Tag Archive for 'nathan stinkin bransford'

special advice

Published on June 16, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , , . ______________________________________

Foolproof system for becoming an author:

  • Write only on whims. Only when you feel like it. Never when you’re not in the zone.
  • Take regular (every 30 seconds) breaks for twitter, texting, yawning, tv, and chocolate.
  • Eat popcorn while you work. It’s easy to type with one hand, and that butter on your keyboard is like grease on the cogs of your imagination.
  • Tell your critique buddy you’ll have something to them by a certain date and then take an extra 2 weeks. Writers never meet deadlines.

at least that’s what’s worked for me. teehee.

syke.

Now for the real meat of this post (double syke):

courtesy of Kari, my sweet, here are 3(3) random things about me. (I might not do this right…)

  • 3 things I like to eat: Chipotle veggie bowls with guac, Five Guys’ Cajun fries, Coldstone cake batter ice cream with brownies and cookie dough mix-ins. (Shameful, I know.)
  • 3 famous people I wish I was friends with: C.S. Lewis, Brandon Boyd (seriously I made a comic strip all about our adventures we’d have), Nathan Bransford.
  • 3 songs that always make me happy: About A Burning Fire by Blindside, Everything is Alright by Motion City Soundtrack, Anna Molly by Incubus, Cute without the E by Taking Back Sunday (I don’t know why bc it’s kinda a sad song), Hey Ya by Outkast. Darn. I failed that one. So many more than 3. I could go on and on. Man, those songs made me feel old. I’m not old yet!!!.
  • 3 unusual hobbies I have: Rock stealing collecting, climbing trees and smelling the leaves, hiding behind things and scaring loved ones.
  • 3 favorite colors: GREEN, teal, eggplant.
  • 3 favorite kinds of shoes: (In order of preference) Flip flops, slippers, cowboy boots.
  • 3 people I tag for this: you, you, and you. Just do it. I don’t like to pick favorites. Besides, I don’t think C.S. Lewis, Brandon Boyd and Nathan Bransford would play along.

And now for my contest entry::::::

TESSA GRATTON TAMES LIONS (and she writes books, too!)
visit her at tessagratton.com

You should so enter the contest, too, because I want to see your cartoons, and cause you can win a Linger ARC or other coooool books.

have a beautiful day!!

peace♥

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How to be a good reviser

Published on April 19, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , . ______________________________________

As Nathan Bransford says, revision in semi-important.  I am going through like my 5th terrible, yucky, draining, life-killing revision, and I thought, Shouldn’t this be easier?”

So I looked up all these easy ways, and I thought  that today I would share tips for a super fast, super excellent revision process.  Seriously, these will sike you out of your mind:

.

  • Insert your personal opinions in rants and long, forced character soliloquies. This is per Mary Kole again. Your readers what to know your every whim, and they won’t mind taking a break from the plot for a few minutes to get a look inside your genius brain.
  • If you don’t have an extensive prologue, you need one. Agent Kristen says you need to fill those readers in on every bit of backstory possible!
  • Just writing he said and she said is way too boring and old fashioned.  Spice it up with words like expostulated, admonished, objected, and best of all, remonstrated.  See how colorful that is??? Barry Lyga is great at this.
  • Don’t worry about little things like plot.  If your writing is edgy enough, (which is a big deal per YA highway), no one will notice if little Billy has no real purpose in the story.

If you follow these tips, you’re sure to have your revision done in one easy sweep and be snatched up by top agents in no time.  Good luck!

Told you it was a sike.

But this isn’t a sike: Wednesday we have a very special interview with none other than the Honorable Queen of Funny and Sarcasm herself, T.H. Mafi. Yay!

Peace♥
***Oh wait.  I almost forgot to tell you about this contest. Super cool from a super cool 16 yr old author!

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In case you’re feeling like giving up because you might be crazy and why did I become a writer anyways…

Published on March 30, 2010 in Writing Tags: , , , , , , , . ______________________________________

We all have bad days.

Even Natalie Whipple, who is talented enough to land the awesome Nathan Brandsford as an agent, struggles with writer self-esteem and has some great points to make about it. Like the fact that you wouldn’t be a writer if you didn’t think you had something to offer.

Nate the Great himself has some encouraging words about frustration and negativity. I especially like his part about the power of the spoken “whatever.”

Neil Gaiman. Yes, even Neil Gaiman has considered giving up. He has a hilarious pep talk on the NANOWRIMO website. Seriously, I am a shark, and you cannot even wallow in the uniqueness of your despair because, like, everyone gets that way. (That sentence makes more sense once you read the article. I promise.) Continue reading ‘In case you’re feeling like giving up because you might be crazy and why did I become a writer anyways…’

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