Michelle McLean's Blog, page 34

You Tell Me...

My mom gave me a little book called You Know You're a Writer When... by Adair Lara. It's HILARIOUS :D Quite a few of the entries will be making appearances in my Friday Funnies :D There was one that got me curious.

If you're not writing, you do something crazy, such as invest in uranium or weave a room-sized tapestry.
I do get into some odd projects sometimes when I'm not writing. I usually go for cross-stitching :D

Tell me - What do you do when you aren't writing?

Blog Chain - The Positive Side of Things

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I totally flaked on this round of the blog chain -  I was supposed to post several days ago. My sincere apologies for my extreme tardiness!!!!

This round's topic was chosen by the lovely Michelle Hickman. The topic:

Be positive! Name some of the positive aspects of your writing --- be it a compliment from a mentor, friend or crit partner to anything special you learned concerning your writing skills.
I love this topic. Sure, there can be a lot of down sides to writing...rejections, a messy house, a backside that spends more time in a chair than is healthy for it ;-)

But the positive sooo outweighs the negative. Here are a few of mine:

the sense of accomplishment I feel when I finish a project. There really is nothing like it.the amazing people I have met along the way. My closest friends now are writers. It is beyond wonderful to have people in my life who GET me, who know how I tick because they are hardwired the same way. My life has become so much richer, more full since I've met my writer friends. I don't know how I ever got along without them.I've always always written stories and been good at essays, etc. But my skills increase with every word I write. It's gratifying to see how far I've come. There is nothing like developing a talent that you love. I've always had a little fantasy world going on in my head - and writing allows me to experience all those wonderful stories in a new way. Writing makes my stories come alive and allows me to share them with others. I sleep better when I'm writing. Yeah, I'm still somewhat of an insomniac. My brain has the hardest time calming down enough to let me sleep. But when I'm writing, it's not so bad. I have an outlet.There is nothing like the high I get when I'm in super creative writing mode. It really is like a drug for me. I'm giddy, happy, in love with life and the world. Just talking about it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy :) It's my absolute favorite subject :) There is nothing like being able to do what you love.How about you? What are some of the positive aspects that writing brings to your world?

Be sure to check out our amazing Mr. Eric's response and head over to awesome Shaun Hutchinson's to see his positive side of things :)

All 4 Alabama Tornado Relief Auction

Hey guys! My book, Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers, will be going up for auction at 1 pm CST today. It's a great book for students, perfect for a back to school present for the fall, or for anyone stuck in an English class this summer :) And it's for a good cause.

Head on over and check it out - there are TONS of other awesome items up for bid as well (including a signed copy of my new picture book, A Magical World) :D

Friday Funnies

An artist is his own fault.— John O'Hara


Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. — Robert Heinlein

Project Finish Line Celebration Michelle-style :D

So, the book is done, out with a few readers for the very last time, what ever am I going to do? :D

Well, work on another project of course LOL But, I get to play a bit first. There are two traditions I started a couple years ago when it comes to finishing a book.

1. I buy a piece or have a custom piece of jewelry made by my awesome and talented friend Bonny Anderson (here is a link to her FaceBook page - she makes GORGEOUS jewelry!)

2. There is really nothing quite like holding your book in your hands....even if it's not completely "real". And thanks to the wonderful world of self-publishing, I can do that, just for fun.

Whenever I finish a book, as in finished finished, there is nothing else I can think to do to it (which has only happened a couple times), I head on over to Lulu and print up a copy. I don't put it up for sale or even list it anywhere. I keep it completely private. This is something I do just for me.

I have a blast putting together a cover and getting everything formatted and then I order a copy for my very own shelves. It's handy to have when friends or family members want to read my latest creation. I can loan that out instead of emailing them a big old file. And it's also extremely handy for spotting mistakes. For some reason it's just easier to see them in book form, even more so than when I just print it out and put it in a binder.

So...while I will be diving back into picture book country next week, for the rest of this week, I'm going to prepare another book for my personal shelf. It just makes finishing the project that much more fun - I get to see my book as a BOOK, even if it never makes it past my front door :)

How do you celebrate when you finish a project?

How I Write a Synopsis

Well, I am just about finished with my final read through. Which means my thoughts have turned to less fun things (at least for me). The synopsis. I despise writing these. I might not even need one, but I like to be on the safe side and figured I might as well just get it over with, just in case :)

When I write a synopsis, I start out by writing chapter abstracts. Basically, I take each chapter and write a 1-3 line blurb about what happens in that chapter. Then, I combine them. I take out the chapter headings and mash all the blurbs together. And I have a rough draft synopsis.

I go through, clean it up, edit things out, reword to make it more exciting/more cohesive/just plain better. I add or subtract depending on the length I'm going for, and I beef up the most important plot points.

And I'm usually left with a pretty decent synopsis.

How do you go about writing these annoying little necessities? :)

**Also!!! I've donated copies of my new picture book, A Magical World, and Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers for the tornado disaster relief auction site All 4 Alabama. A Magical World goes up at 1 CST today. Please come over and check it out. It's for a great cause and there are tons of awesome things to bid on!!**

You Tell Me...

Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.~ Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh
I think this is true, at least in part, of me. There is a lot of me in my work. Experiences I've lived through. Emotions I've felt. Some of my hopes, dreams, characteristics, traits I wish I have, traits I wish I didn't have, and all sorts of other things get peppered into my characters and stories. 
How much of you is in your work? Are your works portraits of yourself in any way?

When to Break It

Well, the exciting thing in my neck of the woods this morning? I FINISHED MY BOOK!!!

Holy moly, I'm so beyond ecstatic I can't even tell ya :D Although by "done" I mean I need to read through it once more, send it out to a few people, and then incorporate whatever last minute edits they give me, but still....DONE :D

Now, when I write and edit, I do it by scene, not chapter. I find it easier to rewrite and rearrange that way. So when I finished last night, I went back through and pieced everything together into one file and assigned chapter numbers. Most of the scenes end up being their own chapters, but there were several I combined.

I ran into a few that I just didn't know what to do with. I had broken them where I did because I liked the cliffhanger that was created. But leaving them left me with several very short chapters. For the most part, I don't worry about chapter length...I try to keep them around 10 pages a piece but if they go longer or shorter (even very much shorter) I don't sweat it too much.

However, there were a couple where the only reason I had cut them was for the cliffhanger...and having a two page chapter just so I could have a specific cliffhanger didn't seem like a good enough reason to have that short of a chapter in a couple instances.

So it got me curious. How do you decided when to add a chapter break? There are the obvious reasons, of course - POV change, different scene/setting/situation, etc. But aside from that, if you are in the same scene, the same setting, the same POV, how do you decided when it would be good to stick a chapter break in?

Blogger Gone Wild

Okay, I know everyone had issues with Blogger yesterday...crazy. Just noticed that it erased my post and all the comments from Thursday and then reposted it today. *shrugs*

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! :)

Friday the 13th Funnies :)

Happy Friday the 13th! Today wouldn't be complete without a few black cats and a funny that had me laughing till I cried :D Have a good weekend everyone!