Good thoughts. Good reminder.
Writing Cycles, Writing Funks
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Stop Asking, Start Writing
The more I write, the more I realize how much SHOWING UP matters. Night after night after night of butt-in-seat STILL produces results … and a LOT more results than waiting for inspiration to hit!
Sister ship of Titanic–I just like big boats.
You can slump in your office, a coffee shop, the middle of 394 (depending on how desperate it is) asking questions:
What matters most about this story?
Where do I want my main character’s journey to end?
How do I make the reader care?
You can do this until all your hair turns gray, until you kill the story with your worrying, your prodding.
Or
You can write scenes, possibly out of order. Ones you know won’t end up in the book. Ones that might.
You can put characters together in the grocery store, in class, in their bedrooms, and let them talk.
It’s your choice to trust the process of writing—which promises that eventually (with enough words dropped drown onto the blank page) you will find the answers.
Keep writing.
Fearless Fifteeners
I’m a part of the Fearless Fifteeners now, a group of children’s and YA authors whose novels debut in 2015!
Here’s my profile. Click the picture to go to the site and learn more about all sorts of awesome-sounding books coming out next year. #pumped
Your turn: what do you fear and not fear?
Wordless Wednesday: Harry Potter Covers from Around the World
Wow. So much wow.
Navigating my Site: Help?
I want my website to be full of helpful resources for those who are struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and in so doing, I am trying to reorganize the OCD tab of my site. I’ve rewritten the welcome/greeting and am now trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the page.
I thought I’d ask you.
How should I organize the links (which, by the way, are not up to date)? What would make this part of my website easier to navigate? I want people to find help in as few clicks as possible!
A Good, Good Week
My check from winning the Katherine Paterson Prize arrived!
My first advance check for Truest arrived!
I bought a new car!
It feels really, really good to be paid for my writing.
And now, to celebrate, I will … go do more revisions. Ha. But for real.
My Answers
1. Your name.
Jackie Lea Sommers! My friends call me Jack. My dad calls me Jacob. A select group of friends calls me Jav.
2. Something you want.
To see my book on a Barnes & Noble shelf. To impact readers. To be the best writer I can be. To honor God and delight in him. To be a great friend, sister, daughter, roommate, auntie.
3. The song you can’t get enough of.
“Find You” by Zedd.
4. Your favorite word.
So many! Journey, cavalier, valor, crux, applause.
5. A challenge you’re facing.
Revisions to my novel and finding the energy to tackle them. Took Monday off and am hoping to fall into a rhythm this weekend!
I want to know YOU.
So far in 2014, I’m averaging more than twice the daily views I had in 2013 … and yet, my readers are pretty anonymous. I know you’re out there, friends! Would you humor me and leave a comment? It will only take you a minute, and it would delight this poor old writer who has the winter blues and whose manuscript is going to be the death of her.
Here’s what I want to know:
1. Your name.
2. Something you want.
3. The song you can’t get enough of.
4. Your favorite word.
5. A challenge you’re facing.
I’ll share mine too in a blog post soon!
No Fear, Just Love
Loved these thoughts from my friend Anna!
My alley. Hope the plow comes soon!
I’m 100% snowed in which is perhaps a good thing since I have 40 pages of my novel due on Sunday, and I realized yesterday that I’m short one book somehow (I have to read 13 by Sunday. I only read 12).
But the miracle is that I actually have 40 pages to revise. I pounded those out over the last two weeks. And I owe it to Gracie Gold and her couch, Frank Carroll.
Gold wasn’t even in contention until six months ago when she started working with Carroll and let go of her fear of being imperfect. During an interview, she said that Carroll has been teaching her to skate like you love to skate.
Because I’m constantly turning my writing life over in my head like some neurotic compost pile, I heard Write Like You Love To Write.
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JACKIE LEA SOMMERS 