe. Not touching or anything, but STARING.

Oh, man, major weirdness ahead. The girls are starting to recognize this for themselves and give him the “go away” signal. Then I hear him talking about wanting to MEASURE HER FOOT.

Girl, face bright red: No, I don’t think so.
Creepy guy: Oh. Maybe later then.
Girl: I’m pretty sure they’re a size ten.
Creepy guy: long blah speech about how that might not be the case…in short creepy reason for wanting to MEASURE HER FOOT!

At this point, I’m getting ready to walk over there and/or find a manager. It’s still not easy for me to be confrontational–at all–but I’m much more able to do that on someone else’s behalf than my own. And these girls were around my sister’s age. I was NOT going to let him mess with them.

But he gives up and walks away.

An hour or so later, though, he’s back.

Creepy guy: I still want to measure your foot. You can come with me over to the corner where no one will see.
Girl, hesitantly: No, I don’t think so.

But creepy guy persists.

At this point, I’m up and out of my chair moving toward them, but the girl, God bless her, face bright red, looks up and says loudly, “I said, NO.”

This firmness makes him back off and he not only leaves them alone, he leaves the store entirely.

I was so proud and impressed! I complimented the girl for saying no and not backing down. And she said, “I didn’t want to be rude to him but…”

I reassured her that she wasn’t rude. That there’s a line between between protecting yourself and being rude, and she was well on the correct side of it.

Creepy people often count on others being nice or being too afraid to make a fuss. I always think of that scene in Silence of the Lambs where the serial killer pretends to have a broken arm and asks for help from the girl who is alone. She does it because she doesn’t want to be rude or cruel. If you haven’t seen Silence of the Lambs, well, let’s just say that doesn’t particularly end up being a great choice for her.

Chances are, the guy in the bookstore was just an every day person with some problems, but you don’t know.

Be kind. Be polite. But protect yourself. Listen to those instincts. If you’re getting a bad feeling, trust that. There’s a reason for it. Your brain is processing things faster than you have time to consciously realize. Don’t worry about causing a fuss or a problem or a scene. Do what you need to do to feel safe again.

I’m back from vacation! It was lovely to get away for a few days–actually, almost a whole week.

We were outside of Orlando, in Kissimmee. It was warm (relatively speaking) and sunny, and I loved it. Despite my ultra-pale complexion, I think I was born to be a warm-climate girl. I just feel better when the sun is shining and I’m not wearing 27 layers of clothes. Better still if I’m on a beach with a book! (Hmmm. I wonder if this comes from living in the Carolinas back when I was very, very young. Since then we’ve lived in the midwest, but I’ve never forgotten the smell of the ocean and how much I love it.)

No beach or ocean this time, but our rented house did have a heated pool, which was awesome. It was only in the mid-seventies last week, even in Florida, so swimming would not have been possible otherwise.

We did the Disney theme park thing on Monday (Animal Kingdom), Tuesday (Hollywood Studios/Downtown Disney), and Wednesday (Epcot). My favorite, I think, was the Animal Kingdom Safari ride. A rhino came right up to the side of the bus/tram thing. Very cool and a teensy bit scary. I also loved, as always, seeing the gorillas and the tigers. At Downtown Disney, we got to see Ben Folds perform at the House of Blues, and it was a great show! He was an incredible performer and really interacted with the crowd. Loved it! The opening act, Zack Williams, was fantastic as well.

Now…did I take lots pictures of that stuff, like a normal person might? Uh, no. Instead, I focused on one of my ultimate “that would be so cool” scenarios, which happened to be just up the street from our rental house.

And what might that be?

AN ABANDONED AMUSEMENT PARK!!!

How freaking cool is that? I don’t know why this idea fascinates me, but it does. I was talking to a friend and we think it might be because of the inherent stark contrast involved. A place formerly full of people and happiness, now completely empty, desolate and sad.

In any case, what happened was this:

We were approaching our rental house and a couple turns before ours, we noticed what we thought was the entrance to an abandoned subdivision.

But as we kept going, we saw these strange buildings up against the fence. House-like structures but not. And oddly enough, there were these little tiny buildings–like huge palaces but on a really small scale.

At first we thought it was an abandoned mini-golf place, which would have been cool, but not AS cool as an abandoned amusement park.

But then we met with some friends for dinner, who told us it was, in fact, an abandoned amusement park with a Chinese-culture theme. (The picture below is of the dragon symbol near the main gates.)

SCORE!

So, on Thursday, when my husband was preparing to go watch the NCAA games with a friend, we had this conversation:

Him: “Okay, I’m leaving to watch the games.”

Me: “Have fun! I’m going to read some, maybe take a walk…” (insert super casual pause, and then continue almost under breath) “…around the abandoned amusement park.”

Him: *stops dead with keys in hand, starts to say something, and then just shakes his head with a sigh* “Just be careful.”

That is how you know he’s used to being married to a writer.

I wouldn’t have said anything to him at all, but you know, in case I fell and broke my leg, got bitten by a snake, or was kidnapped by strange beings using the abandoned park as a portal to their world, I wanted him to know where I’d gone at least.

Here are (more) results of my afternoon adventure…

This is where the sign for the entrance used to be and is now home to graffiti. It was right near the dragon symbol up above:

This is one of my favorite shots…a close up of one of the mini buildings:

A weird rock formation that you can just barely make out beyond the bars of the fence:

Eerie abandoned buildings (which I love!):

And one of the back gates with yet MORE abandoned buildings:

Also, let me take this opportunity to point out that all my pictures were obtained legally from OUTSIDE the park gates. No trespassing occurred! A) Because this place has LOTS of security. B) I am way too chicken to go inside alone. C) It could have been legitimately dangerous on the inside because even though the park is technically gone, the structures are still there, which means people. Possibly scary people.

And here, if you’re really curious, is more info about the park, which was called Splendid China, and some videos of skateboarders who are braver than I am and actually went in. (Note: I do not endorse trespassing of any kind. Mainly because you never know when some whackjob with a gun is going to take his sign more seriously than you did. Also? Getting arrested sucks. Not that I know from experience, but it LOOKS like it sucks. And so does falling through rotten floor boards that *look* solid enough to walk on. Ouch.)

Alas, one thing was missing, though, from this particular park. No abandoned, hulking, rusting rides to creak eerily in the wind. Maybe next time!

Yea! I have permission to share the cover for The Ghost and the Goth! I really love it! Alona and Will look just like they are supposed to. They even got her gym uniform exactly right!

Right now, I’m averaging about one post per month. Sheesh.

I swear to you, once upon a time, I was prolific blogger. I had (actually still have) a blog under another name, and I used to be on there, writing daily. Now, my goodness, I can’t even handle Twitter! (I’ll be back there again soon, but it’s waaaaay to easy for me to get distracted on there. Have I mentioned Nathan Fillion has a Twitter? Yeah…trust me, I can waste hours hitting refresh.)

Anyway, I’m still working on revisions to my draft of Princess Poltergeist, which is an all-absorbing task, but so far, I’m MUCH happier with this version. That being said, between writing and working, I’m not left with a lot of time for much else. (Hello to all of my friends who I never get to see anymore! I miss you!)

Except movies.

I tell myself this is because they serve double-duty as relaxation and time with my neglected husband, who also loves movies. Really, it’s just because I like to go, and sometimes I think if I stare at my computer screen for five more minutes, my brain will explode. Which would be bad. (I would no longer be tempting to zombies, *sniff*)

So, in the last month or so, we’ve seen:

(Theater)
New Moon–(My husband was one of three guys in the whole theater. Yes, he loves me.) Less sucky than first. Jacob is awesome!

The Blindside–Sandra Bullock still kicks *ss. Love her. Wasn’t expecting to laugh so hard at a movie that promised to be a deliberate tearjerker (which I hate, but I attended this one to make up for dragging husband to NM, and I LOVED it).

Sherlock Holmes–RDJ and JL are fabulous together. I’m not entirely certain what the story was about, but it didn’t matter. Holmes and Watson are the reason to see this one.

Avatar–Hello, Sam Worthington! I loved you in Terminator: Salvation. You were the only thing that saved that movie from being yanked out of our DVD player, fifteen minutes in. I wasn’t as bothered by the CGI as I thought I would be, having suffered through Jar-Jar Binks (yes, I do mean SUFFER.) I thought Zoe Saldana was fantastic and in honor of her, I have decided to snarl ferociously, as she did, whenever somebody says something I don’t like. (It should be noted here that one of my very first attempts fiction, when I was a kid, was a story about people who had cat ears and cat tails, though were otherwise humanoid.)

So that’s about it for now, I guess. I’d like to say there’ll be more in this space soon, but with my track record, we could easily be looking at February. So wherever you are, I hope you survived the holidays with good spirits intact, you’re staying warm, and 2010 is treating you well so far!

Sheesh. I’ve been terrible about updating. I’ve been working on finishing a first draft for the sequel to The Ghost and the Goth, tentatively titled Princess Poltergeist.

I follow Anne Lamott’s school of thought on this and write “sh*tty first drafts.” (BTW, If you haven’t read Anne Lamott’s book, Bird by Bird, go out and buy it or check it out from the library now. Seriously. I’ll wait. This book, a gift from a talented writer friend, Karen, has gotten me through some rough writing moments. I refer to it often. :))

I love that this theory gives me the freedom to play around with ideas and to not be sure. The hardest thing for me in a first draft is to be sure of anything. Of course, the down side is once you get to the end, you have to go back and start sorting it out. But there’s pleasure in that, too, seeing all the pieces come together…usually after days, if not weeks, of banging your head against the wall and feeling convinced that you’ve written yourself a big pile of poo that cannot be salvaged in any way and you might as well give up and become…well, whatever job it is you’ve been avoiding on the premise that you might be able to write, which, clearly, now you can’t. And so on and so forth.

And no matter how many times you go through this process, you ALWAYS feel the same way. This is my sixth book. One drawer manuscript (or trunk novel, as some call it), three adult novels, and one YA (so far). I keep thinking it will get easier. In some ways it does, and in others…nope.

So that’s where I am now. Don’t get me wrong, I love it…even as it feels like it’s killing me. But obsessing, freaking out, and worrying over a sh*tty first draft is an all-consuming process for me. Hence my absence and probably continued absence for a bit.

But I wanted to at least share what was going on because, if you’re anything like me, you’re convinced that everyone else writes a perfect draft the first time around…or at least one that can be turned into something good with just a few minor tweaks here and there. But nope. (And if I’m wrong about this and the rest of you are out there cranking out perfect first drafts without breaking a sweat, please for the love of God, don’t tell me! Unless you’re going to teach me how you do it…)

Ack! Sorry, I’ve missed the last few Wednesdays. My birthday was in there, as was an out-of-town visit and one week of sickness.

But I’m better now (and older), so back to our regularly scheduled blog!

One of the questions I’m asked most often is, where do you get your ideas?

And honestly, I still don’t have a good answer. I’m sure it’s a combination of life experiences, plus things I’ve read, seen, heard, etc. and a flash of something other that binds them all together in some new way.

All I know for sure is that I love it when new ideas whisper in my ear. And yes, that’s usually the way it happens. Someone new appears on scene to tell me some little snippet about themselves or their situation.

The hardest part for me always is figuring out WHICH idea to pursue. Some of these have been hanging around, waiting in the wings, for literally years. Something about them calls to me, or else they wouldn’t still be in the idea file. (I have both paper and electronic files labled “Ideas.”)

I found this in an article on CNN today, which I found interesting:

“In an interview with Betsy Morris of Fortune, Steve Jobs offered an interesting and, typically, upside-down perspective on focus: ‘People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the 100 other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the many things we haven’t done as the things we have done.’”

Lately I’ve been preoccupied with the concept of finding the “right” idea. I think I’ve always thought that some story ideas are more complete, more functional than others. Or, that others are flawed from the get-go, despite their many appealing qualities, and no matter how much work or time or effort you put into them, they are doomed from the start.

It makes me anxious to think like that because then it feels a bit like gambling when you have to choose what next to work on. You have to bet on the right horse, or you’ll end up broke (i.e. 150 pages in and no story, or worse, a story you hate.)

And that may be partially true…some ideas may be more complete than others from the beginning. But better? I don’t know. Mind you, I’m not talking about their sale-ability or their potential for bestseller-dom, merely an idea’s potential for becoming a complete and functional story.

The more I think about this, the more I wonder if it’s less about the idea and more about me. The theory that some ideas are “better” than others seems kind of flawed (aside from obvious technique issues or marketing/sales impracticalities–like a love story with zombies or something, but I bet someone will find a way to make even that work).

I’ve read so many books that took delightfully unusual concepts–ones that people would say, “Oh, that’ll never work,” and executed them brilliantly. Others that have taken tried-and-true stories and flipped them upside down in some way for a fresh perspective.

I’m beginning to wonder if the x-factor is author interest/commitment. For me, some ideas require more development to turn them from a little kernel into a full blown…uh, whatever a kernel becomes. Ear of corn? Popcorn?

And sometimes in that development process, I get wishy-washy. I like these people, but if I don’t know their story, I’m floundering. Sometimes, to make them part of a story, I have to change things about them or their situation. And then…all of a sudden the developing story isn’t as interesting to me as the kernel was. Or maybe there are too many choices and the process of figuring it out suddenly seems overwhelming and not fun.

Fun. I seriously do think that’s the key. I write because I love it, because it’s fun for me. Not all the time, not every day, and it’s a LOT of hard work, but there are certainly more good days than bad. Otherwise, I wouldn’t do it. Nobody would.

And I have to know enough about the characters and where the story is going to be able to relax enough to have fun.

So maybe that’s the litmus test I’ve been looking for. Not is this the “right” idea…but will it be fun? Am I excited about seeing these scenes play out on paper? Do I know enough about this story that I’ll enjoy seeing it come to life? Or is it more of a vague notion than an idea?

Hmmm. It’s something worth thinking about, at least.

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Random Stuff:
–Liar by Justine Larbalestier is fascinating and unsettling. I highly recommend it, but you should come to it with no expectations (or spoilers). Seriously. I finished it two days ago and I’m STILL thinking about it.

–I CANNOT wait for “V” to start next week! November 3 on ABC, people!

–I am SO enjoying my Kindle, which I got for my birthday. I’ll be writing up my experiences about it probably for next week. I have the most fun downloading the free samples to my Kindle and reading them on the couch. It is DANGEROUS, you guys, how easy it is to buy books this way.

I hang out in the bookstore cafe a lot, writing, reading, just generally chilling out. My favorite spot, thus far, is the Barnes and Noble in Vernon Hills. The people who work there are awesome, and it’s a big B&N so there’s plenty of opportunity for one of my other favorite activities: people-watching. Or, in this case, people-listening.

Writers are, I think, natural eavesdroppers. It’s not intended maliciously, of course, but I think we’re just eternally curious and hearing snippets of lives going on around us is intriguing. We fill in the gaps with what we think the story should be, or at least I do.

In any case, the other day, in an effort to distract myself from the guy loudly clipping his fingernails (yes, seriously!) in the cafe (double gross) without any attempt to clean up after himself (gagging now), I was half-reading and half-listening to a conversation between a girl and her mom. Actually, it was a bit more one-sided than that. The girl had some kind of college guide and was reading descriptions, very amusing, tongue-in-cheek ones, of various colleges to her mother.

In that instant, I had a sudden flashback to those days of trying to pick my school out of the giant tome of possibilities. All of them sounded good on paper. Of course, they did. What self-respecting university PR person would send in “Eh. It’s okay as long as you don’t mind seeing the same 300 people over and over again”? Or, “Good luck meeting your professor. He’s the guy who never shows up for class”?

No, the true test of a college and whether it was right for you was the college visit day. And oh, can I tell you the sucky experiences I had?

Two school visits spring to mind in particular. The first, a small private school offered me a very good scholarship (as in, almost all my tuition paid) to be one of their “top scholars” on campus. Sounds good except…total campus population? 500. My high school? 800. It was terrifying exactly how tiny and incestous the place was. Everybody knew everyone and everything…people I’d never even met knew who I was and who I was staying with. I felt like I couldn’t breathe just on the visit weekend. The girls I was staying with also took great pains to tell me that they didn’t really have to study either. “It’s totally a party school.” Um, yeah, with the same 250 guys, assuming a 50/50 split between the genders, minus those who have girlfriends, are gay, are interested in your roommate, are not interested in you…which would leave, what, seven possible dating prospects?

And in fact, I suspected they were telling the truth about the studying thing. I didn’t see a single person with a book open the whole weekend–and trust me, I saw almost everyone on campus, literally–which made me feel really good about their “top scholar” offer. Eeesh.

Second, and this one was by far worse…I stayed with a friend I knew from church camp and her two roommates, whom I didn’t know prior to that visit. One of the roommates was locked in a drama with my friend and the other roommate, but no one seemed able to explain what had happened to cause this. The other roommate had her out of town boyfriend in town for the first time since leaving him in the summer.

During my visit, my church camp friend promptly got wasted and passed out in her bed. The angry roommate left in a huff to stay next door. And the third roommate and her boyfriend, despite having been given ample alone time earlier in the evening and refusing my offer to stay with the angry roommate next door, decided to have sex in the middle of the night while I attempted to sleep on the floor…three feet away.

Yeah. After having attended college, this seems like small stuff (oh, the stories I could tell.) But as a high school senior trying to find a place where I thought I might belong…it was enough to make me run screaming in the other direction.

These were both incidents that could have happened on any college campus (if you could find another one equally small, in the case of the first example), and on another visit or a different weekend, it might have turned out differently. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I didn’t spend the night at any more colleges after that second visit, including the one I actually chose, Valparaiso University. Oddly enough, what convinced me there was simply the feeling I got when I walked onto campus. It felt like home.

So, how about you…anybody else have college visit day horror stories? I’m sure mine are tame compared to others!

I’ve been a fan of Chuck Taylors (some of you may know them as Converse) since my sophomore year in college when I bought my first pair (w/blue and green plaid flannel…hey, it was the mid-nineties and flannel, baby, was hot!) My dad was amused. They were very retro to him because, as a kid growing up in the 50s and 60s, that’s what he wore.

So imagine my delight when I was browsing the web (read: procrastinating) and found that you can make your own custom Chucks! You can pick the colors, the pattern (no, thank you) and even have text put on the heel strip or the side. You can make Chucks with your school colors, your grad year, your upcoming college colors, whatever. I just love that!

Dude. I am so all over this. Now I just have to pick my colors and text. My book title (yes, I’m a dork and that was my FIRST thought) is too long. You only get 12 characters, unfortunately. Hmmm. Could maybe be Ghost & Goth–that’s only 10. But it sounds like a bar or a band name.

Go forth and design your custom Chucks here.