Tally ho

I will be in England until June 1st (probably working on a brand new book? Oh dear, I really need to finish something). See you then, and happy writing!

Why hello there

On Thursday I'll be leaving for England until June 1st. Most likely no posting while I'm gone, but there will hopefully be LOTS of writing.

I'm 21,000 words into ATwF, and it's going quite swimmingly.

I have little other news of consequence. So, in the tradition of Nathan Bransford--open thread! I doubt mine will have as many visitors, buuut I'd love to know if there's anything you'd like to ask me. So. Any questions? Anything at all?

Argh

All Together With Feeling is going so well. You know what's not? My plan to avoid high school.

I barely have time to write, and it's driving me crazy. Right now I'm editing a paper, with ATwF minimized at the bottom of my screen...wah.

I'll be back after exam week.

Point of No Return

I just passed 10,000 words on the manuscript I'm working on (All Together with Feeling, still.) Generally, I consider 10,000 words to be my point of no return. It's where I've invested too much in a book to give up on it.

Granted, this isn't foolproof--I've given up on books at 15K, 40K, 52K, but usually if I reach 10K, I'm in it for the long haul.

Do you have a wordcount that works as verification that the ms is going to work? Or are you one of those freaky people who finishes everything she starts?

BREAK love

My friend bought one of the BREAK ARCs online (and the money went to help AIDS! woo!) and just sent me this picture...



After August 25th (or even before if you can get your hands on another ARC) anyone who sends me a picture of BREAK with their cat gets their copy signed. But you have to pay for postage. I'm about to be a broke college student, people. (So buy my book!)

Can you tell I'm trying to post more often?

My best friend Alex, a FANTASTIC we designer (he designed and built my site, check it out if you haven't--www.untilhannah.com) just launched his new website, and it looks fantastic. Check out www.epicwebsites.com if you need any website designing done...

He's pretty incredible. I thank him in my acknowledgments for Break. (See how I worked a mention of Break in there?)

What We Strive For

I've been having a hard time with writing lately because I feel like I'm trying to figure out my place in the writing world. Not my current place--I know where I am currently. I'm a kid with a novel coming out; I'm in the dug out waiting for my turn at bat, and we'll see how I do. I understand that, even if it's haaaard to be patient sometimes.

I mean as a writer at large. I've been reading so much about the publishing industry lately. That probably isn't a good idea. I've been reading about literary fiction vs. genre fiction, debut novels vs. second or third novels, selling a book vs. succeeding as an author...and I've read so many things about how good, honest, literary fiction is dying.

It's hard as a YA writer. In some ways, it's just plain hard to be a YA writer, the same way it's hard to be a science fiction or a romance writer. There's still that stigma that I'm not a "real" writer--that my books are more formulaic than contemporary adult literature, that I'm just churning them out. And I wonder, in a lot of ways, if that's true.

How do I reconcile my desire to feel important with my desire to accurately portray the honest life of a teenager?

I don't want to sacrifice good story for a message. More than that, I'm not sure I have a message yet.

I feel like a hack a lot lately. And I'm blogging about it because, in bitching about that to my friends the way that I do, I'm finding I'm not the only one. Is this a universal thing? Does everyone feel like they're striving for something they can't reach because they don't know who they want to be?

I'd like to be important as a writer, but I don't know what type of important I want to be. I want to be remembered and fresh and original, but not gimmicky. I want to be serious but not morose. I want to be funny without being a joke.

I wish I knew where the line is that divides real writers from unreal writers. I don't think it's publication anymore.