Bandwidth

Whatever happened to the laziness of summertime? I am trying to finish major expansion/revisions before S.A.M. gets back from Italy (again!! In Italy without me AGAIN!!!) while prepping thoughts and notes for our blogger’s panel at SCBWI the first weekend of next month, while also spending time with family, writing groups, and getting decent amounts of sleep and exercise. It’s not really working to do all of the above at once, even though they seem to be reasonably simple things. It has something to do with sunshine and maybe chlorophyll, but I suddenly just don’t have the bandwidth to wrap my brain around everything that’s going on.

This is my wordy excuse for being slow on the uptake on any number of things, one of which is the latest Bookslut in Training, which is Bookslut’s celebration of creative young adult types. Don’t miss the cool 1000 Journals Project, and Colleen’s foray into escapist fiction next month. By then, my to-be-read stack may have fallen over and killed me, but I look forward to it anyway… Also, be sure to drop in at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. They have an awesome review of Before I Die, which is also going to be added to my TBR, as soon as it comes out in the fall. It sounds really interesting, and I can’t wait to read it with Crutcher’s Deadline, also out this fall. Whoo hoo!

The 7 Imps interview Nancy from Journey Woman who is doing a very cool contest through July. Do check it out!

Via Not Your Mother’s Book Club, the Spiderwick Chronicles movie trailer!! Okay, we can MAYBE get a little squealish about this movie – somehow it looks like it’s a little harder to utterly ruin this series. Maybe. (Nickelodeon Movies, we’re counting on you!) Release date is February 15 – definitely a better Valentine’s gift than bad chocolate! (& YES. There IS a such thing! Trust me.) Especially creepy and atmospheric – the wind and leaves and the hoarse whisper, “Give …me… the book…” Moving directly to the TOP of my To Be Read Before February list: finishing the Spiderwicks. I ADORE the work of Holly Black, and I will count this as a treat!!


I did mention that the Australian YA writing site, Inside A Dog is being hosted this month by the Peeps and Magic or Madness duo… and today, they’re talking about revisions. Check this out from Scott Westerfeld:

“My definition for a first draft is the first thing I show to another human being-editor, friend, or wife. And under that definition, my first drafts are usually in pretty decent shape. Here’s why:

I write about a thousand new words a day. But I start each day by reviewing the previous three days’ work.

This has two effects. One, it means that I ease into my writing day, editing and rewriting those 3,000 old words before facing the deadly blank page. By the time I finish that I’ve got a head of steam up, I remember what’s going on in the story, and writing new words doesn’t seem impossible, like it did right after coffee.

It’s like getting a running start.”

Revise. And revise again. And then revise three more times after that: it makes good stuff better. Please note that this man writes ZERO drafts, so his actual first drafts – they’re a bit more …evolved than what you might expect. He goes through FOUR before the first draft. I’m pretty sure that involves negative numbers and other things I slept through in Algebra.

Speaking of which? Back to MY revision… (sigh).