10 Things I do Differently as a Writer

I was thinking the other day, as I was reading a book, that even if I never wrote another word of prose ever again, that it's too late--I am already in too deep, that the thought process of being a writer has absorbed too completely into my pores. For example: 1. When I get a new book, the first thing I do is read the Acknowledgments page to see who the author's agent is (and whether or not I ever queried them!) 2. I can't stop mentally correcting people's grammar... (sorry Facebook friends, but you're means YOU ARE and your means, well...your. Also a lot is NOT spelled alot. Sigh) 3. When I read,and come across a phrase or description I admire, I jot it down on a notebook for future writing reference. 4. I stalk publishing houses (wondering if they'd be good fit for my book) like other people lurk on Match.com... 5. When I drive, I have little Post-its handy so I can jot down good dialogue that comes into my mind at stoplights. 6. I read for work, not just pleasure. 7. I can't watch a movie without looking for things like these: conflict, thematic imagery, act one,act two, climax, etc... . 8. I always think the book is better than the movie. 9. Instead of telling my husband, "Not tonight, honey. I have a headache," I say, "Not tonight--I haven't met my word count yet!" 10. And finally, instead of dreaming of winning the lottery, I dream of seeing my book on a bookstore shelf. ...What are your top ten?

Everthing I Ever Needed to Know About Writing I Learned from "Annie"

As some of you may know, I have a daughter intested in musical theater, and it's been fun watching her perform and grow as an actress. She was recently cast as Tessie in Annie, and she just got through her first week of rehearsals. Sitting there, listening to them practice, got me thinking about how... everything I really ever needed to know about writing could be learned from Annie.

1. It's a Hard Knock Life A writer's life is not easy. Climb a mountain, slide down a hill. Rejection, rejection, rejection. Like the orphans in Annie, we have to be scrappy, tenacious people who won't let the fact we're orphans (er...un-published writers) get us down!

2. Tomorrow A writer that keeps on going is one who continues to have hope. We have to believe that the sun will come out tomorrow, and that one day, the time, sweat, and tears we spend at the computer will result in our dreams: our book being published.

3. Maybe And then, along the way, we'll get a glimmer of hope: a request for a partial, or a full, or an offer from an agent. And a little further down, we'll get that manuscript out to editors, and we'll start thinking that maybe, just maybe, that one editor will want to buy our book!

4. Easy Street After much perserverance, patience, determination, the time will come, yes it will, that all that hard work pays off. We will hold that little book in our hands, and it will feel like...

Hang in there, everyone! Have a great Monday!

For Writers: 8 Tips to Control Depression

Have you ever suffered through depression?

It is widely known that many famous writers (and for that matter, many creative types) have suffered from depression. Here is a small sampling: Hans Christian Anderson, Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Charles Dickens, Ralph Walso Emerson, James Barrie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Mary Shelley, Tennessee Williams,and Virginia Woolfe.

I myself have struggled with depression on and off throughout my life, and I think that it has a lot to do with having a very strong inner life. I think about things...almost too much. I worry, I analyze. Also, even though I am not shy and can appear very extroverted, at my very core I'm an introvert. That means that being alone gives me energy, while being around people too much can deplete me. Discovering this small fact about myself has been a watershed moment, and knowing I need time alone from time to time to recharge has helped me accept who I am, and thrive, as a writer, mom, wife, social worker, person.

Here are some tips I have picked up over the years to help you combat occasional depression:

1. Exercise every day Exercising for 20 minutes or more every day produces natural endorphins and immediately perks up your mood.

2. Pray or meditate Praying, meditating, practicing slow breathing--just 20 minutes a day can bring stress relief and boost your mood.

3. Get some sleep! Most Americans are chronically overtired, and when we are tired, we can feel overwhelmed or depressed. If you have to, power nap for twenty minutes or catch up on sleep during the weekends.

4. Get daily sunlight. Some people get seasonal depression, also known as S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) due to lack of sunlight in the winter months. This is expecially my problem, when, living in an area that gets tons of fog in the winter, I can feel moody from lack of sunlight. Exercise can help combat this, and if you are really sensitive to the lack of sunlight, getting a sun lamp can help.

5. Make sure you are getting enough Omega-3 Fatty Acids and B complex. Apparently, most Americans don't get enough of our Omega 3s. Omega 3-Fatty Acids are found in such foods such as salmon and flax seed. There have been blind studies in which depressed people were fed so many ounces of salmon each day, and it helped their depression as much as people taking anti-depressants! I take flax-seed oil capsules every day (it's great for your skin, too), and try to feed my family salmon at least once a week. You can also buy ground flax seed at Costco, and use it in baking, in place of eggs or oil.

6. Talk to someone. Writers can spend an entire day sitting in front of their computer, and this can lead to periods of isolation and lonliness. Sometimes Twitter can help, oftentimes picking up the phone and calling someone can help, and other times, we just need to step away from the computer and have lunch with a friend. Everyone has their balance of how much time alone (and with our characters!) we really need.

7. Get help. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, or you are not able to take care of your basic needs, you might need to go to the next level and see your doctor. Maybe counseling might help. I know that when I had a really bad case of postpartum depression after my third child, it was a few months of counseling with a caring psychologist which really helped me get back on track. Now, if I'm having a bad day, I run through this checklist, and make sure I am doing everything I need to do. Chances are, if I'm feeling bad, it's because I am neglecting one of the checkpoints.

8. Celebrate who you are. If you do get depression from time to time, revel in the fact that we are in really good company! Being creative means that we feel more, see the world more vibrantly, and are more sensitive. It's a gift, but one that needs to be nurtured and cared for.

All I Ever Needed to Know about Writing a Book I Learned from Les Miz

It has been a very eventful summer, I must say. I have succeeded at one of my many goals of motherhood: I have gotten at least one of my children hooked on musical theater. My oldest daughter, Kateri was in her first play this summer, Cinderella (best mouse evah!), and has caught the acting bug. As a former theater kid and proud patron of the arts, I love it.

We had some friends in the local 15-20 year old production of Les Miserables, and just came from an amazingly talented, heart wrenching performance. I swear, I've seen this muscial several times: once in London, twice in Los Angeles, two locally, but it never gets tiring. Never. I was a wreck--cried on and off throughout.

Well, I got to thinking, while watching this play, what is it about Les Miz that brings people back again and again? On the way home, I decided there are seven things that we can learn from Les Miz to make our stories stronger:

1. Have a theme, and string it throughout Les Miz has several themes woven throughout: the quest for freedom, the quest for love, social injustice, the goodness versus the evilness of humanity. And since it's a musical, the acutal melodies are interwoven and echoed throughout in the different numbers. This ties the whole musical together, and in the same way, themes can tie your book together. In the beginning of Les Miz, we see the people unempowered by the injustices of their life. At the end, we see the people unified, despite the fact that they lost the battle. The layering of the themes strengthened the story.

2. Have lots of highs and lows A good story like Les Miz (and hopefully our own works in progress!) had lots of highs and lows. We are never kept guessing, and we are never dull. In one scene, Cosette and Marius have declared their love, then seconds later, Epinone is crying her eyes out for her unrequited love, and at the same time, the bad guys are trying to raid Cosette and Jean Valjean's house. Lots of action makes for a great plot.

3. Conflict, conflict, and more conflict I know I struggle with this one, because in real life, conflict makes me uncomfortable and I don't like it. But when I don't read about conflict on the page, I get bored, fast. When Marius joins his friends at the ABC cafe to talk about the revolution, he has just met Cosette, and has fallen in love. The last thing he wants to do is talk about some stupid war, and this creats lots of good, yummy conflict between him and his buddy, Enjolras.

4. Comic relief  Even the darkest story (and let's face it, Les Miz is pretty dang dark) has its share of comic relief, and this lets the reader have a mental break, almost, from your surely gripping story.

5. Kissing! Well, I do write YA, right? And let's face it--every good story needs some romance, and kissing. Oh, and also? Love triangles--they are always kind of fun. I quite like them when they work in a story. (Les Miz has one of the most gripping love triangles ever. Poor Epinone--took a bullet for that cad, Marius and still didn't get a kiss on the lips.)

6. Kill some people  Yeah, I said it. But it's true, right? This sort of goes along with conflict. In a good story, bad things have to happen. Okay, not necessarily death, per se, but events in people's lives that are earthshattering. Death. Divorce. Break-ups. Sickness. We want our books to reflect the things that happen in real life, but on a much grander, more dramatic (shall I saw poetic?) way.

7. Answer your story question Last but not least, make sure when you type The End on your beloved manuscript, that you have answered the question that initially started the story to begin with. Did he get the girl? Did the aliens invade planet Earth? And in Les Miz--Did Jean Valjean find happiness?(yes, but he died)
Did the people find empowerment? (yes, but at a price)

Anyway, you get the picture.

Public Service Announcement!

Hellooo there. To keep myself on track a little bit better, I decided that I'd try to give myself a sort of schedule for blogging. It also will give all y'all who stop by from time to time something to expect. So, without further ado....my blogging schedule!

Mondays: Writerly Stuff and What-not  On Mondays I plan to talk about my foray into publishing, getting an agent, writing my book, etc... . I also hope to talk about all that other great stuff associated with writing: voice, character, plotting, etc... etc... and from time to time talk about my book FINDING PONY and my other works-in-progress.

Wednesday: Social Worker-y Stuff  I am a social worker with a Master's in Social Work, and I currently work in adoptions. I've had some pretty cool and interesting jobs in the past: worked in a group home, an emergency shelter, homeless shelter, adoptions, CPS, and many of my experiences have still stayed with me and effect my writing. Oh yeah, that. I also write issue-driven fiction; it didn't start out that way, but I guess because I love what I do and the kids I work with, that it just seeps through and travels into my brain and through my fingertips. So on Wednesdays, I may talk about anything on my mind related to social work and issues teens face: foster care, gangs, sexual abuse, physical abuse, teen homelessness, adoption, abortion....you get the picture.

Friday: Fun Day! My kindergartener's teacher does this thing on Fridays called Friday Fun-Day. Doesn't that sound...fun? Yeah, to me, too. Fridays will be a day where I'll just post something fun, a video, a poem, a book review, maybe even a picture or a recipe or two. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Writing and Mommydom~the Guilt Factor

So...I joined Twitter.

Hi, Twitter people, nice to meet you. I'm Kara. I'm kinda new around here...

Still trying to figure out my place in that enormous universe. Seriously, if I'm being honest, Twitter kind of reminds me of when I had to change schools my junior year in high school. Um...yeah. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and instead of cool clothes and cheerleader outfits, everyone has all these brilliant, witty, fantastic things to say, amazing websites, fabulous posts, shiny new book deals...it's daunting, people!

But enough of letting you all into my own squishy sense of self-confidence. What I keep noticing, time and time again, is that a lot of y'all are...moms. And here is where I am fascinated, and where I have tons and tons of questions. How do you balance it all? I have a full life. I work in adoptions part-time. And I have a husband and kids ranging in age from 14 to 4. So that means I occasionally have to do laundry. And go to games. And ballet.

But writing is an integral part of who I am. And every time I pay attention to one area of my life, I still feel that good ol' Irish-Catholic guilt flaring up. (...Playing with the kids? Grreeeatt...but you didn't get to your word count for the day. ...You wrote ten chapters? Sure, but your youngest just asked you why you love the computer so much.)

Arrgh I am so neurotic!

I guess what I really want to know, is how other moms, dads out there balance their writing life with their personal life.

Do you limit how much time you spend each day writing? Do you have a daily word count. Do you ever feel . . . !!GUILTY!! for neglecting the little things that other, more perfect moms do: aka cooking homemade cookies, being on the PTA (yuck!), or handsewing every Halloween costume? (Please don't tell me that you can do all of the above and write. I can't handle hearing that. )

Seriously, I have been impressed, since lurking around the writing universe of Twitter, by how many of you have incredible websites, amazing books, great self-promotional tools, and are young moms. To oftentimes little kids. I would love to know how you do it!

Emotion in YA

I was having a personal pity party a few days ago, and went into my closet to unearth the dozen or so journals I have stored there, from 5th grade up until currently. And upon reading them, I was struck by how much emotion filled each and every page.

Anger, despair, heartache, elation, depression, love... I thought, boy, I was an angsty little thing, wasn't I? On the flip side, I was impressed with how in touch with my emotions I was, how much of my life at the time was spent living in the moment.

Good YA does exactly that. It takes you to that deep core of yourself, where you are insecure, hopeful, unsure--where you are truly you. As a writer, it's an excellent reality check to make sure that I portray my characters as having lots and lots of heartfelt, honest, emotion, that the readers can identify with.

My own teenage years are something I continually draw upon for my own books because it was such a magical time of firsts: first kiss, first love, first heartbreak, the first tenuous toe-dip into the vast ocean of adulthood. There is so much possibility. The world is wide open.

Now how do you feel about that? :)

Bringing You Up to Speed

Clearly, I have not gotten better about blogging. Ah,well. I blame it on life--my mom life, work life, wife life, writing life, and the fact that I was a teen/young adult more in the Breakfast Club/Friends/Melrose Place era rather than the whole Blog/Twitter/text era. But I'm learning. Acutally, I have discovered the joys of texting and am quite fascinated with Twitter. But I digress! Remember when I said I wrote another book? So anyway, I started querying in October November (admittedly, very, very half-heartedly--hardly got more than a dozen out for a while.) Then my writing partner finished her project and began querying right around January first--which motivated me all over again. My goal: get up to fifty queries out there and hit 50 rejections, whichever came first. I got rejected, of course. But after the first ten, it was cool--I told myself that this was the process and then I started on a new MS that I was really excited about. And then...one day...I got a request for a partial. And another. And another. Suddenly everything became very real and publishing my book started becoming more like a real possibility. My critique group, the fabulous Mondays, were awesome. So supportive, so encouraging. Of course you'll get published, they said. Love those people. And then it happened. Three requests for fulls, and by the end of the week, a couple offers. Wow. Blown away, I was. And actually, I still am. Every morning I wake up and pinch myself. It's real. In the end, I signed with the very lovely and eloquent Lora Rivera of the CG Literary Agency. She, from the very beginning, seemed to really get my book, love it for what it was, warts and all. (And it does have some warts--we're working on that.) So now, I have an agent, and am working on revisions. Oh, and the book, you ask? It's called FINDING PONY, about Jesse Sampson, a fiercly loyal fifteen-year-old boy, who, after a sickening experience in foster care, sets out to find his kid sister lost in the system, braving gangs, drug dealer, cops, and social workers. I'll talk more about it later, in upcoming posts. In the meantime, look out for my website, which I'm in the process of developing, and newer posts. I'd love to hear from you.