Michelle McLean's Blog, page 46

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Well, the year is drawing to a close and I'm very happy to say that I've just about reached my 52 books in 52 weeks goal. I never think it'll be a problem to read 52 books in a year....that's only one a week. Yet somehow, it always becomes a challenge. Of course, part of the reason is because I'm only counting new books, not the many well beloved books I reread through out the year.

I've noticed that I tend to go in spurts. I'll have several weeks, even months, where I won't read a new book, or even an old one, at all. Life gets in the way, a wonderful burst of writing productivity hits (I rarely read when really immersed in a WIP), deadlines hang over my head, children need attention, and that darn laundry ALWAYS needs folding. But then, I'll have a week or so where I read book after book after book, devouring them with every waking moment.

As long as I get them in, I'm happy. I've reached 50. I need just two more books....and I have about three more weeks in which to get them read. I know I'll be getting a bunch of new books for Christmas...but that won't give me much time to read by the end of the year. So, I think I'll have to browse a bookshelf or two and get in my quota for the year :) (Check out my list on my sidebar if you want to see the new books I've read this year. I loved them all!!)

Did any of you participate in this challenge (or one like it) this year? Did you meet your goal? What's the best book you've read this year?

Epic Contest of Awesome

Beth Revis is having an absolutely epic (and I don't use that word lightly!) contest. With not one, not two, but 99 prizes available in addition to an incredible grand prize. If you haven't entered yet, head over there now!!

Friday Funnies

If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing. ~ Kingsley Amis 


You really ought to read more books — you know, those things that look like blocks but come apart on one side. — F Scott Fitzgerald 


I don't take drugs, I take books. — Ingeborg Bachmann, Malina

A Writer's Christmas

So my husband and I were sitting at the table the other day discussing what to get the kids, and each other, for Christmas this year. I usually just get my own presents and pretend I'm all surprised :) but this year I'm making him get me something (aren't I mean? Mwahaha) I told him I already had his present picked out. He said he had no idea what to get me.

I'm confused by this.

Aside from the fact that we've been married almost 10 years, I'm a writer. I'm not that hard to figure out. I'd be giddy over a few spiral notebooks and a new pack of pens. Especially if there was a cute stack of designer PostIts on top. (I heart me some stationary!) Sure, there are some "harder to figure out" gifts I'd really enjoy like a few new computer programs or maybe some new CDs for my playlist.

But really, if you are ever in doubt about what to get a writer, you can resort to the always popular gift card to your local bookstore. I go after new books the way our cat goes after cat nip. Want to make me really happy? Get me a huge gift card to the bookstore and a new bookshelf to put all my shiny new pretties on....and a pile of new stationary 'cause like I said, that stuff is ALWAYS fun :)

What is your ideal Christmas gift? What do you think the perfect writer gift would be?

p.s. thanks for all the "warm" wishes :) The heater is still out (we've dropped a few more degrees so I am REALLY hoping the heater parts come in SOON) but we are really doing okay. It's toasty warm upstairs in the bedrooms with the doors closed and the space heaters going full blast, so we've just been hanging out up there. My real whine is because my laptop is dead until my new charger gets here (hopefully today!) so, since the main computer is downstairs and it's too cold to work down there, I'm not getting anything productive done. Except laundry. But, you know, I'd rather be writing LOL

Fingers Frozen...Can't Type

Happy Wednesday morning everyone :) I really just popped in real quick to say that I'm just popping in LOL Our heater finally quit over the weekend and while the landlord sent someone out, they have to special order parts. Which means, it's 45 degrees in here and my fingers are seriously too cold to type LOL

The new charger for my laptop should be here today (frozen fingers crossed) so I'll be able to take it to my room where it is actually fairly warm as the space heater is able to completely heat the smaller space.

So for today, let me just wish everyone a happy, productive, and warm middle of the week :) I'm going to go hide under some blankets now :D

Tutor Tuesday - Settings

Whether you are creating your own settings while writing fiction or analyzing settings while writing non-fiction, this story element is an extremely important part of the equation.

Let's look at non-fiction first. You have to analyze a story for an essay and you decide to look at the settings of your piece. Some stories have more pronounced settings than others. In some books, the setting is more of a subtle background, the stage on which the actors play, while in others, the setting is almost a character in and of itself.

Say you are asked to write a literary analysis of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Some questions you may want to consider when analyzing the setting of this book are:

* What is the time period? Would this story have worked better set in a different time?
* What is the location? Would the story have worked better elsewhere? Are several locations used in the story? Do they work? Would a specific scene have worked better in another setting? If all the scenes are set in the same location, would the story have worked better set in several different locations?
* What season is the story set in? If it is set in winter, would it be better set in summer? Does the season echo what is happening in the story? (example: Do the love scenes occur in the summer while the trial occurs in the winter, or vice versa?)
* What time of day is it when important events in the story take place? Do the sinister things happen at night while the happy things happen during the day? Why do you think this is?

While the setting may seem like a simple part of the story, it can actually have a huge impact on what is going on. The events detailed in The Scarlet Letter either wouldn't have happened or would have happened in a very different way with a very different outcome if the story had been set someplace like the farthest frontier outpost or an indian village or in the southern states...even during the same time period.

The setting of a story, not just the physical location but everything about it (time of day, season, outside (forest or beach) or inside (and what type of building if inside)) can greatly impact the success of a story. Thoroughly exploring this literary tool can be a great start to your literary analysis.

For fiction, you can ask yourself these same questions as you are creating your settings. Are you creating the best setting for your story? Would it work better somewhere or some time else? Are you giving enough detail for the reader to see the setting without going overboard?

This one can be important. In the first draft of my first novel I described my character pulling up to her home and spent 4 PAGES describing in minute detail every nook and cranny of the house. And I did that several times throughout the book. I was convinced if I didn't give the reader all that description, they wouldn't be able to see the location.

But you know, readers have great imaginations. Give them enough to get them grounded, to let them know what your world looks like, without drowning them in pages of description that they'll never read. I generally start skimming if there is more than a paragraph of description, no matter how beautifully written. Chances are, your readers will too :)

What is your opinion on settings? Do you like long, descriptive passages that describe every detail, or do you like to set things up in your own imagination? What is your favorite literary setting?

Would you Die?

I was going through some of my favorite quotes last night and came across one that said something about how you should only write if you would die if you couldn't. And another one which said something along the lines of "If I only had six minutes to live, I wouldn't stress...I'd just type faster." Or something like that.

Which got me to thinking, would I die if I couldn't write?

Honestly, no, I wouldn't die. And I wouldn't spend my last few minutes on Earth writing either.

But then, I thought about something else that we've talked about before. We discussed on several occasions how even when we aren't writing, we are still writing. Story ideas and scenes and dialogue and characters and settings and everything that goes into our stories continually swirl through our brains whether we are committing all those things to paper or not.

So no. I wouldn't die if I couldn't put my thoughts on paper. But I don't think it would be even remotely possible to shut of my internal writer. It's just part of me. It's how I see the world. There is always an internal monologue in my head, always. Have you ever scene The Holiday (Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black)? You know how Amanda (Cameron's character) is always hearing those voice overs (she makes movie trailers and keeps hearing these voice overs describing her life). That is EXACTLY how it works with me. I'll think about a scene or see something in real life that sparks a thought, and it's like watching a movie scene in my head...sometimes with narrator and sound track playing in the background. :D

I'd never stop thinking about writing everything down, but I'd survive, I think, if I couldn't. But for the rest...no, that's a part of the unique pile of quirkiness that is me :)


How about you? Would you die if you couldn't write?

Blog Chain - Tales of Totally Random Awesomeness

[image error]

All right, my blog chain lovelies :) For our last blog chain of the year, I get the honor of picking the topic. So I thought we'd have a little fun :D Her Royal Sharkness Janet Reid often runs fun little contests in which she'll list 6 totally random words that entrants must form into 100 words or less stories. I've participated. I've enjoyed. Now I want to see what you guys can come up with :)

Soooo, thanks to my husband's awesome flip-through-the-dictionary-randomly-stopping-and-blindly-pointing-to-a-word technique, here is your task:

In 100 words or less, write a story using the words ride, post, soulless, local, dehydrator, girdle. Your story may take on any form you wish. The only two rules are 1. you can't simply list the 6 words; you must actually craft them into something creative, and 2. you must use ALL six of them.

Have fun :D Be sure to stop by Shaun's blog tomorrow to see what he comes up with! In the meantime, here is mine :)


The soulless girdle squeezed the life out of me. Every breath a fresh tidal wave of pain. But I looked good. The local boys wouldn't know what to do with themselves. I twitched, paranoid my ridiculous undergarments would ride someplace unfortunate. I sighed. I'd never be one of those girls on the cover of the magazines, the ones that looked like they'd had one too many run-ins with a dehydrator. But I had curves no stick-post runway model would ever have. I gave my dress a final tug and stepped into the flash of camera lights. Show time. (98 words) :D

Friday Funnies

Best rejection letter E.V.E.R. :
We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper, it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity. — rejection slips from a Chinese economic journal 


Lightning does occasionally strike and occasionally the result isn't a corpse. — Tillie Olsen on publication 


The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps. — Robert Benchley

Having a Good Day :)

Why, you ask? Well, despite the fact that my heater is once again not functioning (the pipes are probably frozen again so hopefully by this afternoon they'll thaw enough for it to kick on) and the fact that my kids are home due to flooded roads all over town (they were back to school for a whopping 1 day after a very long Thanksgiving vacation) I am STILL having a good day because....

MY BOOK IS BEING PRINTED AS WE SPEAK!!! Or...as I type LOL AND I also got to look over my full cover (front, back, and spine) for final approval yesterday. Just TOO cool :)

Ooooo, AND there are two incredible blurbs on the back cover of my book - one by the lovely and wonderful Suzanne Palmieri, and the other by my very dear friend/crit partner/agent sista Christine Fonseca. How cool is that!!!?

So, despite the minor set backs of the day, still:


How is everyone else doing on this fine Thursday?