Extreme Makeover: Novel Edition

So you get crits back from your betas, and the news isn't exactly favorable. Phrases like "flat characterization," "troublesome pacing," and "plot problems" are being thrown around like juggling balls. Maybe even the most dreaded word of all comes up—REWRITE.

*Dun dun dun*

The worst thing? You know they're right. You could improve your novel; you missed the mark; you didn't do the story justice. But it'll take a lot of work to fix! Where in the world do you start?

You know, after sobbing in bed for a day and eating nothing but ice cream and double cheeseburgers. That always comes first.

Hi, welcome to Extreme Makeover: Novel Edition. I'll be your host today, kind of like Ty but with less yelling and excitement. I'm also not giving away a free novel to a very deserving family/individual, but hopefully with these tips you'll be able to makeover that novel needing more changes than the typical line edit.

Huge edits can be pretty overwhelming. It's hard to take a story you thought you knew and try to see it as something potentially very different.

Tip #1: Don't Start Right Away
You have the crits. You know you want to take the jump and do massive edits. You have some ideas. This is when you might have the urge to dig right in—the faster you finish the faster you can move on to the next stage, right? Wrong.

Don't get too hasty. I'm not the planning type, but this is the time to plan. When you do renovations on a house, you don't knock down walls before you have a plan, do you? No—you figure out how much it'll cost, what materials you'll need, how long it'll take to finish.

You must have a plan of attack, otherwise you could end up with more crooked walls and cruddy foundations, so to speak. Then you'll only have more work on your hands. So let yourself mull it over. Think. Don't think. Work on other things. Get some time away.

Tip #2: Work Out The Problems
I get a notebook, but I'm sure a Word Doc or Scrivner file or whatever works just great too. Without looking back at crits, write down what changes you want to make to your story. Whether it be character revisions, plot changes, world building alterations, get them all down. Once you have those—write out how you can fix it in as much detail as you'd like.

Example: Betsy needs to be more motivated—if I raise the stakes, put something she really loves in jeopardy, that might help increase her drive. Or maybe she needs to be spunkier from the beginning. Did I misrepresent her character? Oh wait, THIS is it.

Explore lots of options. It's true that sometimes your first ideas aren't the strongest. Allow yourself to take the story/characters in various directions until you settle on the one you feel is the strongest.

Tip #3: Draw Up Plans
Once you know the answers to your manuscript's big issues, it's time to create your plan of attack. Every plan looks different—it's largely based on how much work you have to do. This is where you decide that, by the way. Are you doing a very heavy edit? Are you rewriting the whole thing? Just the back half? Now's the time to commit.

Step 1: Figure Out What You're Keeping. With my big rewrite on Transparent, I decided beforehand which chapters were salvageable: 5 of 34. And even those needed heavy editing. So yeah, a little overwhelming. But it's good to know upfront what you're keeping, so you're not tempted to get lazy and keep stuff you shouldn't.

Step 2: Decide What's Going. As in not making it into the new draft in any form. This is where it can get a little scary, since it might be a good chunk. You might have decided to take a new path with the plot, so the old ending just won't work at all. You might be chopping a character, or a certain plot arc. These are the parts that you have to put away so they don't get in the way of the new stuff.

Step 3: Determine What's Getting Rewritten. So you have what's staying and going, now it's time to fill in the holes. Those holes might be tiny or the size of the Grand Canyon, but map them out.

Step 4: Outline The New Draft. It doesn't have to be in detail, but it's nice to kind of know where you're going with revisions, especially if you're changing a lot. The most challenging thing about my rewrite so far is the old and new versions of the story fighting in my head. I get really turned around at times (wait, is that the right time line? am I doing this right? did I forget something? was that old stuff supposed to be in this version or totally cut?). My notes and outline keep me straight.

Tip #4: Make A Schedule
I know some people edit their brains out until it's done, but mine melts if I just go go go. And with extensive edits, there's a risk of burn out like no other. So I plan out exactly what I will be doing each day and how long it will take to finish.

I often take it by chapter. If the edits aren't as intense, I'll do a few chapters a day or something. But you could also do it by scene, by what needs to be rewritten, etc.

Sometimes life gets in the way and I get behind schedule, but that's okay. The goals keep me going forward. I never do more than I have scheduled though because I really don't like burning out. Revision is a marathon-type game—save your stamina.

Tip #5: Work.
This is the part where you actually have to open that document (or a new one) and start working. This is also when it gets scary, discouraging, and hard. But stick to that schedule! Even when it feels like the whole thing is junk. Sometimes our feelings aren't the truth, and that is never more true than in revising.

You are making your book better. It might be hard to see that, what with the walls torn out and the carpet pulled up, but you are. Step by step you will realize that your novel is really coming together, and then one day you'll be staring at it in awe. It's so pretty! I couldn't have imagined such a book, and yet it's exactly what I wanted!

And then Ty will be all "Lowe's is gonna pay your utilities for a whole year, and here's a new car!"

I wish. Finishing a big revision is great and all, but I'm afraid there's no free car. Sorry.

Inside My Brain Wednesday

Sometimes my brain goes out of control. Instead of having like one major idea for a post, it's just all over the place. Hey, my brain can't be awesome everyday. It's tiring, frankly. So, a peek into what's going on in there today:

• SCBWI LA is happening this week. I am not in LA. Kiersten and Steph and a bunch of other cool people ARE in LA/will be. *insert copious whining here* That's the blessing/curse of the internet, folks. Sometimes it's so cool to see what other people are doing, but then sometimes you just want to be there too! Gah. Better stop there.

• At least I'm going to San Francisco next Friday! This soothes the envy monster very well. I am probably meeting a certain agent, and I get to spend the whole long weekend with Kasie. Woot. ALSO, The Dread Pirate Sara is coming to visit ME in September! So I have plenty to be happy about. Take that, SCBWI LA.

• The Ninja Girl has become a Tinkerbell nazi. If it's not on, things get ugly. I have taken to rewriting it in my head as YA to quell the insanity. Terrance, Bobble, Tinkerbell love triangle FTW! Yeah, that's how many times I've watched Tinkerbell and the sequel in the past month. (And yet I'm secretly excited for the third one to come out.)

• I now have about 10 chapters until the rewrite of Transparent is finished. Three of those chapters will be lifted/edited from the old draft. That means I'm so freaking close to done! I can hardly believe it. Something else I can't believe? This book is good. Of course there's still a lot of work to do, but it's so much better than it was before.

• Being an adult sucks. It's all the little stuff that adds up—calling insurance companies, scheduling appointments, cleaning up barf, taxes, shopping. When you're a kid, if you don't do it you can count on someone else covering your back (i.e. Mom). Now? Freaking crap, I AM the mom, the maid, the cook, the gardener, etc. Go hug your moms for all that stuff they did for you.

• My hair is taking forever to grow. If you didn't know, I'm growing it out for Locks of Love. I've come a long way (about 6 inches), but I need at least 4 inches more. It's driving me crazy. My hair hasn't been this long since like 7th grade. I was never really taught how to deal with long hair! I keep getting it caught on stuff. Or it falls in my food. Or I smack someone with it when I flip it over my shoulder. I need training—I missed this section of girl school.

• I wish I could write right now. But at the same time waiting until nap time gets me so antsy that I think I work harder with the time I have. Working on a timer really lights a fire under my butt. It's weird. If I don't have some kind of deadline or goal, I just don't write at all and I get really depressed and stuff. It's like I'm an over achiever or something.

This concludes Inside My Brain Wednesday, the non-series that sounds like one. (I promise I will not torture you by doing this weekly, don't worry.)

Advice That Makes Me Twitch

(This post was spurned on by a video I saw on Kristan's blog. I highly recommend watching it, even though it's a little long.)

Write what you know.

It's probably the first piece of advice the average person hears about writing. In movies, there's always some writer who is struggling with writer's block or writing genre fiction. A wise, older writer or teacher or dude on the street will come up to that writer and be all, "Write what you know. Just write what you know."

Then the writer will nod, knowingly, and run off to write their best-selling novel based on real events from their life. *Cough* See Little Women or Anne of Green Gables *Cough*

I'm gonna be honest with you here—I pretty much loathe "Write what you know." Like, just typing it makes me twitch. The reasons are many. I think a list is in order.

1. Hi, it's FICTION.
If writers really just wrote what they knew (taking the literal meaning of this phrase, which many an average non-writer does), then that would mean writers only write autobiographies, memoir, and non-fiction. Where does that put the rest of genre fiction?

Are we really going to argue that C.S. Lewis actually had a hidden portal to Narnia? Or perhaps that J.K. Rowling knows exactly what it's like to be a teenage boy wizard? Or that Charles Dickens was secretly an old miser who got visited by the ghosts of Christmas? Or that Stephanie Meyer actually knows what it's like to fall in love with a vampire?

Of course they didn't. Of course they made it up. That would be why it's called fiction. Despite how real it feels, writers make their stories up. We could even say this of many realistic writers. Jane Austen—did she know exactly what it was like to be a wealthy, oblivious heiress with horrible matchmaking skills? And yet she wrote a very convincing Emma.

Writers don't write what they know in the literal sense, at least not all the time. And I actually think this little piece of advice is quite dangerous.

2. It Creates Assumptions Both in Readers AND Writers.
I am white. I am a woman. I am American. I am young(ish). I am Mormon. This means I am only allowed to write about girls who are white Mormon Americans, right? Or not. But I have felt that pressure. I have felt the expectation that for some reason I am not allowed to explore other people, places, and cultures within my writing. That when a reader sees my face, they will expect a certain story from me.

I hate that, and I think part of this expectation comes from this false idea that writers always write what they know.

Let's look at the book I hope to sell: It's about a Japanese-American boy ninja living in San Francisco.

I know I'll be judged for writing this book, and worse, my book will be judged for who I am. People will look for flaws intentionally, try to find where I messed up. And there's nothing I can do about it. Some will think "What right does she have to write that? How can she understand her character?" Others might think "That takes guts." Some might not be able to suspend their disbelief just based on my name on the cover (if it ever ends up there).

It's sad, but it's true. And as bad as it is for me, it's worse for others. Why is there an expectation, for example, that all multicultural writers should write about their lives (or their grandparents' immigration, or their countries of origin)? If we know someone is Muslim or Jewish or Hindu, do we expect them to stick to issues only in their own religions?

How much do we judge a work of fiction just based on the author? Is it right to do that? Just because an author is gay or Mormon or atheist, etc., does that mean they only write about that? And if they don't, are they somehow trying to indoctrinate us with subliminal messages in their books? Can I come up with more silly rhetorical questions to emphasize my point? (Yes, but I won't.)

I don't think my own creativity and storytelling should be boxed in like that—I don't think anyone's creativity should be limited to their own sphere. Fiction is a chance to reach outside ourselves, to learn, study, and imagine what it's like to be other people. If we only write what we know, I believe we're totally missing the point.

3. It's Almost Right, But Not Quite.
There has to be a better way to say what I think is at the heart of "Write what you know." Something more like:

Write what you feel. Or Feel what you write.

Or maybe Write what you want to know. Write what you want to learn?

Or perhaps Make sure the emotions in your work are authentic for your character and that you research the setting, history, and culture of your story so that it comes to life and is believable even though it's fiction.

Yeah, I like that last one.

Think about it—as diverse as this world is, as different as people are—every human experiences the same emotions. The triggers for emotion are different for every person, but we do feel them. We all know fear and love and hate and sadness. We can empathize. We can imagine. And from this writers make their stories feel real, even if they've never been a half demon with a succubus for a mom.

And when I don't know something? Hello, research. I love research. I love constantly learning about new things and places and people. Whether it's reading up on the different neighborhoods in San Francisco or studying Japanese mythology, there's always some hole to fill in my knowledge when writing. I don't care if you write contemporary or historical—research is part of a writer's life.

**

Writing, like any art, is a chance to get outside ourselves. Yes, art can also be created by making sense of your own experiences, but really it can be both. So don't feel like you have to lock yourself in your own little reading/writing box. You really don't have to write what you know.

The Crit Partner Arsenal

Oh, crit partners. Of all the questions I get asked, I think this is the most frequent. Perhaps it's because I happen to have amazing crit partners, ones I like to praise often. I've written a big post on finding crit partners, but today I want to add another post to the discussion.

I have a fairly wide variety of crit partners, an arsenal of different styles, you could say. Each one is important to me, and I want to highly recommend gathering partners with various strengths if you can. I'll be talking about mine as examples:

The Plotter
Kiersten is my go-to girl on plot problems. She is The Plot Queen, after all. I know she'll point out any hole or lull in pacing or unnecessary passage. That's not to say that I don't work on my plots, I just mean that she will, without fail, pick up on any major issues I miss.

The Cheerleader
I have a few, really: my husband Nick, Kiersten, and Kasie. These people keep me going when I want to give up, and that role is not to be underestimated. I'd probably get nothing done without their encouragement. Getting things done is important.

The Mechanic
I can always count on Carrie and Renee to pick up on the technicalities. They'll be like, "Yeah, that's not medically possible." Or something like, "That hold would be way easy for a ninja to escape, how about this one?" And even, "Um, you have your MC sitting on the bed four times in this scene."

I love my mechanics. They force me to solidify my world. They make sure to pick out all the things that might take readers out of the story.

The Developer
Since she's so busy, I haven't had Steph read a lot of my stuff, but her comments on character development opened up my story, made it more real, and propelled me into a fuller realization of the book. She also has an amazing ability to get me to dig around and explore the world of my book, to make it more three-dimensional.

The Copy Editor
I'm a typo queen. My fingers don't listen to my brain, so I have all these wonky typos I constantly miss. Sara, Kiersten, and Kasie usually pick these up for me, the poor dears. They're also really good at picking up when I go out of voice or use confusing sentence structure. Seriously, sometimes it's like I don't even know English, which is sad, seeing as I graduated in English linguistics. But that's how it goes—after spending so much time with a project you just stop seeing, and I'm grateful for the fresh eyes.

The Critic
Warning: American Idol Comparison Ahead. So you know how everyone "hates" Simon, but in reality they actually value his opinion most and do what he says?

As uncomfortable as it is, I would highly recommend finding a "Simon" for your writing, too. Someone that pushes you further than you think you can go. Someone who is honest, even when the news isn't pleasant. Someone who gets what you're trying to do, but at the same time sees where you're missing the mark. (Disclaimer: I don't think ALL of your readers should be true critics, though. It's hard to wade through their disagreements that way. One or two is plenty.)

For me, that would be my agent. (Note: That doesn't mean your agent should be your critic. It's different for everyone. I have friends whose agents are not in any way The Critic, and they get on just peachy. This happens to be how it turned out for me.)

Now, don't get me wrong, Nathan is far, far politer than Simon. If there was an Olympic sport for politeness, Nathan would win gold. But he is my critic—he looks at my work and points out every flaw (very politely, but he still does). Why? Because he knows I can do better.

This is the most important part of the critic relationship: Trust. If you do not trust your critic, then you will fight the sometimes hard things they have to say. You will think they're picking on you. You won't take their advice. But if you DO trust your critic, you'll understand that they believe in your potential. You will take their advice, and when the revisions are done you will be intensely proud of the work. You might even be shocked that your writing could be that...good.

Then, somehow, your trust in your critic will grow. You will be glad they said all those hard things because the story is better for it—you're a better writer for it.

**

It really does take a village, doesn't it? Well, at least it does for me. I'm so grateful to all the people who help make my writing better. I'm grateful for their strengths, for their positive, helpful feedback. I'd be a mess without them.

The Flutters

It's been almost two months since I worked on Transparent, and you might remember the letter I wrote to the book. I've been reading through the 37k I had in order to get back into Fiona's mindset, and something happened yesterday.

I fell in love again.

It didn't happen right away. At first I kept getting these icky editing feelings like "Oh, that'll need to be smoothed out" and "I should probably flesh out those feelings better." But I didn't touch it—this is still a first-ish draft, afterall, even if it's a rewrite.

And then I hit page 101, and I got all mushy inside. My heart warmed. I knew for the first time in a while that this story was worth it, no matter what came of it.

It wasn't a life-changing scene. In fact, it was actually quite simple (as you'll see), one that could probably be cut if I needed. But it made me remember something—I love these characters. I love them so, so much. I love building friendships with big groups of friends, and this was one of those moments. Not only that, but this scene wasn't in the original draft, making me feel like the rewrite has been worth it in many ways.

So I'm going to share today (though this will probably make zero sense without any context, mwahaha). A rare thing, I know. It won't be up long. But this moment was so important to me—I want to hold on to this feeling forever. After all I've been through with the book...finally, I love it again.

From Transparent:

After Hector and Tony both finish their tenth, Seth clears his throat. “Would you hand me another one?”

He’s not exactly out of reach, but I’m so taken back by the civility that I comply.

“Thanks.” He glances at me, almost meeting my eyes. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

I bite my lip, wondering if this is some kind of joke. “I had a couple tacos before you guys got here. The burritos gross me out.”

“They are kind of gross.” He takes another bite.

I hold in my laugh. “Then why are you eating it?”

He shrugs, and it’s so like Miles I’m temporarily thrown off balance. “I’m starving. Free food.”

“True.” I take a long sip of my drink. What the hell is up with him? I think this is the first normal conversation I’ve had with Seth, and it’s so…well, normal.

I glance at him, and for a second it seems like all the tension in his face is gone. Just like Brady changed yesterday. I don’t understand.

“Hey.” Miles snaps me out of my daze, but when I look up I realize he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at Bea and Brady, who’re whispering to each other. “You guys look like you’re plotting.”

Bea laughs, her Trixy grin firmly in place. “Oh, we are. We thought some night games were in order after dinner.”

“Night games?” I say.

Brady’s face lights up like a five-year-old about to tell a cool story. “Yeah, you go to a park after dark and play. I call Fifi for my team.”

“Hey!” Carlos cries. “No fair! She has way too much advantage.”

“You’re the one with night vision!” Hector says.

“That doesn’t mean I can see through invisibility, stupid.”

So there you go, the scene that made me fall in love again. I still don't know exactly why, but I'm so happy it did. Rewriting is much easier when you're happy to do it.

Answers: The Mostly Useful Edition

You guys were so easy on me yesterday! No weird hypothetical questions. No "which brand of peanut butter is best?" ones. These were mostly, like, useful and thoughtful. It's like you knew I just completed a minor accomplishment (a particular round of revisions complete) and deserved a little love. Thanks for that, though I do miss the random ones! (For the record, I'm a Jiff girl. Skippy sucks, sorry.) I'm also starting to think maybe I don't need to do Q&A so often. *takes note*

So without further ado, on to the answers!

SM Schmidt asked: What book are you currently reading/just finished?
I'm reading a lot of different books right now. If I'm being honest, the revisions I just finished kept me pretty scatter-brained. I couldn't keep my attention on much, so I've been hopping between books.

Currently Reading: Spells, Incarceron, Flash Burnout, and I just started The Good Spy Young, which I'll probably finish first because Ally Carter reads super fast and I am a super huge fan of her books (that and my mom wants to read it too and I stole it from her).

I hope now that I'm coming out of the revision haze that I'll actually finish all of these in the next month or so.

How do you decide which project to work on next if two are really really shiny?
It really depends. When I didn't have an agent, I wrote what called to me the most. I'd start on each idea, and one would usually win out. I would say just go with it, no matter how weird or unmarketable or whatever. You have to enjoy what you write. It might be harder to sell against a trend or whatever, but as a person who hasn't written to trend I can tell you I don't regret staying true to my voice/style. I wouldn't be happy otherwise.

Since having an agent, I've been trying to work on things that have the same "feel" so they'd all kind of fit in the same "brand" or whatever. This, unfortunately, hasn't been working very well. I feel a lot of pressure to deliver, and then, well, I stop myself from working productively. But I AM working on Transparent with the hope to eventually sell it, which is why I'm rewriting the poor thing.

But I've also been cheating on Transparent. I'm not a very nice person when I'm not working on a "pressure free" project. Last year that project was my French steampunk/fantasy thingamabob I dubbed Spork because I couldn't think of a title. (STILL can't think of a title.) I've just chosen a new pressure free project—it's YA contemporary, which is definitely out of my so-called brand and thus I won't be telling myself, "Someday I'll publish this so it has to be perfect."

Because let's face it, I've never written a full contemporary novel and I'm sure to botch it. But it doesn't matter! It's for fun! It's my breather novel when I panic over Transparent.

Favorite anime of all time (or at least the top five)?
All time would have to be Escaflowne. It's the only one I've seen more than once, and I've been dying to see it again. I'm probably going to buy it soon. The animation is on the older side, but I adore the story. It's a classic.

Stephanie asked: How can I find other writers online who are at my level, i.e., "Beginner"? :)
I have written a post about finding crit partners, if that's what you are looking for. Also, I would say just get out there! Explore blogs when you have time. Check to see if there's a local writer's group in your area (you can look up local chapters of SCBWI, RWA, etc, perhaps). Browse through writer forums like Absolute Write.

Also, just because you're a "beginner" doesn't mean you can't talk to/make friends with people who might be further along in the process. I think it's good to have friends at all levels. It doesn't happen overnight, of course, but you will run into people you connect with. Oh, and it'll be awesome:)

Also, for beginners to novel writing, would you recommend reading agents' blogs at this point?
It probably wouldn't hurt, unless you're the sort to rush because of what you're reading. I learned most of what I know about the business from reading agent/editor blogs. But I didn't start reading them until I had my first novel finished—I didn't even know they were out there. I'm not sure how it would have changed my first novel writing process if I had been reading blogs then, but I imagine I would have rushed even more. But on the other hand I would have learned faster and avoided more of the typical early mistakes.

*shrug* Kind of a lame answer, but basically I'm saying it's up to you.

lora96 aksed: Okay I've been wondering about this for a while. Is the wallpaper on your supercute blog just a stock background or is it scanned from your art doodles?
Nope, not mine. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog, you'll notice the template credit there. The header IS my design though, and I do plan on creating my own background at some point. You know, when I have time. I don't know when that will be.

Liz asked: How important do you think it is to establish a "brand" as a writer? If I start out writing YA, will I ever get to write those grown-up book ideas I have in my head?
Personally, I think we freak out about brand a little too much, especially us unpublished writers. If you're gonna worry about it, you should have a book on the way at least. Think about it—as an unpublished writer this might be your only time to really experiment with your writing. Why not mess around some? Not all of your ideas will make it to print, but you learn from each one.

That said, I do think "brand" is important on some level. This is why people write under pen names. Readers tend to expect a certain style when they pick up a book by a familiar author. If they don't get that style, they could get upset just because it wasn't what they expected.

But brand shouldn't be forced. You shouldn't be thinking, "I'm going to write in a witty, yet down to earth, voice. Yeah." It should be your natural voice, themes you are naturally drawn to. Like when I went through my writing frenzy, I noticed I came back to certain ideas and that my voice was still there through each story. There is really only one or two of my books that I feel like are vastly different from my usual voice, even if they are all over the YA genre-sphere.

That's brand. We worry so much about forcing it, but in actuality it's already there. You can try to get it out there, if you want, but in the end people will either like it or not. That, unfortunately, is not within your control.

And if you really, really adore that one book outside your "brand." That's what pen names are for. Let the publishers worry about how they want to treat your changes in genre. If they want to take that risk, yay. If not, write another book. What else can you do?

Victoria Saavedra asked: Where is your writing space?
In the corner of my living room. A picture. But if I'm being honest, I sit on the couch a lot with my laptop. I've also recently been trucking it to the library, in attempts to focus (it works, by the way). Mostly I just need my laptop. I tried to write longhand earlier this year, and it was a joke. I crossed out more words than I kept, so typing is my friend. I don't have to see the mess that is my disjointed writing.

Suzie F. asked: Do you find it easier or harder to write during the summer and why?
Harder! For several reasons. First, my mom is off work in the summers, and I want to spend lots of time with her. I really like my mom. Second, it's warm, which makes me want to be adventurous and take my kids fun places. Third, I seem to have fallen into a rather nasty pattern of doing HUGE EDITS in the summer, and that sucks out all my creativity and makes it harder to write new stuff.

I'm looking forward to Fall for writing—Dino Boy will be in preschool and I'll have three whole hours. Sure, Ninja Girl will still be around, but I'll figure it out. She has an intense obsession with Tinkerbell right now, so I could probably work that.

littlescribbler asked: How do you get inspiration for all your daily blog posts?
Um, I'm not really sure! Sometimes I get good ideas for stuff and have a plan, other days it's just what's been on my mind because of my own writing journey. Sometimes I'll be chatting with a writer friend and realize I have something to rant about. More often than I'd like, I just stare at the empty blogger box going, "Uhhhhh." Then I'll write something lame or link to people cooler than me.

Now that I'm approaching almost 3 years on this blog, I'll admit it's getting harder to think of stuff to talk about. Sometimes I feel like I've covered it all! Of course, I know not everyone has been reading this blog that long, so sometimes I feel like it's okay to repeat myself a little.

Adam Heine asked: Explain the end of Evangelion. And because that was really mean, I offer these links to Cowboy Bebop the series and the (entirely optional) movie on Amazon for only $47, in the hopes you won't yell at me.

That WAS mean. But here's my theory—the series was so awesome, they had so many crazy battles, that they realized there was no possible way the ending would live up to the rest of the series. The pressure drove the creators mad, they drank a lot, and while they were smashed drunk they wrote the end. The next day, all having insane hangovers, they just animated it because "hey, why not?"

That concludes the rather short Q&A. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go eat more banana bread with nutella. Mmm.

It's That Time Again...

Question & Answer Time!

I usually do this about every other month, so it's time to open the blog up to questions. What can you ask? Well, just about anything as long as it's PG-13. Need an example, perhaps?

Christine H read my mind yesterday and asked a great question in comments: What type of training did you invest in? What about it was so helpful? Are there any courses that you would personally recommend?

I didn't invest in much, if you mean paying for writing classes, etc. My knowledge comes more from trial and error, getting lots of feedback, and reading.

In college I took all of one creative writing class. I didn't have to take freshman English because I scored high on my AP English test in high school, so the only other writing class I took was the required advanced course. I picked technical writing. Since I graduated in English linguistics with a minor in editing, I had a lot of language expertise, but not exactly in creative writing.

I also worked for BYU's multicultural magazine, Eagle's Eye. I wrote, edited, and designed for them my entire time at school. I loved it.

When I started up writing stories again, I jumped into the online community and got lots of feedback, read agent blogs, made a lot of mistakes, fixed my mistakes, read a lot of books, worked my butt off, etc. Rinse and repeat.

So I guess I'm not the one to be recommending courses or whatever. If I'm being honest, the two I took weren't super helpful overall. What was more helpful was actually writing a whole book, realizing it sucked, and doing it again. And again. What also helped was reading a lot of stories, learning what worked. My agent was also a huge help in teaching me how to really dig into edits and improve a story.

Training can come from anywhere, I think. It's all helpful. So don't worry about spending a ton of money if you don't have it.

See how fun that was? You could have your question answered too! All you have to do is ask.