Same goes for writing. If writing, editing and publishing novels were easy, everyone would do it, right? It’s hard and the process is wracked with doubt, insecurity and …]]> Acting isn’t easy. Dancing isn’t easy. Singing isn’t easy. They’re not supposed to be easy. They are, in fact, supposed to be hard.

Same goes for writing. If writing, editing and publishing novels were easy, everyone would do it, right? It’s hard and the process is wracked with doubt, insecurity and the ever-present specter of failure. Yet for writers, there’s nothing we’d rather do.

So when the work or the business or the process is breaking your heart, read this blog post by Web series creator Yuri Baranovsky on being an artist. His words are incredibly inspiring, and a good reminder that it’s not supposed to be easy. As Bart Giamatti said of baseball, “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.” Same goes for art, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Word repetition.

It may be easy to catch yourself using certain unusual …]]> I’m currently finishing up copy edits for WHEN YOU WERE HERE and I’ve noticed a writerly tic of mine, thanks to my fabulous and meticulous copy editor. I’ll share with blog readers in case they may be doing this too.

Word repetition.

It may be easy to catch yourself using certain unusual words more than once or twice in a manuscript. Like, vanquish or loquacious or AWOL. (Actually, I only used the last one, AWOL, in this novel!). But I did use the word shard five times. Gulp. And my copy editor caught it! I had used it in two different analogies, and she pointed it out, so now I’m down to just three uses of shard.

Beware of overuse of particular words because words can stick to readers’ brains. But pay even closer attention to overusing common words in the same paragraph. My copy editor has caught instances where I’ve used the word back and side and like in a 50-word radius.

These are small details, but small details matter! If a subway train slaloms through the tunnels, it should only slalom once in your story.

I am THRILLED to report that WHEN YOU WERE HERE will be published in Germany! My German publisher is Thienemann and the novel, which comes out in the United States next spring from Little Brown, will …]]> I have German book news! As you might have gleaned from the subject line!

I am THRILLED to report that WHEN YOU WERE HERE will be published in Germany! My German publisher is Thienemann and the novel, which comes out in the United States next spring from Little Brown, will be translated into German and published there in Spring 2014.

Yes, a ways off. But still! This is so exciting, and I hope it’s the start of many more foreign deals for this book. My agent, Michelle Wolfson, has always believed in the international appeal of this story, so we’re both super excited that German teens will get to meet Danny and his friends and family and dog two years from now! Of course, none of this would be possible without the amazing Taryn Fagerness who sold the book to Thienemann! Danke, Taryn, Michelle and especially Thienemann!

But my first though was – prison escapee. My second thought …]]> While walking my dog yesterday, I saw a helicopter hovering over my neighborhood. We live close to the ferry, so logic would dictate that the helicopter was getting live shots for a TV station of a possible ferry worker’s strike.

But my first though was – prison escapee. My second thought – a super spy is loose in the hood. Next, I wondered if perhaps a paranormal or supernatural creature was trolling the streets near my house, and the copter had been sent from the International Paranormal Containment Agency. Then I saw a snake near my neighbor’s house.

Naturally, I called my husband to report all the bizarre goings-on. I’d never seen a snake in 8 years in this neighborhood. Why now, I asked? And what could that copter be searching for? He offered logical explanations at first, but when I returned home he’d come around to my line of thinking.

The snake was a remote-controlled snake dropped here by NSA or the CIA and the helicopter was circling as part of a covert government sting.

Writers are no different. We like to show our masters, our friends, our blog readers and Facebook buddies what we …]]> Cats like to bring things to their masters. Dead mice, specifically. The cat does this to be praised, to show her master what a good little huntress she has been.

Writers are no different. We like to show our masters, our friends, our blog readers and Facebook buddies what we caught for dinner as well. Did we wrestle a mouse to the ground? Why yes! If you consider penning the first draft of a novel to be the equivalent of catching a mouse. (Well, maybe the metaphor’s a stretch, but still!)

All of this is by way of saying that – much like a cat bringing its master a dead mouse for the sole purpose of saying “Look what I did!” – I will now tell you I finished the first draft of my tenth novel!!

Arching my back, smiling like Chesire, presenting the dead thing to you.

Okay, metaphor axed. The draft isn’t dead. It’s a live mouse! Whee! Let’s play with it.

Oh, did I mention? Finishing a draft makes you punch drunk, slap happy and silly.

Allow me to be more precise. Last night at 10:04 p.m. I wrote my two favorite words: “The End.” The newest novel is 76,000 words at the moment, it’s a YA contemporary fantasy, and it’s about power and powers, family and fineprint, words and love.

I began writing this novel January 9, but stopped many times to work on various edits for WHEN YOU WERE HERE. I finally tore back into the story about three weeks ago when I was halfway through with the draft. Which means, it took me two and a half months to write the first half and three weeks to write the second half.

What’s next? Well, you know, that little thing known as making it actually showable to someone besides my cat.

Maybe it’s time for a cat nap…

And …]]> Want to know a wee bit more about STARRY NIGHTS? Well, if you do, here it is, and enjoy it! Because this is all I’m probably going to say about the plot for a long, long time. Here’s the deal listing for STARRY NIGHTS as it ran in Publishers Marketplace.

And if you can’t see the image, here’s what it says:

Author of The Mockingbirds, Daisy Whitney’s new modern fantasy STARRY NIGHTS, pitched as Shakespeare in Love meets Night at the Museum, is set in a modern-day Paris inhabited by artists, muses, secret art societies, and paintings that come alive at night, and tells the tale of a teenage tour guide at the Musee d’Orsay who falls in love with a girl trapped inside a painting as he tries to reverse a dangerous age-old debt between artists and muses, to Michelle Nagler and Caroline Abbey at Bloomsbury Children’s, for publication in Fall 2013, in a two-book deal, by Michelle Wolfson at Wolfson Literary Agency (world English).
Translation rights: Taryn Fagerness Agency
Film/TV rights: Jon Cassir at CAA

So, you get a little more than Monday’s news. You get artists and muses. Yes, muses as in Muses!! And paintings that come alive at night! And, for those of you who notice details, the pitch is “Night at the Museum meets Shakespeare in Love,” as my agent felt that was closer to the heart of the story, and I agree. Plus, both of those flicks are on my top-ten all time movies list! And, no, the book doesn’t have a Shakespeare theme. But that movie to me is all about inspiration, and art, and overpowering love, the kind of love that Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow’s character in that movie) described as: “Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture.”

So, love. And art. And paintings. And magic. And secret societies. And Paris. And artists and Muses. And starry nights.

But once you’ve been published, you can often simply submit a partial for your option book to your house. Or, some authors – VIA THEIR AGENTS – may submit partials to other …]]> First-time authors almost always submit full books to publishing houses for consideration. (Well, their agents sub the books!)

But once you’ve been published, you can often simply submit a partial for your option book to your house. Or, some authors – VIA THEIR AGENTS – may submit partials to other publishing houses. I know LOTS of published authors who have landed second, third, fourth, fifth book deals on partials, whether for an option book with their house or a new deal with a new house.

I personally prefer to sub full books. That doesn’t mean subbing a partial is wrong or bad or not strategic. This just means that subbing DONE books is what works for me. Why? Because my stories change immensely in the writing! We’re talking massive, mega, unforeseen changes! Every story, of course, changes in the edits. I just completed final edits for WHEN YOU WERE HERE and during the first set of story edits I removed an ENTIRE plot line. (Ouch. It hurt. But the book is so much better for it.)

But even when I have written outlines for books, something I have done for THE RIVALS, STARRY NIGHTS, and the book I affectionately call FRANKENSTEIN NOVEL, those stories have all changed IMMENSELY from the outline. THE RIVALS, for instance, had a different antagonist in the outline and a different romantic complication.

As for FRANKENSTEIN NOVEL, which we haven’t even tried to sell yet, the character’s backstory and critical challenge in life changed from the outline while drafting that book.

Now, onto STARRY NIGHTS, which just sold to Bloomsbury! (Eek, I still like saying that!) I originally showed my amazing, incredible, wizard of an agent – Michelle Wolfson – a partial and a detailed 15-page outline complete with character bios, rules of the world, and a five-act story arc back in early September.

And guess what? The story changed dramatically once I wrote the rest of it! We’re talking the pivotal thing - the hinge – of the story only became clear to me when I was 80% done with the first draft. It didn’t come in the outline.

Oh, and yeah, the ending is totally different from what I outlined too.

So that’s why I prefer to FINISH books before showing them to editors. I don’t want the editors to only see my outlined idea for the story. Instead, I want to find out where the story should go in the writing. Because for me, it’s in the act of writing and in learning about my characters that I truly know where the story should go.

It’s the age-old question in online video – how do I make sure my videos are found? For insight into how to ensure your videos return high in search, are properly tagged and attractive to marketers, check out my interview with Metacafe CEO Erick Hachenburg. This is also the farewell …]]>

It’s the age-old question in online video – how do I make sure my videos are found? For insight into how to ensure your videos return high in search, are properly tagged and attractive to marketers, check out my interview with Metacafe CEO Erick Hachenburg. This is also the farewell episode of the New Media Minute! It’s been a great four and a half years – thanks for watching!