Katie Ganshert's Blog, page 34
January 22, 2012
Formulaic Writing: When Craft Books Hinder
A few summers ago, I spent three months devouring every craft book known to man. You name it, I read it. I gobbled up the words of Donald Maass, James Scott Bell, and Dwight Swain like a malnourished turkey.
I have no doubt it made me a better writer.
I have no doubt that without those books and the ginormous learning curve that came with them, I wouldn't be where I am today.
I highly recommend craft books to writers. In fact, I recommend several on my writing page.
With that said, can there be ...
January 19, 2012
Ode to the Crush
When my brother was a freshman in high school, he was on the varsity wrestling team. Which meant we had a group of upperclassman boys who would come over and hang out at our house. I was in seventh grade at the time and I had a gigantic crush on this senior named Troy Skogland. He made me swoon. I'm pretty sure he knew.
First, because I got all googly-eyed whenever he was around. And second, my brother might have told him.
Anyway, I was going through an origami phase at the time. Troy would...
January 17, 2012
Questions People Ask
Ever since announcing our adoption to friends, family, and acquaintances, we've fielded lots and lots of questions. Questions I think most adoptive parents face at one point or another. I thought it might be fun to answer them here.
Why the Congo?
Because the situation is desperate. Heart-breakingly desperate. And as my friend Kristin Reickard likes to say, we can't unlearn the things we've seen and read while we researched our options.
Almost always, this question is asked out of curiosity...
January 15, 2012
Knowing When to Finish
How do we know when it's time to ditch a story and when it's time to rewrite it?
That is the question.
A very important one, I might add. Since it involves months and months of a precious little commodity called time.
After my year-long adventure in tearing apart and restructuring my current WIP, I am convinced that rewriting a novel takes much longer than writing one.
It's like putting together a very intricate puzzle while pulling from a pile of two puzzle piece sets. And to make it extra...
January 12, 2012
Age and Romance
Boy meets girl.
Boy chases girl.
Boy gets girl.
Or switch the boy and girl, if you so please.
It's a common plot for many a romance.
What's not common is the age of the boy and the girl.
We've got Twilight, where the boy and the girl are in high school. (Granted, the boy is actually incredibly old…but let's put that aside for the moment.)
We've got Remember Me, where the boy and the girl are somewhere in their 20s.
We've got my most recent (and wonderful) read, When Sparrows Fall by Meg Moseley...
January 10, 2012
We Are What We Embrace
Jealousy.
Joy.
Two conflicting emotions that often come hand-in-hand.
For the unagented writer who finds out her blogging friend just got "The Call".
Joy. Jealousy.
For the unpublished novelist who finds out his agency mate signed a three-book contract.
Joy. Jealousy.
For the struggling author whose debut buddy made the best-seller list for the third time in a month.
Joy. Jealousy.
The Joy-Jealousy war is not exclusive to writers.
It seeps into many a heart.
Like the older sister who's been trying to...
January 8, 2012
First Novels
When it comes to publication, the love of storytelling must come first. If you are in this for the fame or the money or the glory or the status, then you're in for a rude awakening.
We write because something in us longs for it.
Yet you don't hear of many novelists who pen a story, stick it in a drawer, and get to work on penning another. Most of us desire publication.
Why is that? Why do those of us who write books so often aspire to publish them?
I think the answer is simple.
That story we ...
January 5, 2012
Unlikable Characters
The whole talking head vlog thing is starting to weird me out. It's like The Office, only The Office is hilarious. How do I not be a talking head? Any suggestions?
Anyway, today we're talking about unlikable characters. I'm super excited to see where this conversation goes!
If you'd like to see more of my videos, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Let's Talk: Have you ever read a book where the protagonist was unlikable, but you kept reading? I can think of at least three or four others...
January 3, 2012
The Beauty of Being Naive
I think I'm naive.
Not about everything. But about some things.
For instance.
When I tell people we're going to adopt from the Congo, which is by and large a pilot program for many adoption agencies. The response I get usually goes something like this:
The Congo? Wow! That's a pilot program, right? That's pretty brave of you guys. Isn't there a travel advisory for the Congo? Isn't it dangerous?
To which my response usually goes something like this:
Brave? Pilot program? Travel advisory? Um….
And t...
January 1, 2012
Another Year, Another Word
I love reflecting on the old year. I love anticipating the new. And my favorite way to do this is with two words.
One that summarizes the old. One that predicts the new.
I started doing this two years ago after being inspired by fellow blogger Tamika Eason.
If you want, you can read my 2010 New Year's Post and my 2011 New Year's Post.
Here's a brief recap:
2009′s word: Growth
I grew a lot. As a believer and as a writer.
2010′s word: Surrender
I learned what it means to surrender my dreams to Him a...
