Denise Vega's Blog: Denise Vega's blog and website, page 11

Feliz Navidad!

I’m writing this in advance as I will be on the beaches of Cabo San Lucas when you read this today, December 24.

It’s just the five of us–my hubby and our three kids–enjoying each other’s company, knowing that the older they get, the harder it will be for us to make experiences like this happen. Our oldest has taken a job in Silicon Valley after he graduates this May. Our middle child is a junior in college and our youngest will be off to college this fall.

Life is change.

I’ve been observin...

Publication Frustration: Discouragement as Companion

One of the most challenging parts of writing for publication is staying positive during long waits for responses (or no responses), receiving passes after those long waits, and losing enthusiasm for a project that we were convinced would take the publishing world by storm. Publication frustration! So what can we do to keep going?

Two weeks ago I wrote about how I wanted to step up my writing game for picture books to give myself a better chance of getting accepted. It may work, it may not. B...

Birthday Gifts Abound

So today is my 53rd birthday. Yesterday I got feedback on apicture book manuscript from one group–great stuff, gang!–and tomorrow I get feedback on my YA novel from another group. So this day is sandwiched between some serious critique action.

Gift #1

Besides the wonderful feedback and camaraderie of my picture book group, one of my dear friends, Kim Tomsic, brought delicious French fries and cupcakes to our meeting yesterday. Does she know me or what?! Thank you, my darling. What a fun surpr...

Why I Need to Write Oodles of PB Stories–Do You?

One of ourgoals when I signed with my current agent was to try to place one or two picture book manuscripts a year (in addition to my novels.) Obviously the acceptance side was out of our hands, but the creation side was not. We had talked about strategies before, but it hadn’t really hit me until now—maybe because I’ll be 53 next week.

Thanksgiving: Memories and Gratitude

Thanksgiving is a big deal in our family. We have the whole food thing going, which includes omnivores, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free so it’s a culinary challenge that we all rise to.

We have “traveling” bins containing plates, dishes, flatware, tablecloths,etc—whoever is hosting the holiday meal get the bins. Some of the dishes were my maternal grandmother’s so tis’ a real family affair.

My mom would always help make the gravy. I will miss my mom helping me with the gravy. And havin...

Putting Your Heart in Your Book

Last week I broke down in my therapist’s office, overwhelmed with missing my mom. I’d been feeling out of sorts since I’d hit that wall I talked about last week—apathetic, even as I forged onward, going through the motions of my tasks each day, both personal and professional. A few days prior, Saturday, Nov 7, was the sixth month anniversary of my mom’sdeath. I’d spent that day in a gym nearGlenwood Springs, watching our youngest, Rayanne, play her last high school volleyball games in the reg...

Hitting the Writing Wall

Last week I went to a book reading and signing for Ellen Hopkins’ new book, Traffick, the sequel to Tricks (love you, Ellen! xo). Someone in the audience asked her what she does when she’s blocked and she said she doesn’t get blocked too often, but when she gets stuck on a scene, she sometimes checks email or social media.But then she said the thing that works the best for her is getting away from her computer and going for a walk or run.

I find that’s true for me too. Getting out of my curre...

Revision vs. Rewrite

With most of my novels, I call it revising, but it’s really rewriting. Revision vs. Rewrite. What’s the difference and why do I care?

Revision

For me, revising is when I’m reworking scenes and maybe even adding and deleting some scenes, but the general storyline remains basically unchanged. I may add a little more emotional heft to a scene or rework for more tension, but the basic underlying structure of the scene and story as a whole are intact.

Rewriting

When I’m rewriting, big plot elemen...

Picture Book Idea Month-One Year Later

Last NovemberI decided to participate in PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month), a fun project started by author Tara Lazar. I’m going to do it again this year, but I thought I’d share what I did with my calendar of ideas.

One Completed Manuscript

One of the ideas I wrote down turned into a really fun story with two main characters. I worked on it for quite a while, revised to make it the best I could and got it to my agent. After a few more rounds of revision, she sent it out to publishers and t...

Do You REALLY Want to Keep Doing That?

Last week I wrote about having to let go of things I loved doing so I could create time and space for more writing. And in the past I’ve written about “have to” versus “get to”. But this is an ongoing challenge for me, so I want to come at it from a little bit of a different angle.

If I’m starting to feel resentful, that’s a sign thatit’s time to do a Fun Test and check the Blech Scale (both very scientific methods, of course.)

So how do you really know when you don’t want to do something an...