Top Ten Favorites

I thought I'd post about my top ten favorite things at the moment.

1.) The new rocky road syrup at Dunkin Donuts. I don't like rocky road ice cream, but I loooove this coffee flavor! OMG. It's so good.

2.) The song "Kick Me" by Sleeping with Sirens. I can't stop listening to it. LOVE it! And I really like the video. I saw them this month and they opened the show with this song. (Explicit lyrics)

3.) Even though I read it during Christmas break, I can't stop thinking about I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson. Love love love this book! I went shopping for a friend's birthday the other day, and I was going to buy her the book, until I realized I already bought it for her at Christmas. Ha ha! If you haven't read it, you NEED to. Seriously.

4.) BREAKING BAD's spin-off series BETTER CALL SAUL. It's so good. And dark. And funny. And every time a character from BREAKING BAD makes an appearance, I squee! I hate waiting week-to-week to watch a new episode.

5.) Writing contests. I love them! The contest aspect is awesome, but I love them because they're a great way to make writer friends. I just entered Pitch Madness for the first time. The wait to find out if I've been picked is killer, but that's part of the fun. Fingers crossed!

6.) New socks. I bought a six pack of Puma neon ankle socks and they're awesome. They're super cushy!

7.) Writer friends getting literary agents. Two of my CPs got agents (within a week of each other!) this month. Yay!!!

8.) Vacation. I'm on vacation this week. Woohoo! No explanation necessary, right?

9.) SPOTIFY. I don't know how I lived without it.

10.) Spending my Sunday nights watching THE WALKING DEAD with my husband and dogs. Soon, it'll be replaced with GAME OF THRONES and my husband will have to listen to me complain about the differences between show and books. (Because that's totally his favorite part!)


What are some of your favorite things at the moment?

Terrible Titles Bloghop: The Treasure Hunt

My lovely CP and friend Julie Dao tagged me for the Terrible Titles Bloghop. Julie recently signed with Tamar Rydzinski of the Laura Dail Literary Agency. Read her I HAVE AN AGENT post here.

Anyway! On to the post:

Here are the rules: Writers scroll through their manuscript and stop in random places. Whatever words/phrase the cursor lands on becomes one of eight terrible titles.

1. THE OLD LOBSTER TRAPS

2. GLANCING BACK AT HIM

3. I DON'T NORMALLY LIKE COFFEE

4. SEE YOU LATER, BEN

5. FOOTSTEPS ON THE STAIRS

6. ALMOST BREAKING MY RIBS

7. WHICH WAS RIDICULOUS

8. LIKE KNIFE SOMEBODY?


My cursor kept stopping on giant blank spaces, so it took me a while to get all eight. I think I'm partial to I DON'T NORMALLY LIKE COFFEE and LIKE KNIFE SOMEBODY?

Have you done the Terrible Titles Bloghop? What are your favorites? If you'd like me to tag you, let me know in the comments!

Artsy Writing

(Visual) Art and writing are interconnected, I think. 

Sometimes I try to sketch my characters. Sometimes I draw maps of the world. I almost always make Pinspiration boards on Pinterest. But I've never made an actual inspiration/positivity/vision board before. 

After talking with my CPs about staying positive through the ups and downs of writing and where they find inspiration, I thought it would be fun to make an inspirational collage/vision board for my current manuscript and writing as a way to stay positive. 

Here is the (almost) final product:

I clipped pictures and phrases out of magazines, printed out quotes I found online, and even sketched/wrote things myself. 

Here are some close ups and explanations:

"Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure."

I think that's the perfect quote for writing and querying. It's so hard to stay positive all the time, but a good attitude can make all the difference.

"Hope, but never expect. Look forward, but never wait."

This quote reminds me of something my friend once told me, "Go into something with positive intention, not expectation." Intention and expectation sound similar, but I think with intention you're putting your positivity out into the universe, not expecting something in return. 

"Make it simple, but significant." 

This reminds me of my awesome Pitch Wars mentor Jessie Devine. I was trying too hard with my prose, attempting to make it "fancier" than it needed to be. He taught me how to simplify it. I ended up cutting over 5k of filler from THE TREASURE HUNT with his help.

I found this four-leaf clover in my yard. Obviously, I thought a little good luck wouldn't hurt! :)
(And that picture of Dylan O'Brien is how I imagine my MC's personality—well, more like his character's personality on Teen Wolf!)

This musical-looking sketch represents my first Pitch Wars team: Team PPU. When the lovely Stephanie Garber picked me as her second alternate in 2013, it was my first writing-related ego boost. It was huge for me. (Thanks, Stephanie! <3) 

My teammates, Julie Dao and Katie Bucklein, are two of my closest writer friends. We've been through so much together, so I wanted to give Team PPU, as a whole, positive vibes! The anchor represents Katie's PW book, the music represents Julie's, and the stars represent mine. 

What do you do when you're brainstorming/writing/editing a manuscript? Do you sketch your characters? Make collages? Draw maps? Make vision boards?

If you'd like to be tagged in an Artsy Writing blog tour, let me know in the comments!