Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ!

A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. 

Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community.  

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don't they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

Kindness ROCKS! 

To commemorate the release of their book The EmotionThesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. 

And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I'm participating too!


I want to give a ginormous THANK YOU to Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi—the creators of the most fabulous BOOKSHELF MUSE. For spending so much of your time creating thee most awesome thesaurus ever. We appreciate your hard work and believe me when I say it is continually put to good use. You guys rock!

There are so many people who I would like to blitz as a thank you. 

I would like to send out a BIG shout-out to all my fabulous CPs (you know who you are). THANK YOU for sharing all your awesome feedback! 

I don't know where I'd be without you guys. My mss shine because of you. Finding the right critique partners is truly a blessing and I am eternally thankful for YOU. Thank you for being part of my writing journey. I will never, ever forget those who were there for me. I ADORE you with all my heart! ❤❤❤❤❤❤

To my loyal readers.  I HEART YOU! And as I've said before, oh, how I appreciate you. Thank you so much for connecting!

To Lucienne Diver, who is an amazing author, agent, and person—a huge THANK YOU for sharing your invaluable insight. I really can't thank you enough. Thank you also for taking the time to connect with those in the publishing community. You truly are a gem! I am forever grateful I have gotten to know you. You're just plain AWESOME. P.S. Your appreciation package is on its way!


To James Scott Bell who is the most awesome writing coach. Ever. When I first started writing five years ago, I started with two writing books, On Writing by Stephen King and your Plot & Structure. I devoured every word faster than I could think. Then of course, I bought the rest of your writing books and they literally changed my life. I've learned so much from you, not just in your books but through your correspondence. Thank you for your extraordinary guidance and for helping me take my writing to the next level. Much gratitude and appreciation! Your blitz appreciation is on its way.


And to Cindy Bell for supporting JSB in his writing and for sharing all his awesome appearances with us. And just for plain being awesome. You two really make a great team! 


Thank you to Alyson Noël and Jessica Brody—the Bill Contardi sistas. For your encouragement and for your friendship, for your genuine support and for always having something fabulous to say. Your words have meant more than you know. I appreciate you! Endless thank yous for your inspiration and for reaching out and being you. XO I feel very privileged to have gotten to know you both. Gratitude packages are on the way!


Cherry Adair - What can I say? Love your witty personality and the way you reach out to others. Thank you for your kind words and for your words of wisdom. I will never forget your laughter and your encouragement. Your support is beyond special as so are you. So thankful for you! Gratzi!Appreciation is on its way!


Big thanks to Bonnie Calhoun, computer extraordinaire. I think you know more than Google itself. Ha! Seriously. Thank you for all your help and for never abandoning my questions. Appreciate you so much! (Check your email--you'll see why).

  
Kat Duncan, one of the best instructors out there. Thank you sooo very much for always making time for me. For sharing your insight and for steering me in the right direction. I appreciate you very much. Don't forget to check your email. :)


Casey McCormick, I cannot thank you enough for Literary Rambles! Thank you for starting Agent Spotlight and for all the invaluable info. And thank you so much for your latest feedback and praise.  Much appreciated!  To Natalie Aguirre, thank you for partnering up with Casey and contributing your awesomeness to the blog. You both rock!

I really appreciate all of you and I know I sound like a broken record (excuse the cliché) but it's true. I can't help it if I repeat it. I am beyond fortunate to have gotten to know ALL of you! YOU GUYS ROCK! My heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you. 

Love to you ALL. Big hugs XXXX

Do you know someone special that you'd like to randomly acknowledge? Don't be shy—come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round. :)


Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.


Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness?  


Let me know in the comments!

If you have a minute, please stop in and tell these fellow author and friends how awesome they are! 

As a closing I'd like to invite you to their sites and their blogs (also be sure to click on their names above for Twitter links). And don't forget to pay it forward and share RAOK. You'll never know whose heart you'll touch.  

Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi   Blog

Lucienne Diver   Blog   Website

James Scott Bell  Blog   Website

Cindy Bell   Facebook

 Alyson Noël         Blog   Website

Jessica Brody       Blog   Website

Cherry Adair       Blog   Website

Bonnie Calhoun    Blog   Website

Kat Duncan            Blog   Website

Casey McCormick  & Natalie Aguirre Blog

 

Interview with NY bestselling author Jessica Brody

I'm thrilled to introduce my next guest star: JESSICA BRODY. Welcome Jess!

Let's get started *rubs hands together in excitement*

What is the first thing you did when planning to write My Life Undecided?

The first thing I do with every book is “beat it out.” That sounds kind of violent, but I promise you it’s not. I use a special storytelling structure technique from a writing book called SAVE THE CAT. The structure is called the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (Blake is the author of the book and a master storyteller!) “Beating it out” simply means sitting down to figure out what the 15 essential beats (or plot points) of the story will be. It’s very similar to an outline.




LOVE STC!! I think it was you who introduced it to Alyson Noel and her to me. So thankful you did! I refuse to write another book without it.

How did the idea for My Life Undecided come about?


This book was definitely one of those “aha!” moments that I hear writers talk about. My husband and I were watching TV, an ad for a reality show came on and I said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a reality show where you could vote on what the characters did. As in, “who they went out with?” or “Whether or not they forgave their backstabbing best friend.”

Like American Idol meets The Hills. We both agreed although it would be cool, it wouldn’t be practical from a production standpoint since they shoot those reality shows months before they air. I was not deterred though. I said, “Fine, I’ll write it as a book,” and then marched up the stairs and in ten short minutes, wrote a page-long synopsis for what would become MY LIFE UNDECIDED and sent it to my editor. She wrote back right away saying that she loved it and the book was born!

How long did it take you to write it?


The first draft only took about three months to write, which is pretty normal for me. Then my editor gave me some notes for a second draft which took a few weeks to implement. Then there’s about 2-3 months of really intense editing where the editor goes line by line and marks up your book with red pen. It always makes me feel like I’m back in elementary school!


Any writing tips? Writing rituals that helped you get going?


Yes! I always have to write in the same place, drinking the same coffee and eating the same pastry. Something about the repetition gets me in to writing mode. I actually did a whole blog post about it “How To Trick Your Brain into Writing”. You can read it here: http://jessicabrody.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-trick-your-brain-into-writing.html



How long was your road to publication? And how did you deal with rejection?


The road was very long. And it was paved with rejection letters. At least a hundred. It took me five years to sell my first book. Actually my “first” book was never published. It’s still sitting on the proverbial shelf! I tried for three years to get an agent for that book and eventually started a new book. Then two years after that, I finally landed my first agent and she sold my book in only 10 days! So I like to say my “overnight success” story took five years.


Where can we learn more about you?


Well, you have lots of options! Visit my website: www.jessicabrody.com or follow me on Twitter @jessicabrody. I also have a Facebook fan page that I update all the time: www.facebook.com/jessicabrodyfans


Thanks for such a fun interview! Fabulous questions!

No. No THANK YOU, Jessica! Awesome answers.
Okay guys, if you haven't already gotten to know Jessica, please check out her site. Awesome, awesome person and lots of talent.

Save the Cat! Part 2

Welcome back!
Welcome to Save the Cat! blog post #2.


So did you all come up with a killer title for your ms? *crowd yells yes with enthusiasm* Good, that's what I like to hear.


If you've already read the book then you know that it includes eight chapters of non-stop answers to successful story building. If you haven't read it yet, here are some fun things you'll learn
 

• Save the Cat

• The Pope in the Pool

• Laying Pipe


 They mean nothing to you now but once you read it you'll understand how clever you can become when creating your next storyline.


Let's talk about building the perfect beast as Blake likes to put it. "The Board" is one of the most important tools for a screenwriter. Corkboards, chalkboards, if you see one in a writers' home you'll now understand why it's there. It's becoming more and more popular for novelists as well.

Let's face it writers are writers whether it be a novelist or screenwriter. We all strive for one thing: to tell a compelling story.

* I would like to note that even if you decide you don't want to use a corkboard as Blake suggests, you'll still benefit from reading the book, but if you are as serious as I am on learning Blake's technique I would recommend the following:


• A big corkboard

• Index cards


• Box of push pins


These tools will allow you to break down your story step by step. It's really very helpful. Here is a picture of my very first corkboard I put together last year. As you can see there was plenty room toward the ending.

Young Adult Author Elana Johnson shares hers here along with some more talk about STC.

Don't let the beast frighten you. Play with it and see how structure can help you plan a story. Like I said I am a SOTP (Seat of the Pants) writer and I found it to be very helpful. All you have to do is start out with four columns: Act One-- 2 columns of Act Two--Act Three.

Once you get the book, you'll understand how easy it is to set this up. And like I said before if you decide not to structure your story, he provides invaluable information.

Still a little unsure about Blake's beat sheet and how to use it? I find examples come in handy. 

Here is one on a student of his blogging about how he used Nora Robert's Born in Fire to illustrate his 15 Beats of story structure. You can find the post here: Story Structure from Blake Snyder


If that isn't enough, NY bestselling author Jessica Brody breaks down her book The Karma Club HERE

 Seekerville  also wrote up a tribute to Blake along with a great example of his 15 beats broken down.

But if you're like me and would like to hear it straight from the source, here is a great article where Blake talks about his 15 Point Beat Sheet.

Hope this is helpful to some of you. I have the next two books in the series ordered and am anxious to read them! In Blake's twenty year career as a screenwriter and producer, he has sold dozens of scripts, including co-writing Blank Check, which became a hit for Disney, and Nuclear Family for Steven Spielberg — both million-dollar sales. That's gotta say something!


How about you? Have you read the whole series? Do you have a corkboard up? Have you applied Blake's techniques?
 
Thank you so much for stopping by! Appreciate it.
 
If you missed Part 1 to this series you can find it HERE
 
 

In Loving Memory

 Blake Snyder

1957-2010

SAVE THE CAT! Part 1

Okay, so I have to say that this blog post is loooooong overdue! I read Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! (book #1) last year and I can't believe I hadn't heard about it years ago.


SAVE THE CAT! is one of my top picks for recommended books for writers. I have to give a huge shout out to Alyson Noël. Thank you Alyson for introducing me to Save the Cat!


THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Seriously I can't thank you enough!! It's no wonder you dedicated one of your books to Blake. He truly is amazing.


I cannot emphasis how fabulous Save the Cat! is. I don't want to sound like an annoying parakeet but it's really THAT good. So what makes it so dang good?


Good question. What make a book a great read?


Let's see, there's the hook—the pacing—characters you can relate to—originality—and most importantly a voice you can't turn away from.


I think what makes Save the Cat! so fabulous is that Blake has a likable voice and when reading it, it doesn't feel like you're studying. You're actually absorbing and understanding what Blake has to say.


In his final interview (it saddens me deeply that he is no longer here) he talks about how and why structure is important. He points out that you are misleading yourself if you are shying away from structure because it’s formulaic or hampers your creativity.


I've always been a SOTP (Seat of the Pants) writer but after reading this book I found that not only did it spark ideas, but it gave me structure and guidance. As a SOTP writer, I like having the option of being able to change things around spontaneously and even though Blake shows you how to structure your story it really doesn't have to be set in stone.


So what is the first thing Blake suggests to do?


He stresses on the importance of creating a one to two sentence logline for your story. It must have irony and an adjective. And although Blake's beat sheet (The BS2) is well structured, I still feel I have the opportunity to change things around but yet it guides me just like a business plan does.


Next, you must think up a title for your story. Not just any title but a killer title that resonates. One that yells, "Hey, look at me!" Try it out on friends and strangers. Feel their reactions.


Did their eyes light up with excitement?


Did the title do its job?


Did they want to know more?

Are they hooked?


Make note of their reactions. If it didn't excite them as you hoped, maybe it's time to think up a few more titles.


Blake shares a ton more—but I'll shut up now so you can hear it all from the master himself. (Reading Save the Cat! is well worth it!)


So why the cat you say? Why not save the earth or save the giraffe? Well, I'm not one to give up spoilers so you'll have to read the book to find out. However, I can confidently say one thing though, you'll be thanking me later and you'll be glad that you've been introduced to Blake and his fabulous how-to guide.

Are you now anxious in finding out what Save the Cat! Is all about? You should be! With so much to cover, I've decided to break up the post into two parts. Tomorrow we'll talk about the Perfect Beast aka The Board. For now I will leave you with some great links you can learn from.


So your homework for today is to come up with a killer title and a killer hook. BTW in case you haven’t noticed Save the Cat! Is the first book in a three book series. I am anxious to read the other two and I can't wait to blog about them.




How about you? Have you read Save the Cat!? Have you heard about it? Please let me know if you are a STC fan and would be interested in future blog posts regarding STC.


NY best-selling author Jessica Brody raves about Save the Cat! After I heard about it from Alyson, I found that Jess loved it just as much and I was sold!


Author Vicky Dreiling shares an awesome post (mentioning Save the cat!) HERE Pitch Begins With Premise.

To Blake Snyder—such an inspiration to all writers.

You will be greatly missed! R.I.P

 Blake Snyder

1957-2010

To view Save the Cat part 2 click HERE

Interview with bestselling author Jessica Brody!

WELCOME
Jessica Brody!!

Thanks so much for allowing me to interview you, Jessica! Let's get started...

The Karma Club is a funny and engaging read! I literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Where did the story idea come from?

This was definitely one of those ideas that just “came” to me. A friend of mine had told me some horrendous story about how a boy dumped her (I don’t even remember the story, I just remember it was infuriating!) and the entire time she was talking, I kept thinking, “Someone needs to do that right back to him. He can’t just get away with that. He needs a taste of Karma!” And then boom, the idea came to me. A secret society of girls who help each other out, dosing out Karma to those who deserve it when the universe is slow to do it on its own. And thus THE KARMA CLUB was born. Of course, as soon as the idea came to me, I also knew that my characters would never be able to get away with it. Karma is a tricky thing. And you definitely don’t want to meddle with the universe!

Is The Karma Club part of a series? (Please say yes!)

LOL. Not as of yet. But I wouldn’t rule it out. I do have an idea on how to turn it into a series but we’ll have to wait and see how the first book does. Plus, I have so many other cool ideas I want to write too so I’ll have to prioritize!


Any obstacles during the writing process?

Aren’t there always!? For this particular book I remember how challenging it was to actually come up with good revenge schemes for the girls. When I first started writing, I thought that’d be the best (and most fun!) part, but it was actually the hardest. Let’s just say the revenge schemes changed a lot throughout the course of writing this book.


What aspect of writing has been the most difficult for you?

Act 2! Or the dreaded “middle.” Act 1 is my favorite. It’s the set-up. Everything is fresh, the character is new and fun and novel. You get to lay the groundwork for the story, build suspense, layer in complex plot points that will be resolved later. And then comes the Act 2. The heart of the story. Also known as “my nemesis.” The character is now totally grating my nerves, everything I set up in Act 1 absolutely sucks, I have no idea why I’m even a writer to begin with, I have the vocabulary of a five year old, all the “complex plot points” I thought I was setting up now actually have to be dealt with (yikes!) and I become nearly impossible to live with (my husband will second that.) And yet, somehow, incredibly, magically (as if little elves snuck in my house in the middle of the night and fixed everything that was wrong with my story), I finally arrive at act 3, the conclusion and then I’m like, “That wasn’t so bad. I don’t know why I was so freaked out!”

And then I start the next book and the cycle begins all over again!

What is the first thing you like to do when planning a new project?

I love coming up with opening sentences for my books. It’s my favorite thing to do with a new concept. Sitting down and brainstorming what the absolute PERFECT opening line for this book would be. I think opening lines in books are so important and I always appreciate a good one when I read it. I like to try and tie mine into the theme or title of the book somehow. For example, in The Karma Club the opening line is, “I can tell you right now, it’s all Karma’s fault.” I like how it kind of sets the tone for the book right off the bat.


You mentioned for every book you start, you use Blake's book Save the Cat. (BTW this is an awesome book, LOVE it! One of my faves.) Did you find it pretty easy/difficult to structure The Karma Club?

Isn’t STC the best??? Structuring books is always easy for me. Sticking to that structure is the hard part. And Karma Club was no exception!


How long did it take you to write The Karma Club?

The Karma Club, as with all of my YA novels, was pretty quick for me. I think I wrote the first draft in about three and a half months. My agent had a few edits before we submitted and then once we sold it I spent about 2-3 weeks revising per my editor’s suggestions and that was that! It always feels so much longer when you’re writing it, though, doesn’t it?

Rejection is usually a big part of a writer's journey. Did you face several rejections before selling your first book?

ABSOLUTELY! About four years’ worth! And technically I didn’t even sell my “first” book, I sold my second one! My first book, which shall remain nameless, was like my trial run. I started writing it about seven years ago and tried to sell it for two years and it never sold. Although I was fortunate enough to get tons of constructive criticism and feedback from my rejection letters. And most of them said, “too much voice, not enough story” so when I got an idea for another book, The Fidelity Files, I made sure there was TONS of story packed in there to avoid getting the same letters.

I wish the story ended there, but unfortunately, my life has never been that easy. I spent two more years writing and rewriting that book, trying to incorporate critiques and feedback from all the new rejection letters I was racking up, until I finally found an agent who wanted to sign me. Once I got the manuscript in the right place, my agent sold it pretty quickly. But it definitely didn’t happen overnight!


Your book trailer is so awesome! Rumor has it you were in the movie industry. Could you share a little bit about your background?

Thanks so much! I’m so glad you liked it! I was in the movie industry. I worked for MGM Studios for three years but I was on the business side of it. I was more of a numbers gal. I ran analyses and complicated spreadsheets to determine which movies the studio should acquire and how much they should pay for them. It was a really cool job that I enjoyed tremendously but my heart was always in writing so I left to pursue that. I still use my spreadsheet skills from time to time. For instance, I outline all my novels in Excel and use it to compute my daily word count quotas! Most writers think I’m crazy!

It's a given that The Karma Club will be a movie one day. It has to be! Any bites yet?

I’d love to see it as a film! We’ve had a few bites, some more promising than others. My agent is handling all that as we speak! Fingers crossed!


Any advice for aspiring writers?

Regardless if you’re a bestselling author with twenty books under your belt or you’re just starting out, writing is a craft that needs to be constantly honed. Try to write every day. Even if the stuff that’s coming out reads like a third grade book report. Sometimes you have to get the crap out in order to get to the good stuff. And sometimes, writing just to write is the only way to get a book done. Even if it means having to go back later and delete it all!
Where can we learn more about you?


Everything you want to know (and maybe even some things you don’t) can be found on my website: www.jessicabrody.com


I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to get to know you better!! Thanks so much, Jessica for taking time out of your busy schedule. You rock!! And so does The Karma Club!

Thank YOU! I’m so glad you liked the book! And thanks for the fun interview!