Category Archives: Writing

11:48 pm - July 3, 2014 - sjcarlson

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve Googled for your novel?

So as a writer, I must admit that Google is one of my best friends (apart from all my awesome writer friends). Google Maps Streetview was essential to my writing Hooligans In Shining Armour (as I don’t live in where it’s set). I could plop that little yellow dude down on any street I wanted and just “walk” around the neighborhood. Amazing! Pretty much any question I ever have, all I need to do is type it into Google and–like magic–I get the answer. Being able to connect to writers around the world is also awesome.

I can’t imagine how difficult writing must have been before the wonder that in the internet was invented. Going to libraries, using card catalog to find books, probably having to hunt through many libraries to get all the books you need, sitting at those for hours sifting through newspapers on a microfiche reader (yup I did Google “whats the machine called you use to look at old newspapers.” Yes, I have used it before, I swear!). Though I will say, it may have been a bit easier to stay focused on writing without Monty Python GIFs and a plethora of “Evolution of Dance,” Epic Rap Battles of History, and 139239450442345 videos beckoning.

Here’s one more treasure from my wasted time tonight:

Old Hamster Dance:

Versus new Hamster Dance:

Anyway, I have to say my search engine has some PRETTY interesting things that pop up in the history. Here’s a sampling:

1. Places to hide guns
2. Expensive black high heel shoes.
3. How big is a coffin (my husband still talks about this one! I was working late one night, trying to see how long a coffin was for my character to mention, my husband comes out of our room to get a glass of water and sees this…. Needless to say there were many jokes with friends about how I may be plotting his demise :P))
4. healing from a kneecapping belfast
5. Axe body spray
6. mixing alcohol and tranquilizers
7. can you re-take A-levels
8. Four Loko
9. Gauging your ears point of no return
10.hipster jeans
11. Justin Bieber profile photo
12. kinds of punches in boxing
13. lyrics to billy boys
14. Minging meaning
15. naff
16. oh ah up the ra
17. pointer finger (because someone told me that was an american thing to say…)
18. Riot July 1 2011
19. sensations of fear in the body
20. tall boys
21. up the duff
22. what is the color of the sky right before the sun comes up
23. you’re a geg

What’s the most random thing you’ve Googled for a novel?

8:12 am - July 2, 2014 - sjcarlson

Survey question, writer friends!! How many different alpha/beta readers do you use?? (I seriously want to know)

Hey writer friends, as I’ve been trying to finish up my perpetually nearly finished novel, Hooligans in Shining Armour, a thought’s been nagging me. What is the most effective way to use readers, professional critique services, and editors to make your novel sparkle?

(No, no! Not this kind of sparkle!!)

(More like this, I guess?)

I do think you can have too much of a helpful thing, i.e. beta readers. That getting too much feedback can start to make things convoluted for the writer and potentially do more harm than good to the blossoming novel.

Also to all of you starting Camp NaNoWriMo today, happy writing! I’m supposed to be doing it, too, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be done with integrity…lol. I admit it freely, don’t judge!!!

How do you decide when it’s time to close the doors on that and focus just on editing? How many readers do you typically use? Do you have a strategy for how you use them?

Category: Writing Tags: creativity, writing

8:03 pm - June 27, 2014 - sjcarlson

I have vanquished the inner demon preventing me from writing an awesome first chapter! (…that’s an awkward, weird title haha)

So a few weeks ago I posted about the battle of writing my first chapter for my YA novel Hooligans in Shining Armour, set in present-day Belfast. There have been three completely different start points so far and numerous drafts of each. At the time, I was super excited because I thought I’d nailed that first chapter. Well…. turned out I didn’t lol. Writing first chapters is such an art. So I’ve spent the past week writing a new first chapter. After much crafting and re-writing and getting feedback from my most trusted critique partners…. I…. AM…. 99.9% SURE… I…. actually have nailed it this time!!! I guess there’s still that .1% chance that I’m not…

(side note: I spent waaaay too long looking at Monty Python gifs)

Words cannot express my joy. But I may go do this in my condo elevator right now.

Anyway, if you want to check out the new material for Hooligans in Shining Armour, click here! Let me know what you think.

How do you know when you’re done with your novel, like really done?

Categories: Non-writers just don't understand, Writing Tags: creativity, getting published, writing

9:39 pm - June 26, 2014 - sjcarlson

The next generation

A little boy runs in front of an Eleventh Night bonfire with a Union flag as a cape. To the left, a lamppost melts and an electrical transformer smokes. Tiger’s Bay, Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 11th, 2011.

I’m going through my photos from Northern Ireland as I prepare to start querying agents for Hooligans in Shining Armour (http://wp.me/P4xRXY-m) and I felt ready share this one as a post. The Twelfth celebrates the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Categories: Photography, Writing Tags: getting published, photography, travel, writing

9:23 am - June 24, 2014 - sjcarlson

Camp NaNoWriMo—wait, it’s not in a real cabin?

So my sister and my writer’s group back home in Madison has a “cabin” at Camp NaNoWriMo and I was invited to join. At first I was like, sorry, wish I could fly back home from Singapore and stay in a quaint cabin on a lovely Wisconsin lake, but I really can’t. Then I found out it was a virtual cabin, lol. So I’ve signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo! I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo before but never actually done it. Not because I’m too lazy; mostly because I usually don’t need to set goals around word count. I’m pretty good at cranking them out. Last November, my sister, also a novel writer, finally pressured me into signing up for NaNoWriMo. That girl’s done it–and finished!–several years running now. You go, sister! At the time, I’d finished Hooligans and had started the months and months and (still continuing) process of editing and re-working and that’s what I wanted to focus on, so I as a quitter before I even started.

Anyway, now in July, they have a Camp NaNoWriMo. The difference, as I understand it, is that you can set whatever goal you want for word count. It doesn’t have to be 50,000 words. And it’s summer camp themed, and that’s just fun! So I’m all signed up now. A good friend and I are starting a new novel together, have already started I suppose, so now I do need some pressure to write. It’s tentatively titled Rafa and Rose. Click here to see what it’s all about! So this new novel is what I’ll be focusing on in July, in between all the crazy travels I have coming up in July. Thailand, Cambodia, and Bali! (one of the benefits of living in the concrete jungle of Singapore…all those destinations are a stone’s throw away)

This is what I imagine it’ll be like: (though I don’t know how much pizza there is in Southeast Asia outside of Singapore and apparently Ho Chi Mihn City, which has Pizza Huts)

Camp NaNoWriMo here I come! If only it were a real cabin on a lake…. I’ll just imagine I’m here while I write then, maybe get one of those soothing sounds albums with birds chirping or something.

(Fox Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin)

Or here, but with my laptop on that there picnic table 😛

(Kettle Moraine State Forest, Ice Age Trail. Like my Spotted Cow product placement? Oh, Spotted Cow, how I miss you….)

Click here to go to the Camp NaNoWriMo website and learn more! One of the things I’m most looking forward to with Camp NaNoWriMo is connecting with other writer friends from my old writing group and meeting new writer friends, cuz let’s face it, writers are just amazing people, right? If you’re doing camp NaNoWriMo and want to be my camping buddy, my camper name is “sarahjoydrop.”

Anyway… SARAH!!! Get back to editing Hooligans for the thousandth time! Sorry, sometimes I need to yell at myself. I have to get all the way though it before I start working on Rafa and Rose again….

Have you ever done NaNoWriMo? How was your experience? Any tips for meeting your goals?