Influence

Things have been a little quiet around here. School has hit the busy testing/research time of year, we had lots of rain, and my kids and dogs all have spring fever. So while I may not have had a chance to blog, edit, or write, I have been thinking and reading. I finished two books over the last couple of weeks that have influenced me to try something to help my own WIP.

The two books, When It Happens and Two-Way Street both have two points of view--alternating chapters with the girl and the boy. I have always been a little skeptical of multiple points of view--it can feel like head-hopping, but it worked well in both of these books. One of the strongest elements that contributed to the clarity of the narrator were that the chapter headings made it clear who it was that was talking.

These two books got me thinking that I needed to get to know my characters better by writing as if I were them. I don't think the multiple point of views will work for this WIP, but I am off to write some chapters from Daniel's point of view as a writing exercise. My editing has reached a crossroads where I really have to deepen my book and up the stakes--and who better to tell me what to do than the characters I created.

Great Advice

I have been trying all week to post a few things, but I have had trouble logging in . . .

But it is working today, so I wanted to link to a great post over at the Writer's Digest Blog about the best writing advice on the internet. I love a good piece of advice!

Some of the articles have helped me with a couple of breakthroughs this week. Hopefully I can make a little progress on things today.

I hate April Fool's Day

I have never been a big fan of April Fool's Day. Probably because I am gullible and fall for the silly jokes. The other reason is . . .

April Fool's + High School = Torture

As a teacher you check a few dates every year because they bring the freak out in high school kids. Most days they can be a little strange anyway, but days like Homecoming, Halloween, Valentine's Day, and April Fool's make the strangeness fester and explode like a bad zit (or a bad metaphor, lol!).

So it is April Fool's and I am at school and I am bracing for the torture, when our lovely athletic trainer comes wandering in.

Mrs. B: Hello, lovely athletic trainer!

Miss Lovely: Mrs. B, I need ALL of your students ALL day to come to the gym and take the Presidential Fitness test.

Mrs. B: What? You want to take ALL my students and make them run and do push ups?

Miss Lovely: Yes.

Mrs. B: Is this an April Fool's joke?

Miss Lovely: Nope. I will take them to the gym and make them run.

It was about this time that I heard the angels singing. So here I sit, nice and peaceful on an April Fool's Day. I have seen a few pranks here and there, but they mainly consisted of boys pointing another boy's shirt and then poking him in the nose.

I hope your April Fool's is peaceful as well!!

Brick Walls

I guess I have hit a brick wall of sorts. I have totally stalled out on the opening of my book. I am on like draft 47 of "The First Five." The first five pages are sheer torture and they are getting the best of me. On top of that, I am really looking at restructuring some of the plot points that come later in the book, and fleshing out the characters, and changing the ending, blah . . . blah . . . blah . . .

So, the struggle continues. I have opened the documents the past several nights, and all I do is stare at them, go read an article, stare at the pages some more, read a few pages from a book, stare at the computer screen some more. I have one idea, and one idea only to get over this block, this brick wall.

Start another book.

*sigh*

I keep coming back to this idea, but I don't know if it is a way to work out with some planning/plotting/character practice or if it is just one more excuse to get away from the pages that aren't changing . . .

We shall see!

10 Things from Today

I spent the day with many, many high school students as they competed in academic competitions and I thought I would jot down some of my observations . . .

1. 99.8% of the students had cell phones
2. 99.6% of them had an ipod/mp3/music listening device (some of them use phones for this as well.)
3. Girls like boys who wear sweaters (according to several of the girls)
4. Students are interested in Kindles, but haven't had a chance to play. When I let them play and try, they asked to borrow it.
5. Just what all do they have in those gigantic bags?
6. They still say "Dude"--I think I heard more girls than boys use this.
7. Students like to win--even if it is in a classroom taking a test or performing poetry. They want to win. Bad.
8. Students don't like to lose. I saw tears, pouting, sulking, hugging, desperation, and dignity in spite of the loss.
9. I saw lots of high school coffee drinkers (I didn't have any "cofee-drinker friends in high school), but they don't eat breakfast.
10. I heard some girls singing Cyndi Lauper. I couldn't resist telling them about going to buy my first cassette tape ever--it was Cyndi Lauper.

Giveaway on Suzie Townsend's blog

Suzie Townsend is having a contest on her blog. She is giving away a copy of Hourglass by Claudia Gray. Stop by and leave a comment to enter. If you mention that I referred you I get a bonus entry, so don't be shy--go leave our names over there!

Just a little map to find my way back

So tired today. The first day back to school after Spring Break is very similar to a bad hangover.

In a weary moment today, I was surfing through some advice and found some great revision tips from Laurie Halse Anderson (who is in my top 10 books . . .). I loved Revision Tip #3 using the big paper and color coded emotions. Very cool.

I didn't want to forget because, *yawn*, I gotta get some sleep.