Scott Tracey's Blog, page 18

Monday Morning Survival Skills

It's Day 3.  An early morning sighting of The Beast nearly led to confrontation, but luckily TB was more interested in going somewhere else at the time.  I went back to sleep, and dreamt of hotels where the staff was totally rude.  Water running low.  Survival questioned.

Surviving Mondays is important.  Since I'm currently house sitting for my parents, it's even more so.  The normal Monday tricks won't work: pretending it's really Wednesday (both my collegiate sisters have serious...

Speaking Loudly

Okay, so I didn't vlog this weekend because I'm a big slacker, so there's no video recap for you.  Instead, I want to point you to the Twitter hashtag #SpeakLoudly.

Laurie Halse Anderson wrote Speak, which is probably one of the top 5 books I would recommend to ANYONE who wants to read or write YA.  Or just anyone who wants a good book.  I absolutely love this book, and I've read and reread it a dozen times.  It's powerful, it's strong, and it's honest.

As she points out in her blog, it's once ...

How Much Do You Know?

I was talking to my sister the other day, and we flipped past a show on TV, and I almost said out loud, "Hey, that's Braden's favorite show."

And then I realized that might sound a little crazy.

So then I started wondering about other writers.  How much information do you know about your characters that never makes it into the book?  How much of the things that you know affects how the character behaves on a daily basis.  In Braden's case, there was definitely a draft where more personal...

The Bookanistas: HUNGER by Jackie Morse Kessler

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Christine Fonseca is celebrating THE DUFF
Elana Johnson is raving about FIRELIGHT
Shelli Johannes Wells is giving us a preview of DESIRES
Shannon Messenger is loving THE MOCKINGBIRDS
Carolina Valdez Miller is gushing about THE UNIDENTIFIED
Lisa and Laura Roecker are praising NIGHTSHADE CITY

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What It's About: "Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world."

Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she's been appointed...

Getting Recognition

So I think it's time for another one of THOSE posts.

Disclaimer:  This blog post is written to make a point.  Resemblance to any writer, living or dead, is not intentional.  Things are elaborated and boiled down to make a point. Resemblance to any events that have taken place, or actions committed, is accidental.  This blog post is not calling you out, you are not being targeted, and I don't secretly hate you.  Promise.

I've heard several stories in the last few weeks all about one...

Five Reasons You Should Be Watching The Vampire Diaries

Odds are, if you're reading this post, you're already a fan of the Vampire Diaries.  If you're not…well, we have some serious work ahead of us.  But I just finished watching the season premiere, and I had to blog about the show and why it's so amazing.

1.  Dialogue: If you want to know how to write fantastic dialogue for teens, there are a few golden gods you worship.  Joss Whedon.  And Kevin Williamson.  Kevin gave us the super-peppy Dawson's Creek, and I mean…come on.  Some of the Vampire D...

The Bookanistas: MATCHED by Ally Condie

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This week on the Bookanistas, we've got:

Christine Fonseca: ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS

Jamie Harrington: THE DUFF

Shelli Johannes-Wells: HEX HALL and DEMON GLASS

Elana Johnson: PERSONAL DEMONS (Wednesday Edition)

Shannon Messenger: PARANORMALCY and a GIVEAWAY

Beth Revis: EAT, PRAY, LOVE

Lisa and Laura Roecker: CLEO THE CAT WHO MENDED A FAMILY

Scott Tracey: MATCHED

Carolina Valdez Miller: LOOKING AHEAD TO OCTOBER RELEASES

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What It's About:

Monday Morning Vlog & Randoms

Every Sunday night, I go to my parents house for a family dinner.  It's usually…interesting.  Colorful.  Potentially hazardous to your health.

And then there was last night, where my sister and I somehow started watching a marathon of Jersey Shore episodes.  Now, I've never actually watched the show (I know, what's wrong with me???) but I could not stop laughing.  It's so bad it's good, and then it's so good it goes back to bad again.  I totally admit, I am that person who would stop and...

Talking about First Lines

So this week, the YA Rebels talked all about opening lines.  One of the hard parts of doing a weekly vlog is the fact that I can usually fill up about 15 minutes on the topic before I finally stop talking.  And our videos have to be under 4 minutes.  This is an 11 minute deficit, people!

In my mind, there are a lot of different jobs that a first line can fill.  It can be thematic and tell you exactly what the book you're reading is going to be about.  It can punch you in the face with...

Free to be Five

I've been talking with a few friends about plot and things related to plot this week.  Actually, I feel like most of my conversations have touched on plot.  And I always feel weird talking about plot, because I might get stuck in a scene or a section now and then, but I almost never get completely stuck on the plot.  In our videos on structure this week, I talked a little bit about how thinking in terms of structures always seems to work for me, but another one is that when it comes to plot, ...