Stealing From Other Writers

Note: Plagiarism is bad!! Don't steal crap...sort of...

Note II: It's my sister's birthday, so Happy Birthday, Laura!!

On with the blog!

For the record, I do (yep, I do) endorse stealing from other writers. I'm not telling you to go to the store, grab a Nick Sparks book and steal whole sentences to put into your work and claim it as your brilliant writing.

So sneaky...

I mean, if you contact him, ask permission, go through all the legal loops and get permission, good for you, that's awesome.

But, what I'm talking about is ideas. Steal ideas. This right here, is why we read so much, why we decide what we like in other author's writing, and why we implement it in our own.

In a simple example, I like blogs with pictures. It breaks up all the writing, it makes it more personal, so I also started putting pictures in my blog.

In a slightly more complex example, Sharon Creech writes middle grade novels. (Favorites: Walk Two Moons, Bloomability, Chasing Redbird.) In said novels, characters from other novels will drop into the one you're currently reading. It's brief but they're there; maybe they're friends, maybe they went to the same school.

Either way, I really like this idea. It's like writing a sequel without having to write a sequel. My good friend G. K. Byrne did a couple of rounds of beta editing for me, and it was awesome because she went through both Character Defects, and My Sister's Memories. As I wrote My Sister's Memories, I was thinking a lot about Ms. Creech and the characters popping up later in novels.

So what'd I do? I wrote a scene in where you'd see Destroyer and Sarah together (but I won't tell you where, in case they get published, you know :) ). The best part? Ms. Byrne recognized the scene and in her notes wrote, "Hiya, Destroyer!" and I got that warm fuzzy feeling we get as writers when someone pats us on the back and says, "Well done!"

So what about you guys? Which writers influenced you?

Blog Comments

Before I start the blog, I'd just like to state that my blog has officially been up for a year. So, thank you guys for coming by, leaving comments, and helping me learn and grow as a writer. Okay, enough mushy.

Short one today.

Back in March, Rebecca Rasmussen had a guest blog about Literary Citizenship. Now, almost a year later, I think about this post a lot. It shared a lot of, "If you want to have the writing community excel, push it along" types of advice. Step one, was to write charming notes to writers.

So let's think about this. I'm assuming most of you who drop into the blog, have your own blogs, no? What does this mean? This means, I take that citizenship to another step, it's called being blog friendly. If someone comments on my blog, I try to return the favor.

Why?

Because:
*I love comments. I feel other writers feel the same.
*It helps establish a connection to the people commenting.
*It may help develop friendships. There are a few people who comment pretty regularly, and I look forward to what they have to say (thanks again!)
*It's kind of like being a pen-pal. You gotta write back, you know?

Basically, I'm not saying you have to comment back. I'm just saying it's a nice thing to do, and probably makes other people happy, too. Plus--if you actually go through and read the blog post, most of the time, there is something worthwhile to read.

:)

Chapter to Chapter Reading

It was a long weekend at Sunday River, made up of awesome snow, awesome lessons, and even better riding. However, come this morning...I couldn't get out of bed. Actually, come last lesson yesterday, all I wanted was to go home and pass out....

Me (on the right) on an awesome run.
Photo Credit: Mike Foley

The bottom line is, a novel can be a lot like snowboarding. I've already made THIS reference about trusting yourself, so now, it's time for a new one (of course it's riding related :) ):

The start of your chapter is kind of like starting the morning on a big beautiful powdery mountain. (Yay!! It's so fluffy, I'm so excited!!)

If you do a couple of green, easy runs, you'll be able to go for a little longer, take a couple more runs, right? But, if you start the day off doing super hard double black diamonds, you get really, really tired, really, really fast.

When talking to my good friend today (see photo credit), we discussed the way we read books. I told him that I have a tendency to read from chapter to chapter. I hate stopping mid-chapter, and will usually push myself to make it all the way to the end, no matter how tired I am.

It turns out, he does too.

If there is a really long chapter (30+ pages), we'll usually duck out for the night. If it's like a 4-10 page chapter, we'll stay in. When finished, I go through, flip the next couple pages and if it's another 4-10 page chapter, well, I'll read that one, too.

Moral? Long chapters are like starting the day off with a double black diamond. When you stand at the top, it's really steep and you wonder, "Do I really want to do this?" You open up the book to where you last left off, flip through the pages, and think..maybe I'll read this tomorrow...

Instead, if you stick to the green runs, the 4-10 page chapters, your reader (if they're anything like my friend and me) will stand at the top of the mountain and say, "Yep, I'm going balls out."

Happy Monday!

Words And Spelling

When I was young, the first word I learned to spell was S-H-I-T. Maybe it was because my last name is Schmidt, and if you cross out every other letter it spells S-H-I-T (I'm not kidding here), and someone taught me such things. Maybe because I was a bit of a rebel growing up *see: bad kid*. Or maybe because my sisters were bad influences on me, and wanted to get me in trouble. Who knows? But the first word I remember being able to spell is the word shit.

I remember being so proud of the fact I could spell this word:
"Jim, Jim!" I yelled through the house. "I can spell a word!"
The man who was the closest thing to a father I had, looked at me with pride, "Oh? What word?"
"Shit!" I exclaimed, and with my youthful ignorance, began, "S-H-I-T."
I remember him struggling for a second while I just wanted a pat on the back, or a cookie, or something. Instead, he said, "Do you want to learn a new word?"
I shrugged, I was still stoked about my SHIT.
"Rather than S-H-I-T, put an R between the I and T," he told me.
I looked at him, "S-H-I-R-T." I allowed the letters to roll over in my head for a few minutes, "SHIRT!" I exclaimed, "I'm spelling the word shirt!"
He smiled, "I think that's a little more acceptable than the first word you spelled, no?"

Now, a million years later, sometimes when I get bored, I pick three basic words, words like THE CAT SAT, and see how many words I can spell using only those letters: THECATSAT:
The
Cat
Sat
At
Seat
Heat
Hat
etc

It's a good exercise when you get bored. I also have an affinity toward word games; scrabble, banana-grams, scrabble slam, words with friends, etc. I completely blame Jim for this affliction and my obsession with words.

I think a lot about this moment, the moment I learned how to turn shit into shirt and consider that maybe...just maybe my writing is like that. That that's what editing does for me; turns my shit into shirt, because it's much more acceptable, no?

:)

Writing Books I

I'm going to start a segment on writing books that I've found very helpful in my career. Ideally, I'll post a book each Thursday (until I run out of books I own....which may happen sooner rather than later), but...forgive me if life gets in the way....which it tends to do:

So Book One for this series is:

The Market.

This book comes in many editions. Children's Market, Poet's Market, Novel and Short Story Market...etc. You'll see I have the 2009 and 2011 editions. The cool thing is, one is usually published each year, which means it can continually be a Christmas present.

The Market has writing conferences, contests, and pretty much everything a writer could ever need. It also usually comes with a membership to the Writer's Market.

This is something I look forward to every year. It's usually about $15-$30 depending on where you purchase it from. Definitely something worth investing in, at least once.

Train Your Brain

There's a quote somewhere that says something like, "If you want to be a writer, treat writing like a job." I can't remember where I found this quote, otherwise I'd give it more props, but either way, here is my writerly advice for the day...

In one of the books I've read, or one of the quotes, or blogs, or...some source of entertainment that is wiser than I am, I found something about writing. Yes, we all know that we should write every day to keep our skills sharp (one of those use it or lose it types of things), but did you know that you should also try to schedule a time, and keep to that time every day?

Why?

Because you can call it your "Creative Hour" or "Creative Time". In example, if you do it between 9am-10am, your brain eventually will start to expect that, 'Oh, this is my time to be creative, I must make something up'. It's a way to keep your muse in check when he or she tries to run away.

But here's the truth; most of us have real lives, outside of keeping up our blogs, our writing, our jobs, our twitter/facebook/goodreads...It's hard to schedule a time. It's hard to be able to stick to that time.

If you're able, rock it. If not, then you're with the other 95% of the population.

:)

More Blog Awards!

In case you were unaware, I love blog awards...like, love them. Not quite as much as Mint Oreos....but I mean, it's up there :) (I also love new followers, comments, and....shiny objects :) )

Anyways, Krista over at I Take the Pen gave me the Inspirational Blog Award! Thanks, Krista!

This one actually has rules attached, so here they are: 

Answer the following questions.

Pass it on.

You ready to  learn more about me than you wanted? Good, I'm ready to share :)

1. What makes you laugh, smile or giggle?
When people fall snowboarding (when it's a safe fall, not a slam). I taught a kid last week, who just kept falling, and falling, and each time, he laughed so loud, I think the entire mountain heard him. It made me happy to know that he was still having fun, and more that he was learning.
My dog also makes me smile a lot, because he's a talker. I feel like I can have endless conversations with him.
Cute things make me smile; like when boys walk me to my car, hold doors for me, when my favorite song plays on the radio.

2. What are your dreams for the future?
I want to get published. I want to be happy. I want Baxter to be immortal. It's not too much to ask, right?

3. If you were going on a cruise where would it be and why?
So...you guys may judge me for this...but I'm kind of against cruises (don't get me wrong, if I won one, I'd still go) but they're terrible for the environment. Like....TERRIBLE. But, if I won one (this way I'm not supporting it), I'd like to go anywhere, like an island, some place I've never seen. (I'm not very hard to please)

4. Who would you spend your vacation with and why?
The vacation listed above? Well, with Baxter, of course :) (Read commitment issues....:) )

5. If given a life, what life would you chose and why? Past or future? 
I would pick past, I think. I mean, I like my life where it's at, so I'd want to be something else; a bird, a dog, a cat. I'd want to know how they live, what they say to each other. But if I were forced to stay human, I'd go back, and take more pictures with Kellie, my best friend who died in a car accident when she was 17.

Okay, so Krista gave the blog to four people, so I will, too:


Jess @ Falling Leaflets
Cari @ Cari's Book Blog
Chantele @ My Writing Bug
Sarah @ Sarah Belliston

Hope you guys are having a stellar day!