Jennifer R. Hubbard's Blog, page 130

The way it is

My post about real romance drew some fascinating true stories in the comments section.  It makes me suspect that if we writers ask all the couples around us how they met, we will have fodder for many books to come.

Those stories also remind me to look at life--real, awkward, joyous, messy, funny, strange life--for material, rather than at the preconceived images we carry around in our heads.  For example, "romance," "motherhood," "tragedy," and "courage" are words that can call up stereotypica...

Inspiration

If you haven't heard yet, we're reactivating the library-loving blog challenge; see this post for your chance to sign up!


Wednesday, the sagging middle of the week, is a perfect day to dip into the well for some good old-fashioned inspiration.

I did a school visit recently, and one of the truly lovely parts of the day was when the students gave me a handmade poster containing their thoughts about authors and books.  Everything on the poster meant something to me, and I wish I could reproduce t...

Let's love some libraries

Spring is in the air, snowmen are shrinking, buds are swelling, and it has been about a year since our library-loving blog challenge. Let's do that library challenge again, shall we?

I'm planning to run the challenge from March 23-27, and so far about twenty other bloggers have agreed to join me.  But I would love to have more.  Many, many more.  Last year we raised over $1600 for local libraries, which was marvelous, and it would be marvelous if we could meet or top that this year.  Here's ho...

Revision process, up close and personal

Writers often get asked about the peripherals of their writing process, by which I mean: longhand or computer; Mac or PC; music on or off; etc. Those kinds of questions. But this week, I find myself wondering about the actual revision process itself--specifically, whether the way I revise is unique, or whether everyone does it this way.

The revising I'm doing right now is micro-level, line by line.  (I already know that writers have many different approaches to macro-level editing--where you'r...

A Match Made in High School

Our latest 2010 debut launch: Kristin Walker's humorous, contemporary YA novel A Match Made in High School, about kids who are forced to pair up for marriage education classes.  Kristin agreed to a virtual interview.

Q: The students in your book have to take marriage education classes. Do you think that's a good idea, or is a successful relationship something that just can't be taught in school?

A: I think there are certain skills that a person can refine and which help in a relationship, like ...

Real romance

While celebrating Valentine's Day yesterday, I naturally thought about how my husband and I met.  I also thought about how different we were from the cinematic couples you see on movie screens.  We met through a hiking club, and our first date was a hike--on a very cold day with snow on the ground.  I probably had staticky hair and cold-weather sniffles, and on the drive home he had a wicked case of hat hair, but that didn't stop us from deciding we wanted to have dinner together and then see...

Suspense

Places to discuss The Secret Year online:
This week, A Good Addiction's Book Addicts Getaway Forum will open a discussion thread on The Secret Year.  You can also post Questions for the Author there; I'll log in on Feb. 20 to answer them.  Discussions are already posted on the forum for Beautiful Creatures and Firespell, as well as other bookish topics.  If you prefer live chat, I'll be doing that on Tuesday night, Feb 16, at 8 PM Eastern with The Page Flipper.


Today's writing topic: Suspense!

I...

Toolbox

In the process of answering interview questions and preparing for a presentation about how I write and revise, I came across the set of "companion" files for The Secret Year.  I had forgotten how many of these files there were: a calendar, a map, outlines, graphs, floor plans for the main character's house, character sketches for every major and most of the minor characters.  I wrote the critical scenes in the book from three or four different characters' points of view.  None of this materia...

Turns out there's more to say on that subject

Some time ago, I found an old used copy of Walter Kerr's How Not to Write a Play.  I'm not a playwright, but I read it because I suspected that whatever he said about plays would apply to any kind of story, including the short stories and novels I write.  I was right about that.

The main thing I remember is that he bemoaned the trend of arts to become too precious, too removed from the living pulse of human experience.  There's no reason to shy away from writing about the big events in our liv...

Dialogue and other joys

Some things that make me happy, and other items of note:

Jackson Pearce's anecdote about her adventure at the DMV. Honestly, is there a better place to find stories than the DMV?

Tracy Abell's story about the difficulty of applying what you know about writing, even after you know it.

A mind-boggling statistic from Michael Merriam. (Yeah, I'm afraid to count my own stats in this department.)

The Class of 2k10 Feel the Love giveaway, in which you could win The Secret Year, Island Sting, and Leavin...