Category: writing advice

Problems with my essay

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If it’s not already obvious, I changed the blog template! Yay! I was tired of the black, blue and other colors the day after I put it up. Really. I love this one. Thanks to Suck My Lolly for providing cool templates.

Soo…I haven’t posted about actual writing in a while. Funny, you’d think it would be all I posted about. But no. Posts have been book-oriented instead of craft related. That’s changing for today.

Right now, I’m NOT working on book stuff. Gasp! Instead, I’m writing an essay and am lining up interviews for an assignment. The essay is making me angry/confused/angsty/think I need to go back to school. I’ve been attempting to write it since…(checks date on Word doc) August 11. 8-11! How sad.

I’ve started it multiple times and scrapped the entire thing at least twice. It has to be under 1000 words, which isn’t the problem. What IS my/the essay’s prob?

Past and current problems include:

* A wide scope (C’mon. I *know* to focus on one issue in such a short piece. But no! I ran off in 3 directions within two paragraphs. Madness.)

* Too much time passes (Again, I got lost in my jumbled timeline and skipped back and forth through too many years of my life. It gave ME a headache.)

* Writing what I think the mag wants (Dangerous. I thought I’d stopped doing that years ago. Apparently not.)

* Not writing what I want (Related to note above.)

* Having a jumbled essay where I try to say what I really feel without hurting anyone’s feelings (No need to be mean, and I’m not, but I want the essay to be honest.)

* Worrying about putting something too personal “out there” and not being able to take it back later (What’s “too personal” anymore, anyway?)

* Making too many general statements (I need to be specific and make the essay mine.)

At least I know what some of the problems are, right? 🙂

Advice up at NaNoWriMo

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Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, emailed me last week and asked me to give my advice for the “I Wrote a Novel, Now What?” section of the NaNoWriMo Website.

My advice is up!

Here’s what I said:

Up next, Jessica Burkhart. Twenty-one year old Jessica Burkhart’s debut middle-grade novel, Take the Reins, her 2006 NaNoNovel, hits stores in January 2009 from Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin MIX. When asked the same time travel question as S.A. Boodeen, Jessica responded:

I’d advise myself not to panic on December first and think, “Oh, no! This is not a perfect draft that’s ready to be sent to an agent this instant! I’ve failed NaNo!” Umm, no. The goal of NaNoWriMo was NOT to write a perfectly polished in 30 days. The objective was to draft a novel in a month. I did that. I’ve got 50,000-words that might not be poetic or dazzling, but there is a draft that’s ready for editing.

I’d remind myself of one of my favorite sayings—“You can’t edit a blank page.” I’d tell myself to celebrate the fact that I have a draft and that it’s okay to take a few days off before plunging ahead to editing. Let the manuscript breathe. It’ll still be there next week.

Finally, I’d encourage myself not to be disheartened by the people who would eventually tell me, “There’s no way a book written in 30 days will ever be published!” C’mon, we all know that’s not true. I’d tell myself to direct those people to the roster of published NaNo authors. It’s an encouraging list!

Thanks, Chris! See you all in November 2009!