Writing While Ill

By YA author Andrea Buginsky

You know how hard it is to fit writing time in around school. So what happens when you’re sick? Now you’re stuck with makeup work that you don’t feel up to doing and still trying to figure out how to get some writing time in. There are several things you can do to help with your writing even while you’re sick.

     1.   Don’t worry about it.

You’re sick! Take the time you need to recover. Relax, watch TV, listen to music, sleep…whatever you need to do to take care of yourself.

2.      Kill two birds with one stone.

While home from school, you probably have plenty of writing assignments to make up for your English, social studies, and history classes. Use your makeup work as a writing exercise. They’re a great way to work on your spelling, grammar, and writing style.

3.      Catch up on your reading.

You’ve heard plenty of times that writers need to read. While you’re laid up in bed, use the time to catch up on your reading. You don’t have to read your textbooks all the time. Take a break and read some books that are on your To Be Read list. Enjoy!

4.      Use the time to think.

If you have a story you’ve been working on, use your down time while you’re sick to go over the story in your head. You can think through plot and character development, and come up with ideas on where the story should go. Downtime is also a great time to think of new stories you want to write.

5.      Use time management skills.

When the time comes that you’re ready to jump in and work on your makeup work, use your time management skills that you’ve put to good use in your writing endeavors to get the work done. You can reward yourself for completing missed assignments by giving yourself free writing time in between.

When you’re sick and missing school, don’t make matters worse by worrying about losing writing time. Take care of yourself and use your downtime wisely.

Andrea Buginsky is the author of "The Chosen" and "My Open Heart," both available from Solstice Publishing.

Writing Romance

Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of this lovely day, let's take a look at the love-factor in the books we, well, love.

If you google "writing romance" you'll get a long list of helpful tips. You'll find suggestions on creating your characters, knowing your setting, and wrapping the romance throughout the plot. I love how Ally Sestito adds the "cheese-factor" into the mix, or rather warns against it. Ever read a book where the romance dripped with so much sweetness it sent you searching for a wet-wipe? That's the "cheese-factor." You'll want to avoid that. Then there's the steam element, can you write a romance scene that grabs the readers heart or do you write the ones that leave them feeling jipped? (This is so me, I struggle with the romance scenes. That's why I did a lot of research, before I wrote this post :).

Just like finding that perfect Valentine's date, writing YA romance can be a bit tricky. You don't want to write romance that leaves the reader feeling like you just spent time with a fake and you don't want to write romance that leaves the reader creeped-out and looking for every available exit door. You want to write romance that makes a reader watch the main character's texts and wonder why he hasn't gotten back to her, yet. So what do we need to keep in mind when writing romance or romantic scenes? All the articles I read touched on one common point. Keep it real. From the characters to the setting to the design of the cover, keep it believable.

Make the characters live, eat, and breathe in the minds of the readers. Give them normal characteristics the reader can identify with, good and bad. Show us their physical and mental reactions to the events of your book. Make them people a reader will miss when the story is over. If you do this, readers will feel what the character feels, including love and hate (an equally powerful emotion).

The plot is fundamental. This is where the events, problems, situations, and conflicts in life will press your characters together, rip them apart, and just when we can't stand having them apart any longer, it'll pull them together with a death-grip. There are two main romance threads you'll see in writing articles: romance that rides through conflict, gaining strength through the process and romance that is born from hatred (either mutual or one-sided). Romance that rides the wave, is the kind that brings two characters together early in the book. They have to survive the insurmountable in order to make it to the end of the story. And when they make it to the end, they have a deeper love than when they started. Think the Twilight Series, by Stephanie Meyers Oh, they had their moments, but we all knew they never really hated each other.

Then there's the romance born out of hatred. Because opposites can magnetize readers, this can be a very effective plot tool for a romance novel. This plot involves one or both main characters disliking, even hating, the other, but a conflict arises that forces them to work together and as they conquer (or fail) they find their feelings take on a new direction. They see things in the other they hadn't seen before; things they like. Think Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi. There exists a distrust and dislike in at least one of the characters from the beginning which changes as the story unfolds. (These plots can be combined to make a together-apart-together-apart-together plotline in any pattern of your choosing--you get the picture:).

Dialogue. If you fill your romance scene with oodles of "oh, honey pork-chops," we're liable to run for higher ground. But if the dialogue is like watching a super movie, the reader becomes part of the story, captivated by the romance you've created. The reader becomes engaged! This is where the "cheese-factor" becomes an essential watch-label. I encourage you to read Ally's article and keep that dialogue far from sounding like the things your parent's say just to gross you out.

Whether you write contemporary romance or YA dystopian, you are bound to bump into the occasional romance scene. If the google-experts are right, and they usually are, remember to keep the moment realistic, in character, fitting to plot, and be believable. How do you do that? Well, I wish I could give you a step-by-step method, but in truth it takes practice. And lots of critiques.

Now it's your turn...

What is the number one irritation in a bad romance scene? (What makes it bad?) What makes a good romantic scene sing?
Where do you go for romance writing resources?
**My favorite ? of the day** Should every story have a romantic element, even if it's a small one?

Just Released: Amazon.com

Midnight Oil: Asking the gods for a favor

It's time to start talking about oil. Midnight Oil, that is. The color of the font is close to the color of the magical oil that can be used at midnight on the day of summer solstice. What's it for? Probably a lot of things. It's the WD-40 of magical ointments. However, in the YA fantasy of the same name, it's for healing ailments that cannot otherwise be cured.

Let's take a brief hop to the island Novaya Zemlya (and another important place described further down in this post) which is the extension of the Ural Mountains into the Barents Sea, Arctic Ocean, and Kara Sea way above the Arctic Circle. I wonder if this is the only island surrounded by three separate seas? Hm. Have to look that up.

The occupants are the Nenets, an indigenous tribe of hunters similar to the Eskimo and Inuits of North America. Their close cousins, the Samis, are also in the vicinity stretching across northern Siberia, Finland, and into the Finnmark region of Norway.

The Samis make up the paternal side of my heroine's family. If you read Bad Spelling, you'd also know that Kat's boyfriend is a Sami (formerly a troll changeling).

The unfortunate the Nenets have a problem, a big problem. Russian nuclear testing in the 1950's left about as much radiation spread about as the explosion of Chernobyl. The Cold War certainly made major nations do some really stupid things.

In Midnight Oil, the radioactive has caused the Nenets' children born after the nuclear period to mutate. No, they didn't change into giant spiders. However, they were deformed and sick. The Nenets didn't get a lot of help from the former Soviet Union. Left to their own devices, they worked out that only one thing would save them; return them to normalcy: The Midnight Oil.

Therein lies a part of the tale. It's up to Rune (Kat's smarty-pants younger half-brother, who also happens to be half-vampire) and Ivansi (Kat's Sami grandfather) to first ask the Nenets gods where the oil is. The gods reside on a small island south of Novaya Zemlya called Hebidya Ya. You can see why it is called the Easter Island of the arctic with shrines to the various gods (illustrated on the map). Rune and Ivansi have to find the right god's pyramidal altar. The afflicted Nenets supply a totem to lead them.

After that, they have to steal the Midnight Oil from the forest elemental who happens to have it stored in her root cellar. Ajatar, however, is not a kindly elemental who'd be happy to help the distraught Nenets. Oh, no. Her mind is set on destroying her sister, another elemental spirit. In the meantime, Kat has been lost at sea along with her frozen father's block of ice. Yes, that's a bit odd, but it really does have a logical explanation.

You might be thinking that this plot is worthy of Days of Our Lives in complexity. Not really. Nobody has been married more than twice. Nobody has an identical cousin, and very few people have died and been resurrected (well, one).

Okay, maybe it is as complicated as a soap opera. But it's a lot more fun and filled with puns. I hope you'll want to read it when it's published next month.

EXCERPT:

Rune gazed toward the island the Nenets called the Home of the Gods. He noted, with some discomfort, that it teemed with people. This wasn’t going to be an easy drop-in, say hi to the gods, and ask where the Midnight Oil might be found.

“Ivansi.” Rune pointed to a small inlet further south on the shore. “Head that way. Fewer people around.”

Ivansi complied, steering the motorboat southward, angling in toward the land. He ran the boat up on the beach. Here, at least, there were some low-lying shrubs. Rune jumped off the bow with the mooring line and pulled the rope toward a sufficiently large, although ragged, bush. He grabbed the main trunk and tugged. It seemed firmly rooted, so he lashed the line close to the ground. Sucking on his finger scratched by the nasty bush, Rune swore under his breath. His own blood didn’t tempt his vampiric hunger. It just plain old hurt to get scratched by thorns.

While he was doing that, Ivansi left the boat, too. He held the Nenets totem high in his right hand and slowly turned, waiting for the totem to show him the way to go.

“Like a water witch, eh?”

Ivansi nodded and continued the slow scan of the island. The totem pulled his arm downward. Ivansi nodded in the direction it pointed. Rune joined the older man, and they set off across the rocky, barren landscape.

They walked about a hundred yards inland, when Ivansi stopped, looking puzzled. The totem pointed in a different direction. He held it up and tried the slow turn again. The totem pointed; Ivansi followed. Again, the totem changed direction. He tried a few more times, but the totem kept pointing a different direction every time he took a few steps.

Rune extended his hand. “Let me try. Maybe I can get a feel for what it’s trying to say.” He held the totem up as Ivansi had and turned. When it pointed, he pulled it back upright and turned some more. The totem seemed to be telling them the gods were all over this island, not just in a single spot.

"Oh, great. Now which way should we go?” Rune scratched his head with the totem. It slipped from his hand, and he grabbed for it, but the totem took off. Rune jogged after it. “Hey! Wait up!”

* * * * *

MIDNIGHT OIL - Book 2 of the Witches of Galdorheim
Shipwrecked on a legendary island, how can a witch rescue her boyfriend if she can’t even phone home?

Kat discovers that an evil forest spirit has kidnapped her brand-new boyfriend. She sets out with her brother, Rune, from her Arctic island home on a mission to rescue the boy. Things go wrong from the start. Kat is thrown overboard during a violent storm, while her brother and his girlfriend are captured by a mutant island tribe. The mutants hold the girlfriend hostage, demanding that the teens recover the only thing that can make the mutants human again–the magical Midnight Oil.

Mustering every bit of her Wiccan magic, Kat rises to the challenge. She invokes her magical skills, learns to fly an ultralight, meets a legendary sea serpent, rescues her boyfriend, and helps a friendly air spirit win the battle against her spiteful sibling. On top of it all, she’s able to recover the Midnight Oil and help the hapless mutants in the nick of time.

Links:
by Marva Dasef http://mgddasef.blogspot.com/
MuseItUp Buy Page: http://tinyurl.com/6wswbsf
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006UTL54A
Midnight Oil Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdfNTVeMS1s
The cover is featured on February 4th You Gotta Read Cover Contest. Voting Feb. 21st-26th.

Colloquialisms...

When writing fantasy we are always looking for ways to bring color, culture and a unique perspective to the world we create.

Although we try to avoid clichés, we can often change or use colloquialisms to add flavor to our writing.

Downunder we have our own set of sayings that are common to our language. As we travel around we come across more colorful and inventive words and phrases to add to available material. It often happens that until my editor questions a certain turn of phrase, I don’t even realize it is an Australian colloquialism.

Anyhow... today I hope we can share some of our sayings. This is a lighthearted topic so please feel free to share your favorite sayings too. If you could mention where they originate from, that would be awesome.

For this article I asked friends for help. Here is what I gathered. I wonder if they are only used here in Australia, or more widely. They seem like common English to me.

Dry as a dead dingo’s donger.  (thirsty or a time of drought) 

Flat out like a lizard drinking.   (busy)

Going off like a frog in a sock.   (upset) 

Running around like a chook without its head. (disorganized)

Tight as a fish swimming backwards. (miserly)

A man on a galloping horse wouldn’t notice the difference. (it will do)

Not the brightest light in the harbor. (harbour in Australia :))

Not the sharpest crayon in the pack.

Two bob short of a quid. (stupid)

How’s that for a bunch of bananas? (good)

Same old, same old. (the usual) 

Good and proper. Used in “You got me good and proper.” (you win)

It stinks like a koala’s backside. (bad smell)

It could kill a brown dog.  (bad taste/smell)

Kick up a stink. (make a fuss)

It’s a dog’s breakfast. (mess)

On the blink. (broken)

As slow as a month of Sundays.  Or

Slow as a wet week. (Time dragging)

Would blow a dog of a chain. (windy)

Don’t get your knickers in a knot. (calm down)

Be that as it may… (offering another point of view)

Makes no never mind. (doesn’t matter)

Don’t get off your bike, I’ll pick up the pump. (calm down)

Words can have two meanings even within the same country. For a simple example ‘scallops’ in NSW are potato coated in batter and deep fried. In Victoria, our neighbor state, scallops are a type of sea food while ‘potato cakes’ are potato coated in batter and deep fried. It makes it confusing when you order incorrectly.  :)

And finally, in answer to Murphy’s Law… I heard of Sod’s Law, “Even if something can’t go wrong, it does go wrong.”

So, now it’s your turn. Do you have any local terms or sayings would you like to share?

******************************************

This article has appeared on FANTASY FACTION where the response and shared sayings was terrific. If you would like to see a few more colorful sayings.. take a moment to read the comments there!! They come from around the globe and some will make you laugh, a warning though, some could make you blush.

Lady Rosalie Skinner is the author of The Chronicles of Caleath, three books in the series now available as ebooks. Book Four coming soon... from Museitup Publishing.

Taking that Next Step

You've done it. Finished an entire manuscript, poem, article, short story, etc. Hours of polishing, reading, critiquing, rereading, and perfecting your work produced something you're proud of and ready to share. If you're at this point, congratulations! Now it's time to really get to work. There are lots of publishers and editors that work with young writers, just like you, but you've got to take that next step. Time to query.

What's a query? Great question. In a nutshell, a query is a business letter in which an author presents their work to an agent, editor, or publisher in a concise and clear manner. The typical query may contain three sections: a summary of the writing offered, a brief market comparison/analysis, and an author's references. There are many varieties within the body of a query, but these three elements tend to be commonplace and desirable from the perspective of the agent/editor/publisher.

Let's take a look at each element in turn. The summary is just that, a summary of what your story, article, or poem is about. It needs to be written clearly with attention given to the specifics from your story that might catch the curiosity of the letter's reader. Some authors write brilliant summaries that read like the back cover blurbs of the best books. For others, like myself, condensing an entire story into a few sentences that portray the voice of my characters, capture the attention of the reader, and add just enough specific information is more of a nightmare than harsh critiques. For those in that camp, Nathan Bransford has developed a wonderful formula to get you started. Check it out: Query Letter MadLib.

The second element, the market comparison and/or analysis, may or may not be required by the individual you are querying. The requirements of each agent/editor/publisher can typically be found on their submissions or guidelines page. I highly recommend reading that page before submitting a query of any sort to ensure your query will be given the attention you desire. If they ask for either the comparison or the analysis, include it. It's a bit of footwork on your part, but worth the effort as it shows your willingness to play by the rules and do the work required by the person you're querying. With that written, what is this analysis/comparison thing? An analysis is an overview of where your work fits into the publishing market. Where would the bookstore put your book? Which genre does it fit into? Which reader would be interested? Why would those readers be interested in your piece? A market comparison may include some of the same information an analysis contains, but it should also contain other titles you would consider similar to your own. What other books would readers who like your book be apt to read? (Great stuff on the analysis/comparison thing.)

The third, and often final section of a query letter, is about you. Who are you and why are you the perfect person to write the manuscript you wrote? What would you bring to the marketing table if you were published? Are you published already? Do you speak publicly? Do you have a social network platform? In essence, the publishing world wants to know if you are the right person to write the piece and if you have clout with potential buyers. (The how-to on writing bios.) Don't worry if you don't have shiny credentials or tons of money-wielding followers. All though those are helpful, there are many success stories of authors who simply left this section with, "this is my first novel."

Now, you've got the basics and it's up to you to write the query. But, if writing this type of correspondence has you tied up in knots, there are several places you can go for query critiques and suggestions. First, make sure to click-thru the links mentioned above. There are lots of great information on those pages and beyond. Also, query critiques can be done through online forums like nextgenwriters.com and during MuseItUp's online conference scheduled every fall.


Are you at the querying stage? What's the hardest part of the query for you to write? Where do you go for query help? Who do you hope to query?

How to Avoid Creating Stereotypical Characters

How to Avoid Creating Stereotypical Characters

So you’ve come up with a genius idea for a new story, you’re itching to get writing, and you’re sure once you’re finished some bigwig in Hollywood is going to get on the phone and ask to turn your piece of fiction into the next blockbuster movie.

But hang on a minute. Have you noticed something? Just in the above paragraph alone we’ve created two rather stereotypical characters:

1. The Writer who thinks theirs is the best idea ever to have been dreamt up.
2. The bigwig Hollywood producer desperate for a new project.

Without hardly having written anything about these two characters, we bet you’ve got an idea of what they look like already set up in your mind’s eye. Let’s see – does the writer chew on the end of their pencil, sit at a desk by a window gazing out at the scene below which they are somehow so far removed from? Is the Hollywood bigwig snacking on a big ring donut, leaning back on his chair in a plush corporate office?
Thought so.

Haven’t we seen these two characters a thousand times before? The answer is yes, because they’re stock characters – or stereotypes. The reader basically already knows their every move, mannerism, and wardrobe choice before the person (who believes they’ve only just been created from the inner recesses of their mind) puts them down on paper.

It’s fair to say that at some point in a writer’s career they’ll have stumbled on, or resorted to using a stereotype. While leaning back on their recliner sectional they’ll have been chewing on that pen for too long, made too many cups of coffee, and because their mind has gone blank, they’ll have resorted to using a stock character. We’ve all been there, we’ve all done it, so how do we go about trying not to fall into that same trap ever again?

Exercises

In the world around us stereotypes rarely exist. On the surface it might seem like someone’s a stereotype but dig a little deeper and you’re bound to discover that they’ve actually got character traits you’d never have pinned down on them. So first off, do this –

• People watch
Step away from your desk, head out into the real world, grab a coffee at a coffee shop and pitch up at a window seat. Watch people - make notes, notice how people act, behave, respond and describe what they’re wearing.

• Play the Guessing Game
While you’re still in the coffee shop, take a look around you and see if you can guess what people do just by looking at them and watching their mannerisms. Obviously, try and be a little subtle about this – it can get annoying when people are staring for no reason! Then, if you’re brave enough and those people aren’t busy you could simply ask them what they do and see whether you’re right.

• People you Know
Think about people you already know. Jot down notes about them and see how complex they are (or aren’t – depending on the people you mix with!) Could they, at first sight, seem like a bit of a stereotype? If so, think hard about other elements of their character that don’t fit in with this image.

Your Story

Another way to make sure you avoid creating stereotypes in your work is to ensure you are not just using a character to advance a story point.

Most characters in stories need their own story arc – they can’t just appear merely to push the story on.
This might sound like a whole lot of work, but then writing isn’t easy. Characters need to be fully rounded and there for a purpose. If they appear as if from nowhere the reader’s going to know straight away that something’s not right. This character will stick out like a sore thumb. Weave your characters into your story lines and they’ll become the fabric of the tale not just a device.

If in Doubt

Finally, if you’re in any doubt you think you’ve created a stereotypical character, take a long hard look at them. If they really are as two-dimensional as you think, then it’s time to pull them apart and build them back together again. For a list of questions to ask your characters have a look at this character questionnaire. Once you’ve answered all these questions you’ll have worked out who your character is and got past those stereotypical tendencies.

fReado: A Fun Place for Readers and Authors

fReado is the world’s biggest book-winning site for book lovers. To win books, you play a simple game, accumulate points and use those points to bid for prizes (including Kindles and iPads).

One of the fun games is called Covermatcher where you match book cover and can win books. This game is great for authors because it gets exposure for your cover and good for readers because you can find new covers to investigate.

Another game is Hangman. Based on a wide variety of topics, you answer several items to acquire points. And authors can create games in order to display their cover art.

And recently the website added Quick Quizzes. For an author you create a five-question quiz on any topic. At the bottom of each answer page your book appears! Ten times! For readers, it’s just a game and a way to accumulate points which allows the player to choose prizes.

It’s win-win and fun-fun.

As an author, I pay $9 a month to showcase my Odessa cover, but I have created quizzes advertising all of my books as well as Facebook pages. This site is worth every penny for the exposure I receive. I also receive weekly emails listing how many times my cover was shown and how many clicks it received.