How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

I'm a big fan of JA Konrath's advice on publishing. I think he tells the truth about how much work it is and how tedious it can be, but he also makes it clear what the benefits are for all of that. But I sometimes disagree with his advice on actual writing, like I do with his post here , about how writing is like being an emperor.* I agree with most of it, but here's what he says about writing that I have issues with: You shouldn't write in a genre you aren't well-read in. You shouldn't submit a story to a magazine unless you've read several issues cover to cover. Every time you write, you aren't reinventing the wheel. You're simply putting a new spin on the wheel. Figure out how the wheel works, then you can spin it accordingly. There's actually two pieces of advice here, stuck together as one. The second piece--the part I agree with--involves publishing. Do not submit to places (magazines, publishers, agents) that you're not familiar w...

There's an interesting post over at Fangs, Fur & Fey asking what people read while they write. Some of the respondents have said that they have to read outside their own genres while they writer, and some of them have said that they don't read any fiction at all while they write, which, wow. I personally am a constant reader. There's no way I could stop reading while I wrote or I would either (a) never read again or (b) never write again. Even when I was in law school, I read all the time.* But I do have to be careful about what I read when I write, because I am a person who picks up style very easily, and if I read something too distinctive, then it can end up influencing what I'm writing whether I want it to or not. So, for example, I can read anything by Stephen King. Fiction, non-fiction,** he is style neutral for me, I think because his own style is so natural. He has his tricks and tropes as we all do, but it feels natural to him, and so it feels natural...

1. During the course of downloading "I Believe" for my post about Stevie Wonder, I came across a version by the University of Wisconsin all-male a cappella group The Madhatters. Oh my god, you guys, you need to hear this song. It's on iTunes and it is soooo good. Is it just me, or does really good a cappella give you chills, too? ::shiver:: 2. Am I the only one who didn't know that Toyota car company was named after the founder of the company, just like Ford? I don't know why I was surprised by that, but I was. I guess I just never thought of it. 3. Although I am not a big fan of winter at the moment, I am a big fan of that time in the morning when everything is still and the snow sparkles here and there like diamonds on a white blanket. Especially when I get to go back inside and have cocoa after looking at it. 4. I'm really enjoying the new season of Friday Night Lights . I like what they're doing with Tyra's character, and Tim Riggins is crac...

Recently, I fell in love with a new book. I'll tell you about that book in another post, but it's a type of book that I wouldn't normally read, one I picked up because I heard about the author on NPR and he seemed like a nice and funny guy so I thought "what the heck?" That's what libraries are for, right? And I fell in love with it so much that I read it twice, once and then again right after, before I had to take it back to the library, and now I'm going to be buying it, because it's a book I have to own.* But it got me thinking. If this is a type of book I don't normally read, by an author I wouldn't have heard of except for the radio, what about it made me fall in love? I mean, some books are so obviously for me they might as well have had "Jay Montville's book" printed right on the cover. Jonathan Strange , for example. That book couldn't have been more for me if I'd written it myself. Or The Grounding of Grou...

Author Adrienne Kress has a guest post on Nathan Bransford's blog about why she writes for children . Her answer is pretty simple--she writes the kind of stories she likes. Although I haven't been published yet, I've had a couple of people ask me that question as well. They say things like: "Oh Jay, you're so talented. Why don't you write real books?" Or, "I know it's harder to get an adult book published, Jay, but I think you should try." Or even just "You're wasted writing books for kids." Notice how all of those comments have a couple of things in common. The first is that they all incorporate some kind of backhanded compliment about how I'm so awesome. And I am awesome, sincerely, but I'm also not the next coming of Shakespeare or Stephen King. I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination "above" the talent level of young adult literature. And that's the second thing--the idea that somehow au...

I do try to stay away from the political here, but this day could not have come fast enough for me. Yay, Country! Good job! I leave you with this: Virginia, I have just one word for you, just one word. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. ... Tomorrow you can turn the page on policies that put greed and irresponsibility before hard work and sacrifice. Tomorrow you can choose policies that invest in our middle class, create new jobs and grow this economy so that everybody has a chance to succeed. Not just the CEO but the secretary and the janitor; not just the factory owner but the men and women who work the factory floor. Tomorrow you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that puts reason against reason, and city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we ne...

1. Okay, Winter, seriously, enough with the snowing . We GET IT. Now, please stop. 2. I read three books this weekend (short ones). Two were Really Good, and of those two, one may make a future appearance on Jay Loves A Book. One was...okay. Do you ever get the feeling that some books are considered good just because they were the first ones of their kind? Yeah, that's sort of the feeling I got about this book. 3. Speaking of books,* I find it hard to suspend my disbelief in a YA book when there is no mention of parents whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, I don't think parents need to play a very big role in a YA book, just that they need to exist. When a protag lives at home, then there needs to be a modicum of parental interaction. Just a little. Just enough to ground the book in reality. Otherwise, it's teenage fantasy-land and I find the rest of the story hard to buy. 4. ABC Family makes the cheesiest sequels to movies ever (The Cutting Edge THREE? Anoth...