The Get to Know Me Tag - Writer's Edition

Savannah tagged me for this ages ago, and I've been dying to do it because it looked like so much fun! And - finally - I did! Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Get to Know Me Tag, Writer's Edition. 

Savannah, thank you so much for this awesome tag - and to those of you who haven't seen her blog before, it is gorgeous and inspiring and you must go explore it. 

link back to the person who created the tag (check!)
thank the person who tagged you (Said it already, but thank you Savannah!! check!)
share the tag graphic (check!)
tag eleven bloggers (erm . . . let's see about that)

(pen)Name: True. Sometimes I go by Vera, when I’m not 100% comfortable with using my real name, or when my real name isn’t an option (the joys and horror of having a word as a name - I love it, but some people or algorithms can’t recognize it as a name) 

Nicknames: None? Most people call me True - I can’t really recall answering to much else. 

Birthday: Sometime near Thanksgiving. 

Hair color and length: Brown and should length!! (I finally cut it after 2 1/2 years of not cutting it, and I am still excited about it.) 

Eye color: Brown. Deep, dark brown. 

Braces/piercings/tattoos: Earrings, one in each ear. No inked art other than the ball-point pen I scribble on my hands or legs when I’m bored. 

Righty or lefty: Righty! 

Ethnicity: Half fairy, half book dragon. Seriously, I’m half Japanese and half “American” (which I’ve traced back to England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia, to start). 

First novel written: I was 10. It started from this long, made-up story that I was telling my younger sister and ended in this small white and red notebook, complete with maps and character sketches.

First novel completed: I was 11. It was my Nano for the year, and I finished the “last draft” in June. It was kind of a mixture of Magic Tree House and . . . general fantasy? Yeah, it was *heavily based* off of Magic Tree House, though I didn't realize it then. It was as cringe-worthy as it sounds. 

Award for writing: First place and then tying for first in a minuscule one-minute one-act playwriting competition. Second place in a Cricket poetry contest when I was 12. A few other little things like that. 

First publication: The first time I was published for something I had written was the poem for Cricket (see above). The first time I published something of my own was the first Nano novel that only got three drafts (but that was completely self-published and spur of the moment, and a story all on its own). 

Conference: None - but I would love to try one sometime soon! 

Query/Pitch: Ditto that - nothing yet. 

Novel (that you wrote): My current 100 for 100 project, or the rough  draft that sparked it, probably. It's the one that I'm working on most, that I am most excited about. A fantasy, either YA or middle grade, that's kind of an Inkheart/Coraline feel to it. 

Genre: Fantasy. That’s my favorite genre to write, and my favorite genre to read. But I also love historical, mystery, and some contemporary/realistic. 

Author: No. This question should be banned from existence because how could anyone ever choose a favorite author? I’ll compromise and give a few different authors who have inspired me. Gal Carson Levine. J.K. Rowling. Shannon Messenger. Patricia MacLachlan. 

Writing Music: Usually instrumental, so something like The Piano Guys or some Celtic music. I've also enjoyed writing to soundtracks from movies such as Your Name and The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. 

Time To Write: Anytime I can get to a paper, pen, or pencil, or computer. I’ve learned not to be that picky - but I think if I had a preference, I would choose early mornings or late evenings. 

Writing Snack/Drink: I actually don’t often eat or drink when I’m writing - when I’m handwriting, it’s just that I normally don’t snack between meals. When I’m on a laptop it’s because I’m afraid of getting my fingers messy or don’t want to break the rhythm of typing. 

Movie: I actually don't watch a ton of movies, but that doesn't make it easier for me to choose a favorite! Maybe Lord of the Rings, the first movie. And if we're talking Disney movies (like my sisters and I were talking about the other day), then Zootopia, which is adorable and I swear I could watch it a hundred times. 

Writing Memory: Oooh, favorite writing memory. Hmm . . . telling stories to my younger sister late at night? We had “serials” that we would make up, that could continue for weeks. Whispering under the warm blankets in the darkness of our bedroom, and creating improbable but highly entertaining scenarios that included inside jokes that we still might reference from time to time. 

Childhood Book: Depends on what point of childhood. One from my early childhood was Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. A little older, and Little Hose on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Reading: In between “main” books. I just finished Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and my family is going through Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH together.

Writing: Summer is letting me spread my wings a little. I’m polishing a one-minute script for the small contest I mentioned above, as well as an entry for the Penprints Flash Fiction Dash (read: trimming words for the flash fiction dash). I’m also working on my 100for100 project, but have been sidetracked by another little plot bunny that won’t leave me alone (and who am I to refuse it?). 

Listening to: This very second, I'm listening to "The Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera because I just discovered it and it's ben stuck in my head. In general, I'm mostly listening to various musical soundtracks again. 

Watching: I think the last thing I watched was Tangled with my sisters the other day (I was slightly underwhelmed). And in the next few days, we’ll watch Moana for the first time, and The King’s Speech with all of my family. 

Learning: So much about my own writing style and about scheduling and pacing. Also, in general, that I have to take action and work in order to make things happen - sitting passively won’t do me any favors. 

Want To Be Published: Yes - eventually. Not right now, but I’m steadily working towards getting some of my WIPs ready for publication. 

Indie or Traditional: Probably traditional - but I’m learning a lot about indie publishing that you wouldn’t know at first glance, and it’s not off the table yet. But for now, my main focus is the manuscript. 

Wildest Goal: World-famous bestseller? Haha - a bit past the stars right there. But the wildest short-term goal would be to try editing or beta-ing some more and learn more about that. 

And I'm going to cheat just a little and leave this tag open to anyone who wants to. Or anyone who can't chose a favorite author - consider yourself tagged. ;) 

Who is your favorite author? What is your wildest goal? And what was your first novel (started or completed)? 

3.5 Things You Learn from Writing Scripts

Summer is a great opportunity to further your writing and experiment a bit off the beaten path. It's a little less structured, and (I, at least) have a little more free time that I can devote to trying new things. One of these new things is Go Teen Writer’s 100-for-100 challenge and the Penprints Flash Fiction Dash is another that I am super excited for.

Another upcoming event I am super excited about is a local youth conference where participants write and perform ten-minute plays over three days. The conference also allows us to individually write one minute, one act plays for a small contest. 

When I participated in this two years ago, it was the first time I'd ever even tried to write a play. But writing a script is something that I’ve come to enjoy, and I've found that it's a great exercise. As fiction writers, there are so many things that we can learn from playwriting - and today I'm going to share three and a half reasons why.

If you look at a script, you might notice that there is a lot of white space. Formatting rules have come to mean that a “cluttered” script is equivalent to an ancient, technical medical textbook: few people enjoy reading it. Scripts remind you that “good” doesn’t necessarily mean “full,” a concept that is important in the fiction world as well.

Scripts are made to be read aloud, and to be performed. And that means that they need to be concise. Every word needs to move the scene along because if it doesn’t, it’s going to stick out and/or bore your audience to death. A ninety-minute play doesn’t have time to talk about the weather or how the main character hate gummy worms - unless it’s important to the plot. Instead, it’s going to have to spend that time furthering the plot.

Omitting these unnecessary details applies to fiction writing, too. When writing novels or short stories might allow more leeway with “unnecessary” description, but you still don’t want to devote too much of your time to it. The plot can’t be jumping every which way with fifteen bajillion little side plots. You need to know what needs to happen and how to make it happen, and what things are necessary to make them come alive, and you get a lot of practice with it in scripts.

 

Another thing you'll notice about scripts is that 95% of a script is dialogue. There is virtually no description: it is up to the actor and director to decide if a specific line is going to be “said happily” or “shouted as Max bangs his fist on the table.” Stage direction is used sparingly - about two or three times a page - and is generally short and technical as possible.

This lack of description means that your ability to write dialogue will improve a lot. Scripts are made to be read aloud, so you will be able to tell if your dialogue is unnatural. Scripts allow you to focus on your dialogue and improve it - and this will do so much for your fiction writing. Likewise, the dialogue is going to have to do its job without description or prose to move it along - it has to be strong on its own.

And because the script is 95% dialogue, it carries so much weight with your characterization. Dialogue is your medium to show the audience - or the actor, who will in turn show the audience - what each character is like. A nervous character might stammer, stumble over their words, or might barely speak at all and retreat. Before an actor brings them to life, a character is created by dialogue.

And this carries over well to fiction writing. The character can’t give us a huge info dump without it sounding really really cringy, because everything’s read aloud. Scripts teach you how to show instead of tell. You have to show through dialogue - is this character stiff, or is she generally energetic or naive? (I will admit that because of time constraints, the audience will sometimes forgive you for telling so long as you do it well, like readers may at the beginning of a book).

This reason applies to so many other types of art, too, but completely works for scripts. Writing a script after only writing prose for so long takes a little bit of mental gymnastics, as you try to understand what works and what doesn’t. It makes you study what you’re doing as a fiction writer and then apply that or change it when you write in this new form - and that by itself is a valuable experience.

  While writing a play is a unique art form in itself, there are so many things in is that carry over to fiction writing. Script-writing is a fun diversion from "usual" writing, and it's a great exercise in general. And scripts can be so much fun to read, to write, and to perform. One thing about a script is that while it's an expression of the writer's inner vision, scripts are really "bridge works," and are meant to be interpreted not just by the reader, but also by directors, actors, and crew members, to bring the story in a different form to a new audience. And that's one reason why I find scripts so neat.

Have you ever written a script, or would you be interested in writing one? What are your summer writing plans?

8 Books of my Childhood

Guess what's coming out this week? If you guessed the final book in the Penderwicks series, you're right! 

Guys, I am so excited to read this last book. The Penderwicks is one of the series I grew up on, and now it's going to be over. Batty and Jane and Skye and Rosalind were all like sisters I didn't have, and I could see so much of myself in all of them. This series was one of the series that I'll go back and reread when I'm old and sitting in a rocking chair because it holds so many memories - of the story, and of me reading them. 

After rereading this series (in anticipation of getting back into the Penderwicks' world), I thought of the other books that were important parts of - let's call it my childhood. Books I'd read over and over, and that I would still go back and read. 

Storybound 

I read Storybound during the November of my first Nano - November of 2012 (wait . . . that long ago?!). It's a sweet tale about a girl who is "Written In" to the world of Story, the world behind every book. Marrissa Burt's writing is very sweet, and reading it over again brings me back to my first forays in writing. 

Little Women 

Very similar to the Penderwicks (in fact, I'd say the Penderwicks in a modern Little Women), Little Women has been a special series to me since I was about ten years old. I devoured all of Alcott's books that I could get my hands on, and loved them all. Now, I cringe a little at how preachy Alcott can get, but when I was ten, twelve years old, Alcott's writing style was home to me. 

The Shakespeare Stealer 

This book was required reading in 5th grade, but I fell in love with it. This book is about Widge, a young apprentice who is ordered to infiltrate the company of actors that Shakespeare worked with and steal the script of Hamlet. Blackwood's writing in general is amazing (two of his other great books are Around the World in 100 Days and Curiosity), and this was an intriguing story.

Ramona

Ah, Ramona. I had a love/hate relationship with this series. Reading one of the books again recently, I was hit with a huge wave of nostalgia. But Ramona was always a bit bratty for me - couldn't the girl understand that stopping and thinking was ever a good idea? But she was also relatable - don't we all make innocent mistakes? But this was a series I read a lot when I was in third or fourth grade. 

Pippi Longstockings 

When I was in second grade or so, I started getting an obsession with the country of Sweden when I did a project over it. And, naturally, that lead to me reading Pippi Longstockings and the other two books in the trilogy. The books tell about a young girl who lives in an old house in Sweden with her monkey, Mr. Nielsen, and the mischief that she and the neighbor children get up to. I think I read this book a dozen times, and the stories never got old to me. Now, the book reminds me about little nine-year-old True who loved the silly story and the country it came from. 

Caleb's Story

The book is one of the rattiest on my shelf, because it's been read so many times. Most people know this series by it's first book, Sarah Plain and Tall. But for me, the first and dearest book is the third book, Caleb's Story. When I was maybe four, I received four "big kid books" from some summer reading club deal at the library and this book was one of them. My dad read me it so many times. When my dad reads, he does voices for each character and can make a story come alive. Caleb's Story was one of the books he worked his magic on - and it's one of those books that I'll never forget. 

Charlotte's Web 

Another book that I got that summer was Charlotte's Web. My dad read my this one, too: and it also became a favorite of mine. Now, the book is almost as ratty as Caleb's Story. We watched the movie several times (not the newer version - I'm talking about the old animated one), and while it was one of my favorites, the book has a special place in my heart that no movie can ever do justice. 

Little House on the Prarie 

Little House was one of my first escapes. I remember my mom finding the first book at a library book sale and giving it to me. I thought the cover could have been prettier (I didn't like the red color), and hated the Indians (reading that part made my stomach curl from second-hand terror, and I'd usually skip it). But I loved the books. I'd read the Long Winter every summer, to try and imagine that it was anywhere close to cold. I remember measuring my age compared to Laura and Mary (and it's slightly frightening to think that I'm as old as Laura is in the last two books).

There we are. Eight books of my childhood - bound pages of stories, but also of unprinted memories. These books definitely shaped my reading preferences, but they also influenced other parts of my life. And I am so glad that I have them all in my mental shelves. 

I want to hear from you! Are there any books here that you have read? What are the books from when you were younger that you remember fondly? 

Facing the Dragon

Well, look who’s back from an unexpected hiatus! Honestly, I really wasn’t planning to take a break - when life got absolutely crazy one week, I decided to just skip one day, and that snowballed into almost a month and a half. But now with school wrapping up, I’m hoping to be able to take a breather and stick to a consistent posting schedule again.

But let’s back up a little. When I said that craziness in life stopped me from writing on this blog, that was only half accurate. I really needed to focus on school and life in the beginning, yes. But after a few weeks, I was caught up (mostly) and in a better position. I know that if I had tried a little harder, I would have been able to post. 

So what was stopping me? 

As usual, there was an element of fear. Little demons whispered in my mind, reminding me that this was for others to see. And soon, getting back to my writing schedule was like a dragon in my path - something that I was letting get in the way of my goals. There are so many types of dragons in our lives - things that we don't do because it's hard or not fun or scary. They're all actions I need or want to take but just . . . put them off. 

Sometimes there are dragons in our paths that are big and scary and you are pretty sure that you’ll get burned because - eep look at those flames! But these dragons might be in our paths for a reason. And the treasure that they guard could make you so much richer. 

The book The Hobbit illustrates this pretty well. In The Hobbit, Bilbo had two dragons. Smaug was the literal fire breathing one that did try to kill him a few times. But Smaug kind of represented the other dragon, the main obstacle that Bilbo overcame: the challenge of leaving the Shire and becoming more than just a hobbit who likes to make smoke rings in his front yard. 

Bilbo learned different things from these dragons: he took “classes," if you will. “Extreme Thievery 101,” “How Not to Get Killed By a Creature that Wants Dearly to Kill You” and “Intro to Coming Back from the Dead” were key things that he learned. He also learned in the abstract. “Bravery for the Fainthearted,” “Cultivating a Sense of Adventure,” and “Thinking Quickly in a Tight Spot” were only a few of these lessons. 

And after Bilbo faced his dragons, he grew. The dragons challenged him and forced him to change, to learn, and to grow. He changed as a person -er, hobbit - and became more. 

We all have Smaugs in our paths, dragons that guard things in our lives. That prevent us from just walking up and plucking the things we want off the shelf. There may be the, easier paths available to us - but if we take them, we won’t get to the treasure that the dragon guards. We have to work to get this treasure - and best of all, we get to learn from them. These dragons may be obstacles, yes, but they are also opportunities, if only we will take them. 

Because only by challenging our dragons will we move and will be able to grow. It’s all right if the dragons scare you, but don’t let them stop you from taking the path you want to take. You have a sword and you have an amazing mind and you can use those weapons to get past any dragon if only you try. 

This is a lesson I'm learning over and over, something I have to remind myself more and more often now. Change is scary. The adulating world is scary, and it's easy enough to sit in comfort. But I'm not pushing myself, and I'm not doing the best I can when I let my dragons keep me from pursuing the treasure I want. 

Whatever the dragons are that you may face, I encourage you to take the first step and raise your sword. Because while I know that you can overcome these dragons, you will never know until you try. 

Let's talk! What are the dragons you face? Do you know why they're dragons? And do you have any plans for the summer (with, oh my goodness, is almost here)?