Writtle me your writing tools

Hi, everyone! Here's another fun fact about me, if I don't get up at the crack of dawn, I feel and am pretty worthless for the rest of the day. Today (and yesterday) are some of those days. I'm in zombie mode. I couldn't even read yesterday. Like I said, I was acting wooorthless. Lol. But, I couldn't stay away from the blog and all you awesome bloggy friends for a second day, so here I am.

The other day, I got to turn the tables and ask you all to give three fun facts about yourself, and I loved the turnout and the answers (thanks, everyone!). Today, I want to do something similar but with a writing focus. I want to talk about everyone's writing process.

When I write, I normally get struck with an idea, and I write it down immediately in the "brain book," where I keep everything from tshirt ideas I come up with, my poetry, my lyrics, titles of cool songs I like, phrases, quotes from people, doodles, you name it. From there, I normally sit on the idea for a while (not literally), and then when I can't take not having worked on it anymore, I use one of several tools:

I use an Alphasmart 3000 (LOVE it's portability. Less pressure to get out words, and for some reason, I write a heck of a lot better with it…hmm…)--> main tool now btw

Or, I used Q10 on my baby laptop, also known as a netbook, an Asus EEE 1005HA (click for pic), I believe. It's also pink, in case you were interested.

Or, if I'm feeling funny, I'll use Write or Die, but I haven't in a while. Ironically, I stopped using it when I bought my own copy of the program that I could use offline. I'm funny like that apparently.

I edit by pasting everything in good old Word OR Open OfficeWriter, depending on if I'm using my good old oldie laptop (Toshi) or my newer netbook (respectably).

Woo, I think that's everything. So I go from pen to alphasmart, Q10 (which I love for the keyboard noises and for it's being free), or Write or Die, and I edit with a traditional Word or Word like (but free)program.

Thereby, technically everything I use to write (program wise) could be used/gotten for free. I love that.

Now it's your turn, how to get the idea down AND THEN, what do you use to turn that idea into a full manuscript (tool wise)? Let me know below. I live off hearing how other people do things :)

P.S. I've linked all the titles of programs I've used to the sites where you can get them, just in case you were at all interested! :)

Now to leave you with a song to write by, "Circle the Drain" by Katy Perry. I HEART this song. I really do. It sounds 80s rocker to me, and if you haven't heard it, don't just write it off because it's a Katy Perry song. I'm almost always against her radio stuff, but I love her album stuff something crazy. (or I liked the radio stuff until it gets played out on the radio, rather).

Oh, and in case you were really curious, I wrote Glittering Ashes by first writing down the idea (of the whoooole series well into the future), wrote it using Q10, and edited using Word and Open Office Writer.

The Apartment Romance

Earlier this week, I saw an amazing movie. I want to watch it again because it has so many quotables in it. <3 I love quotable bits. The movie is called The Apartment:

It came out in 1960, and it's in black and white. I know, some of you out there will be like me, very judgy, and might want to back away now. BUT, it was amazing.

Here's a sloppy blurb by me: A man decides to pimp out his apartment to the higher up men at work that have all these mistresses but no where to take them. The plan works to help him get ahead, but he falls for the elevator girl in the mean time, only to find out that she has an affiliation with his apartment already. Hilarity, romance, innuendos, and issues ensue.

I really liked it, and you should check it out if you have the chance. Funny side-note story, I told my mother about it, and she told me she had just picked up that movie that very day at the library, but had put it back because it was black and white. Weird huh? She then got it from there, watched, and loved it. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled blog post…

This movie got me thinking about what it is about romance that makes me clamor to read it. With very few exceptions, I'm not a big romance movie person. I have to want to watch something predictable to get into them, and I have to be forced by other parties to watch them at all (mostly). But, with books? You all know by now that romance is a must for me. A big must (also mostly).

I like:

• Non-traditional
• Hard to attain
• Complicated but sweet
• All worth it for their first moments

Love.

And I've read love stories in all kinds of their variations (chick-lit to Ya to horror with some lovey bits), and I never get tired of it. Seeing how people make a connection and come together in all kinds of circumstances just is the bee's knees for me.

So, now I ask you, because I really want to know, do you have to have romance in the books that you read? What makes you like that element (or hate it)? OO, and if you have examples, then, you're awesome. Let me know below.

Now to leave you with a song to write by, which is perfect for this occasion, "Nicest Thing" by Kate Nash. If you never listen to any other song I list on here, listen to this one. It's worth it. ---à strong words for an AMAZING song.

Also: I really want to get the word out about my book, Glittering Ashes (The Dark Artist Series), and I have some things in the works already (VERY excited about that). So, if you're interested in receiving a free ebook copy in exchange for a bookie blog review, let me know (below or by email). Also, I'm more than game for author interviews if you want something to fill in one of the days on your blog :)

The Write Environment

How important is your writing environment? Are you someone who has to have the things on their desk just so, and everything exactly how it was last time? Do you need music? Absolute quiet? Crowds of people to ogle? Complete solitude?

I read a lot about people's optimum conditions (and if you can't tell by now, I read a lot about writing habits in general, lol). A lot of people I read about write fiendishly when the moment hits. If the muse is talking, all they need is a piece of paper and a pen, or lipstick and tissues, or a marker and the nearest arm.

I'm the same way at a certain point, but not always. When I am first brainstorming a story, or right after a dream, I get flooded with all these ideas, normally about a different wip than the one I'm working on. I will run (okay, yes, literally) to my brain book (or to a sheet of paper if the book is absent), and I will write furiously until everything is on the paper. It may or may not be like an exorcism. Probably not like one at all, but it sounds more mysterious if I leave that as a possibility.

But when I'm writing, really writing, I do like to have some things a certain way. I like quiet, absolute quiet, or close to it. I have to be somewhere that's not my room.

Being outside of my room is important, apparently, and I've just come to this realization recently. I spend a lot of time here, and when I write, it's bloggy writing, or academic even. It's not creative, and I don't know why, but that's typically how I think it'll stay.

When I write at home, I write on the off-limits couch. The couch that one has for purely decorative purposes. It's in front of windows, not that I really look outside much during, but I think the unfamiliarity of the couch is the equivalent of me being at the library, the main place I've been writing lately.

I wrote all of Glittering Ashes (The Dark Artist Series), with the exception of a few library trips, on that couch.

But, other than quiet and not being in my room, I'm not that picky. But, I want to know if you are. What do you need to finally get the words down? Anything specific? Or, are you one of the lucky, wherever I feel like it, scribblers? Let me know below.

Now to leave you with a song to write by, "Singing Brigdes (We All Fall)" by Matchbook Romance. (They're Voices CD, handcrafted addictive genius. I <3 it.)

Favorite lines, if you're curious " I tried to sell you a heart before you saw the world" and 

"I will sing a melody until the fluid starts choking me
And when my eyes are paralyzed I'll stare up at you my star
That I could never reach"

P.S.  I just found this link on the writing habits of great writers, most of which I'm unfamiliar with, but cool nonetheless. Thanks @elizabethscraig

Defining Book Success

Quick Glittering Ashes update: It's now available for sale at (click location title for links)

Barnes and Nobles PubIt!

Kobo

Diesel Ebook Store

Apple's iBooks (so you can get it on your iPad or iPod)

Amazon 

and Smashwords

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post :)

Hey, everyone. Today, I want to write about success. On Friday, I wrote a review of Divergent (Divergent Trilogy) by Veronica Roth, which I consider to be a huge success in the YA world.

It has:

A huge readership (every YA book blog I've seen)

295 amount of reviews on Amazon (226 of which are 5 star)

Everyone says GREAT things about it (me included)

Movie rights have been sold--not a guaranteed marker of greatness, but darn close to it for me (because how awesome is that?).

I'd say there's a lot of reasons to think that the Divergent (Divergent Trilogy) is an extremely successful book.

To me, success is about people liking your book and being passionate about it once they read it and having a large readership because people want to pass that magic on. The movie rights being sold is amazing, but having tons of people read it and like it will always be the most important factor of success, in my book.

What about you? What do you think constitutes success in the reading world? Can you name a showstopper book of success? I'm thinking Twilight [Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)] (love it or hate it) and The Hunger Games (awesome). Let me know below.

Now, to leave you with a song to write by, "Imma Star" by Jeremih, where he explains success in a different arena :) 

Writing Goals: Bee's Knees or Puh-lease...

Today, I want to talk about writing goals.

Do you have them?                                                                                                 

Do you LIVE by them?

Or, do you prefer to write when you feel inspired (by your muse or otherwise)?

Writers deal with extreme guilt complexes (me included, and many others from what I've seen). Writers set lofty goals, normally in the form of daily goals, and then, if the goal isn't reached, the writers hang their head in shame, falling down a spiral where even more writing doesn't happen.

Or maybe that's just me.

But even though writing goals may cause me excess stress, I still stand by them. If I didn't set goals for myself, I wouldn't get anything done.

Personally, I like "it'll be done by this date" goals more than daily goals necessarily. It's easy for people to get overwhelmed, so I think it's better to have a finish line in sight rather than to solely worry about what you need done each day.

I know, that sounds kind of silly, because daily writing goals would seem to only help you in reaching timed goals, but to me, I can write furiously for a day (1000s of words), and then I could write nothing the next day. And I want that to be okay, and it is if I give myself a "done by" date. It's about the end goal and how good that feels, and not about thinking of how many words you have left.

Here's some links if you want goals set for you (and you provide the amazing words):

Nanowrimo (writing a book in a month during November...Great forums)

Camp Nanowrimo (A Nanowrimo for the summer time, which is on write now)

Fast-Drafting (doing your novel in 2 weeks)

Milwordy (a million words in one year)

3 Day Novel

What do you do for writing goals? What's your reasoning behind the goals you set or why you don't set them at all? Let me know below!

Now for a song to write by, "Bulletproof" by Evan's Blue, because you need to be bulletproof for kick-arse writing goals…Yep, that's what I'm going with to play this song I like. 

Author Info/Branding: What's It To You?

This is something that's been coming up a lot for me lately since I've recently published my first book through Amazon and Smashwords. People want to know how to get their name out there, where they should go to do that, and how to market themselves and their name as a brand.

I'm not the first person to be an authority on the subject, but seeing as it's something I've been seeing everywhere, I wanted to know your thoughts on it, and I wanted to leave a few of my own.

I don't think about who the author is or what other books the author has written until I finish the first book. If I like the book, and especially if I love the book, I then scour the internet to find out everything about that person. This may be because I want to emulate their awesomeness, but I also suspect that many other do something similar.

When I know an author is the bee's knees, I want to know what else they've written and what they're like. BUT that's not something I care about if I didn't like the book first.

I would say that unless the author is scandalous (for typically bad reasons), I don't care who they are until I get to the end of whatever I'm reading. Branding for me is something that happens AFTER they've kept my attention for 200+ pages.

I'll go so far as to say that for me, I do not want to know anything about the author until I've made my own decisions about the book. I won't even look at what they look like, not that that would make a difference, but I want the book to be it's own entity, completely devoid of everything but what I see in front of me, until I finish it.

When I do end up looking them up, I always want to read the "how I did it" story. It's the story where they say, "I got this idea and blah blah blah." I love those. If I really like them, I'll search them out on Twitter to see if they say anything interesting (beyond just responding to people), and then I'll follow them if they are interesting. I'll almost always follow a blog if they have them, and I'll look around the blog to see what else is brewing for them.

That's my typical M.O. So as far as branding goes for authors, it IS important, but it shouldn't precede the book's importance to me. But if the author ends up being rockstar, I'd love to more about them AFTER I read the book.

What about you? Do you like to know about the author up front? Would it bother you if they didn't have a blog/Twitter/internet presence? Let me know below!

Now to leave you with a song to write by, "Breakdown" by Plain White T's. Intense, but still catchy like all of their stuff.  

P.S. Here's where you can find me online, if you're curious :)

Twitter

Goodreads

Kindleboards
Glittering Ashes on Facebook

Dream Harvesting: A How To

I've talked a lot on here about how I take a lot of my book ideas straight from dreamland. The dreams I have are vivid, and they always leave a lingering impression on me, even if I can't remember any of the specifics.

I'm sure some of you out there have been like me and have had a wonderful dream only to have it leave your mind by the time you try to write it down. Well, I wanted to use today's blog post to talk about some tips on how to get your dreams to paper so that you can use all that great material in your own writing.

1. If you want to make your dreams echo something you're currently working on--or, better yet, if you have a vague idea about what you want to write about but you know you need to explore it more, try concentrated thinking before you fall asleep. For the last 20 minutes or so before you officially conk out, try to solely think about the element you want to include in your book or your current WIP. This will make your dreams more likely to be in some way or another focused on what you'd like.

2. When you first wake up, use the tried and true method of having paper and a pen IMMEDIATELY available to you by your bedside. This is extremely important because dreams are fleeting, and your brain, from the moment you wake up, is practically re-writing what you remember of the dream you just had. That's not too horrible, but regardless of how much you self-edit your dream subconsciously, the most important part is to write EVERYTHING down that you can remember. Get these things down (listed in order of importance):

            a. Actions: Who did what and why

            b. Setting: this will probably be the most original part of your dream, and can be extremely helpful to you in your writing process.

            c. Feelings/vibe: make yourself describe the mood of your dream. This may help jar your memories of a and b.

3. Process your notes. What you've just written down may seem like gibberish when you read it over. In this step, fill in the gaps you've just made, elaborate on what you remember, and embellish what you've already written. That's the fun of the dream harvest process. The dream is the starting point. Keep your dream notes in tact and write off of them in this step, brainstorming real story lines from the little bits and pieces you've remembered. Where can you take these actions, settings, and vibes with a narrative? What cool ideas would this spark?

This is pretty much exactly my process when I conduct my own dream harvest. Do you do something similar/completely different? Let me know what works for you in the comments, and if you haven't tried it, I am the first to say that I think that you should!

Now to leave you with a song to write by, "Save You" by Kelly Clarkson. So pretty. It's dark and slow, and one of my favorites by her.