Oscars 2014, Divergent Movie Tour, and New Deadlines

So how about the Oscars last night? Can I just say I abolutely love Ellen hosting it. That opening monologue was great. My highlights:

Best acceptance speeches by Leto and McConaughey.
Best dressed Nyong'o.
Best performance, Pink!
Twitter crashing from Ellen's retweeted photo.
Photobomb by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Also, special mention for the pizza delivery man.

Whoo! That was great, but I cannot wait for the day when Leonardo DiCarpio receives an Oscar, not that he necesarily needs one because he's great and we all love him, but because I would love to hear his acceptance speech.

In other news, I received an RSVP for an advanced screening of the Divergent movie this Thursday. It doesn't guarantee me a seat since it's overbooked to ensure maximum capacity, but I'm going to do my best to get there early so I can post a review for you guys. Roth herself just posted via Tumblr her thoughts on it, which you can read here!

Lastly, I've created new deadlines for myself for my Manuscript #2 (which I will now refer to as M2) in hopes that I can finally start querying at the end of July:

Mid-March: Finish draft two
Rest of March: Review and Regroup for draft three
April: Revisions and Rewrites for draft three.
May: Beta Critiques and YA Workshop
June: Revisions and Rewrites for draft four
July: Line Edits, develop first batch of queries to send out

Rainy, Writing, Sunday

On Sundays, Michael and I usually go to brunch then come back home and do some apartment cleaning. Today, instead of going to our usual brunch place we went to The Wandering Goose then Victrola for some coffee.

Biscuit Sandwich-The Ultimate Breakfast Indulgence

On our walk home, it started pouring and has been constantly so for the entire day! This weekend we'll be heading to Palm Desert to visit his folks, and I am just itching to be done with my second draft so that I can print it and read it while soaking up the sun. 

So I put on my game face aka writing face, turned on my tunes and got to work.

Then after a few hours, this happened:

Title really isn't Marjorie, just a place holder ;)

I just hit my word limit, but the story isn't done! I foresee tons of cuts during my revision process. Nonetheless, I have like five more chapters to write in just four days. It's doable, though (at least that's what I'm telling myself). For now, I am in need of a break, some fuel, and some much awaited Oscar time.

How Michael puts up with me when I am in writing mode, I have no idea. I seriously stay on my hiney all day guzzling tea and snacking throughout.  

Young Adult Fiction Workshop

In Michael's words, "I've been frantically writing this week." 

It's true. I've been quite obsessive kicking my writing in full gear. I just want to produce a quality draft I can be proud of, and I think after every draft I can feel myself getting closer and closer to it. I'm almost done with my second draft. And I think once I finish the third draft I'll be able to start sending it on to my beta readers for feedback.

As some of you may know, I just recently moved to Seattle. Though it's great and I have a support system here, one thing I feel like I'm lacking is a sense of community. Thinking back on my past experiences, I found that the one place where I truly connected with people and felt like I belonged were in my creative workshop classes in college. I loved it. I loved getting to know other people and their work and watching their craft progress. I loved learning and listening to other people's insights. I loved talking about books and the process of writing, and making friends. So because of that I decided to sign up for a Young Adult Fiction Workshop at Hugo House. I think it'll be great for me and it'll help my manuscript immensely with some critique. Though it doesn't start until May, I'm pretty stoked and can't wait!

Now that I've posted this and had my breakfast and coffee, time to kick it into gear for another writing session! BTW, if you haven't gotten Scrivener, I highly recommend it!

Age of First Publication

So randomly purusing wikipedia, I found myself searching for YA authors I currently read. Throughout the whole process of doing just that, I realized I was looking for something rather specific: the age of the author when their first book was published.

This is what I found via Wikipedia:

Lauren Oliver - 27
Sarah Dessen - 26
Veronica Roth - 24
Stephenie Meyer - 32
JK Rowling - 32
John Green - 28
Cassandra Clare - 34
Jay Asher - 32
Maureen Johnson - 31
Markus Zusak - 24

Thus, the average age of publication for this list is 29. If I minus the two years it takes to get published (query, revisions, edits, production, etc.) and subtract another year for the author to write it, I come up with 26, the average age these writers started working on their debut novel.

You're probably asking, "What Michelle, does this all really mean?" Nothing really. I just find it fascinating. If this mathematical equation were a trend (which it isn't, because I suck at math) and I started my novel at my current age 22, I would like to hope that I could be published at 25 (because that would be a rad way to celebrate a quarter of a century of being alive!).

A girl can dream right?

That is all.

Some writing encouragement.

 

My photo of the day, or I guess I should say 'yesterday.'

As I've mentioned, my writing funk was awful last week. If at this moment, you are feeling stuck in a writing funk, I hope by the end of reading this post it is somewhat alleviated. I don't normally go on a reblogging spree, but today I'll make an exception. So here's some writing encouragement because I think you are amazing and you should keep on writing, because deep down you truly love it, even though at this moment it is oh so frustrating!

I'll begin by sharing some writing quotes I came across this morning on twitter (I know I'm really late, but I just realized the amazingness of this social media tool!).

Your inner writer is tingling upon reading the quotes, I just know it. To help you along with that, I wanted to reblog Jane Friedman's post on 10 Apps to Help You Stay Focused On Your Writing. Some of the apps are really cool and intersting, most of which I hadn't even heard of until reading the post. I'm thinking of getting apps numbered 9 and 10, since I think it'll be useful for me. How about you?

Alright, so hopefully you're getting jazzed to write again. So the question is how do you fuel the motivation? That's something I always mull over too. What works for me is imagining my work where I want it to be at the end so that I can finally query agents. That is my goal for this year after all. So figure out what your goal is, envision yourself there, and then keep working towards it until you get there. The journey is long and arduous, but split it into tiny chunks and keep chipping away at it. Soon enough, you'll find yourself there. If you want more encouragment than I can offer you, read this post by Lamar Giles on Adventures in YA publishing, I did, and his main point really stuck: If you want to write, you must finish.

And if you're hoping to query one day too, check out the #NaNoNewLeaf chat yesterday here where agents of New Leaf Literary answered questions on twitter.

On a final note, make sure to step away from your writing once and awhile so that you won't be so burnt out (I know easier said then done, right?). Not to mention, sometimes you get those great insights and ideas for your project when you're not writing! One of my favorite ways to take a step back is wine. So yesterday Michael and I went to Bottlehouse, my favorite urban winery in Seattle and ended the night with vegetarian dinner, a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty.

Happy writing, and happy hump day!

Ellie Goulding's Divergent Track and the YA Film Trend

So yesterday I retweeted V. Roth's EW post on the Divergent Soundtrack. Check out the article and the new Ellie Goulding song here. At the first listen, I loved it. At the second listen, I loved it even more. At the third listen all I'm thinking about is how I can get my hands on that soundtrack! As you can probably tell, I'm pretty stoked about this film as well as TFIOS (The Fault in Our Stars).

YA Lit is starting to become a large influence in the film industry. Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, need I say more? And as long as it gets people reading, I'm all for it. And I'm just hoping that the film industry takes the story to heart instead of doing rush jobs to reign in some cash. Remember the Eragon movie? That just about broke my heart.

This YA book-to-film trend, however, is finally placing emphasis on the Young Adult genre. YA used to be such a guilty pleasure for me, something I kept to myself, books I would read in the comfort of my own room. But now things are starting to change. More and more people are starting to read YA, even outside its designated age range. Even at my college a course on young adult fiction was placed on the same caliber as Eighteenth Century British Literature. Though I wasn't able to fit it into my schedule, I just think that's so awesome.

So what is it about YA that makes it such a phenomena? I think it boils down to the YA writers. They're taking creative risks whether it's through the narrative voice, structure, or whatever. Angels, vampires, wizards, dystopia, reincarnation, gritty realism...anything goes. They're taking risks and it's paying off as a collective genre.

No more funk!

Okay, remember last week when I was in such a funk about my writing? It was pretty awful. I had no will or desire to write, I was disappointed in myself, and I lost sight of the story making me feel so disconnected to my characters. Well, fast forward to the end of the week. I was still feeling the same way, but then I forced myself to write about one thousand words. They weren't the greatest, but it was a way for me to just push myself.

Later that night, Michael and I went to Nishino's for dinner. It was kind of a crummy day. We both weren't feeling well, but sushi can always cheer Michael up. We ended up at the bar and randomly got into a great conversation with the guy sitting next to us. I won't go into too much detail about it as I'm hoping it'll turn out into a cool story that I can post months or years after, but I will say this stranger kicked my writing funk to the curb!

It's crazy how meeting new people can do that for you. Give you a breath of fresh air, a new perspective, and even some inspiration.

So for the rest of the weekend, I caught up in some writing and delved into some YA books. Writing and reading. Two of my favorite things in the world, how could I have neglected it for so long? Getting back into the groove, I felt so much better. YA Lit, that's where I belong. It always feels like home when I get into a good book. So somehow someway, I'm going to get there and be a part of it, because that's the only place I see myself.

Thus, look forward to more writing progress as well as book reviews :)

And for something completely random, check out this delicious eggs benedict that made it into my belly Sunday morning from Tallulah's. Yuuummmmmm.