Sarah Allen's Blog, page 52

X is for XO for Free!!!

No, I'm not talking about hugs and kisses. Sorry.

I'm talking about my mini ebook, XO: From Turner Syndrome and Me . For the rest of this month, it is totes free. A collection of thoughts about what it really means to have one X chromosome that I hope you find relatable and enjoyable.

So there's that. Get a free copy before the month runs out.

Sarah Allen[image error]

W is for Wasting Time

It's all a waste of time.

Writing a novel that might never be published, that no one may ever read. Starting another one.

Jumping on my parents trampoline. Taking my seven year old sister on our usual date: movie, In'n'Out and a stint at Barnes and Noble with the only other person I know who wants to stay as long as I do.

Staying up until two, okay three in the morning, kettle corn and peach Fresca on my nightstand, catching up on Downton Abbey or Sherlock or Person of Interest because I Just. Have. To. Know. I have found myself alone in the middle of the night watching Vertigo or The Notebook, neither of which is probably a good idea for an alone at night movie. I cried. A waste of time.

Sitting at my window, late at night again, listening to John Coltrane and watching the moon and cars go by.

This blog post. Watching John Green YouTube videos. Playing on Pinterest.

Auditioning for plays I probably won't get cast in.

Watching Chopped with my mom until one in the morning. A bowl of fruity pebbles with my brothers before bed.

Looking for jobs. Aren't all jobs a waste of time? What about teaching at my old school? Coming in to the classroom at lunch where the little boy in the Cars sweatshirt shouts "Sarah bearah!" sounding more like "Thawa beewa!"

Who was the first to say time is a thing that can be wasted? If I watch Frasier and write never-published poetry while you go on dates or to business meetings does that make my time more wasted--less valuable--than yours?

That's the thing about it all. Eating churros and funnel cake while saving spots for Fantasmic on the cobblestone streets of Disneyland. Buying five-dollar movies at Walmart, watching the Biography channel documentaries of Johnny Depp and Andre the Giant. Reading novels.

It's all a waste of time.

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V is for Vlogging

So I feel like I've put up a lot of videos lately, and I apologize if that's annoying. But I'm going to do it again today, although I'll try and back off for the next few posts at least :)

Anyway, anybody else do a vlog? See, the thing is, YouTube has made video sharing incredibly easy. And if you look at site usage, YouTube is growing and growing in popularity, while blogging is on a downhill slope. I still love blogging and don't plan to change anything there, but in trying to do whatever I can to make a writing career, I figure one may as well use every tool available that we can. And YouTube is one of them, and besides, it's fun.

Besides big potential marketing power, it's also just fun to connect with people in this kind of visual, more personal way. Actually seeing their face and hearing them talk brings a whole new type of connection. One worth trying for, I think.

If you're looking for stellar examples of phenomenal YouTube vlogs, my first stop no question would definitely be Vlogbrothers by John and Hank Green. They are hilarious, generous, and incredibly, incredibly smart. Another vlog I would highly recommend is by Jackson A Pearce. She is also awesome and sweet and funny and smart.

With that, here's me doing what I can. My vlog is called Dear Muse, and I try to give tips and story ideas to get the muses back to work. If any of you are YouTubers, I would love to connect with you. (Subscribe/comment, hint hint!). Anyway, the latest installment of Dear Muse, more soon to come:
Hope you enjoy :)

Sarah Allen

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U is for Unspoken

I like to think of really great writing as words that successfully say what words can't say. I mean, when you think of poetry, it's saying things with words, but it's really saying so much more.

Here are some quotes whose words add up to so much more than the sum of their parts:

"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence." -George Elliot, Middlemarch

"Eventually all things merge into one and a river runs through it." Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

"Serve God, love me, and mend." William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing.

I think when language works as well as it does in these examples its meaning is too much for words, and so the words have to mean something more then themselves. I know its kind of abstract and convoluted, but does that make sense? It accesses something close to a Universal Truth that hits chord deep inside us, even when we can't comprehend the full meaning of the words in our heads.
How do you put something like this in words?

And here is one of the greatest scenes ever shown on television, all about the "unspoken." I mean, the words 'I love you' already carry such a complicated web of meaning, there is absolutely SO much that Niles is saying in just three words.

What do you think? Do you think writers can try to use words to say what words can't say, and how do we do it?
Sarah Allen[image error]

T is for timing and taking yourself seriously

Timing is sometimes a difficult beast to deal with. I keep thinking I've sort of figured things out and then I haven't. My life is pretty awesome, I'm not saying otherwise, but I sometimes feel like I've been working and working towards something for a long time and can't catch a break, and granted I have a lot of work still to do, and I'm going to do it and it's totally worth it, for sure, but sometimes it feels a lot like slogging and banging against brick walls, especially compared to friends and family my age who appear to be jumping ahead with their lives in easy leaps and bounds.

I'm not complaining. Even the people who I think are moving forward quickly have problems, and I wouldn't want what they have anyway. I have different goals, that takes a different kind of work and timing. The point is that everyone has their own timing, whatever their goals are, and trying to compare one life and it's timing to another is just ridiculous.

So I'm not going to lie and say that my little sister going on a mission and my other little sister getting married in the next little while doesn't have anything to do with feeling like I'm somehow comparatively behind. I know I just said comparing is ridiculous, and I know that in my head, but it's still hard not to do it sometimes, isn't it? And like I said, I don't want to go on a mission or marry the guy my sister is marrying (even though he's great), so it doesn't matter. I want different things, I am working for them, and they will come. I absolutely believe that, it's just hard to remember sometimes.

Even without the comparison thing, the other uncomfortable thing is trying to BE a writer without having a book out. BEING a writer is my Goal, the thing I'm working towards that will come eventually, and this is just a phase we all have to go through. But it's still kind of awkward trying to balance the desire to work towards and do as much as possible to create a writing career as soon as possible, and the discomfort of feeling like you're trying to push yourself onto people without anything really to push. It's all about creating friendships and relationships anyway, and everyone has their own story and things to say, but somehow I don't feel quite validated yet. I find myself wondering why people read this blog anyway when I'm just another wannabe not-yet-published writer.

The thing is, nobody is "just another." We're all unique. Everyone has their own story and things to say, we just have to let that show. I don't know if I can truly get rid of this not-yet-validated feeling short of getting published, but the key is to not let it stop me in any way. I have a very bad habit of talking down my writing and myself, because I'm scared of people thinking I'm some lame untalented wannabe, thinking something like, "Ok Sarah, you have fun living in your cardboard box with twenty cats writing terrible novels." But I have to have confidence in myself regardless of the mean voices in my head. If I take myself seriously, I will be taken seriously. Every dog has their day.

My life is pretty darn awesome, and I hope this isn't too ridiculously me whining about myself type of thing. I'm only trying to be honest here, and using myself as an example because I know for certain I'm not the only one who sometimes feels this way. That in fact a lot of people/everyone feels this way at some point. We feel like we're not quite grown into our superhero costume yet, we're scared of people laughing at us because maybe our muscles aren't fully grown. But they will be one day and the work will be worth it. That's all I'm trying to say here, for anyone who feels the same way. Because like C.S. Lewis said, "We read to know we're not alone."

Sarah Allen

S is for some awesome songs

So here are some awesome songs. That's pretty much all.

Ok, I'll stop now :)

Sarah Allen

R is for Robert Carlyle & Rumpelstiltskin

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So I'm not sure how many of you have heard of Robert Carlyle or watch the show Once Upon a Time.

He's basically brilliant.

Here's the thing. The show is pretty cool, the premise is intriguing and exciting. But really, it's not a fabulously well-done show. The writing sometimes gets pretty kitschy, honestly, and so does much of the acting. However, I am so totally emotionally invested enough in
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That's kind of what I want to talk about. We worry so much about having an interesting story and complex and well-executed sub-plots and brilliant settings and all that jazz, when really, all you need to bring in and hold a reader is a character they care about deeply. It's more than a given that I'll love anything with a pining lonely older man played by a fabulous actor, so there's Rumpelstiltskin for me. That's just my particular quirk, but any character the reader really cares about will keep them with you.

This isn't the first time this has happened. In fact, my experience with Once Upon a Time has some pretty strong correlations with my experience watching Lost. Very cool premise, but some pretty campy acting and even writing at some points. Lost is definitely the better show all around, in my opinion, but I still watched it for basically one reason. Rumpelstiltskin has become my new
[image error] Strangely, in a way I don't even understand myself and maybe you'll make fun of me for it, both very beautiful men.

Anyone else experienced something like this, not caring about the book/show in general but caring enough about one character you stick with it?

Sarah Allen

Q is for Query Letter

So I'm kind of cheating and posting my own query letter to get feedback from all y'all smart people, and I hope that's okay. I've posted a draft of this query before, but I got some really awesome comments last time and revamped it and thought, hey, Q day is the perfect day to try it again. So here goes. My query letter for The Keeper.

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl taken from this world to marry the prince of another. This is not her story.

George Shepherd is grizzly keeper at the local zoo, and, what’s much more difficult, guardian of his sixteen year old niece. After seven years he believes he’s finally balanced the muddy claws, curfew fights and a past mistake he doesn’t ever expect to escape. 

Then a little boy shows up claiming that on Cindy’s seventeenth birthday, she will be taken as a princess by the prince of another world. This is easily dismissed. He takes the boy home, hoping Cindy didn’t hear anything.

His anxiety levels return to normal until things start turning up that can only be construed as evidence: symbols Cindy shouldn’t know, dreams she shouldn’t have. An impossible painting and an even more impossible letter, all corroborating the boy’s story, the threat that Cindy might actually be taken from him. And someone else, someone much more dangerous and real than the mysterious fairy-tale prince, wants in. With the help of Cindy’s former teacher, he knows he must do whatever it takes to protect Cindy from dreams that come true, even when it means confronting his own real life night-mares. 

Part fairy-tale, part mid-life crisis, the true heart of this story is the exploration of what keeps us going when we lose it all, and the fine line between holding on for dear life and just letting go."

Ok, there you have it. Thoughts?
The scary thing about query letters is that so much depends on them. They have to be as well crafted if not more so than the novel itself, and I want to get the novel and the query as perfect as possible before I start trying to put my fate in the publishing industry's hands. 
What tips have you heard about query letters? If you're working on your own query right now, how's it coming?
Sarah Allen

P is for people, because we're awesome.

I had a plethora of P words I couldn't choose between today. Pinterest, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Pandora, pancakes...lots of options.

But I want to talk about people, and the reason I got into writing in the first place. I love it for both writing fictional people and connecting to real life people. When you write a character you are putting a bit of yourself onto the page, making yourself vulnerable. All characters come from a part of you. Then when other people read that writing and connect with that character, in a way they are connecting with you.

I love the idea of writing a hugely wide variety of characters. That involves reading a ton and researching and imaging, but it also involves meeting a wide variety of people. Writers are notoriously bad at this, myself included. But I really want to be better at it, at being social and doing things and meeting people.

We meet people at work and school, but where else? Perhaps its easiest to start in familiar environments, and I know libraries and local Barnes and Nobles have readings or lectures or signings to go to. I also have a lot of fun meeting people by doing plays. Other then that though, I'm not very good. Other ideas? Friends of friends? Parties? Clubs? Improv groups? Karaoke night?

As for characters, here are some pictures from my Pinterest character board that may spark your imagination:
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Have fun :)
Sarah

O is for Originality

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." -C. S. Lewis
As usual, our good friend C. S. Lewis has the answer to everything. We all worry so much about being original and standing out, when really worrying about it is the last thing we should do.
Really we just need to live and tell the truth of our experience. We need to be utterly honest with ourselves, even when its scary and vulnerable, and that's when people can connect with us and when we become original. Because all of us are already. Original, I mean. We're us like nobody else is. It's when we try to be something not us that we lose that originality.
This has been interesting to think about as I try and brainstorm my next idea. The way it happened last time was that no matter what I did, I had this character in my head that had to get out, and had to get their experience and perspective told. It's happening that way again, except this time with a seventeen year old redhead girl instead of a burly forty year old man. She has something to say, something I need to say, and kind of the only thing I can say right now. So I'm going to write her story and say it, whether its been said before or not. Then next time I'll say whatever the next character in my head needs to say. Hopefully originality will happen in the process.
Do you agree with our friend Lewis? What makes you original?
Sarah Allen(Photo Source)