Just because I’ve been MIA from the blogosphere doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading the hell out of new YA books or stalking the upcoming releases. In fact, these are my top picks for the rest of this year.
Have I missed any? Let me know in the comments!
This is probably one of the best and honest conversations about the mess that is copyright law. Not surprisingly, it’s a John Green video. Someone nominate this guy for president because seriously, he sees the world as it should be and then does something about it. I love you, John Green. There. I said it. My husband already knows and after six years he’s come to terms with it.
As I have said before in a previous post on copyright, “I personally believe one of the foundation tenants of the blogosphere (and to some degree, the internet) is to inspire and share.” We are a society of thinkers and creators and I love that we can be inspired by something and then we go out and create something brand new based on how that first thing made us feel. That does not mean, of course, that I think it’s ok to steal someone else’s work and call it your own. I just believe in inspiration. John Green says it better, of course. So check it out.
“The most important things is that the internet continue to be vigilant, which don’t worry, it will, that we try to be fair to each other, and that we never let copyright law make us afraid to create.”
This is a little old (I have a lot of saved links to catch up on) but worth archiving. i09 published an article called “The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar” and it’s got some great nuggets of writing truth. These were written by Emma Coats and tweeted for all our benefits.
From Emma Coats, via i09
#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.
#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
#22: What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
Artist/photographer David A. Reeves is one of my very favorite artists because he uses paper cut art to create haunting photographic scenes. I am a paper cut artist so pretty much anyone who does something cool with paper cut art is cool by me. Bonus that he does paper cut art with zombies and the video game Limbo. So he’s pretty much the love of my art life. Check him out here.
Samples of some of my favorite shots:
Cybils nominations are upon us! Unlike last year, I am not a judge this year. I considered applying again but the truth is I found the process difficult last year and I had way more time last year than I do this year. However, I still support them fully and I think you should too. If you care about middle grade and YA books, get involved.
The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles. Nominations are open to the public on October 1st.
Website: http://www.cybils.com/
Nominations: http://www.cybils.com/2012/10/nominate-here-for-the-2012-cybils.html
So far I have nominated 2 books.
Fantasy & Science Fiction – Teen
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Young Adult Fiction
The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis
I’m calling it now – The Storyteller is going to win its division. I’m going to talk about this book more in depth tomorrow, but it is the best book I’ve read this year in all categories. I’ve never read anything like it before. Mind – prepare to be blown.
Two months ago I set sail in a little boat to find the end of the world. And I found it. And promptly fell off the edge.
I did not intend to go on such a long hiatus. I love my blog and my blog followers and all my interweb friends. I love YouTube videos and memes and cat gifs. But I needed to unplug in the worst way. My brain was completely fried and in trying to care about everyone around me, I found I didn’t have enough left for myself.
Queue up a tiny, sad violin. This isn’t abnormal for me. I struggle every summer with blogger burnout. It happens. I had a really fantastic summer though and aside from getting unexpectedly sick and getting poked with a needle an unforgivable number of times, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I started several new projects, two of which I can’t talk about, and wrote almost 50,000 awesome, edited superhero words. Just so we’re clear, while I maybe watched a lot of TV, I also wrote several thousand words a day. (Hip hip hooray for one particularly incredible 16,000 word weekend!)
Speaking of TV, there are some really fantastic shows on right now, particularly in the sci-fi universe. Alphas, anyone? Come on now, you didn’t think I wouldn’t pine after this show, did you? *love*
For the record, I also gorged myself on Leverage, Warehouse 13, Revenge, Scandal, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Army Wives, and Pretty Little Liars.
In my personal opinion, Army Wives has some of the best character development I’ve ever seen and Leverage scores big for best dialogue.
I’ve watched the first two episodes of Revolution and all I can say is, CLEANEST APOCALYPSE EVER. I expected more from the Abrams/Kripke dream team, but instead we get some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever been subjected to. It’s quickly becoming the 50 Shades of the apocalypse genre. It reminds me of Jericho but less awesome, and I loved Jericho so I really want to love Revolution, but my gut tells me I’m in for a disappointment. They made 4 episodes off the bat so I’ll give them until episode 5 to see if the new episodes fix some of the Too Stupid To Live problems the characters have amassed and for the love of god dirty the characters up. It’s the apocalypse and there’s no running water and Katniss Charlie looks like she just stepped out of a shampoo commercial.
What I’m trying to say is, a lot has happened, but I’ve missed you. All of you. A lot.
I’m sorry I’ve been horribly absent. I’m not 100% but I’m ready to come crawling home, wild oats sown. Catch me up on the good and the bad in the comments. How are you?
I am coming out of hiatus briefly to tell you that I am participating in WriteOnCon 2012′s first 250 words and first 5 pages critique for my superhero story. I finally have a working title! It only took a year!!
THE PROMETHEUS PROJECT
If you’re a writer and you’re participating in WriteOnCon, please consider checking my posts out and giving me your critique. And don’t worry, you’re not going to hurt my feelings if you don’t like it. This is how we learn and grow, after all!
If you aren’t familiar with WriteOnCon, it’s a free online conference for kidlit writers. It starts officially on Tuesday. Come check it out!
www.writeoncon.com
Thanks!
Sommer
p.s. I’m currently planning to be back to blogging at the end of August. Thanks for all the great emails!
I didn’t intend to go on hiatus.
That’s always the way it goes though. One day I’m blogging normally and the next I just…can’t.
It usually happens in the dead of summer and the dead of winter. I’m deep deep deep in the superhero manuscript, now tentatively titled “THE PROMETHEUS PROJECT”. I am working, but I haven’t had much time for the internet.
I’ll return soon, I just wanted to let everyone know I’ve not fallen into the ocean like Atlantis.
This great artist, Andy Fairhurst, created these great pieces of art of silhouettes of kids acting out their favorite super…and they are just awesome! I wanted to share them. They make me want to run down my street in a cape.
I need a cape.