CYD 2010: Author Advice with Victoria Schwab
WELCOME TO DAY TWENTY-SEVEN OF THE COMPLETE YOUR DRAFT CHALLENGE!
Twitter is a really amazing place. I've met way more awesome people than I have any right to meet. Our next guest poster is no exception. She runs a group blog with several other YA writers and has some great YouTube videos. In one of them she recommended one of the best books I've read this year: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. (YAY!)
Please visit lesleysays tomorrow for another guest post. We're getting down to the last of our surprise guests.
Thanks, Victoria Schwab, for the following blog post and all the helpful/fun/informative vlogs. Cannot wait for your debut novel!
Writing in the Fire Swamp
Buttercup: We'll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
~The Princess Bride
Writing a first draft is like being in the fire swamp.
You've got the flame spurts, the lightning sand, and those blasted R.O.U.S.s (rodents of unusual size).
You're traveling along through your manuscript and the terrain begins to get a bit more ominous. A few questions surface, snagging your sleeves like the gnarled trees of the swamp, but you press on! Then, all of a sudden, a fire spurt! A tempting new direction, bright and hot, and you dodge, because you are going to stay on course.
You carry on, eyes peeled for any more spurts, when the ground gives way beneath you, plunging you into the lightning sand! Plot hole!!! Progress is entirely halted as you try to extricate yourself from the pit formed by your story collapsing in on you! But you manage to drag yourself out, and on to sturdier ground. You take a few deep breaths and move forward, feeling ever more determined from your narrow escapes.
You feel pretty good! A little singed by the avoided temptations of new directions and ideas, perhaps. A little weary from that plot hole that threatened to put an end to you and your story, understandably. But onward!
And then, the R.O.U.S.s.-also known as Self-doubt, Self-loathing, and Oh-dear-I'm-100-pages-in-and-I'm-stuck monsters.
Will you escape the psychological rodents of unusual size? Will you make it out of the fire swamp with something resembling a story?
You will. Because you are not a coward like the six-fingered man. You are Westley. You will press on through that swamp, through that draft (only to be captured and tortured for a good part of the movie) and in the end, you will get the girl…or, um, book.
Victoria's bio:
Victoria Schwab is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a Southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say “like”, “as” and “y’all.” She also writes books.
Victoria’s first book, THE NEAR WITCH, comes out next August with Disney*Hyperion. She is pretty excited.
You can find Victoria on her website, visit her on her blog, or follow her on twitter.
Twitter is a really amazing place. I've met way more awesome people than I have any right to meet. Our next guest poster is no exception. She runs a group blog with several other YA writers and has some great YouTube videos. In one of them she recommended one of the best books I've read this year: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. (YAY!)
Please visit lesleysays tomorrow for another guest post. We're getting down to the last of our surprise guests.
Thanks, Victoria Schwab, for the following blog post and all the helpful/fun/informative vlogs. Cannot wait for your debut novel!
Writing in the Fire Swamp
Buttercup: We'll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
~The Princess Bride
Writing a first draft is like being in the fire swamp.
You've got the flame spurts, the lightning sand, and those blasted R.O.U.S.s (rodents of unusual size).
You're traveling along through your manuscript and the terrain begins to get a bit more ominous. A few questions surface, snagging your sleeves like the gnarled trees of the swamp, but you press on! Then, all of a sudden, a fire spurt! A tempting new direction, bright and hot, and you dodge, because you are going to stay on course.
You carry on, eyes peeled for any more spurts, when the ground gives way beneath you, plunging you into the lightning sand! Plot hole!!! Progress is entirely halted as you try to extricate yourself from the pit formed by your story collapsing in on you! But you manage to drag yourself out, and on to sturdier ground. You take a few deep breaths and move forward, feeling ever more determined from your narrow escapes.
You feel pretty good! A little singed by the avoided temptations of new directions and ideas, perhaps. A little weary from that plot hole that threatened to put an end to you and your story, understandably. But onward!
And then, the R.O.U.S.s.-also known as Self-doubt, Self-loathing, and Oh-dear-I'm-100-pages-in-and-I'm-stuck monsters.
Will you escape the psychological rodents of unusual size? Will you make it out of the fire swamp with something resembling a story?
You will. Because you are not a coward like the six-fingered man. You are Westley. You will press on through that swamp, through that draft (only to be captured and tortured for a good part of the movie) and in the end, you will get the girl…or, um, book.
Victoria's bio:
Victoria Schwab is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a Southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say “like”, “as” and “y’all.” She also writes books.
Victoria’s first book, THE NEAR WITCH, comes out next August with Disney*Hyperion. She is pretty excited.
You can find Victoria on her website, visit her on her blog, or follow her on twitter.