Monday link salad

A post full of random stuff today:

Funny fashion memes. Anna Wintour meets Mean Girls, anyone? Also:

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Strange things people found in walls. Money and shoes, I get (sort of), but fingernail clippings and hair?

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This old post from ex literary agent (now author), Nathan Bransford that offers a really useful tip for figuring out your novel: creating one-sentence, one-paragraph, and two-paragraph pitches.

A query is basically a two paragraph pitch with some query-related detail. But sometimes you'll want to use a one sentence pitch (for a bio, if you're into that whole brevity thing), or a one paragraph pitch (for briefly describing in real life conversation when you don't want someone's eyes to glaze over). 

My feeling: get it all out of the way at once. Save yourself the headache and come up with a one sentence, one paragraph, and two paragraph pitch before you even start to query. Then: practice and memorize your pitches. You never know when you're going to need them.

Speaking from experience, it really does help to have a pitch ready even before you plunge into the novel. You get a clearer sense of where your story is going, what the conflict is, and what the stakes are. You also get to pare down your character to his/her most basic trait, the one that defines her and her actions, and the one that you as a writer set out to change by the end of the story.

I should have done that for Neverland. (Actually, I should have done that for all my novels.) Maybe then I wouldn't have gotten stuck.

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Also, I've started blogging for work.



One of the plus points of working for an online fashion retailer is that I get to fangirl over fashion trends and celebrity styles unabashedly in the name of work and write about them. Is this the marrying of two loves?

I've written quite a number of these articles so far, but the team is selective about what goes on the blog, and when. Here is one article I wrote about "must-have tops". 

Of course, they're not really must-haves -- people just write that to get you to read the article ;0)

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Blood Promise, otherwise known as The Manuscript That Will Not Yield, is in the midst of some radical changes right now. I intend to rip out the awful saggy middle and whip it into something that will put Victoria's Secret models to shame ... 

Okay, that's quite a mean feat. I mean, it'll be really hard to top this:

Favourite VS angel ever, Doutzen Kroes.

But it's okay. Because I HAVE A PLAN NOW. So let's do this.

In the meantime, I will heed this advice.

And this: 

And keep happy with these:

from allthingsshabbyandbeautiful.tumblr.com

Peter Pan quote

Oh, stop. What are you trying to do to me?!

by Gelrev Ongbico

The view from the pier yesterday

Also, I'm really loving D&E's new album. Aside from When You Cry, which I shared in an earlier post, this song, Teenage Queen, is another favourite. So catchy and upbeat!

And on that note, have a great week, everyone! :0)

last post for April!

OMG, IT'S ALMOST MAY.





WHERE DID A THIRD OF THE YEAR GO?!

Terrible, tragic things happened (I can't read an article about the Sewol disaster without fucking crying - why do awful things happen to good people? They were only kids, dammit!), the world is still crazy, and it's already (only?) May. Can 2014 please be kinder?

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In other news, author Chuck Wendig dishes some brilliant advice for young aspiring writers. So much gold in this post!

You’re not actually meant to be good. Not being good is how you get better. Not being good means you’re in that formative, fundamental blobby parthogenesis period where The Authorial You just starts to emerge. Not being good is how we are forced to take the time to not just Get Good, but also Become Us. You’re not yet the Author That You Will Become. This is all normal. Be bold enough to suck with gleeful abandon — but also know that your critical urge to be better-faster-now is a good one. Don’t quit. Don’t rest. Force yourself to improve.

You find your voice by doing. And by rewriting. You won’t want to rewrite now. You won’t want to edit. Edits feel like you’re not good, like you’re being insulted, like having to fix it means it was broken to begin with. But recognizing broken things is a value. A skill. You get as many shots at the goal as you want. Let that be freeing, not punishing. 

In writing a lot and rewriting a lot, your voice will find you.

Author Natalie Whipple also shares her wisdom:

Sometimes You Have To Cut Your Losses 

I've grown to kind of dislike the "Never Give Up" advice. Sometimes you gotta give up on something to move forward. Maybe not on writing as a whole, but on a story idea that is not strong enough to hold its own. Or on a novel that's been on sub two years. Or on that first novel you ever wrote that has seen 200 rejections. Moving on can open up a new world. I've done it a lot. Never regretted it. If you find yourself pining over something from the past, you can always go back, too.

So here's to rewrites and new beginnings, the pain of letting go and moving on.

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And because I really don't want this post to end on such a heavy note, here are some happy things for a Monday:

Funny signs

Advice from children

Life hacks to make life simple for girls

Cool wedding ideas (not that I'm dreaming of my own)

Pretty pictures:

Swooooon. Those colours!

Atypalaia, Greece - this is what fantasy stories are inspired by.

Oh, you sweet sweet boy

And lastly, a lovely song:

I may not understand the lyrics, but Donghae's voice! As sweet as his face.

Have a great week, everyone! And happy Labour Day!

Monday moodlifters (apart from that rejection letter)!

So I was video-surfing on YouTube yesterday and chanced upon this lovely artiste: Laurel. 

That's it. Laurel. I have no idea who she is - Google doesn't even know her by her mononym yet. She is that new. 

But a deeper search provided some answers: Laurel Arnell-Cullen, a 19-year-old British girl who's been writing songs since she was 12. This instills a deep sense of shame in me. What was I doing when I was 19 - or 12, for that matter - instead of writing gorgeous songs like hers?

But I'll stop talking now and let her music speak for itself.

This one's called Fire Breather. It was used in episode 16 of The Vampire Diaries season 5. I haven't watched it yet, but apparently it was used for some Delena scene (meh, whatevs).

That voice! That beat! Excuse me while I punch the crap out of the Replay button.

This one is called To the Hills:

Oh. My. Gosh. I DIE. Can we just pause whatever we're doing and LISTEN to her?

Those words! Those imagery! Can't you just imagine a scene already? SO dramatic. I filled 6 pages of my notebook just listening to her - wrote a short story too, although that could be attributed to re-reading Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor.

I NEED MORE!

Her songs are like a delicious mix of Lorde and Lana Del Rey, perfect for writing some sweeping fantasy story - which, I admit, is an idea I'm kind of toying with. I PROMISE I'll come back to Neverland ... someday. For now, I don't want to pin myself to a story that's not working and restrict myself from working on anything else.

Speaking of a story that's not working, I just received my first non-form rejection letter - i.e. a personal rejection letter, which is what you get after a literary agent decides to look at your manuscript - for Until Morning.

A form rejection letter goes like this:

Dear author, I apologise for the impersonal nature of this letter, but after careful consideration I have decided to pass on your manuscript blabbity blah blah more depressing blah. 

So a personal rejection letter is a tiny step up - still depressing because it's like having your crush lead you on before telling you he's not into you after all.

Wait, where did THAT analogy come from?

Anyway, here's the first heartbreak for Until Morning:

Dear Joyce,

Thank you so much for allowing us to read the first 50 pages of UNTIL MORNING. Catherine and I were very drawn in by your expert use of lyrical language and cleverly imagined scenes. Unfortunately, I think we will have to pass on the project, as it's just not quite right for us. The work is of such high quality that it deserves an agent who will be able to grant it his or her full attention. 

I do regret that we have to pass on this, but I am confident that you will find an excited agent soon. I wish you the best of luck in your continuing search for representation and publication.

All best,

Andrew

Office of Catherine Drayton

Sigh. So close. So damn close.

Happy things? Much needed.

I'm weirdly obsessed with deer art these days:

by AnnyaKaiArt on Etsy

Deer cookies

by CirqueDeArt on Etsy

And this boy:

And adorable babies:

Speaking of babies, isn't this picture of Prince George so darn adorable?

Image from Elle.com

Awwww! Those cheeks!

Also, in a bout of Harry Potter nostalgia, I found an article listing out 6 possible spinoffs and oh yes please to all of them!

I've been going on for ages about a Marauders spinoff (more James Potter and Sirius Black bromance; more James Potter, period):

The Marauders Art Print by sevillaseas on society6.com

but a Founders spinoff and Auror spinoff sound intriguing too. See what happens when you write a richly imagined series? SO much room for potential spinoffs!

Also, if you haven't already seen this, you should. Gorgeous photography by Katerina Plotnikova. So many story ideas zinging around. I mean, look!

Okay, a little too many antlers for this post.

Peter Pan quote

Have a great week, everyone! :0)

mid-week link salad (and lots of happy things!)

Writing for a living takes a lot more than just ample cash in your bank vault, according to literary agent Carly Watters.

Indeed.

It takes luck, a wide readership, years of dedication, luck, perseverance and ability to roll with the punches, and oh did I mention luck? Luck for agents and publishing houses to take a chance on your book (of course, substance counts for a lot too), luck for the RIGHT agent and publishing house to pick up your book and sign you on, luck for ever-changing reader diet, luck for movie producers and bookstores to decide to buy the rights from you, luck that you can write full-time and live comfortably, not paycheck to paycheck.

Watters paints a stark picture of what it's like for most writers who aren't international best-selling ones. Kind of a depressing reality, but no one said this path was easy. Literally, no one. The publishing market is one of the toughest ones to break into. Aside from dealing with writerly angst (don't dismiss it until you've experienced it), the business itself makes being a novelist a difficult game to play.

Okay, enough doom and gloom. This was supposed to be an upbeat post!

Over at Mythic Scribes, they offered some tips for developing characters in romance novels.

And here's some mind-boggling architecture for you. Number 19 and 21 are my favourites. Imagine living in a spiral building! The rooftop is just begging for a sled race, no? So much potential for a story setting, too.

Impulse buy: greeting cards!

You never know when you need one. And even if you don't, they make a great mood-lifting collection that you can admire once in a while. I mean, look how cute these are! I ended up buying just six, even though there were a lot more adorable designs available.

Other happy things for this thundery week:

Speaking of TVD, I refuse to believe ***spoiler alert!*** Katherine is dead. She just can't be dead. She's one of the most delicious characters on the show - so much potential for mischief and havoc and eventual pathos (see season 5 episode 12). It would really suck if she left and we're stuck with boring, whiny, indecisive Elena with whom, for some reason, the boys are in love.

And speaking of boys, here's a gorgeous one:

Yes, they are the same person, in case you were wondering.

Also, if you've watched the Korean drama, Secret Garden, you'll definitely appreciate this parody done by Big Bang:

*choke*gasp*splutter*laugh my ass off*

This video has been around for a while, but it still gets me every time! Can I humbly request for Super Junior to do a drama parody too? That would be awesome, thank you.

Speaking of awesome (see how neat and connected is today? Ha!), here's something that will hopefully get you through the rest of this week:

monday happy things!

So, a few things:

1. Singapore is in bloom!

Said it before, and I'll say it again. The world is more beautiful with flowers in it.


2. On a whim, Dad and I visited the zoo on his birthday last Saturday. Pictures will come ... soon enough. But first, this:

Saturdays - this polar bear is doing it right.

3. I am thisclose to giving up on Neverland.



I know, I know. Yet another story that didn't make it. (To be fair, I might have given up on Until Morning - then called Mint - but I went back to complete it eventually.)

But I've tried to hold on for as long as I can - 198 pages, in fact - but I can't ignore the voice that's telling me this is all wrong - the story is told wrongly, the characters are weak, the conflict falls flat, there's no heart in the story anymore, and it's futile to press on for the sake of pressing on.

I hate quitting in the middle of a story. I feel like a failure, like oh there she goes again, unable to see things through and giving up halfway. But I know that the more I drag this on, the worse the story is going to get, and at some point I won't be able to return to the place where the story fell apart because I've lost sight of it.



So maybe I'm not going to divorce myself from Neverland completely, but I'm definitely taking a break from it. Problem is, I tried getting started on Indigo Tides, and my brain just got equally blocked.

Over at Writers Helping Writers, they pointed out three signs you should take a break from your novel, and I ticked every one of them:

... here’s the best thing about these often sad experiences. They really aren't failures. They're just stepping stones. As Samuel Beckett said: Try again. Fail again. Fail better. 

If you feel you're writing a dead-end story, take a moment to evaluate your future with it. More likely than not, you're going to keep on writing, edit your way to a fabulous book, and end your relationship with this story on a victorious note. But if it doesn't quite work out that way—if you realize you need to move on—don't count it as a failure. Close the file on your computer, take stock of what you've learned, and move on to write your next masterpiece.

Rachel Coker over at Go Teen Writers offers equally upbeat advice.

But then YA writer Malinda Lo, advises against giving up during the drafting stage:

I think the main thing that causes discouragement during the drafting stage is the idea that writing a novel is an exciting, fun-filled, joyful experience full of blissful, genius inspiration and creativity. Any writer who sits down expecting this experience is going to be thoroughly disappointed and will probably want to give up.

For years and years I struggled with discouragement because those moments of genius came so few and far between. I'd have fabulous ideas and launch right into writing novels, and a few chapters in I'd come to a screeching halt when all the fun seemed to get sucked right out of the story. I'd struggle with continuing for a little while, but soon I'd give up. 

In retrospect, I know why I gave up. Those story ideas weren't exciting enough. The characters weren't interesting enough. And I expected writing to be fun, because it used to be fun. 

I know exactly when writing ceased being 100% fun and games for me: when I decided that I wanted to get published. 

In my case, this is how I learned how to not get so discouraged that I wanted to give up: 

I chose to write a story that I'd wanted to write forever: a retelling of Cinderella.
When I encountered things in life that forced me to stop writing for awhile, I tried to not beat myself up about not writing.
When I felt ready to write again, I picked up from where I'd left off.
I stopped expecting writing to be 100% fun and games.
I didn't give myself a deadline; I let myself take my time.
I didn't start other projects when things got difficult.
I didn't allow myself to think about getting published while writing the first draft. I wrote the story for me.

Yes, maybe some distance will help. Neverland, I will be back! (I promise.)

Meanwhile, if you're experiencing a brain fart like I am right now, here's something to chase the writer's blues away.

Also, Mondays may be the busiest day of the week, but there's always time for a little happy:

Super Junior M is back! And Donghae is in glasses! 

Oh, Park Bom!

Remember when Stefan was the Ripper?

A very liberating quote

A very empowering quote

Have a great week, everyone! :0)