RTW: Plotter or Pantser?

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where we post a weekly writing- or reading-related question. We’d love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link in the comments – or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic:
Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Do you like to make a detailed plan before you start a project? Or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants and make it up as you go along?

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I’m crawling out from beneath my editing rock to participate in YA Highway’s 82nd Road Trip Wednesday, in which they ask the age-old question:

To plot or not to plot?

Me, I’m a plotter all the way. A fast drafter, too. If I don’t churn out a book in a month, the likelihood of me ever finishing it is pretty slim. With the exception of my fabulous CP, Katy Upperman, most of the fast drafters I’ve met are total pantsers. Far be it for me not to at least TRY something that I’ve seen produce phenomenal results (cough JUS ACCARDO cough),  so I decided to give it a try.

For NaNoWriMo 2009, I took two characters I absolutely adored and wrote them into a book that will require a complete rewrite if I ever want my agent to shop it around. My plot points are chaotic, the character motivation is weak at best, and the plethora of sex scenes populating the pages… um, yeah. Not even remotely shoppable in it’s current form.

But I love every page of it. Every. Single. Page.

Cut your darlings and revise it, you say. Believe me, I’ve tried. I can’t bring myself to cut 75% of the book and start over, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t come up with a reason for two characters who’ve just met to run away from home and embark on a road trip across country. Until a miracle fix falls into my lap, the book of my heart has been retired to the dark recesses of my hard drive.

Talk about the worst feeling EVER.

This is why I plot. I’m a screenwriter at heart, so crafting an airtight plot and storyboarding it on my cork board brings me great pleasure. With this visual road map papering my walls, my stories flow out faster, cleaner, and needing far less revision. For a girl with zero free time, these are very good things!

Which side do you fall on in the plotting vs. pantsing debate? Have you tried swinging the other way and have a disaster story to share? I’d love to hear it!

RTW: TBR again and again and again…

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic:

In the movie “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray has to relive the same day over and over. What books would you pick to read over and over for the rest of your life?

My three favorite Jennifer Echols books top my list. I love each book for different reasons: Meg and John’s vulnerability in GOING TOO FAR, the most hilarious YA heroine ever plus a sexy ADHD hero in THE BOYS NEXT DOOR, and the swoonworthy steaminess of Doug and Zoey in FORGET YOU.

I’d happily read Scott O’Dell’s ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS a million times, if only to remember why I love to write. This is the book that launched my obsession with fiction and survival instinct back in fourth grade.

Jandy Nelson’s THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE will probably make quite a few of these Groundhog Day Lists, and for good reason. Lennie’s relationships with Joe and Toby tore my heart into two equal pieces I don’t think will ever fully mend. Just thinking about it has me eyeballing the book on my shelf, eager to tear into the story again.

Beth Revis’ ACROSS THE UNIVERSE makes the list, not just because of its fabulousness (and believe me—it’s fabulous), but because I want to write every time I think about the story. None of my books are even remotely like ATU, but it doesn’t matter. Something about this story sets my muse on fire, and if I’ll be reading these fantastic books over and over again, I’ll need something to inspire me. Otherwise, I may never write again!

So let’s here it. What books are on your TBRA list?

RTW: Favorite Lines, YA Highway style

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs.

This week’s topic:

What is your favorite line from your WIP (or from a book you read recently)?

I have three favorites I want to share this week, all with set up for full impact. One from my book on submission, one from my current WIP, and one from a book I read last year that I’ll never forget.

From my book on submission, LEAVE ME BROKEN:

James “Knockout Jimmy” O’Brien, Granite Fall’s very own boxing legend—a title he held until a young groupie poked holes in the condom she made him wear “for protection.”

My brother was born nine months later, fists already swinging.

Everyone knows my father only married our mother because he had a public image to maintain—one that didn’t include an abandoned son that might make him proud someday. Desperate and thinking a second baby would make things better between them, she seduced him again, lied about not needing birth control while breastfeeding James, and wound up with me.

Two babies in little more than a year and a half. Knockout Jimmy was forced to give up boxing and take a job in the paper mill.

It broke him, and in turn, he broke us all.

From my current WIP, LEAVE ME BETRAYED:

The bathroom stall bursts open in a shower of metal shards and purple paint flakes. Shrieking, I hop up onto the seat and plaster myself to the cool tile wall and try to stay out of the way of the guy who clearly misjudged the strength needed to plow through the door. His shoulder slams into the plastic toilet paper dispenser, shattering it and pinballing his head into the grimy metal pipes between my legs. Grunting, he falls to the floor beside the toilet bowl.

“You’re crying?” I blurt out when I see his shining eyes. “Seriously?”

“Shut up,” he grumbles and staggers to his feet. “Give me your bag.”

“Hell no!” The faded blue corduroy messenger bag is the only thing I have left from my former life. I clutch it to my chest, mentally calculating the odds of clearing his head if I leap over him.

I suck at math, but even I know the odds aren’t in my favor.

This is the most powerful line I’ve ever read.  The book is SUCH A PRETTY GIRL by Laura Wiess:

The passenger door opens.

One sneakered foot is planted on the driveway. The other joins it.

The Nikes are blindingly new. Size twelve.

My Mother has been shopping for him.

The jeans are also new. If I allow my gaze to travel higher—which I won’t—I’ll see the solid gold baseball charm on a chain that my mother gave him for his eighteenth birthday nestled in his coarse, whorled chest hair.

My front teeth throb as the memory of the charm bangs against them.

RTW – My six-word memoir…

This Week’s YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday Topic:
Write Your Six-Word Memoir (inspired by I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets)

So, yeah. This wasn’t near as easy as I expected. It took a few tries, but I think I’ve got it!

I see hope and hilarity everywhere.

I really do. Maybe it’s my dark sense of humor or the obnoxious eternal optimist that lives inside my head, but there you have it. Heather’s take on life.

Some lines that didn’t make the cut:

Finding peace in music and words.

Trust your instinct. It’s always right.

Relax. Life will find a way.

Refusing to be bullied by chaos.

Anyone else up for the challenge? I’d love to hear your 6-word memoir!

RTW – Best of the Best: November Edition

This Week’s Topic:
What’s the best book you read in November?
or are still reading, since the last wednesday is early this month!

Once again, I find myself blinking at the screen wondering where the hell the month went. Like last month, I spent nearly every hour of the day with my nose buried in unpublished and soon-to-be-published manuscripts. One of them, a YA sci-fi called REDEMPTION, totally deserves to be on this list, but I promised myself only one cop out post per year. So without further ado, I’d like to share the one published book I managed to squeeze in because, man, it’s a doozy!

Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown.

But Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending Noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets.

Or are there?

Just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd unexpectedly stumbles upon a spot of complete silence.

Which is impossible.

Prentisstown has been lying to him.

And now he’s going to have to run…

My agent told me to read THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO when I pitched my biopunk, not because it has a similar storyline, but because of its pure awesomeness. At first, I hated this book. It took me two whole months to get past the first chapter because reading the phonetic spellings was about as fun as gouging out my own eyeballs with a spork.

Cut me some slack—I’m an editor!

Once I trained myself not to run for the antacids whenever I hit another patch of dialect, this book kicked ass. What would you do if everything and everyone around you could hear your thoughts and you could hear their’s? What if there were no more women because of some virus that killed them all? What if you’re the youngest boy in your town, right on the cusp of becoming a “man” by society’s hush-hush standards?

What if you found out that everything you’ve every been told is a complete and total lie and the town you grew up in is full of murderers?

When Todd and his initially annoying dog, Manchee, find a girl his age in the swamp, a world of trouble is triggered and the three begin a quest to end all quests.  There is violence, gore, a whole lot of dialect, and some truly stellar character voices in this book as Todd goes from totally uninformed boy to the “man” who sacrifices almost everything to protect his new friend and save civilization from the army hunting him down.

I highly recommend this book. To be in Todd’s head as he uncovers one lie after another and fights to become who he’s meant to be is one of the most profound reading experiences I’ve had. I’ll never forget all the noise…

RTW – If I ruled the publishing world…

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

Today’s Topic:

If you were made supreme ruler of the publishing world (go you!), what would be your first ruling?

First Editorial Edict:

Books shall not be banned. Ever.

When a friend of mine tried to organize a book drive after finding out her childrens’ school only owns 50 fiction books, she was rudely informed that a child is better off not reading than filling their heads with the trash being donated. These were all major MG and YA titles, mind you—hardly trash—and we were careful to consider which books we would accept. That same principal had the nerve to imply that my friend’s daughter misbehaves because she’s allowed to read (thoroughly vetted) MG and YA books. Only classical literature is allowed in their school.

It’s offensive to me when another person with no knowledge of me or my children feels the right to dictate which books my child has access to. That’s a parental decision, not a government decision, which is why I’d use my first edict as ruler of the publishing world to renounce the ability to ban books.

So what about you? If you were King or Queen of the publishing industry for the day, what’s the first thing you’d change?

RTW – Best of the Best: October edition

Those fabulous girls over on YA Highway are at it again!

This Week’s Topic:
What’s the best book you read in October?

October has been a strange month for me—strange in that I’ve read absolutely zero published novels—so my pick this week is going to be off the beaten path.

As most of my readers know, I work as an acquisitions editor for a fantasy/futuristic/paranormal romance publisher. After being invited to take pitches at the Muse Conference and for the FF&P RWA chapter, I read a LOT of manuscripts and signed several authors in the month of October. I love everything I signed, so without further ado, here are books to watch for in the coming months…

THE KEY TO THE CURSE: LION’S FLOWER by Jean Murray (website coming soon!)

PASSION OF THE SOUL: PIPER’S FURY by Rachel Firasek

THE GATHERING OF THE THREE by Tracy Farrell

MEMORIES OF MURDER by Lara Nance

DEMON HUNT and DEMON SOUL by Christine Ashworth

KNIGHTFALL, A novel of the Seven Seals by Berinn Rae

On the YA end of things, I critted the fabulous SHIMMERING ANGELS by Lisa Basso which I LOVED beyond belief. Hopefully the suggestions I provided help her get an agent and a publishing deal, because I want a copy of that book on my shelf pronto. Anyone who loves YA paranormal romance ought to keep their eyes peeled for that one!

I’d love to hear about the great books everyone else has read this month! My TBR pile is growing, and I’m always looking for additions!

RTW – Book comps FTW!

This week’s Road Trip Wednesday (#50!) asks…

Who are your comp titles/authors?

I used to be really bad with comp titles.

Comp titles? What comp titles? This is the most unique book EVER!!

Ahem.

I’ve since learned otherwise.

My oh-so-industry-savvy first agent showed me the light when she comped FLAWED as “FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC meets Elizabeth Scott’s LIVING DEAD GIRL.”

Since that day, I’ve come to realize a book comp is just as much about feel as it is about similar plots and characters. You’re in trouble if you can pick off several books with the same ones of those! Look for stories with similar elements, themes, and feel.

The two books I’ve put together since then are ”PHANTOM OF THE OPERA meets Sara Zarr’s SWEETHEARTS” and then ”GATTACA and BRAVE NEW WORLD meet CHILDREN OF MEN.”

One of my fav comps has to be a book I just signed for work. It’s a futuristic romance, but reads like high fantasy. Or, “LORD OF THE RINGS set on another planet with a juicy romance.”

What about you? What books do you comp when pitching your manuscript?

RTW – Wooing the reader with a kick ass pick up line…

A novel’s opening is like a pick up line. If it’s good, you might take it home. If it’s bad… well. You know.

In the spirit of great pick up lines, this week’s Road Trip Wednesday asks:

What are your favorite first lines? How do your own WIPs start?

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Authors often ask me how to catch an editor’s eye. Write a great book, I usually say, which is oh-so-unhelpful. Seriously, though—if you want to make an agent or editor stop and pay attention when they’ve got twenty bazillion other things to do, look no further than your first line.

A great first line has to do two things—convey the voice of the book (I love strong voices and lyrical prose) and hook me into reading more.  I’ve read some fantastic books that have had crappy first lines, and crappy books that have had fabulous first lines. That’s a different post. For now, I’ll share some of my favorite first lines…

Elizabeth Scott’s UNWRITTEN RULE: “I liked him first, but it doesn’t matter.”

Alex Flinn’s BREATHING UNDERWATER: “I’ve never been in a courthouse before. But then, I’ve never been in such deep shit before, either.”

Sara Zarr’s ONCE WAS LOST: “The whole world is wilting.”

Angela Morrison’s SING ME TO SLEEP: (prologue) “Damn, she’s ugly. My bio-dad’s first words when he saw me.” (Chapter One) “Crap. There’s a naked freshman chained to my locker.”

Jennifer Echol’s GOING TOO FAR: “‘That’s the worst idea I ever heard,’ I told Eric. Then I took another sip of beer and swallowed. ‘Let’s do it.’”

Elizabeth Scott’s PERFECT YOU: “Vitamins had ruined my life.”

I want to draw attention to the last line. Had I been Elizabeth’s editor, we would have done everything in our power to get that clunky “had” out of the sentence. This is one of my favorite opening lines despite the fact because, really, how can vitamins ruin someone’s life??

As for some of my own WIPs…

“My first memory of James is what keeps me here, smoothing hair out of a boy’s blood-spattered face.”

“There’s something inherently wrong with sending a seventeen-year-old girl door-to-door in a shabby trailer park at night to beg for money.”

“I am not in love with my brother’s fiancée. Am not, am not, am not…“

“A hush descended over the cavernous ballroom and sent goosebumps skittering up Avelynn’s arms.”

“For the third time in as many days, Prime Minister Preen’s daughter swipes her lunch card through the tender, selects way more food than a girl of her stature could possibly eat, and stuffs it into her Academy-issued messenger bag when she thinks no one’s looking.”

What about you? What are some of YOUR favorite opening lines, published or otherwise?

RTW – Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, me hearties!

This week’s YA Highway Road-trip-Wednesday asks:

You’re packing for a month on a deserted island. What, as a reader and writer, must be in your backpack?

I’m digging this vacation plan. In fact, I may pitch the idea to Hubster once I have my packing list in order. Because, really, I’m not going to a deserted island without him. A month without kids is too phenomenal of an opportunity not to share!

Here are the writer/reader/survival essentials I’d insist on bringing along:

****If you can guess what the firefighter helmet is for, I’ll send you a $5 Starbucks gift card! Leave your guesses and a way to reach you for a chance to win!****