Lacey Louwagie's Blog, page 35

Writing Resolutions

It's that time of year again … the time to make writing resolutions. I almost always make New Year's resolutions related to my writing, and they've helped me grow as a writer over time. This year, I have one writing resolution: to submit something once a month. I'm feeling optimistic because I already know what I'm submitting for January — the manuscript I'm co-editing for a Catholic publisher is due on January 15.

I also made some writing "wishes" way back in July that I haven't given up on, either!

So far, my writing year has started out with a bang. In addition to the first phase of the Catholic manuscript project coming to a close, I found out today that a manuscript I edited for a private client has landed a publisher. I can't wait to hold the book in my hands this summer! (I'll let all of you know where to get it when it's available, too!) I picked up a new freelance client this week, and I also gave a presentation on "Building a Fantastical World" to three groups of 6-8 graders at today's Young Author's Conference. I attended this conference when I was a middle schooler myself, and I credit it for instilling in me the importance of writing every day (a goal I still strive for, and in striving for it, write a lot more than I would without it.) Although presenting to any age group is a little nerve-wracking to me, doing so always leaves me with a new energy, too. And I'll definitely need it for the year of writing ahead!

I also got another rejection for my YA novel today, which, believe it or not, actually made me feel good. It was the tangible proof that I'm attaining my goal of getting my writing *out there*; I'll cross another market off my list for now, and move on. There are plenty more where that came from! (markets, and rejections. )

Best of Book Lists: Where are the Women? And Where is the VARIETY?

One thing I'm constantly overwhelmed with as a librarian is the sheer number of books published every year — and how many of them I desperately want to read. And usually, that's just limiting myself to keeping up-to-date on what's being published for teens. So when various organizations for writers, readers, and the general public started publishing their "Best of 2011″ lists in November, I was excited to "broaden my horizons" and see what was happening outside of YA lit in the past year.

Except, if you take these books as your only indication, not a lot WAS happening.

SheWrites features an important post about how underrepresented women are on these "best of" lists. This is especially discouraging because women's brains are especially wired for language, which means we should excel as writers. And we do. But even in this field for which we are uniquely qualified, we're still asked to "dance backwards" as Meg Waite Clayton so aptly puts it.

But it wasn't just the absence of women that I found discouraging — it was the absence of VARIETY. I probably read about a dozen "top ten of 2011″ lists, and was probably exposed to a grand total of 25 books. Were these REALLY the only 25 books that deserved accolades in the past year? I doubt it. Were they the books that got the most promotion and publicity from their publishers? Probably. Are they the books that are displayed most prominently in brick-and-mortor bookstores and cluttering up the ad space on Goodreads? I suspect so. In other words, the uniformity of the "best of" lists from so many different outlets let me down in two ways. One was that I felt like the reviewers were lazy — "Hey, everyone says this book is good, we'd better review it too;" or "Let's read these books first because the publishers are really excited about them," rather than a true examination of the potentially "hidden gems" amongst everything that was published in 2011. The second was that I felt like these "best of" lists only served to give the books with the most exposure … more exposure. While these lists should be an opportunity for the highest quality books to shine — even if they may not most marketable —  it felt instead like just another popularity contest.

So that's why I'm interested in knowing what YOUR favorite books of 2011 were. No marketing machines, no one to impress, just your honest-to-goodness favorites. Please leave a comment to let me know, or make a post on your own blog if you have one. Below are my favorite 10 books from 2011 — although most of them were published prior to 2011 because, well, I'm about 4-20 years behind on my reading. In no particular order …

1. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood - This is Atwood's follow-up to Oryx and Crake, which is enriched by reading the first story but can stand alone without it. Although some may call me blasphemous for saying so, I prefer this volume.

2. Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert - This is Gilbert's follow-up to her phenomenally successful Eat, Pray, Love. Although it didn't receive as much attention, this is still a superior piece of non-fiction — part memoir, part examination of marriage, all fascinating.

3. The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech - "Peoples are strange!" This is a charming, beautiful book about an angel who's not sure what her purpose is. You'll love the angel's voice and her observations on life.

4. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - I end up reading many best-sellers even though I'm years behind the curve. I was particularly resistant to this one, but I loved Committed so much that I had to give it a try. It's one of the few books I've read that is worth the hype.

5. Emotionally Engaged by Alison Moir-Smith - I was frustrated to find tons of books on planning a wedding, but very few that addressed the emotional upheaval that accompanies this big life transition. Alison Moir-Smith's Emotionally Engaged finally fills that gap.

6. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived by Rob Bell - If you're tired of "being religious" being equated with "being judgmental," check out this book. I read it while at the bedside of my grandmother as we thought she was dying; but even outside that setting, this book has a message powerful enough to make me cry. (We won't go into how easily I cry these days — trust me, it really is powerful. And short!)

7. Boy Toy by Barry Lyga - The title makes people laugh, but it's hard to carry that laughter far into this book. A rare book that examines the sexual abuse of boys by women, and that does so in a heart-wrenching, sensitive, captivating way.

8. Class Action: The Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bigham and Laura Leedy Gansler - This was one of the books I was least excited to read this year. But I'm so glad that I did.

9. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - The sense of quiet isolation and unfulfilled longing in this subtle book really sticks with me.

10. I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusack - Markus Zusack is better known for The Book Thief, but this story is equally powerful — while being a whole lot less depressing.

NaNoWriMo: Why I'm Glad I Did It, and Why I'll Do It Again

It's hard for me to believe that it's been less than a week since NaNoWriMo ended. Although time always seems to speed by quickly, the days of having how I'd get my wordcount in on my mind every day feel far away now that that mentality is behind me. And although that might not sound pleasant, that is exactly what made me realize how much I love NaNoWriMo.

I was so resistant to participating this year, and for good reasons; and yes, some of my other priorities DID suffer (I'm still playing catch-up in my freelance email account). But it was such an important reminder of what it feels like to be a writer. NaNoWriMo keeps me conscious of my writing every single day. It forces me to make it a priority. It also gives people in my life for whom I usually "put writing aside" the opportunity to see what it really means to be a writer who writes. I took my writing everywhere–to Thanksgiving, to my fiance's house for the weekends I spent there, to Florida for a wedding (although I couldn't get the technology to cooperate enough for me to actually accomplish anything down there).

Because of this, and because there's just no time for writer's block, and because word count is the ONLY thing that really matters, NaNo ends up being a total immersion experience. It allows me to totally sink into the world of my writing in a way I haven't done since I was a teenager, and writing was my escape from a real world I wasn't all that thrilled about. I'm endlessly thankful that I'm much happier living in the "real world" these days — but I also appreciated the reminder of how rewarding building and inhabiting another world can be.

I am glad to be taking a break and back in the "real world" full-time again. But I'm already hoping to take the plunge again next year.

And Now I Get My Life Back

NaNoWriMo: On the Home Stretch

Well, in a few days, it will all be over. I'm down to having to write 1500 words a day to finish on time. I haven't written my 1500 words for today, but I will.

What I won't do is finish this novel; I think I've probably about hit the halfway point this month.

Since this is a "rewrite from scratch" of a previous novel, the main purpose of NaNo this year wasn't to create something new, but to see whether it was worth returning to something old — something very, very old. The first draft of this novel was the first novel I wrote, fifteen years ago.

About 45,000 words in, I'm still not sure whether this is a story that is worth revisiting. Last night I had the rather jarring realization that I think I've been going about this story all wrong. It's hard not to feel like all those words written so far were wasted — did I REALLY have to write nearly 50,000 words to realize I should have been doing it differently all along? (Although, if I'm going to be honest and count earlier incarnations of this story, it's really about 250,000 words later).

I'm still not sure whether I've answered the question I set out to answer–namely, whether this story is worth investing in outside of the frenzy of November. I know that after Wednesday, I'll put this novel away for a long time, as I focus on my other competing writing priorities. There is something about this novel that continues to haunt my psyche; in fact, I think it's something of a roadmap to my unconscious. Whether I ever do something "more" with this story or not, I have a feeling that even after November 30, I won't have seen the last of it.

NaNoWriMo: One Week Down, Three to Go

Well, the first week of NaNoWriMo is behind me. The first couple days, as I successfully wrote my target word count (about 1700), walked my dog, did some freelance work, made it to work on time, continued to plan my wedding, AND made progress on the anthology I'm editing, I thought, "Hey, nothing to this! I'm going to be just fine!"

By the end of the week, I remembered, "Oh yeah — I have to keep up this pace all month long."

So far, I've written at my kitchen table, on my couch, in a random library in South Dakota, at a coffee shop, at the library where I work, and at my fiance's half-finished house. This week, I plan to expand those locales to an airplane and a hotel room in Florida. I've fueled my writing with Powerbars, green tea, coffee, and Starbursts. And although I'm already exhausted, I'm grateful for the reminder NaNo gives me that, when there's a will, there's a way. There are so many excuses not to write, but in my performance-obsessed little finisher brain, during NaNo I make writing a priority and I find a way to make it work. No, I can't keep up this pace all year long. But what I can do is remember how I managed to steal half an hour here, twenty minutes there, to write. And hopefully, I will keep doing that. Because if nothing else, NaNo at least makes me feel like a real writer.

My intention was to be a little more relaxed about NaNo this year, but so far, that ain't really happening. I went to my first write-in last weekend, and found myself annoyed that most of the participants sat around talking about their novels instead of writing them (so I sequestered myself at the bar and kept driving toward that word count.) But I did have a virtual write-in with the friend who convinced me to do NaNo this year, and I exchanged several emails with another friend who is trying it for the first time. And since then, I've wondered if those folks who annoyed me at the coffee shop had something right. For a lot of people, NaNo is about the shared experience more than the word count. I've never been a social writer, but one thing I want to learn this November is to let go just a little bit. I've successfully been able to let go of the desire for perfection that keeps many people's word counts low, I've successfully been able to embrace the mantra of "quantity not quality." But next, I want to find a way to hold this "driven-ness" that overtakes me during NaNo a little more lightly, so that I might, once in a while, choose sitting around to chat over my word count. And so, at the end of it all, I can feel both accomplished and sane. A girl can dream!

NaNoWriMo, Here I Come!

Well, this is it — my last night to be free of the madness of NaNoWriMo. But I'm not really free of it because it's looming over me, less than four hours away. Of course, I won't roll up my sleeves and face it until tomorrow morning.

Luckily, I'm well prepared with a fantastic "NaNoWriMo Survival Kit" from my good friend Jenna, which includes such writing essentials as a reusable coffee mug, a pen and notepad, a stuffed "plot bunny" (so cute!), cozy socks, a timer, and of course, candy (and more, actually). My favorite items are the mug and the timer, which has a smiley face on it. I work well with a timer, and my whole plan for winning this thing is to keep writing for an hour every day, no questions asked (except maybe, "What happens next?") My own timer has been on the fritz for a long time, which means I might set it for an hour, not realize it stopped at 20 minutes, and end up three hours late for work (on the upside, think of what it might do for my wordcount!) Not only does this timer WORK (I checked), but it's a smiley face. So when it rings, I'll also get a, "Hey, you did it!" smile.

I've decided to write a "retelling" of the first novel I wrote when I was 15. But before you cry, "Cheat!", let me explain. A few years ago, my writers group talked about how the best way to revise a novel might be to write it over again from scratch. And I've thought often about returning to this novel, but I don't want to be "bogged down" by the fifteen-year-old self that first wrote it. So this seems like the perfect candidate for an absolute, ground-up makeover. So that's what I'm doing. No access to the original document, no glancing at my printouts from back then, nothing. If I don't remember how once incident connects with another, I'll have to make a new connection. I have a general idea about where this story will go, but I hope it might surprise me. I'm as nervous as I would be if I was writing something brand new.

Things I will not allow to suffer due to my fourth NaNo attempt: my work at the library, my wedding plans, the anthology I'm editing.

Things that may suffer: my dirty dishes and laundry, my sleep schedule, my exercise schedule, and my blogging.

You may not see me again soon! But I leave you with … a movie.

Here I Go … Again

All right, I've decided. I'm going to do it again. That is, NaNoWriMo. Here's why:

My good writing buddy and precious friend Jenna left me this very convincing comment (my decision has more to do with her eloquent understanding of NaNo's worth, not the bribe. Really.)
I decided that I should use NaNo as a "reward" to motivate me to get things as wrapped up as possible with the anthology I'm editing so that I can focus on writing in November, even with the anthology manuscript due in December. Luckily, my co-editor has been very supportive in my sudden determination to pick up the pace and has joined me.
I had an inspiring conversation with my younger sister that clarified how I could use NaNo as an opportunity to experiment with an idea that's been in the back of my head for a few years … and it's not the idea I thought I would be pursuing for this year's NaNo.
I realized I just need to get over my "Fear of Failure" already. Because every year that I haven't done NaNo, it's because I'm afraid I won't make that 50,000-word goal. It's hard, and it took its toll on me the last two times I attempted it (my first year NaNo-ing was deceptively easy). And you know what? Maybe I won't make it this year. But that's NOT a good enough reason not to start. If I participate, even if I don't make the goal, I'll still have accomplished more, whether it's 2,000 words or 20,000 or 50,000, than I would without it. So, take that, you perfectionist, overly-goal-oriented self.

Who's with me?

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It's That Time of Year … Already!

We're a mere two weeks away from the start of that mad frenzy that comes upon us writers every November, where even those of us who aren't participating can't help but wonder about the progress (and sanity) of those who are. That's right, my favorite writing challenge of all is about to begin: NaNoWriMo.

These days, it seems that everyone in the writing community has at least heard of NaNoWriMo even if they haven't yet summoned the fortitude to try it (what are you waiting for?). But in case you've somehow missed it, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, a yearly challenge to write a novel (or at least, 50,000 words of one) in one month. There are no prizes except for the satisfaction of having done it, but tens of thousands of writers and would-be writers find that reason enough.

If you're feeling especially ambitious and hope to write a novel in a month AND to keep up with a regular blog about your experiences with NaNo (I've tried this before, and it is NOT EASY), then the wonderful folks over at SheWrites want to hear from you. They're looking for this year's NaNoWriMo columnist.

As for me? I'm still on the fence. I really want to do NaNo this year because it seems significant that this will be my last year to do it while I'm single. On the other hand, I have a book manuscript due in December for an actual publisher, and I don't dare let that suffer while I create another pile of pages that won't find itself on anyone's bookshelf but my own for years, if ever. I have a wedding to plan. And I have money to earn and don't think I can afford the unpaid 2+ hours of writing required per day. Excuses, excuses! It may happen yet.

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Are You a Moocher or a Swapper?

Usually, I try to limit the communities I belong to online because of the Internet (and I love it) being sort of a wormhole. So even though there are a plethora of fascinating sites out there for booklovers, I limit myself to LibraryThing for inventory and Goodreads for reviews and sharing. So when I first read about BookMooch in The Cheapskate Next Door (which, if you're living on a writer's/editor's pay, should be just as important as your Chicago Manual of Style), I disregarded it. After all, I'm already a quite satisfied member of Paperbackswap. But when it was mentioned again in Writers Digest's 101 Best Sites for Writers, I decided to take a second look.

For those of you not familiar with these sites, the concept behind both of them is the same: you list books you're willing to part with on their system. If someone requests the book, you send it their way, and you pay the postage. In return, you earn a "credit," which you can then "spend" on any book listed in the system. Both sites allow you to keep wishlists, and both sites will email you if a book you're wishing for gets added to the system. So you can hold onto your credits as long as you'd like, until something you really want comes up.

Now, essentially, these books aren't "free" — they're the cost of postage, which is actually more expensive than most of the used books I buy (because I'm a frequenter of dirt-cheap, buffet-style library book sales). But to me, it's totally worth it because the system "watches" for the books I really want, and because I know my books are going to places where they'll be wanted and read and, most likely, kept in circulation.

So once I thought about it, I really couldn't see the downside of belonging to two of these sites. If my wishlist is posted in two places, it only increases my chances of getting the books I want — and likewise, my chances increase of finding good homes for the books with which I'm ready to part. So, I signed up for BookMooch. Before I did so, I sought comparisons of the two, and now I'm here to offer my own (after that long preamble).

Paperbackswap

Paperbackswap has a much more streamlined swapping process than Bookmooch, their site is easier to navigate, their search engine is faster, and their inventory is larger. It's also more "controlled" than Bookmooch; time limits are placed on when you must send a requested book out in order to receive credit for it, and you don't receive said credit until the person on the other end has that book in their hands. People who have items on their wishlist are "queued," and when an item they want comes into the library and it's their "turn," they have 48 hours to claim their wish before it's released to the reading public. As far as I know, all swapping happens within the U.S.

BookMooch

Although it has a lot of the same features as Paperbackswap, it feels "clunkier." Whereas Paperbackswap provides printable labels to facilitate the swapping process, BookMooch relies on individuals to address and package books themselves. And in general, there's less "hand-holding" on Bookmooch, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It relies more on an "honor" system — you get a credit as soon as you agree to send a book out, rather than when it arrives at its destination, meaning that you could potentially sit on a book for a LONG time or not send it out at all and still get the credit. However, Bookmooch does allow feedback, which may provide some incentive for people not to abuse the system. It also allows international swapping, with increased credits required (and earned) in international swaps. I really like this feature, especially since it's totally optional; you don't have to send books outside your country if you don't want to. You also get points for participation on the site. And moochers can share their points with one another (I got a point as a "thanks" for sending a book internationally, which was really nice!) or donate them to charitable causes. All of this leads to Bookmooch having a stronger "community" feel than Paperbackswap.

But the less streamlined process makes Bookmooch a little more frustrating to deal with, too. For me, the most frustrating aspects have been their slow search engine (which held true on several Internet connections, so it wasn't just my rural connection for once) and (here's the big one) their "first come, first serve" approach to the wishlist books. After racking up tons of points by sending several international books out my first week on the site, I was thrilled when a book I wanted finally came into the system. I opened the email two hours after it was sent and immediately went to the site to request the book … only to find that it had already been claimed. As far as I can tell, EVERYONE who has a book on their wishlist gets an email when it appears in the system, so the system clearly favors those who spend the most time online — something I try to limit in my own life.

So, if I had to choose one, I'd say that Paperbackswap is definitely my book swapping site of choice. As such, I'm going to list my books on Paperbackswap first and then add them to Bookmooch after a week to a month if they don't go. But I'm still quite happy to use both sites, and be glad that I actually don't have to choose. Happy swapping!