My dear friend Jackie said something to me yesterday that really hit home. I was complaining about Wonderland and bemoaning that I’m pretty sure I hate it. Not the premise of the story, no. That part I’m pretty confident in. But the characters, their actions, and heck, even the setting are grating on my raw nerves lately. But then Jackie said, “If you despise Wonderland, it’s probably amazing…”

That stayed with me all day. I rolled it around in my brain, then over my tongue. I told my husband and he laughed, saying that Jackie must know me pretty well. I explored the idea of it all night (some things just stick with you) and I’ve come to the conclusion that, once again, Jackie is brilliant.

For some reason, I need to remain emotionally unattached to my characters during the first draft. If not, I get too close to see the errors in what I’ve written. With Vlad, I kept my distance for some time before falling head over fang for him. Distance is a necessity for good writing. And now with Dillon…well, I suppose I’m focusing on getting the story down–that after I get the first draft on paper (screen…whatever), Dillon and I can feel free to get a little more comfortable with one another.

It’s just a matter of pushing through to the end and letting myself write crap. Because a blank page is hard to edit.

It may be. But I’m too drained to come up with a better description than Kim on the YA Books Central blog. So I’m stealing hers.

ANNOUNCING: A new community for children’s book creators in the Central U.S.

The new community for children’s writers living in the Central U.S. is LIVE! If you live in or near (or HAVE lived in) Kansas, Missouri, Iowa or Nebraska, check out kidlit_central.

If you like what you see, please help spread the word.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But I don’t have a Live Journal account!” Well, neither did I, until about an hour ago…but getting one is worth joining this group while it’s still all shiny and new, minions. Go forth, spread the word…and…do something else. My brain is mush this morning.

Greetings, minions! Today I thought we’d discuss one of the key things that can get a novel published: ie, creating a unique story.

There are three types of writers:

1) Those who have to work for their originality
This is the category I most certainly fall under and, I’d say, most successful or semi-successful writers fit here as well. Speaking from experience, I can say that I’ve written a number of unoriginal, uninspiring things. I mean, come on…my favorite subject is the undead…it’s quite a challenge to be unique where vampires are concerned. But I’ve managed, which proves it can be done in even the most overwritten genre. (Don’t take my word for it…buy the book.) I worked hard to make Vlad stand out from the blood-drinking crowd and it most certainly wasn’t easy.

2) Those who have originality thrust upon them
I (and many others like me, I’m sure) are insanely envious of these writers. They put pen to page (or finger to keyboard, as it were) and manage to produce completely unique, marketable, entertaining works of fiction without much thought on how to be original. Sickening, isn’t it? We should all be so lucky…but we’re not.

and 3)Those who mimic originality.

Sadly, there are a great many writers who don’t have the ambition to produce the kind of originality that it takes to be published. So they take what others have done and copy it in one way or another. What these writers are missing are blood, sweat, and tears–it takes an enormous amount of work to be a novelist. Never, if you’re considering this as a career option, never think for a second that it will be easy. It’s quite hard. Especially when you factor in how terribly important it is to create a unique story. Don’t copy what you’ve read and loved…recreate it into something entirely different. Do your best to become #1 on the list. Or go on copying others’ ideas, accepting that you will never be published. Or stop trying. It’s your choice.

So here’s your question for today. Focus on it, get a clear, honest answer in your head. Because it can mean the difference between sinking in the unpublished waters and swimming in the pool of publishing.

Are you creating a completely unique tale…or just mimicking those who have?

I can feel Vlad back there, in that place where he goes when we’re not working together to tell his tale, and it seems dear Vladimir is becoming quite cozy and content with his situation. I’m not sure if I like it.

On a happy note (well, as happy as my notes can get being that I’m a dark, brooding creature of the night), I’m starting to really enjoy my time with Dillon in Wonderland and don’t even feel like I’m cheating on Vlad anymore. I’ve got some direction now and I’m starting to think this book may just take off and be something great. Well, something good, anyway.

Today will be full of a trip deeper into the wastelands that are now Wonderland, as well as a return to the asylum there…and an introduction of Dillon to the queen.

It occurred to me last night, as I was coming to an important decision regarding Wonderland, that I have a writing process, of which I was not aware. It goes a little something like this:

1) Have fabulous idea, fall immediately in love with it, make several notes.
2) Write a few chapters, crumble to tears because there’s no love there for the main character, and I’ll never have a good idea, because all the ideas I have are CRAP.
3) Spend a few days varying between “This is crap” and “This is brilliant”, still go on loathing main character.
4) Procrastinate, ignoring any further work on work-in-progress. It wasn’t a good idea anyway.
5) Give up procrastination, write one fantastic, amazing chapter that restores hope and also makes me like my main character.
6) Decide that I should write a rough outline, even though I constantly insist that I don’t write outlines.
7) Begin working seriously on manuscript, finish it, love it, love the main character, let readers check it out & watch in awe as they love it too.

I did this exact thing with Vlad, and last night, as I was deciding to begin an outline for Wonderland, it occurred to me that I’m doing it again with Dillon. The good thing is that I’m on number six and number seven is looming just ahead. The bad thing is that, if this is my process, I’ll have to face this list again and again and again and again.

Writers are sickly masochistic.

Now…where’s that outline?

Over at the Backspace forums we’ve been doing a lot of firsts lately. First lines of our work-in-progress, first words, etc. I started a thread calling for favorite paragraphs (as my favorite is so rarely my first). It’s been eye-opening to the amount of exquisite talent I’m surrounded by there. (You should come play with us. You’ll likely learn a lot.)

I thought I’d share my favorite paragraphs (of things I’m working on) with you.

From The View from the Wonderland Asylum:

It had been quiet before, yes, but the quiet had been filled with other sounds—the dripping liquid, the wind blowing the trees around outside, the thump of his feet against the metal stairs. But now there was nothing. The quiet had gone eerily silent, as if the building itself were holding its breath in anticipation…or fear.

And from Ninth Grade Sucks:

Vlad felt the looming shadow of grief sweep over him again. The death of a loved one is funny like that. It doesn’t matter how much time or how much grieving has passed, the littlest reminder of the person who died–a scent, an object, a word–can send you back to the moment you lost them, and before you can blink, you’re overcome by the aching sadness you worked so hard to leave behind.

My favorite from Eighth Grade Bites? Easy:

Deceased, croaked, departed, shuffled off his mortal coil, bought the farm, slain, fallen, bit the big one, dead as a doornail, gone, out of business, late, lifeless, taking a dirt nap, kapoot, worm food, cashed in his chips, finished, lapsed, pushing up daises, terminated, inanimate, kicked the bucket, past his expiration date, nonliving, checked out, left the building, bitten the dust, passed away, passed on, isn’t-coming-back-for-the-sequel dead.

This was too good to wait until tomorrow.

Yesterday I had the creepy pleasure of reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Minions, that book seriously gave me the skin crawlies. It wasn’t the story so much, as the description. The other mother’s looooong fingers and loooonger nails tapping against her black button eyes did me in. Bravo, Mr. Gaiman.

I also managed a hefty 1,300 words for Wonderland and, happy happy news news, I’m starting to really like Dillon. Yet another wonderful author has agreed to take a look at Eighth Grade Bites, so that brings my blurb list up to five. And as if those joys weren’t enough, I noticed that we Americans have taken seven gold medals in the olympics so far. All in all, a good day.

Let’s see if I can top it.

Pay attention, minions. Because Stephenie Meyer, author of Twilight, has just achieved god status.

I picked up this book after a long period of back-and-forth with the voices in my head. See, I’ve been rather dissapointed by recent vampire books and I was looking for something that would sink its teeth in and never let me go. Turns out, I found it in this book. I read all 498 pages of it yesterday and loved every word.

I don’t know why I was surprised that I loved it. Everything about it was delicious–from the cover art that hints at Eve offering Adam the temptation of the apple, to the star crossed romance of Edward and Bella, to the intense passion that veins its way through the entire book, with something as simple as a brief touch of finger to cheek. It was the best novel I’ve read in some time.

So good, in fact, that I yearn for a day when my daughter is old enough to delve into Edward and Bella’s world and be swept away by it. This is the stuff of dreams, minions.

In short, thumbs up. Not one thing irritated me about it–and there always seems to be something with me.

Buy it. Read it. Love it.