I don’t usually blog about my current writing project because I’m always scared I’ll jinx it if I talk about it too much.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a superstitious person.  I have a black cat that crosses my path on a regular basis, Friday the 13th is one of my favorite days of the year and I cross my eyes and make faces regularly, just to make sure I won’t get stuck that way.  But there’s something about talking about my WIP that gives me the heebee-jeebies.

Now I’m in the final sprint–only a few hundred words away from finishing–so I feel OK about sharing with you all.  In fact, I feel more than OK, I want to share because that way you’ll understand why I’ve been a bit more MIA than usual these last few weeks.  Still, part of me is a little superstitious about talking about my WIP so I’ve decided to tell the story in pictures, starring baby animals (because baby animals make any story that much cuter).  Here it is.  The progress report of my WIP (title to be revealed later) told in pictures.

Enjoy! <3 <3 <3

At first, things were going swimmingly.  I finished my thesis, had a solid outline, and was writing along.  La la la la la…

Then, as I was climbing fast toward the climax, I made a fatal mistake: I looked down. “Yikes, it’s pretty high up here.”

Lucky for me, I have some great writing buddies who weren’t afraid to give me a pick-me-up. I kept writing.

Even so, there were times I just wanted to curl up inside my shell.

Then, I finally made it to the final showdown! Good thing I’m trained in the art of pen-wielding, because my villain turned out to be a piece of work. “Take that, evil character!”

Now I’m sprinting to the finish line. 1200 words… 1100… 1000… And pretty soon I’ll type the two most beautiful words in the English language: THE END.

Write on!

Hi all!

As you may recall, I’m participating in Caroline Starr Rose’s Verse Novel Challenge.  The goal is to read five verse novels by the end of 2010.  I’ve recently finished reading the fifth one so I thought I’d do a little update and give my take on the verse novels I’ve read.

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

This was the first verse novel I read this year, which I reviewed here.  I loved this book and read it in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

A beautiful, heart-wrenching book.  I was completely pulled in.  The musical connection (the main character’s love of the piano) especially resonated with me.

Witness by Karen Hesse

Loved this book.  It was SO powerful.  I especially loved how each of the different characters had such distinct voices.  After a while I didn’t need to see their names at the top of the poems; I could tell who was speaking from the language alone.  I wish I had read this when I was writing my literature thesis on “Book As Experience” because it would have been a perfect fit.

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

The prequel to True Believer, this book is simply lovely.  Unlike the other verse novels I read, this was the only one that read as one long poem, rather than a collection of poems.  I know in a previous post I questioned whether Wolff’s verse novels could be considered such (since she herself refers to them as “prose with line breaks”).  But I was dying to read Make Lemonade and figured that if it felt poetry to me then it would be OK to consider it part of the verse novel challenge.  Let me tell you, it was pure poetry.

One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

This was another book that I read in one sitting.  I love the idea of a book set in LA and in the glitz and glamor of the celebrity world and yet the story rings true to any kid.  The pain of loss, the trials of fitting in at a new school, these are all things that readers can relate to, regardless of the glamorous setting. My only quibble was with the ending, which was a teensy bit predictable, but it was still satisfying. 

Everyone’s always talking about first sentences and how important it is that they make an impact and draw the reader into the story.  But what about the last sentences, the words that stick with readers after they put down the book?

As writers, most of us are wired to take a sentence and write forward from it, but how often do we write toward something, toward an ending?  A classic writing exercise is to take a random sentence from a famous novel and write from there, using those words to jump-start our own writing.  Today I’d like to challenge you all to do the opposite.  Below is a list of last sentences, final words from existing books.  The idea here is to write toward these last words so that they fit as the last sentence of your piece.

Here’s a fun exercise! Choose one of the sentences below and write a short piece with the sentence you chose as the final sentence.

• No one has claimed them yet.
• “Let me tell you about it.”
• Everything must go.
• “Make me pretty.”
• …and it was still hot.
• It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.  [She] was both.

Bonus points to anyone who can guess which books these sentences come from!

Once in a while, life just turns blah on you.  Situations get toxic.  Your writing doesn’t cooperate.  Work just isn’t as interesting as it used to be.  Blah.

Those are moments when you need ruby slippers.  I don’t mean literal ruby slippers like in The Wizard of Oz (though someday I will own a pair of these babies all my very own).  What I mean is, you need give yourself something decadent and luxurious, even it’s it’s tiny.  Something that tells you: “I’m pampering myself for a change.  I’m being nice to me today, because I deserve it.”  Ruby slippers can mean different things to different people.

For me these little luxuries include:

• Wearing glittery lip gloss
• A sparkly bookmark, preferably pink
• Brewing a pot of coconut vanilla tea
• Lavender hand lotion

How do you like to pamper yourself when life gets you down?  What are your Ruby Slippers?