DON'T GIVE UP--Guest Post by Amy Sonnichsen

I'm so excited to introduce my guest blogger today, Amy Sonnichsen. She's a fellow writer who runs a brilliantly titled blog called The Green Bathtub, http://alsonnichsen.blogspot.com. Her blog is positively addicting, and such a great resource for writers.  

Amy is a stay-at-home mom of five who loves to cook, but often neglects housework so she’ll have more time to write. She is represented by Emmanuelle Morgen of Stonesong.  

Amy's wonderful at sharing her experiences as a writer, and now that she's locked in her agent, she's going nowhere but UP!

And now, over to Amy...

A.L.S.--I’d been writing stories all my life (well, since I was three) and was even a writing major in college, but I didn’t start writing for publication until I turned thirty. Like most people, I began the journey with little knowledge of what it would take to actually get published.

I’m not saying my first attempt at a full-length novel was good. I might hazard to say, in full humility, that the writing was good, because I had lots of practice writing. But there’s a big difference between a novel with good writing and a good novel.

What I didn’t have practice with was PLOT and SALEABLE, ORIGINAL IDEAS and WRITING A PITCH and AUDIENCE AWARENESS and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

What I quickly learned is that a whole lot has to click in order to have a publishable piece of work. 

This fact isn’t meant to be discouraging. It should inspire us to KEEP TRYING.

Chances are, our first attempts at writing novels have a lot going for them. They might be great ideas with great writing, but might not have a specific-enough market. For instance, a friend of mine is writing a book with eleven- and twelve-year-old protagonists. The writing is beautiful, but she has a meandering, descriptive style that I’m not sure will work with a middle grade audience. (Of course, this is totally fixable. It’s just a matter of how she decides to fix it.)

Is she a great writer who deserves to be published someday?Absolutely. But she has to hit her stride and find her market. 

We all have our weaknesses to overcome. I struggle with plot. I like writing long descriptions and I don’t like being mean to my characters. BIG PROBLEM if I ever want anything I write to sell.

When we attempt to write a book good enough for traditional publication, we have to give up writing purely for ourselves. We have to keep in mind the standards and operate by the rules, so to speak, if we’re going to have something on which the general public will want to spend money.

So, when you get those rejections (I’ve received more rejections than I can count!), keep writing. Don’t settle on a pet project and let it entrap you for ten years. Try new options, develop your voice, find your perfect age-group and genre, and above all practice your writing.

None of your early attempts will ever be wasted. You’ll always be practicing and improving. 

Just don’t give up.

Thank you so much for your encouragement, Amy! 

***How about you? Have you locked in your audience? Do you have a writing weakness you're trying to strengthen, or a pet project you just can't let go of?***

TRITINA POEM--BLOGGER

For fun, I decided to flex my poem-writing muscles over on the Writer's Digest blog (link down on the right, just look up poetic asides--tritenas). They were practicing tritinas, in which the last word of the poem lines go in this order:


A
B
C

C
A
B

B
C
A

(Last line uses ABC in any order).

So here's a little ditty I whipped up. As yet, however, they still haven't gotten my comments moderated, so who knows if they'll show up over on the Writer's Digest link.

Nothing personal, but sometimes I feel like blogging consumes a bit too much of my writing time. You know I love MY blog followers! I hope you enjoy this, and I know you other writers out there know what I'm talking about!

BLOGGER--

Come visit my blog--
There's a give-away.
If you follow me, I'll follow you.

I really don't know you--
But on my blog,
My whole life's a give-away.

In very fact, I hate to give away
So much of me to you.
I don't know why I blog.

I'm going to write books, not give away my words, blogging just to please you.

Straight-Leg Jeans are not MY Staple

 Straight-leg jeans aren't a trend, they're a staple.

I recently ran this magazine quote by my husband, lamenting the fact that I have yet to find straight-leg jeans that flatter me.

His response? "The minute they say something's a staple, a new must-have item will come out."

He's right--I've already seen a baby bell-bottom backlash.

What does my obsession with French chic and the perfect pair of straight-legs have to do with writing? you may ask.

The point is that for me, straight-leg jeans will not ever be a staple. I might not ever look as French as I'd like to (though I can rock a scarf, people!). And sometimes, just sometimes, we do the same things to our characters, trying to fit them into molds where they don't fit.

This often happens mid-book, when you find one of your secondary characters has become far more important than you thought, and you cannot get him/her to quiet down. Or when you figure out that your MC is going to mess up, royally, and you hadn't even planned that twist yet.

We have to let our characters breathe.

I know that sounds like some kind of writerly mumbo-jumbo. But you can plot and plan and get all your ducks in a row, and then realize that your character is totally irritating in some way. Or perhaps unrealistic, and thus boring, in his/her perfection. That's when we need to step in and make that character real!

The coolest thing about humans is that beauty comes in so many shapes and sizes. So do characters. Embrace that slightly psychotic character; find the truth in his sputtered words. Or make us feel sorry for that perfectionist who has to make everything just-so. Have your MC fall for someone whose teeth aren't gleaming white and professionally straightened.

And keep wearing those boot-cut jeans, if you aren't a straight-leg kinda gal.

Children's Books--Some of my Earliest Friends

I learned to read when I was four, since K-4 was offered at my Christian school. I have clear memories of sitting in our basement, reading slightly mildewy books as if they were my best friends. One of my favorites was the book above, The Innkeeper's Daughter. I remember the little girl, Abigail, was a wild child who liked to run around upsetting carts and generally making messes. Naughty, naughty Abigail was a recurring line throughout the book. But then her father, the innkeeper, decided to house a pregnant lady and her husband overnight...and of course it was Mary and Joseph. Once naughty Abigail looked in baby Jesus' face, she knew she was looking at something spectacular, and wanted to turn her life around.

I've since lost that copy of the book, but I'll never forget it. It was the story of the prodigal son, before I even understood that story from the Bible.

My kids have loved different books. Richard Scarry was probably my son's favorite, as he loved looking at all the trucks/cars in the pictures, and the stories were hilarious.

My daughter loved Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish, Hop on Pop and just about anything Dr. Seuss. I love the fact that he wrote those books as early readers, but broke the Dick and Jane traditions with his semi-surreal pictures and storylines.

My other daughter loved her kindergarten readers, a set of books called Fun Tales.

There are so many other wonderful children's books, I know I haven't begun to scratch the surface. I also loved Arnold Lobel's Mouse Tales and Owl at Home. Not to mention all those Little Golden Books, Little Bear books...the list is endless.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

******Which books do you still remember from your childhood? Can you explain why they still stick with you?******



AND PS--As of 5:15 pm on Jan. 16th, the comments aren't posting right on here. Please leave one as a reply, I think that will work. And let me know if you still have trouble!  Thanks!

Follow-Up on Christian Romance, In Whence I Eat My Words

I realize that in my previous post, http://bookinamonthmom.blogspot.com/2011/09/christian-romance-like-it-or-leave-it.html, I majorly dissed Christian romance. As you may recall, I took issue with the unreality of the convenient widower-seeking-babysitter who meets his feisty yet loving soul-mate scenario...or the girl who's dropped into the ranch at JUST the right moment to meet the perfect guy (emphasis on PERFECT).

While you will probably never catch me reading Amish fiction for fun, I did recently win my own copy of Montana Marriages by Mary Connealy. I have to say, I was planning on giving this to someone in my family who likes Christian romance. But I decided to read the first few pages and see what the big deal was...

Just like that, I was HOOKED.

Yes, it might have something to do with the fact that the male main character had red hair. I will admit that. But it really had more to do with the WAY Mary writes--it's very tight writing with a quick plot. Is there a widow? Why, yes, there is. Does the male MC say things a real guy might not say? I believe he does. Is it possible that the bad guy will turn his life around and become a Christian? Yes, there is.

However, I can tell Mary knows what she's talking about when she describes life on the ranch. I appreciate this. I love the idea that they built their house into a cave. She also uses rich details and words from that time period.

I will have to eat my words on Christian romance. It can be a good read. The characters can have believable psychological depth (this MC in the first part of the book lived with a domineering/abusive husband). I love it when Christian romance takes on the big issues. I also appreciate that the MC in Montana Rose is married.

The marriage is not 100% realistic to me, because I suspect most husbands do NOT always say the right thing at any given moment (WHAT?!!). Nor do they always act as protective as we might want, or as deeply spiritual. And we wives don't always look gorgeous, cook beautifully or welcome romantic overtures (WHAT!??).

But I think that if we, as readers, recognize that in a romance the MC would by necessity know the right things to say, just like Jacob or Edward (hee, you Meyer fans know who I'm talking about), we can overlook that. As long as we don't expect OUR SPOUSES to perpetually say the right things or innately divine the secrets of our female minds, we can read without repercussions on our own marriages. Although I will add that I will always find MC guys with major flaws (like Mr. Darcy, Mr. Rochester and ESPECIALLY Gabriel Oak in Far from the Madding Crowd) more intrinsically interesting than extremely verbal and emotive guys. However, maybe that's just me.

BUT I'll apologize for throwing the baby out with the bath-water (what a horrid visual picture, sorry!). And thank you, Mary Connealy, for repairing my views of Christian romance.

please CHIME in with comments below:

*Do you enjoy Christian romance? Why or why not?
*If you're a writer, what kinds of male MCs do you write?

In High Spirits--My NaNo start...

Hi all, just wanted to refer you on over to the blogspot:

http://diannesalerni.blogspot.com/2012/01/first-impressions-untitled-ya-but-its.html

Dianne Salerni posted the first maybe 250 words of the YA novel I started for NaNo in November.  People seem to like it!  It's got the whole Mothman-creepy vibe going on. 

Please check out her awesome blog and comment on my writing...for those of you who liked Otherworld, you would like this novel (if I EVER finish it!  I need to know it's worth my time! So tell me if you like it!).

--Heather

A Classics Challenge--GEORGE ELIOT

I'm participating in A Classics Challenge, in which we read seven works of classic literature in 2012, only three of which can be re-reads. This is courtesy of the literature-loving blog, http://novembersautumn.blogspot.com

My January is already off to a frantic start, as I attempt to revise my 41-chapter novel in five days. Is it possible? Why yes it is. In fact, I'll be done tomorrow. Will my astigmatism worsen from looking at these black letters all day and into the night? Quite possibly. But I'll complete my goal, which is hopefully going to get me where I need to go (that being straight into an agent contract).

SOOO, I haven't gotten to read much. But the book I chose to read first is Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. So for the January part of the challenge, we will answer the following questions (levels are how far into the book I am):

Level 1
Who is the author? What do they look like? When were they born? Where did they live? What does their handwriting look like? What are some of the other novels they've written? What is an interesting and random fact about their life?

Level 2
What do you think of their writing style? What do you like about it? or what would have made you more inclined to like it? Is there are particular quote that has stood out to you?

Level 3
Why do you think they wrote this novel? How did their contemporaries view both the author and their novel?

So here we go. George Eliot was the pen-name of Mary-Anne Evans, born November 22, 1819. Here's what she looks like--seems a bit pensive to me:

I found it interesting that she chose a male pen-name to escape the stereotype that women could only write light-hearted romance. Sounds like a kindred spirit.

She's also written Silas Marner (I loved that one, short but very touching and rather optimistic on the whole), Middlemarch (I saw and loved the movie), Adam Bede (haven't read it yet), and my FAVORITE, The Mill on the Floss (which I thought captured sibling friendship/love perfectly).

I love her writing style because she can be extremely witty and sarcastic, yet very vulnerable and optimistic. She captures characters so vividly and so true-to-life, you feel like you know (or like you ARE) the MC.

I saw the movie of Daniel Deronda and I have to say the strong-willed, bossy main character, Gwendolen, KIND-OF resonated with me, just a tad. Of course, she makes some bad choices and winds up in a not-too-happy place.

I've found some zinger quotes in this novel.  Here are a couple...okay, a FEW:

"Genius...comes into the world to make new rules."

"Gwendolen had not considered that the desire to conquer is itself a sort of subjection."

"You could hardly have seen his face thoroughly meeting yours without believing that human creatures had done nobly in times past, and might do more nobly in time to come."

AND AT LAST...

"He could no more dream of her giving him pain than an Egyptian could dream of snow."

So I hope you've enjoyed our little tete-a-tete with George Eliot.  And I'm so glad I don't have to use a guy's name to be taken seriously now.  See you for another Classics Challenge the 4th of February!



****So what about you? Have you read any George Eliot novels/seen any of the movies? Do you like her stuff?*****