Something I learned a little while ago was that you can create just about anything from being a little curious, a little committed, and very, very passionate.  So my Leah and I were talking over breakfast one day, thinking of what we want to do in life.  The problems we see; the things we want to change.  We started talking about how writing can empower people, can change lives, and how many good examples of fabulous writers there are just around Boston.  How good an example that would be for the kids that don’t have the confidence to express themselves in words.

We came up with this idea to organize an essay contest. An essay contest where young women in particular could take the chance to use their words, develop their voice, and use it to create and inspire change in the world around them.

That’s what IGNITE is: Inspiring Girls with New Ideas and Teaching Empowerment.

Basically, Leah and I are now scrambling to get everything organized and everyone involved.  I’m kind of nervous about it–this is the first time I’ve taken the reins on anything like this and though I’m curious to see where it can lead, I’m also humble about my own capabilities, so we’ll see.

It does mean, of course, that if anyone wants to help out, I’ll be more than happy to have the help!

Basically, I’m still looking for:

• Anything to be donated as prizes, from signed books to gift certificates to money
• Panelists!  I’m looking for YA authors in particular, and I have a list that I’m in the process of emailing personally, but hey, if you see this and want to volunteer, email me at acgaughen@gmail.com!

Below are the details…..spread the word. 

Great change will always come from small beginnings.
A tsunami was once a tiny tremble on the ocean floor, a revolution was once a single thought in a person’s mind, and the most massive bonfire started with a tiny spark.  Think of that for a moment.  A thin, weak match, nothing but a splinter to the tree that it came from, hit the right amount of friction and it ignited.  The match flared; fire began.

The thing about fire is that it catches.  One flame, one single spark, can itself ignite the world.

All around you, there are examples of women who have used their voices to change the world.  From Abigail Adams, a Boston native who insisted that women be remembered as the Declaration and Constitution were being drafted to Ida B. Wells Barnett, a newspaperwoman that founded the NAACP and her friend Jane Addams who was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.  Sometimes, the simple act of writing can be the most incendiary thing of all.

The question is, what kind of flame could you ignite?  What is your spark?

Tell us, in 1500 words or less, what you would do if you could change anything in your school, community, or city.  It can be a massive change or a small one, a bonfire or a spark, as long as you can answer the following questions:  What is needed to put this plan into action?  What kind of effect do you think it would have?  What makes it an important change?  What kind of obstacles would your plan face?

The GLOW Boston IGNITE Change Essay Contest will be judged on the creativity, clarity, impact and effectiveness of your idea to create change in your community.   Spelling and grammar will not play a part in the judging process, however remember that no matter how it is accomplished, your idea must be clearly expressed.  All entries must be in English and submitted to a teacher or directly to the contest organizers on or before December 23, 2010.

Reasons I know fall is coming:

1.  I am buying an unusual volume of soft and fuzzy things.  New slippers, new sweater, oogling a new pair of Uggs.

2.  MY HEAD IS EXPLODING!  So much so that i can’t really sleep for all the stories exploding in my head.  One, which has been percolating since maybe April, just clicked into place with like a cosmic boom.

Which is actually terrible timing, because I’m finishing a book now, trying to write an outline for a sequel, waiting for some edits to come back on Scarlet, and now i have this crazy burning idea.

Oh, yeah, and I’m also working on organizing an essay contest that i will blog about in detail later, because, well, i need me some help on that!

This always happens to me.  I have no idea why, but fall comes around and it’s like my heart rate speeds up.  And my creative rate speeds up.  And I barely sleep for months and I churn out like 80,000 words a month, and then we get to about February and it all dies.

But then again, in this blitz last year i wrote Scarlet, so obviously good things come out of it.

But it also raises another question for me:  this “click” that I had was inspired by listening to another person’s story.  I had this character that was 99% formed and then if I take one single element from this real life person’s life (and possibly some little incidents that would color in backstory) and combine it with my existing character, i have a REALLY AWESOME CHARACTER.  But this is troubling to me because despite the fact that in retrospect, i can see how certain characters were inspired by certain traits in people, i’ve never had such direct inspiration, and it feels a little like life plagiarism.

Is this wrong?  Do i run it by the person? If i do, what the hell do i say?  “Hey, you, that story you were telling me REALLY inspired me.  Can I use that, but change the “you” in the story into a kind of dark character?”  Would they possibly understand that I’m not writing about THEM, but about an amalgamation of them that’s really just a sliver of them?

I think that’s a hard–and confusing–sell.  Anyone have any experience in this, because I’m probably going to blurt it out and it will come out very wrong.

And also–is it understood by people that meet writers that the old proviso is true: Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel?

That sounds nefarious, doesn’t it?

I’m trying to work through a major plot point in the new story I’m writing, so any feedback I can get would be AWESOME!  And if not, it helps me to think out loud(ish) anyway.

So basically, my main character is going to face some betrayal.  She’s scared and unwilling to trust people, so naturally her greatest fear/weakness is being betrayed by people she cares about.  But I haven’t really decided how it goes down.

Scenario 1.

Crush is the betrayer.  She’s never really trusted him to start with, and this would confirm all her worst fears, and break the limb that she went out on for him.  Definitely hurtful, but not much of a surprise. Also, this breaks down into subsets:

Scenario 1A

Crush is a MEAN betrayer, and he’s playing my MC.  I’m not sure I like this, because I see him as much more likely to do scenario 1B.

Scenario 1B

With a smile an a shrug, crush admits, “This is who you always knew I was.  Can’t help me being who i am.” and he betrays my MC in a way that’s not really MEAN.  It’s just a little wicked.  Of course, then there’s always….

Scenario 2.

Best friend is the betrayer.  Definitely an oh-no-she-didn’t, didn’t see it coming (because I didn’t see it coming as the WRITER, and I would probably have to retool some of the story for this to work) kind of surprise.  Which, hey, I like shock value.  But I’m debating whether it’s too harsh–like if you don’t trust someone and then the girl who is supposed to be your best friend betrays you?  Ouch.

The thing I’m hesitating on is that there is a strong kind of sisterhood theme in the story so far, and scenario 2 would kill it.  But it would also establish great conflict for continuing the story later.

But it’s so MEAN.

Even as I’m writing this, that oh so famous, iconic saying is creeping into my head: kill your darlings.  Oh, my poor MC, I think I’m about to break your little heart.   And then have your crush steal it back 

While I realize I’m not the movingest, shakingest of people, I do consider myself to be perpetually curious.  Especially when it comes to writing, and the ways in which writing sort of amalgamates with other things, be it linguistics, anthropology, cultural development, young people, or the internet.

It’s the latter that seems to be popping up lately.  Have you heard about Open Sky? It seems to be, if it’s prevailing PR is to be believed, targeting itself toward authors and writers looking to expand and define their brand and sales base.  Which is, um, awesome.  The website (newly launched) isn’t nearly so specific, and seems to be a broader minded Etsy prototype.

(Love me some Etsy.  Just bought these geekery items there the other day:

SO CUTE!)

Back to OpenSky.  All in all, a very cool idea that will take a minute (and, you know, an actual book to sell) to see if it’s really going to have the impact that it’s hinting at.  I think it has a lot of potential, though, and writers should definitely be keeping an eye on it–sites like these could make self publishing a much more viable commodity.

And, a quick word about self pubbing, I was really fascinated by MoonRat’s article (tweeted earlier this week; you should sooo follow me on Twitter), mostly because my favorite, most deeply obsessed with unreliable narrator EVER, Towner Whitney in Brunonia Barry’s THE LACE READER, was self published.  I NEVER KNEW THIS!  And now I wish I paid more attention to how I heard about the book in the first place.

But I didn’t.

Anyway, the other website I’m currently very curious about what it will mean for my curiosity and for the writing industry is Figment.com.  This website is pretty fascinating because, while still in beta testing, it’s centered on this pop Japanese trend that has teenagers writing prose via cell phones, to be shared and distributed via cell phones.  It’s like Twitter novels, except that, if the website is to be believed, it’s wildly popular.  Could something like this catch on in the states?  Could Figment become the new Facebook for writers?  It’s totally possible, and I’m downright curious.

Also, here’s a good list of the best Creative Writing programs in the States, including PhD, which I found very useful because a CW PhD is always in the back of my mind, but there are few decent programs.

And that’s all for now.  Happy Saturday.  xx

Alright, so I’ve avoided the paranormal craze like the plague, but I think this woman sounds like she kicks some serious ass.  Some basic highlights:

• Had her first book published in 2005
• Since then, she’s published a whopping FOURTEEN books
• She’s been published in 35 countries and has topped every bestseller list I’ve heard of
• And, oh yeah, she just signed a “healthy” “multi-million” dollar book deal.  FIVE YEARS after publishing her first novel!
• In addition, she seems to also share my Mark Twainian philosophy of taking on every job that comes her way.
• This from her website:  Important lesson learned: “That it’s never too late to follow your dream, though there’s nothing wrong with getting a head start.”

My kind of girl!

Rock on Alyson, congrats on your book deal–I’m heading over to Barnes and Noble to check out your backlist!

So, I’ve been thinking a lot for the past ten minutes about all the fellowships and residencies and all the stuff I didn’t get, year after year.  On the one hand, hey that kind of sucks.  Nobody likes not being picked for dodgeball.  But at the same time, from where I’m sitting right now, I don’t think I was the person who *needed* that.  I just needed to be a little more, well, creative.  So, in that spirit, I’m celebrating all the ways you can write without needing a residency, fellowship, or time allocated specifically for writing.

1.  Be a freelance writer.

Hey!  You work from home!  You’re on your computer all the time!  You’re even sharpening your writing skills and getting your name out there! This sounds perfect!

I don’t disagree, except there is little money and less security in it.  But it’s an option.

2.   Be a secretary for a quiet place.

Most places like this you can sneak in some time on the DL to write, with or without your boss’ knowledge.  Score!

Total score, because it comes with benefits and salary and air conditioning, but might not offer you the most consistent time to write.  Bonus, however–weekends off will mean you can have a Writing Saturday or Writing Sunday, which I’m particularly fond of.

3.  Work overnights!

You know those people who go to school and then work overnights?  They can do it because often, there’s downtime on an overnight to get stuff done of your own, and less bossmen looking over your shoulder at what your doing.

If you can hack the hours, TOTAL SCORE!!  WOOT!

4.   Be something where you can’t help but write.

Travel writer!  Airline attendant!  Florist!  Okay, maybe those are not your all time most inspiring jobs, but for me they totally would be.  Fun places!  Grumpy people!  Beautiful flowers!  It’s all about keeping inspiration alive, no matter how you do it.

Because at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you’re writing.  It’s like walking.  You need at least thirty minutes a day to not die, and you can get it however you want–five minutes here, five minutes there, or the whole thing all at once.  How you do it doesn’t matter.  Just get it done.

Or you’ll die.

An inky, inky death.

Yeah.

What, have you missed me?  Well, I’ve been reading a lot this summer, and not blogging because of it, so whatever.

First, my favorite book so far this summer is Angie Frazier’s EVERLASTING. The number one surprise about this book is how HOT a guy named Oscar can be!  As someone who has a serious and generations deep love for the sea, this book literally made me want to run off onto a clipper and never come back.  It’s a gorgeous story about that emotional turning point you have in your teens that turns you from the person your parents want you to be to the person that is authentically you, and it’s all done against the backdrop of adventure, intrigue, magic and love.  Um, what could be better?  Loved it, can’t wait for the sequel.  Check out the book trailer and more about Angie.

Second, I can’t believe how much in love I’ve fallen (and how quickly I’ve consumed) the Gallagher Girls series.  After following Kristin Nelson for a long time (who, by the way, reps a lot of my favorite books lately), I finally rented ID TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN ID HAVE TO KILL YOU from my library and read it (which, by the way, so epic because it’s the longest title ever!).  The first book was fluff, but it’s fun fluff.  The second (read just as quickly) CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY, was still fluffy.  The third, however, DONT JUDGE A GIRL BY HER COVER was where the danger got a little more real in the book, and the series genuinely grabbed me.  I got ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG to read on an airplane and I finished it before we touched down (and the flight was only an hour).  Ally Carter, you’ve got me hooked!  And this all was after reading (and not entirely liking) HEIST SOCIETY. I cannot wait to read what happens in the next book, and obviously I’m not the only one, because Ally has a very funny afterword in the book that laments how she can’t write fast enough.  Get on it, Carter!

What else should I be reading, people?  Always looking for an awesome new YA!

you know what, universe, frankly I’m a little sick of your attitude.  i don’t appreciate you taking that tone with me.  i definitely don’t appreciate this horrible feeling of being completely and rather helplessly downtrodden, victimized by fate, waiting for good news that hasn’t come–that, maybe, isn’t coming.

i’ve thought a lot lately that maybe i’ve lost my faith.  maybe i’ve lost that feeling that everything is going to work out, so just keep believing–and yes, that’s true.  everything will not just magically work out because it has to, because i have some inane sense of entitlement about the matter.  i understand that perfectly.

i don’t really think it has to do with faith, though.  I think it has to do with fight.  I was not raised, i am not built, to sit idly by.  i’m not really made for sitting by the blackberry waiting for that email, for that call, that will change everything.  i’m not this girl that is totally terrified and wallowing in it, paralyzed by the idea that i may or may not get published.  for the past six months, it’s felt entirely out of my hands, beyond my control, leaving me in this suspended spiderweb of awkward limbo.

let me repeat, in case you missed in (in case I missed it)–I. am. not. this. girl.

Maybe it’s hubris, maybe it’s calling down the lightning bolts, but i will get published.  one day, one manuscript, it will all work out.  I hope it’s scarlet, that would be fantastic, but i’m realistic enough to know that it took me a damn lot of tries before scarlet to get this far.  it would be fantastic to surf along on scarlet’s wave right into the beach, but i understand that it might not be this one.

i think a lot of the trepidation i’ve been feeling has somehow been centered around the idea that this is my last chance.  this one’s for all the marbles.  mostly because, for the past six months, i haven’t lighted on a new project.  i haven’t found the next novel, the next scarlet that will be my next best chance.  that’s a terrifying feeling.  but it’s also a damning cycle, because that fear has prevented me from finding that next novel.

at the moment i’m working on something new, but it’s also got a lot in common with scarlet.  i’m going with it for now and i’ll judge it later.

no matter if this novel goes somewhere or not, this is not my last chance. you hear me, universe?  you can put me down for the count on this one, but it doesn’t mean you’ve seen the last of me.  it’s doesn’t mean i’m done.  i won’t give up because i simply don’t know how to give up.  it’s just not in me, and though that may translate to a wretch with negative energy and substantial bitterness by the end of this, i don’t care.  I’ve said from the first i’m in this for the long haul, however my verdict comes back.

learning to fight, remembering to fight, and struggling to fight is always the most crucial, most rewarding part of the journey.

and i’m not done fighting.

so bring it on.

sorry for the absence, love bugs!

well work’s been a little crazy, and while that’s no excuse, it seems to be an awfully good reason.  i’ve been thinking about work lately though–not my job specifically, but like work destinies.

so, i didn’t get the fellowships that i applied for this year; both i was bummed about for different ways.  first, because it’s still like “awesome, I’m not good enough”.  second, because it means that i won’t spend next year underneath a tree/on a beach writing my days away.

and while i was waiting to hear, i was wishing on eyelashes and airplanes, just praying that i would find a job i was happy with so that if i didn’t get these fellowships, i would survive.  i have a job i’m happy with that even allows me time to write and pays them bills, but its occurred to me that maybe it means i was never going to get those fellowships, like i never even had a shot, and the universe was lessening the blow.

which is good, because if i had nothing, i’d be pretty bummed.

but it’s also the first step.  it’s a comfortable, non-writing job that i’m happy in.  it’s totally separate from my writing career, and while it will never swallow it up, it won’t depend on it either.  working crappy part time jobs, the hope of personal success is literally your bread and butter, and without it you can’t sustain.  for the first time i can see myself sustaining.  the pressure’s off.

and i’m not sure that’s a good thing.

i mean, this also coincides with the time when SCARLET is distinctly out of my hands; i’m waiting for news.  i’ve gotten some positive feedback from editors (but not like LETS GO TO AUCTION yet, so i’m hesitant to talk to much about the positive part) and some rejections.  so maybe a great job is a gift from the gods to make it sting less.

ha.  would ANYTHING make it sting less?

i’m terrified to succeed, i’m petrified to fail (though to be honest, i know the procedure with rejection.  you get up and start again.  i’m not as familiar with success!), i’m scared of being too complacent and i’m worried about not being secure enough.  and the only thing i can do is keep on keeping on.

jesus.

i’m tearing through this novel, mostly thanks to my current work schedule, at breakneck speed, and i’m pretty sure it actually blows.

like it’s terrible.  it’s totally dry, it’s got a lot going on, a lot of weird names, and while i’m refraining from allowing more authorial voice than is truly necessary (which would, all around, make it a wreck of epic proportions), it’s reading like a montage, without emotional depth and without personal passion.

and yet, it keeps going.  it’s like swallowing a quarter on a string and slowly dragging it back up.

see that?  that was an IMAGE.  another thing my story seems to be without.  visual punch? pass.  artistic flair?  who needs it.  so why the hell do i keep writing this?

some would say i’m delirious or just desperate to write something, and while both may be correct, it’s literally been months since something was flowing like this for me.  only, last time it flowed, i was pretty sure it was genius and not utter drivel.

that’s the other thing.  there really is a story here, a story about three sisters that’s pretty good, but it’s not being told correctly.  yet.  so maybe i need to write it all badly and then write it all better?  maybe it’s better than i think it is (DOUBT IT.)?

{{brief pause while i reread the first chapter}}

and actually, the first chapter isn’t sucktastic at all.  it’s rich and vibrant without being over the top.  hm.

maybe i need to get down the whowherewhatwhywhen of the story and then make it pretty?

i’ll be honest, when it comes to inspiration, despite the fact that i do ask many questions, i almost never require an answer.  i’ll keep writing until my inspiration stops abruptly and i’ll observe the carnage and try to make some sense of it all.  this is kind of my philosophy on life as well, i guess: as long as you’re on a ride, keep going. stopping to make sense of it all can sometimes be beneficial, but most often just takes you away from whatever was worth being engrossed in.

i think losing yourself daily is an aim in itself.

i guess i’ll let you know what happens.  lead on, capricious monkey, lead on.