The Exception to the Rule

Publishing is hard. It’s a long, windy, seemingly never ending road. You have to finish a book. You have to revise said book. You have to query agents. You have hope an agent will say yes. Then you and your agent have to submit your manuscript to various publishing companies. You have to hope again for that glorious yes, I want it. Then you might get a book deal. Then once that’s done, you have repeat all the steps after getting an agent. 

I know it’s hard. I know it’s going to take time. I know that authors that I look up to, spent a lot of time and money to get to where they are. Some of them even took ten years to get their first book published. I know it won’t just work out for me. I have a long road in front of me and I’m taking steps towards that end goal everyday. 

Still I can’t help but hope that maybe I will be the exception to the rule. I know it sounds foolish and crazy, but there are some authors that seemed to have all the luck in the world. They get their first book they ever wrote published. The publishing company puts a lot of their advertising efforts behind it. It just seems like those authors have it all. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not discounting those authors at all. There’s a lot we don’t see behind the scenes. I don’t know how much time the author put into writing their book. I’m sure it’s a lot of time. I don’t know what was going on in their life at the time. I’m sure they were juggling more than just writing a book. 

But I do know that some authors—the very rare one is the exception to the rule. And I sometimes dream my path will be like that. Who doesn’t like the easier path? Who doesn’t like to believe that their top choice agent is going to love you book? Who doesn’t want to believe that their ideal publishing company is going to come knocking on your door? 

Who doesn’t want to hope? 

I think that’s why publishing and writing scares me. Because I do have these hopes and I know in the back of my mind, it won’t end up that way. The path to publishing is long and I’m not going to be that author who gets the secret password to get into the party. I’m not the best writer and I don’t have the most unique ideas. There’s really no reason I should be the rare author. 

I know that. Logically I know that, but I can’t help but hope. Just maybe. Just maybe I’ll be the exception to the rule. 

Anyone else feel this way? Is there anyway to gently remind yourself the norm isn’t this way without completely dashing your hopes and dreams? 

Review: Crash Into You

Happy Valentine’s Day! Even if you don’t have a valentine, I’m sure you have tons of books (who needs anything else). Here’s my review of the romantic, swoon-worthy Crash Into You by Katie McGarry. 

Summary: (from goodreads): The girl with straight A's and the perfect life—that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy family…and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker—a guy she has no business even talking to. But after the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind. 

The last thing Isaiah needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks. But when their shared love of street racing puts their lives in jeopardy, Isaiah and Rachel will have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars

Thoughts:

I’m a big fan of Katie McGarry. She pulled me in with Pushing The Limits and Dare You To (the first books in this universe), and I’m glad to say that Crash Into You has gotten ever better. If you need a romantic YA to read, you need to pick up her books.

Yes, Crash Into You has a little bit of “instant-love”. Yes, there’s the classic “bad boy” who cares a lot more than he lets on and “good girl” who wants to break out of her shell.  Yes, its is filled with events that really wouldn’t ever happen in real life (but then again why are we reading fiction if we were satisfied with reality). But I went in knowing and wanting these things when I picked this book up. 

Out of the three books by her I’ve read, Crash Into You is definitely my favorite. It may or may not have to do with my weakness for “bad boys” like Isaiah :). But at the heart of the story, it’s a book about friendships, family, and love. 

I loved reading about how passionate Isaiah and Rachel were about cars. I loved that the book revolved around Rachel trying to live up to her parent’s expectations—what person (teenager or adult) doesn’t have to deal with that. I loved the little snippets of how the other characters were doing.

One of things I didn’t like about the book is how protective the men in Rachel’s life were of her. Not only her brothers and father, but also Isaiah. I think it’s a fine line between overprotectiveness and just plain controlling. The line wasn’t exactly crossed here, but there were moments in the book that I raised my eyebrow at their actions. Aside from that, Crash into You was everything I wanted and needed to read to get out of a slump. It made me flail and squeal and shout at the book, so I’m definitely going to pick up her other books if I wasn’t convinced before. 

Thoughts? Anyone else read Katie McGarry's books?

First Draft Podcast

First Draft is a podcast created by Sarah Enni. She’s taking a road trip across the U.S. and along the way she’s interviewing YA/MG authors about their experiences with writing, publishing, and life in general. The interviewees are authors like Marie Lu, Libba Bray, Beth Revis, Meagan Spooner, and many others. 

This is the best podcast about writing I have ever listened to. Okay, I haven’t listened to any other writing podcasts, so I guess I'm not the best judge. But none of the other writing podcasts enticed me enough to start listening. There are great podcasts out there for all sorts of things, but sometimes talking about writing is…a little boring. Even for writers. First Draft Podcast isn’t like that. 

Here are just a couple of reasons why I love First Draft. 

1. You can start and stop anywhere. I can’t listen to an hour long podcast straight through. I don’t have the patience or time to listen to podcasts in one sitting. But I love listening to podcasts while I’m walking to class, eating alone, browsing the library for more books, etc. I’ve listened to other podcasts like Serial and Welcome to Nightvale, and let me just say that its hard to pause and play where ever you are. First Draft isn't like that. It’s easier to remember what happened in a podcast because it’s like your friend is confiding in you. The details just stick in your brain. 

2. It’s not a strict interview. Sarah Enni does an amazing job weaving in the standard questions (where were you born, what have you written, etc.), but those questions only make up the foundation. There are many times that podcast veers off track, and I love it. It’s a conversation. It’s like Sarah and the author are just sitting beside you in the coffeeshop. You’re the little bird on their shoulder while they discuss all the up-and-downs of their life and writing. I don’t have any close writer friends, but First Draft gives me a taste of what it would be like to have a friend I can obsess about writing to without having to stop and explain the writing jargon.

3. It’s inspirational. Listening to these authors talk about their path to publishing and how much they truly love their jobs, it makes everything seem possible. It makes writing and eventually publishing a book seem possible. It makes me feel like I can accomplish my dream (it might take years and years, but I'll get there eventually). And every podcast, Sarah ends with asking the authors what their advice is for aspiring writers/newly published authors. Even though I read a lot of those posts with best piece of advice from famous authors, there’s something different hearing an author truly say the advice. Hearing it aloud makes it more real.  

4. But it’s also realistic. The podcasts aren’t all just about their success with publishing. It focuses on the path to becoming published. They talk about all the struggles associated with writing. How hard it can be. How you have to preserve. How sometimes life just gets in the way. The podcast is realistic, but the realism is what makes it so inspirational. It puts things into perspective. 

If you’re an aspiring writer or an avid reader who loves getting to know the masterminds behind great books, First Draft is for you. Wow that’s a horrible pitch, but I feel obligated to leave it in because it’s true. It’s an amazing podcast—thank you to Sarah Enni and all the other authors that contributed to it. I’ll be anxiously waiting for each episode (even though I still have about 10 episodes to catch up on). 

What do you guys think of First Draft, if you listen to it? Any other podcasts about writing I need to listen to? 

Revising Update

Do you guys remember that post about my reluctance to revise? Well I didn’t actually start revising until ten days after that post. I did everything to procrastinate starting the revision process. (It was actually really productive procrastination because I read six books in that time.)

Then I meet up with my local Emerging Writer’s Group. I don’t know what happened, but it was the push off the cliff I needed (and yes, cliff because there’s no going back now). I think it was talking with other writers. They were polishing their query letters, talking about their finished manuscripts, and discussing what agents they wanted. It got my heart racing (even more than when I see this cute boy I know). 

I’m not ready for query letters. And I know my book isn't the best it can be. Usually when I remember that fact, I get a little disappointed. Especially because others around me are so much farther along on "The Path" to publication. Strangely enough, that night I wasn’t disappointed. It was the jolt I needed because that night, I went straight home and started revising. 

And since that day I revised about 2000 words every night until this week when school overtook my life with exams, quizzes, research papers, etc. But the overall picture (the great, beautiful, amazing, rainbow-in-the-sky picture) is the fact that I have 38k revised. 

38,000 words. It’s the most I’ve ever revised. 

Even though I have a good 62k left for this draft and even though I know I’m going to need to do at least another two revisions, I’ve never been this happy. And I don't see this happiness leaving anytime soon. 

I’m starting to figure out my own process for revising and I’ll eventually post something about it once I’ve been revising for longer than 2 weeks. But one thing that really helps me get into the revising mood is playing music. Not just any music. 

Actually it’s only one song: "Scream My Name" by Tove Lo for the Mockingjay soundtrack. 

“When I'm dead and gone

Will they sing about me? 

Dead and gone. 

Will they scream my name?”

I think it’s rather fitting for revising. By revising this book and having the courage to pursue publishing…well I’m leaving my mark on the world. I’m screaming my own name. I’m screaming at the top of my lungs to anyone who will listen. 

Re-reading Books

Another reading quirk of mine. It may be worse than my last one (about spoilers). I’m just going to get it out there. 

I loathe re-reading things. H-A-T-E, what does that spell? Yep, I hate it that much. 

But I feel like I have to be fair. It’s not just books I hate re-reading. I hate re-watching movies and TV episodes. I hate re-reading research articles I know I should look at again because no one (and I mean no one) understands those articles the first time around [unless it’s your niche of the science world]. I also hate eating the same meal twice in a row. I hate listening to lecture podcasts if I already went to class. It’s just the way I operate. 

But you don’t really care about all those other things.

There are a variety of reason why I hate re-reading things.

1. Boredom strikes me easily 

This is a fact about me; I get bored really really easily. I hate just sitting around and not doing something productive or new. This hits me hard when I start to re-read a book. I mean I read the book before and I have a decent memory, therefore, I remember reading said book. Thus, I end up skimming, which definitely defeats the purpose of re-reading.

 2. No patience

I have no patience. Zilch. Zero. Okay, I’m definitely exaggerating here, but I’m not a patient person (which is horrible to want to pursue a career in the publishing industry, I know). Now what does that have to do with re-reading books? Well I know the plot and so I know what parts are really great. The scenes that make you read faster than you think you can and that give you goosebumps. I know where those are and in order to get there, I have to get through other parts of the book. Parts that were great the first time I read it, but are dragged out the second time. Having to go through the entire introduction and crucial layer of the foundation is like waiting in a long line for a movie that starts in ten minutes. You just want it to go by faster. And because I’m not patient enough to deal with it, I will inevitably stop re-reading no matter how hard I try. 

3. Re-reading is wasted time. 

I know people are going to disagree with me, but for me, re-reading books is a waste of time. I know reading a book more than once should give you another perspective on books. I know that I’ll be able to pick up on the symbols and foreshadowing and other little gems in books if I read it a second time, but I can’t do it. Re-reading a book is time I could be spend writing or doing something more productive. Better yet, I could be re-reading a new book! Why should I re-read a book if I already remember the basic plot line and characters? Sure, I know the feeling and being pulled into that book’s world is amazing, but I can get that feeling (and new ones) from other books. And the list of books is never-ending.  

This is also why I don’t give out many 5 star reviews. Because the 5 star reviews are only for books that I can see myself re-reading in the future. So it’s got to be pretty damn good. But because of my special classification, all 4 star books are ones that I would recommend to my friends and people in the street. 

This isn’t to say that I don’t re-read books at all. I have re-read books (especially when I was younger). The one book that I have read many many times is Homeless Bird by Gloria Whealen. It probably helps that the book is Middle Grade (MG) and I can power through it in about an hour. But I have re-read books….I just can’t think of any recent books. 

Do you guys re-read books? 

Plotter or Pantser

The famous classification. Are you a plotter or a pantser? (I always found it similar to the genes vs. environment debate in science) One isn’t more correct than the other. People have to take a stance when they talk about this classification; whether they believe themselves to be one or the other is a different story. It’s hard to solely be one thing: plotter or pantser. 

But what are these terms exactly? In short, they describe the way you write. Plotters write their novel with a plan. This means you could have the major beats of your story planned out or you could have a detailed, precise outline of everything that’s going to occur in the book. You could have it on your computer screen as you type away or you could have it printed out so you can cross points off once they’re completed. Plotters more or less know what’s going to occur in their books. 

On the other hand, there are pantsers. Pantsers “fly by the seats of their pants”. This means said pantser plops her butt in a chair and writes as fast as she can that particular writing session. There’s no plan or outline. Pantsers are usually people that like the freedom of not knowing what’s going to happen next. They let the story take the controls and just write as the events come to them. If you ask pantsers, what’s going to happen at the climax of their story, most cases they’ll shrug because they honestly don’t have a clue.

As for me, I’m not either. Well I thought I was a pantser until I really thought about my writing process. I definitely don’t sit down and write out an outline before I start a new idea. The first time around, I write all of my books without any idea where I’m going. That’s why I call them Draft Naught or Draft Zero. I literally do not know what’s going to happen in the overall plot except for maybe a chapter or two in advance. 

This is also the reason why I can’t completely classify myself as a pantser because I do plan a little. Just a tiny bit. Because there are scenes, ideas, characters, etc. that convinced me to start writing. So when I start writing, I have an idea or premise or a character along with a couple of “darling” scenes that I need to get to. In that way I do know what’s going to happen, but how I get there? Well I might as well be wearing a blindfold. 

So I’m definitely not a plotter. I’ve tried sitting down and writing outlines, but those are projects I’ve abandoned and most likely won’t get back to (even though I tell myself the exact opposite). But I’m also not a pantser because I usually have some idea of what’s going to occur. Sometimes my brains works too fast for my fingers and creates scenes when I know I can’t write any more. Then I put those scenes on a sticky note for the next day. This is arguably a small plan of attack. 

But does it really matter whether you’re plotter or pantser? No matter what you classify yourself as, you still finish the book, right? You still write as much as you possibly can. So if you don’t know what camp you fall into, don’t worry. It’s really hard to be in either classification and not toe over the line. If writers didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have the books we have today. 

Are you a plotter or pantser? Or a mix of both? Comment below! 

*Fun fact: Scrivener kept auto correcting pantsers into panthers, so if I missed one in this post, I apologize, but it should make for a very amusing sentence. 

Review: The Raven Boys

So, I think I’ve decided that I’m going to try and review at least 25 books this year. I see a lot on Twitter that authors appreciate good or bad reviews (but let’s be honest, I’m not critical enough to give a bad review) and I would really love to help authors out. Also I know when I’m on the fence about books, I’ll go look up a review or two to make my final decision, so I hope this helps readers out there too! 

Here’s my review of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. 

Summary: (from goodreads)

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars. 

Thoughts: 

Why didn’t I read this sooner? I’m literally sitting here, trying to figure out where* I got the idea in my head that Maggie Stiefvater isn’t a good writer because I was absolutely blown away by The Raven Boys. It was so creative and unique and overall just amazing. 

While the premise of the novel is what drew me in, the thing that really made me fall in love with this book were the characters. Ms. Stiefvater is genius. I don’t know how she does it, but the characters she’s created were so well-developed. Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah. I can’t explain it. I just felt like I could pluck them out of the story and I would be able to have a conversation with them. The only adequate way I could explain how I feel about Blue and the boys would be this: *flail and fangirl*. The characters alone were enough to convince me to read the rest of the series. 

That wasn’t the only element that I loved. The entire plot of The Raven Boys was great. The pacing was perfect (at least perfect for me). To be honest, after finishing the book, I just wanted to curl up with it and cry. Just a little. Because how I can I ever be as good as Ms. Stiefvater? Digression, sorry. 

Another thing I loved about The Raven Boys was just Ms. Stiefvater’s writing style. I’m not one for long descriptions or imagery. A perfect example of this is how I’m not a big fan for Laini Taylor’s writing style (The Daughter of Smoke and Bone) though I do love her stories.  Stiefvater’s style was just creative enough in the combinations of words and creation of similes/metaphors that I actually stopped reading The Raven Boys at times, just to re-read a beautiful piece of prose. I don’t re-read things--it's just not a thing I do. But The Raven Boys made me re-read things and I have a feeling I might re-read this entire book during the summer this year when I have a little more free time. 

For now, I can’t wait to start reading The Dream Thieves (book 2 of The Raven Cycle). 

*After contemplating this for nearly two days, I figured out that one of my friends doesn't like Maggie Stiefvater’s writing style in Shiver and therefore will not read any of her other books. Goes to show you only need a seed to be planted for an idea to form (no matter how wrong said idea is). 

Please tell me you loved The Raven Boys as much as I did! Or feel free to disagree with my opinion. Someone should just comment so I can fangirl about this book. Seriously.