That One Time Stefanie Made a Fool of Herself in Front of a Bunch of People but Still Lived to Tell the Tale and It Was All Okay in the End

Hi Secret Lifers! *waves furiously* It's been waaaay too long! How are you? You look great. I love what you've done with your hair.

Right, so, in case you missed it--I'm a published author now!

Shiny!

Pretty wild stuff. I'm still waiting for someone to jump out and yell "just kidding!" and then for all of my books and all traces of their existence to poof because seriously is this real life? And I was going to ramble on about that feeling for this first post back, but then something else happened this week that I wanted to talk about instead. And what was that, you ask? Well, it was the absolute most terrifying part (for me) about this whole published-author thing: my first public presentation (dun dun dun).

Hey look! It's me!

As part of teen read week, I partnered with my local library and ran a creative writing workshop and presentation about publishing for area teens a few days ago. And it was awesome! And, as I said before, it was terrifying!

When one of the librarians reached out to me a month or so ago about doing this, my introverted, extreme social anxiety knee-jerk reaction was basically this:

But then I remembered how, earlier this year, I made a promise to myself that I would do a better job of getting out of my comfort zone and actually interacting with people. And, to cut myself some slack for once, I will say that I've done a pretty good job of sticking to that goal. This year I've gone on a writing retreat (with people I'd never met before!), I've stopped shying away from random conversations in coffeeshops, I met my agent in person, and I've finally learned how to answer the question "what do you do for a living" by telling people I write and then going on to explain my career and aspirations in an intelligent way instead of melting into a pile of mumbles and awkwardly shuffling away. It's been a year of big steps, for sure. And so after contemplating it for a bit, I wrote back to the librarian and told her yes! I'd love to!

The love part was a total lie but that's okay. I'm a writer. I sort of make stuff up for a living.

So the day of the presentation arrives. My husband and I are on the way to the library, and to give you an idea of how crazy my social anxiety can be, I actually said to my husband: what I wouldn't give to go into labor right now so I would have a valid excuse to not have to go to this thing.

Yes, that's right: I'm less freaked out by birthing another human being than I am by the thought of giving a presentation to a few teenagers.

I am a ridiculous person and I know it.

Anyway, my daughter remains snug in my stomach as I type this, so you can probably guess that I did, in fact, have to go through with what I'd committed to do. And, *spoiler alert*, I survived it. Not the way I'd planned on, though; see, I had this really detailed outline all typed up, and I was going to follow it to make my presentation easier. To make it fantastically detailed and informing and...yeah, somehow I still had really high expectations for this thing, even though I was almost certain I was going to bomb.

And I sort of did bomb. I guess because the best laid schemes of mice and men are often going awry and all that. I ended up abandoning my outline within five minutes of starting, because I am so not a public speaker, and I could tell my audience was very painfully aware of that, and they were checking out. So I ended up improvising. No more plans, no more expectations about how it would go--I just turned the session into an impromptu Q and A and then we all just sat around and talked. About writing, about publishing, about anything they wanted to know.

And they asked awesome questions, and answering those questions would lead to more questions, and at some point I even stopped watching the clock and silently begging the minutes of my hour-long session slot to go by faster. I actually relaxed and had fun. The teens did too, I think; even after we broke the formal session and everyone was mingling and eating desserts the library provided, they were still coming up to me and asking questions. It was actually really cool. And in the end, I think I would have been much more disappointed in myself if I hadn't shown up at all, than I was about getting off to a rocky start.

So I guess the secret I want to share with this post is this: you don't have to be an awesome public speaker, or even an extrovert, to get out there and personally connect with readers. And it's okay to still be scared of things, even once you reach that "officially published author" stage. Even if you totally bomb, it's still going to be okay in the end. Promise. :)

Stefanie Gaither writes YA novels about killer clones and spaceships, with the occasional romp with dragons and magic-users thrown in for good measure. Said writing is generally fueled by an obscene amount of coffee and chocolate, as well as the occasional tennis and/or soccer break. She's represented by Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary, and her debut YA sci-fi novel, FALLS THE SHADOW, is available NOW from Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers!

You can find her on Twitter @: https://twitter.com/stefaniegaither

Or drop her an email at: stefanie.gaither@gmail.com

And also visit her website @: www.stefaniegaither.com

  

Random Things That Inspire Me to Write

Sometimes you see something that most people wouldn't think twice about, but to you, that object could mean a thousand words. I thought it would be fun to share a few things that inspire me. I see these things in real-life or in photographs, and they instantly spark something inside me that wants to create. Whether it's a story or a poem, I love the emotion that comes from these things, and I hope they do the same for you.

Cobblestone Streets

Cottages

Lighthouses

Lampposts

Castles

Graveyard Statues

So what random things inspire you? Share them in the comments section! 

A Quick Secret About "Rules"

We've all heard them. The dos and don'ts about writing. Don't start chapter one with the weather. Vampires are lame now and no one wants them. Don't make your main character unlikable. Blah, blah, blah...

You know what I think? Screw the "rules."

Example #1: Louisiana summers are unforgiving. You know what that is? That's the first sentence of my debut novel, The Summer I Became a Nerd. Weather, I started with weather. Also, I like vampires. I wouldn't mind reading about more of them or seeing more movies about them. In fact, here's example #2:

Only Lovers Left Alive starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton comes out this year and is "A story centered on two vampires who have been in love for centuries."

I'm sorry, but that movie looks freaking awesome and I will be paying good money to see it.

People are constantly telling us what not to do. And they will always do so. But the only rule, in my opinion, is follow your gut. Do what you think is right. In the end, you're the only one that will be held responsible for your work. Don't you want that work to be completely you?

In case you didn't catch my meaning yet, here it is in gif form:

And when everything is said and done, you'll be able to say:

The Secrets to Figuring Out Your Plot

HAPPY NEW YEAR, LIFERS! I hope you had a safe and wonderful holiday season! But now, it's back to the grindstone. Time to get back to work on your writing. And we have a lot of awesomeness planned this year here at SLOW! Except for today, by which I mean I had nothing planned because... Well, I can be lazy sometimes. But that's okay because we have so many wonderful followers that all I had to do was ask if anyone had a question about writing or publishing. And lo and behold, you did!

I received a very interesting question, check it:

Such a great question! But a question with many, many answers and still the ones you get might not be the right answer for you. But I shall endeavor to give my opinion on the matter.

1. Know what you need to have. - There are exceptions to every rule, but for the sake of not getting too confusing, I'm going to stick with what I've always known as what a plot is. There's a beginning, middle, and end. Stuff happens to the characters, bad and good. And that's about it, really.

What? You need more explanation than that?! Okay, I can see how that might have been a little vague. Right, well, go download a pdf of Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! beat sheet. It's supposed to be mainly for screenplays but it's just as great for story telling in general. And while you're there, check out all the beat sheets for popular movies like the one for Jurassic Park and that will probably explain what the terms in the beat sheet mean.

(Just to clarify, that whole thing about Save the Cat! was not a paid advertisement, lol. I just think, like a lot of other writers, that that book is pretty fantastic!)

2. Talk it out! - Sometimes we just need to let our writer brain do what it needs to do. It's amazing what having someone in front of you, having someone who can react and ask questions, can do for the inner writer.

Email or chat up a writer buddy, call up a friend, pull your partner or roommate or mother aside for a brainstorming session. Whoever you have that is willing to listen to you ramble about your imaginary world, talk to them. This technique was mentioned often in a Twitter conversation I stalked, I mean, read between Gail Simone and some other comic book pros. A couple of them seemed to used it exclusively for figuring out the plot.

"But how do I explain it if I don't know what I'm explaining?" you my ask. Well, start with what you do know. "There's this guy and he's this thing and this other thing. He lives in this place. And then - " Pretend you're telling someone about a movie you just saw or a book you just read. And if you get to a spot where you don't know what will happen next, let your audience speak. What do they think should happen next? If what they say makes sense, great! If you don't quite like it, go with the exact opposite maybe and see where that road takes you.

3. Get inspired - It never hurts to know your genre very, very well. So read books in your genre. Watch movies and TV shows similar to what you're writing. I'm not saying copy from them, of course. Just look at what those who came before you have done. What did you like about those stories? What didn't you like about those stories?

There are tons of ways to get inspired, to let your writer brain do what it needs to do. Listen to music. Or go somewhere completely quiet. Go for a walk. Look for inspirational images. Sometimes, just a lyric or a picture can inspire an entire scene.

4. Use what you already have - So, you already have your setting. Well, how will that setting affect your characters? You already have your characters? How could your characters' flaws influence the story? I mean, your characters do have flaws, right? Riiiight??? I truly believe that a character's flaws are more important to the story than their good points most of the time. But that's a post for a different day.

And your characters spawn other characters. Your main character must have a mother, father, maybe siblings and friends who, in turn, might have their own affect on the plot.

5. Write it all down. - Write down any little kernel of an idea you have. Always have a pen and paper with you because you never know when inspiration will strike. It's a simple thing, but very helpful.

So, those are my ideas on how to figure out your plot. I really hope this is helpful, but remember: everyone does it differently! If this doesn't ring true for you, keep looking for more tips and KEEP WRITING!

Do you have any tips or tricks for figuring out your plot? Share in the comments! Unless you want to hog them all to yourself... In that case, phooey on you! ;)

Another Year Older...

Happy Monday Secret Lifers! And also happy birthday to me :D That’s right, I like you guys so much that I’m interrupting my birthday festivities (which mostly consisted of binging on chocolate chip cookies and episodes of Doctor Who because I know how to party) so I could write a sparkly new blog post.

So I was lying around last night (also possibly binging on chocolate chip cookies) and watching the clock out of the corner of my eye, counting down the minutes until I was twenty-six, and my mind started to wander—as it so often does—and I started thinking about where I was this time last year. Book-deal-less, for one. I suppose that’s the main difference that’s relative to the blog. Without a book deal and without any way of knowing if I would ever actually reach that goal. As I recall, it was a bit of a bittersweet birthday because of that—because for years, I’d always said my goal was “book deal by twenty-five” (I have no idea when or how I decided twenty-five was “the” age, but I had). And then suddenly I wasn’t twenty-four anymore. I’d missed my goal. I was bummed.

But, I managed to remind myself before plunging into a pit of bottomless despair, I was also a long way from where I was when I turned twenty-three. In the year between December 2, 2011 and December 2, 2012, I’d finished two books, (finally) been offered representation from some insanely awesome agents, and then began a fantastic working relationship with one of said agents.

Oh, and then a few weeks after my bittersweet birthday, I did manage to get that book deal. So I wasn’t too late after all.

Anyway, all of this had me thinking, last night, about where I’ll be a year from today. My book will be on the shelf, at least, and I’ll (hopefully) have more on their way to readers. Craziness. Of course, I have no way of knowing, really, how it will all work out—all I know is that a lot can happen in a year. And just because good things don’t happen according to schedule doesn’t mean they aren’t waiting right around the corner for you. You just have to keep moving forward, doing the best you can.

So on that note, I hope 2013 has been an awesome year for all of you, but if not—take heart: you still have 2014 to make it happen—whether “it” happens to be landing an agent, getting a book deal, or anything else.

As for me, I’m off to eat more cookies. I’ll see you in 2014! (I can’t believe I’m already saying that. wut,)

Stefanie Gaither writes YA novels about killer clones and spaceships, with the occasional romp with dragons and magic-users thrown in for good measure. Said writing is generally fueled by an obscene amount of coffee and chocolate, as well as the occasional tennis and/or soccer break. She's represented by Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary, and her debut novel, FALLS THE SHADOW, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers in 2014. You can add it on Goodreads here!

You can find her on Twitter @: https://twitter.com/stefaniegaither

Or drop her an email at: stefanie.gaither@gmail.com

And also visit her website @: www.stefaniegaither.com 

Gifts for Writers

Are you thinking about Christmas yet? "It's not even Thanksgiving, Leah!" you say? Well, too bad because I love Christmas!!!

And I wanted to do something fun for the blog today so here we go! Here are some awesome gifts for writers!

The Alphasmart

This is number one on my Christmas list. I've heard tons of great things from other writers like Lisa Burnstein and Karen Mahoney. Apparently, it's perfect for fast drafting. PLUS, all the ones I've looked at were only about $30-$40!




PAJAMAS

I'm pretty sure we've all had those days where we didn't get out of our pajamas until well after noon (or not at all). I don't know about you guys, but I'd totally rock these footie pajamas. I found these here:
http://www.cafepress.com/+writer+pajamas
There are over 3,500 results for writer pajamas.



Coffee/Chocolate/Snackies ANYTHING

We love our coffee/chocolate/snackies, amirite? I mean, I'd be delighted to just get a bag of Almond Joys under the tree.

Etsy ANYTHING

Here's a search of "for writers" on Etsy. I can't really see anything that I wouldn't want!










Plot Twist Cards

These cards look really cool. We all need a little inspiration. Plus, these might help that writer beat that block.







And if all else fails buy that writer A BOOK! What's on your Xmas wishlist this year, writers?

How to Make Yourself Write When You'd Rather…Well, Not

So the other day I was talking with a good friend of mine, and we were discussing career stuff, and she was explaining how she simply couldn't decide on a career path and stick to it. As a bit of a serial abandoner-of-projects, I could readily sympathize. Seriously. Just in this past month I've decided I would start doing yoga more, train for a 5k, learn how to paint, learn Spanish…the list goes on and on and…well, embarrassing as it is to admit, said list remains mostly unchecked off. I tend to be overly ambitious sometimes, I think, and I'm also easily distracted.

But enough about me. The point of this post is a particular thing that she said to me during this conversation, which I've been thinking on for a few days now--partly because it's not the first time I've heard it. Essentially, she said that I was lucky, of course, because I love writing so much, so it's not really work. And she wished she could find something like that and make a career out of it.

First things first: she's right about much of that. I'm incredibly fortunate to be where I am. Some of it's because I've been lucky, yes, and then some of it's because I've worked my ass off. She's also right about the fact that I LOVE writing. On good days, it consumes me, fills me with a passion that gives me purpose, and makes me feel like I could take on the entire world. And I wouldn't give up that feeling--or those days-- for anything.

What I don't think most people on the outside looking in realize, though, is that there are also bad days.

And sometimes those days stretch into weeks. Sometimes, like say, when you've gutted your entire manuscript and are knee-deep in a revision that's going nowhere fast, those weeks stretch into months. That's when this becomes work. Still a dream career, yes. But still very much work, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. Because writing for a living means meeting deadlines--whether self-imposed, agent-imposed, or publisher-imposed--which sometimes means writing even on days you don't feel like it.

I'm not saying I never take days off. But if I had never forced myself to write during at least some of those times I didn't want to, there's no way I'd be where I am right now. So how do I make that happen? 

I wish I had a secret, surefire formula to get the muse going that I could share with you guys. But sadly, I don't. Heather talked about what gets her writing here, and below are some of the things I do that usually help me:

• "Just one more sentence". That's my mantra on tough days; that, and "word by word". I actually have the latter written in sharpie along the top of my laptop. It's a lot less overwhelming to think about just writing one more sentence than it is to consider how much further you have to go in an entire manuscript. One sentence more, and then one more after that…and you can make it all the way to the end like that. It's like magic.

• New music, new surroundings--anything to change up the writing atmosphere. This might be just me, but I'm a bit of a gypsy writer; I've written in bars, on roofs, on park benches, in my closet--anywhere and everywhere I happen to wander. New places and new music are especially helpful to me when I reach the point where it feels like I've been working on a particular manuscript foreverrrrrrrr. (like my current WIP). 

• Go back and look at old writing. Every time I read my old writing, it's a nice reminder that I don't suck as much as I used to. Woohoo!

• Keep a document full of your writing achievements. In it, copy and paste gushing comments from betas, positive replies from agents/editors, that sort of thing--and when you need an ego-stroke to get things moving, pull that baby out and don't be ashamed to read it. You always read about people keeping their rejections and wallpapering their room with them and all that jazz. Why? Don't be that miserable writer. Keep those rejections if you must (as badges of honor, if you will), but remember to celebrate every little success, too--especially on days when you don't feel like doing this, if only to remind yourself that you can do it, and that it feels amazing to get it right and read those comments. Is it cheesy? Sort of. Egotistical? Most definitely yes. I do it anyway. So there.

• Get off the internet. Yes, even your pinterest board that serves as inspiration for your WIP. Yes, I have one too. But no, pinning stuff to it doesn't count as writing time.

• Drink a glass of wine. Or several. I'm not judging. (I'm also just kidding on this one) ((sort of)) (((okay I'm not really kidding at all. Drink up!)))

And lastly, imprint this quote from Stephen King deeply into your writerly brains:

“Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”
~ STEPHEN KING

Right, so I'm off to go shovel some shi--er, to go finish my FANTASTIC BOOK YAY (no but seriously I'm going to finish this bottle of wine first).

Happy writing, secret lifers! Oh, and feel free to share your tips and tricks for getting the words flowing in the comments. I'm always looking for more!

Stefanie Gaither writes YA novels about killer clones and spaceships, with the occasional romp with dragons and magic-users thrown in for good measure. Said writing is generally fueled by an obscene amount of coffee and chocolate, as well as the occasional tennis and/or soccer break. She's represented by Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary, and her debut novel, FALLS THE SHADOW, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers in 2014. You can add it on Goodreads here!

You can find her on Twitter @: https://twitter.com/stefaniegaither

Or drop her an email at: stefanie.gaither@gmail.com

And also visit her website @: www.stefaniegaither.com 

The Secret About Fear

Three hours ago, I sat down at my computer with the intention of getting some serious writing done, as I’m woefully behind on my wordcount. Since then, I’ve done the following, roughly in this order:

• Made myself a cup of tea
• Drawn a self-portrait on a series of nearby post-it notes
• Concluded that I’m a terrible drawer
• Researched online drawing/painting classes I could take
• Read a few sentences from the WIP, cringed, minimized Word and started flipping through real estate magazines instead
• Tried (unsuccessfully) to teach my dog to play dead
• Stared off into space. A lot.
• Realized that three hours had passed, and that in that time I had written a grand total of 250 new words in this revision/rewrite
• Did the math, and concluded that, at this rate, I’ll be done in approximately 320 days
• Remembered that I recently sent my agent an email in which I cheerfully declared that I could have her a revised version of this book by mid-October, no problem
• Panicked
• Made more tea

Once the panic had faded (haha just kidding I’m super neurotic it never really fades), I started to think. Why couldn’t I focus? Why couldn’t I even stand to look at my WIP, much less work on it? Especially since, when I woke up this morning, I had been excited about the amount of time I would have to actually write today? I loved this story only hours ago, but suddenly the thought of facing it made me want to dig the deepest hole I could and bury myself alive in it.

And then I realized, all at once with a cold sort of swiftness: I knew exactly what this feeling was.

My old, familiar friend Fear.

Distracting myself with all of the things above almost made me forget about it, but in the end, it's there just the same.

A rockstar agent that loves my writing hasn’t made it disappear. Neither has a big five book deal. One incredibly smart editor drawing hearts on my manuscript later, and I still don’t sit alone at my keyboard with only my brilliant thoughts for companionship; instead, there’s a near-constant weight keeping company around my shoulders. And some days—like today—it’s still heavy enough to make me want to lay face down on my desk and just close my eyes for awhile, because I can’t stand the thought of typing another terrible word.

But now for the secret, in case you haven’t heard: I’m pretty sure we’re all scared—the published, the agented, the aspiring. All of us. Some of us more so than others, maybe. And some who would never admit to it, and that’s okay too. If fake it until you make it works for you, then go for it! But me? I’m scared every day, and I know it. Every. Single. Day. I could list all of the things I’m afraid of, but that would take entirely too long and it also wouldn’t be very helpful, so I’ll spare you. Let’s just call it a general fear of failing and leave it at that.

I’m not ashamed to tell you I’m afraid, either, because I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Which is why this post isn’t titled “The Secret to Getting Rid of Your Fear”. I don’t want to get rid of it. Fear is a natural, healthy reaction to things. Fear of failure drives me to succeed, and it keeps me from doing stupid things. And I’m not sure any amount of “success”—be it agent, book deal, whatever—really makes it go away, anyway. So you probably shouldn’t expect it to. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! But I used to tell myself: “this fear, this doubt in my ability will go away once I get a few full requests”, and then it became “once I get an agent”, and then “once I get a book deal”, and now it’s “once I get another bookdeal”…

Vicious, never-ending cycle, right?

Right. So cut it out. What I’m learning to do instead (although not always successfully, as today has proven, haha), is to write in spite of that fear. Most days I acknowledge it. I shake it from my shoulders so I can say hello to it, face-to-face. And then I command it to sit quietly in the corner, because I’ve got books to write and, quite frankly

And on that note, I'm off to get that serious writing done (no, really).

Stefanie Gaither writes YA novels about killer clones and spaceships, with the occasional romp with dragons and magic-users thrown in for good measure. Said writing is generally fueled by an obscene amount of coffee and chocolate, as well as the occasional tennis and/or soccer break. She's represented by Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary, and her debut novel, FALLS THE SHADOW, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers in 2014. You can add it on Goodreads here!

You can find her on Twitter @: https://twitter.com/stefaniegaither

Or drop her an email at: stefanie.gaither@gmail.com

And also visit her website @: www.stefaniegaither.com 

The Business Side: Letting Go of Things You Can't Control

Hello Secret Lifers! I'm a bit late with my post this week, but hopefully it'll be worth the wait ;)

So, we've talked a lot about writing on this blog (duh) lately, but one thing we haven't explored too much is the business side of writing, so that's sort of vaguely what today's topic is about.

First, though, a bit about where I'm coming from: it's been over seven months already since my debut book sold. Seven months! When it sold, and we started talking Fall 2014 as a release date, one of my first thoughts was "this next year and a half is going to take foreverrrrrr".

Is it Fall 2014 yet?

But um, well, no. My (tentative) release date is September 16, 2014, which means I'm already coming up on only a year to go! And that's a bit...scary. And before you all attack me with pitchforks and shouts of STOP WHINING AT LEAST YOU HAVE A BOOK DEAL, hear me out, because I want to tell you some things that I'm slowly learning as the months blur by and I get closer to "published author".

The title of this post is "Letting Go of Things You Can't Control". And here's why this is crucial to not going crazy if you want to make a career out of this writing gig: because there is a heck of a lot you can't control. 

You can't control trends. Readers are loving sci-fi this year, but by next year maybe they'll be over it. Bad news for my book.

You can't control what other authors are doing/writing/etc.... Want an almost surefire way to send yourself into a downward spiral? Go to Publisher's Weekly, go to Goodreads, look for any deals/ upcoming books that sound similar to yours. Then have fun mourning the fact that they're going to be out before your book, and that those authors are better-connected and more popular than you, and then you can sob uncontrollably in the corner while you think of your poor little similarly themed/plotted/etc... book getting left in Popular Author's dust. It's lots of fun, trust me.

You can't control what's going on in publishing. It's easy to get caught up in all of the doom and gloom headlines, talks of more brick and mortar stores closing, participate in the ongoing battle between traditional publishing and self-publishing, etc...And while there's nothing wrong with being informed with industry news, at some point it's all only a distraction--only an excuse to keep you from writing, because "if the publishing industry is circling the drain (which I don't think it is, for the record)", then why bother?

You can't control--at least not completely-- how well your book ultimately sells. I don't have personal experience with this yet, of course, but I know people who do. I know people whose books are doing well, others...not so well. Books--even big ones with huge marketing budgets-- sometimes just flop. It's like anything in entertainment; some books just don't find the exact right people, the right readers, the right booksellers who will passionately get the word out about it (and as a former small-business owner, I can tell you that nothing sells like that wonderful thing known as word-of-mouth). Granted, you can do everything you can: be active on social media, join other writing groups for support, go to conference, that sort of thing to try and up your chances of your book finding the right people--but in the end, there are still no guarantees. If there was an exact formula for selling a crazy amount of books, and publishers/authors knew it, don't you think they'd all be using it?

So. As an upcoming debut author, all of these things run through my head on a daily basis (trust me: you do NOT want to be in my head right now; it's a crazy place). Everyone might not be like me, though. I'm a bit of a control freak, I'll be the first to admit--and I don't like leaving things to chance or luck if I can help it. But if you ARE like me, then here's a secret for you: focus on what you have the most control over. Because there is, at least, one thing you do.

And what is that, you ask?

Regardless of where you are in the writing game, whether aspiring, agented, to-be-published, whatever, the answer is always the same: writing. You're a writer. Everything else is just white noise. At the end of the day, you can control the words on paper, and that's about it. But hopefully, if you focus hard enough and learn to control that well enough, then everything else will fall into place.

Happy writing!

Stefanie Gaither writes YA novels about killer clones and spaceships, with the occasional romp with dragons and magic-users thrown in for good measure. Said writing is generally fueled by an obscene amount of coffee and chocolate, as well as the occasional tennis and/or soccer break. She's represented by Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary, and her debut novel, FALLS THE SHADOW, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers in 2014. You can add it on Goodreads here!

You can find her on Twitter @: https://twitter.com/stefaniegaither

Or drop her an email at: stefanie.gaither@gmail.com

And also visit her website @: www.stefaniegaither.com 

Writerly Wednesday & A Writing Prompt: Creating Characters

Some writers are amazing at setting. Some have a knack for twisty-turny plots. Me? I love writing unique characters. And of course I have my own steps I like to go through when developing characters. So, let's do an awesome list post because I like those. In no particular order, here are 3 ways to really get to know your characters.

1. Make their playlist - It's no secret that writers like to make playlists for their books, and a lot of times, those playlists include songs that the writers thinks one or more of the characters would listen to. But we can take this a step further. Everyone has certain music they listen to when they are in a certain mood. Do you know what your character likes to listen to when they drive? How about when they're cleaning their room or exercising? Or when they've just had a huge fight with their boyfriend/girlfriend? Put those songs on your playlist, too. You never know what that could inspire.

2. Know their favorites - All of them! Food, song, color, TV show, movie, cuss word, cereal, Powerpuff Girl, etc...

3. Know their childhood - I don't mean "they grew up in the suburbs as the daughter of a divorced workaholic father." I mean "how did they get that small scar on their elbow when they were seven?" or "what was their favorite type of candy when they were ten?" All those little things you remember about your own childhood helped to shape you and they did the same for your characters. Also, once again, you never know what those things will inspire.

And here's where the writing prompt happens! Take a character, could be one you've written already, one you're working on now, or a brand spankin' new one, and tell me something about their childhood. Could be a scene or it could just be a scene in which they remember something.

For example, here's a small excerpt of something I'm working on now that came to me as I thought about what my character liked to do as a child (pardon the TOWNNAME thing, I'm horrible at names and haven't come up with one yet, lol...):

The town of TOWNNAME, Kansas, is flat. Flat in every way you could think of. The landscape is flat. The colors are boring. It's like the architects of every building didn't realize there were other materials besides brick. Hell, even the people are flat. Flat personalities, flat jobs, flat ideas. And if a person stays in this town too long, they start to become flat, too. It's like when I used to press flowers and leaves in big books. You take something that's three dimensional, that has tons of character, and you stick it in a book then close it. You let it sit somewhere for a long time and sheet after flat sheet combine to make this one heavy mass that crushes that once full-of-life flower.

So, what things do you do to get into your characters' heads? And please post your prompt or link to it in the comments!

Inspirational films for the YA writer

I don't know about you guys, but movies are very inspirational for me as a writer of YA. Seeing young adults react to situations and hearing their cadences and slang is so helpful in my own writing process. So, today I'd like to throw up some of my favorite young adult movies.

Can't Hardly Wait

So, maybe I'm dating myself here, but I feel like despite this being a very 90's movie, it still carries a lot of what it feels like to be a teenager. It deals with the different high school stereotypes, the realization that graduation is a sort of end of an era, and that first love euphoria. Plus, Seth Green is genius.

Any John Hughes Film

Again, I'm dating myself, but these films just feel timeless to me. There's not much I can say about these that hasn't already been said. If you haven't seen them all, what is wrong with you?

Easy A

This is a more modern teenage voice that I adore. Again, not much I can say. Watch it, love it, and be inspired.

Mean Girls

I did a post similar to this one a while back on my blog. For that one, I asked my teenage niece for movies she and her friends quoted all the time. Mean Girls was the first one she said. It's laugh out loud funny, witty, and has some of the best one-liners.

The First Time

This is the last one I'm going to mention since this post is already long and picturey and I could go on for a while. I just watched this movie yesterday. I wasn't expecting much and was super shocked (and elated) that I got so much more. This felt like a YA contemporary novel come to life. I highly recommend it!

And there you have it. A jumping off point for inspirational films for the YA writer. But let's continue the conversation because I always need more! 

Do you have some films or even TV shows that are great representations of the teenager's life?