http://justinelarbalestier.com writing, reading, eating, drinking, sport Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:31:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's day twenty and I've seen some talk on NaNoNoWriMo blogs of muses showing up or, more often, not. I'm sure for some of you muses are a very useful metaphor for your creative process. However, sitting on your arse waiting for them to show up? Frequently not a good ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/20/nano-tip-no-20-dont-wait-for-the-muse-to-strike/ I keep being asked the same basic question about Liar so I thought that I would answer it here before pushing it across to the Liar FAQ. My answer is not a spoiler as it touches on stuff that is revealed in the first few pages. The question is: Q: What do ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/19/liar-question/ Yesterday's post led to Kilks suggesting that I base a NaNo tip on it, which I am now doing. One of the biggest flaws in beginner writing is a reliance on stereotypes and cliches which produces characters who never come to life because they lack verisimilitude. The female protag faints and ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/18/nano-tip-no-18-breaking-with-stereotypes/ Recently, the brilliant Sarah Rees Brennan talked about her love of romance and reviewed a few in her inimitable style. ((Well, I could not imitate it.)) She mentioned in passing her least favourite kind of heroine: I truly hate the Blank Page Heroine. She is in a lot of books---I don't ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/17/blank-page-heroine/ I know I wrote a whole tip telling you to ease up on yourself and expect badness in your first draft. I encouraged you to just pound it out and leave the editing till later. Sadly, that doesn't work for every writer. Nor does it work for every book. Although I ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/16/nano-tip-no-16-edit-as-you-go/ Because I just had a long discussion with some friends about what constitutes being crassly commercial I've decided now is the time to let you know where you can buy signed books of mine. What? Some people write and ask me that, you know. Also it's Sunday no one will ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/15/signed-books-in-the-usa/ Yes, it's time for some more vaguely contradictory advice. So first a word on that. Here's why this tip is not contradictory. No one technique or strategy works for every writer. They don't even work for one writer all the time. There are times when the only way I can ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/14/nano-tip-no-14-procrastination-can-be-your-friend/ This year I've been getting more and more people asking about ebook editions of my novels. This is my general response to that query. First of all: you're asking the wrong person. My publishers are in charge of the electronic rights to my novels. If you're curious John Scalzi has ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/13/ebooks-of-my-novels/ It's day 12 and on the NaNoWriMo blogs there's much talk of word counts missed, scenes not written, and of generally falling behind. Now that is to be expected. As previously mentioned I do not think you should be freaking out about word counts. NaNoWriMo is chance to stretch and ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/12/nano-tip-no-12-turn-the-internet-off/ The event at Books of Wonder with Libba Bray, Kristin Cashore, Suzanne Collins, me and Scott last night was astonishing. Several people said they thought there were around 200 people there. I could not possibly guess from where I was sitting, but it did indeed appear to be many. Here's my ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/11/last-nights-event/ I hope you all saw Scott's tip yesterday, the first of a series on meta-documents. Though now that I use Scrivener, I no longer use meta-documents. Or, rather, I do but they're all incorporated into the one Scrivener document so it doesn't feel like lots of different documents. But I ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/10/nano-tip-no-10-dont-skip-the-tricky-bits/ From various sources, I see that a few people are a little freaked when the tips Scott and me have been sharing don't work for you. Please to relax. No writing tip works for everyone. And even if it does work for you now, it might not always. For instance, ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/09/on-tips-otp/ By now I'm sure you're all racing along in the land of NaNoWriMo: tap tap tappety tap tap. Your little fingers tripping across your keyboard. What a blessed sound that is! But, wait, you've stopped? Why? Is it because the bit you have to write next is a tad too complicated ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/08/nano-tip-no-8-square-brackets/ Certain things ((Like the people who responded to Rihanna's moving interview about domestic violence by talking about her forehead being too big. WTF? 1) Her forehead is gorgeous 2) Way to attempt to change the subject. Talking about domestic violence makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it? Poor baby.)) lately ((I'm not ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/07/girlfight/ One of the most frequent complaints I'm hearing from those down the NaNoWriMo word mines is that they keep getting stuck. As it happens I have already written a post on how to get unstuck. It is rather lengthy, however, so here's a quick and dirty version of what you ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/06/nano-tip-no-6-emergency-unstucking-techniques/ Today (yesterday) I had my last school events of the Liar tour at Joliet West High School and Glenbard South High School in the outer suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The students at both schools were amazing and asked many smart, engaged, funny questions. It was a total pleasure to meet you ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/05/tour-almost-over-gorgeous-art/ I know that NaNoWriMo is set up with a specific word count in mind. And word counts are, indeed, a useful way to keep track of you progress. However, do not get obsessed with them. The world will not end if you don't meet your daily word count. Nor will ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/04/nano-tip-no-4-word-count-is-not-everything/ Don't forget to look out for Scott's NaNo tip today. And here's where I'll be in Chicago today and tomorrow: Tues, 3 November, 7:00PM B&N Skokie 55 Old Orchard Center
 Skokie, IL Wednesday, 4 November, 7:00PM Anderson’s Bookshop 5112 Main St 
Downers Grove, IL Same deal: if all who turn up have read Liar then I will tell you ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/03/chicago-events/ This is the most important tip of all: It's only a first draft, it doesn't have to be perfect. You know what that means? You can relax. A first draft can be bad. In fact, it will be bad. Don't worry about it. Plow on. Don't even think of it as ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/02/nano-tip-no-2-the-zen-of-first-zero-drafts/ Today's NaNoWriMo tip comes from Scott. Go check it out. Last night we watched Bong Joon-ho's The Host again, which is probably my favourite giant monster movie ever. If you haven't seen it do so immediately! It more than stood up to a second viewing. We then watched the Making ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/01/writing-novels-easy-making-films-hard/ Tomorrow is the first day of National Novel Writing Month. Although I've never taken part in it and probably never will, ((November is almost always a travelling month for me.)) I think it's an awesome way for beginning writers to learn the art of the first draft. I know many ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/10/31/tips-for-nanowrimo/ When I first got the idea for Liar I thought it would be a comedy. I thought it would be a goofy, screwball comedy with a protag who was lying about herself out of boredom and insecurity and that as the layers of her lies were peeled away chapter by ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/10/30/the-book-you-thought-you-were-going-to-write/ I've been having a long-running conversation with a bunch of writer friends about our hopes for our careers. One of them has written a truly marvellous book, which comes out next year, and she's been telling herself not to hope for too much. She's trying very hard not to think ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/10/28/hopes-and-goals/ Today Louisville's Courier-Journal has a most excellent article about adults reading YA by Erin Keane. I don't just say that because I was interviewed for it, but because the article is smart and non-sensationalist, and includes some actual facts: Young adult fiction's appeal has grown way beyond the school library. What ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/10/27/adults-reading-ya/ In the last few weeks I've spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the writing of Liar and making much use of jigsaws as a metaphor to describe said writing. Turns out that Margaret Drabble has also been thinking long and hard about jigsaw puzzles---longer and harder than me, ... http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/10/26/jigsaws-novels/