YA Author Stacey Kade

Whenever I turn in a draft of a new book, I always feel a little at loose ends. Like I don’t know what to do with myself…except write another book! Which, of course, is on the agenda. But before I jump into something new, I like to keep tabs on what I learned during the process of writing a draft of the previous book.

Every book is different. I don’t know how to explain it, but even within the same series, with the same characters, every book has different sticking points, things I struggle with. And starting a new series with new characters, that’s even trickier, I think.

My mentor and friend, the awesome Linnea Sinclair, once compared it to skiing. You know how to ski. But that doesn’t mean you know *this* mountain. Every story is its own mountain, a challenge to your skills and experience in a new way.

I think this is probably a good thing in the end–keeps us challenged and learning.

But when you’re stuck and wiping out on the mountain–over and over again, cursing it for being different than all the other mountains you’ve skied–it doesn’t feel like it.

So, in an effort to help myself in those future moments when I’m convinced I’m going to be permanently stuck on the side of one of those story mountains, I always try to write down what I’ve learned (or re-learned) during the writing of a draft.

I’m still going to make mistakes. I’m still going to get stuck. But maybe I won’t make the SAME mistakes. And maybe what I’ve learned in the past will help get me out of some future jam.

I usually jot these notes down in my writing notebook, but I’ve been getting more and more emails asking about writing advice, so I thought I’d post it here this time.

(Note: as with anything with writing, these items may work for you, or they may not. There is no one right way to write a book. Also, as you’ll see in a moment, I’m WAY more of a “pantser” than a plotter. Again, you should do whatever works for you.)

1) Write a crappy first draft.
This is not a new lesson for me. Nor is it original to me. I first read about it in Anne Lamott’s brilliant book on writing: Bird by Bird.

She talks about how the need to be perfect right out of the gate can have a paralyzing effect on your writing. Or, I think, on anything. After years of doing this, I can tell you that it is impossible for a mere mortal to get book exactly right on the first attempt. At the very least, there will be spelling mistakes! But more than that, most likely.

Story-telling, I think, is about layering. In the end, the reader responds to the depth of the story, the layers of story, character, description, emotion, etc. But I’m not sure if it’s possible to get all those layers in with one draft. In fact, I think sometimes it’s impossible to know what’s important, what layers need to be added, until after you have a working draft.

So you write a crappy draft. And you have fun with it. You don’t worry about making a mess or how it’s going to turn out. You just write it. Some of it will be salvageable. Some of it won’t be. Some of it will be good writing. Some of it will make you cringe. But the idea is that you couldn’t have gotten to the good writing without allowing yourself the opportunity to be free and make mistakes. My mantra during this part of the process is always, “I can fix it later. Keep going.”

2) Write all the way to the end.
This one I learned on my own, the hard way. But through several conversations with the amazing and prolific Ann Aguirre, I realized I’d stumbled onto something important. (Ann confirmed it, having discovered this idea long before me.)

When you’re writing your crappy first draft, your judgment is…well, impaired is the nicest way to put it. In truth, you will not be able to tell, at times, good from the bad. I’ve found chapters that I HATED writing–ones I could only convince myself to write by telling myself it was just a crappy first draft–ended up being some of my favorites.

Because of this impaired judgment, I would often work on my crappy first draft until I reached a point where I couldn’t stand the sheer crappiness of it any longer and then I would quit and begin revising.

So. Very. Dumb.

Because here’s the thing, yeah, some parts of that draft were pretty awful. But the first draft is the exploratory draft. Often you don’t know where you’re going until the end. If you cut yourself off before the end, then you’re missing out on an important part of the development process. It’s like turning around and going home before you reach your destination. Yep, there’s probably a more efficient route, but you can’t find it if you’re always turning around before you get to the end.

And if you start revising too soon, you might end up changing things that don’t need to be changed.

Usually, the parts that made me cringe ended up not being as bad as I thought (or even pretty good) once I figured out where the book needed to go. And the parts that were bad…I just cut them with the confidence that I was making the book better.

So. Write all the way to THE END. Even if you have to make ridiculous leaps of logic or cringe your way through chapters. Get all the way to the end. It’s important.

3) When stuck, use the “Twenty Things” list.
This one’s pretty simple, and also not original to me. I picked this up somewhere along the way from a writing book or seminar. But I don’t remember where! So, credit is due…to someone, somewhere.

When you’re stuck and you aren’t sure what happens next (or the options you can immediately think of are unappealing), sit down with your writing notebook or a legal pad and write down twenty things that could happen next.

Include the logical but unsatisfying options you’ve been considering, but don’t stop there. Go hog wild. Fill that list with crazy possibilities. Things you’ve not allowed yourself to think about previously. A character needs to get from point A to point B, but you’re not sure how.
–borrow a car
–walk
–get a ride from a friend
–call a cab
–steal a car from the elderly neighbor who never leaves the house anymore
–alien abduction
–etc.

Whatever. You get the idea. The point of the exercise is just to open your mind up to the possibilities. And between the boring options and the crazy ones, you usually find one that’s just right and oh-so-intriguing. Which is what you’re looking for.

4) A daily goal and a kitchen timer can save you.
Writing is hard. No matter how much you love it, there are days when it’s easy to become distracted. Or heck, just days you want to stay in bed and read.

Most writers I know use word goals, a certain number of words per day they feel comfortable with writing and will keep them on target for meeting their deadline.

I used to pride myself on stretching. Writing as many words as I could in a day. Sometimes 3,000 or more. But the trouble with that is, I was outpacing “the boys in the basement” as Stephen King refers to them in his book, On Writing.

Basically, it’s the part of your mind that processes on an unconscious level, the part that is always thinking about the story, the part of you that is connected to whatever inspirational source/well that drives this whole shebang. And if you outpace “the boys,” you don’t have material for the next writing session. Not good.

So, okay, fine, I could set a goal based on my daily word maximum. That would make sense, right? Set a goal of hitting my maximum every day. Yeah, no.

For one thing, some days are better than others. And it is amazingly easy to become discouraged. To fall behind and try to punish ourselves for it. “Well, I was supposed to do 2,000 words yesterday, but I only did 1,500. So, now I have to do 2,500 words today to make up for it.”

UGH. No, thank you. As I said, writing is hard enough. I don’t want to make it worse for myself.

I think I learned this technique in Todd Stone’s Novelist’s Boot Camp seminar a couple of years ago. (As you can see, I’m big on learning more and more about writing!)

It basically works like this: set your daily goal at something you know you can readily accomplish. Something reasonable. And yeah, you can probably do more. Some days, you might write more. Which means, yea! You surpassed your goal. But there will be other days where even this oh-so-reasonable number will laugh at your futile attempts to reach it.

It will end up balancing out.

And you’re not allowed to punish yourself by adding to your next day’s goal on days you miss it. It’s always X. 500 words or whatever.

For the days where distraction reigned supreme and I wanted to spend two minutes writing and four hours reading Twitter, I found a kitchen timer came in handy. I’d set it for fifteen minutes and make myself write–no peeking at email, Twitter or Facebook during that time. When the timer went off, I was then allowed a break to check email, Twitter, etc.

Then I’d set the timer again. Over and over, until I reached my goal. Most of the time, I found the days I really struggled with writing, it was mostly because I was struggling with my confidence in my ability to convey a certain scene or emotion. But the timer and the daily goal take away the option of wimping out.

5) Remember it’s a process.
This is something I have to *keep* learning. Remembering that this crappy first draft won’t always be crappy, but that I have to start somewhere. And once I’ve got a draft down, then it’s a process to begin fixing it up. Just like remodeling a house. You can’t tear out all the walls and work on the roof at the same time. The roof would fall down. So you, fix the walls, THEN the roof. Or whatever. You get the idea. It’s a process. Keep focused. One thing at a time until you’re done.

What about all of you writers out there? Are there tips and techniques you’ve found that help you get through a draft?

I get emails every once in awhile asking about writing advice. As with anything writing-related, every experience is different and everyone has their own way of doing things, but I thought I’d write about what has helped me. Maybe you’ll find it helpful or maybe it’ll be one more method to check off your list before trying something else. And that’s okay, too–remember, there really is no one way to write a book (h/t once again to Ally Carter for that phrase)!

So, this week, it’s about process. I don’t know how it works for everyone else, but writing for me is often like watching a little movie in my head. (And I LOVE that!) However, it’s like a movie in pieces, out of order and making no sense. At least in the beginning.

When I first started writing, I’d get so excited about that first “scene” I saw in my head, and I’d sit down right away and start writing. The trouble was, I quickly found, I had no context for what was going on and I didn’t know how to continue beyond that scene.

Imagine walking into a darkened theater where a movie is already playing. You have no idea how long the movie has been going on, only that everyone else inside the theater is already settled and watching in riveted silence. On the screen, a girl is running through the dark woods. By the light of the full moon, you can see she’s been crying, her cheek is bruised and her lip is split and bloody. She’s carrying a big, antique-looking metal box with a heavy lock on the front. It’s awkward and causes her to stumble more than once. She’d definitely be moving faster if she ditched the box, but she doesn’t. Even when she glances back over her shoulder at a shadowy figure in the darkened woods and it’s clear she’s being chased and she’s terrified.

Great. Except…what happens next? Well, the problem for me was that there were just too many possibilities and I had no idea which one was the “right” one, in that it would allow the story to progress. Mainly this was because I had no idea what I was seeing or what it meant. Was getting this box the final step at the end of the story? Or are we just kicking things off by stealing this box? And what’s in it that is so important to this girl? We know it’s important because she doesn’t abandon it to get away. Who is she? Who is chasing her?

Does she get caught here and have to prove her mettle by taking on whatever is chasing her? Does she escape cleanly…for now? Does she open the box and hide whatever is inside from whoever or whatever is chasing her? Any of these possibilities are, well, possible! It depends on where we are in the story, who these characters are, and what they are trying to accomplish.

The first thing I do is jot down all the possibilities of what the next scene might be, just so I don’t forget what I was originally thinking. Then I go back to that little snippet of film in my head, and I slow it down so I can note all the details, knowing that some may change or go away as I find my way through this. But I don’t know for sure what’s important at this stage, so I write down everything I can see and treat the details as clues.

How old is the girl? What does she look like? What is she wearing? Regular clothes probably mean a contemporary setting, even though the box is old-fashioned looking. Is she scared simply of being caught? Or is she more frightened about what will happen if the person/thing chasing her gets a hold of the box and its contents?

I write down everything I know (based on what I’m seeing) and then it’s time for a little context. We know this isn’t the first thing that happened to this girl in the story because she had to get to the woods and find the box and acquire those injuries somehow. Now, for the sake of interest, we could start the story with this chase and then flashback to when the story starts, but we still need to know what happened and in what order for HER. No matter how we read her story, to her, it happened in regular linear time. We need to have that timeline, even if we don’t write or present the story in that order.

So I take some notes on what might have happened immediately before this moment.

(Also, throughout this process, I continue to try to push the film forward or run it back to see if more scenes appear, which they usually do but almost always out of order. I don’t get the next scene; I get the second to last scene or something near the middle. That’s okay. I just write it down, knowing that I’ll use it eventually.)

Now…this is the point at which I’d often get stuck. There’s only so much that film can tell you. TV and movies, in that respect, are more limited. You only know what a character is thinking if the character tells you. In books, that’s not the case. So, I start getting to know the characters. In the case of our girl being chased, I have already two characters: a protagonist (the girl) and an antagonist (whoever is chasing her). Yeah, I want to know what their favorite breakfast cereal is and their most humiliating moment, but even more than that, I need to know the following things:

–WHO are they?
Is the girl in the woods a college student or in high school? Is she an orphan or the daughter of a wealthy family? Is keeping this box safe the first thing she’s ever fought for or is she a seasoned warrior (like Buffy)? Who is chasing her? I haven’t seen them yet in the movie, so I can’t draw too many conclusions about them yet.

–WHAT do they want?
In this case, it’s pretty clear they both want the box or, more likely, whatever is in it. The girl and her pursuer are likely going to spend the story trying to acquire and then KEEP the box from the other, for their own reasons.

–WHY do they want what they want?
They each want the box. Why? Well, my guess is that depends on what’s IN the box. And I don’t know yet what that is. I’m going to need to do some exploring on that and soon because my story is going to hang on the value of that box and why it’s important. But even without knowing what’s inside of the box, I can say that most likely the girl is trying to do something “good” with the box. She’s trying to keep someone else from destroying the world or she wants to use to help someone she loves.

Perhaps someone has taken a person she loves as a hostage until she delivers the box, and she’s the only one who can touch the box safely because of a curse on it. This girl, descended from the witch who cursed it, has immunity. But that wouldn’t explain why she’s being chased. If someone has blackmailed her into getting the box, they wouldn’t be chasing her. So either that’s not the scenario or the person chasing her is not the blackmailer. Perhaps it is someone else who wants the box or maybe it’s someone charged with the responsibility of guarding the box.

–WHY CAN’T they have what they want right now?
Well, again, that depends on why they’re doing what they’re doing. The girl can get the box because she’s immune to the curse, but if she delivers the box to save her loved one, she knows the blackmailers will use it to do something bad. The blackmailers, assuming we go with this story idea, can’t touch the box because of the curse.

It’s important to recognize here that you need to know what your villains are up to and why. They are the heroes of their own story. They have a reason for what they’re doing and they don’t think of themselves as evil. On the contrary, in their minds, they are the misunderstood saviors of the world. Even if, in this case, they are planning to use the box to wipe out the entire world, they will justify it by saying there is so much pain and suffering in life today, that they just want everyone to be at peace. You see?

(Note: the above questions come from Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon, a fabulous book that I highly recommend. Buy it from the publisher, though, not from Amazon. It’s waaay cheaper from the publisher.)

So, I do a lot of pre-writing–taking notes, getting to know characters and exploring possibilities–before I actually start writing the story. That being said, I ALWAYS take notes on scenes that appear or bits of dialogue, even if I don’t know yet where they fit or how to use them. They’re showing up in my head for a reason, and I don’t want to forget/lose them. I carry a notebook with me always for this purpose.

Once I’ve got most of these questions answered, the blank spots filled in, I feel like I’m on solid ground…and ready to jump off the cliff into writing. You never know what will happen once you start writing; it’s a bit of a free-fall. But with my notes, I feel like I have a rough idea of the destination and the conditions that will affect my trip. If that makes sense.

And if that all sounds like a lot of work, in addition to the actual writing of the book, you’re right. Writing, to me, is very much like the whole iceberg analogy. Only small percentage of all the work shows up on the final page. Everything is else is beneath the surface but still necessary for that bit to rise to the top.

But as I said in the beginning, what I’ve talked about here may or may not make sense for how you write. That’s okay! There are lots of different ways to write, and we’re all searching for new ways to improve and/or make things easier.

Thoughts? Questions? Got a better way? Share it here!

Book Two–still operating under the title of Princess Poltergeist–is now officially turned in. Yea!!! I’m very proud of myself because this is the first book where I was under contract with a REAL deadline. I’m really happy with how it has turned out so far–my editor is awesome and will surely have suggestions to make it even better.

While I’m waiting for edits, I’m attempting to “relax.” I don’t relax well, honestly. And things are about to get rather busy, promotion-wise for G&G, so it would be good if I could take advantage of this momentary lull. But…not so much.

So I’m playing around with a few new ideas–unrelated to the Alona and Will trilogy–and letting notions for the third book in that series simmer also.

It’s always strange to be at the beginning of something again. I know, logically-speaking, that at the beginning of G&G, I started as I usually do–a curiosity about the story that won’t let go and the urge to see if I can do it, if I can tell this particular story.

In remembering it now, though, it seems it always felt like, “Yeah, this is going to work!” In truth, I suspect I was having fun trying it and felt a connection to the story, which made me want to see it through to the end.

So that’s what I’m trying to make myself keep in mind. I’m playing, writing pages to see if they will go anywhere or not and trying not to worry about whether they do or don’t. If I’m having fun, odds are, it’ll be worth it one way or another.

One of my previous day-job managers, who is writer as well, said that the uncertainty, the unsureness of whether you can write a particular project, is good. It’s an incentive. I didn’t understand that at the time. Now, I get it. I’m always looking for ways to challenge myself, improve my writing or explore different facets within it.

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Other stuff:

–Just picked up Hex Hall by fellow D-H author (and Tenner, I think) Rachel Hawkins. It is just awesome! Shaping up to be one of my favorite books so far this year.

–LOVE, LOVE, LOVED Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers. Kept me riveted.

–Only two more Fringe DVDs and then I’ll have to move on to a new show on Netflix because Season 2 isn’t out yet. Any suggestions?

–We saw Up in the Air (the George Clooney movie) and Percy Jackson this weekend. Up in the Air was kind of depressing, as I’d expected, but Anna Kendrick deserves all those nominations she’s been getting. (Also, I totally called the “twist” that everyone was talking about, much to my husband’s annoyance.)

Percy Jackson was…eh. I felt like they’d meant it to be like Harry Potter 1, but cast the actors like they were from Harry Potter 5, does that make sense? The actors seemed too old for some of the stuff that was going on. I don’t know why they didn’t cast younger, other than the heart-throb factor. Other than that it reminded me a lot of Clash of the Titans (the original), which only reinforced the idea that the new version of Clash of the Titans (now with MORE Sam Worthington goodness) is going to be fabulous!

Whew! Okay, the good news is my brilliant critique partner came back with very positive things to say about Princess Poltergeist and only a few relatively minor fixes were required. Yea! So, I finished those this weekend and rewrote the ending slightly, per her recommendation, and though I wasn’t sure at first, I now LOVE the new ending.

That is what’s wonderful about having a critique partner who really gets you and how you write. She could see more clearly the note on which this story needed to end and helped me see it, too. Which is interesting because the way we write, in some ways, couldn’t be more different. I have to have the whole thing written and nearly done before I can share it for feedback. She’ll shoot me one or two chapters at a time to get my thoughts. Our individual ways work for each of us, and I think it helps actually that our processes are so different.

So, now at the end of this book I feel, as I always do, that I’m kind of coming out of hibernation. It’s a nice but unsettling feeling. It’s good to have the time to go out for a spontaneous meal with two of my closest friends and their adorable kids, for example. So much fun!

But that huge chunk of space in my brain that was once occupied with Princess Poltergeist (and likely will be again, during edits) is for the moment unoccupied. Eeek.

I don’t like that. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I’m writing. While I’m driving, when I’m waking up, when I’m folding laundry, when I’m falling asleep. And right now, I have that frantic feeling of trying to seize upon something to fill those moments.

But I don’t yet want to start on the third book in the G&G trilogy until the major edits are done on PP because that could affect events in book three.

So, I’m playing with a couple of new ideas. Playing being the operative word. I don’t know if either (or both) will pan out, become something I want to work with. But I guess this is the only way to find out.

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Books bought recently:
–Gone by Lisa McMann
–Heist Society by Ally Carter
–Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
–Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
–Monster by Walter Dean Myers
–The School for Dangerous Girls by Eliot Schrefer

Princess Poltergeist is now with my absolutely brilliant critique partner for review, and I’m in that panicky stage where I’m convinced that she’s going to send me a gently worded email to the effect of, “We need to talk,” which is code for “This is hopeless. You’re screwed.”

So, in an effort to distract myself, I’m blogging (obviously) and looking for interesting things to keep me occupied until I hear back from her.

First, I picked up Rachel Vincent’s book, SHIFT, last night on my way home. I’m so eager to read this next installment of her werecat series. (Please note: While Rachel does write Young Adult, this is series is NOT.)

Second, another DVD of Fringe Season One arrived yesterday as my Netflix–yea! It’s not the X-Files, which I loved, but I have always liked Joshua Jackson (Yes, even back in his Dawson’s Creek days) and the combination of humor and strange science is right up my alley. It’s kind of a relief, actually, not to have the Mulder-trying-to-find-his-sister type of plotline hanging over the show. Makes it possible to enjoy each episode on its own merits.

Third, I think I’m going to start taking notes for another book. Writing is one of those self-soothing things for me. So when I’m stressed about one book, it helps sometimes to focus on another.

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I also found a fabulous blog entry about writing and being a writer by Robin Wasserman (author of the awesome book SKINNED) on Justine Larbalestier (author of the equally-awesome-but-in-a-totally-different-way LIAR)’s site. Here’s a quote:

“Obviously there’s no absolute right or wrong way to be a writer any more than there’s a right or wrong way to be a working mother—there are about a million ways, all equally prone to setback and failure and second guessing.

And writers, at least the ones I’ve met, are extremely good at second-guessing. Not to mention self-abasement and paranoia. (As far as I can tell, the only writer not afflicted by this is James Patterson, who seems to have developed some kind of miraculous immunity.) They harbor the fear that they’re failures, that they’re frauds, that they’re lazy, that they’re hacks, that it’s just a matter of time before that bottom drops out or that whatever they’ve achieved, it isn’t enough.

This is partly because we’re crazy.”

I LOVE that.

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I follow screenwriter John August’s blog as well because I use screenwriting techniques in writing my books. Plus, I like the way he thinks about things.

Anyway, he posted this week about the advantages and necessity of being able to simulate powerful emotion on the page even when you’re not feeling it personally, at that moment. It was fascinating, and I found myself nodding in agreement with much of what he said. That distant observer part of you does kick in, even in the most trying of situations, to record stuff for later. I call it the, “I might be able to use this somehow” feeling, which is kind of creepy but part of being a writer, I think. We try to observe everything, including our own emotional reactions, to help us understand and relate to something else. It’s part of how we function.

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Also, random note, speaking of emotion, my sister pointed me toward Sia’s song “Breathe Me,” which I just love, and if Princess Poltergeist has the same ending that it does now, that is THE song for that scene. Makes me cry every darn time.

I missed my blog post the other day! So, to make up for it, I’m posting today. I created the following as a handout for my talk at Barrington High School. Thought others might find it interesting as well.

Top 10 Myths about Being an Author

1. Professional authors get the story right in the first draft, leaving only minor grammatical errors to be addressed in a second draft.

False. Oh, I wish this one was true, but no. Most of us survive by writing really crappy first drafts and then making them better in second, third and fourth—or more—drafts. Otherwise, the pressure to be perfect is too much, and we won’t write anything at all.

2. You have to know someone in the industry to get your book published.

False…sort of. Some people work for years with their agent and editor without having ever met them in person. They sent their manuscript in, and the agent/editor fell in love. However, in my experience, most people find it a HUGE help to have contacts. Getting out and meeting other writers, agents and editors at conferences can make a big difference. I’ve reached this point in my career primarily because of one person: my mentor, Linnea Sinclair.

3. Once you’ve sold a book, you’ve got it made. Watch for the money to start rolling in.

Uh, false. With the exception of J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Stephen King, etc., most of us are not millionaires. Not even close. You have to write because you love it. If money follows, that’s even better.

4. If vampires are really hot right now, you should write about vampires.

False. You do need to pay attention to the market—what kind of books are selling well—but that should not be your sole consideration. The books on the shelves now were bought by publishers a year ago or more. A trend that was hot then may not be hot now. Also, writers are more passionate about stories and characters that truly interest and engage them. That passion will show through to the agents and editors reviewing your work. So, don’t write vampires just to write vampires. Write the story that speaks to you.

5. The key to being a successful writer is practicing self-discipline and being persistent.

True! There’s an old saying in the “industry” that goes something like this: What’s the difference between an unpublished author and a published one? Persistence. The one who is published just didn’t give up. Self-discipline is all about BICHOK—Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard—even when you don’t feel like it.

6. Writing is an art and a business.

True. What this means for you—you need to write a story that YOU love, but you must also understand that getting it published and on the shelf is a BUSINESS. That means, you have to keep in mind what makes a book saleable, what publishers (editors, specifically) are seeking, and that your artistic vision is subject to bottom line considerations (i.e. making money).

So, if it’s the book of your heart, write your 400,000 word romance novel set on Mars with a rotting zombie as the hero. But be prepared for a bit of an uphill battle when it comes to getting it published. (Love scenes with a zombie=ewww!) That being said, if it’s good, really good, someone will be interested.

7. Once you’ve written the book, your job as the author is finished.
Nope, not even close to true. Aside from the various rounds of edits and copy edits from your editor and copy editor, you also have to be thinking about cover concepts (if you want to have input on your cover, and trust me, you do), promotional items, websites, signings, contests, reviews, getting the word of mouth started. Your next book deal may depend on how well your previous book sells.

8. All successful authors outline their stories ahead of time.

False. This is one of the most fiercely debated topics in the writing community. Plotters vs. Pantsers. There are people who outline every single scene, and others who start off with nothing more than an idea. Typically, even “pantsers” have a vision of the end to help guide them. And plotters admit that sometimes the story doesn’t quite unfold as they envisioned it in outline form and they have to remain open to changes as the story progresses.

As a former “pantser,” I must admit my methods have changed. With contracts and deadlines a part of my writing life now, I’m much more apt to sketch out a vague idea of who everyone is, what they want, and why they want it before I jump in with both feet.

9. You need to be older before you can become an author.

False! There are many young authors out there. Christopher Paolini became a NY-Times Bestselling author at 19, and Amelia Atwater-Rhodes published her first novel at 14.

10. To be a successful writer, you need to read a lot.

True. I’ve heard rumors of writers who manage to write without reading, but I’ve never met one. And I’ve met lots of writers. One hopes you’re inspired to write stories because you enjoy reading them. Like a musician learning to play by ear, a writer learns to write by reading. Some of this happens on a subconscious level. As you start to write, you’ll draw on this subconscious knowledge. You’ll know when your story takes a wrong turn, even if you don’t know why. It’s like hearing a wrong note in a song. Consciously analyzing and picking apart a well-written story (i.e. one you enjoyed or made you feel something) is also a useful exercise. Why does a certain story or character work? How did the author make you care about what happens?

One of the things I love most about writing is watching the movie of it play in my head. Scenes play out in my head, just like on a screen. The trouble is sometimes I have no idea who these people are, why they’re doing what they’re doing, or what comes before or after the moment playing in my head.

This is something I’m still working on how best to understand and cultivate, honestly. Before, when this would happen, I would eagerly leap into writing those scenes, banking on the fact that eventually the story would come. The scenes before and after would make sense, the motivations for the actions I was seeing would eventually become clear. Sometimes they did. Other times, I got sixty pages in and discovered I didn’t really have a story.

That was heartbreaking. Truly.

These days, I’m a little more cautious. Mainly because I can’t afford to go in endless circles for months at a time with deadlines and contracts and being a professional (yea!), nor do I want a repeat of that heartache and frustration.

That being said, sometimes it feels like you can’t know whether a story really has something until you’ve given it a little time to unfold. Then you’ve got at least a jumping off point from which to figure everything out. Otherwise it’s all up in the air and impossible to pin down.

So, I think I’ve decided to give myself permission to write the first three chapters in a given idea first before worrying about where it’s going. But only the first three. Then it’s time to figure out whether this idea and I have a future together or it’s just a fling.

I’ve got three ideas I’m playing with (yikes, that would be a total of nine chapters to write “just to see”) for books in addition to my Ghost and The Goth series. (Princess Poltergeist is and will continue to be my top priority, of course! But I’m thinking ahead because I like knowing what I’m going to work on next so it can start simmering in the back of my brain.) Not sure which of these ideas will end up being “the one,” or if it will be something entirely new, an idea that hasn’t even introduced itself yet.

So many possibilities…That’s half the fun, I guess!
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Random Stuff:
–Impossible by Nancy Werlin and The Hate List by Jennifer Brown were both awesome, awesome books! Highly recommend them.

–Glee rocks my world, just thought you should know.

–If you have a chance, check out my post–Mean Girls, Villains and Cheerleaders, oh my!–over at The Bradford Bunch blog and tell me what you think.

To give myself some kind of structure around here, I’ve decided that Wednesday posts shall be (loosely) writing related. Otherwise, this whole blog will be nothing but squeeing about books I’ve read and loved and reminders to watch cool shows. (Speaking of which…GLEE on tonight!)

So…

I spend a lot of time thinking about goals. Not just my personal ones, but the ones my characters have.

Everybody wants something. That’s one of the basic tenets of Debra Dixon’s brilliant Goal, Motivation and Conflict theory/way of thinking.

People have external goals–something they’re trying to achieve that can be seen or recognized through the senses. Completing a 5k run, for example.

They also have internal or emotional goals, which they may or may not be aware of–wanting to be loved or accepted or independent, etc. I want to make Dad proud of me, for example.

It occurs to me today (and I could very well be having a belated realization based on Dixon’s GMC work as I’ve practically absorbed it into my subconscious by now through so many re-readings) to wonder if there’s a kind of causal connection between the internal goal and the external goal.

In other words, if someone is aware of the internal goal or need, do they consciously seek out external goals they believe will also meet their internal goal/need?

In other words:

If you have a character who is, for example, seeking acceptance or reassurance of being accepted, does said character then have an external goal of being elected Homecoming Queen? If I become Homecoming Queen, then that’s proof that I’m accepted.

Or, if a character wants to prove his independence (internal), perhaps his (external) goal is to climb Mt. Everest alone or something.

My trouble is I usually know what someone’s external goal is first, and working backwards isn’t as easy. There can be any number of internal (emotional) goals driving the establishment of an external goal.

For example, our mountain climber could be doing this to express his independence or he could be doing it to find inner peace, escaping the trouble and heartache of his life. The two would work out to be completely different stories with the same external goal for the main character.

What do you think? Are internal and external goals connected? Should they be?

Crap. I’ve been gone for too long. But it’s for a good reason, I promise! I’m working hard on the sequel to The Ghost and the Goth, Princess Poltergeist. (As always, my Facebook and Twitter pages–www.twitter.com/staceykade and www.facebook.com/staceykade–are the best place to find me!)

I’m thinking there probably needs to be a bit more routine around my blog updating. I’m good with routine and scheduling. However, I’m not particularly interesting, I’m afraid, so you may end up getting lots of posts about cool new books and tv shows you should check out.

I can say this, that outside of Princess Poltergeist, I just had an experience that doesn’t come along very often: an idea comes out of nowhere and it’s just freaking tantalizing I want to start writing it right away. THAT does not happen often for me. Usually there’s lots of planning and thinking and hmm, where is this story going to go? But not this time. It was, like, all there. Or, almost all of it. Which is quite distracting because I normally spend a good deal of time getting to know the people and what they want.

I do know from experience, though, that I need to take the time to do the pre-writing. Otherwise, when I run out of the stuff I know (the scenes I’ve already watched in my head), I’ll be really stuck.

So, I’m working on piecing it together in spare moments when I’m taking a break from Princess Poltergeist.

I should also have an update about a potential school visit at the end of September/October.

But in the meantime, don’t forget GLEE comes back tonight! I’m so excited!!!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the process of writing. I’m always looking to understand my own process better and learn something new, some way of making this even just the tiniest bit easier.

My friend Isabo Kelly and I have discussed this several times, and I think the analogy we came up with holds true. Writing a book is like finding your way across an unfamiliar room filled with furniture…in the dark. You stumble into things, bark your shins, get stuck in a corner, yell for help, and finally eventually make your way through it. But, unfortunately, because every book is different, once you make it to the other side of the room and turn around to go back again through that darkened room, someone has moved the furniture on you.

Still, there are things I’ve learned about myself and writing:

1) When a proposal (typically three chapters and a synopsis) is due, I need to write the chapters first. If I write the synopsis first, it kills the story dead, right then and there.

2) Before I can start writing, I must do the pre-writing first. Getting to know the people in the story is essential.

3) Everybody who is a main character (e.g. my heroine and her love interest) must have a goal. It’s better if it can be described in concrete action verbs. Like, win a music scholarship, stop parents from getting a divorce, graduate from high school, etc.

4) Characters either have a goal from the beginning of the story and events occur to change it (or try to), or events that occur in the story give them a goal that was not present before. I guess, technically, they always have a goal. It just depends on whether the story is about them keeping that original goal despite the events that occur, or changing to a new goal based on the story events. In the first, it would be like someone who’s determined to be an Olympic ice skater even though her parents lose their jobs, the rink closes down, her coach quits, etc. The other would be someone who’s content to stay at home until something dramatic happens and forces them on an adventure to save the princess, or whatever.

5) I think that good stories involve choices. It can’t just be about things that happen to people. They have to have some skin in the game, so to speak. They have to make choices that cannot be avoided with important consequences hanging in the balance.

6) There should be conflict in every scene. People walk into the moment wanting different things, and nobody wants to lose.

7) That little snippet of dialogue or description that drifts through your brain? Write it down. Immediately. Otherwise, you’ll forget it and drive yourself crazy trying to remember it. Chances are, you’ll remember it as being more erudite than it actually was, but better to know for sure!

I’m sure there are more…but this is what I have so far. One of the things I love about writing is the opportunity to keep learning. To try new things. Find better ways. So, yeah, there are bruised shins and another dark and crowded room to navigate each time, but it’s all about the journey and what you learn along the way. And I’m always interested to discover what I’m going to learn next.