Tag Archives: 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?

Category: Writing Tags: creativity, writing

8:00 pm - June 11, 2014 - sjcarlson

What’s the hardest part of a novel to write for you?

For me, with each of my manuscripts, it’s been the first chapter. Hooligans in Shining Armour follows two POV characters, Fiona and Danny. Danny’s first chapter has never been questioned. It’s solid. Fiona on the other hand….

The first several drafts, nothing changed with Fiona’s. Then a number of people from my writer’s group, including a bunch who read the whole thing, said the first chapter was too slow and introduced the readers into a world that they promptly left and never saw again. Too much “ordinary world” before “inciting incident”. That it didn’t feel connected to the rest of the story. So I cut the first chapter entirely and stuck little bits of important stuff from that chapter elsewhere. Fiona’s first chapter was basically a paragraph hinted at ordinary world then BAM! inciting incident. Then I sent it to the editor. She said that she didn’t feel connected to Fiona’s old life or her quest to return home (ha now, inciting incident too soon, not enough ordinary world). She wanted to get a sense of her life in Madison before she went to Belfast.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to get a first chapter together, knowing that that’s the first thing agents will read. It has so many jobs to do: establish tone/voice/genre, introduce protagonist and other main characters, show us what Fiona looks like, give us a glimpse into Fiona’s psyche, hint at what the Fiona’s journey will be, show us the world/s she lives in, and other things, too. All while being engaging and having some kind of tension on every page to keep the reader going. If the first page, the first paragraph, the first sentence isn’t attention-grabbing, you risk turning off agents and readers.

Anyway as I was sitting at the airport waiting to welcome my sister to the wonderful world of Singapore, I think I figured out how to solve both issues at once. I always get this giddy feeling when I finally solve a story conundrum and I really think I’ve done it this time with a little mix of both. Hopefully I’ll get Fiona finalized soon so I can post it! To learn more about Hooligans and read Danny’s chapter, click here.

What’s the hardest part to write in your novel? The beginning? The sagging middle? The perfect ending?

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

9:40 am - June 9, 2014 - sjcarlson

Went on a photo shoot for my novel (fancy-sounding, eh?) Have you ever done your own art for your novel?

So I don’t often post on my WIP (Hooligans in Shining Armour) on here, but when I do…

JK I’m not going to go all Dos-Equis-most-interesting-man-in-the-world on you today. I’m going to talk about HISA today because I did something super fun with the help of Cait, an awesome writer friend! What did we do, you may (or may not) ask? We went on a photo shoot! I’m drawing nearer to submitting to agents, so I figured I’d do some promo work, if you will.

So there are a few visual things that are featured in HISA. Two include walls dividing people and red Converse. Fiona and Danny’s neighborhoods are divided by a “peace wall” that is about thirty feet high. Danny’s side of the wall is covered with graffiti art that was commissioned to beautify the wall. Fiona wears red Converse the entire book. I currently live in Singapore, not Belfast, so we had to find a location that could pass for a wall as described in the book. I bought red Converse to celebrate finishing the latest draft of HISA. So now I’ve officially become an unpaid shoe model as well as a full-time unpaid writer. My friend scouted locations and we found the side of a building on Arab Street covered with artistic graffiti.

So the one up top is my favorite, but here’s another I really like with a bit different perspective. I’m actually not sure which I like better, so if you have an opinion, leave a comment below!

Here’s a few pictures of Arab Street in case you’re curious…

And a few shots of the Cupar Way peace wall I took on the Shankill (Danny’s side) while in Belfast:

I’m hoping to return to Belfast this Fall so then perhaps I won’t need this kind of staging, but it was fun to do. In my dream world, I’d commission a book trailer to be filmed in Belfast. Still scheming on this one.

To learn more about HISA and read a sample chapter, click here. Also here’s some more photos from my trip to Northern Ireland.

Have you ever used your creativity to make promotional materials or cover art for your novel? If you’ve self-published, how how have you designed your cover?

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

10:02 am - June 6, 2014 - sjcarlson

“What’s you novel about?” ….Oh crap, I haven’t thought of a log line yet!

What’s my novel about you ask?

Have you ever had that moment where you’re like, crap, how do I explain to a most-likely-only-politely-interested person my entire life’s work for the past months or years? And then you’re talking and watching their face and their eyes are glazing over and it’s obvious that you’re making NO sense. That leaves you like, okay, crap how do I gracefully end this conversation without just doing this:

After it’s all said and done, it may leave you feeling like, wow, if I can’t explain my novel in an interesting, coherent way, who’s ever going to want to read it? What is the meaning of my life even?????

Okay, maybe not quite that bad, but….

Honestly, I sometimes even have a hard time explaining after I’ve written my synopsis and query letter. I’ll over-explain or under-explain or tell too much about subplots or secondary characters. It’s hard to quickly, coherently explain a novel in a few sentences, but we have to have our “elevator speech” ready if we’re going to pitch to agents or even self-publish. Oh, the joys of being a writer. We can’t just write a novel and be like, YEAH! IT’S AWESOME SO READ IT! We have to persuade people with very short attention spans that our novel is worth hours of their time. That’s a whole different art.

Have you ever had this happen to you? How do you prepare your “elevator speech” or log line?

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

Sarah J. Carlson

Contemporary Young Adult Author