Join me over at the YA~NA Sisterhood blog, where I'm talking about how I get in the zone to create kid characters readers care about. Make sure you leave a comment about your favorite younger characters or share your best tips, too!
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Hey, everyone! I'm taking a break from editing DANIEL THE DRAWER's sequel to post on the YA~NA Sisterhood Blog. The YA~NA Sisterhood is a blog designed for readers and writers of Young Adult and New Adult fiction. I'm a contributor there, and today was my very first published post.
In The Birth of Your Book, I mash up my two professions, writing and birth work, with some amusing results. Check it out, doula's orders. While you're there, join our Book Club. February's pick is WHITE SPACE by Ilsa J. Bick, sure to be a creepy good time. The more book nerds, the merrier! Pssssst!
Today I'm visiting over at Sharon Ledwith's blog, talking about all kinds of weird and funny stuff, as usual. Head on over there and say hi, and enter my giveaway for an ebook or audiobook version of DANIEL THE DRAW-ER. Today we're taking a break from chattering about books and giveaways and silly characters (OH MY!) to talk nerdy to the writers in the house--specifically those looking for agent representation (querying authors) or those dragging themselves along the bumpy, winding road toward publication. I've asked my friend Kathleen S. Allen to drop a little knowledge about what she's learned about writing contests, which definitely is not my area of expertise. Thanks, Kathleen, for sharing with us what you've learned along the way. Writing Contests: A Writer's Dream Or a Writer's Nightmare?By Kathleen S. Allen-YA author Welcome, thank you for asking me to post a blog about writing contests. I’m a pro at entering them. It started three years ago when I entered my first ever writing contest, PitchWars, run by Brenda Drake three years ago. I entered a middle grade zombie book and was not chosen, although one of the mentors I subbed to said I was in her top five. Then I entered the same manuscript into Baker’s Dozen and didn’t get chosen. I kept querying and got some requests but no agent. Finally, I had to shelve the manuscript because zombies are a “dead” genre right now. Pun intended. Next, I entered several more contests, The Writer’s Voice, PitchMadness, Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, PitchMAS, Secret Agent Contests on three different blogs, plus Twitter parties galore like #pitmad and #adpit and #SFFpit. This time I had a historical novel I workshopped quite a bit and did get requests but again, no agent. My next book was a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera and I thought it would garner me an agent for sure. Again, I entered it into contests, Like A Virgin in January of this past year and was chosen. I got three requests but no deal. I finally shelved it too after getting feedback on it. Was I frustrated? Yes. Did I want to quit writing? Yes, but only for a day. Would I enter another contest? NO, NEVER. Except, I did. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, contests on the Interwebs is Brenda Drake’s PitchWars contest. She’s done it for three years in a row and I’ve entered all three years. The first year I entered the MG zombie book, the second year an urban fantasy about witches and this year a young adult dark contemporary. In this contest you get to work one-on-one with a mentor for several weeks to make your manuscript the best it can be and then submit to agents. Many people get agents from this contest but even if you’re not chosen to have a mentor, most of them will give you feedback on why you weren’t chosen, so that’s a plus. She always has a Twitter pitch party to go along with the contest too and those are always fun to see if an agent favors your pitch. This year, the pitch party is on Sept. 9th and only for those who DIDN’T get into Pitch Wars. #PitMad 8AM-8PM, EDT. In this pitch party, you write your best 140 character pitch, including your stakes for agents/editors to favor. If you see a pitch you like, you retweet it, only agents and editors are supposed to click on “favorite.” And you must change up your pitches because Twitter won’t post the same tweet twice. Is entering a contest better than querying? No, not necessarily. It’s important to do both. The one positive aspect of entering contests is all the other writers you meet who are just as anxious as you are to get your writing noticed. It helps to find other writers who will beta read your work for you (and you do the same for them) or find your Critique Partner who will read ANYTHING you write and comment on it. Usually you learn what mentors are looking for via the hashtag #PitchWars as they go through their slush piles, what works, what doesn’t work, how to hook them and so on. It’s a treasure trove of information. There are so many more contests now then when I started entering them. My rule is to enter three with the same manuscript (if it gets chosen) and then retire from contests. It is important to note you MUST HAVE A COMPLETED, POLISHED MANUSCRIPT TO ENTER. You can’t have an unpolished, unedited (must be edited by at least three people, not family members) first draft. So, no NaNoWriMo novels (National Novel Writing Month in November, write a 50.000 word novel in thirty days) or Works in Progress (WIPs). My latest novel, a YA dark contemporary I’m querying and entering into contests has been in two contests so far. Operation Awesome secret agent contest, it got a partial request from an agent I’m waiting to hear back from, another full request and a partial request. I got a full request from a Twitter pitch party although that agent passed on it. So, the bottom line is this: enter contests, get feedback, apply the feedback if it feels right, keep querying too (unless the contest forbids it) and keep going. You’ll never achieve your dreams if you quit! Here’s a list of contests and months they’re going on: · PITCHWARS-August, 2014 see Brenda Drake’s blog for more info: www.brenda-drake.com. #PitMad on Sept. 9th, 2014. · PITCHPLUS5-August, 2014, run by Adventures in YA Publishing. The contest info is here: http://adventuresinyacontests.blogspot.com · NIGHTMARE ON QUERY STREET-October, 2014 see Michelle Hauck’s website: www.michelle4laughs.blogspot.com · BAKER’S DOZEN: www.misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com This one has an entry fee of $10.00. Authoress also runs monthly secret agent contests except for June and December that are free and does blog critiques. · SUN VS. SNOW-January, 2015, this is another one run by Michelle Hauck at www.michelle4laughs.blogspot.com · LIKE A VIRGIN-January, 2015, see this for more info: http://likeavirgin.kristinaperez.com/ · THE WRITER’S VOICE-Feb./March, 2015, this one is co-hosted by Brenda Drake and others on this blog: www.monibw.blogspot.com · QUERY KOMBAT in May, run by www.michelle4laughs.blogspot.com Monthly Contests/Ongoing: · AN AGENT’S INBOX-run by Krista Van Dolzer, see her blog for more info: www.kristavandolzer.com · OPERATION AWESOME-They do monthly secret agent contests. See their blog for more info: www.operationawesome6.blogspot.com · ADVENTURES IN YA, run several including a workshop and first lines contest: http://www.adventuresinyapublishing.com/p/contests-workshops.html · WRITE ON CON, this is an online conference in August, 2014 but there are agents who swing by and might request pages. http://www.writeoncon.com And I’m probably missing some but keep an eye on Twitter for upcoming contests. Follow these contest people on Twitter: @brendadrake, @michelle4laughs, @OpAwesome6, @AuthoressAnon, @KristaVanDolzer, @martinaAboone, @FeakySnucker, @RhiannWynnNolet So, is entering a writing contest a dream or a nightmare? Tell me in the comments your experiences with writing contests. MY MANTRA And even though: Remember: About KathleenKathleen has published two murder mysteries If It’s Monday, It Must be Murder and If It’s Tuesday, It Must be Trouble, along with a YA contemporary, How To Be Almost Famous in Ten Days with Gypsy Shadow Publishing and two YA fantasy novels,Lore of Fei and War of Fei with Muse It Up Publishing. She has a Master’s in Children’s Literature with an emphasis in creative writing for YA. Connect with KathleenWebsite
Tumblr blog Amazon Author Central page Books available online and in print Book trailers available on You Tube Storybird Wattpad stories Each week, I've committed to networking my readers with other authors who are also building their readership. As far as I'm concerned, that's a win-win. They get to tell a new set of people about their stories, and maybe you find your next favorite book (after mine, butofcourse! Wink, wink). At least one day per week, I'll take a break from promoting my wonderful author cronies to share a little bit about me, what I'm working on, and all kinds of other good bookish stuff. I thought I'd kick this weekly segment off by addressing a FWQ--a frequently-wondered question. I think the term "FAQ" is so overdone, don't you? So, FWQ it is. "Where did you come up with the idea for that character?" Well, dear reader, that's a wonderful question, and not one I always have a brilliant answer for. When I was writing my Children's/Middle Grade book, DANIEL THE DRAW-ER, so many of the ideas for the silliest of creatures came from the cobwebby recesses of my brain, with no real idea how they got there in the first place. A few of the characters--the best characters, really--were based on people and animals I know and love. It makes me so happy to know that you know and love them, too, and you appreciate all of their unique quirks. Instead of pouring out every one of my secrets at once, I will break them up into separate blog posts, to be doled out like bread crumbs in coming weeks. And, in the spirit of building up momentum, I'd like to start things off slow and low-key. Our first victim... ahem, I mean, subject will be Tommy, the guy you all love to loathe. TommyTommy is the loser boyfriend of Daniel's older sister, Lila. Tommy's claim to fame is his shabby, poorly-designed facial hair, gross aroma, and his enthusiasm for arm punching poor Daniel. This guy's also not real great with important info, such as names. In short, he's a little bit of the worst. It was brought to my attention recently that one of my brothers-in-law read Tommy's description in my book and thought he might be the inspiration for such a lovely, wholesome character. If he identifies with Tommy, then shame on him. Just kidding. Maybe. Tommy is based on a combination of bad boyfriends my sisters went through. Most of those guys were short-lived, cute but empty-headed, with not enough interest in a bratty little sister to take the time to say hello, or even learn my name (not even a "Fritz"!). His signature arm punch was actually drawn from a particularly traumatic experience I had. No, none of those guys punched me, although I'm sure a few of them wanted to. One guy who looked at least four years too old for my sister, with the gross mustache not helping his cause, came over to our house to hang out. I remember him pinning me under a bean bag chair (yeah, we were a bean bag family), and tickling me until I peed my pants. Adults always warn about that kind of stuff happening--"Stop! Or she'll pee her pants!"--but you don't think it'll ever happen to you until it happens. And then you're eternally mortified, and you have to get back at all of the skeezy sister's boyfriends in the world by immortalizing their misdeeds in print. Forever. Then you make it all worse by telling the world that somebody tickled you past the point of no return... Okay, I'm going to stop now. The Tommies from my past usually weren't rockstar wannabes, but most of them considered themselves to be cooler than they actually were. I think we all think that about ourselves, some of us are just better than Tommy (and my sisters' exes) at keeping it on the down-low.
I hope you enjoyed taking a deeper look into the story behind one of my characters. Make sure you check back next week for another installment of "Names Changed To Protect the Innocent". If you're on Pinterest, please join me over there and let me know what you think of when you read my stories. I always love to see how readers visualize my characters! You're usually far more creative than I am! Until then, keep dreaming... It sounds like the boys are going to bust through the floor of the upstairs bedroom and land in my room, in a cloud of drywall dust and splinters. I check the clock on my laptop, which I've been staring at for at least an hour trying and failing to eek out my usual 400 words per day. "What are they doing? It's almost midnight," I groan. "I can't concentrate with them making all of that noise." It's common knowledge that I struggle to write when I'm in a noisy environment, especially my house. Usually I have to hide in a room in my basement to make any serious headway on a manuscript, but it's difficult to do that when my presence is needed to maintain world peace. At a coffeehouse, the noise belongs to other people. The kids bawling their heads off and the high-pitched whir of the coffee grinder have nothing to do with me. When it's my kids screaming and boring a hole through the floorboards one body-slam at a time, well, I should probably look into that. My husband shakes his head. "You're crazy for trying to write a book during the summer, you know that?" Yeah, I know that. I mean, call me crazy (and he did), but I think it's not such an outlandish idea for my children to maybe, possibly, potentially adhere to a bedtime. And I'll give you a hint, it's not midnight. Lately, it's been playplayplay until they drop from sheer exhaustion. Thank goodness there's three of them, or else they'd expect me to be part of that nonsense. But I digress. Here's the thing: I can't wait. I just can't. To date, I've written four novels and a novella. I'm currently smack-dab in the middle of my second. And guess what? Half of my books have been written during the summer, amidst the usual craziness of kids and horses. The other books were written during November, with holidays and two ever-present children. It's not a great idea, but when I look at my options--writing when my house is empty (which never happens), leaving the house to write (also rare, plus, babysitters. Cha-ching!), writing with WWIII happening all around me, or not writing at all--there really aren't any that make sense. So I grit my teeth and press on with a small goal that keeps me in the writing game without my house crumbling to the foundation. Something will always be there to distract me. A more exciting opportunity will always pop its little head out of the bushes and whisper, "Psssst! C'mere! You can write later!" You all know what I'm talking about. It's like that quote: If I wait for conditions to be perfect, I'll get nothing done. You know the one. I'm sure you've seen it, as I have, splattered all over Facebook and Pinterest and wherever else people post that stuff. Unless I am willing to sleep in till noon (I am) so I can stay up till the wee-est hours of the morning (my favorite time of day, wee-est), I'll rarely wind up with a house quiet enough to let the creative wheels in my brain start, and stay, in motion. It's just not gonna happen. Isn't it the same with everything we do, or want to do? Life isn't going to bend over backwards to make sure we're able to pursue the things we're interested in. That includes our hobbies, sports or exercise, keeping up with loved ones, and basically ALL THE THINGS. I'll give you an example. Last July, I took up running. I don't even know why I did it, I just felt like running. By the time December rolled around, I was up to six-mile runs and hooked. Well, maybe not hooked. That's kind of a strong word to use. I was running, anyway, and then the Polar Vortex came to visit and overstayed its welcome by a few months. Wind chills kept my little corner of Michigan frozen in the sub-zeros. Two days in a row, I recall running four miles in greater than -11 wind chills. Was -11 ideal running weather? Not hardly. But running was the only thing getting me out of the house and keeping me sane, so I did it anyway. Every run day, it took me half an hour to squeeze myself into 50 kajillion layers of clothing to keep my skin from falling off my body and cleats designed for running so I wouldn't pull a Bambi on the icy back roads. When I look back, I don't regret a single moment I spent with chapped lips or frozen badonkadonk. Those moments proved I was stronger than I thought I was, and that I could do anything I put my mind to. Stars rarely align. If you're waiting for sunny and 70 degrees before you throw a saddle on that horse or lace up your running shoes, well, then you've got a good chance of sitting on the couch forever (especially in Michigan). If you're waiting for a quiet house and you've got four kids, you'll be waiting for 18 years. Longer, if your man-child is also waiting for the perfect conditions to land their dream job and move out of your basement. Like Nike has been telling us for decades, we need to "Just Do It". The following is a list of simple ideas I've used to help form my daily habit with writing. Maybe you're struggling with getting the ball rolling with writing as well. Or maybe you need help in other areas of your life. This list, specifically, might not help you there, but you're a smart cookie. I'm sure some of these ideas can be adapted to give you the nudge you need. If not, give me a holler. I'll go all drill sergeant on your hiney. Six Tips For Just Doing It
Leave a comment below sharing your best "Just Do It" tip that keeps you motivated when you just don't wanna. Being an author is hard. Whether you're going it alone as an indie author, or you've snagged an agent and a publishing house, it doesn't matter. It's hard.
I'll stop you before you accuse me of whining. I'm not. For me (and many of my wordgeek friends), writing stories is probably the single-most-amazing thing one can do with a keyboard. Unless you're one of those people who knows how to recreate the Mona Lisa using only binary code or something. Then, yeah, you win. Anyhow, I love writing. I love thinking of crazy stuff and actually putting it into words, sharing it, then having someone tell me that my words made them laugh. Or that they listened to their children giggling together while reading one of my stories. Writing isn't world peace, and it sure isn't the answer to world hunger, but all of that has to start somewhere. A smile. A laugh. Sharing. Sharing. As a writer, there are a few different ways to share. This book publishing thing is new to me, so I'm experimenting with ALLLLLLLLL of the ways there are to share, just to see what happens while I'm sharing and afterwards. A couple of weeks ago, I ran a free promotion on Amazon for my Children's/Middle Grade book, Daniel the Draw-er. Earlier in the month, I also offered "Daniel" for free. Over the span of the month of June, 1,000 people downloaded my book. For free. To the average person, this doesn't make much business sense. I gave away 1,000 copies of a book, or x amount of royalties from actual purchases. The money I didn't earn in those "lost" royalties could have paid my house payment or a car note, or, heck, bought me a new pony if I so desired (I don't. I know, I don't believe it, either). But, between you and me, those 1,000 people aren't buying my book. Those 1,000 people don't know who I am from the other millions of authors currently published on Amazon. I don't have a PR firm paving the way for my success. The only way those people will hear of me is from me. And you, oh fantastical reader. Did I lose sales from someone who likely would have eventually bought my book? Absolutely. It's okay, though. Because something important happened. A small percentage of those 1,000 people who actually opened my eBook and read my words now know that I mean business. They might have smiled and laughed with their kids at bedtime, or from a hospital bed, or on that long plane flight or car trip. They might even look for my name next time they go to buy another book. And maybe, just maybe, they might even trust me. Authors share with other authors, too. I'm not known for my speedy reading unless it's one of those rare un-put-downable books. Most of my friends on GoodReads know that I've been trying to read "The Book Thief" for over seven months, and that I keep starting and putting aside Lauren Oliver's Delerium. Committing to read a book is a really big thing for me, but the writing world is a community, just like any other. Authors, especially indie authors, rely on networking with other writers. If we don't support each other, few will. There is absolutely zero benefit in holing yourself up in your house with only a cellar full of booze to keep you company (although, admit it, we've all dreamed about that at least once). Cutting down another writer, even someone you see as your competition, does NOTHING. It just makes you look like a big, prententious jerkface. A jerkface in a bathrobe with lotsa liquor, but a jerkface, nonetheless. So, guess what? In order to make my community of writers successful, I'm on a mission to not be a gigantic jerkface. My game plan:
If people, not just those of us in the writing and publishing world, would take the time to ask how we can help instead of focusing on "Me! Me! Me!", things could be better. Still not world peace, but, gosh, wouldn't it be a great first step? What about you? Is there a need you have that someone in this community can help you with? I am the little sister in the mosaic of my family. With that title comes a certain reputation: the spoiled one, the brat. I'm sure my siblings would agree with that stereotype. I even agree. It's okay. I've accepted it because, hey, it's okay to be spoiled. Being the baby also comes with its own set of negatives, though. Even though I'm mumble-mumble-mumble years old now, I'm still widely viewed as twelve years old.
As a perennial tweenager, clearly I do not have a career. How could I? I'm a child! All of my years of working with expectant families hasn't counted as a legitimate job. Writing certainly doesn't count, either, because I write in my pajamas while my kids (and usually other neighborhood kids) destroy my house. Plus, I like writing. People don't like their jobs. That's against the rules. But writing is what I want to do with my life. It is what I want as my career, but I don't want to call it my career because that word just sucks the joy out of all of it. But this is what I do. I didn't go to college and rack up student loans to learn how to write. I didn't intern anywhere to prove myself. I merely sat down with a laptop and the words in my head and let them fly off into the atmosphere. Most days it feels like I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but the words are finding other people and doing something so unimaginably far beyond me. This is real. It doesn't feel real at all, but it's real. Half of my family and a great deal of my friends don't really understand the person I've become. They don't appreciate the long nights composing sentences and developing characters. They don't care. Well, maybe they care, but in that disjointed way someone pretends to be interested so feelings won't be hurt. Truth be told, they don't have time for books, they'd rather save themselves the trouble and wait for the movie adaptation. If I waited for these people to open their eyes and see that this is important, even as their 9-5 office job is important, I'd be waiting a long time. Forever, maybe. Is that discouraging? Sure. But I don't let it stop me. I pick myself up, knock the dust off my sandals, and find people who want to support me--and people I will support in return. My Cartel. My Skywriters. My posse. My kindred spirits. . Conditions will never be 100% perfect for me to write, and people in my own village will never fully respect me because they see me that same old bumbling kid, but I'm doing this anyway. What about you? Do your friends and family support your writing or your career goals? Today I visited my boys' school. Two classes and a writing club, to which both of my boys belong. The woman who runs the writing club began the visit by giving me a plant. A pineapple lilac or something. It's purple. And it looks like a pineapple. It's a clever name, really.
"I asked your boys if you were a plant person," she said. "They said no." My boys don't lie. I used to have plants... until the cats chewed every last one of them to bits. There's not a sprig of color in my landscaping, either, because DOGS. And now we have horses in our backyard. So, yeah, maybe someday I'll try to cultivate life again. Today is not that day. Well, except for the really pretty flower thing named after fruit. The writer's group was great, of course. There was so much enthusiasm in that small group. Each of them had written questions on index cards and took turns reading them out loud. I made my boys blush by sharing the bits of "Daniel" based on them, which may be my favorite part of being invited to the school (but don't tell the boys). The teacher spun my answers so that they related to concepts she's been teaching the kids. She left out the part about drinking too much caffeine and popping Cinnamon Fire Jolly Ranchers like they're going out of style. The writing group teacher bought copies for each of the kids who weren't able to buy a copy for themselves, so that was really sweet. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say that out loud, but she did it. I liked it. I'm telling you about it. Then we had cake. Really, really good cake. Chocolate with that whipped cream frosting. I may just sign books for her class, like, every day. Next I spoke with my 10-year-old's class. They read the whole book, but they asked me to read a section out loud for them anyway. We agreed that the part about Whiskers in the tree was the perfect section. I got to talk like a robot and, for a few seconds, a cat spinning on a ceiling fan. My life is weird. One of the kids asked how I came up with the character "Annie", Daniel's best friend. For several years, my son had only one very good friend, a girl who is still in his class. When I told the kids that I had based Annie on a girl they knew, I had to quickly make sure they knew she probably didn't eat worms. I've said my life is weird, haven't I? Just checking. My next stop was my eight-year-old's Second Grade class. They had only made it through eight pages of the book because their teacher hadn't been able to do more than that due to multiple family emergencies the month before. As expected, the kids weren't very excited about me being there. One girl, who spoke in a cute little whisper kept mentioning something about her mom writing a book about ninja ballerinas? At least, I think that's what she said. It was hard to hear over the class next door's Kidz Bop version of "Fireworks". The teacher gave me her microphone thing and let me read a couple chapters of the book. Once I did that, the kids were much more excited about me and "Daniel the Draw-er". I got to use my acting skills to read as Daniel, Annie, Whiskers, Pi-zzabot, Tommy, Lila, Ms. Konkle, and Mr. & Mrs. A. It made me miss drama class. One of the boys from the writing group was there for the reading, too, and he was actually finishing my sentences as I was reading. Like, from memory. Wait. Do I have a fanboy? Because I really want some fanpeople. That's awesome. All in all, 19 books found their new homes, and that makes me happy. I'm pretty sure it would have been more with more notice (or with more reading), but it was a good--and long--visit anyway. And I got cake. Thumbs up, friends. Thumbs up. I'll start this post by admitting that I am, by no stretch of the imagination, an expert on writing. If you came here looking for a secret formula or the nuts and bolts of wordsmithing, well, I'm sorry to say you've come to the wrong place. Crafting a story, and doing it well, entails a lot more than could ever fit on one lousy blog post. Rules. Punctuation. Plots. Dialogue. So much to know before you can actually write. This doesn't align with our instant-gratification world.
You should probably stop here. It's too much work. But what if I told you that you could pick up your favorite pen--c'mon, you know you have a favorite!--or your laptop and GO? You don't have to have the perfect beginning, middle, and end. It's not likely that you'll sit down with a cup of coffee and plunk out War and Peace on that first go. What stares back at you from the page might suck, and "suck" might be the understatement of the century. But even stories sucky-beyond-all-reason can be shaped into something more. A blank page cannot, at least not until your words end up there. Though I've always written for my own enjoyment, I never considered anything would come with it. Writing would be nothing more than a hobby. In 2011, my attitude changed. I wanted to take writing more seriously, to write books instead of rambling blog posts about coffee and kid-induced nervous breakdowns. And then came that day when I said, "Enough! I'm writing a book!" I didn't even have a story in mind, I just followed Chris Baty's advice and wrote the book I wanted to read. My first words after my attitude adjustment were, "I'm what you would call a simple girl, a chameleon." If you think about it, that sentence doesn't make sense at all. Simple girls have nothing in common with ever-changing chameleons. And, if we're being real, it's a bit cliche to call yourself "simple". But those flawed words led to over 200,000 more. With a lot of hard, literally hands-on work, they have grown into stronger, more flexible versions of themselves. That never would have happened if I'd let the blank screen call my bluff. I wade through the suck every time I sit down to write, and you will, too. In the end, it's not about whether the writing is excellent or cringe-worthy. It's about letting the ideas out of your head and seeing what happens. It's getting past saying, "I always wanted to write a book/story/article/whatever" to actually doing it. I can't read through that first manuscript without feeling sick to my stomach at its sheer awfulness, but I didn't let it stop me. That sheer awfulness became the first of three books in my Hope Creek series, which gained the attention of a publisher. While that might not happen for you, you can't possibly know for sure if you don't write that first word. And then the next. And then the one after that, and so on. My advice to you? Go forth. Write all the horrible, wrong words. Laugh at yourself, and don't give up. That's truly all it takes to be a writer. |
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