Healthy Writers Club: How Story Structure Gives You Freedom

Okay, first off-- the winners from the You Are a Real Writer contest have been chosen!

Winner of the $10 gift card: Adrianne Russell!

Winner of the 10 page critique: Tony Dutson!

Winner of the 5 page critique: Reece Hanzon!

Congrats to the winners, and thanks again to the rest of all you real writers for your awesomeness. :)

Now, onto the HWC post. When I was on the track team in high school, we had a "guest" coach for a few days. He'd run (and won) more marathons than I even knew existed, and he taught me the greatest thing I ever learned in running: form. I didn't even know there was such a thing as proper running form, but the way you move your arms, lean your body, and point your feet all plays into becoming a better runner. From one track meet to the next, I shaved a full 30 seconds off my race time using this form (which doesn't sound like much, but was pretty impressive for me).

In writing, structure is much the same way. 

I never used to use any kind of structure in my stories, at least not consciously. I didn't want my books encumbered by the form and tedium of anything as banal as the three-act structure. And that was okay. My writing was decent. However, when I grudgingly learned all the points of the three-act structure and saw how it worked for a myriad of different books and movies, I learned something important. 

Applying a structure to my writing didn't encumber or hold back my story-- it actually freed me to tell the story in a more compelling way. When I began to write with a full understanding of structure, all of a sudden my stories had tighter pacing, natural-flowing plot lines, and more room to play around with the actual story idea. Oddly enough, structure gave me more freedom. I was no longer trapped by writer's block, or struggling to come up with a new scene. I knew where I was headed, so I could explore all different routes to get there instead of feeling my way blindly. 

Whether you're a plotter or a pantser, it's worth it to know some form of story structure!

Weekly stats: 2.5 miles (kinda pathetic this week, but after some knee pain early in the week, I scaled back to make sure I didn't injure myself)

In-flight entertainment favorite: Writing Excuses podcast: Death

Coolest moment: Uh, maybe being able to sleep in on the day I took off? :)

Hardest moment: Forcing myself to wake up the day AFTER the day I took off.

So, my friends, do you use any kind of structure when you write? Does it help you or is it hard for you? Or is it both helpful and hard?

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Healthy Writers Club-- Don't forget to sleep

**Don't forget to enter the You Are a Real Writer Giveaway for a $10 gift card and some critiques!**

As writers, we hear a lot about the "butt in chair" tactic, which is great for our manuscripts, but not so great for the actual butt in the chair. Hence the Healthy Writers Club. If you're game to join the fun, you can run, walk, bike, make a healthy dinner, play tag with your kids, etc. Then, post about it on Friday (or whenever you want). Sign up here!

This is what I want right now. (Link)

I'm tired today. Between staying up late to write, getting up early to run, and getting up a few times in between to feed a hungry baby, my sleep is suffering. So I've decided I've got to change my schedule a bit, because if I'm a walking zombie, I can't really get much done, can I?

That's all I've got for you today, I'm afraid. Just some stats, and then it's naptime!


Stats: Ran 5.5 miles
In-flight entertainment favorite: Gaston from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack (I'm on a musicals kick.)
Coolest moment: Cutting my mile time from 17 minutes to 14 minutes over the last few weeks. Woot!
Hardest moment: Upping my distance to 2 miles at a pop. I'm sore!

So, my friends, what's your schedule? Are you a stay-up-late-er or a get-up-early-er? Do you feel like you need as many naps as I seem to want?

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You Are a Real Writer-- Enter the Giveaway!

After signing with my agent last week, I felt the love from so many people. And to thank you all for your support, I'm hosting a giveaway! First, though, something interesting struck me this week-- and this ties into the giveaway, I swear. :)

I had several people say to me over the last week, "I'm so happy for you! You're a real writer now!" Here's the thing, though. The book I wrote is the same book it was before I signed with Hannah. I'm revising it again, just like I revised before. I'm still tearing my hair out as I plan out my next book, just like I did with this one when it first got started.

I called myself a writer even before I got an agent, but I think I sort of had that feeling that I wouldn't be real until I did certain things that would "prove" that. But in so many ways, nothing has changed. I'm the same writer I was before, and I've realized I'm not any more or less of a "real" writer than before I signed my contract.

I write stories. Therefore I am a real writer. And so are you. So let's own it, people! In addition to this being a thank you giveaway, it's also a giveaway for everybody to claim that, if you're getting words on the page, you are a real writer.

Three prizes you can claim:
A $10 giftcard to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your preferred online bookstore.
A 10-page critique
A 5-page critique

To enter:
Fill out the Rafflecopter below, and claim your writer-hood! Open internationally!

a Rafflecopter giveaway So, my friends, have you ever felt you had to somehow prove yourself before becoming a real writer? Or do you already take pride in your awesome writerliness? And again, I want to say, THANK YOU ALL!

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The Healthy Writers Club: Getting on a Schedule

As writers, we hear a lot about the "butt in chair" tactic, which is great for our manuscripts, but not so great for the actual butt in the chair. Hence the Healthy Writers Club. If you're game to join the fun, you can run, walk, bike, make a healthy dinner, play tag with your kids, etc. Then, post about it on Friday (or whenever you want). Sign up here!

First off-- ya'll rock. :) Thanks so much to everyone for all the love on my agent news. I want to give everyone a hug! *virtual hugs*

Today on the Healthy Writers Club, I want to bring up schedules. For my running, since I'm actually training for a half marathon in March, I have a specific running schedule. I run so many miles so many times a week (right now, it's 1.5 miles 3 times  week). If I'm really going to hit that goal of my half marathon without hurting myself, I've got to keep to my schedule and work my way up to that 13.1 mile distance.

Having a schedule works really well for me and my writing, too. I write in the evenings after my kids are in bed, and my writing time is designated as 8:30-10:30 pm. Knowing that's my time specific to writing really keeps me on task, so that I'm not doing something else (though let's be honest, sometimes I still watch a movie with the hubby if he's not working, or play around on Facebook for a bit). It helps me make sure I get my writing time in by having a specific schedule for it.

This doesn't work for some people who have more flexible schedules, but it has helped me punch out two and a half books in the last two and a half years.

And now, to the weekly stats!


Stats: Ran 4.5 miles
In-flight entertainment favorite: My Strongest Suit from Aida
Coolest moment: Looking in the mirror and seeing my stomach already flattening
Hardest moment: The hill in my new route-- it kills me every time


And on an unrelated note, the episodes for Writer Therapy went live yesterday! Check out the first in this funny series about the antics of a critique group!

So, my friends, I'm curious-- what's your writing schedule like? What about your exercise schedule?

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Big, Agent-y News!

I'm thrilled to announce that, as of today, I have an agent! I'm now represented by the amazing Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates. Basically, I've been doing this all day:

I actually met Hannah almost two years ago on Twitter, when she was interning at the agency. I had asked for beta readers for my previous novel, and Hannah volunteered. She gave me some awesome feedback that formed the core for my revisions of that novel. We stayed connected on Twitter, and when she became an agent last year I couldn't wait to submit my new manuscript to her.

Around June this year, I posted my pitch for The Unhappening of Genesis Lee on Twitter, and Hannah asked me to send her the manuscript when it was ready. I started querying in the last week of August, and sent it on to her. Nine days later, I got an email from her that requested a phone call. I was so excited and shocked that I gave a crazed laugh and started shaking.

That was a Friday, and I talked to Hannah last Monday. She was so excited about the book (she'd read it twice!), and from the way she talked, I could tell she really GOT the story. I loved the ideas she mentioned for revisions, and felt like we clicked really well. I told her I was excited about the prospect of working with her, but needed to contact the other agents who had my material (I had another full and a partial out, and contacted the others who I'd queried as well).

Over the next week, I got two more offers and a revise and resubmit request. The other agents were wonderful and great to talk to, but I still kept coming back to Hannah as feeling like the right choice.

So this morning (after having a dream where I called Hannah back to accept and she said she'd changed her mind-- and reminding myself IT WAS JUST A DANG DREAM), I accepted representation. I signed the agreement, sent it off, and went out to a celebratory lunch with my hubby and kids. (And yes, those flowers are from my totally awesome husband.)

So, my friends, I have an agent!! And not just any agent, one I love, who loves my work, and shares my vision for it. I'm beyond excited to work with Hannah for this book and for future ones. Thanks to all of you who've been supportive of me on the internets and real life! Anyone else have good news they want to add to the good news pot?

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The Healthy Writers Club: How to Push Your Writing (and Exercise) to the Next Level

UPDATE: You can sign up officially for The Healthy Writers Club by going here! That way we can all find each other.

As writers, we hear a lot about the "butt in chair" tactic, which is great for our manuscripts, but not so great for the actual butt in the chair. So welcome to The Healthy Writers Club! Every Friday, I'll be posting about how healthy I've been that week, and I invite you to join me! Of course, that means you need to get out and do something healthy. :) Basically, if you're game, you can run, walk, bike, make a healthy dinner, play tag with your kids, etc. Then, you post about it on Friday (or whenever you want). You can even use this handy-dandy button to link back here.

Right now, I run about three miles a week-- one mile every other day. It's a little pathetic how slow I am. My current pace is between a twelve and fifteen minute mile, and in the track team in high school, I could run a seven minute mile (also a little pathetic, at least for the track team). But hey, I just had a baby two months ago, so I figure any running at all is pretty good.

The thing is, I can't run three miles a week forever, not if I'm planning on running a 5K in November and a half-marathon by March. So I looked up a bunch of training schedules, and I have a plan that bumps me up gradual running distances each week so I can reach my goals.

I thought about this in terms of writing today.

We all want to write. And hopefully, we all want to keep writing better, to push ourselves farther. There's no exact schedule for this like my half-marathon training, but some of the rules are the same.

Don't push yourself too fast. This week, for example, one of my runs was a mile and a half, and next week two of them are. As I train, I have to be careful not to exceed about 20% of my current distance during a single week, because that can lead to injury.

With our writing, while it's good to work toward more words a day, deeper plots, more complicated characters, better prose, etc., we can't do all that at once. If we try, we'll end up burning out and getting discouraged. With each story, we can apply some of what we learned from the last one to make the next one better. But it's okay if we don't write the perfect book for our next one!

Allow time for rest. I don't run every day. If I did, I might get hurt. Now, I DO write almost every day, because I love it. However, I never write on Sundays, and I don't get after myself if there's a day during the week where I'd like to watch a movie with my family.

Have fun! Running is fun for me-- even though it hurts. Same thing with writing. Pushing myself to do better can be hard. It's hard to hear what my critique group says sometimes, and it's hard to pick a new story idea when I know it's going to involve deeper characterizations than I've ever done. But it's fun! I love writing! I love pushing myself to do better and work harder.

And now, my stats for the week:

Stats: Ran 3.5 miles
In-flight entertainment favorite: Writing Excuses episode 6.30: Help! I can't end my book!
Coolest moment: Adding a half mile to my run and completing the whole thing
Hardest moment: Adding a half mile to my run and completing the whole thing

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The Healthy Writers Club

UPDATE: You can sign up officially for The Healthy Writers Club by going here! That way we can all find each other. 

I recently went a little crazy and decided I want to do a half-marathon next spring. I've got a training schedule all planned out, my brother-in-law convinced to run it with me, and brand-spankin' new running shoes.

I've been running all week, and I feel great. That got me thinking. As writers, we hear a lot about the "butt in chair" tactic, which is great for our manuscripts, but not so great for the actual butt in the chair. So I'm starting something new: The Healthy Writers Club!

Every Friday, I'll be posting about how healthy I've been that week, and I invite you to join me! Of course, that means you need to get out and do something healthy. :) Basically, if you're game, you can run, walk, bike, make a healthy dinner, play tag with your kids, etc. Then, you post about it on Friday (or whenever you want). You can even use this handy-dandy button and link back here, and use my "template" below if you want.

Being healthy is important not just for your body, but your mind. My energy and creativity has increased already, so it's a big plus for my writing too. Here's this week's update:

Stats: Ran 3 miles, did Yoga for 20 minutes
In-flight entertainment favorite: Writing Excuses podcast on Authentic Emotion
Coolest moment: Getting my new shoes! Happy very late birthday to me from my awesome mama.
Hardest moment: The altitude and crazy hills when I ran on Labor Day at my in-laws' cabin.

So, my friends, if you're up for this, feel free to join the Healthy Writers Club! What things do you do to stay healthy?

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