Writability

End of Year Countdown: 5 Top Fives of 2012

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Incredibly, today is the last day of 2012. 2013 is literally just a handful of hours away (more or less, depending on where in the world you are situated), which can only mean one thing here on Writability: it’s time for the five top fives of 2012.

So without further ado, here is my summation of the year in terms of writerly/bloggerly/book(erly?) goodness.

Top 5 Most Active Commenters

As explained last year, Disqus has this very handy little widget that sits on the side of my blog and keeps track of how many comments each commenter makes. While I don’t think it’s 100% foolproof (if you sign into the comments with more than one account, for example, the comment count is distributed amongst the accounts and thus not recorded accurately) these five awesome readers are some of the most active members of the Writability community, and for that they get a little extra recognition. Thank you!

Top 5 Favorite Tumblr Blogs of the Year (in no particular order)

I really amped up the ante with this tumblr thing this year, and I’ve found that now that I understand the site a little better, I really enjoy using it. For those of you who have tumblr accounts, or are considering creating one, I highly recommend checking out these five awesome tumblr blogs:

YA Highway

If you’re a writer and you haven’t yet checked out YA Highway’s non-tumblr blog, I can’t recommend it more. The ladies of YA Highway consistently create amazing posts with writing tips, interviews, Field Trip Fridays and Road Trips that I always look forward to in my reader, and their tumblr is just as fantastic, if not more so because I love the extra writing links, humorous posts, writing and reading related pictures and tidbits that they reblog.

Quote Book

What can I say? I have this thing for quotes and Quote Book has proven to be a fantastic resource for interesting, thoughtful, funny and beautiful quotes. If you like quotes even half as much as I do, definitely check them out.

Title To Come

If you’re a writer and you don’t have a tumblr account, I would recommend making one just to follow Title To Come. Words cannot accurately describe the hysterical awesomeness that comes out of Title to Come’s tumblr blog, so I’ll just direct you to this, and this, and this (and this, and this too).

The Right Writing

Writing prompts, great tips, and fantastic bite-sized writing-related posts makes The Right Writing a must-follow for writers who frequent tumblr.

Writer’s Relief, Inc.

Writer’s Relief posts a really nice mix of amusing (writing related) photos and charts, helpful tips and articles related to writing or the publishing world, and wonderful pictures of books and what-not. If you’re looking for a nice mix of writing tumblrness, I definitely recommend them.

Top 5 Favorite Favorites (in no particular order)

And finally, a collection of my favorite miscellaneous social media goodies that I wanted to share with you guys.

@Janice_Hardy & @elizabethscraig

For all of you writers who are on Twitter, I highly recommend following these two ladies. They both consistently post links to some fantastic posts and articles on writing, publishing, etc. and they’re an invaluable resource to writers. Highly recommended.

Vlogbrothers

I don’t watch very many vlogs, but I make a point not to miss the vlog of John and Hank Green (yes, the same John Green as the author mentioned above and his equally insightful brother). Their videos are often funny and nearly always thought-provoking. Sometimes they’re related to writing and sometimes not, but I’ve always found them to be interesting and relevant nonetheless.

Between Fact & Fiction

Between Fact & Fiction is author Natalie Whipple’s blog. While she doesn’t post as often as some, I’ve found her posts to be particularly insightful and thoughtful. If you’re looking for a blog with some writing-life related advice, or a peek into the soon-to-be-published life of a traditionally published author, I definitely recommend her site.

Sam Spratt

So this isn’t writing-related at all, but I also really like art and Sam Spratt’s illustrations are my absolute favorite. If you’re a fan of art, portraiture or illustration of any kind, I recommend checking out some of his work.

The Bookshelf Muse

The brainchild of the ever fantastic Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (authors of The Emotion Thesaurus, which I can’t recommend enough for writers), The Bookshelf Muse is a great resource for all of you writers out there. If you haven’t already taken a look at their wonderful blog, take some time to do so. You won’t regret it.

And that concludes my yearly round-up! There are some very exciting things coming to Writability soon (just around the corner, in fact), so don’t forget to check back in. Happy New Year!

Those are my five top fives—now it’s your turn. What are your favorite blogs (tumblr or otherwise), books and social media goodies of 2012?

Why Have a Yearly Reading Goal?

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In 2012, I had a goal of reading twenty books. That may not sound like much to some of you, but it was more than double what I read in 2011, and it seemed like a manageable and attainable goal. I’m now reading my twenty-first book of the year (I keep track using Goodreads), which will certainly be completed before the new year rings, and I have to say, I’m really glad that I kept myself accountable this year.

While many writers often talk about keeping daily writing goals, reading goals don’t seem to be as widely of a talked about thing. I suppose while the relevance of writing goals to writing is obvious, the importance of keeping a yearly reading goal may seem a bit more nebulous.

2011 was the first year that I attempted to meet a reading goal. While I failed to meet the goal that year (in my weak defense, I started late), it motivated me to focus on completing my goal the next year. When it became clear that I was going to meet my original goal of ten books early, I bumped it up to fifteen, then twenty. Next year I’ll be going for twenty-five.

Now some of you may be wondering what the point of having a reading goal is, and while I’ve laid out why it’s so important for writers to read in the past, I’ve found that keeping a reading goal is tied in very closely to actually reading more (versus intending or wanting to read more).

You see, most writers are aware that it’s important to read, and many non-writers are well aware that reading is a healthy and enjoyable habit. Many people kick off the New Year with a goal to read more, but the problem is, without a specific reading goal, it’s hard to measure what reading more actually means. After all, how will you know if you’ve met your goal if you haven’t detailed what it means to read more?

For me, having a measurable number to reach for kept me motivated to keep searching for books and continuing to read. It reminded me that I had a goal to meet, and in order to reach that goal I had to set some time aside to sit down and actually read. Without a specific, measurable goal to strive for, I honestly don’t think I would have read even half as much as I did this year. In fact, looking back at my record over the years, I can say with quite a bit of certainty that I wouldn’t have come near twenty books without a reading goal.

Look, if you’re a writer, or want to be a writer, you need to be reading. There isn’t an exception to the rule for this, and I’ve detailed the reasons why in this post, but the point is that you need to be reading, and keeping a yearly reading goal keeps you honest and helps you to measure whether or not you’re reading as much as you believe you should be.

Do you keep a yearly reading goal? If so, did you meet your goal this year? If not, will you be keeping one next year?

How (and When) to Give Yourself a Break

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We writers tend to be really good at working ourselves to the bone. We spend much of our free time writing/editing/rewriting novels and researching/web stalking/querying/crying over agents and marketing/preparing e-books/researching the market and let’s not forget writing super-fun synopses, and drafting blog posts, and brainstorming new works. We worry constantly about whether we’ve written enough today (or this week, or this month), and whether we’re making enough progress on that WIP, and let’s not even think about what happens when we miss a day—apocalypse.

Truth be told, sometimes we’re a little too hard on ourselves.

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but even writers deserve breaks every once in a while. The key is knowing when the right time to take a short hiatus is.

Here are a few signs that you deserve a break:

You just finished a draft of your WIP. One of the absolute best times to take a break is between drafts—not only do you deserve to rest after working hard to complete a draft, but you need time to develop some distance to your work so that you can edit it more efficiently later. Win-win.

You’ve been working on your WIP non-stop for a long time and now you feel stuck. What a “long time” is depends on you, but sometimes the best way to get unstuck is to distract yourself with something unrelated to your work. This is also known as taking a break.

You’re tired of your WIP. Now, when I say tired of your WIP, I don’t mean that you’re in the middle of your novel and the shiny new novel glamour has worn off—that bit is pretty near inevitable. What I mean instead, is that you’ve lost the excitement, the love for your WIP. You dread sitting down to write and quite frankly, you’re not really sure you even want to finish this WIP. When that happens, sometimes the best thing you can do is step away from your WIP and take a break. This doesn’t mean forever, but it does mean you might need to distract yourself with some non-WIP goodies to recuperate.

Once you’ve decided that you’re ready for a break, you now face a new dilemma: what to do? Remember that the point of this whole taking a break thing is to actually take a break. Put that WIP away and try some of these things:

Read ALL the books. Ok, maybe not all the books, but now’s a great time to catch up on that growing to-be-read list (you do have a TBR list, don’t you? Of course you do). Reading isn’t optional for serious writers, and as a bonus, it’s a pretty enjoyable way to spend some free time.

Spend time with your friends and family. Chances are they haven’t seen quite as much of you as they might like—after all, you’ve been busy working on that book of yours. Now you have time to catch up with friends and sit down with your family, so use it!

Do something you enjoy (other than writing). Watch a movie. Play ridiculous hours of Assassin’s Creed. Bake. Catch up on your Hulu queue. Whatever it is you really like to do, make sure that you spend time to rewarding yourself with it. You deserve it (seriously).

Get some fresh air. This works particularly well when the weather is nice, but we writers have a tendency of spending a lot of time on the computer and very little time doing outdoorsy things—I’ll be the first to admit this is something I succumb to quite often. But fresh air is good for you. I promise.

Sometimes taking a break is all you need to jump-start your inspiration and writing, and sometimes it’s just a nice little luxury that we deprive ourselves of too often. Whatever the case, make sure you reward yourself with a hiatus every once in a while—then get back to work.

What do you like to do when you’re on a writing hiatus?

'Twas the Night Before Christmas (For Writers)

A fun (re-)post for Christmas, with apologies to Clement C. Moore, written by yours truly.

Photo credit: Joe Buckingham on Flickr

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the night
Not a writer was writing, not word was in sight.
Blank pages were scattered on desks and on floors,
In hopes that the manuscripts would leap from their drawers.

The radio was humming a song of good cheer,
Yet I, tortured writer, wished a muse would appear.
And I with my coffee and family asleep
Did stare at the page trying hard not to weep.

When out in the snow there came such a noise,
I fell from my chair, disregarding all poise.
I ran to the door, my heart in my throat,
And did throw it open, forgetting my coat.

And Christmas lights glowing on glittering snow
Seemed just for a moment to put on a show.
When to my astonishment—I’ll admit I did shout,
Came a sleigh from the sky led by reindeers on route.

A driver with eyes spilling over with laughter,
His face I did know I’d remember thereafter.
With a beard so white and his cheeks set aglow,
He waved and he smiled, “It’s me, don’t you know!”

I gaped for a moment and stuttered and said,
“This cannot be real—it’s all in my head!”
But Santa, he snickered and said with delight,
“I hear, my dear child, that you love to write.”

“It’s true,” I said, looking down at my feet,
“But a writer I’m not—I’ve admitted defeat.”
And Santa, he frowned—looked me straight in the eye,
And he said, “You’re a writer, don’t let your dream die.”

So I told him my troubles, how the words wouldn’t come,
And he said, “It’s a gift—it won’t always be fun.
It won’t always be easy or simple or kind,
But for writing, my girl, is what you were designed.”

And he lifted my chin with his finger and said,
“These troubles you’re having—they’re all in your head!
So go back inside and rest for the night,
But know that tomorrow, you’ll write at first light!”

He climbed back on his sleigh and took off in the air,
The reindeers—they trampled the stars with their flair.
So inside I went and turned off the TV,
And sat by the fire with a hot cup of tea.

Asleep, there I fell, and I dreamt of the page
And when I awoke—my mind a golden age!
I rushed to my computer and typed until dawn,
His words, I soon realized—they were right all along!

In hindsight I suppose, I shouldn’t have been surprised,
For that day it was Christmas, true and undisguised.
And that man that I saw, whether he was Santa or not,
He brought to my mind things that I had forgot.

A writer’s a writer every day of the week,
On good days, on bad days, on nights that seem bleak.
But I do what I can and what I can is to write,
As Santa reminded me to my delight.

So next time your writing refuses to flow,
Remember what Santa said to me and know,
You’re a writer tonight and always will be,
For writing is truly what makes you feel free.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Stupid Characters vs. Stupid Decisions: They're Not the Same

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Throughout the course of a lifetime, we all make less than intelligent decisions from time to time—some of us more than others—so it should be no surprise that occasionally, our characters make choices that are many miles south of brilliant.

We see examples of these stupid (and often infuriating) decisions in even the most popular books and movies. For example:

The Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling): Harry Potter makes more than a handful of astoundingly stupid decisions throughout the seven book series. Troll in the dungeon? Why yes, first years with little to no experience with magic are certainly capable of fighting off a raging troll. Mermaids make it clear that you may only save one student from underwater prison during the TriWizard Tournament? Harry the hero must save them all (because apparently he really thinks Dumbledore would let them die).

Insurgent (Veronica Roth): Without spoiling anything, Tris makes plenty of decisions that fall short of the "intelligent" mark, many of which nearly get her killed.

The Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien): And let's not forget to mention a certain overly curious hobbit (*cough* Pippin) who sneaks a peek at the shiny seeing stone that Gandalf made quite clear was off-limits.

So what makes these regrettable decisions acceptable to readers? The answer is simple: there's a large difference between a stupid character and a stupid decision.

You see, when writing, unintelligent character decisions or mistakes can create great opportunities for character growth, plot progression and conflict. Whether it involves said character dealing with the consequences of his unfortunate decision, or other characters facing the repercussions of the act, stupid decisions can create great plot material (more on that in this post).

A stupid character, on the other hand, isn't nearly as useful.

Now you may be wondering what I mean by stupid character. To clarify, a stupid character...

Makes bad decisions just for the sake of making a bad decision (ergo: has no legitimate reason to make said bad decision).

Ignores easy solutions to plot problems just because they didn't think of it.

Blatantly misses fairly obvious clues/makes false deductions with little backing.

And so on.

The main difference between stupid characters and stupid decisions is the reasoning behind the poor choices: effective unfortunate decisions are made with a legitimate reason—the character has the proper motivation to make the decision and it makes sense for the character. More times than not, the character will be aware that the decision he/she is about to make isn't exactly the brightest decision, but their motivation behind the choice overpowers the part of them that knows it's a bad idea. Stupid characters, on the other hand, make unintelligent decisions just because. There's little rhyme or reason beside the writer needing to fill a plot hole, and using stupid characters is a high ineffective way to do it.

In short, stupid decisions can be useful, but stupid characters should be banished from your writing forever.

What examples of stupid characters or stupid decisions from books or movies can you think of?

Character Development: What Do They Want?

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One of the most important questions you can ask yourself while plotting out your novel comes down to the title of this post—what do your characters want?

In novels, your character’s desire will drive the rest of the story. There’s a reason you don’t see genuinely apathetic characters as protagonists for many novels—they’re boring to read about and difficult (if not impossible) to plot an interesting story around. When it comes to writing a novel, your characters must want something in order to keep your readers interested and keep the plot moving forward.

Depending on your novel, your characters wants may evolve throughout the course of the story, or remain static (until they get what they want). Let’s take a look at an example of each:

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien—After the initial catalyzing incident, Frodo wants as little to do with the ring as possible. He agrees to bring the ring to a place of safety out of necessity, but when they arrive in Rivendell and Frodo gets the opportunity to return home, he admits he’s ready to return to the Shire. It isn’t until the secret council meeting that Frodo sees just how dire the situation is and develops a new want that carries the rest of the trilogy: to see the ring destroyed.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins—Right from the beginning we learn that Katniss’ top priority is to take care of her family. She breaks the law and hunts because it’s the main source of income and food that her family has, and without it they would starve. Her desire to take care of her family doesn’t change after the Reaping, either—she volunteers to protect her baby sister and her main motivation to survive the games is so that she can keep her promise to Prim.

Determining what your characters want isn’t just a matter of importance to the plot—it is, in fact, a huge part of character development, as your character’s wants will largely determine their actions throughout the course of the novel. Furthermore, it’s important to know more than just your protagonist’s desires—what your antagonist and side characters want is just as important and potentially just as significant to the plot as your protagonist’s desires.

Taking a look at The Lord of the Rings again, Samwise Gamgee doesn’t join the Fellowship of the Ring for the adventure—far from it, as he has a strong desire to return home to the Shire as soon as possible. More important to him, however, is to protect Frodo like he swore to Gandalf that he would, and so he goes to great plot-altering lengths to make sure that he fulfills that promise.

Taking a moment to identify what your characters want can really help you to identify how they will act throughout the course of your novel—and it may even inspire some new plot ideas that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered. If you haven’t already, I definitely recommend it.

When do you take your characters’ desires into account? Has brainstorming their wants ever inspired new plot ideas? Share your experiences in the comments below!

On Dealing with Rejection

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When I first set out to become a writer so many years ago, there were four words that I heard over and over again, four words that reappeared everywhere I turned: develop a thick skin.

At the beginning of my journey I had this hope, you see. This flutter inside me that secretly wished I wouldn't have to, that whispered maybe not me. I clung on to that hope, and when my very first query letter brought back a request for a partial, I was ecstatic. I thought maybe I would be an exception, maybe, just maybe, I would be the writer that didn't have to deal with rejection.

I didn't send out any more query letters. I waited.

My first rejection arrived in the mailbox many weeks later. It was a heavy thing, literally, because it was attached to the first fifty pages I had printed out and sent to New York, now returned to me in a large yellow envelope. It was a nice rejection, personalized with a little feedback on why the agent had passed, but it didn't hurt any less. To my inexperienced eyes, a rejection was a rejection and the hopeful whisper died.

Since then, over the course of many years and manuscripts, I've collected more rejection letters than I care to count. But I'm not here to whine about rejection, in fact, I am, in a way, grateful for them. Because while they were difficult lessons to learn, dealing with rejection has taught me a few things:

Not all rejections are created equal. There's a world of difference between a form rejection letter and a personalized one. Personalized rejections mean it was a near-miss, it means the agent (or editor) took the time to personally write you a rejection letter rather than doing the easy thing and sending a quick form rejection. True, they both mean "no," but the latter is a subtle way of saying you're almost there. Keep going.

Rejections aren't the end. I know sometimes it doesn't feel like it, but life goes on after five, ten, fifty, a hundred rejections. Rejections don't mean that you're a terrible writer, or that you'll never be published, or any of those awful doubts that tend to creep in upon receiving bad news about your writing. Every writer has dealt with rejection of one form or another and the best thing you can do is keep going. Keep writing.

For the writer, rejections are a part of life. Believe it or not, post-publication writers still receive rejections—they're called bad reviews, and even the legendary New York Times Bestselling authors receive them pretty regularly. As harsh as it sounds, the rejections that you receive while querying are teaching you an important lesson—they're teaching you how to develop a thick skin and continue working when the stones are being thrown. They're teaching you how to ignore the negativity and keep pushing forward.

These are lessons that are essential if you want to be a successful writer, and for that, I'm grateful. No, it's not easy, and truth be told, those rejections start to get heavy after a while, even when they're not attached to fifty pages of the manuscript that you poured your heart into.

But despite all that, I honestly believe that in the end, we'll all be better for the experience.

Have you dealt with rejection? What did you do to help you get through it?