Archives
Posted by Justine at 16:45, April 6th, 2009 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Writing life |
I've been writing stories since I first learned how to write a sentence. But I did not become a full-time writer until 1 April 2003. ((Wow, this is my sixth anniversary. How bizarre.)) In those many many years before I became a full-time writer I wrote in between doing other things. In between going to primary school, high school, university, and my various jobs. I'd always have at least two documents open when I was at uni. One was the essay I was supposed to be writing and the other was the story or novel I was writing on the sly. When the going got tough with one I'd switch to the other. Writing was something that I snatched time ...
Posted by Justine at 0:12, April 1st, 2009 under Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:26, March 22nd, 2009 under New York City/USA, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 10:41, March 18th, 2009 under Writing life |
Because a good writing day is better than all the mangosteens in the world. Because a good writing day wipes the memory of all those bad writing days entirely. Because I love it.
Posted by Justine at 1:23, March 7th, 2009 under Mangosteens, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:59, February 27th, 2009 under Bloggery, Frippery, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:14, February 17th, 2009 under Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 16:56, February 16th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Whingeing, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:05, February 13th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Publishing business, Sydney/Australia, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:16, February 11th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Reading, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:35, February 1st, 2009 under Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, State of the World, Writing life |
Yup, it's my annual what-I-did-this-year skiting post. I write these mostly for myself so I can easily keep track. Hence the
last day of the year category. Thus you are absolutely free to skip it. ((I would if I were you.))
This year was exceptional. I'm still pinching myself. My first Bloomsbury USA book, How To Ditch Your Fairy, was published and seems to be doing well. I was sent on my first book tour, which was fabulous. It's insane how much fun I had and how many fabulous schools, book shops and libraries I visited in California, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Thank you to everyone who came to see me while I was on the ...
Posted by Justine at 0:20, December 31st, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Book tour, First Kiss, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Last Day of the Year, Love is Hell, New York City/USA, Sport, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Vainglory, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:06, December 18th, 2008 under Bloggery, Book tour, Publishing business, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:25, December 14th, 2008 under Bloggery, Fans & readers, Praising, Ranting, Writing life |
Taking up blogging is one of the least effective things you can do to promote your book.
There, I've said it.
Don't take up blogging cause your publisher says you should. Or because of John Scalzi. Yes, he's sold tonnes of books and gotten heaps of fans because of his blog. He is the exception. Very few writers who blog have thirty thousand plus hits a day.
Scalzi's been blogging for more than a decade. Ten years ago he had maybe a few hundred people a day reading
Whatever. It took him years of consistently good and frequent blogging to build that audience. ((And all those other authors with insanely popular blogs? Most of them were already popular---like, say, Meg Cabot---before they ...
Posted by Justine at 0:59, December 13th, 2008 under Bloggery, Writing life |
One more thing that I think some wannabe published writers don't understand. Being a professional writer means having homework ALL THE TIME. (Thanks to Jennifer for
pointing this out.) And when your homework comes back covered in red you have to do it over. Sometimes you have to do it over multiple times. And then your homework gets checked again by several other people (copyeditor, proofreader) and then you have to look at it again.
It's like the worst homework ever. Homework that NEVER EVER ENDS.
I'm just saying . . .
Posted by Justine at 0:28, December 9th, 2008 under Bloggery, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
A large part of being a writer---whether you're published or not---is working to improve, to perfect your craft. One of the biggest obstacles for many beginning writers doing that is that they sometimes get so obsessed with getting published that they forget about the writing.
It took me twenty years of striving to make my first professional fiction sale. I know how you feel---I felt it. I was desperate to get published and that's part of why it took me so long. I kept getting distracted from perfecting my craft. From writing and writing and writing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. From reading and studying the best (and worst) writers I could. I was more obsessed with seeing my name ...
Posted by Justine at 0:10, December 8th, 2008 under Ranting, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 13:44, December 7th, 2008 under Bloggery, Ranting, State of the World, Writing life |
I have decided that I will do all future signings my way and ignore Scott's advice entirely. The only people who can tell me to hurry up when signing is whoever is running it. So there, Scott!
I hasten to add that crazy long signings are not a regular occurrence for me. They pretty much only happen at places like
NCTE or
TLA or on school visits. If I had lines like Scott gets routinely I would probably study how he gets through a line speedily while also managing to chat to those he's signing for. He is a master. He does in fifteen seconds what takes me a minute. ((This could be because he's a USian and I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 17:28, November 26th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, New York City/USA, Praising, Sydney/Australia, Writing life |
Scott and me are having a wee bit of an argument. He thinks I sign too slow on account of I like to chat to everyone and make my dedication as personal as possible. He thinks that's fine with a very short queue but when the line is long you owe it to the people standing in line waiting to go as fast as possible.
The argument arose because I had a big line at NCTE ((National Council of Teachers of English)) on account of the lovely
Professor Nana talked very enthusiastically about How To Ditch Your Fairy. Bless you!
In my defense
Where I was sitting I couldn't see the queue so I didn't know how long it was.
English ...
Posted by Justine at 0:37, November 25th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers, Scott's books, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, November 13th, 2008 under Ranting, Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 15:46, November 9th, 2008 under 1930s NYC novel, Bloggery, Excuses, Fans & readers, Liar, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 1:00, November 4th, 2008 under Excuses, Liar, New York City/USA, State of the World, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 7:50, October 31st, 2008 under Liar, New York City/USA, State of the World, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 28th, 2008 under Liar, Whingeing, Writing life, Zombies |
Riddle me this:
Why do I so often think that a dream sequence will solve my plot problems when as a reader I hate dream sequences?
Gah!
Yeah, I just deleted the dream sequence.
Posted by Justine at 12:23, October 26th, 2008 under Liar, Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 21st, 2008 under Book tour, Publishing business, State of the World, Writing life |
I finally figured out why I always often get into mega fights disagreements with my copyeditors.
Eureka!
Thus far all my novels have been in first person or limited third. I view these as the colloquial points of view and write them to mimic the character's speaking voice as much as possible. That way, if I do it right, the reader will feel like the protag is talking to them because the language I use is conversational.
And there I fall into arguments with many copyeditors (not all of them---certainly not YOU). They wants everything to be gramatically correct and conform to house style. I wants for it to be colloquial, flowing, rhythmic language. Sometimes that means flouting conventional grammar rules and house ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 14th, 2008 under Words & Language, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 13th, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Ideas, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 8:58, October 6th, 2008 under Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 23rd, 2008 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, September 4th, 2008 under Bloggery, Ranting, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:47, August 30th, 2008 under Fans & readers, Sport, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 19:23, August 12th, 2008 under Liar, Words & Language, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 1:21, August 3rd, 2008 under Fans & readers, Liar, Reading, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 12:40, July 22nd, 2008 under Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:32, July 22nd, 2008 under Ranting, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 8:39, July 19th, 2008 under Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 12:57, July 16th, 2008 under Bloggery, Liar, Ranting, Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 12:27, July 11th, 2008 under Publishing business, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:04, July 8th, 2008 under Liar, Whingeing, Writing life |
This is going to be a bit mutual linky-linky. (("You're fabulous!" "No, you're fabulous!" While those watching gag.)) Maureen Johnson linked to
my quick little whinge about writing sometimes being hard before going into more detail about the sometime
not fun-ness of it. And now I am linking to her. Quoting her even:
When writing goes well, it feels magical . . . but there is no magic to it. Writing goes well because you have done some work. You have spent MANY MANY MANY HOURS sitting at your desk, written pages and pages and pages of useless crap, read piles of books, done a lot more wrong than you have right, questioned your sanity and talent . . ...
Posted by Justine at 13:24, July 7th, 2008 under Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 15:24, July 3rd, 2008 under Liar, Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 14:18, July 2nd, 2008 under Praising, Publishing business, Reading, Sport, Travelling, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 10:56, June 29th, 2008 under Liar, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 9:00, June 18th, 2008 under Writing life |
Often when people find out what I do it turns out that they harbour ambitions of writing a novel too. Mostly they just daydream about it. But sometimes they confess that they've had a whack at it but not very successfully. "How do you actually finish a novel?" they'll ask. "Starting's easy but how do you finish?"
I cannot tell you how many novels I started but did not finish before I finally managed to complete one. Not because I don't want to tell you, but because I honestly don't know. On the hard drive of my current computer there are fourteen unfinished novels. But there are others that didn't make it to this computer. Not to mention many notebooks that ...
Posted by Justine at 0:09, June 12th, 2008 under Best of Blog, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 13:29, June 11th, 2008 under Liar, Whingeing, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 11:48, June 1st, 2008 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 12:14, May 21st, 2008 under Best of Blog, Publishing business, Writing life |
