Emerging Writer's Festival

Today, I was on a panel at my very first literary festival, and I was absolutely, totally consumed with nerves beforehand but it all worked out fine, everyone was lovely, Melbourne Town Hall was a gorgeous venue, everyone laughed at the right points in my speech and I didn't stammer too much during the Q&A. So it was ace.

The panel was called A short note on process, and it was part of the Town Hall program at the Emerging Writers Festival. Even though I didn't get to see much of it, I thought EWF was awesome, and I was absolutely delighted to be a part of it!

This was what the panel was about: Early mornings Vs late nights Vs quit your day job and just go at it. Are post it notes essential, should first drafts be longhand, and must a writer write daily? These writers talk about their creative processes: how and when they write, and what routines they have in place for working.

It was hosted by Tiggy Johnson, writer, and editor of Page Seventeen, who was lovely (I always worry when I say how nice people are on my blog that they'll get all embarrassed. I know when other people say I'm nice anywhere, I blush and get all uncomfortable but I am a remarkably shy person so maybe other people aren't like that? So hopefully no one gets embarrassed). The other panellists were Mischa Merz, journalist and author of Bruising (which I really want to read now...), Chris Downes, cartoonist, and Myke Bartlett, author of a series of podcasted novels. So it was obviously very interesting and varied, and everyone spoke wonderfully.

For those of you who didn't make it to see my panel at EWF, here's my speech (be aware that I write speeches in the same way that I talk normally so it sounds more natural when I read it, though written it's very gramatically-incorrect - if you are a grammar-phile this may annoy you):

The trouble with me talking about my writing process is that I don’t think I’ve really written enough to actually have a specific process yet, and besides I’m not sure whether I believe any author who says that they always write in the same way. In my mind, it varies from book to book. There’s no right way to write a book and there’s no wrong way to write a book. But what I can talk about is my process as a writer before I got a book deal and then after.

For me, beforehand, writing was like a vice. And you know I think it’s like that for a lot of people, especially people who have day jobs and families and other bigger responsibilities. It’s not that it’s something to be ashamed of or anything, but it’s something that people who don’t write don’t necessarily understand. And since other people only really see it as a hobby, even if it means the world to you, it’s something that takes lower priority than everything else and it ends up being the type of the thing that you steal little snippets of. You have ten
minutes here and an hour before you go to bed or something like that.

Writing to me is this thing that you do under the cover of darkness. Even though it’s just making stuff up and writing it down, it has this magic to it. And when I was writing this novel, I was pouring my heart and soul into it. I know I said there’s no right way to write a novel, but I think really putting yourself in and really investing yourself in your work makes for a better novel than something you’ve just whipped that’s intentionally commercial.

Other people didn’t really understand why I’d voluntarily spend so much time on my own, and when they asked me what my novel was about, people who knew I was writing one, I didn’t want to talk about it. I found that an important part of my writing process was that glorious stage when I was writing the first draft and I hadn’t planned ahead, I didn’t know where I was going with it, and no one else knew what the book was about. And it was like this secret between me and a bunch of fictional characters.

So there wasn’t a specific process then. There were times when I was up late and couldn’t stop writing and everything seemed so profound, but then in the morning it was just rubbish. Then there were times when I knew I should write, I have to finish this book – because I have an issue with unfinished things – but I kept making excuses as to why I couldn’t write. Like, I needed to have a cup of tea, and a piece of toast, and a dedicated soundtrack for the book and I could not write without it. So there were the magic times when I felt like a higher life-form, oh my God this book is awesome, and the times when I thought there’s really no point to this.

Eventually I managed to finish it, after I had a cup of tea, of course, and I had this novel. And for me, and I don’t know whether it was just that book or whether it’s a feeling I’ll always have, but I didn’t feel as if the writing process really ended. Obviously, I’ve done a lot of work on it since with my agent and editor, but when I decided I’d finished with the novel, it wasn’t so much that I felt I’d completed the process with it, but that I just had to abandon it, send it out into the world. Hopefully when my book is published, I’ll feel that sense of the process being completed, but from what other writers have told me there’s always that feeling that you could tweak the novel just a bit more. Then it’d be perfect.

When I got an agent and a book contract, my writing process changed a lot. Not because my writing was particularly different, I mean I was still working on the same book I’d been working on before I had an agent, nor was it because I had a whole lot of pressure from outside forces – the pressure I felt wasn't necessarily that which other people were placing on me – but because my attitude changed. The way I felt about writing, the way I felt about my own, other people’s books, my publisher, the idea of being published, having an editor, the expectations I imagined other people would have of me. How I felt about it all totally changed. I couldn’t go back to the process I’d had before, because I hadn’t been worrying about all these things before. And now people are counting on me.

It’s not that it’s become a job, it’s that there’s a lot more thinking, more structure, involved. I’m glad that I’ll be having deadlines into the future that aren’t self-imposed, because it makes it a whole lot easier to sit down and write and go, I have to do this, without tea breaks.

One major change between my writing process before and after is that editing is actually a huge part now. I think, beforehand, I didn’t really know what editing was. I knew it was a little more than running a spell check, but I don’t think I really understood the magnitude of it. It’s a good thing, because I’m much better at refining my own work now, but it’s also a bad thing because when I’m working on that first draft I can’t help but have this constant self-editor commentating in my head going, God, that’s cliché, you need to rewrite that, some author you are.

I like to imagine creativity as like the health bar in a video game, you know, measuring how much life you have left. And it’s always filling up. And it’s harder to tap into it when the levels are low, and you might be the type of person who doesn’t like to write every day, but you do anyway because you think you should, because some best-selling author does. So you’re using a little bit of this creativity every day, forcing yourself to, and the levels stay low. For me, if I don’t write for a few days or a week, the bar totally fills up and my story or whatever I’m working on is all that’s in my head and if I don’t write something I feel as if I might burst with all these ideas and this inspiration filling me up. And those times, when I stop myself from writing and my book is the only thing on my mind, I forget about the Jiminy Cricket self-editor, and all the people who expect this work to measure up to the last one, and I have back that magic that I had before, when I was working on the first draft of the
last book.

As much as I like to organise myself and make my process this scheduled, thought-out thing – where I write this many words at this time of day every day and then I edit it and it’s all very disciplined – it’s fantastic to just have that wave of inspiration. Sometimes I need to do that to keep myself sane. Writing is no longer a vice for me because I’m meant to be a legitimate writer now, but it’s still a bit of an addiction. It’s something that drives me crazy but I can’t tear myself away from it because I’m worse off without it. I always end up coming back.

So my process can be organised and it can be a mess and I might meet my word-count goals or I might not. Before I got a book deal I had this crazy idea in my head that once I was published writing would become this divine thing, and stories would come to me and I’d be like a prophet or something. Well, obviously that didn’t happen. I’m still hoping it’ll happen.

One thing that remains the same about my writing process – from when I was typing out stories as a seven-year-old on a 286 with a 40MB hard drive until now – is that I don’t outline. As long as I have the beginning, the ending and the main characters in my head, I can start writing a novel. I love how organic writing is, and how I can incorporate every idea in my head and go off on tangents. I like to be fearless in my writing, and for me, outlines are a bit of a safety net and I don’t want a safety net.

I had my photo taken and I had a little article about me in my local paper last week, and they made out like I was going to reveal all my secrets to writerly success. But I can’t do that. Those secrets are so secret that I had to sign a declaration at the Secret Society of Authors never to tell them. Well, not really. I don’t have any secrets, especially not writing ones. I don’t know whether anyone wants advice from a sixteen-year-old here, but I’m going to give you some anyway. If you’re an aspiring writer, know that there aren’t any divine secrets to writing a great novel. There’s no magic pill and it’s definitely not one-size-fits-all. Do what works for you. If you want to write a novel longhand, or on a PC, or on your mobile phone, go ahead. You can write every day or once a week or whenever you want. I find that setting word-count goals works for me, and I do write predominantly on my laptop on weeknights, but that might not work for you. The most important thing – the number one trait of highly successful writers – is that you write. It doesn’t really matter how you go about it as long as it works for you.

Are you a writer or an author?

Writers - unpublished and published - use all kinds of labels to define themselves. Writer, author, pre-published , aspiring author, amateur author... what do you call yourself?

And... will what you call yourself change at some point? Will you graduate from 'amateur' to 'professional' in your own mind when you get a book deal?

(I'm in favour of writer. It's obvious, it's to the point, it doesn't change regardless of whether or not you're published. I like the broadness of it.)

Advice For Teenage Writers & More

1. Don't listen to a negative word anyone says. (With the exception of constructive criticism, obviously, you'll figure out how to differentiate that from people being just plain nasty.) People will tell you that because you are young you can't write because a) you have no life experience (as far as I'm concerned, you can have the busiest, most exotic life in the world and it doesn't necessarily make you a good writer), b) because they couldn't write as teenagers and c) because you should be studying to get into a good university/job or, if you're a girl and have particularly old-fashioned acquaintaces, because you should be prettying yourself up to try and wrangle a husband. Because obviously that's on the mind of all 16-year-olds. These people who say negative things? They aren't going to stop when you get a book deal. If you get published as a teenager, it'll probably get worse. Which is why you need to decide right now that what they say doesn't matter - you know that anyone at any age can become a great writer, and they're just jealous of your motivation.
2. Write, write, write, write, write. Sure, you can blog about writing and talk about writing and write about writing and read books about writing and industry blogs but here's the thing: in order to become a good writer you actually have to write. Set a specific time each day or week, a word goal (like, a 1500-word chapter a day, or just 500 words, or 10000 words every weekend. Figure out what works for you). I know that everyone says this but everyone says it because it's so important.
3. Send your work out! Once you're ready of course. But seriously, you have nothing to lose. Just do it.
4. Writing is hard for everybody. There is no magic formula, no secret, no trick that'll have you finish a book in the blink of an eye. There will be days when the words will come easily and there will be days when it'll be like pulling teeth. It doesn't change once you are agented or published. Enjoy writing. Finish stuff. Get feedback. You can be an amazing writer. You can get published. It takes a lot of hard work, there will be sacrifices, the struggle won't end with you signing a contract. But if it's what you want and you're motivated enough you can do it. Really. I wouldn't fib about this.

Now, answers from the post the other day:
Natalie Whipple asked: What inspires you to be creative?
Lots of little things. Snippets of conversations I hear, different songs, something I see, something on the news, a book I've read, a photograph. Usually if I try not to write for a few days, I can write a whole lot of words in one sitting. I like to imagine creativity as this thing that fills up over time and you can use a bit of it every day, but if you don't, it all comes spilling out of you and is a bit unstoppable. And that's when you write ten thousand words in three hours.

What does your writing process look like?
I don't really think I've been writing enough yet to have a specific process... what I tend to do is have an idea in my head for a few months, and when I have a clear idea of the beginning and end I start to write. I'll set a number of words I want to write, and sometimes I'll write in huge chunks or tiny 100-word spurts. Once I've finished that first draft I'll rewrite a couple of times, because that first draft tends to be a bit messy.

Gracie asked: What's the most unconventional thing about the way you write? (Do you have to wear a chicken hat while plotting? Do you write seven drafts in seven months, all the while wearing a shirt with the number 7?)

I think I'm pretty conventional! There's not a whole lot of organisation to my process, which is weird - I set a word count I want to achieve, I don't plan but i have a general idea of what I want to write, and then I type out a whole lot of words. Sometimes I can write 10,000 words in an evening, or a 1,000 words in a week. It varies a lot.

If you could choose to set a book anywhere in the world (and subsequently travel there "for research," of course), where would it be?
Hawaii, maybe. Somewhere warm and sunny. (It's winter here right now, this would probably change if it was a different time of year.)

Does My Bum Look Big In This Ad?

Following my body image post, I was contacted by Lisa Cox, about her book Does My Bum Look Big In This Ad? written to educate young people on positive body image and media literacy (she also started Muse In The Mirror, a 'pro-esteem site to inspire positive, empowering reflections of you and your world', which I strongly encourage you to check out!). Here's a bit about it:

Ever wondered why you don’t look like the people in magazine ads?

There are heaps of books about how popular culture (like advertising) affects the way you feel about yourself. Unfortunately, they’re mostly written about young people, not for young people… until now!

Lisa Cox takes a behind the scenes look at how the media industry works: showing teenagers how to critically and independently evaluate what they see, hear or read in popular culture and the media.

You’ll learn how to develop and maintain a positive body image as you navigate your way through the media maze.

Does My Bum Look Big In This Ad? is a quick, easy and friendly read - it's written in a conversational tone, and manges to be informative and also a fun and positive read. Not only is it educational, it also makes you feel really good about yourself by telling you about the reality of the images presented in the media - how the industry works, and why advertising and other images in the media are so perfect, and how they're made that way.

I think this would be most suitable for girls on the younger end of the teen spectrum, even preteens - it's short, with large font, and written in an easy-to-follow way, very straightforward - I've recommend it to girls 10 and up. I think a bit of the material in the book are things that older teenage girls are already aware of, but it's still a positive and worthwhile read.

Can you recommend other positive self-esteem (or pro-esteem) books and magazines?

I'm like that wise tree in Pocahontas. Except I'm not a talking tree.

A blog post about me (kind of - actually more about this post) on Jezebel. You know, like that really awesome site that gets upwards of a million hits daily? (And they linked my blog post on Galleycat, too!) (Thanks Helen for letting me know about this!)

Sometimes I read stuff that other people have said about Steph Bowe and feel jealous of her and think maybe I'd like to meet her one day because she seems pretty damned precocious and pretty good-looking too. Then I realise I am Steph Bowe and not only have I met her, I've been existing in her body for the last sixteen years. You guys, it's pretty fantastic and terrifying all at once. People expect stuff from me. It freaks me out.

On to the thing I want to talk about in this post.

There are two recurring themes I'm noticing whenever I/other people talk about teenagers getting published. They are:

1. That books by teenaged authors are bad because they were teenagers when they wrote them; and,
2. That writers who are adults now are grateful that they weren't published as teenagers because they weren't prepared.

And hearing these things can be disheartening for a young writer. Well, I mean, they're disheartening to me. And I want to tell you two things, two very important things that I have said before and will say again, and that you should particularly listen to (well, so long as you want to listen to it) if you're a young writer. They are:

1. Being young does not necessarily make you a bad writer. You can be a beginner (meaning you haven't yet written enough to become a great writer) at any age. Crappy books are published all the time, it happens - and they are written by people of all ages. The author being a teenager is not as fantastic a marketing gimmick as it was ten years ago. A publisher will not publish a book based on the author's age alone. Okay? So if you read my book, and you think it's rubbish, I'd much rather you say that I need more experience as a writer, rather than 'This book! It's crap! She was fifteen when she wrote it, that's why!'
2. Everyone's journey in life is different. You may be prepared to be published at sixteen or at sixty. Your writing may be mature enough already, or it might not be. Just because other people think that they weren't prepared to be published at a young age doesn't mean you aren't. That said, though, being published is massively stressful and you probably won't have time to do anything but do schoolwork and manage the business of writing and write in your spare time. It's up to you whether or not you want to make that commitment. Don't feel you have to (it's not a race!) but don't let people dissuade you from following your dreams, either.

And, just to remind you, I'm not a prodigy. I just wrote a book. I got lucky and it got published. This is the sort of thing that can happen to any young writer, all right?
Okay, I've rambled on enough. Back to schoolwork and editing for me (lots of book reviews, more contests and product reviews coming soon, you guys!).
But first... I'm thinking of doing a Q&A post (if there are enough questions!) So you can either email me or comment below with questions for me, about publishing, being a young writer, whatever you think I may be knowledgable in.
So, questions?

Does age matter in publishing?

I've been getting a lot of emails asking me this, and the answer, in short, is no.

Your age does not dictate how good of a writer you are. The only real things that will affect you, as a younger writer, are that: a) some agents and publishers (note: some) will make judgements about you based on your age, and may be reluctant to work with you or expect you will not be able to work to a professional level (of course, you will prove them wrong), b) your parents will have to be very involved through the entire process - signing all the contracts, talking to everyone you'll work with, accompanying you doing publicity, managing your money and taxes, etcetera, etcetera, and c) it's an adult world. As in, you have to be mature. You have to be a professional. You have to be prepared for an editor to rip your work apart. Then for reviewers to do that. And you have to write in spite of it and sacrifice other elements of your life in order to write, and manage the business of writing. I think some unpublished authors are a little bit deluded as to what writing professionally entails. Know that you won't be a different person when you get a book deal. You'll be a living the same life you live now, but with more responsibilities.

Now, a few words of advice for teenaged authors seeking publication:

• It is not a race. Okay? I'm going to repeat that because it is so, so important: It is not a race. It does not matter what age you are published at. If you reach legal age without a book on shelves, guess what? It doesn't matter. You have plenty of time to become a professional writer. It doesn't need to happen right now. You are still a success, irrespective of when and whether or not you are published.
• I'm 16. I got a book deal when I was 15. There are authors that were published at 13 and 14 and I always find myself thinking, God, must I fail at everything I do? They were published younger than me! I think a lot of young, motivated people set impossibly high standards for themselves. Know that no matter how much you succeed, you're still going to feel like you could have done better. Ignore these thoughts. You are an amazing person, regardless of what you achieve and the age at which you achieve it.
• Don't expect that agents and publishers will be racing to pick up your book and throw a six-figure advance at you because you're a teen. More than one teenager has written a book. Plenty of teens, actually. And while that's a great achievement, not all of them are publishable, same as not all novels written by adults are publishable.
• Don't mention your age in a query letter and make out like the fact you're a teenager means the book will be an easy sell. Say that you're a student. When an agent offers representation, and calls, tell them you're a teenager then.

Questions? Feel free to ask in the comments, or email me.

And if you've got any advice to impart, go ahead!

Do you have a favourite quote?

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” Henry David Thoreau



- Marilyn Monroe


“I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.” Yohji Yamamoto


- Oscar Wilde


“You can search the whole universe and not find a single being more worthy of love than yourself.” Buddha


“I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.” - Haruki Murakami



“What about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls? When you skateboarded down the street at night you could hear everyone’s heartbeat, and they could hear yours, sort of like sonar. One weird thing is, I wonder if everyone’s hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about, but don’t really want to know about. That would be so weird, except that the place in the hospital where babies are born would sound like a crystal chandelier in a houseboat, because the babies wouldn’t have had time to match up their heartbeats yet. And at the finish line at the end of the New York City Marathon it would sound like war.” - Jonathan Safran Foer



“People die of broken hearts.
They have heart attacks.
And it’s the heart that hurts the most when things go wrong and fall apart.” - The Messenger by Markus Zusak

Please share your favourite quotes the comments!

Article by me in The Age today

It's called 'From Peer to post' and I basically talk about how awesome teenagers and my blog readers are. It's in the excellent A2 section. I strongly encourage you to buy it.

Or, you can read it online.

Let me know what you think!

Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham

On a sunny day in June, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything - absolutely everything - changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will whisper, "That’s her - that’s Shark Girl," as she passes. Meanwhile there are only questions: Why did this happen? What about her art? What about her life? This striking first novel uses poems, letters, telephone conversations, and newspaper clippings to look unflinchingly at what it’s like to lose part of yourself and to summon the courage it takes to find yourself again.

This book was published in 2007, and I'm unsure whether it was just released in Australia or whether this is a re-release. I'm wondering how I didn't discover it sooner.

It's a verse novel, short and sweet but packing a big punch. I read it in an afternoon but the story stayed with me a long while after. The blurb does a good job of summing it up, so there's not a whole lot more I can think to say about. It received starred reviews from a couple of the four reviewing journals, so if you haven't already read this, I highly encourage you to pick it up.

The premise and the structure of the book really hooked me. A girl who's been attacked by a shark and is trying to cope afterwards? That fascinates me. I loved the inclusion of letters from strangers, Jane's conversations with family, her own arguments with her self. The way in which this novel was written made feel very close to Jane.

One thing that frustrates me about verse novels, though, is that they seem to be over so quickly. I felt as if there could have been more - the jump between Jane being totally angry (for good reason) and then content, seemed to happy a little too quickly.

I strongly recommend this to readers of both genders twelve and up.

Have you read many verse novels?

What do you think of them, compared to regular novels?

Can you recommend any?

Author photos!

What do you think?

Della Says: OMG! by Keris Stainton - Review & Interview

Before I started reading Della Says: OMG! I had Expectations. And I capitalise Expectations because Expectations are a big part of my book reading experience. I see the cover, I read the blurb, I see the title, I read other reviews, maybe I know the author’s online presence – and from these things I start to expect things of the novel.

So first, quickly, my expectations: I was expecting a novel with a big focus on Facebook, texting and IM. I was expecting it to be written for a younger teenage audience. I was expecting it to be a quick, easy and fun read. I wasn’t expecting it to have much depth, but I love fun books, so that’s okay.

Needless to say, Della Says: OMG! was totally not what I was expecting. In a great way.

The focus of this novel was not as much on Della’s missing diary (and there was a small amount of focus on the internet side of things), I felt, as it was on Della growing as a person. Della was a brilliant character – she wasn’t the strongest of personalities, but she wasn’t a pushover either, and she was someone with whom I could really relate. I thought Dan, too, was fantastic, and the relationship between those two was really well-written. And Maddy! Maddy was great. I would have loved to have heard more of her story.

It talks about things like teen sex very honestly (always tactfully, though) and Della is seventeen, so I’d probably recommend this to slightly older teens. I thought Della’s story was sweet, but also a lot more multi-layered than I expected. This was a book I really enjoyed reading – a little snapshot into Della’s life, laugh-out-loud funny and very insightful.

Interview with Keris Stainton

Steph: Was there a specific inspiration behind Della Says: OMG? Can you tell me a bit about the process of writing it?
Keris: Well the original idea was based on something that happened to me. My sister had a party when our parents were away and the next morning, I couldn't find my diary. I eventually did find it, but not before I'd imagined the horrors of someone else having it. I started to think about what it would be like today, with social networking, etc., and then I started thinking about how insecure I was and then Della appeared!

I started writing it from three viewpoints: Della, Jamie and Maddy, but my editor liked Della and wanted me to write the whole thing from her POV. I'd quite like to write Maddy's and Jamie's stories in the future though.

Steph: I think Della is an ace character - is there much of you in her, or any of your other characters?
Keris: Thank you! There's definitely a bit of me in her - her insecurity and self-consciousness. That's what I wanted to explore really because I know, or at least I hope, that that's relateable.

Steph: I loved how honest your novel was about issues that affect teens. Did you make a conscious decision to write it like that? Did you ever worry about people not liking the content?
Keris: Thank you. I did worry a bit - I still do (no one in my family has read it yet - argh!) - but I didn't see any point in writing it if I didn't do it honestly. There are some tricky issues, but I don't think there's anything sensationalised. And I don't think there's anything that teenagers aren't already aware of.

Steph: Can you tell me a little bit about your road to publication, and how you reacted when you found out your book was being published?
Keris: Well the road was very smooth, thankfully. I'd written a book called Forget Me Not and I found a wonderful agent fairly quickly. She started sending it out and then said that Orchard wanted to meet me. I went down to London (I live about 250 miles away) expecting an interview, but they basically told me how much they loved my writing. I rang my husband afterwards and just squealed down the phone. And I giggled so much on the train that another passenger asked me what was up!

Steph: Imagining you could travel back in time and meet your teenaged self without tearing the universe apart, what advice would you give her about writing and life?
Keris: Ooh, great question. First of all I would tell her that she's not fat. And to stop worrying so much about getting a boyfriend. I might give her a heads-up on the George Michael thing too. I'd tell her not to worry about other people's opinions so much and that she's capable of much more than she thinks she is.
Steph: What are you working on at the moment? (And will Della Says: OMG have a sequel?)
Keris: I've another book coming out next year. It's about an American boy who's in love with his best friend's girlfriend and a girl from Manchester who gets her heart broken and goes to New York (where her mum lives) for the summer. Not sure about a Della sequel yet, but as I said, it's a possibility!

Follow the blog tour at: http://dellasays.wordpress.com/blog-tour/ & check out the next tour stop: http://trashionista.com/ for more!

Beautiful Monster by Kate McCaffrey

This was definitely an issues novel – eating disorders and mental health being the issues – and though I haven’t read Kate McCaffrey’s previous novels, it seems as if they were issues-based too.

Tessa’s life changes when her little brother is killed in an awful accident – suddenly her mother isn’t her mother anymore, and Tessa increasingly feels pressured to be perfect, that she should have died instead of her brother. Tess decides that in order to be perfect, she has to lose weight – she starts starving herself, and when she has to eat, throwing it back up. Tess wants to be in control. Her close friend Ned supports her, is always there for her, and thinks she should lose weight too.

One issue I had with this novel was that I never really felt connected to Tess. The book was written in third-person, and I always felt as if I was outside of Tess’s head, unable to fully empathise with her because I didn’t really know her. I thought it was written wonderfully, and the way in which time was structured was brilliant. I think even though I felt a bit disconnected from Tess, the way she feels about herself and the things that she does are things that I think a lot of young women (and other people of course) will be able to understand, sadly.

I’ve found with a lot of novels about eating disorders, the character with the disorder is endlessly frustrating – people keep telling them they’re too thin, they have to get better – and yet they still insist that they’re fat and ugly. This is probably representative of a real person with an eating disorder – it affects them mentally and they have very distorted ideas of their own appearance. Tess and her fights with Ned were so frustrating and so sad – but I think they were necessary in the novel.

This isn’t the type of book you can say you enjoyed, because I didn’t really. I thought it was well-written and insightful, and I recommend it to people who enjoyed Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and other novels about eating disorders. I think the pull of Beautiful Monster and books like it is not that they’re fun to read, but that they’re like a train wreck – you feel almost hypnotised by them, by the horror.

What do you think of novels about eating disorders?

So what happens once you get a book deal?

"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist."
- Isaac Asimov

1. Contract. If you have a literary agent, they will negotiate the contract with the publisher. This will take a long time. I've met people who are all, 'Oh, I'm going to get a six-figure advance for my first book and live off that while I write my second.' And the issue with this is that a) you're delusional (sure people get six-figure advances. Not arrogant people, though) and b) it will be months and months before you even see the final contract, let alone your advance. (I'm not entirely sure what happens if you don't have a literary agent. I assume that there wouldn't be much negotiation, which wouldn't be great for you). And this is the point at which you should realise that you shouldn't be writing for the money. You should be writing for the love of it. (This is obviously easy for me to say, considering I'm supported by my parents.)
2. Editing. You will have an editor assigned to your book. I always hear people say, 'Oh my god, personalised rejections hurt. I hate it when my poor, poor book is criticised.' These people are not going to like the editing process. Obviously it's a vital element of the whole book-publishing gig. When you get your manuscript back from an editor, it will be covered (and when I say covered I mean that. The entire thing) in squiggles and Xes and all manner of other little symbols. Every single word in your entire book will be questioned. The lines you like best will be cut. You may have to change character and plot. There will be numerous rounds of editing. You will grow to hate your book. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel - eventually the editing will end, and you will realise your book is better for it.
3. Publicity. If your publisher does a decent job, you're probably going to have to go places and talk to people and go to festivals and talk to people and give speeches and talk to people. And this is not great because writers aren't really renowned for being social butterflies. And at first this might be really difficult for you, but you'll get the hang of it.
4. Angst. You're going to become very stressed out and anxious (unless you're totally zen, unlike me). You will worry about the book not selling. You will worry about the next book. You will worry about never being published again. This is all totally normal, okay? It has to be. Otherwise I'm weird.
5. Waiting. Your book may come out 1-2 years after you get the book deal. There will be a lot of waiting. But you've got plenty to do in between - and people will ask every three minutes, how's the new book coming along?
6. Exciting moments. Seeing your book cover. Holding the bound proof. Getting blurbs from famous authors. Knowing that other people are going to read this thing. Knowing that all the effort you've put into reaching this point is worthwhile.

Do you have any questions about the publishing process?

Worst Things About Being A (Published) Teen Writer

"I write for the same reason I breathe-because if I didn’t I would die."
- Isaac Asimov

This post isn't intended to be negative, at all. I'm more than super grateful to be getting published, don't get me wrong. But there are a lot of things I didn't expect, and that no one told me would happen - so I thought I'd tell you what those things are.

1. Everybody resents every tiny iota of success you get. Which I get. I get jealous when other people get multi-book six-figure deals. I wish I didn't. I wish I could just be happy for them. But I think it's the natural state of human beings. Being envious. I wish this didn't happen.
2. Everyone will claim responsibility. "Oh yes, I encouraged her writing all along. She couldn't have done it without me!" Yes. People will say this. They will be fibbing. You will cringe.
3. Everyone will assume your parents wrote the book for you. Until they meet your parents and discover your parents are too glamorous and awesome and busy to read books, let alone write them.
4. Everyone will try and psycho-analyse your book. Especially people who aren't psycho-analysts. Everyone will think that everything you put into your book is a direct reflection of you. And when everyone in your book is mentally unstable and very depressed, they're going to assume that's what you're like.
5. The self-doubt doesn't go away. It gets worse. A lot worse. It did for me.
6. Taxes are a nightmare. Yeah, don't really need to add anything to that.
7. You can't tell people you're getting published without them thinking you're totally arrogant. Which I don't like. Because other people will be talking about being aspiring authors and I can't say, Oh, I'm getting published, I can tell you about publishing, without people going, Oh, Steph's totally full of herself. Really, I'm not. I'm just trying to make conversation. Being published is the only vaguely interesting thing that's ever happened to me.
8. Your mum will have to go with you everywhere. And your mum is really awesome, and people will really like your mum. But come on, you're the author! Mum, don't be offended when your read this.
9. Writing becomes harder. Which makes no sense. I mean, if you know you're going to earn money from it, shouldn't it become easier? And yet, no.
10. A lot of people tell you 'You only got published because you're a teenager.' This is probably what bothers me most. The people who say this are the ones who believe getting published is Impossible and only happens if you have Industry Contacts. And they think you somehow Paid Somebody Off in order to get published. Guys, I don't have enough money to pay people off.

Remember guys - I'm not complaining! (Okay, maybe I am. Please, no one leave negative comments! I know I'm a total sook already.) I'm just telling you the things I was surprised about when I got a book deal.

Soon - the best things about being a published teen writer!

10 Reasons Why Teen Writers Rock!

1. You know what it’s like to be a teenager. And this is going to come in handy if you write for teens.
2. You write. That’s pretty damn awesome already. I mean, you could be out drinking alco-pops and partying, but you’re writing! Which is ace!
3. You’re actually an all right writer. Some people will try and persuade you that teens can't write. Totally wrong! If you write enough, you’ll get better at it. Beginning writers of all ages don’t become literary geniuses overnight.
4. You research the industry. I know so many teens who aspiring authors who really know the publishing business and what they want to get into. A lot of people don’t even research this!
5. You’ve got heaps of time ahead of you to perfect your craft. Congrats on getting started early in life! You’ve got years of novel-writing ahead! (This should be uplifting, not depressing, by the way.)
6. You know how to manage your time. You study, play sport, have a social life, part-time job and lots of family responsibilities. Teenagers are busy. And the fact that you’ve made the time to write is something to be proud of.
7. You don’t let self-doubt stop you from writing. Being a teenager is a tumultuous time. Well, I mean, for me it is. And people probably put down your writing and you probably put down your own writing but you ignore it and you write anyway!
8. You have important stuff to say. Just because people think that being a teenager means you don’t have value as a person, doesn’t mean they’re right. It means they have the intelligence of a hyena. You have worthwhile stuff to say. Write it.
9. Did I mention that you know what it’s like to be a teenager? That means no old dodgy music references, outdated slang or anything else old in your writing. Unless you put it there on purpose. And you don’t talk down to teens!
10. You’ve got tons of time to get published. You don’t have to do it right away.

What have I missed? Why else do teen writers rock?

Rebecca Stead and Simmone Howell praise my book!!!!!

OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS OH MY GOODNESS. Look! These lovely authors that have said nice things about my book! Isn't it AMAZING?!

"Beautiful and fresh, Girl Saves Boy is full of the absolute truth—life is complicated. I could not put it down."
— Rebecca Stead (author of When You Reach Me)

"Steph Bowe’s debut is charming and quirky and heartfelt enough to make you catch your breath when you least expect it. Readers will adore Girl Saves Boy and I can’t wait to see what comes next."
— Simmone Howell (author of Everything Beautiful)

FURY by Shirley Marr: Review & Author Interview

Summary from publisher's website: Let me tell you my story.
Not just the facts I know you want to hear.
If I’m going to tell you my story,
I’m telling it my way.
Strap yourself in...

Eliza Boans has everything.
A big house.
A great education.
A bright future.
So why is she sitting in a police station confessing to murder?

My review: Eliza was a mean, mean girl. Spoilt, sarcastic and a bit of a control freak (and a total snob). At the start of the book, I hated her. So what if she killed someone? And I hate - really, really hate - spoilt rich girl characters. But as I read she grew on me as a character... and I sympathised with her and her friends as the novel progressed. (Maybe Gossip Girl readers will like this?) Though I did want to smack her upside the head through most of it... but I think that was the point.

At times I felt the dialogue was a little unbelievable and I couldn't imagine it actually being spoken by young people. This was only really through the first part, when she's at school... after about the first third it became more realistic. It almost felt as if the writing was more assured as the novel progressed. The ending was brilliant, when the reader finds out the truth about Eliza and the murder. I was still left with lots of questions, though (which was good. It's the sort of book I thought about for a long time afterwards).

I liked the way in which the story was told, jumping between past and present, Eliza telling her version of events. It's difficult to review without giving too much away (I'd tell you I liked this plot point and disliked that plot point, but then the effect of the book will be ruined), so I'll keep it brief: I strongly recommend this book to readers who like teen psychological thrillers. If you liked Liar by Justine Larbalestier, I think you'll love this. It reminds me of Liar because Eliza is a character who, for most of the book, anyway, doesn't tell the whole story. I think adult YA readers may be frustrated by Eliza's immaturity and sarcasm, so I'd recommend this primarily to teenaged girls 14+.

A thrilling, fantastic (and sarcastic) read.

Author Interview: Shirley Marr

Shirley Marr is the author of the YA novel Fury released May 2010, published by black dog books. She's also a wearer of tutus, black hoodies, purple nail polish and eyeliner (so, you know, really awesome!). Read the interview and find out more about Shirley and the story behind Fury...

1. What inspired FURY? Which came first, the story or the characters?

I’ve actually been trying to write this story ever since, well, I decided I wanted to be a writer. You know how they say that everyone has one story inside of them? No matter what I wrote it would always come down to the same situation and ending, it was like being trapped in this perpetual writer’s groundhog day! They ranged from slightly gothic horror to the modern, the only thing they had in common, apart from being the same story is that they weren’t ever any good. That was until I found Eliza. I’ve always wanted to write a character like Mersault from Albert Camus “The Outsider”. Someone who commits a horrible crime and because they don’t act in a way society expects them to, by admitting their guilt and saying they’re sorry, they become condemned. I wanted to present this character to the reader and ask “do you hate this person or is it possible for you to understand who they are?” So when Eliza met my ‘groundhog day story’, it finally came right for me. The story came out. And quite naturally, the other characters who have played dress-ups as one person or another over the years, fell into place as well.

2. What was the process of writing FURY like? How long did you work on the book, what did your family think, and did you think it would get published?

Would you believe Fury only took me 3 months to write? I was so absorbed in it that I actually churned out a 80,000 ms. Obviously it was too long and even though it was full of passion and good intentions, being the first draft it was crap! It took me another 3 months to edit it to a reasonable shape. And it was still 80,000 words long. I wrote it for myself, just like everything else and didn’t have intentions of showing it to anyone, not even my family, let alone a publisher! That probably explained why it was so easy for me and I wasn’t wracked with self-doubt or pressure. Looking back, I think I had such a great time. Probably the best time of my life. It was idyllic. I was naive and mostly happy!

3. Can you share your road-to-publication story?

Oh the road has been very long! I decided I wanted to become a writer when I was still a teenager. That didn’t happen until 10 YEARS later! It basically took me that long until I decided I had written something good enough, so I don’t consider myself an overnight success story. But having that much practice did pay off, because the first time I submitted to a publisher (black dog books), I got instant interest back. Yes, it surprised me too! I thought rejection was a rite of passage (kinda like a writer’s “hazing” stage). Even our friends Jo Rowling and Steph Meyer got heaps of rejects. I reckon that wouldn’t have happened if I had just been too excited and sent in the very first thing I wrote. So if I have any advice, that’s to practice your writing until it’s close to perfect, without sacrificing the quirks that make your writing your own. And choose a publisher with books and an ethic very like your own, a perfect match might just be waiting to happen.

4. Imagining you could travel backwards in time and meet your younger self without tearing the universe apart, what advice would you give her about writing and life?

I would give my younger emo self a hug first. Then I will say “don’t give up”. There has been at least three or four occasions when I’ve chucked major wobblies and threatened to quit. Writing can be a very lonely and when what you come up with doesn’t even meet your own expectations, then it can feel very unrewarding and hopeless. I would also tell younger-emo-self to stop being so dramatic and OTT about everything cos life can be okay, y’know? But I don’t think I would change a thing about the past. I am sure younger-emo-self would refuse to listen to me and with or without my advice, I am sure she would continue to write anyway. I like to believe we all arrive at the same destination no matter what.

5. Are you working on a new novel right now? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Yes! The answer is yes, but I can’t say much more about it. She’s left me and is living with my editor Melissa right now. But as no one knows how well Fury is going to do, there’s no 100% guarantee she will ever be published. So if you enjoyed Fury, please let us know about the love. All I can say is that at the moment, she’s fully living up to the reputation of “the second difficult novel”. She’s not a sequel, but some familiar sounding names might pop up. Who doesn’t love a crossover?

6. What has been the best thing about getting a book published? What hopes do you have for the future?

This sounds really corny, but if this was Idol or Biggest Loser, they would be playing my package right now and it would take something like an hour. The best thing is that it feels I’ve come to the end of one journey and about to start another and I can’t wait. But because I’ve always been a writer (remember everyone is a writer, if not a published author, not yet anyway) I don’t think my future will be that much different. I would love to be able to have more novels published, but even if I didn’t, I would still write anyway. One day maybe, I hope to write a classic that will survive for a hundred years. I don’t want to write just so I can be famous and an author, I want to add something to the world. I really believe that is the purpose of every writer and if I don’t contribute something hopelessly beautiful and different, then I would have failed.

--

Thanks, Shirley! Check out Shirley's website to find out more about her (or read this excellent interview!) and remember to check out Fury!

Don't Waste Your Youth Growing Up

So I notice that every time someone talks to me and finds out about my writing, or whenever someone mentions me online, they generally add 'when I was sixteen, I was obsessed with boys and make-up and gossiping with my friends, not writing novels!' or some variation thereof.And I've been thinking about this for a while, and every time someone says it, I think about it again.

I think it's important to note that I am an alien. I am not of this planet. Someday the mothership will return for me, and I'll take the information I've collected about your kind and take it back to my home galaxy, where me and my alien cronies can then plot how we will destroy you. At the moment I'm brainstorming some War of the Worlds old-school style obliteration. Sounds good, right?

No, but in all honesty, I think it's really important to remember that I'm an atypical teenager. I'm very family-oriented, and don't have many close friends. I've been doing high school by distance for the past four years. I hate parties. I refuse to drink, smoke, take drugs or engage in any other risky behaviours. I spend a lot more time with my family or on my own than I spend with people my age. I don't really understand crushes or teenage dating rituals or why everyone wants to get laid so much. I live most of my life in my head.

And I hate all this because it feels a whole lot like I'm not young at all. It feels a whole lot like I've skipped being a teenager and gone straight to being middle-aged. Not that there's anything wrong with being middle-aged, but I worry I won't have an opportunity to be young and do youthful things and wear short skirts (which I won't) and dance (which I don't) and go out with boys (which I mean have you seen sixteen-year-old boys lately? In my town? Yeah, no thanks.). Maturity. It's a curse. I mean I'd like to do these things but I can't. I don't get it. I do want to be like other people. I don't want to miss out. But then again, there are a lot of things I'm doing that other sixteen-year-olds are missing out on (though what you don't have is always a lot more attractive than what you do have. Sure, the grass is greener, but I'd like both patches of grass, thanks). So in terms of the things teenagers think and do and the behaviours they engage in, I'm a million miles behind. But in fifteen years or so, I think we'll be on the same wavelength.

So please, no-one feel bad about having had fun when they were sixteen. Just because I'm spending all my free time with imaginary people doesn't mean I'm any more successful than you. It doesn't matter if you get published as sixteen or sixty. Everything you did through your life (when, you know, you were living life in the real world, not angsting in your room every Friday night and being Steph Bowe) made you the person (and writer) you are today.

But I bet everybody feels like this. I just like thinking that I'm special. I think everybody does.
Have you ever felt like you're wasting your youth?