All Dreamers Welcome, Again

In September 2006, I started this blog with a post called All Dreamers Welcome.  Welcome to my dream, I said.  Please come share it with me.

THIS is my dream.  (Imagine me waving my hands expansively at my desk, the manuscript next to me, the books behind me, the stone polar bear on my desk, the stacks of cryptic Post-Its, and the vampire Mickey Mouse.)  All of this.  Being a writer.  It's what I've wanted to do since I was ten years old.  Prior to that, I wanted to be Wonder Woman or a Unicorn Princess (either a human in charge of unicorns or an actual unicorn with a tiara).

When I wrote that first blog post, I wanted this blog to be a blog about the craft of writing.  After all, it's what I do every day.  It's what I think about, obsess over, even dream about (when I'm not dreaming about tiara-wearing unicorns, of course).  But I felt self-conscious about it.  After all, in 2006, my first book wasn't even out yet.  Who was I to give writing advice to anyone?

Now, in 2013, I am doing what I've always wanted to do.  I have six books out and am under contract for five more.  And I feel that I've learned a lot over the past seven years.  So I've decided that it's okay for me to talk about what I've learned.  After all, I know there are a lot of people out there who share my dream.  (The writing dream, I mean, not the unicorn princess dream.)

So I'd like to reintroduce this blog and re-welcome you to it.  I plan to start a few different new blog series, including Stuff I've Learned, the Writer's Toolbox, and Reading About Writing.  If you dream about being a writer (or a unicorn princess) or if you're just curious, I hope you'll join me.

As one of my favorite poets says:

“If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic-bean-buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!”
-- Shel Silverstein, "Introduction" from Where the Sidewalk Ends

More to come.....

Lots of Links about Writing

I am going to a writing retreat in Vermont called Kindling Words this weekend. An entire weekend of nothing but writing and talking about writing! I am so so so excited. For one thing, the people are fantastic. For another, this retreat comes at the perfect time for me with my work-in-progress. I'm in the produce-as-much-as-possible stage, and I intend to write a stunningly tremendous amount this weekend.

Since I'm about to head off to think, talk, and do writing, I thought I'd share with you some writing-related links that I recently bookmarked. (Note: I don't agree with everything in all of these, but I did find them all interesting.)

Just-Do-It General Advice:

"25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing" by Chuck Wendig

"25 Things Writers Should Start Doing" by Chuck Wendig

"So You Want to Be a Writer... Advice to a 10 Year Old" by Ron Marz

Finding Inspiration:

"What Inspires" by Sara Zarr

"Where Do You Get Your Ideas?" by Neil Gaiman

Avoiding Pitfalls:

"Measuring Success" by Mette Ivie Harrison

"Oh, the Internet" by Kiersten White

Personal Experiences:

"Turning Points" by Gayle Forman

"You Have Mentioned Several Times..." by Sarah Rees Brennan

"Starting a New Book" by Kate Messner

"What's Your Favorite Anecdote About Learning How to Write?" by S.C. Butler

"Writing for Writing's Sake" by Rhonda Stapleton

Techniques of Super-Fast Writers:

"How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day" by Rachel Aaron

"The 10,000 Word Day" by Zoe Winters

"Kicking Out a Fast First Draft" by Anne Greenwood Brown

Sites with Lots of Great Writing-Related Posts:

Nova Ren Suma's distraction no. 99

John Scalzi's Whatever

Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds


For a list of older links to writing-related posts and articles, please click here and here.

Happy writing!

Reading About Writing

I love reading about writing.

When I first decided that I wanted to be a writer, one of the first things that I did was empty my hometown library of every "how to write" book I could find. I poured over those books, taking copious notes as if I were unlocking the secrets to the universe.

I was ten years old, and I believed that books held the answer to every question, the solution to every problem, and the map to every dream.

Okay, I still believe that.

These days, one of my favorite things to do online (along with checking out cake wrecks and fashion commentary) is read about writing. In case you're interested, here are a bunch that I bookmarked recently:

"The Ever-Popular I Suck Playlist" by Libba Bray

"How Not to Bug the F*** Out When Writing a Novel" by Chuck Wendig

"'Don't listen to them. They're both wrong.' And other reasons I love Steven Tyler" by Jo Knowles

"Making Story Happen" by Laini Taylor

"How to Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon

"Writing Better" by Megan Crewe

"Choose Your Own Adventure" by Jessica Tudor

"And the Magic Begins" interview with Terry Pratchett

"Love What You Love" by Ray Bradbury (via Boing Boing)

"Our Best Advice for Writing Fantasy" on Enchanted Inkpot

"How Science Fiction Movies Can Help You Write Novels" by John Scalzi

"How to Survive a First Draft" by Delia Sherman

"Writing Weirdness" by Carrie Jones

"The Things That Save Us" by Terri Windling

Anyone have any writing-about-writing links you'd like to share? Any favorite writing-related sites or blogs?

In addition to reading about writing, I've also learned a lot about writing and publishing by hanging out with all manner of bookish people every chance I get, which is exactly what I'll be doing this week. I'm headed to Book Expo America (BEA), a huge gathering of booksellers, publishers, authors, etc at the Javits Center in NYC. Really looking forward to it!