Luck versus Hard work & Recognising Your Awesome

Gosh, you guys, when did it become uncool to be proud of yourself? Was it ever cool to be proud of yourself? Everyone, all the time, is all, 'Hey, I'm not that great. I only managed to [insert awesome accomplishment here] because I was lucky. But you! You, you're fantastic, you're a genius!' Why is it okay to say unlovely things to yourself when we're so nice to other people we care about/admire? I hate this whole conversational pattern of self-deprecating comment + compliment (it's like a one-two punch! pow pow!) to which the other person replies with a self-deprecating comment + compliment. Usually it's about physical appearance ('Oh em gee, I'm so ugly, you're so pretty' 'No way, babe, you're gorgeous, I look awful' - seriously, I will delete my Facebook account if I see any more of this. And then I will move to a remote mountaintop retreat without internet. And live peacefully until the end of my days, never again having to witness the upload of someone's new default pic).

Is everyone worried they'll seem arrogant? I won't think you're arrogant if you like how you look, or you love your own books, or, you know, you actually value yourself the way you value other people. I'm talking specifically writing here, because being an insecure writer is what I know/do best, but you can apply this to basically everything. You can be proud of yourself without being arrogant. Saying that your success as a writer is mostly due to hard work does not discredit the hard work of writers who have yet to find the same success as you (find makes it sound as if writers stumble across book deals while adventuring in the long grass, doesn't it? Maybe they do) - to be entirely honest, saying it was luck is a lot more depressing to the unpublished writer (and also to me) than saying it was hard work. Yes, in the writing-and-publishing biz and a lot of other bizzes (biz's? bizi? I shouldn't use the word biz, I know. I'm just trying to sound hip and with it. I'm getting old) luck plays a part. And we know that.

Here is what I am saying: You are awesome. Other people can see your awesome emanating from you. Give yourself permission to increase your level of awesome. Give yourself permission to see that you are awesome. Stop saying 'I was lucky' so goddamn much (and quit it with the 'I'm ugly' too). You know, we're all pretty lucky. And we all (usually) achieve things through a lot of hard work. You're allowed to like yourself (probably a good idea, since you're stuck with yourself at least until death and then possibly longer depending on your belief system. I mean, I'm hoping it's just till death, because I don't know how long I'll be able to tolerate me). You're allowed to say that the awesome things you've done are a little more than just luck. You're allowed to be proud of yourself. People won't think you're arrogant, and if they do, they obviously need to find something better to think about.

Stop being self-deprecating. Seriously, stop it. It annoys me. As a writer, the things you have to write are just as important as everyone else's. As a human being, the things you say and have to contribute are just as important as everyone else's. Start liking yourself. Start being proud of your accomplishments and stop thinking they were just flukes. Yell from rooftops, 'I love Steph Bowe!' But, you know, replace my name with yours. Or don't. Entirely up to you.

Remember: Recognising that you are awesome is fine. Seriously. (As long as you recognise the awesome in other people, too. Don't go thinking you're Jesus.) Go forth and do awesome things.

Photo source: Mine!

Writing Bootcamp: Five Ways To Revive Your Novel by Luisa Plaja

Writing Bootcamp is a blog series in which I invite fabulous authors to share with you (yes, you! assuming you are an inquisitive writer) their best bits of writerly advice. Today, Luisa Plaja, author of novels including Split by a Kiss, Swapped by a Kiss, and Kiss Date Love Hate, shares five ways to revive your novel!

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When you wrote the first page of your manuscript, it was true love. But now, several chapters in, things have cooled a bit. Perhaps it's all starting to feel too much like hard work. Or you're totally stuck. Maybe your novel is flagging... or you are?

Here are a few of my tried-and-tested methods for reviving a WIP...

1. Look at it from a different angle. Take a character who doesn't already have a direct voice in your story and freewrite from their point of view. Let this character rant about their likes and dislikes, and talk about what they think of your main character. I did this for my second novel, Extreme Kissing, which was originally told from one point of view ('good girl' Bethany). I ended up so involved in the new voice ('bad girl' Carlota) that I decided to keep it and write both points of view in alternating chapters. After that, there was no stopping me. I'm not sure I'd recommend that you go that far, but looking closely at another character's point of view can definitely get the writing flowing again.
2. Give yourself permission to delete. If you're stuck, you might want to delete a whole scene or scenes, taking you back to a time when you knew where the story was going and everything felt rosy. This can free you up to go in a shiny new direction. Keep all the off-cuts in a file so that it's not too upsetting, and remind yourself you can always put the chunks back. Chances are, you won't do anything of the sort. You'll rid yourself of some cumbersome darlings and never look back. But who knows when someone might be interested in a Director's Cut...?
3. Skip forwards. Is there a scene you're dying to write, but you just can't figure out how to get there? Write it anyway and work out the route another day. You might even find that you don't need the part in between after all. In either case, it's fine to write the bits that excite you today if it means getting unstuck and moving on with your story.

4. Join a writing challenge. Or, if there isn't one, start your own. Declare on Twitter/Facebook/offline - wherever the right kind of people hang out - that you intend to write a certain number of words or reach a particular goal. It's amazing how this can get you writing. (Personal note: I hadn't finished a novel until the first time I did NaNoWriMo, which is when I completed the first draft of the manuscript which is now Extreme Kissing. At that point I was stuck half-way through the novel which is now Split by a Kiss...)
5. Read something inspirational. There are a couple of how-to-write books I keep handy because there's always something there to give me the right kind of spark. (These books include Juicy Writing by Brigid Lowry and Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg.) Or sometimes I hang around on Twitter (!) and it's never long before someone posts a wonderful, inspiring link, such as this one by Karen Mahoney: http://kaz-mahoney.livejournal.com/248213.html or this one by Malinda Lo: http://www.malindalo.com/2011/09/how-to-not-give-up-when-writing/

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Luisa Plaja loves words and books. Her novels for teenagers include Split by a Kiss, Extreme Kissing and Swapped by a Kiss. She lives in Devon, England, and has two young children. Her next book, Kiss Date Love Hate, will be published by the Corgi imprint at Random House Children’s Books in February 2012. Check out her website: http://www.luisaplaja.co.uk/ and the teen book site she runs, the very awesome Chicklish: http://www.chicklish.co.uk/

Writing Bootcamp: Victoria Schwab says, 'Be Brave!'

Writing Bootcamp is a blog series in which I invite fabulous authors to share with you (yes, you! assuming you are an inquisitive writer) their best bits of writerly advice. Today Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch, tells you (yes! you again) to be brave...

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When aspiring authors used to ask me for advice, I would smile and say, “Be a great reader,” or “Be a sponge,” or something kind, encouraging, but to be honest a bit common.

My advice has changed.

If someone asks me how to be a better WRITER, then I still answer with the above. But if someone asks me how to be a PUBLISHED AUTHOR, then I say this.

Be brave.

Putting yourself and your work out there to be judged is a terrifying thing, to be sure. But this is a very hard industry, one built on critique and rejection, and in order to get through, you have to be brave. Your want of publication has to be greater than your fear of rejection. If you find yourself paralyzed by the mere notion of critique, then you do not want it badly enough. YET. You are not ready. YET. And that’s okay.

In publishing, rejection exists not only as a way of culling potential books, but as a test, to see if the author is ready for the next step. Because rejection, critique, judgment...they exist at every step. They are an integral part of this industry.

So.

If you want this, if you really, really, really want this in that way that physically hurts, that way that keeps you up at night, holds your mind hostage and your fingers always writing, then you will be brave enough to share your work, brave enough to take feedback, brave enough to get better. Do not be hindered by fear. Let it drive you. Let your want carry you through.

I’m not saying you aren’t allowed to be afraid, not saying you’re weak or unready if you feel that fear (we ALL feel it). I’m only saying that you must look at fear and want and see which is bigger. Do not let fear win that contest.

Be brave.

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Victoria Schwab is the author of The Near Witch (which you can find out more about on Goodreads). Check out her website (it is very cool) and ever fabulous blog (I really like this post). More about her here.

On selling Steph Bowe

I've been thinking a lot lately about the idea of the writer as a salesperson, as a public image, as a product. (And, by extension, about the public personalities everyone has to put on.)

I wonder: where does my real, genuine self stop and the idealised constructed image begin? Am I and is anyone (specifically any writer) ever genuinely themselves in a public sphere? Or is the fact that we are all trying to sell ourselves, our books, trying to make people like us or the approximation of us that we have created that is suitably palatable for others, mean that we must all always be separating our real flawed selves from our public personas? Am I, in writing this blog post, expressing my own opinion or the sort of thing that I think other people will read that will make them think positively of me?

Am I turning myself into a commodity? How often does someone buy my book because they've seen me speak or seen this site and thought 'hey, Steph Bowe is young and honest and awkwardly charming'? And is that what I am really like or is that an invented self? (Obviously I am young compared to most writers, so that's a fact.)

More than anything I want to write brilliant novels that readers will enjoy, but can writing brilliantly save you if you cannt stand to be a public speaker, and hate the internet, and are not an easily sellable identity? Can brilliant writing on its own land a writer a book deal and a career and writerly success, or must the writer also be a salesperson, with a dynamic, if fake, personality? Where is the line between intelligent discourse from writers and regurgitated marketing copy? What do brilliant books count for if only some people think they're brilliant?

What happens when you spend most of your time being your public persona? Does your secret, true, can't-reveal-or-people-won't-like-me self begin to disappear and become your constructed self? Is this a good thing? Do you lose that part of yourself, or does that part of yourself change? What if you like the public version of yourself more than you like who you really are?

Obviously I have a lot of questions. But one's identity is something everyone is thinking about (I imagine) and madly trying to formulate, especially in their youth. And everyone says 'be yourself' a lot, but I don't think anyone even knows who they are because they have taken on so much from other people and the media and their experiences that they really only have an idea of the person they think they should be. And maybe we don't have one self. Maybe 'be yourself' will mean a different thing to you every day of the week.

See, I'm breaking it down too much. Next minute I'll be talking about The Matrix and everything being an illusion (I'd take the red pill, fyi). The title of this blog post is very misleading. I'm sorry.

Anyway, questions I would love to hear your thoughts on (because you can't possibly answer all the questions in this post):

• Should writers be public personalities to the degree that they are, or should we shut them up in their writing caves before their crazy thoughts infect the world?
• Can anyone ever really be their genuine selves? Are our constructed facades extensions of these real selves or entirely false?

Writing Bootcamp: Kate Gordon's Editing Secrets!

Writing Bootcamp is a blog series in which I invite fabulous authors to share with you (yes, you! assuming you are an inquisitive writer) their best bits of writerly advice. Today, Kate Gordon, the most fabulous Tasmanian author of Three Things About Daisy Blue, Thyla and the upcoming sequel Vulpi, shares her very fabulous editing advice

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I used to be afraid of editing. I used to think it meant all those lovely words I'd written – so lovingly crafted and so treasured, each and every one of them – would be hacked at; ripped apart; mutilated.

Now, I know better.

This is the metaphor I use when I'm doing school visits: Your first draft is a lump of play dough. It might be the colour you want for your novel. It might even have glittery bits or pretty swirly bits or it might even be your favourite colour ever! It might be a new formulation. It might have taken you ages and ages to get that lump of play dough. But it's still just a lump.

Editing is what turns it into something beautiful.

Editing might mean taking bits of the lump away, or adding bits on. It might means tweaking that part of the lump or making that bit flatter or that bit bumpier. It might even mean squashing the lump down and building it again. It might even – gasp – mean throwing that lump of play dough out because it's so full of dirt and fluff now that it's not even the same pretty colour it was before. There might be a lot of love – and even sweat (yuck) – in that lump but honey, it just aint purdy any more.

It's a long metaphor, I know, but I think it's a good 'un. So many beginning writers get to 50,000 words and go “Hurrah! I finished! That's it!”.

I'm the wicked witch who always says: “Good on you. Now edit.”

There are no hard and fast golden rules for editing, just as there are no golden rules for writing. Every writer is different and so is every editor. The editor is just as much of an artist as the writer. My wonderful editor at Random House said to me that as an editor she needs eyes in the back of her head and the side of her head and all over her head so she can see the scene from every direction. As our own editors (because yes, you must edit your work BEFORE you send it to a publisher), we kind of need the same thing. We need to see our manuscript – or our lump – from every angle. Because what's the point of a play dough sculpture that's pretty on one side but ugly and messed up on every other side?

Having said there are no golden rules, here are MY tips for editing:

1. Put your manuscript away. Seriously. If you have a deadline this gets harder but if you have a bit of time put the thing away. Read some books. Watch some X Factor. Just don't think about it for as long as possible. Then, when you've almost forgotten what the book was even about, bring it out. Read it. Realise it's a lump. You'll see that it's a lump after a bit of distance. Whenever you've just finished a manuscript it's always the best thing you've ever read. After a few weeks? It's a lump.
2. Read it first like you're a reader. Start to finish. Don't have your editing hat on yet. Pretend you've never read this thing before. Pretend you just spent twenty dollars on it and you're hoping it's the best book you've ever read. Make a note down the side whenever you go “huh”? Or “that doesn't make sense. Didn't they just ...” or “people so don't talk like that”.
3. Then, read it as an editor. Read every scene with eyes all over your head (I know, that's a bit of a gross image). See it from every character's point of view. If there was a character who had a line at the start of the scene who then doesn't have a line until the end of the scene … WHAT ON EARTH WAS HE DOING FOR THE REST OF THE SCENE? If a character was on a boat and on the next scene they're up a mountain (sorry to my editor – I do this ALL THE TIME), HOW DID THEY GET TO THE MOUNTAIN?
4. Read it out aloud. Dialogue especially but all of it, if your voice will take it. Read it to your cat. Do not read it to your sister or your boyfriend. Not yet. This is your time with the manuscript. Let them read it later. You and MS need some alone time to get to know each other.
5. After you change a whole scene (which you will have to do – sorry), you will need to read the whole MS again. Changing even one sentence in the editing process causes a domino effect throughout the book. My tip? Every bit you cut or significantly change – don't delete it. Put it in a separate document and use a highlighter function in Word to highlight any sentences within that scene which you'll need to pop into another scene in order for your MS to still make sense.
6. Use the technology. Use the notes function, the highlighter function, “track changes”. The technology is there to serve you. Oh and also? Save a new document every time you go in to edit. That way you can look back and see what changes you made or go back to an earlier version if you really stuffed up. Oh and back up. Please, please back up.
7. Any word that doesn't need to be there? Cut it. Seriously. I learned this from my great friend, Christina Booth. She's a picture book writer and she had taught me so much about writing novels. She has to tell whole stories in 500 words. She's very, very good at telling lots in as few words as possible. It might be tempting to fill your novel with “fluff” just to get to that magic 50,000 word count (or 100,000 if you're writing fantasy). Just don't do it. Ditto “pretty metaphors”. Don't chuck lots in there. Stick with one and really go for it. And similes should be used very sparingly.
8. Eat lots of chocolate. This last tip might sound flippant but editing does take it out of you in a way writing kind of doesn't. They're very different skill sets. When you're writing you're on a creative high. When you're editing you need to concentrate. Hard. So eat well (and that includes chocolatey treats for your mental health) … And take breaks. Don't rush this. It's a long process. But a very rewarding one.

Hope all of that helps! I hope you're all out there sitting with your little play dough lumps (after having stashed them under the bed for a while), with your finger outstretched, ready to give it the first, important, poke. Don't be afraid. You're not mutilating. You're making it sing. See what I did there? I mixed my metaphors – Play Dough DOES NOT SING!

You're making it wonderful.

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Kate Gordon grew up in a very booky house, with two librarian parents, in a small town by the sea on the north-west coast of Tasmania. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of a Varuna writer’s fellowship. Her first book, Three Things About Daisy Blue – a young adult novel about travel, love, self-acceptance and letting go – was published in the Girlfriend series by Allen & Unwin in 2010. Now Kate lives with her husband and her very strange cat, Mephy Danger Gordon. Every morning, while Kate writes, Mephy Danger sits behind her on the couch with his tail curled around her neck. Kate was the recipient of a 2011 Arts Tasmania Assistance to Individuals grant, which means she can now spend more time losing herself in the world of Thylas and Sarcos. She is currently working on the sequel to Thyla. Kate blogs at http://www.kategordon.com.au/blog and you can follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/misscackle. She sometimes says some funny stuff!