Unleashing Your Inner Artist

Happy Halloween, Guys and Ghouls!

When I was young and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always replied, "an actress." However, if I had just looked no further than my last name for a profession, which in German means writer, I would have saved myself a lot of time—and my parents a lot of money! I finally discovered the one thing that gave me the buzz that performing did—writing.

I'd always written in my journals about dreamy guys I had mad crushes on—but those were for my eyes and throbbing heart only. When auditioning for a part, sometimes I'd write my own monologues to prevent me from being the hundredth girl that day to recite, "Romeo, Romeo," to some half-snoozing director. I'd write scenes or stand-up comedy or create characters off the top of my head in improv—anything that would relate to acting.

Looking back, how could I have known that performing was the very thing that would help me write novels? I realized telling jokes helped me write jokes in my books, and the split-second timing and quick thinking of improvisation prepared me for writing on deadline!

When I wrote my first novel, I got to be EVERY character—and also decide how the story began and ended. How freeing! I'm not suggesting a would-be writer must be Broadway Bound, but taking an acting class, auditioning for a school play, or maybe just reading a script out loud can inspire a fresh outlook to a story or character that has been sitting on the shelf or tucked away in a notebook.

The arts can teach you helpful lessons and provide tools that are useful for writers, such as following your dream, thinking outside the box, and, most importantly, being able to handle rejection. Additionally the arts, hobbies, and even other professions are ways to unleash the creative inner writer in you. Singing, playing an instrument, sculpting, painting, drawing, or crafts—whatever it is that speaks to you—do it!

What art form or medium inspires you with your writing?

Ellen Schreiber
Author of Vampire Kisses 3: Vampireville

That All-Important First Sentence. . .

I decided to blog about first sentences because first sentences are super-important.

When I was a teenager sitting in math class, I'd hide my notebook under my binder and pen the first lines of my immortal novel. . .

"It was April, and everywhere, the blossoming forsythia foretold that spring was about to arrive."

I never got much further than that. With such a boring sentence, where did I have to go? So, I decided to be a singer instead.

(Obviously, this isn't where my story ends)

Fast-forward a few years to when I tried writing again. I took a workshop with a great writer, Richard Peck, and he said, "A first sentence should make the reader ask why." That means it should leave readers with questions, so they'll read on. It should thrust the reader into the story. A lightbulb moment for me!

One of my favorite first sentences is from Little Women: " 'Christmas won't be Christmas without presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." I immediately wanted to know why Jo had no presents. And who can forget, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ."?

I tried it, and it worked. My favorite first sentence I've written is, "I should never have come back to Miami." Questions? Yes. Why did he leave Miami? Why did he come back? Why shouldn't he have? Waaaay better than the "blossoming forsythia" thing.

What is your favorite first sentence of a book you've read? Your favorite first sentence you've written?

Alex Flinn
Author of Diva

Winning the Cookie

When I was 18, a freshman in college, I signed up, on a whim, for a playwriting class. Best decision I ever made. (Well, other than saying yes, a few years later, to brunch with the cute brilliant guy I'd had a crush on all through high school. . . and then yes again, when he asked me to marry him. . . )

But back to playwriting.

I had always been pretty good at writing. I wrote well enough to develop some impressively bad work habits, like leaving papers until the night before, or not doing the reading before writing the paper. Until playwriting class.

The professor, Doc Murphy, was one of the best teachers I've ever had. Every week we all had to write something, a scene, a character study—and then we'd vote; whoever's work was judged best would win the chocolate chip cookie Doc Murphy brought in. Man, did I want that cookie.

The problem was, you didn't get the cookie for cool adjectives, varied sentence structure, smooth transitions. Doc Murphy, bald, cross-eyed, an iridescent scarf knotted nattily around his neck, would demand, "Astonish me." He said that a first draft was just for puking up your first idea, and that of course it would be boring, trite, full of clichés; by your twentieth draft, if you were really lucky and working hard, you might reach mediocrity! That's where the fun would begin, he said, because that's when you hone your characters from flat, bland stereotypes into astonishingly particular individuals, with passionate needs, complex pasts, hidden flaws, implosive secrets.

Writing became exciting, athletic even. I wrote lists—lists of questions for my characters to answer, possible names, needs, enemies. . . I wrote and wrote, better scenes and sketches than I'd ever written before in my life.

I astonished myself with the turns my plots took, with the depths my characters began to reveal to me. I even got Doc Murphy to open his mouth in a pucker of astonishment, twice.

But I never won the damned cookie.

What I got was, of course, much more valuable—a method of writing that pulls me deep, deep into my stories. John Steinbeck wrote of one of his characters that he "got into a book, crawled and groveled between the covers, tunneled like a mole among the thoughts, and came up with the book all over his face and hands." That's how I write. That's what I love about writing.

Yeah, yeah, but it would've been so sweet to win the cookie.

I'm still trying, I guess. How about you?

Rachel Vail
Author of You, Maybe: The Profound Asymmetry of Love in High School

There Are No Subliminal Messages in This Post

Hi superfantastico pals and also pals I have Not met yet! Do you hear that sound? It's the sound of the sands of time triCkling down untiL tomorrow when its gostartwritingtime! Can't wait to see which plot wins, and I'm super excited to read what you come Up with. Since mine is the last post before the Deadline, I thought I'd give some sErious and practical writing advice.

Only I don't really know any. So instead, I present to you my own personal Three Steps to Better Writing program, guaranteed to make your writing sizzle!

1. KINKOS: Be a copy cat!
Like an artist learning to draw from a live model, one of the best ways to develop your ear and eye for detail is by studying people and then trying to capture what you've seen and heard in writing. Since that is called stalking when you do it to strangers, it's best to do it to people you know. So spend a day copying your friends from life onto paper.

You can tell a lot about a person's character based on how they speak, but to capture that in writing can be tricky and requires practice. The teacher's pet's "Oh, please!" is different from your friend the sarcastronaut's "Oh, please." The same is true with physical descriptions of people. A "button-down avec pearls" would register as preppy, while a "skull tank with pearls" reads more goth-debutaunt. (What? That is too a style statement!).

Just like you can suggest a space of great depth in a drawing just by showing two lines coming together on the paper and the brain fills in the rest, you can suggest a Guy of Great Depth by saying, "His bangs fell over one eye as he read Kafka." In other words, two details should be enough to help your reader picture the rest of the character.

2. —ITOS: Fill your grill.
Writing is hard work. In addition to feeding your brain by stalking.copying your friends, you must feed your stomach with snacks. For this, I recommend substances from the —itos food group, such as Doritos, burritos, Tostitos, Fritos, cupcakeitos, mini-pizzaitos. . .

3. SPECIAL SAUCE: Make the ordinary extraordinary.
Sentence structure is like the spice that variety adds to life. Sentence structure is important. Sentence structure will play a large part in how much a reader likes your work. Sentence structure means how you organize your words. Sentence structure should be varied. Sentence structure that does not vary gets very boring and repetitive feeling and people stop paying attention. Sentence structure—hey, wake up! I'm not done!

See what I mean? If you write every sentence in the same way, people will nod off and then wake up with weird notebook creases on their faces and blame you. Think of writing as a hamburger, and varied sentence structure as the special sauce that makes it fascinatING and delicious.

There they are, my three steps. I Kan't stop feeling like I forgot Something important. . . Something I meant to say, somethING crucial. . .

Hmm. . . [EVEN] I can't guess what it could [IF THE PLOT IS] possibly have been. . .Was it [PARANORMAL] about ankle boots and [DON'T FORGET] whether they're totally Hot or totally Not? No, [TO INCLUDE] I don't think so. Was it. . .

[KISSING! ALL THE BOOKS THAT EVERYONE LOVES HAVE ROMANCE BAKED INSIDE THEM LIKE A SPECIAL SURPRISE. NO MATTER WHAT THE GENRE, HAVING PEOPLE FALL IN LOVE MAKES READERS FALL IN LOVE!]

Anyway, good luck! Make like a Super Soaker and have a blast.

P.S. I'm serious about the ankle boots though. H-h-hot? Or H-h-ho? What do you think?

Michele Jaffe
Author of Bad Kitty

Happy Endings for Everyone: The Joys of FanLit

So I logged on to the site and, of course, the first thing I do is go on the forum "Favorite Books and Authors" so that I can see how many people named me as their favorite author. With my heart in my throat I zipped through all 139 posts and found Six!! six mentions!!! Yessssss!!! Woo-hoo!!! Thank you to my six favorite readers!!

Now who are MY favorite authors? A lot of them are like yours. . . Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, Cecily von Ziegesar, Lisi Harrison, Leo Tolstoy, Jane Austen (Jane only got one vote—hey, I'm beating Jane! Woo-hoo!!), Dawn Powell, Evelyn Waugh, and P. G. Wodehouse. And when I say "favorite author," I mean authors whose books I have read and re-read to DEATH. As well as authors who I wish would write more books even though they are dead. You know?

Writing fanlit is great practice for any aspiring writer. When I was a teenager, I wrote Duran Duran meets Dynasty fanlit. The members of Duran Duran were part of a ridiculously rich and scheming family, with many affairs and scandals between them. It was an over-the-top soap opera, and part of me is a little bummed the "Gossip and Glamour" premise is pulling very few votes right now in the polls. C'mon people! Don't we want to read about catfights over Jimmy Choo bags?? I know I do!

And speaking of fanlit, I think part of the fun of writing it is being able to rewrite the endings to sad books. Like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. In the end of the trilogy, Will and Lyra can't be together. But in cyberspace—in fanlit—many fans have given them very happy endings, which makes me very glad. What books would you rewrite to give them happy endings?

Melissa de la Cruz
Author of Fresh Off the Boat

A Writer's Guide to Marathon Running

Writing a story is a lot like running a marathon. Of course, I've never run a marathon. Aside from the fact that they are 26 miles long and they have to wrap you in tin foil like a burrito when you're done so that your body doesn't cool down too fast and lump up like melted cheese . . . I don't know anything about running marathons. I am talking completely out of my butt here, marathon-wise.

But let's just go with how I imagine a marathon is run. Because you've all just started one in my head, and I want to you get to the finish line!

In my experience, writing a story tends to go something like this:

MILES 1-5, THE "FEELING GOOD" STAGE

When she first has an idea, The Writer feels like a bit of a genius. It feels like her head is glowing. "I really am the brightest bulb in the lamp," she says to herself. "And my light shineth over all and illuminaneth the darkness! The word I'm looking for is bright. That's what I am. Bright."

Because she is feeling so super-shiny-smart and fresh, The Writer gets right down to business. She writes and writes. She writes notes about what she writes. Oh, how she writes! Look at her go! She is so fast!

MILES 6-15, THE "WHY DIDN'T I JUST TAKE UP SCRAPBOOKING?" STAGE

The Writer has been going for a while now, but is now saying to herself, "Writing a story is a seriously long process. Why didn't I just start making something simple, like a pot holder? I could have made, like, a dozen potholders by now. Or I could have put all of my pictures into color-coordinated albums. But no. Not me. I had to start this story. And instead I am still working on this one paragraph that just WILL NOT DIE!"

Sadly, this is when a lot of people slow down or eventually give up their writing.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath." You're alone, you feel like you are running out of air, and you're doing something weird. You've only gotten part of the way through it.

Keep going. Keep going if you feel shaky and think you can't do it. That's a sign that you're actually getting somewhere. You're tired because you've been working! Commit to finishing. Make yourself SWEAR to finish.

MILES 16-23, THE "PLEASE LET ME FALL INTO A SINKHOLE" STAGE

Things are starting to get to The Writer. Everything aches. She has committed to finishing her story, even if it kills her, which it definitely will. With every painful step, she hits a new problem. There's that page that doesn't want to be written, that character who keeps saying the wrong thing, and that really important part that she hasn't figured out yet, the one people call "the middle."

She's not going quickly, but she's taking it step by step. She is going forward, word by word. Sure, she wants to stop sometimes, but she doesn't.

MILES 24 AND 25, THE "I MIGHT ACTUALLY MAKE THIS" STAGE

"Wait," The Writer says to herself, looking over her pages in amazement. "Is this possible? Have I almost written my story?"

With the prospect of a finish line, she feels the blood coming back to her brain a little. Some of that early speed comes back. That annoying character suddenly stops acting like such a problem child. That impossible page starts to materialize. No, it may not be perfect, but it is there, and it is getting clearer every second.

MILE 26, THE GLORY MILE

The Writer doesn't feel the pain or the effort anymore. She is over the hump. The story feels like it is writing itself. And then comes the shocking moment when she realizes that it is done.

Writers do not get tinfoil blankets or medals when they are done writing. (Though I feel that we should. I would like these things. Medals and tinfoil blankets are shiny.)

But we do have our stories, which are better. So come on out, start writing, and don't stop until your story is done.

Love,
mj

Maureen Johnson
Author of 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Show the World What You Can Do

I often get asked, "When did you know you wanted to be a writer?" The truth is, I didn't know what I might do with my life until I met my high school creative writing teacher, a fascinating woman I'll call Ms. Mucous.

Unlike my favorite teachers, Ms. Mucous had a weirdly limited view of imagination. That is, she believed one's imagination should only be used to write stories about sweet and happy things, like puppies and kitties and rainbows. Now, I liked puppies and kitties and rainbows as much as the next girl. But I liked to write about ghosts, mermaids, evil twins and bad boyfriends. Ms. Mucous didn't think these unpleasant things were worthy topics. As a matter of fact, every day she would pick out a story or poem to read to the class, something she thought was particularly good.

She never read anything I wrote.

Ever.

As I sat seething in Ms. Mucous's class, my life's goal popped into my head. I thought: I'm going to keep writing. I'm going to show Ms. Mucous what I can do. I'm going to show the whole world.

It's amazing what motivates a person. For me, it's anger. For you, it could be love or sadness or just the possibility of it all. And that's what stories are: limitless possibilities. Who's in the story? What will happen next? How will it end?

Though stories feel so much like real life, they're also different from life. More dramatic, more magical, more exciting. More exciting than doing that group Powerpoint presentation on the constitution with those three lazy slobs from history class. Or spending a Saturday night babysitting your spoiled brat little brother, watching him blow milk bubbles out of his nose. Or having to skip homecoming because your Great Aunt May insists on taking you to the rubber band museum. Or listening to a stupid teacher blather on about puppies and kitties and rainbows.

What's even better: in the HarperTeen FanLit event, you guys discover the possibilities together.

Here:

• The girl can get the guy (unless she decides she doesn't need him).
  
• The girl can slay the dragon (unless she'd like to keep him).
  
• The girl can banish the witch (unless she'd rather hang out and learn a spell or two).

And the characters don't even have to be girls. They can be boys, cats, camels, fairies, ghosts, gnomes, gremlins, ants, or heiresses. They can live in haunted houses, glass castles, boarding schools, charm schools, or wizard schools. Your story can be set in caves or on mountains, on ships or planes or at the bottom of the ocean.

Your characters can:

• read minds (or)
  
• leap tall buildings (or)
  
• grant three wishes (or)
  
• kiss frogs (or)
  
• solve crimes (or)
  
• talk to trees (or)
  
• talk to the dead (or)
  
• move objects with thoughts (or)
  
• defeat nineteen ninjas armed only with a toothpick (or)
  
• fall madly, passionately in love (or)
  
• all of the above.

Best of all, you can write thinly-disguised versions of your very worst ex-boyfriends or creative writing teachers and then have them run over by runaway rickshaws (or herds of llamas, or angry punk girls on roller skates).

My point is, you can make anything happen. You can show the whole world what you can do.

Take that, Ms. Mucous.

Love & Luck,
Laura Ruby
Author of Good Girls

Keep Your Old Notebooks Handy

It's Day Three in the first ever FanLit contest — and the battle of the storylines is heating up! Paranormal leads the pack, though Romance is not far behind. Meanwhile, the Forums are buzzing with your ideas and stories.

Props to goth_fairy, who started the thread "Tips (for us, by us)," a place to share writing and brainstorming ideas. There are some great ones here! xoxo_pr0ud writes: "Keep writing and don't stop. Even if you think it's the stupidest sentence or paragraph or maybe even story. It might just turn out to be brilliant." Very true!

I'll add: Keep your old ideas and stories, even if you don't like them at first. You never know what will seem fresh and exciting again after you've stored it away for a few days — or months, or years. (Gail Carson Levine, the author of Writing Magic, advises, "Save it for a minimum of fifteen years.")

When you start your stories on October 27th, you'll draw from your own life and from pure imagination. And you might even find yourself drawing from an old idea — and that's when your old notebooks come in handy!

Well, one thing's for sure: we can't wait to read your stories. Let the writing begin!

Yours,

Naomi Rothwell, HarperTeen Assistant Editor

Let the Voting Begin...

We're off and running: HarperTeen's first ever FanLit contest. We've had a fantastic first day, with votes and comments galore. So far, it looks like Paranormal is poised to win, but it's only the first day so, really, all of the premises are still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top—oh, wait, that's different. But you know what I mean: the winner isn't the winner until the last vote is counted. So if you're like Tigerlily707 and are crossing your fingers for Romance, or like Beed311 and are hoping for Chick-Lit, don't give up! There are still hours upon hours of voting time.

Meanwhile, if you're like Chelsea (aka, Cabot~Dessen~Fan247), who wrote that she can't wait to find out how the story turns out, I can't help but remind you (and her) that you have control over how the story turns out! Whether you want to try to write it yourself or hang out on the sidelines and vote vote vote, this story really is in your hands.

And for those of you who've noted the Heroes similarity in the paranormal plot,

1) It's not exactly the same. Heroes' hot blond woman's mirror image may or may not be a deadly killer, ours. . . not so much. (Unless of course you turn her into one. Because you have that power! The story is in your hands!)

2) It just goes to show that sometimes you think your idea is totally original and then it's totally not. BUT it's all in the execution, people. Two stories might start from a similar place but can end up pretty different. Like, to use an example from television, Studio 60 and 30 Rock. Both shows take place behind the scenes of a show not unlike Saturday Night Live. Both are on NBC. Both even have a number in the title! But the shows themselves are different because they sprang from the minds of two unique people. So remember (say it with me): The story is in your hands. You want it to be different? You can make that happen.

3) Given how far ahead it is in the polls, it seems most people already know that the story is in their hands and they can make of it what they want. (Yay!) So there's that.

4) Story. Your. Hands.

So keep checking back. The winning premise will be revealed on October 27. And then the fun really begins.

Farrin Jacobs, HarperTeen Editor & FanLit Moderator

Welcome to HarperTeen's first ever online FanLit contest!

Now all of you aspiring authors out there have a chance to strut your stuff in a national forum!

I wish they'd had something like the HarperTeen FanLit contest when I was a kid. It offers aspiring authors a fantastic opportunity to learn what it's like to be a real writer—having to turn things in by a certain date, learning to live with rejection—as well as the invaluable experience of being critiqued by professional writers and editors!

Actually, I DID enter a writing contest sponsored by Harper when I was in high school (only back then the teen imprint was called Avon Flare). Aspiring writers aged 12 to 18 were asked to submit their own original novels, and the winner's book got PUBLISHED by Avon Flare!

My submission was called A WORM IN THE PADDED ROOM. It was about a high school punk rock group whose demo tape gets mixed up with a by a Communist's group tape containing secret plans to take over the U.S. government (looking back, Communists—and our national fear of them—seem so quaint today), and the band's struggle to SAVE THE U.S.A. (while also staying true to their music, of course).

As you can imagine, A WORM IN THE PADDED ROOM did not win the Avon Flare Teen Fiction Contest that year. The winning entry was about a boy whose model lawn gnomes come to life and begin killing everyone in his family and town.

Which, you have to admit, isn't as good as a punk rock band who saves America. But it's pretty original.

Still, I was so bummed that A WORM IN THE PADDED ROOM didn't win that I didn't try to get published again for almost a decade.

DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE! Every single author I know has been rejected—usually multiple times—at some point in his or her career. If we all gave up every time we got rejected, there'd be no books at all! THE PRINCESS DIARIES got rejected 17 times or something before HarperCollins (actually, it was Avon Flare back then!) had the good sense to buy it.

So get out your pens or keyboards, and start writing! You never know what you can do until you try.

More later.

Much Love,

Meg,
Meg Cabot, Author of How to be Popular