Teen Writers Bloc

I love the months of February and March because I get to celebrate being brown in February and then celebrate being a woman in March. Two pats on the back in two months is great for me! For Women’s History Month, we at Teen Writers Bloc think it’s important to profile successful and revolutionary female authors of the past and present. Our fellow TWB member Caela Carter pointed out that the publishing market, and more specifically, The New York Times Best Seller list, is overflowing with men. So I love any and all opportunities to give women writers a shout-out!

A throwback lady: Virginia Hamilton

This prolific woman gave me stories as a child that featured people who look like me and had the same cultural sensibilities. As a child reader, I read everything and anything. But when I got a book by Virginia Hamilton, I can remember savoring every detail of it, and re-reading the book over and over again until I went with my dad to the bookstore the next week. Sometimes when I re-read her now as an adult, I can feel a little of the same childhood magic. Particularly, when I read The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales, I feel entranced by the stories as if I’m still the little pig-tailed girl stretched out underneath my grandmother’s dining-room table with the book.

I wish she were still alive and could eventually read my stories. I wish that she could see the influence she’s had on my writing. Alas, we lost a great one!

A lady I’ve got my eye on: Kekla Magoon

I’ve seen Kekla Magoon read at a couple of events, even ran into her at ALA last year. I’ve read two of her novels, The Rock and the River and Camo Girl. I am very impressed with the way she tells a story, the depth of her prose, and the topics of her books. I am excited to see more from her in the future, and to buy her latest title 37 Things I Love (in no particular order). And I believe if Virginia Hamilton were still around to read her books, she’d be proud as well.

Photo Credit: http://wwww.nierocks.areavoices.com

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The year 2011 was hyped by many as the year mermaids would dethrone vampires as the reigning monarchy of YA paranormal fiction. USA Today proclaimed mermaids were going to be the next big thing and even mentioned the vampire queen herself, Stephenie Meyer, was working on her own spin of the mermaid genre.

So, where are all the mermaids? While there was a school of mermaid YA titles published in 2011 and a small herd swimming to bookstores in 2012, I have yet to see the genre live up to the hype. Publishers seem to be focusing their attentions on the tried and true, vampires, ghosts, and angels, when it comes to paranormal YA fiction.  A quick look at Barnes & Noble’s list of the top selling paranormal YA novels reveals that vampires still dominate. In fact, I was unable to find a single mermaid novel on the entire list. Over in fantasy, dystopian novels like The Hunger Games and tales involving the supernatural or high fantasy such as Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance series are the bestsellers, with mermaids nowhere to be found.

Are readers not ready to give up their beloved vampires? Or is the market just not delivering the goods? There are plenty of readers who love a good mermaid tail* (the year 2011 saw the introduction of a magazine and convention devoted to mermaids), but it’s still a small niche. Perhaps publishing houses are finding it difficult to widen the appeal of mermaids or maybe YA readers just aren’t that into tales from the sea.

While I would welcome a change from the blood suckers that currently rule the YA roost, I’m not convinced mermaids are what’s next. To me, mermaids seem a little too fantastical for today’s YA readers. Maybe when the Disney-fied mental image most YA readers probably conjure up at the mention of mermaids loses its impact, readers will be able to take the genre more seriously. Vampires have had centuries to develop their cool, from Bram Stoker’s iconic Count Dracula to Anne Rice’s genre-busting Interview With A Vampire.  So, until then, I can’t agree that mermaids are the new vampire, but they are definitely washing up on shore**** more often. In an interview with Susan Marston of the Junior Library Guild, she mentions that novels featuring half-mermaids will be a popular trend for 2012. And a half-mermaid is nothing to shake your trident at, right?

*Pun very much intended. I’ll try to scale** back on punning from now on.

**Get it? Alright, alright. Starting now, I promise: fin*** to bad puns.

*** Okay, starting now.

**** Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Bio: Jean-Paul Bass recently decided to quit her job to focus on writing full-time and she swears she doesn’t miss having a regular paycheck at all.  She is currently working on her M.F.A. in fiction at The New School and is writing a memoir about growing up in Cleveland, Ohio.   

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So remember that head start on my thesis I mentioned last month? Well, that’s long gone. In fact, I waited until today, the last day of January, to post this because I was hoping that somehow I would manage to salvage some of this month and actually have good news to report on the writing front.

Sadly, I don’t. Yes, I’ve been doing some work here and there on both my light fantasy YA and my thesis project. But things aren’t going nearly as smoothly as I hoped they would. Dhonielle suggests this might have something to do with the fact that, since we got back from our two-week break in Hawaii, I’ve had no semblance of a routine at all. And me thinks she’s right. I need routine. I crave routine. And back when I was full-time on staff, some five years ago, I used to have it. I’d work for about a zillion hours, then veg out in front of the TV for a few, then sit down with my sister and put a good dent into a screenplay. Having a partner really helped me — if one of us was feeling lazy, the other would enforce the rule that we had to push through. We had a mutual goal we were working toward, and we needed to get there, plain and simple.

Working solo is much harder for me. I’m my own boss — yay — but that means that I have to start taking myself and the deadlines I create seriously. I have to create a routine again, the way I did before. Yes, I have a lot on my plate, with school, work, writing and family, but I’ve managed before. I need to manage again. And the clock is ticking. The deadline is real and looming — I have to get my thesis project moving and turn pages into my peer group and my awesome thesis advisor, who’s already given me a gentle nudge. It’s time to buckle down and get things done.

My action plan:

-Have an attainable minimum: this means two solid hours of writing time, at least three days a week. My goal for each session will be 1000 words, which I know is a doable number.

-Get out of the house: This strategy has also been helpful to me in the past. I know that if I go somewhere — a cafe, the school lounge, the bookstore — to sit and write, I will do it. I will not work on freelance pitches, watch a Switched At Birth marathon, or pick up John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars just to read one more chapter. I will work. I will get pages out. This is especially effective when I meet up with a fellow writer, again, because  misery loves company. I mean, because then we motivate each other.

-Set and Meet Regular Deadlines: Thankfully, I’ve already got some in place, because I’ve got weekly meetings with both my thesis peer group and our newly reformed critique group, which meets on Thursdays. This means I have deadlines built in to every week, and deadlines are what motivate me to write. After all, there’s nothing more humiliating for a writer than not turning in promised pages.

-Take Myself Seriosuly: Like I said, I’m my own boss. And if it were anyone else, I would have fired them already. (I can be tough, for sure. Just ask some of my former employees.) I’m too easy on myself, and I need to stop. We’re all tired. We all have colds. People manage work and kids every day. Enough excuses. It’s time to get shit done.

What’s your writing action plan this year?

Comic courtesy Inkygirl.com

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Wait, it’s our last semester? Already? How did that happen?

My plans for my thesis semester are simple—finish my current work-in-progress. With one book done and in the midst of the querying process (a process that combines all the pain of a root canal with the humiliation of being dumped over and over again), I am determined to stay focused on this new character as she finds her way in a strange, isolated city. There’s nothing to keep my mind occupied like building a new world, and I am lucky to have a wonderful peer group (Jess, Caela, Mary, and Riddhi) there to help me nail down the rules and keep me in line if (and when) I break them. I’m also excited to work with my thesis advisor, the amazing Jill Santopolo, who loves fantasy as much as I do and will undoubtedly guide me through the writing of a new book with very capable hands.

Will it be difficult? Of course. Will there be tears? More than likely. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned after three semesters, it’s that writing is something I just can’t live without.

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Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m not great at finishing books. This isn’t a universal thing — I’ve finished screenplays, I’ve finished short stories, I’ve finished countless articles for magazines and websites and blog posts by the hundreds. But a novel? I just can’t seem to finish one. (Yes, that means I still have about 5000 words to go on that work-in-progress I’ve been referencing for the last year-and-a-half.)

Here’s the thing, though: I’m great at starting novels. It’s the part of the process I love — like a new romance, all fresh and new and butterfly-inducing. I love brainstorming the characters and their dilemmas. I love working and reworking the plot until it makes sense. I love figuring out what my story is really about. And I’ll admit it, I even love outlining. All told, I probably have five solid ideas for novels in various stages of development right now.

That’s the problem. Every time I get into the thick of one of my works-in-progress — the sticky middle, where everything is vague and muddled and the word count isn’t rising the way I hoped and the character has written herself into a corner — I turn to something else instead. Because it’s so much easier to be at the beginning than work something out to the end, even with an outline.

That’s what happened this semester. I have two works-in-progress that were largely abandoned (and both more than half-way complete) in favor of the latest, the one I’ll work on for my thesis. This new project has long been stewing, so it’s coming out in short bursts — and not in my usual form of beginning, middle and end. This is weird for me. But it’s ambitious — following three first-person narrators over the course of two decades — so I think I’m just trying to work the characters out before diving in. In my head, I do have a structure in place. I just have yet to start following it. Still, I’m about 30 pages in, and I think the experimentation has been necessary. And so taking the time this semester to figure things out has been really helpful. It’s really given me a head start in making a good dent in this novel during my thesis semester.  Yay for that!

But next semester, I won’t be solely focused on that. I’ll work on it for my thesis group, and use the newly-revived Monday group to really finish those other languishing projects. Because my main goal during my time at the New School has been to show myself that yes, I do have a novel in me, from start to finish.

Photo by: Wilfrid J. Harrington

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It’s our third and final semester of taking actual classes at the New School’s MFA program in Writing for Children. I’m really going to miss seeing all the other TWBers for Tuesday workshops. Other students have told me that they’ve heard our group is a close-knit one and they’re right. Over the past year and a half, I was amazed and grateful that so many different personalities found a way to get along so well.

When I started the program, my first story was a middle grade fantasy about monsters under the bed. Then I got stuck and decided to do a YA novel about bullying. That didn’t get very far. In my second semester, I went back to the monsters, but I only got as far as having my characters run into the monsters. I didn’t know how to save them. So as of now, they’re still stuck under the bed and I don’t know when they’ll come out.

For my third semester, I began another middle grade story about a girl who’s learning how to deal with her parents’ separation. I even made up what I thought was a great outline for the story — something I didn’t do for my previous works-in-progress. I started running out of steam on this one, too, and I discovered the outline I created wasn’t exactly helping me. So I called on the help of fellow TWBer, Dhonielle Clayton. I picked her brain about her outlining methods and I got some great tips. I was ready to start on yet another new story. This one takes place in the future and involves memory and transplants. Thanks to Dhonielle, I have my story set up and ready to go.

As we head into our thesis and final semester, I’m looking forward to finishing this latest project. I know what my character wants, I have a plot, and I have a story arc. Most importantly, I have the drive to finish this one. I’m definitely going to miss our Tuesday workshop classes, but working on my thesis will definitely occupy that empty time slot.

Image courtesy of Fotolia

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One boring day in the library, I was searching Amazon for books with debut authors coming out in 2011 and I came across the name Anne Heltzel. Huh, I thought, that sound familiar. Upon further inspection I discovered that this debut author was not only a graduate of our fantastic program at New School, but also attended my alma matre, The University of Notre Dame (Go Irish!). It dawned on me that I had actually met Anne Heltzel at ND (through my musical-comedy writing brother, Danny Carter) long before any of us were writers. I caught up with Anne to congratulate her on Circle Nine which is debuting in September, and to catch up with her on life post-ND and post-New School.

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you became a writer.

I’ve wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember, but I always assumed it was unattainable as a career. I’ve always been passionate about books (and in particular, what books do for kids). I wrote for myself, in local contests, and later for undergrad electives. I did it because it brought me all kinds of enjoyment, but there are so many things that seem impossible when you grow up in a small Midwestern community. (Namely: creative/impractical careers.) I imagine it would have been different had I grown up in New York and been exposed to professional writers on a regular basis as a kid. (Not better, just different.)

I didn’t really do anything much post-college before “officially” becoming a writer. Once I decided to work toward my MFA, there was never a moment when becoming a published author was not the final goal. But I did random filler things to make money while in grad school. I had a bizarre experience working for a fitness company (where I was lawsuit-worthy harassed, by a Brazilian jiu jitsu master). I babysat every day after work for two years for a family I am still close to. (They now live in Paris, and I’m visiting them in the fall!). I was an assistant to a literary agent; I was an editorial assistant; I tutored algebra and geometry and writing on the weekends; and I moved to India for a year to travel and write. I also sold old clothes at Beacon’s Closet or on eBay when short of cash, and I came frighteningly close to nude modeling for a painter and, on a separate occasion, a photographer. (In the end I just couldn’t do it. I mean, I was trying to write children’s books, for God’s sake.) Right now, I’m working as an Associate Editor at Penguin.

Can you give us a quick synopsis of Circle Nine? How did you come up with the concept for the book?

Circle Nine is the story of Abby, a girl who loses her entire identity following a traumatic incident. She wakes up near a burning building next to Sam, a guy who says he knows who she is. She trusts him because she has no memories and therefore no choice. They have an intense romantic relationship that, to Abby, seems perfect…until memories of her past slowly begin seeping through the façade of the life she and Sam have built. Then she realizes that the things she thought were perfect have a sort of sinister underbelly. She has to figure out who she is and who Sam is and make some difficult choices about moving forward.

This book was so weird to write. It started as a story about a girl who meets a guitar-playing guy in the subway, and she gets off at his stop and realizes he’s from a totally different world. Aside from the obvious (though not purposeful) Harry Potter-rip-off aspect, it sounds way better than Circle Nine, right? Anyway, I kept writing it and writing it and it just didn’t feel right. Then this random voice popped into my head in the form of a sentence, so I wrote it down. That was the voice that felt right, so I scrapped 100+ pages and started over. Once I had the voice, I wrote the story in two months. I dreamed about it all the time. I was in a very difficult emotional place, and I think that’s where the darkness that permeates the book came from. So then I gave it to my agent (Adams Literary, whom I’d signed based on a different project) just before Christmas in 2009. Josh called me just after Christmas to tell me he’d stayed up all night reading the book, and he took it on submission right away. It sold a couple of weeks later in early 2010 to Hilary van Dusen at Candlewick. The book is coming out in September, so it actually sold a full 20 months prior to publication.

We notice that a lot of the reviews call Circle Nine a “psychological thriller.” Do you agree with this categorization? Did you realize that’s what you were writing while you were writing it?

Yes, I guess it’s a psychological thriller. (Heavy on the psychological, light on the thriller) No, I had no idea what I was writing. I just went with it. The voice had me so tight in its clutches that (this is going to sound insane and melodramatic, sorry!) it felt like Abby was telling me the story and I was just transcribing. It was the weirdest writing experience I’ve ever had, and it has not happened to me again since, alas!

What’s your writing process?

When I was writing full-time, my typical day looked like this:
-Wake up obscenely late. (Say 10 or 11.) Make coffee. Make eggs! Or maybe go to the bakery for a muffin. Read the news. Answer emails (if by some miracle my unreliable Indian internet was working). Dawdle. Open Word Doc. Stare at previous day’s writing. Write furiously for an hour or five, depending on level of inspiration. (Write 5 pages minimum, sometimes up to 20.) Go to gym? Or maybe just watch movie. Read book. Make dinner. Die of boredom. Even though I was in India, I lacked a community of fellow writers (at least for the first six months or so), and I felt lonely and claustrophobic. It was difficult. Amazing, but difficult.

Now I’m working full-time, so writing is relegated to the occasional weekday morning (at Café Regular across the street from my Brooklyn apartment) or weekend afternoon/evening. But I have writer-friends to hang out with, so writing has become a community-oriented experience for me. I usually write in cafes or bars in Brooklyn – anywhere out of the apartment! My inspiration can come from anywhere – any weird detail I notice during the day (like a burned-out jeep I noticed on the street, or a quirky exchange I had with my barista). I use basically anything that moves me emotionally, EXCEPT my personal relationships. Those are sacred, and I never want the people who are close to me to feel exploited. Okay, I broke that rule maybe once in Circle Nine. But never again. And I’m not telling you where.

What has your path to publication been like?

It’s been long and ever-intriguing! I suppose the most surprising part has been dealing with the public aspects of this private craft. Writing is so personal – and then there’s your manuscript in the world, for anyone to comment on. So far, people’s reactions (good and bad) have been much stronger than I anticipated. In terms of The New School: some faculty members were particularly supportive when I was a student there. Tor Seidler was emotionally supportive, because he seemed to believe in my talent. And David Levithan was the first to suggest, via my agent, that I try a YA voice — up to that point I’d been focusing on MG — and that paid off in a big way.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever gotten? What advice would you yourself give aspiring authors?

I once read or heard somewhere that 80% of getting published is finishing the manuscript. I think there’s a lot of other stuff that goes into it, but knowing that a large part of writing is sheer work – and that you just have to sit down and do it, much like any other difficult task – has been somehow comforting.

My advice: care about your novel. If you’re emotionally attached to your subject matter, it will automatically seem more authentic and powerful.

What was your favorite book when you were a teenager? What are you reading now?

When I was a teenager, I was in love with This Side of Paradise by Fitzgerald. When I was extremely young, I loved Little Brother and Little Sister by The Brothers Grimm. Now I like to skip around. I’m reading Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. (So far so good! The writing is beautiful.) And I’ve been flipping through Nine Stories (Salinger) and some other short story collections while I’m on the train. I have a lot of reading to do for work, so personal reading is a rare and treasured experience.

What’s next for you writing-wise (and otherwise!)?

I’m writing a dark, grounded YA for Candlewick, and I have a thriller signed up with Penguin under a pseudonym. They’ll both be out in 2013. I think I might like to give fantastical Middle Grade another try after that. Otherwise, who knows? As long as my writing and my relationships continue to grow, I am not averse to adventure and change. Maybe more travel! I just want to live a good story. =)

Do you believe in being part of a “bloc” of writers? Are critique groups and writing communities helpful to you?

I do believe in the wonders of being a part of a supportive writing community. I don’t personally belong to any writing groups, mostly because of my day job – I read and critique manuscripts all day long, and I’m not sure I could take on any extra editorial-esque endeavors right now. Plus, I’m private and don’t like many people to read my writing prior to completion of a semi-respectable draft. But I do have one friend whom I exchange with on occasion, and I frequently write in close proximity to a bunch of amazing, Brooklyn-based writers (many of whom I met through the editing world). Going through the process with a bunch of other like-minded people helps a lot. And then when the successes (and setbacks) come around, it’s great to have people in your life who really get it.

Thanks so much for stopping by TWB, Anne! Readers: be on the lookout for anneheltzel.com coming soon!

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I feel a great sense of accomplishment mixed with panic. I’ve completed my YA fantasy novel, and now, this is the time when all the hard work is tested — when the waiting game begins. I am starting the agent query part of the writing journey.

Being ignored, rejected, and criticized is all part of the querying process, and, let’s be honest, it’s not a particularly fun prospect. But I am proud of what I’ve achieved this summer. My biggest fear was not actually finishing this book and querying, it was the dreaded question of what will I write next?

True, this book is part of a larger story, but I needed to write something different. And there is no point in writing a second book if no one reads the first. But I had lived with this girl, with my protagonist, for so long, that it felt strange to think of being in someone else’s head.

But thanks to a few choice in-class writing assignments from Susan Van Metre’s seminar class, I had one spunky character and one creepy scene to get my imagination started. Now I have not one, but two new story ideas to work on this fall, and let’s face it, I’m going to need them. Because if there’s one thing that is sure to distract me from the hard realities of life, it’s getting lost in a really good story.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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New School Grad Julie Sternberg visited our Middle Grade Children’s Literature class with Susan van Metre and discussed her fantastic book LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE, and we nabbed her for an interview. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn about her journey from our own program in the Writing for Children program at The New School to a published author.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself (bio) and how you became a writer? What did you do before you “officially” became a writer. What made you want to be a writer? Do you write fulltime now?

For ages, because of a silly but deep-seated insecurity, I assumed I couldn’t write fiction.  I read fiction whenever I could, but I never, ever wrote it.  I became a lawyer instead.  Eventually I had less and less time for reading and more and more doubts about whether I wanted to spend my life as an attorney.  One afternoon I passed a flyer for a writing workshop taught by the wonderful children’s book author Amy Hest.  I started writing for her class, and now I write full-time.

Can you give us a quick synopsis of LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE? How did you come up with the concept for the book?

LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE tells the story of eight-year-old Eleanor, who must say goodbye to her longtime, beloved babysitter, Bibi.  Bibi moves to Florida to take care of her ailing father.  Eleanor must adjust to days without Bibi, to a new babysitter who is nothing like Bibi, and to the start of third grade.  Ultimately, PICKLE JUICE is about making one’s way through a difficult time.  It was inspired by life:  I have two daughters, and their beloved babysitter moved away.

What does a typical writing day look like? Where/when do you write? Where does your inspiration come from? I know you have little ones, how do you balance mom-time and work-time?

I typically drop my daughters at school, return home, and write until it’s time to pick them up.  I sometimes write in the early morning hours before my girls wake up, particularly on days when they don’t have school.  I never write at night.  I am useless at night.

What has your path to publication been like? What’s been the most surprising part of the writing/publishing process for you?

I’ve been very, very lucky.  My editor, Tamar Brazis at Abrams Books, loved the PICKLE JUICE story from the start, though I initially wrote it in a different format.  We went through revisions together, but I knew relatively quickly that it would be published.  The most surprising part of the writing process has been how committed I am to pursuing it.  If only I’d realized earlier!  Law school is tiring, and sometimes tiresome, and expensive.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever gotten? What advice would you yourself give aspiring authors?

I’ve been the beneficiary of so much good advice.  For instance:

(1) Never be reluctant to throw pages away.  Even if those pages seemed perfect initially, if your story has evolved and they’re not working anymore, toss them.

(2) Don’t let an idea or device get in the way of a good story, with heart.  If you do, at the end of the day, your writing might be clever but it won’t resonate.

(3) If any part of your story doesn’t feel simple and real, it’s not working.  Simplify.  That goes for fantasy, too–it should feel simple and real within the rules of the world you’ve created.

(4) Don’t get too hung up on any prescriptions. Different processes work for different writers.  Figure out what’s useful to you and disregard everything else.

(5) Get feedback, but not too much and only from the right people.  Find folks whose advice is consistently useful–two or three is plenty–and stick with them.  Too many readers can be debilitating.

What was your favorite book when you were a kid/teenager? What are you reading now?

Some favorites from when I was a kid include ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS, by Scott O’Dell; DICEY’S SONG, by Cynthia Voigt; and THE HOBBIT, by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I recently finished Jonathan Stroud’s HEROES OF THE VALLEY, an older middle-grade fantasy that I highly recommend.  His Bartimaeus books, particularly THE AMULET OF SAMARKIND and THE RING OF SOLOMON, are also terrific.

What’s next for you writing-wise (and otherwise!)?

I’m working on another middle-grade novel, this one about sisters.  I’m looking forward to summer!

Do you believe in being part of a “bloc” of writers? Are critique groups and writing communities helpful to you?

A small group of folks whose advice I trust is useful to me.  Larger groups, with too many conflicting voices, are not.

How did The New School Writing for Children program help you? What did you get out of the program?

I’m a better writer because of the MFA program, and I’m far more immersed in the world of children’s book publishing than I ever would have been without it.  The teachers are terrific and remain supportive to this day; I’m still in a writing group with a couple of my classmates; and another classmate, Marirosa Mia Garcia, and I write a blog recommending books for kids and teens (www.pleasedontreadthisbook.com).  I just wish I could still take some of the MFA classes!  I miss them.

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The first year of the MFA program at The New School was full of realizations. Moving away from home, halfway across the world from Bombay (also known as Mumbai) to New York City had a lot more in store for me than I could imagine. The last eight or nine months introduced me to a whole new world. One full of more books than I was used to seeing on my bedside table, weekly meetings with inspiring teachers, life experiences lined with lessons and a wonderful bunch of classmates that encouraged (and continue to encourage) me to reach my goal as a writer.

Before this program, I spent over five years as a journalist, writing feature and news stories for a newspaper. This has largely shaped my habit of writing—perhaps negatively. I always write closer to a deadline, a habit that I believe stemmed from my days as a journalist. But writing a book or a story, as a novice, with no agent or publishing house monitoring my progress, is not half as easy as I imagined. I always knew the stories were flowing through me, but this MFA program has taught me the importance of setting deadlines for myself. With many of my peers from class already published or well on their path to it, the stakes have gotten really high. I know that it is up to me first to churn out something meaningful, and this will not come without practice.

I’ve set myself a lofty goal for the summer, to read a book a week and write a hundred pages of my novel. I consider the second part of my goal lofty for a few reasons:

1. I’m still unlearning my journalistic ways, of waking up hours before a deadline and spewing words and research onto a page.

2. I’m spending the summer in India, where for the first time in many years, I’m on holiday: I don’t have to wake up and make myself breakfast. I don’t have to bother with the dishes or laundry. I don’t have to really lift a finger AND I do not have a class of attentive readers picking on every word I have penned and helping me with their feedback.

While many of my classmates (Mary especially) said that the target of writing a hundred pages through three months is rather easy (I simply had to get on it like it was a job) I think the challenge is going to test me. I hope to accomplish this goal through the summer and be thick in the game when I go back to NYC in the fall of 2011, ready to be workshopped for the next two semesters.

Photo courtesy of WVS: The Technical Writing Company

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