YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday: Bad Habits!

Taking part in YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday! Today's question is:

Spring cleaning! What do you hope to "clean out" from your writing? What habits/tropes/words etc do you want to eliminate?

This is in one way an easy one, because I just posted a list of all the things I look for in a close edit. Those are absolutely all bad habits I hope to break!

But today I think the number one bad habit I need to break is self doubt, when it stops me from writing. I need to accept that all those bad habits will be in there, that it might not be perfect, that the plot might need work or the character not quite speak to me, and go for it anyway. I feel stymied by lack of ... positivity? Confidence? inspiration? Brain power? Mojo? at the moment so that's definitely what I want to stop!

How about you? If you have time to check out my list of close edits and have anything to add, I would love to hear it ;)

YA Highway: Best Book of Feb

This week's YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday asks what the best book we read in February is.

I finally read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. (Thanks to twitter for encouraging me to do so). Of course, I loved it. By turns funny and moving, it calls up the tropes of cancer books, lambasting some and fulfilling others. The main character is so very real, her voice is excellent. I laughed, and cried.

(I also read Pivot Point by Kasie West and loved it.)

I am now reading everything there is to read by John Green, marvelling at how real his voices are and trying desperately to improve my writing so I can be half as good.

Any recs for me? What did you read in Feb?

YA Highway RTW: Road Trip!

It is time for Road Trip Wednesday at YA Highway and the question is: What's the most dramatic road trip you've ever been on?

I don't know about dramatic, but a Road Trip that sticks in my mind is a trip to Italy with three of my girlie friends from work, probably more years ago now than I want to add up.

We drove to Monaco, along the coast into Italy, and ended up at Lake Como. We were fairly new friends then, and that trip was a trip where we sang along loud to 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You', attempted to speak Italian to cute waiters, gambled in Monaco and lost, and generally giggled and laughed. We had to cut going to Pisa because we'd been COMPLETELY over-ambitious with how much driving we'd get done in a day. I have still never been to Pisa.

The four of us are still a tight friendship square now, among my very best friends (even though one of us doesn't live in the UK anymore).

One thing we did do, was take part in a Festival, which involved a torchlit procession. We discovered that giving clumsy ole' me a NAKED FLAME is a VERY BAD IDEA. I nearly set fire to the trees. To my friend's hair. To my own hair. My torch was eventually confiscated for my own safety. To this day if we are in a restaurant with a naked candle, they move it out of my way.

Which is probably a good thing.

So: the Girls in Italy. How about you?

YA Highway: Funny Business

Hello! Today am posting for YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday.

The question is: who is your favorite comedian or funny book and/or movie?

I found this difficult. I clearly don't read enough comedy and so I ask you to rec me a funny book! For my part I think Meg Cabot and Kiersten White are people who write with a lovely, light touch and with humour present. My friend Ellie Phillips genuinely makes me giggle too and has a brilliant writing style.

Otherwise, I struggle to think. Please do rec me!

For my part, comedians I like include Eddie Izzard - I've seen him live and he was very funny. 

I went to see Chris Addison and he was also brilliant. The first part of his set was 'up to date' comedy - it was around the time the Chilean Miners were being rescued and he did a whole bit on them. I was impressed that he'd obviously had to come up with it quite quickly.

I'm going to go for a TV Show rather than a movie and say I love the stylings of The Big Bang Theory. It genuinely makes me laugh out loud and I think Jim Parsons deserves all the plaudits he gets.

I am now going to search out some comedy! What do you find funny?

News & Help & YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday

Before I start YA Highway for this week, a quick piece of news and plea for help:

I have been asked to join a LOVELY bunch of ladies contributing to a blog about writing called The Writer Diaries (also tweeting here). It's not YA specific in case you are wondering, it's a group of fantastic ladies (I am by far the LEAST AWESOME of the AWESOME on offer) hoping to bring fresh ideas and some writerly secrets to the table.

It launches this Saturday so PLEASE come visit us / promote us - help us out ;)

Onto YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday where the topic is: 

Imagine you get to open your own bookstore. What would it look like? What kinds of books would you sell?


Awesome question. Mine would have wooden bookshelves and comfy sofas. There would be a tea shop. People would be encouraged to browse, to sit and read, to put their feed up with a piece of cake and cup of tea. Experts in the genre would be available to help advise people, a walking talking 'if you bought ___ you'd like ____'. I'd sell all kinds of books, but of course have a great YA section.

 I'd have a 'bookswap' section where people could bring and leave a book. I'd run a book club.

I'd encourage people to write reviews on cards and leave them by books. I'd want people to chat about books. I want this bookshop now!

In the meantime, I'm making a tea and putting my feet up. Cheers!

What does your bookshop look like?

RT Wednesday: Goals for 2013

Today I am joining in Road Trip Wednesday over at http://www.yahighway.com/. The topic is: 

What are your goals for the new year---for reading, writing, or other?

My goal and word for the year is positivity. I refuse to sweat the small stuff.

My goals writing wise are to finish the revisions on this WIP and complete my draft/WIP of my YA Contemp + 1 other draft. We'll see how I go there. I usually write YA but I have an idea for an adult thriller which I may have to try and plan or draft at some point. We'll see. I want to focus on the YA in progress first.

I read quite a bit last year, so I want to carry on doing that.

How about you? What are your goals?

Congratulations to winners, YA Highway + why is getting ideas onto paper sometimes so hard?

This is a Four Fold post.

Firstly I joined in the Hookers and Hangers Blogfest on Falling for Fiction and congrats to all the winners. I will work harder on my Hookers and Hangers ;) I certainly learned a lot. I learned that lots of my hooks start with ‘I’ and that the most favoured ones where were the voice came through most.

Second, congrats to Cassie Mae of the above Falling for Fiction and Erica Chapman on getting agents! HURRAH! Go congratulate them! It is so lovely to hear good news for awesome souls!

Third, YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday asks which fictional character would you be reincarnated as? As Elodie said, a lot of the YA Characters I like, do not have the best time of it. I am not going to pick to be Katniss!

Not a YA choice but the person who immediately leaps to mind is Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice. She ends up with Darcy! She is witty and independent, knows her own mind - I would love to be her.

Suddenly want to read a YA Pride and Prejudice: are there any? Though Bridget Jones Diary may have corned that literary wise, albeit not YA.

Fourth, I am having trouble transferring new ideas onto paper at the moment. I am inspired, I plan, I think it is all great and then... nothing. It doesn’t work out. Humph. Likely the idea needs more work or the character fleshing out. Or my brain replacing. I am lucky that patient souls are happy to hear me witter on about my ideas (mostly YA futuristic type deals - the ideas, not the patient souls). If anybody else likes to throw ideas around, and I wil obviously help in return, comment or message me at viklitblog at google’s mail.  Does anyone else have this problem?

Ok tomorrow likely catch up on comments and blogs, have a good day all!

Perfect Writing Retreat (YA Highway) & Which Authors would you have over?

YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday is a 'Blog Carnival' where a weekly question is posted that begs to be answered. In the comments you get everyone's take on it!

This week RTW asks what your perfect writing retreat would be.

Mine would be a big country house - think Downton Abbey - or a castle like this one:

(That's from a holiday to Scotland, if anyone's interested, it's a very lovely hotel and that's my holiday snap!)

I'd take my writing group and we could all stay in different rooms, meet up to critique when we'd like or keep to ourselves writing if we wanted.

I'd have guest authors come and do a talk every day to inspire us. I'd want the YA writers who currently inspire me, like Beth Revis or Lauren Oliver, as well as authors who inspired me through my life generally in my writing like F Scott Fitzgerald. Possibly I wouldn't be able to get J.D.Salinger to come, but George Orwell might and Ray Bradbury would be a cert.

The question is: would we all come away with some sort of Princess / Royal / Medieval story if we stayed somewhere like this?

I am interested, btw, whether anyone has been on a retreat? Did you focus while you were there? What helps you focus at home? At home or on a retreat I'd need:

• Quiet (Can't work to music)
• Snacks
• To limit Facebook/Blog Time
• To set agreed 'writing time' with myself.

I may not have a castle, but I'll try the rest tonight! Which authors would you have over? Where would you go on a retreat?