Tess' Top 5 Things She Learned

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I sat all alone on a mountainside for four days and here are the top five things I learned:


ONE: That hottie ski instructor at the swanky resort in the winter is the same unemployed bum sitting on the condo step smoking a joint in the summer. Not so hot.


TWO: I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world.


THREE: When I sit down and force myself to write for 8 hours straight, nothing but trash comes from my pen for the last two and a half hours. Unsalvageable, unredeemable trash. Good to know.


FOUR: On the flip side, those first five and a half hours produce fairly decent stuff. Turns out, I have some pretty cool ideas when my mind is left alone to wander....completely uninterrupted and free from mommy-guilt. Who knew?


FIVE: I love my blogging friends. I love checking in on you, seeing what you are learning and thinking. I love hearing from you in the comments section. There was no Internet access at my mountain condo and I missed you guys!
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I'm Taking This With Me

I'm leaving, on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again..

ok, that was a John Denver Flashback from my youth, sorry. Really, very sorry.

But, I am going away for a personal writers retreat. Yep, I rented a condo in the beautiful mountains just about an hour from my house and I'm taking off. By myself. To write. By myself.

I'm liking the by myself part, can you tell?

And, I'm taking this quote with me. I totally kifed it from Michelle McLean's blog. Thanks, Michelle!

"I always figured that every word that managed to squeeze itself from my pen had to be immortal. Turns out they are all disposable. What a relief." (Tom Howe)

Isn't it a keeper?

Wish me luck courting the muse (I need it!) and, see you next week!

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WIP Wednesday

I am working on a contemporary novel (still Middle Grade), as yet untitled, and it has been so much fun. My last work was historical and included vast amounts of research. Hooray for less research!




So, on this sunny Wednesday, I thought I'd leave a snippit from the start of the novel. I am only on page 10 of this work, but I have a personal writing retreat planned for this coming weekend and hope to get lots of good writing behind me.

Forgive the lousy formatting. I blame it all on blogger.

Jade pulled aside the living room curtain and peered out into her
backyard. “He’s digging again.”

“Leave your brother alone,” her mother said without turning away from the television program. Drew Carey’s The Price Is Right was on, which happened to be her mother’s favorite show. Jade’s mother could name the price of just about anything – from a round tin of Turtle Wax to a brand new sailboat. Jade thought it was the weirdest thing for her mother to know, given the fact that she hadn’t held down a steady job in Jade’s living memory. Shopping - for car wax or sailboats - required money they did not have.

“I’m not doing anything,” Jade said.

Her mother raised a single eyebrow.

“I’m not,” she insisted further. “He could dig to China, for all I care.”

“Four eighty-nine!” Her mother hollered at the program. “Four eighty-nine, everyone knows the price of that detergent!” She threw her arms up in disgust. “Idiots!"

The newest of Drew’s Beauties flipped over a little square below the box of detergent. Black letters showed the price - $4.89.

By her mother’s imaginary account, she had won exactly twenty seven showcase showdowns on The Price is Right. She also claimed winning two trips to Europe, nineteen braaand new cars and even a his and hers set of motor scooters.

Jade turned back to the window. Her brother Paul was chest deep in a hole and digging deeper all the time. His long, jet hair clung to his cheeks in sweaty strands and the black eyeliner he wore was smudged and streaked. He looked up for a moment and caught his little sister’s gaze.

She quickly dropped the curtain.

Say It With Me

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I left the first ten pages of my new WIP on the kitchen table last night. I printed it out to do a little review and revision.


This morning, when I woke up, it was still on the kitchen table, but now it had pen marks scribbled across the top.

They were from my husband.

He wrote:

You are good.

You can be awesome.

I think you will.

How's that for a mantra? Say it with me, "I am good. I can be awesome. I think I will."

It is hopeful, inspiring and motivating.

What's your mantra?

Cut Yourself Some Slack

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Do you ever feel like this guy? A little stressed and uptight?

Today I want to say:

Let's cut ourselves some slack

As writers, and as people in general, we need to ease up on ourselves.

You may think this is a silly concept....that you are already doing it, but I'll ask you to question yourself.

Are you comparing yourself to others?

Jerry Spinelli said there are 10,000 steps to publication. I may be on step 8,764 and you may be on step 9,138 and we may meet someone tomorrow who is on step 2. How fair is it for any of us to compare our journey, our writing, our dreams to others? I believe it robs us of our individuality. When we spend two weeks complaining that we are only on step 5,691 then we waste time and deny ourselves the opportunity of enjoying the journey. Where's the fun in that? Why would we put that unfair and unrealistic burden on ourselves? And yet we do it all the time.

How kind is your inner critic?

We have all heard that it takes ten 'atta boy's' to make up for one 'you blew it' with children. Have you ever considered that it may be the same with your own inner critic? And yet, we often forget that we are our inner critic. We wait to receive validation from outside sources instead of celebrating our own goodness. Guess what? We have the ability to control, silence, change the MP3 file of that critic. Today I want to challenge all of us to change those thoughts to 'You are full of potential' and 'Your best work is still inside of you'.

There's lots more to cutting ourselves some slack, but I think I'll leave this post with these two primary challenges.

Questions: What would you add? Will you take this challenge to ease up on yourself? To say positive things about your abilities? To recognize your potential and to allow other's their journey without the burden of comparison? What are some other things we can do to help us have a little joy on this writing journey?

What say you?

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Looking Back and Laughing at My Idiocy....

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Today I'll share an experience from years ago that I can now laugh at

Now

Not then

Travel with me back to 2003

I'm at a fantastic and exciting SCBWI conference - the big one in LA with lots of fantastic authors and agents and editors.

It was my first year of writing seriously

Actually, it had only been about 4 months and I had 37 pages of my very first novel completed -- which I believed to be brilliant and wonderful and sure to be snatched up by some lucky publishing house in a frantic auction....but, I'm digressing here....


At this conference, I had signed up for a manuscript critique and was assigned to a fantastic up and coming agent.

This was the gist of our conversation:

Agent: So, Tess, tell me about your novel


Me: *blabbers on about novel*

Agent: Is it completed?

Me: Not quite, it's about half way there.

Agent: (looking at pages), so the book is only going to be 74 pages long?


Me: ummm, no. I guess not.


Agent: No, I guess not. Alright, these pages have a very familiar feel to them.


Me: (blushing with pride) thank you!


Agent: (pulls wierd look on face) Umm, you're welcome.


Critique session ends and I walk around like a peacock feeling so proud of myself. Sure, I made a bit of a foolish remark when I said the book was half done....how many pages should a novel be anyway? But, still, he said my work had a familiar feel. Like it was timeless and wonderful and brilliant.

LATER THAT DAY IN A BREAK OUT SESSION GIVEN BY SAME AGENT:

Agent: "As agents, we are looking for something fresh and original. We don't want anything familiar or played."


Me: *sitting in back of room* oh crud. By familiar, he means played.

oops

No wonder he had that weird look on his face when I beamed and said, "thank you"

sometimes my idiocy amazes even me

I hope I've learned a little over these past six years. I think I have, thanks to my fantastic writerly friends (like you) who have shared critique, information, insight and encouragement.

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Here is my point:
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It is a road, my friends -- a long, winding road

and if we can't laugh at ourselves along the way

it will be a boring road as well

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Question for you: how good are you at learning to laugh at your own mistakes (making the broad assumption you would even have any mistakes...which may or may not be the case)? And, did you know familiar means stale???

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You can be a Super Hero, too

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I don't know about your family....but mine always thinks I'm amazing if I surprise them at dinner or during a daytime lull with a great new joke.

This one is a keeper and I thought I'd pass it along so you can be a super hero at home, too

A ventriloquist is performing his act on stage and tells a dumb blond joke



A blond woman in the front row jumps up and says, "That's not fair! The color of my hair has nothing to do with my intelligence!"



Embarrassed, the ventriloquist begins to stammer out an apology



To which the blond woman says, "You keep out of this. I'm talking to that little jerk on your knee!"







hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha



Have a happy week, all. It's beautiful summer!

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Everyone is a Winner!

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Well, not everyone technically. But one lucky comment-or will get my copy of The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein.

Truthfully, we are all winners in that we have such a fantastic community of blogging/writerly friends, right???

This drawing is inspired by Scott who once blogged that he would have trouble doing a drawing because he didn't have kids for the pictures (he was being snarky towards me using my kids to draw names....it's ok. I like snarky.) Anyway, I know he has dogs (and at least one sassy cat) so I decided to allow my poodle Daisy to host today's drawing.

Here she is in all her cuteness next to the hat full of names.

I love this dog. She demands nothing and gives her whole heart.

And the winner is......

Danyelle!

You can check out Danyelle's lyrical and creative blog MythTakes through this link.

Danyelle - e mail your mailing address to me at tesshilmo(at)comcast(dot)net and I'll pop the book in the mail. Congrats!

question for you: what is your favorite part of blogging???

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Free Stuff Friday

Welcome to another Free Stuff Friday!

Today I'm giving away a copy of the fabulous book:

The Invisible Wall, By Harry Bernstein.

I wrote a post about this great book this week, click here to review it.


Important Note: The book is my copy that I want to give to a blogging friend. It is not brand new, but the only mark is when I wrote my name on the inside cover when I lent it out. It's yours to keep so you can just put a sticker with your name right over mine :)



What you have to do to enter:


A few weeks back, I wrote a post about how we must overcome walls as writers. If you want to see that post, click here.

The walls are there to stop the people who don't want it bad enough



Leave a comment with one 'wall' you've had to overcome. It can be a one word comment like, 'time' or you can share an experience....whatever you want to say!

Comments welcome from now through Sunday afternoon when I will pull all the comment-ors into a hat and draw one lucky winner out.


Good Luck and Happy Weekend!

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Fabulous New Writing Tip

Where do you get your ideas?

Seriously, where?

This is one area of writing that I struggle with. A few ideas jump into my head perfectly formed, but most come to me in bits and drabs and need a lot of work.

I have had this issue plotting my new WIP.

I have great characters (my little opinion)



I have a perfect setting (it just changed, but I'm super happy with it now)



It's just the plot idea issue......

ugh.

I have finally worked it out and am really happy with the new plot line on my WIP, but it was a TON of work and I can't help wonder if there is an easier way.

IN COMES MY FUN NEW IDEA

I'm going to start keeping a 3 ring binder with:

different tabs - character, setting, plot, quirks



a bunch of clear sheet protectors in each tabbed section - so it will be easy to just slide a piece of paper or note or picture in each section.



Then, when I am reading the newspaper/magazines or surfing online or talking to a friend and an idea comes my way, I'll rip it out or jot it down and slide it into one of those pre-sectioned sheet protectors.

Hopefully, when it's time for my next novel...or the one after that...I can flip through a whole binder of newspaper clippings, computer print offs, pictures and personal notes

and come up with some fun ideas without pulling my hair out for weeks on end

I'm so excited about this new idea....I think it might really help me!

Question: how do you get/keep/organize your ideas? Are you blessed to have a never ending supply dancing around your mind? Do you ever struggle with this like I do? What do you think of my new idea binder?

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More than just a Book Review - The Invisible Wall

There is so much to like about this book. It is a memoir written by harry Bernstein -- a 93 year old man.
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You read that right, he wrote this amazing and lyrical novel at 93.
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It is the story of his family and growing up Jewish during WW1. It is replete with interesting and heart breaking experiences that will keep you reading long into the night. I'd call it a must read.
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One of the reasons I love it so much has nothing to do with the actual book.

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The part that is most touching to me is the fact that he wanted to be a writer his whole life

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He worked as a 'slush pile reviewer' for a couple of Hollywood movie houses, and had some amazing experiences. One is in regards to a time when he had weekend plans with his wife. He was anxious to get out of town and, on Friday night, his boss handed him a script and told him to have it reviewed by Monday. Harry didn't want to do it. He flipped through the manuscript, decided it was another piece of historical romance trash (his words) and gave it a 'pass'
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That manuscript was Gone With the Wind.

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Harry lost his job over that pass.

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Harry's wife died when he was 91. He began writing his memoir and finished at 93. It was published at 96. His wife never lived to see him realize his life long dream.

But the beautiful lesson is that Harry never gave up. He knew he would be a successful author some day.....and he was.

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He was 96 when it happened, but it did happen.

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Never give up your dreams, friends.

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Never, ever.
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God can not steer a parked car

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I grew up in a quirky household - surrounded by interesting, quirky people. Of course, I'm completely normal and not quirky in the least.

Stop laughing, it's true.

The point I'm trying to make is that we had unusual sayings that floated around and one of my favorites was:

God can not steer a parked car.

What does it mean?

Simple. It means keep moving. If you want forward direction in life -- and in writing -- keep trying, writing, moving forward.

Don't be afraid to take on that new project and let your muse lead you in a fresh and different direction. When you feel stale with one project, turn to another. When you finish a piece of work...put your nose to the grindstone and figure out your next step.

Don't rest on your laurels

That was another one that could be heard over the kitchen table.

Interesting experience:

I recently met an author who just got a two book deal with Simon and Schuster (yay, Kristen!). Her agent sold her novel that was completed and then he sold her work in progress at the same time.

Her WIP!

He had a synopsis and 50 pages and he sold it in a two book deal. Not a sequel to the first book, mind you. A completely separate novel.

So I ask....what would have happened if she never moved on to her new idea? If she would have just sat back on her laurels and not had a WIP?

Questions for you: Can anyone tell me what a laurel is? I'd love to know. Anyone? Also, what quirky sayings did you grow up with or do you use in your own home? And, how do you keep yourself going?
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Sucky Endings

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I'm plotting.

I know, sympathies accepted.

Anyway...in the drudgery of the outlining phase, I dug through old notebooks and came across a really fantastic set of notes I took on

How to avoid writing a sucky ending

Here's what not to write:



Duh: an ending that's obvious to everyone but the MC (the shadowy figure with the bad breath that the MC keeps ignoring)



Over-the-top: an ending with an overdose of drama or violence (the MC holds everyone at bay with a machine gun)



Spill all: Think Scooby Doo. The antagonist, for no apparent reason, begins to talk-talk-talk



And then I woke up: an ending that suggests the rest of the book is a dream or didn't really happen



Out of sight: the all important ending confrontation happens off stage



But, but, but: the ending fails to tie up all the loose ends and explain why things happened.



Yeah, right: the ending leaves the reader having to assume that some key part of what happened was due to coincidence

Now it's time for true confessions.

Let me start by saying I hope I don't do these any longer...but I have in years past been guilty of: out of sight, duh and spill all. I think I've learned...but it's always good to have a reminder.



Question: I know you'd never do it now, but have you ever committed any of these ending crimes in your early writing years? Have you read books with disappointing edgings? What was it about the ending that made it so?

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Guess Who I Lunched With?

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Really, guess.

Give up?

Well - here we are....

It's me and Lady Glamis (and her adorable little daughter). I'm in the brown T-shirt, holding Glam's daughter...Glam is the petite doll in that pretty blue-green shirt.

Listen to the fate of this meeting:

- me: feeling uncertain about my manuscript, wanting advice and objective feedback - asks Lady Glamis, a blogging friend, about beta readers

- glam: feeling sorry for pathetic ol' Tess... offers to beta read

- me: e mail Lady Glamis my ms

-glam: looks at manuscript and notices I live 20 minutes away from her

honestly, folks. 20 measly minutes.

So, we met up for lunch and then took that cutie pie daughter to the park. We sat on the swings and talked about writing and our books and our families.

Cool stuff.

Sometimes life just hands you a friend on a silver platter.

Thanks, life. *smiles*

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What is Middle Grade?

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I tried to answer the question, What is Middle Grade Fiction? over at the Literary Lab.

Link over and check it out.


really. do it.


seriously - go for it.


I sometimes get weary of people saying, "I like your book, but it doesn't seem right for the YA market."


Well, guess what?? It's not for the YA market. It's MG. There is a difference.

ok, that bit of sassy commentary was fun.


thanks for putting up with me, folks - I'm off the soapbox now.