Coffee Shop Musings

Hello my lovelies!

I went to write at a coffee shop for the first time in August and then I recently went and wrote with a friend at the Panera Bread in our local mall.

I’m not going to lie- the experience was a strange one for me. I have written in many different places before, scattered throughout my house, at parks, at other friends’ houses. But I’ve never gone somewhere so public and worked on something so personal. 

I didn’t realize that I held my writing so close until I started delving into its world somewhere other than a friend’s living room or the bedroom I pretend doubles as my office; even the libraries I've written at felt different because of the homey connection I have to them. It was so weird to take my main character with me somewhere that wasn’t “safe.”

I sat in the Panera Bread and watched people walking by- people who I didn’t know and who didn’t know me. They were in their own little worlds; rushing to tasks they hoped to complete, chatting easily with those with them, happy, sad, indifferent. And there I was, trying to write the scene in which Cinderella does in fact get to go to the ball but trying to make it fit into the science fiction setting I had already established for this world.

It was then that I realized how vulnerable I am when I write. How personal the very act of writing is for me. I can talk about my stories to anyone who wants to listen- and even some who don’t, like my poor parents at times- but I don’t often write in the presence of people I don’t know. And for me, that act was a growing experience I didn’t know I needed.

I’m an introvert. While I strive to not let that word define me I make no secret of the fact that being in public drains me. And to add to that working on something so personal was an added layer of something I wasn’t quite prepared for.

And it got me thinking. Someday this story isn’t going to be just mine anymore. I won’t be able to control who reads it, to limit it to the one trusted friend who is kind enough not to point out its flaws because I’m not ready to hear them yet.

But someday I have to be. I want to share this book with the world and I can’t even handle writing it somewhere other than my bedroom. I want people to read it and love it but I realized I’m really, really scared of people hating it.

This is my baby. This is a story born out of a game I played as a child, alone in my basement with a broken electronic typewriter and a wild imagination. It’s a story I set aside as nothing more than a game until last January I realized I could make it something more.

It was then that it turned into a Cinderella retelling, the premise and characters given a plot that actually made sense and included more than just the main character jamming buttons on the radio yelling important information; though that did make it into this version, in case you’re wondering. I finished the rough draft by the end of February and started editing it in July. At the end of August I figured out some major changes I needed to make and started draft three this September.

My characters have grown and changed throughout these edits. El has become more complex than I could have ever imagined, growing into her own person rather than a version of myself I created for the purpose of play. The supporting characters have also all taken on lives of their own- the captain, the pilot, the medic, the security officer. I didn’t even originally plan on some of them being a part of this story but they grew into it naturally, created to fit roles as they appeared.

My plot has expanded into one I actually find exciting (and my plot-driven bestie even approves of!) and the politics of my world are messy and complicated in all the right ways- an area I always struggle with.

I’m proud of this world. Proud of this plot. Proud of these incredible people who call themselves my characters.

I feel like this might be the one. This draft might actually be good enough to let other writers read and critique. From there I might actually hire someone to edit it and then work toward publishing it. This could be it. By this time next year I could be tracking my sales to see how many copies of this book I’ve sold.

And I don’t even want to write it somewhere unfamiliar.

I don’t like being vulnerable. I know what people see when they look at my writing; I am an idealist and a romantic and it shines through so brightly in my stories. Are people going to judge me for that?

I let my own insecurities hold me back. I judge myself so I assume everyone else will judge me too. I feel like people can read my mind, can see inside of me to my weakest, ugliest parts. My mask slips when I write. Things show through that I never meant to let people see. My writing and I are one, my stories an extension of myself, my insecurities, and my dreams.

I want people to read my stories without seeing that. I want them to see fiction and disregard the facts. I don’t want people to judge me. Or, if they are going to see something personal, I want people to read it and see the heart of the little girl who played in the basement with her big, big imagination and see how far she’s come. I want this book to be as special to other people as it is to me.

But it can’t be. It shouldn’t be. No one else is that little girl in the basement and so this story can never mean the same things to them that it does to me. It has to mean something different, something unique to them and their own experiences.

And that’s okay. As much as I don’t want to admit it, it’s okay if people come at my story from different perspectives and view it through their own lenses.

I think I’m ready. Ready enough to push past my vulnerability and prepare to share this story with the world. I can only hope the world is ready for it. But if not, that’s okay too. And it isn’t a judgement on me. My job is to put my stories into the world and trust there’s a plan for whatever happens to them that I don’t need to be in control of.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Cinderella retelling to write.

I hope to see you on Friday for another review. I'll be taking a break from the Princess Tales series to share something special with you and I hope you'll check it out. Until the next time we meet, don’t forget to live happily ever after <3

~Jennifer Sauer, the Ivory Palace Princess

P.S. Let’s chat! What are some ways in which you feel vulnerable with your writing? What are some ways you have of dealing with these insecurities?

Is Your Story Fit For the Internet Age?

Hello, my lovelies!

Let’s be honest: we all want to be famous.

As we plan, and outline, and write, and edit, we picture our book on the bestseller list. We picture book signings in huge fancy stores, packed, with lines longer than any book signing has had before.

We’ve got a dream cast picked out for when they make our book into a movie (not if, when), ignoring the little voice in our heads that reminds us by the time we get famous none of these people will be the right age to play our characters.

We’ve practiced interviews in our heads, have posts planned, have dreams of what kind of author we plan to be (the kind who hangs with their fans, the mysterious and elusive writer, etc.).

We all want to be famous, all picture our book going big.

So, I’m going to indulge you in that fantasy. You want your book to go big. If it does, is it suited to the internet age?

See, everything’s on the internet these days. People don’t mean to do it, but they go see a movie or they read a book and they posts spoilers without meaning to. They write a review and mention the ending. They screenshot scenes with the dialogue on screen and it gives just a little too much information. They post a Facebook status, they post to Tumblr, they post on a “book confessions” thing, and then it gets posted around, shared and reshared.

Then I see it on Pinterest and know how it ends.

Before I even started reading the Divergent series, I knew how it ended. I hadn’t read one single word in the book and I knew the most major spoiler at the end. I also knew every major character and most of their backstories in the Heroes of Olympus series before I finished reading the series that comes before it (Percy Jackson).

I finished the entire Divergent series in the space of a week. I never finished the first Heroes of Olympus book, Son of Neptune. So, why did I finish one but not the other?

I couldn’t get through Son of Neptune for a number of reasons, but I think I could have overlooked every other reason if the author hadn’t hit me in the face with the idea of suspense every five seconds.

There’s this huge mystery surrounding one of the main characters in the book. Major, major mystery with so much suspense. The entire book rides on it. Now, years ago, you could make your book ride on one thing. You could center your plot around one key point. But not today. Not in the YA world.

See, I knew the answer to the question the author was dangling over my head. So every time he dangled it, every time he made the engaging part of his story ride on the fact that I didn’t, it fell flat. I didn’t care, because I knew. And, that was the only thing his plot seemed to ride on. The burning question, the big things that needed an answer, I knew what was going to happen.

So I didn’t care.

On the other hand, knowing how the Divergent series ended didn’t change anything for me, because there was so much else going on. The books have so many layers, so many facets, that if one or two of them are spoiled, there’s still so much there, so much that is unknown and so much else going on, that the series is still engaging to read.

And yes, the story’s working toward the major spoiler, but the author never dangles it over your head. It’s not a huge mystery, not some huge thing that the entire series hinges on.

Now, I’m not saying your story can’t hinge on a plot twist. I’m saying you have to give your story more of a draw than that.

A good example of this is the original Star Wars trilogy. We live in an age where almost everyone knows Darth Vader is Luke’s father. “Luke, I am your father” is one of most quoted movie lines of all time (even though that’s not actually a direct quote from the movie).

But people don’t hate Star Wars because they know that, even if they know it before they watch the movies. Because there is so much more to the story. The entire plot doesn’t ride on whether or not we know Vader is Luke’s father. There’s more to it and that’s why people are able to enjoy the movies even knowing what is going to happen.

Your story can have plot twists. Major plot twists. It can have the biggest plot twist in the history of plot twists. But your story can’t hinge on that.

Basically, books that are only good the first time through don’t work anymore. Those worked in an age where people didn’t have spoilers, people didn’t know what was coming. Now that we have stories being spoiled left and right, you need something better.

The internet has presented us with a challenge; one that the great writers will rise above and see as a push to make their book even better. It needs to stand the test of time, needs to be able to be read and reread and still be just as magical to read as it was the first time through.

It might take a little more time, might be a little more work. But then, writing is work. It’s so much work.

And, I would like to specify that I think this mostly applies to the YA genre. Spoilers don’t seem to get out as much in books written for the adult world. Like, Agatha Christie’s books have been out for ages and I haunt a lot of literary sites, read a ton of literature related blogs, but I have yet to see a single spoiler for any of her books. So, I’m not sure it applies as much with other genres as it does the YA. I think it’s because young adults are more active online and they especially seem to interact through stories. But that might only seem to be the case because I’m in more contact with young adults and read more young adult books than adult.

Anyway!

What are some of your favorite stories that include plot twists? What are some that fall short for you?

I hope to see you all on Friday for a new book review! Until the next time we meet, don’t forget to live happily ever after <3

~Jennifer Sauer, the Ivory Palace Princess

Publishing and NaNoWriMo- Candor Questions

Oh look! A post :3

Shyly asked: Do you recommend self-publishing? I’ve heard good things and bad things about it and was wondering what your opinion was.

This is a really great question but one I feel I am not qualified to answer. I self-publish because people have expressed interest in my writing and this is the best way to share it with them. I do some marketing to get my name out there, but also in no way to I expect to become what would be considered a successful author through it. I feel, for me, self-publishing is a step toward traditional when I actually write something marketable to a “real” publisher.

That said, I know people (such as Leah Good who I interviewed on Monday) who have done enough research and work to make self-publishing worthwhile. And, while I too have heard a lot of bad things about it, it seems like it works well for some people.

The thing to do, if you are considering publishing and wondering what avenue to take, would be to research which option would be best for you. Both take a tremendous amount of effort, but can also both be very profitable. Take a look at your expectations toward your book and ask yourself what you would consider success. For me, having people read it and like it is enough. Do I make a ton of money? Nope, not really. But, at the moment, that’s okay with me. For some writers, that’s not what they’re looking for. That doesn’t mean self-publishing isn’t for them, it just means the way I go about slef-publishing isn’t for them.

So, take a look at what you want, what you would have to do if you took either route, and then decide which will bring you the results you’re looking for.

Sorry I don’t have more of an answer than that. If you have more in-depth questions about self-publishing, I would be happy to answer those, either as Candor Fridays questions or a private email.

Danielle Sauer asked: What are you working on for NaNoWriMo

Yay!! Someone asked!! :D :D

Okay, first of all, if you are not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s short for National Novel Writing Month, which happens to be November. NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization that helps writers write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. They also have a young writers program where you can personalize and set a more manageable word count for younger writers. More info at: www.nanowrimo.org

All right! That said, let’s start talking about the novel I am working on:

This month I am writing a fairy tale retelling mashup. Basically, it’s like fairy tale stew. I threw a whole bunch a fairy tales into a pot, stirred them up, and am now writing a book about the results.

Or, something like that.

Seriously, my story is about Jack, from Jack and the Beanstalk. Only, his name is Jack Robin. At the beginning of the book, he teams up with Rapunzel, who happens to also be one of the twelve dancing princesses. She wants Jack Robin’s help rescuing the other eleven princesses- who are also all characters from other fairy tales- from their respective fairy tale fates.

At the moment, I am currently using elements of 20 different fairy tales (which include a couple Greek and Roman myths), with another twenty or so briefly mentioned in passing. I’m having a lot of fun figuring out how to put a spin on all the fairy tales and finding ways to throwing them on their ear. I’m really excited about someone of my twists and turns and can’t wait to finish it so I can start sharing it with people.

Or, actually, I’ll be really brave and give you all a tiny glimpse of my unedited version. Below is a tiny little excerpt from the opening chapter of my book. This is how the book starts (and, please be warned this is unedited. So, I apologize in advance it there is stuff that doesn’t make sense :P)

The view from the top of the beanstalk would take the average person’s breath away.

It stretched out for miles, which would surprise the viewer, considering that the top rested up beyond the clouds. By all rights, they should not be seeing what they were seeing. The farms and villages that lay below, the valleys and rivers and mountains. Breathtaking was not a strong enough word for so stunning a view.

               

But, Jack Robin was uninterested in the view. After climbing that monstrous plant, he had reached the top only to discover a tower waiting for him.

               

In his seventeen years of living, he had learned one thing- people kept the good stuff in towers. And, if the giants had a tower, at the top of a beanstalk so difficult to climb, then there was something more than just the good stuff in there. There had to be treasures of insurmountable wealth waiting inside.

               

There were more legends then Jack Robin could count about giants’ treasure. They had no need for human gold, and therefore had stores upon stores of it hoarded from their altercations with mankind.

               

He wondered if he should have brought a larger satchel. If the rumors were true, he would have to make more than one trip with the bag he had brought. And making that climb again was not something he looked forward to.

               

His hands were covered in bloody marks where the thorns had pierced through his gloves. His face too had suffered from their sharp points when he had been forced to dance cheek to cheek with the overgrown plant in time with the wind’s mournful melody.

               

It had taken him nigh on a good couple of hours, he guessed, to reach the top. He only hoped it were worth it.

               

There was a river between him and the tower, a huge, rushing river that flowed with white, foamy water. There were rumors too about giants and their poisons and Jack Robin had no way of knowing if the foam were some such substance or simply rapids.

               

Of course, he did still have the healing salve his mother had packed when he had first left home. She had insisted he take it, even though he protested. Just a dab of that and-

               

No!

               

He could not go there. He would not. If he allowed himself this slip in standard this once, there would be no end to the compromise. In which case, he might as well have just stayed home.

               

He could do this alone. He did not need a healing cream infused with dark magic. He had seen what use of such things did to a person’s soul. And, he would like to keep his soul intact as long as he could.

               

No, it was much safer to steal, and then buy what you wanted with the spoils.

               

Although a magic bridge to get him across that river-

               

No, we’re not going there. Not now, not ever.

               

He had left home not long before this and was beginning to realize how much his mother had ingrained in his mind. He could not go five minutes without wishing for a magical item. That needed to stop.

               

He would survive by his wits, just as he had told his mother he could. She had laughed and told him he was welcome home when he failed. But he would not fail. If for no other reason than to show her that.

               

He needed to focus on the matter at hand- a way to get across the river. Whether poison was at work here or not, swimming was not an option. Not with the way the water churned and pulsed. He would have to find another way.

So, that’s that! Make sure you send in your burning questions for next week. Can’t wait to see what you all ask.

And, in the meantime, How to Properly Deface a Book – Kit Parker Book Two releases on Monday!!!! So excited! So, be sure to come back on Monday for the official release post and the info on how you can get a copy!! :D :D