As I struggled to decide what I should post about, I had a brilliant idea of writing about what to do when you can’t write! All of us at some point or another have frozen with our fingers curled over the keyboard, twitching this way and that, trying to decide which combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation to punch in. The common term for this is ‘writer’s block’. For some it can last minutes, others days, weeks, months, etc. I decided to hit the dictionary to see what the how writer’s block is described. Here’s what I found:
*Merriam-Webster.com
I often received inspiration from my family that I think, "hmm...how can I work this into writing/reading?". In honor of them, I've decided to start Fun Fridays. It will be exactly what it says: 'fun' and on 'Fridays'.
Coming up with names for your characters is important. Click here to go to my new blog where I'm discussing different things you should take into account when naming your characters, as well as linking to my favorite sites.
Everyone has one. Or two. Or twenty. Whatever your number is, join the club. This post was sparked by a pretty sweet facebook page I found the other day called A Book Whore’s Obsession. What the two moderators do, is find pictures of super hot guys and pair them with their super hot literary doppelgangers. It’s all in good fun, you may agree with who they pick, you may disagree. Either way, there’s drool-worthy guys and drool-worthy quotes to go with them.
Alright, time to lay the cards on the table. Who is your favorite literary crush? I’ll go first. Mine is Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. I was in love/lust with him waaaaay before the TV show came out. I loved his bad boy persona and sexy attitude. When Ian Somerhalder was chosen to play him on the TV show, my obsession started all over again.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. - Maya Angelou
I love this quote. It's even the screen saver on my desktop. Those who aren't writers probably won't understand the truth behind this statement. Those of us who are... well, you know what I'm talking about.
A story may start off as something small; a dream, a commercial you saw on tv, a pin on Pinterest. Then it slowly begins to build and build, until it's a whirling tornado of a whole other world inside of you, begging to get out. It occupies your mind during lunch meetings, while you're doing the dishes, while you sleep. It keeps crawling its way to the front of your subconcious until you finally give and pour your soul out on paper.
You get so enthralled in the demands of your characters, their problems, their joys. They won't stop hounding you until you've given them closure. They want the world to know what they're going through and you're the only one who can translate for them.
What's your favorite quote?
*Don't forget to follow me at my new address! I will no longer be posting on this one beginning May 18, 2013!
Blogger or WordPress? The biggest decision in every new blogger's life. At first I started out with blogger (obviously), but the more I looked at blogs using WordPress, the more I liked the clean lines and set up. After researching about the pros and cons of both, I've decided to go to WP. It's definitely different than Blogger, but still pretty easy to navigate, especially with the power of Google at my fingertips. I wish there was a way to just transfer all of my sweet followers over, but I'm stumped. If you know a way, let me know. For now, I'm just going to double post here and at my new WP blog for a while and leave the link to WP for you to follow over there. I appologize for the inconvenience, but I hope to see you all over there!
http://dianamlong.wordpress.com
Hey all! I'm back once again. How has everyone been? No, really, I'd love to hear. That's what the comment section is for. I've posted before about how much I love the blossoming New adult category and my favorite go-to blog for all things related to it. (NA Alley, just in case some of you forgot.) Mid-January, the girls posted that they'd be sadly losing one of their members, but they were looking for a couple of new ones. They wanted to find a new contributor to the blog and a coordinator for their social media. Since you and I both know that my ability to be consistent with blogging is a complete work in progress, I applied to the coordinator position. After a few weeks, they said they would make a decision by March 22. Pushing it to the back of my mind so I wasn't constantly obsessing about it the next few weeks, I had almost forgotten about it until Monday. It was my anniversary (7 wonderful years if you wanted to know), and I was checking my email. There was an email from NA Alley and I saw a 'congratulations' in the first few teaser sentances my phone shows. I clicked on it and saw that I had been picked for coordinator. I showed it to my husband and did a little happy dance around the kitchen. I had to keep it a secret for two whole days! Well, one and a half, technically. You can see my little bio and picture proving I'm not making all this up here. They ended up choosing two new contributors, a coordinator (me!), and a librarian. Go check us new people out! New Adult is awesome!
As of March 7, 2013, Carrie Butler's New Adult novel Strength is available for anyone and everyone to buy! I highly suggest you do. Why? Well, check out my review here. Here's all the information about Strength and Carrie and were you can find both of them.
Title: Strength
Carrie daydreamed her way through college—until they thrust a marketing degree into her hands, slapped a summa cum laude seal on the corner, and booted her out into a less-than-stellar job market. Instead of panicking at the prospect of unemployment, she used her Midwestern logic to steer into the skid and point her life in the direction she really wanted to go: writing out those daydreams.
Do you blog?
Do you like to review books?
Do you feel super duper special reading and reviewing books before they release?
If you answered 'yes' to all three questions, then Entangled Publishing needs you! They are compiling The List right now! Go to Kate's blog for all the instructions. May the odds be forever in your favor!
I'm sure everyone in the world of writing has heard of New Adult. Some people, like myself, are all for it, while others roll their eyes and throw tomatoes and lettuce at the thought. If you're wondering what New Adult is exactly, the girls at NA Alley explains it perfectly. You can find the link here. They are my favorite go-to site for anything concerning New Adult. While they do have an awesome blog, I must confess I love following them on Twitter. Each of them are funny, witty, clever, and just downright awesome. Every Thursday they have a Twitter chat (is that even the correct term?) where anyone can join in and chat about the topic of the week.
Back to my original topic, what's so great about New Adult? Well, here's my opinion on it. I love the innocence of a first kiss, the struggles of trying to find out who you are, and growth that takes place in YA books. I also love the steamier side that the Adult section brings out, the freedom of doing what you want, when you want, the confidence they seem to have. New Adult combines those two worlds.
The main characters are on their own, but they don't have experience to yet rely on. They're old enough to fall in love without worrying about what others think, but is it worth it to stay with that one person or catch some other fish in the sea? No longer do they have to sneak out at night, park in back roads to steal a kiss or cop a feel, they can go to their own apartments without looking over their shoulders for Mom or Dad. They have all these new freedoms and liberties thrust upon them. It's exciting, over-whelming, and fun. They also have responsibility thrown at them. You want your own apartment while you're at college? Better find a job. You have a huge test in the morning but the party of the year is tonight. Mom isn't there to take the blame when you call your friends and tell them you can't go.
It's the excitement of being an adult and trying to make your mark on the world. Mistakes are going to be made so lessons can be learned. Hearts will break, love will conquer all, anything can happen. The options are endless! I may also be a bit biased as I am in my mid-twenties, and in that New Adult stage where I'm still making mistakes to learn from. I don't consider myself an adult, but I know I've passed being a young adult (thank goodness!).
If you're looking for some fun New Adult reads, Goodreads has several lists of NA books. You can also join the New Adults Reading Challenge group at Goodreads. Look for me if you do! I also just received an ARC of Strength by Carrie Butler, one of the sisters of NA Alley. Have you seen the cover of it? Sexy, shirtless, rippling abs. Oh, yeah, I'm totally excited to read it! Review to come on that soon. Just out of curiosity, how many of you read book reviews?
Hello all my fellow insecure writers! Who's ready for this new year? New deadlines, new stories, new heartbreaks, new loves. I'm hoping to begin the next step in my writer's journey this year. Querying. The goal is to write The End by Jan 31. Then it's onto editing. I've looked around at a few different agents and publishers and I'm already overwhelmed. So, I'm turning to my fellow writers. What are your favorite sites for looking up different agents? How many agents do you send to at a time? How do you deal with all the waiting?! To end this post on a happy note, I've decided to title my novel Ripple. What do you guys think? A brief synopsis can be found under my WIP's page.
