meomeoim

Over the course of the past year, I have spent a good deal of time reading popular writing tips, many of which have either helped me improve my writing, or at the very least, let me know when I am on the right path. While I am not a dazzling successful published author (yet), I've decided to compile a list of things I've learned that I find most valuable: -Use any forms of "to be" as minimally as possibly (e.g. was, were, am, be, been) -The word "said" reads better than flashier words like "vowed, grumbled, declared" -Never start a book with too much backstory, a phone ringing, or someone waking up -Describe things that only need description - if its not relevant, move on -Adverbs are not your friend -Topical ideas and pop culture are fun, but they date your book and make it stale -Be consistent - if your protaganist has brown hair on page 1, make sure it isn't blond on page 100 -Outlines are vital -Do not query until you're revised your ma

I recently wrote an excellent blog about how we should all overthrow the government. Then something happened and I realized that I had much more pressing soapbox to get on. Adam Lambert kissed a dude on the American Music Awards last night. He did other things, which I'm not going to comment on because I don't want to spend three hours writing a point by point of his performance compared to his female peers, and it's also not entirely relevant to the point I am going to make. ABC chose not to reair the kiss (and I am only speaking of the kiss itself, not any other part of his act) because it was inappropriate. On the West Coast, his performance was censored. The blogosphere is all atwitter with disgusting and rude and disgraceful, etc this act was. I am not even going to defend the kiss here. I am not going to make parallals between similar girl on girl kisses I've seen, or the amount of hetrosexual kissing/sex that I see on television, including ABC. I was disturbed b

So I spent the last month or maybe two feeling a little rough about the whole thing. Rejection hurts worse the closer you get. But now I've redoubled my efforts. I started a week ago, and I'm about 35k words in, and I'm hoping to be done writing the first draft by Thanksgiving. It's a post-apocalyptic young adult with zombies, bad ass female leads, rock stars, road trips, and even a little love story. Yes, it truly has it all. I am writing this for a few reasons: 1. Zombies are awesome. 2. Thanks to the 2012 crazies, end of the world literature/movies/etc. is more popular. 3. I need to stop writing such misogynistic books. 4. Ellen Ripley (a.k.a. Sigourney Weaver of Aliens fame) is bad ass 5. This is exactly what my future agent Ginger Clark is looking for. So, without further ado, here is the first line of my new soon to be agented manuscript: "This is the way the world ends; not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies scratching at the back door."