Carynn Bohley's Blog

Jacob’s Poultry Nest

Hello everyone!

My brother started a blog today all about raising chickens and turkeys, and he would really appreciate it if you checked it out! He posts about incubating eggs, hatching chicks and more. It’s pretty cool, so why don’t you head on over?

 

 

 

 

Interview with Stephanie Morrill

Hello everyone! I haven’t done a writing related post for a while (besides my many posts about my new YA novella, Dear Jackson), so I thought that you all deserved something special.

A few months back, I contacted Stephanie Morrill (author of ‘Within These Lines,‘ ‘The Lost Girl of Astor Street,’ the ‘Ellie Sweet’ series and more) about doing an interview on WritersBloK. Despite her busy schedule, she agreed to this- so let’s get on to the interview!

Carynn: Firstly, when did you start writing? 

Stephanie: I’ve been writing stories since first grade. Our school was really good about encouraging creative writing, and we had a lot of time in class for this. (In my memory, anyway, which is probably faulty!) When we finished a story, we took it to the “publishing house,” which was a parent volunteer in a room with an Apple computer. We could pick what color we wanted for our cover and binding, and the volunteer typed up our story for us. A few days later, the story would be delivered to our classroom for us to illustrate and share with the class. Other than the illustrating part, I loved every bit of it and wanted to write books from then on.

Carynn: How many agents did you query before someone decided to represent you? Do you have any advice for people trying to find a literary agent?

Stephanie: I don’t remember, honestly. Maybe a dozen, plus one-on-one meetings at conferences? That was actually where I had some success, was when I could meet an agent face-to-face. Investing the money in attending conferences paid off big for me, not just in finding my first agent, but also developing writing friendships.

This is hard if you’ve never been agented, but it’s really important that you find the right agent, not just an agent. This person represents you in the industry. Your reputation is tied to their reputation. Follow them on social media, read their blog posts/listen to their podcast. Do whatever you can to get a feel for who they are and what they value. Also, it’s helpful to know that this isn’t a forever commitment. If you get in there and realize this isn’t a good working relationship, you can stop working together. Not without pain, but it can be done. Most writers I know have changed agents at some point for a variety of reasons.

Carynn: Can you talk about what comes after finding an agent?

Stephanie: After you find an agent who is excited about your work and who you think you’ll work well with, a variety of things might happen depending on the agent. If they liked your book but want you to make some edits before they start shopping it out, you’ll start on those. If the book is good to go, then they will probably put together a list of editors they want to query on your behalf. Sometimes you wind up with a contract within months of signing with an agent, but more often it might be a year or two. I’ve seen both happen.

Carynn: I’ve heard that signing a book contract can be very stressful. Do you ever feel pressured when you have a deadline to meet?

Stephanie: I do feel a little pressure, but it’s not a totally bad thing. I think there’s a healthy amount of pressure that helps with focus, and I haven’t struggled too much with ridiculous deadlines.

Carynn: How does the writing process change when it’s a career rather than just a hobby? Do you ever find that you enjoy it less?

Stephanie: My enjoyment of writing continues to grow, actually. I have times where I endure burn out but that’s usually related more to the career part of being a writer (marketing, social media, public speaking) than it is the actual writing.

The biggest thing that changes is that you have readers. I didn’t have readers before I was published, so I wrote whatever I wanted and I didn’t think too much about it. Once you start developing readers, however, you want to continue to have readers. You want them to like this next book even more than the last book. You want them to feel excited when they see you have something new coming out. It’s not a relationship I take lightly, and I’m aware that the trust can be broken. I know that because I’m a reader and my trust has been broken before. I won’t please everybody all the time, but my readers’ expectations always factor into picking a new project.

Carynn: How often would you say you write, and how many words in one sitting?

Stephanie: Currently, I write 4 days a week, for 1-2 hours. I tend to write about 1,000 words an hour. I would like to be writing 5 days a week, like I used to before I had kids, but I have another 18 months before my youngest heads off to kindergarten.

Carynn: What are your current goals as a writer?

Stephanie: Currently, I’m working on restoring the balance between focused writing time and my writing-related-but-not-actually-writing tasks. Those are tasks like preparing classes that I’m teaching, blogging, social media, etc. I said yes to a few too many things, and I need to tip my balance back so that I’m getting more focused fiction time.

Carynn: What writing obstacle would you say you struggle with the most?

Stephanie: Insecurity. So often it leads me to say yes to things I shouldn’t and keeps me from feeling confident to say yes to the things I should.

Carynn: Which of your books did you enjoy writing the most? 

Stephanie: I think The Lost Girl of Astor Street was the most fun to write, although it’s been a few years so it might just be that the really hard times have faded in my memories. I love my main character, and I loved navigating two new genres (historical and mystery). I’m really proud of how that one turned out.

Carynn: Is there any advice you can give to writers looking to publish their books?

Stephanie: Settle in and find some writing friends, because it’s a long journey! Here’s an article I wrote on the step-by-step for traditional publishing: https://goteenwriters.com/2014/08/04/publishing-101-how-do-you-get-a-book-published/

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I want to give a big thanks to Stephanie for letting me interview her, and I hope that this was as helpful to all of you as it was for me! I can’t recommend Stephanie’s books enough (Within These Lines was my personal favorite!), so be sure to check them out.

I should be posting more often now that I’ve gotten some work out of the way (a college student is always busy- even an online college student), so get ready for lots of writing tips and challenges soon!

Until next time,
Carynn

‘Dear Jackson’ Website

Hey everyone!

As most of you know, earlier this month I published my YA Romance/Drama novella ‘Dear Jackson.’ I just finished the website, so I decided to share it on here! You can read about the book, check out the character page, see reviews… and there’s a blog run by the characters! My only post so far is a quiz where you can see which character you’re the most like (which I’m curious about, so tell me what your result is!), but I will be updating it weekly. CLICK HERE to check it out!

Happy writing (and reading!),

– Carynn

Giveaway Winner!

Hi everyone! As you probably know, I am hosting a giveaway with a signed copy of my YA novella, Dear Jackson. 

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When 16-year-old Malcolm Gibbs’ parents divorce, he, his Mom and his little sister Annie move to rural Kentucky to live with his Grandmother. The news of his brother Jackson’s death sends Malcolm reeling, and the suggestion of a therapist leads him to write a log addressed to his deceased brother. With help from his charming neighbor, Bella, as well as the support of his family, will Malcolm be able to find light in the darkness?

I suppose I shouldn’t postpone it any longer. The winner of the giveaway is…

Nia Mahmud!

I will be sending out the book tomorrow, and I hope that you enjoy it!

As for the rest of you, I will be hosting more giveaways in the future and I hope that you stick around to see them! There is definitely more excitement to come.

Any Book Review Bloggers?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for people who are willing to write a book review of my novella, Dear Jackson. If you’re interested (and have a blog, of course), let me know through WritersBloK’s contact page and I’ll send you a free, PDF copy of the book.

Happy writing (and reading, I hope!),

Carynn

GIVEAWAY- Signed copy of Dear Jackson

When 16-year-old Malcolm Gibbs’ parents divorce, he, his Mom and his little sister Annie move to rural Kentucky to live with his Grandmother. The news of his brother Jackson’s death sends Malcolm reeling, and the suggestion of a therapist leads him to write a log addressed to his deceased brother. With help from his charming neighbor, Bella, as well as the support of his family, will Malcolm be able to find light in the darkness?

Hello everyone! As most of you know, I recently published my YA novella ‘Dear Jackson’ on Amazon. It’s the first paperback book I’ve ever published (I have two short ebooks on Amazon as well), so I can finally do what I’ve always wanted to do:

I’m giving away a signed copy of my book!

(Let’s just say that I’ve been spending a lot of time practicing my signature…)

You can enter here, and there are a few ways to get extra entries as well.

Here’s my logic:
It only takes a second, so why not?

I’m very excited about this, and I hope that lots of you enter.

Writing Contest- Last Day To Enter!

Hello everyone,

I wanted to remind you all that today is the last day to enter my writing contest. There are some awesome prizes, so if you want to enter, check out the original post here.

Also, if you haven’t checked out my new YA romance/drama novella Dear Jackson, click here! If you aren’t interested in it, why not share it with a friend? I’d really appreciate it.

I will be releasing the link to the Dear Jackson website soon, so stay tuned for that!

Carynn

Dear Jackson- A YA Romance/Drama

Hey guys!

Some of you might remember a while back when I talked about a novella I was writing called ‘Dear Jackson.’ I didn’t say much about it, except that it’s really sad and it’s based in the country.

For a while, I completely abandoned it. It was only recently that I read it again, and it made me cry. Then it made my grandmother cry. Then my brother. The way that people were reacting to it made me realize that I HAD to publish it.

At first, I was going to traditionally publish. I then spoke with a literary agent who told me that agents rarely represent novellas. The past week I’ve worked on editing and formatting, and I’m currently waiting for my proof copy of the book to come in the mail. In the meantime, I just released the kindle edition!

That’s right, guys, you can officially buy Dear Jackson on Amazon. It would mean a lot to me if you just took a moment to look at it, or maybe recommend it to a friend. It’s quite a moving story. Check it out HERE!

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I am in the process of writing the sequel, which I’m very excited about. Not only this, but I will be hosting a giveaway with a signed copy of the book, so stay tuned!

Until next time,

Carynn

WRITING CONTEST Reminder

We’re getting closer to the contest deadline, so I thought I’d remind you all to submit your entries soon! The last day to enter is January 19th. You can see the official rules and prizes HERE. Good luck, and happy new year!

~ Carynn

How to Write a Book ASAP

If you’re like me, you often wish that writing a book was MUCH faster. While I’m fairly patient in most areas of my life, writing is one of those things that easily frustrates me. Oftentimes, I’ll spend a month or two working on a book, then I’ll get bored and move on to the next project.

I have finally found a method that works very well for me, and hopefully it will work for you too. I have tried so many different writing techniques to encourage myself to write more quickly. I tried setting daily goals for myself, I tried writing as much or as little as I wanted until the book was done… but neither of these methods really worked.

Online college has drastically improved my organization skills, and contributed to my new writing method. This is what I have been doing:

– First, I made my book synopsis. It doesn’t have to be detailed; it’s just a list of basic plot points from the beginning of the book to the end. I like to use a plot chart from Stephanie Morrill’s website (click HERE to print it out). According to this chart, the plot structure of a book is as follows:

. Beginning
. Inciting Incident
. Second Thoughts
. Climax of Act 1
. Obstacle
. Obstacle
. Midpoint Twist
. Obstacle
. Disaster
. Crisis
. Climax of Act 2
. Climax of Act 3
, Obstacles
. Denouement 
. End

– I then printed out a calendar for this month and next month. I looked at my synopsis, and estimated how many days each portion of the book would take. For example, I decided that the inciting accident would take me a very short amount of time, so I wrote down ‘1 day’ beside the section. The next section was quite a bit longer, so I wrote ‘3 days.’

. After I did this for every plot point, I went to the calendar and began to make deadlines for each one. The reason that this works is because it gives you a lot of freedom to write as much or as little as you want each day, but it still forces you to get stuff done by specific points of time. Once you do this for each deadline, you will know the exact date you’ll get the first draft done (as long as you follow through).

Then you should have the basic structure of the book, and you can always add fillers later.  Remember, you can’t edit a blank page. 

Let me know if this works for you. What is your favorite writing method?

Also, if you haven’t already, check out my WRITING CONTEST! There are awesome prizes, and I would love it if you entered.

Until next time,

~ Carynn