One Thing I Wish I Knew When I Started Writing

Today I’m participating in the Teens Can Write Too blog chain for July.

 

The title is a lie, people. I’m going to talk about more than one thing because I’m just multi-talented like that. Here we go.

 

First drafts suck.

No, really, take it from me. I am the Supreme Goddess of Writing. If I had known this when I was a tiny young writer, I would have been a lot less arrogant. No, you are not the exception to the rule. Your first draft will not be perfect. Like the rest of us mere mortals, you have to rewrite. For me, that usually means the whole novel *whimpers quietly*. Even if your first drafts are less of a mess than mine, they will need extensive revision.

 

Teen writing does not suck. Beginning writing does.

Just realised I’ve used “sucks” in the first two of these. Oh well. Anyway, there is this misconception that teen writers suck at writing, which is just untrue. Any beginning writing sucks. Like anything, it takes practise. Sure, some may be better at it than others to begin with, but even those people need determination and perseverence in order to…not suck.

 

There is a whole community of writers out there on the interwebs.

Twitter is your best friend. Seriously. There are SO MANY writers on Twitter it’s not even funny. And I’ve learnt a bunch from other writers. Whether it’s from pitch contests, blog posts or Tweet-sized tips on writing, there’s so much there that’s helpful. I wish I’d had Twitter when I first started writing.

 

Writing is hard. But that’s no excuse.

You may not want to write every day. You may want to cry. Frequently. You may blame writer’s block as the excuse for not writing, but you just have to push through it. The only way to defeat writer’s block is to write. Or to write a different scene. But if you keep making excuses for not writing, you’ll never do it.

 

It’s all worth it.

I wish I had known this as well – that no matter how hard it gets, no matter how bad you think your writing is, there will come a day when you read back some of your work and you think…hey, that’s not too bad. And you think…hey, I wrote that. If you can read back your writing and not want to scratch your eyeballs out, then that’s pretty awesome.

And for me, it’s all worth it.

 

And here are the rest of the lovely people participating in the blog chain! You should definitely check them all out. And tell me in the comments: if you’re a writer, what’s one thing you wish you knew when you started out?

5th – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

6th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

7th – http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/

8th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

9th – http://lillianmwoodall.wordpress.com/

10th – http://www.brookeharrison.com/

11th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/

12th – http://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/

13th – http://theweirdystation.blogspot.com/

14th – http://taratherese.wordpress.com/

15th – http://sammitalk.wordpress.com/

16th – http://eighthundredninety.blogspot.com/

17th – http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com/

18th – http://novelexemplar.wordpress.com/

19th – http://thelonglifeofalifelongfangirl.wordpress.com/

20th – https://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

21st – https://theloonyteenwriter.wordpress.com/

22nd – http://roomble.wordpress.com/

23rd – http://thependanttrilogy.wordpress.com/

24th – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ – The topic for August’s blog chain will be announced.

Teens Can Write Too Blog Chain: book-to-movie adaptations

Today I’m joining in with the blog chain hosted by John Hansen from Teens Can Write Too (which is an awesome blog and you should check it out).

This month we’re discussing

BOOK-TO-MOVIE ADAPTATIONS

“What are your thoughts on book-to-movie adaptions? Would you one day want your book made into a movie, or probably not?”

This is quite topical, since The Fault in Our Stars is out AS WE SPEAK (side note: sucked in USA, Australia got it before you). I saw TFIOS at the beginning of May, because I’m a lucky duck. You can see my thoughts here.

Also, back in ye olde February of 2013, I posted about my thoughts on hearing that it was GOING to be turned into a movie. You can read about that here. (weirdly enough, some of my predictions ended up being true)

Back to adaptations themselves. Let’s not turn this into a post about TFIOS (much as that would be awesome). Here are some gifs from my favourite adaptations.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

Based on:

STARDUST

Based on:

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

Based on:

HARRY POTTER..JUST ALL OF THEM

Based on:

I love book-to-movie adaptations. Reading is all well and good, I love it, but having that extra dimension, being able to SEE the characters, is an amazing experience. And when it’s done right, it makes the book seem that much more real.

For all of the adaptations I’ve listed above, they don’t follow the book/s to the letter. They change things, add things, remove things that don’t work well in a visual context (or in a two-hour time frame). But they keep the things that are essential to the integrity of the story. Stardust is a bit of a strange example, because it’s VERY different to the book (and I didn’t like the book much). So that one’s kind of an exception to the rule. But the others are both extensions of books that I love as well as art forms in their own right.

Would I ever want my books to feature on the big screen? Well, that depends. It wouldn’t be a decision I’d make lightly – I’ve heard the horror stories. Goodness, I’ve WATCHED the horror stories, the ones that had such potential and then turned out…well, awful (AHEM Eragon). But I think it would also be an amazing experience if it was done right. Seeing my actual characters come to life? Now that would be cool.

What are some of your favourite book-to-movie adaptations? Writers, would you ever want your books to become movies?

And these are the links of the other lovely people participating in the blog chain!

5th – http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/

6th – https://theloonyteenwriter.wordpress.com/ (That’s me!)

7th – http://sammitalk.wordpress.com/

8th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

9th – http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com/

10th – http://maralaurey.wordpress.com/

11th – http://charleyrobson.blogspot.com/

12th – http://taratherese.wordpress.com/

13th – http://theweirdystation.blogspot.com/

14th – http://fairyskeletons.blogspot.com/

15th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/

16th – http://novelexemplar.wordpress.com/

17th – http://magicandwriting.wordpress.com/

18th – http://mirrormadeofwords.com/

19th – http://www.brookeharrison.com/

20th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

21st – http://eighthundredninety.blogspot.com/

22nd – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

23rd – http://aaronandtamarabooks.blogspot.com/

24th – http://www.butterfliesoftheimagination.weebly.com/

25th – http://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/

26th – http://turtlesinmysoup.blogspot.com/

27th – http://missalexandrinabrant.wordpress.com/

28th – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ – The topic for July’s blog chain will be announced.

Teens Can Write Too Blog Chain: books I’d like to see more of

Back in the dark ages of 2013, there was a monthly blog hop on Teens Can Write Too, this fabulous blog championing teen writers. And it’s back! This month the discussion is based around the question What kinds of published books would you like to see more of? You can visit the blog here.

I’m going to do a list as usual, because I like lists. I’ve actually done a similar post before, which you can find here, so these are updated wishes of mine.

1) Retellings

Okay, so there are already LOTS of retellings out there. My aim is for every book ever published to be a retelling, preferably of Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz.

Glinda meeting up with Alice? Hells yes.

2) Illustrations in YA books

I’m sure there are books out there like this, but…well, not that many. I have a short attention span. I think people would love physical books a lot more if there were pictures. Here I’m thinking about books like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, which I didn’t really like, but which has AMAZING pictures all throughout it.

3) Mermaids

One of my favourite MG series of all time is Ingo, which is all about the Mer. It’s powerful, and has a really unique magic system, and I love it. I’d love to read a really great YA mermaid book (if you know of one, let me know in comments!)

 

4) Books with no love interest

I love romance as much as the next gal. Anna and the French Kiss is one of my favourite books ever. But I don’t see why EVERY book has to have a romantic sub-plot.

5) Large families

I LOVED the huge family in My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick. More of those, please!

6) Quirky, different books

Here I’m talking about things like Alice in Wonderland, which is completely bizarre, any of Lemony Snicket’s books, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and others like that. These are MG books, but I’d love to see that kind of bizarre, quirky style in YA! Books that, basically, don’t take themselves too seriously.

7) Diversity

Okay, I mentioned this in my previous post of “things I want to see more in YA,” but I think it’s important enough to reiterate: I want to see protagonists with different skin colours, abilities, backgrounds, genders, sexualities, opinions, personalities, families, fears, ambitions…characters that reflect how diverse people are in real life.

8) Different hobbies

Similar to in Lola and the Boy Next Door, I’d love to see characters who have diverse interests, and hobbies that reflect them. Like…flower-arranging, maybe. Or cross-stitching. Or memorising digits of pi. Or, I don’t know, Swedish bunny-jumping. No, really.

9) Laugh-out-loud funny speculative fiction books

I don’t come across these THAT often, but I always love the ones that I do. Laughing is fun! Contemporary YA books are often quite funny, but in genres like dystopia, it’s more serious. I’d love to see a comedic dystopian.

10) Unusual settings. 

Too often YA books are set in schools, probably in America. I’d love to see different settings – in a single room; in a jungle; underwater; in a mental asylum; in an abandoned theme park; homeschooling; online…okay this is giving me way too many plot bunnies.

BUNNIES ARE SO CUTE.

Those are the things I’d love to see more of in YA. What about you?