Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Writing Inspiration On Pinterest
I love Pinterest. Gorgeous pictures on the visual social media pinboard inspire everything from recipes to fashion to travel destinations. Lately I've noticed many authors (including me!) use Pinterest for writing inspiration.
The awesome people at YA Highway have even compiled a list of authors on Pinterest! It's fun to see what they're pinning and get hints at future books. And I would be remiss if I didn't point out the incredibly gorgeous and constantly updated boards of Jessica Khoury. You will seriously want to repin everything she pins.
When I saw Jessica's pin boards, I immediately made general story boards of my own. I figured they might come in handy for future projects when I wanted character inspiration. What I didn't realize was that I would go to them time and again for my current WIP (work in progress)! Scrolling through the faces of people I thought would make interesting characters and finding ones that match my vision of characters in my book has been such a great resource. I've added a few characters in revisions and changed some features of others, necessitating adding to my visual inspiration board for the project. It's so cool to refer to a picture while writing and see "your character" in various situations and making different expressions.
Characters aren't the only inspiration you'll find on Pinterest. Pictures of how your character might dress, the house they live in, the decor of their bedroom, where certain scenes take place, and much more are at your fingertips and ready to be pinned to inspiration boards.
Pinterest is the writer's playground for inspiration. Whenever I need a quick writing break, it's the first place I go. It lets me recharge and gives me an instant burst of creativity. As Jessica said in a recent tweet, "All it takes to launch a new story idea is a single, powerful image."
So what are you waiting for? Go get pinning! Just file it under "book research time." ;)
Do you use Pinterest for writing inspiration? What boards do you follow for story inspiration? I'd love your recommendations! Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest here!
Happy pinning & writing!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
"Katie O'Shea Books" Writing Blog on Pinterest!
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https://pinterest.com/katiesoshea/katie-o-shea-books-blog/ |
What is Pinterest? (A quick lesson for those not yet in the know) :)
"Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes."
And now people use Pinterest to showcase their blog in visual form! (Or at least I am).
After reading some cool Pinterest articles about people using the site for new things, (check out my new Pinterest board "Read Me Now or Later" for examples) such as creating boards to save articles they want to read (hence the above), or even creating digital Pinterest resumes, (Seriously! How cool!) I decided to do some creative Pinterest/Blog crossover-ing of my own.
So I created a board on Pinterest just for this blog where I will pin all of my blog posts for your easy viewing pleasure. It will be a fun way to check out the blog in a neat visual form and easily see what posts I've written about and you can re-pin them to share with your friends too! I hope you like the new idea!
Leave me a comment below on what you'd like to see on the blog/Pinterest board and any cool ways you've been using Pinterest!
Also since this is a Pinterest-themed post, I simply must give a shout-out to "Pinspirational" author Jessica Khoury (her debut YA book ORIGIN comes out in September!) for amazing use of Pinterest. Check out her awesome boards, such as "Characters in Want of Story" and "Have Setting. Insert Story." for some truly inspiring pins that led to my own new boards "Quite the Character" and "Stories Happen Here." She also had the great idea of using Pinterest to have people submit entries for an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) giveaway on her blog where they repinned one of her pins and added a short story. Very creative!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Summer Reading List Part 1!
In no particular order (because I still haven't decided which to read when) my summer reading list thus far:
Title: Insurgent
Author: Veronica RothGenre: YA--Fantasy
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Series: 2nd in series
Publisher: HarperTeen
How I Got the Book: Bought
GoodReads Description: "One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so."
Media:
Why It's On the List: Veronica Roth's debut book Divergent was one of my absolute favorite books of last year and boy did it end with a bang. I've recommended it to tons of friends who have also loved it (and then hated me for making them read it before the next book was out). So I've been so excited to read the sequel which came out last week during finals. Ever since it arrived on my doorstep I've been dying to open it up and now that final are done I finally have the chance.
Title: Zoe Letting Go
Author: Nora PriceGenre: YA--Fiction, Social
Release Date: June 28, 2012
Series: No
Publisher: Razorbill
How I Got the Book: ARC from Nora Price
GoodReads Description: "A girl's letters to her best friend reveal two lives derailed by anorexia in this haunting debut that's Wintergirls meets The Sixth Sense
It's not a hospital, a spa, or an institution. That's what they told me--that's what the brochures promised.
But no matter what the brochures promised, Zoe finds that Twin Birch is a place for girls with a penchant for harming themselves. Through journal entries and letters to her best friend, Elise, she tries to understand why she was brought there, and how she could possibly belong in a place like this. But Zoe's letters to Elise remain unanswered. She wonders why her best friend would cut her off without a word, reliving memory after memory of their beautiful, rocky, inescapable friendship. But everyone has secrets--including Zoe--and as her own fragile mental state hangs in the balance, she must finally learn to come to terms with what happened to Elise before she's able to let go."
Why It's On the List: I first heard about Zoe Letting Go on author Nova Ren Suma's blog as part of her 2012 YA Debut Interview Series and was immediately interested in reading the book. I tweeted author Nora Price to tell her how excited I was to read it and in a wonderful surprise she tweeted me asking if I'd like an ARC (Advance Reader's Copy). Of course I said yes and I'm so excited to get to read it even before it comes out this summer!
Title: City of Lost Souls
Author: Cassandra ClareGenre: YA--Fantasy
Release Date: May 8, 2012
Series: 5th in series
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
How I Got the Book: Bought
GoodReads Description: "The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.
No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?
Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.
And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?"
Media:
Why It's On the List: I've loved this series since the first book and the last one ended at such a cliffhanger. I'm so excited this one is finally out--just in time for summer! I can't wait to read what happens next!
Title: Boy Meets Boy
Author: David LevithanGenre: YA Fiction--Romance
Release Date: September 9, 2003
Series: No
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
How I Got the Book: To-purchase
GoodReads Description: "This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.
When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right.
This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world."
Why It's On the List: Because there should be more books with gay main characters and I've been dying to read David Levithan so I figured I should start with his first book!
Title: Clockwork Prince
Author: Cassandra ClareGenre: YA--Fantasy
Release Date: December 6, 2011
Series: 2nd in spin-off series of The Mortal Instruments
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
How I Got the Book: Bought
GoodReads Description: "In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa's powers for his own dark ends.
With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister's war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move and that one of their own has betrayed them.
Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will; the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?
As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart."
Media:Why It's On the List: Victorian London. British accents/people. ;) And because for those who love the Mortal Instruments series it's a cool look into the past to see what happened before the series. It's a really cool setting and is very well done. I've been looking forward to reading this ever since it came out and I don't know how I haven't already!
You tell ME! What else should I read this summer? What's on your summer reading list? Please share below in the comments!
Monday, April 23, 2012
Why You Should Fail
I think everyone needs a bit of adversity in their life. To be able to say they've failed. And failed. And failed. Because it is the people that try one more time that are the ones that will succeed in the end.
Everyone should have something that they fight for. Something they care enough about to fight for. Something that they would risk everything for. Something that they maybe fail at first but keep fighting for. Because for every time you fail, someone else does too. But the difference is, you have to want it badly enough to pick yourself up again and keep fighting for it. And harder than before, because for every time you fail maybe someone else fails too. Maybe they don't keep going. Maybe they quit. Maybe that brings you one step closer to succeeding. But if you're the one to quit you'll never know. And you'll definitely never be the one to succeed.
So here's to everyone that fails. Here's to those that fail again. And here's to those that will always keep failing because it means you'll always keep trying. And one day the ones that will risk it all and fail the most will be the ones to succeed.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Dare Greatly: Putting Your Book Out in the World
I don’t think anything makes you more crazy than writing a
novel. In what other profession would it be acceptable and encouraged for you
to be hearing voices in your head from your characters—encouraging them to talk
to you? In what other job do you try to create and temporarily live in some other world? When writing a
novel you go through this intensely personal experience for months or years,
pouring words onto the page and crafting each word, each sentence, each page
into something that you hope is great…or at least okay. The entire process drives
you crazy. You don’t want to write maybe because it’s agony, but the even worse
agony is not writing.
And then one day you realize that the time has come. Your
novel is “done.” Or done for now. It’s time to let someone else read it and
give you feedback. It’s time for it to go out into the world.
So you read it over one last time, making sure everything is
how you want it—making sure you even like it at all. And this
reading confirms it—you love it, you absolutely love it. You’re so proud of
what you’ve done, that you’ve accomplished this. That you have just written—gasp—a
book! So you go and have it printed up and you give it to those initial few close
and trusted Beta Readers. You’re so excited for them to read it! You’ve been
waiting months for this very moment!
But then when one of them says they’re about to start
reading the first chapter, somehow the whole illusion shatters. “Wait!” you
think. “Wait, you’re really going to do it? Now?” and suddenly, you’ve never
been more unsure of yourself. "Oh gosh! It’s so horrible. Don’t read it," you
think. "They're going to hate it, just hate it. They’re going to tell me it’s the
worst thing ever and it doesn’t have any chance at ever being published!" And
then what will all of those last few months of writing have been for?
The vulnerability and the doubt wash in, more powerful than
ever, and leave you feeling like all you want to do is throw up. You sit
anxiously by the phone, waiting for your Beta Readers to call--because surely they’ve read
the first chapter by now and don’t they have something to say about it? Oh
gosh, they probably haven’t called because it’s so bad and they don’t know how
to break it to you. Don’t quit your day job they’re secretly thinking as you
check to make sure you have reception for the hundredth time.
It’s incredibly hard to create something, to spend all the
time and effort working on it. But it’s even harder to share it with the world.
To embrace the vulnerability of it all and to put it out there for other people
to read and critique. Because they may hate it. But there’s that chance that
they won’t, that hope that maybe what you’ve done isn’t as horrible as you now
think (after all—wasn’t it just a few hours ago you had decided you loved it?) and
you’ll never know if what you’ve done is great or maybe someday could be great
if you never put it out there and try.
"To create is to make something that has never existed
before--there's nothing more vulnerable than that." ~ Brené Brown. So my
good friend Victoria had told me to watch this TED Talk by Brené Brown a while
back, but I finally got around to watching it yesterday and it was amazing—just what
I needed to hear. It’s all about listening to shame and vulnerability and how
the most successful people embrace vulnerability because it is the birthplace
of innovation, creativity, and change. You should definitely check it out here.
And one of the main takeaways I got was that those who “dare greatly” are the
ones that embrace the vulnerability and dare to be courageous and put
themselves out there. These are the people that can succeed because they have
taken the risks. So here I am, daring greatly, and putting my book out there so
that maybe I can become something more, so that I can learn and grow, and so
that maybe I can create something that has never existed before.
And then you do get the call—They don’t hate it! They love
it too! Phew, you sigh in relief for a moment. Maybe I was right to begin with.
But then a few minutes later you’re back to….but what if they’re lying so they
don’t hurt my feelings?! Basically…writers can never be sane about things like
this, but you’ve still got to put your work out there and try.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Writer’s Brain
Sometimes the writer's brain can feel like it's exploding--with thoughts, ideas, emotions, words, creativity. Everything wants to burst right out of the writer's brain and onto the page. It reminds me of the beautiful Mercedes-Benz ad above depicting the right brain erupting with color all over the page. The writer's brain can't be contained.
They’ll love it! They’ll hate it! The writer’s brain relishes in arguing with itself. During the
editing process and as I come closer and closer to sharing my novel with others,
this is something I have come to realize quite well. No sooner have you
thought: They are going to love this. I
will be a published author one day, than does your brain tack on Maybe. Or maybe it’s terrible. No, they’re
going to hate it! What was I thinking? This is the worst! And from there it’s
just a downward spiral.
Whoa there, writer’s
brain. Calm down. Get off the emotional rollercoaster. There’s enough drama
in that book, we don’t need residual drama from you. But still, the rational part
of your brain probably does not prevail over the dash of crazy floating around
on the writer’s side.
So how do you deal
with this emotional and dramatic writer’s brain? In the end, you step away
from the computer, take a few deep breaths, and tell the writer’s brain to cut
it out. It doesn’t matter if everyone else hates the novel if you love it. You have to believe in your idea and what you’ve been working on—and presumably
you do if you’ve chosen to put so much time and effort into it. You have to
keep writing and pressing on through all of the chaos of writer’s brain, all of the
doubt that tries to creep in, and you just have to finish. In all likelihood, even if you do end up hating it in the end, you will have enjoyed the process and learned from it, and there’s so much
value in that alone.
The writer’s brain is
also impetuous and selfish. Demanding and dramatic. You must write now! it clamors.
Now! There’s no time to do that reading right now—I have an idea, I must get
the words out and onto a paper now! it screams. I am inspired! I must create! Again, “Calm down, writer’s brain!” you
chide it, but it just jumps up and down eagerly, clamoring for attention like a
four year old on a pixy stix high.
Sometimes you need to
just go ahead and write down whatever idea you have because it’s probably going to sit there and nag at you until you do--or worse, get lost back in the
black hole of your writer’s brain again.
Even though the
writer’s brain can be kind of crazy, in the end it can also be kind of fun…after
all everyone needs a little eccentricity in their life, no? Besides, if the
alternative is engineering brain or something more drab from the left brain side, I think I’ll stick with the
creative writing brain. ;)
In summary: writers
are kind of crazy? But awesome.
Do you have the same problems with writer's brain? How do you tame the craziness?
Sunday, March 25, 2012
What’s in a name?
**This is a blog post I wrote back on November 16, 2011 before I even had this lovely writing blog, but I was doing some more naming today and found it to be appropriate, so I decided to post it and add to it a bit with some more recent perspective.**
By InverseHypercube (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
So back in November, when I was first starting to nail down all of the elements of my novel, I had been trying for days to come up with the perfect name for one of the main characters. Luckily the name for the primary character came to me instantly and
easily one night while I was falling asleep, but this other name put up quite a
struggle. I Googled, I brainstormed, I name generated, I crowd-sourced it on
Facebook, polled my friends, but still nothing was sticking. But finally, somehow I landed on one I like, or rather, I landed on two. By then I had decided I needed two
names for this character...of course. But with the perspective of the last few months, I know I settled on two that fit perfectly.
Reading Divergent author Veronica Roth's post about names yesterday got me thinking more about the fact that I had gone with two names. As she discussed, names can be very powerful and when a character has multiple names, "this usually signals the beginning of some kind of transformation, or indicates that a transformation has already taken place." This is precisely what happened with my naming situation...so look forward to that. ;)
But until I settled on the fact that the character needed two names and what those names were, it was just creating a wall for me. I couldn’t
write anything more without knowing who I was writing about, and that started
with the name. I could already see the character in my mind and knew their personality
and physical description, the only thing that was evading me was the name. But after I got the name down, things fell into place nicely.
For some of the other characters, the names came easily, but for others, I went through the same process, trying to figure out what name best suited their personality. Luckily, none of the other names were as much of a struggle as that one character's.
All of this happened right before finals. Finals are always my best time for productivity it seems. I always want to write the most when it’s the most impractical. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, maybe I just
love a challenge. Despite exams being only two weeks away, I was in full-on
writing mode and loving every minute of it. The good news is that both finals and book writing went quite well, so it worked out.
Back in the present, after finishing my draft, I still had a couple of pesky name gaps where I had just left a blank and needed particularly some last names to be filled in (one of which was for that same tricky character as before!) so I had to get back on the name train--Googling, brainstorming, name generating, researching. But I think I finally found names that I'm really happy with and that have a lot of significance too, which is always awesome. I just don't know how parents do it though--naming is hard!
How have your naming experiences been? What are some of your favorite unusual names or favorite names of characters in books? I still particularly love Mara Dyer of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, and Peeta of The Hunger Games (speaking of which--wasn't the movie amazing??). Oh, and Jace from The Mortal Instruments Series.
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