Cheers, Ta.

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic:

What writing or publishing-related thing(s) are you most thankful for?

There are 2 things I am grateful for. The first is the great friends i have made in real life and online through my journey to learn more about writing and one day be published. It's a great community and I've met some of the warmest, greatest people both published and unpublished.

 

The second is the books. It's the brilliant books I get to read every day. I'm grateful someone believed in them enough to put them out there and others spoke about them or made a great cover or blurb or whatever made it catch my eyes.

 

I love the books.

 

What are you grateful for? 

Required Reading... but GOOD

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic:

In high school, teens are made to read the classics - Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Bronte, Dickens - but there are a lot of books out there never taught in schools. So if you had the power to change school curricula, which books would you be sure high school students were required to read?

Okay... so i had to read some Shakespeare (in yr 12 we had to do a spelling test cos of the sheer number of us who spelled the playwright's name wrong) as well as some Grapes of Wrath and Great Gatsby kind of books. I'm probably giving myself away as a geek but I think reading some of the classics a teen would never pick up of their own accord isn't all bad. As long as they're interspersed with some modern lit. I'm thinking Harry Potter and Hunger Games and selected books by the teacher who knows which stories will speak to her/his class.

I had a few awesome teachers. One had us read 'Looking for Alibrandi' by Melinda Marchetta and I still love that book. Another had us read 'Tomorrow When the War Began' by John Marsden. Two aussie writers/stories that made sense to us then (and I still like now).

What would you have teens read?

A little bit of superpower

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.




This Week's Topic:

What are your writing and publishing superpowers (drafting? beta-reading? writing queries? plotting? character creation? etc.) -- and what's your kryptonite?

My first inclination was to moan about my complete lack of any superpowers at all. But then I stop and think for a bit.

Maybe, just maybe I have one.

Maybe even two.

Neither is unusual particularly but completely necessary. I’m still going. Day after day I come back to the computer (or note book – whatever) and open the doc and write some more. When that story is done I start another. And submit eventually. And get rejected. And then I write some more.

Super-persistent with maybe a dash of Super-hopeful/optimistic.

We all are to keep going.

The other power is rarer for me… in a few stories I’ve found a groove. When this supergroove happens the words come out as fast as I can type them and I can get a story down pretty fast (considering how little writing time real life gives me).

But in general as much as I would love to be super-plotter or querier or anything I think turning up is the first step. And perhaps the hardest.

What about you? Are you super?

Coach Smoach or Tell me what i need not what I want

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.



This Week's Topic:

What kind of writing coach do you need? When you have to coach friends, what kind of coach are you?

I’m greedy… I need something of all different kinds of coach – from the harsh and exacting to the gentle and kind. And I think in my life and CPs I have most bases covered.

All positive - Family is great for compliments cos they love me and are nice and some of them don’t even read much. While they don’t necessarily push me to be my best, some days I wouldn’t keep going without one of them gushing in my direction. Yay! Love them.

My Cps run the gauntlet of the rest. I’ve cried from crits they’ve given… but I needed to get. They’ve either pulled me up with warmth or with no-nonsense.

But I think it’s important that behind the pull-no-punches crits I know there’s complete support and belief in me and in my writing. I don’t want toxic in my life.

It’s too short.

I would hope that I'm honest but nice... i like to be nice. But it's not nice to lie and say something is brilliant if it's not. I try to offer compliments where my CPs have rocked it (something they do often) but tell them where they haven't too so they can get even better.

What about you? What writing coaches do you need/have? Are you?