Carrie Ryan's Blog, page 11
November 4, 2010
on NaNoWriMo
Yep, it's that time of the year again: National Novel Writing Month! The thirty days in which people all over the world pledge to write a novel (defined as 50,000 words). Some of y'all may know that I started writing The Forest of Hands and Teeth for NaNo in 2006. At the time I was in the middle of writing a chick lit that had already been rejected once and had just started a new YA for a writing class a few weeks before but one of the "rules" of NaNo is that your NaNo book must be word 1-50,000 and not 20,000-70,000.
I was a stickler for the rules and so I started casting about for a new idea -- something to stretch my writing voice and take me in a new direction -- and that's when JP (my husband) suggested I write what I love which was zombies and that was that. A year later I sold The Forest of Hands and Teeth.
Did I "win" NaNo (i.e. write 50,000 words during November)? No. I only wrote 20-30k. I became unerringly stuck and ran out of time, etc etc, but I kept writing and finished the first draft in April, 2007. Did it stress me out that I "lost" NaNo? Nope.
To be honest, my goal wasn't really to write 50k words in a month, it was to WRITE. See, I've found that it's crazy easy to *want* to write, to *think* about writing, to *plan* to write but not always easy to actually sit down and write. It's too easy to find excuses in life -- to have other priorities (cleaning, exercising, watching TV, sleeping) and to put off writing until tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Furthermore, while motivation ultimately has to come from the inside, sometimes it's nice to have external cheerleaders and having someone expecting you to write words is the motivation you need to sit down and pound out some words. And once you develop that habit, it gets easier and easier to keep sitting down to write.
To me, that's the beauty of NaNo. Some people don't need the added incentive to sit down and write, some don't need the insta-community of like-minded folks because they already have a support system. But others need to have that opportunity to, for one month, put writing first and have a community of folks doing the same -- reinforcing the decision.
Here's my takeaway message for NaNo: why not? Why not challenge yourself and push? Why not delve into the task along with hundreds of thousands of other writers and take this one month to put writing above all else. If you find that it's destroying your writing, if it's making things worse... then walk away. There's no guilt for failing to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Writing is hard enough with pressuring yourself unreasonably.
To me the guilt comes from not writing at all. If you want to be a writer then there is one thing you must do without fail: write. If you want to sell a book, you have to write a book. And if NaNo is what it takes to motivate you, then jump in with both feet. If you fail, the key is not to give up -- the key is to keep writing.
So good luck to all you NaNoWriMos out there! Yay for putting writing first and regardless of the outcome, I hope all of you keep writing!!
I was a stickler for the rules and so I started casting about for a new idea -- something to stretch my writing voice and take me in a new direction -- and that's when JP (my husband) suggested I write what I love which was zombies and that was that. A year later I sold The Forest of Hands and Teeth.
Did I "win" NaNo (i.e. write 50,000 words during November)? No. I only wrote 20-30k. I became unerringly stuck and ran out of time, etc etc, but I kept writing and finished the first draft in April, 2007. Did it stress me out that I "lost" NaNo? Nope.
To be honest, my goal wasn't really to write 50k words in a month, it was to WRITE. See, I've found that it's crazy easy to *want* to write, to *think* about writing, to *plan* to write but not always easy to actually sit down and write. It's too easy to find excuses in life -- to have other priorities (cleaning, exercising, watching TV, sleeping) and to put off writing until tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Furthermore, while motivation ultimately has to come from the inside, sometimes it's nice to have external cheerleaders and having someone expecting you to write words is the motivation you need to sit down and pound out some words. And once you develop that habit, it gets easier and easier to keep sitting down to write.
To me, that's the beauty of NaNo. Some people don't need the added incentive to sit down and write, some don't need the insta-community of like-minded folks because they already have a support system. But others need to have that opportunity to, for one month, put writing first and have a community of folks doing the same -- reinforcing the decision.
Here's my takeaway message for NaNo: why not? Why not challenge yourself and push? Why not delve into the task along with hundreds of thousands of other writers and take this one month to put writing above all else. If you find that it's destroying your writing, if it's making things worse... then walk away. There's no guilt for failing to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Writing is hard enough with pressuring yourself unreasonably.
To me the guilt comes from not writing at all. If you want to be a writer then there is one thing you must do without fail: write. If you want to sell a book, you have to write a book. And if NaNo is what it takes to motivate you, then jump in with both feet. If you fail, the key is not to give up -- the key is to keep writing.
So good luck to all you NaNoWriMos out there! Yay for putting writing first and regardless of the outcome, I hope all of you keep writing!!
October 20, 2010
Upcoming events in Charlotte, NYC and beyond!
Hey y'all! Just wanted to let you in on a few upcoming events:
Thursday, October 21 at 4:30 PM
Kinston, NC
I'll be speaking at the Kinston-Lenior Public Library. You can find more information here.
Friday, October 29 at 6:00 PM
New York, NY
The Princeton Club, 15 West 43rd Street
I'll be speaking at the Williams Club and reading from The Dark and Hollow Places (the first sneak peek!) and signing afterward. T
here should be books for sale after the event! The event is free but reservations are required -- you can email eventsATprincetonclub.com or call 212.596.1261 to reserve. See below for more details!
click to view full size
Saturday, October 30
Charlotte, NC
Charlotte Geeks Gala
I'll be the guest judge for the Geeks Got Talent contest! There is a cost for admission and all proceeds go to Youth Homes, an organization dedicated to providing supportive human services to children and families. For more information about the event, click here. This is going to be a super fun gala and I can't wait to see y'all there!!
To learn more about the Charlotte Geeks, the Gala and to see me on TV, click here! I have to admit, I was SUPER NERVOUS about the whole experience until I realized that I just had to sit there and the head of the Charlotte Geeks, Joey, was the one to do all the talking. She did a brilliant job! Also, she organized to have some zombies, some trekkers, Bat Girl and someone dressed up in an awesome steampunk outfit. Joey totally outdid herself -- she rocks!
Thursday, October 21 at 4:30 PM
Kinston, NC
I'll be speaking at the Kinston-Lenior Public Library. You can find more information here.
Friday, October 29 at 6:00 PM
New York, NY
The Princeton Club, 15 West 43rd Street
I'll be speaking at the Williams Club and reading from The Dark and Hollow Places (the first sneak peek!) and signing afterward. T
here should be books for sale after the event! The event is free but reservations are required -- you can email eventsATprincetonclub.com or call 212.596.1261 to reserve. See below for more details!
click to view full sizeSaturday, October 30
Charlotte, NC
Charlotte Geeks Gala
I'll be the guest judge for the Geeks Got Talent contest! There is a cost for admission and all proceeds go to Youth Homes, an organization dedicated to providing supportive human services to children and families. For more information about the event, click here. This is going to be a super fun gala and I can't wait to see y'all there!!
To learn more about the Charlotte Geeks, the Gala and to see me on TV, click here! I have to admit, I was SUPER NERVOUS about the whole experience until I realized that I just had to sit there and the head of the Charlotte Geeks, Joey, was the one to do all the talking. She did a brilliant job! Also, she organized to have some zombies, some trekkers, Bat Girl and someone dressed up in an awesome steampunk outfit. Joey totally outdid herself -- she rocks!
October 8, 2010
Michael Grant in Charlotte Monday!
I love Michael Grant. I love his books and I think he's hilarious and thoughtful in person. I had the great pleasure of speaking on a panel with him last year in NYC and have been hoping that we'd be able to cross paths again. So you can imagine how excited I am that he'll be in town doing a few school visits and then signing at my local indie!Here are the details:
When: Monday, October 12 at 4:00 PM
Where: Park Road Books
What: He's touring for his new MG series The Magnificent 12 which has been getting some truly excellent reviews. But I hear rumor he'll also be signing his other books as well!
One of the questions we got asked while on the panel in NYC was about the limits of what we can and can't write about as authors (or rather, what limitations we feel put on us by editors, publishing houses, readers, etc). Michael discussed the interesting intersection between writing violence and the words authors can use to describe that violence and how often that creates a situation where something violent happens and the character's response is "oh darn" rather than an expletive. His answer has always stuck with me because I think there's a similar intersection between writing about violence and sexual situations -- how much more leeway I feel writers have in writing violent situations than they do writing about sexual situations.If you're interested, you can actually watch the panel here. It was a post-apocalyptic teen panel featuring Michael Grant, Scott Westerfeld, James Dasher and me.
Hope to see some of y'all on Monday at the signing!
October 6, 2010
Novello Festival of Reading in Charlotte October 9th!
This weekend in Charlotte NC is a Tribute to Novello Festival of Reading! Here's the info on my panel, Saturday October 9th:
1:15 p.m. Young Adult
Carrie Ryan: Dead-Tossed Waves, Forest of Hands & Teeth
Karon Luddy: Spelldown
Joyce Hostetter: Comfort, Blue, Healing Water
I have a very deep love for the Novello Festival. For those of you who don't live in Charlotte (or for those who do and didn't know about Novello), it's a festival put on by the Charlotte/Mecklenburg library system (PLCMC) that began in 1991 (this would have been the 20th anniversary) and, as its name implies, is a festival that celebrates reading.
I first heard about it in 2007. The day after I sold my book to Delacorte Press I found out that Libbra Bray, another Delacorte author, would be one of the guests at Novello and that it was happening that weekend -- less than a week after my deal went through. I couldn't believe my luck! So my husband and I both went down to hear her speak and nervously, I stood in line to meet her and I introduced myself and told her I'd just sold to the same house she wrote for.
ZvU - even back in 2007!She leapt up, gave me a hug, signed my book (yay team zombie!) and I walked on air for weeks after. It's hard to explain how awe-filled that moment was for me -- I'm such a huge fan of Libba's writing and I spent half of the festival staring at her and thinking, "One day, that could be me! I could be on a stage talking about my books! One day, I'll have a book on the shelves people might ask me to sign." And of course Libba was so funny and gracious and flat out awesome... she was so welcoming to me as a brand new author.
I always remember that feeling -- how full I was on the absolute joy of that day at Novello.
So I was upset when I learned that, because of budget cuts, Novello had been cut from the PLCMC budget. I wasn't surprised by the news -- I'd seen the signs, library budgets all over the country are being slashed and all told, a festival can be expensive and perhaps that money could go to keeping a library open one more hour or day a week -- a service desperately needed.
Luckily, there are people in Charlotte who were unwilling to let Novello go. Who very smartly realized that there's a difference between reviving something that's mostly dead rather than all the way dead. They decided that when the economy gets better it would be easier to say "hey, can we allocate a little bit more to this existing program?" rather than "hey, can we restart this program that had to be cut?"
A professor with UNC Charlotte, Mark West, and a former librarian and owner of Black Forest Books and Toys, Pat Siegfried, worked tirelessly to put together a Tribute to Novello to keep the tradition going. Authors chipped in their time and hopefully the Charlotte community will turn out and prove how important it is to keep events like this going.
When all is said and done, I feel so amazingly honored to be part of the Novello tradition. Three years ago, mere days after signing my first book deal, I dreamed of this moment. I feel so amazingly lucky that it's coming true.
1:15 p.m. Young Adult
Carrie Ryan: Dead-Tossed Waves, Forest of Hands & Teeth
Karon Luddy: Spelldown
Joyce Hostetter: Comfort, Blue, Healing Water
I have a very deep love for the Novello Festival. For those of you who don't live in Charlotte (or for those who do and didn't know about Novello), it's a festival put on by the Charlotte/Mecklenburg library system (PLCMC) that began in 1991 (this would have been the 20th anniversary) and, as its name implies, is a festival that celebrates reading.
I first heard about it in 2007. The day after I sold my book to Delacorte Press I found out that Libbra Bray, another Delacorte author, would be one of the guests at Novello and that it was happening that weekend -- less than a week after my deal went through. I couldn't believe my luck! So my husband and I both went down to hear her speak and nervously, I stood in line to meet her and I introduced myself and told her I'd just sold to the same house she wrote for.
ZvU - even back in 2007!She leapt up, gave me a hug, signed my book (yay team zombie!) and I walked on air for weeks after. It's hard to explain how awe-filled that moment was for me -- I'm such a huge fan of Libba's writing and I spent half of the festival staring at her and thinking, "One day, that could be me! I could be on a stage talking about my books! One day, I'll have a book on the shelves people might ask me to sign." And of course Libba was so funny and gracious and flat out awesome... she was so welcoming to me as a brand new author.I always remember that feeling -- how full I was on the absolute joy of that day at Novello.
So I was upset when I learned that, because of budget cuts, Novello had been cut from the PLCMC budget. I wasn't surprised by the news -- I'd seen the signs, library budgets all over the country are being slashed and all told, a festival can be expensive and perhaps that money could go to keeping a library open one more hour or day a week -- a service desperately needed.
Luckily, there are people in Charlotte who were unwilling to let Novello go. Who very smartly realized that there's a difference between reviving something that's mostly dead rather than all the way dead. They decided that when the economy gets better it would be easier to say "hey, can we allocate a little bit more to this existing program?" rather than "hey, can we restart this program that had to be cut?" A professor with UNC Charlotte, Mark West, and a former librarian and owner of Black Forest Books and Toys, Pat Siegfried, worked tirelessly to put together a Tribute to Novello to keep the tradition going. Authors chipped in their time and hopefully the Charlotte community will turn out and prove how important it is to keep events like this going.
When all is said and done, I feel so amazingly honored to be part of the Novello tradition. Three years ago, mere days after signing my first book deal, I dreamed of this moment. I feel so amazingly lucky that it's coming true.
September 13, 2010
Smart Chicks Kick It Tour starts today!
[image error]
I'm so super excited that the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour starts today in Austin, TX! Wahoo! For those of you who haven't heard about it, the Smart Chicks Tour was the idea of Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong and Alyson Noel who wanted to put together a tour of authors from various houses (usually, if authors get to tour in groups at all they're all from the same publishing house but they wanted to break this mold). All told there are 17 authors going to 12 different cities over the next two w...
September 10, 2010
The Living Dead 2: Flotsam & Jetsam (free!)
It's been the summer o' anthologies for me! First my short story about Sister Tabitha as a teen, Hare Moon, came out in Kiss Me Deadly, in a few weeks my short story set in Curacao (which explains where the term Mudo comes from) will be out in Zombies vs. Unicorns, and just a week ago another short story, Flotsam & Jetsam, came out in The Living Dead 2 anthology edited by John Joseph Adams! (for links to more information and how to purchase, click here).
[image error] Flotsam & Jetsam is about a group of t...
[image error] Flotsam & Jetsam is about a group of t...
September 3, 2010
Decatur Book Festival!!
Yay for Decatur Book Festival weekend!!! I've heard such amazing things about this festival and if the rest of the weekend is as awesome as today it will rock! I spoke to 8th and 9th graders at Decatur High School this afternoon and they were an amazing amazing group -- I felt like the luckiest author to be talking to such avid readers and engaged students. Now I'm all pumped up for tomorrow!
On Saturday I'll be on the Zombies vs. Vampires Smackdown panel with Alyxandra Harvey. It's billed...
On Saturday I'll be on the Zombies vs. Vampires Smackdown panel with Alyxandra Harvey. It's billed...
August 30, 2010
The Dark and Hollow Places -- in all its covery glory
YAY! I finally get to post the US cover for The Dark and Hollow Places! I know many of you have seen versions of this cover out and about but they were still working on some tweaks and I wanted to make sure I had the final file before posting. But here it is! I am IN LOVE with this cover! LOVE LOVE LOVE! I love the model, I love the dirt and grime, I love where she is, I love the expression on her face, I love everything. It fits the story sooo well and I just feel like the luckiest au...
The Dark and Hollow Places -- in all it's covery glory
YAY! I finally get to post the US cover for The Dark and Hollow Places! I know many of you have seen versions of this cover out and about but they were still working on some tweaks and I wanted to make sure I had the final file before posting. But here it is! I am IN LOVE with this cover! LOVE LOVE LOVE! I love the model, I love the dirt and grime, I love where she is, I love the expression on her face, I love everything. It fits the story sooo well and I just feel like the luckiest au...
August 27, 2010
Overheard around the house
JP: Why are their containers of frozen water in the freezer?
Me: Because I plan on setting them on fire.
JP: Okaaaaay... why are their several of them?
Me: Because I want to use different fuels. You weren't planning on drinking that 151 anytime soon were you?
JP: I'm still not sure that answers the fundamental question of Why.
Me: Research.
JP: I'll get the fire extinguisher.
Me: Because I plan on setting them on fire.
JP: Okaaaaay... why are their several of them?
Me: Because I want to use different fuels. You weren't planning on drinking that 151 anytime soon were you?
JP: I'm still not sure that answers the fundamental question of Why.
Me: Research.
JP: I'll get the fire extinguisher.
![[image error]](http://www.melissa-marr.com/_SCKI/_posters/_imgs/SCKI_Tour_One_Sheet_Small_RGB_20010921.jpg){kind=link}
![[image error]](http://www.johnjosephadams.com/the-living-dead-2/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/1597801909sm.jpg){kind=link}