Laura's blog

It's Friday, and -- wow -- I'm happy to say that I met all of this week's writing goals. Woah. I think setting weekly goals works well for me. I've often had issues setting concrete goals with definite deadlines. Somehow I end up getting things done, but often in a haphazard, frantic manner. I have a good picture in my head of where I want to end up -- but the baby steps between here and there are often hard to visualize. If I can plan week by week, I can make better progress. I also finished Edit Round 3 on The Book and have started ER4. At 103,951 words, it still needs some serious trimming. My goal is to get it below 100k. Then what? I'm avoiding answering that question, at least for now. Like with drafting, I've found that I edit better when I don't worry about the future. I've discovered some good editing strategies. I've outlined, made a "Changes to be made" doc, kept "Discarded and alternate material" in another doc, a...

I'm participating in Ready. Set. Write! this summer, a blogfest type thing where we all set writing goals and hold each other to them. I've tried for a long time to find a good way of setting concrete goals that I can stick to, and this will help me. Weekly Writing Goals: - Finish writing the revamped scene/section of The Book. I have about 500 words to go, so that's doable in a week. CHECK! I finished it Monday morning. - Get back to editing the rest -- but only after the new part is done. - Write at least two more Examiner reviews this week. - Post here 3 times a week. What I'm Reading I just finished The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, and I am now sufficiently depressed. I also bought four ebooks for my NOOK on the computer, and I plan to raid the library later this week. I just finished reading House of Many Ways and The Game by Diana Wynne Jones, Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde, and the Paranormalcy trilogy by Kiersten White. Bleep, I loved those books. A...

I've just finished reading Paranormalcy by Kiersten White. It's a fantastic book, and I highly recommend it if you're into paranormal or fantasy fiction. In my book,  Paranormalcy  wins Cutest Relationship Award. There is very little staring soulfully into each others' eyes and "just knowing" that Evie and Lend are "just right." He doesn't freeze her in place her with his electric gaze that seems to stare into her soul. She doesn't dazzle him with her superpowers or her sweet, soulful shyness. Instead, there is lots of fun bonding time, friendship building, crush-having, and figuring-out-who-the-other-person-is  before it blossoms naturally into romance. Paranormalcy also wins Creepiest Ex Award for the character of Reth. Reth is an ancient faerie with an obsession for Evie. He doesn't care about physicality or sex; he's all about manipulation, mind control, and a really creepy intrusive thing he does that is basically mind r...

I read a post the other day at one of my favorite blogs, The Write Practice. I love this blog -- they post digestible writing advice and prompts so that you can practice what you've just read. The post for that day was, "Why You Should Be Excited About Failure and Rejection." On the one hand, I have to admire the genius of that title. It's a lesson in getting people to read on. "I should be excited about failure and rejection? Whaaaaat? How could I be excited about that? I must read it and find out what they could possibly mean!" I did read it, and they did give their usual dose of great advice: everyone is scared, rejection isn't the end of the world, don't try to be perfect because no one is, use fear as a motivator, and learn from failure. It's definitely worth reading if you need a bit of a lift. But. That does not mean I have to be excited about failure and rejection. I n today's competitive writing/publishing/social media enviro...

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I FINALLY got to read Envy over Christmas break and I love it, so of course I have to talk about it. It's the second in The Fury Trilogy, by Elizabeth Miles. It is also the second in a very short list of books that, after finishing, I have immediately flipped to the beginning to read again. Oddly, they both begin with E. Hmm... UK cover of Envy In five words: Love triangle. I know what you're thinking. "A love triangle in a young adult paranormal book??? NO WAY!" but hang on a sec. For the first time in my reading experience, the Em-JD-Crow business is not a major plot point. A teenage character  not utterly consumed by her love life??? What??? Also, she's not with either guy. Em loves JD, who wants nothing to do with her, and meanwhile Crow likes her but she wants nothing to do with him. One, he's an ass. Two, she's actually mature enough to tell the difference between attraction and lo...

When I was younger, I used to make all these lofty moral New Year's resolutions. Follow the Ten Commandments.* Be nicer to my brother. Smile at strangers. Don't swear...well, not as much. This year, I realized -- I'm supposed to do all of that stuff anyway.  Isn't it a cop-out to say, "This year I'm going to donate to charity, follow the Ten Commandments, be nice to my brother, and clean up my language" when I'm supposed to be doing that every year, all year, anyway? I mean, that's the kind of moral/philosophical/spiritual stuff that you're supposed to work on throughout your entire life as a Christian. Have I been letting myself get away with making vague, cop-out resolutions instead of resolving to do something definite, definable, and practical? OK, now I'm having a moral crisis. Deep breaths. I mean, what's a New Year's resolution really good for, anyway? Unless I write them down, I've usually forgotten mine by Februar...

I got a blog award!!! More than that, I got a blog award for one of my favorite things -- comments!!! Brooke R. Busse, a young writer at Paper Mountain (a blog I really enjoy) gave me this award. Head over and check out her blog. :) Seriously, comments are my favorite thing about blogging. I can scream into the void all day, but I'd much prefer to have a conversation. Comments are important. Without discussion, I don't really see the point of blogging. That's one of the things I liked so much about NaNoWriMo -- the forums. In blogging, I've encountered a bit of an attitude of, "Well if you disagree, then just get off my blog! I only want 'you're fantastic and all your opinions are gold!'" comments. Yeah, no. As much as, "I loved this! I want to read more!" comments make me smile in self-satisfaction, I like comments with a little more depth. I also try to leave comments with a little more depth. Why did I love this post? What ...