london london london

I left London on Sunday after only 3 full days. Total sadface. Luckily I'll be back...but only for 2 days. Anyway, what did I do...

(Oh, apologies: no pictures. My nook has no usb. I'll upload everything at the end of the   trip!)

I...
--met Molly, my UK-based agent! she's great. And she knows EVERYONE. and her house is awesome.
--learned how to use public transportation
--visited Kew Gardens
--went all around the City learning historical tidbits.
--did Stonehenge
--had a very English meal (fish and chips) at a very English pub in the middle of a very English village
--met up with Stefan Bachmann
--ended up on the London Eye (which was unintentional)
--did the Tower of London
--had Holy Communion at Westminster
--took the train to Scotland

And that is where I now sit, at an awesome hostel in Edinburgh. I just took a walking tour which alternated between beautiful and sunny, and rainy and miserable.

I'm journaling the trip so there will be more details later :)

NESCBWI Conference

I'm sitting at the airport preparing to leave New England. Last week was finals week, then I headed straight to Springfield, MA for the NESCBWI conference. I was invited to be faculty, doing manuscript critiques for some of the fantabulous attendees. Obviously, I jumped at the chance. There were over 600 people at the conference, and the writing community here is seriously incredible. All sorts of shenanigans happened, as well as lots of learning, but the thing I enjoyed most was just chatting with other writers.

Me and Kris Asselin, conference  co-chair and reason I was able to come!

Since I was doing critiques, I wasn't able to attend all of the excellent workshops and sessions (I heard Kate Messner's revision session had chocolate), but I did get to go to a couple mystery workshops (one with Kate Messner and one with Diana Renn), as well as an amusing sensory session with Dawn Metcalf and an informative presentation on self- and indie-publishing with Emma Dryden, a manuscript and publishing consultant. (Fun tidbit: when I was deciding where I wanted to go with my freelance career, Emma's site was a resource I used as a model.)

I also got a chance to read over my revision notes from my agent, and there is seriously no better occasion to get a critique than when surrounded by inspiration and supportive writers.

Speaking of these awesome, awesome people! I met . . .

Alison Weiss, AKA EgmontUSA. She's as sweet as she seems on twitter. She was the faculty person I spent the most time with (we used to do Write On! stuff together), but I met Jenn Laughran, Brooks Sherman, Lauren MacLeod, Linda Epstein, and many others.

On the writer side, I spent time with many people. Dee of Write for Apples is absolutely adorable. All these people are, actually. She and Ghenet Myrthil were jumping on the bed. True story. There's a picture somewhere. Ghenet was with MarcyKate Connolly, who's also great. I'm just gonna stop saying they're great--just assume it. Other people in the shenanigans included Jennifer Malone who is my Disney buddy and Monica Ropal, my mystery buddy.

Giant group of greatness!

Then, of course, I got to meet a few clients: Kip Wilson, whose futuristic thriller will knock your socks off, and Lisa Rosenman, whom I didn't get to chat with nearly as much as I wanted to!

I used to share an agent with the conference co-chair, Kris Asselin, and meeting her was everything I expected. Of course, she was busy most of the time actually putting on the Best Conference Ever, but we still got to say hi. There were a lot of people whom I didn't get to see as much as I would've liked--Jonathon Arnston and Heather Kelly top the list there. But I figure I will see them on twitter!

Shenanigans!

Oh, and both of my airport escorts were lovely. Not awkward at all. In fact, I talked so much with onethat we missed the airport exit.

If you met me and I forgot you, I am sorry!!! There were a lot of names and faces!

I didn't mention the food. But rest assured: the food was heavenly. Especially to a girl coming off of college cafeteria food.

Today I'm in Seattle for my sister's birthday, and I'll unpack, re-pack, and leave for Europe! Hopefully I will be able to blog consistently, but who knows?

I'm Going to Europe!

Hi guys! Technically I'm on hiatus, but since I'm spending most of my time drooling over Europe as I plan my vacation in May, I wanted to ask you guys a few questions and tell you a bit about what I'll be doing.

I'm flying into London, roadtripping up to Edinburgh with Stefan Bachmann, coming back to London through Wales, and spending a few more night in London. Then Stefan leaves, and I go to Ireland, hitting Dublin, Galway, and Cork. Then it's on to Paris for 4 days, and on the fifth day, I fly to NYC. At which point I haven't booked my flight home, soooo IDK maybe I'll just go back to Europe ;)

Anyway, if you've visited any of these places, I'd love to hear your tips and tricks!

Otherwise, I was kind of wondering--should I post about my adventures here, on my writing blog? Or start a separate blog for that month so my content stays consistent? I know my family will want to know details so I'll definitely be blogging; I just don't know where.

SO excited :) I get to meet my agent and my agent-sister Kat Ellis and obvs Stefan. No one seems to be in Ireland or Paris for me to meet, but whatever. That's why I'm staying in hostels!

It's a MYSTERY

Where's Taryn?

She is final-ing.

So basically I will be MIA. (Will be, Taryn? Try HAVE BEEN.)

Sorry.

Email me if you need anything urgent. Otherwise I will be crying into my linguistic text trying to write a paper about Welsh syntax.

Oh, wait, there's actually a reason the post title says mystery.

I've been plotting some things instead of studying and one of them is a mystery and plotting a mystery is kind of like playing to most epic game of tetris* ever. But here's the thing. If you write a mystery without plotting it, you are in for a world of hell. I'm serious. HELL. You'll have to fold clues back into the story, create motivations, fill in holes, etc.

This is why I'm such an advocate of plotting for mystery stories. But also for all stories. Almost all the manuscripts I've worked on lately have suffered from a lack of focus. Focus on what this story is about. Otherwise your reader will get distracted.

Like right now. This post was supposed to be about telling you that plotting mysteries will save you pain in revisions, but now I'm talking about lack of focus. I blame it on finals brain.

Anyway. this post: Taryn, MIA, finals.

<3

WIFYR!

Where did the time go? It's APRIL already! I'm done with my junior year of college in 2 weeks! This is terrifying. I was out with Brent Taylor, an intern friend, a couple days ago and we got to talking about what got us interested in working in publishing. He's been into it since junior high. Me? The truth is, I stopped reading until my senior year of high school, and I wasn't really interested in publishing until my freshman year of college, 27 months ago to be exact.

27 months ago, I started looking for CPs. 27 months ago, I started querying. 27 months ago, I signed up for a conference that has changed my life.

I emailed my mom a link to Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (WIFYR). Being the baby 17 year old I was, she decided to be a mom and call the conference coordinator, Carol Lynch Williams. This was without my knowledge. When I found out, I threw a teenage fit ("MOOOOOM I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD EMBARRASS ME LIKE THIS") but I was secretly glad. My birthday present that year (2011) was attending the conference.

I met 4 women in my workshop group who became my critique partners. I met another teen writer who became one of my good writing friends. And I met Mary Kole, for whom I interned for over a year.  I learned a lot, but more importantly, I fell in love with writing and the publishing world. Over five days of intense workshops and great lectures, I learned what I wanted to do.

In 2012, I had to pay my own way, but it was 100% worth it. That year, I won the first annual WIFYR grant, an awesome opportunity that has given me the means to attend some book events, get a gorgeous web design and in general be more professional.

WIFYR helps people succeed.

This summer, I'm already traveling to Massachusetts, London, all over the UK, Ireland, Paris, NYC, and California, so I won't be able to make the conference. But if you have any sort of opportunity to go, grab it. It's one of the best conferences out there.

I was talking with agent John Cusick at last year's WIFYR, and he said that agents and editors go to most conferences not expecting to sign anyone. But he said WIFYR is different. Agents and editors know there is quality work among the attendees.

If you have any questions, I'd love to answer them! Click here to go to WIFYR's website.

Why I Don't Care What Your MC Looks Like

*this post only applies directly to first person narratives*

I see a lot of critiques. From interns at Spencer Hill to clients who ask if their CPs' advice is worthwhile to reviewers on goodreads, feedback is everywhere. There's one thing that I've seen a lot lately, something with which I almost uniformly disagree.

"I just had trouble visualizing the MC."

"I had no idea what the MC looked like."

GUYS. Step back. Think about it from a purely logical perspective. If we are looking through the MC's eyes, WHY ON EARTH DOES IT MATTER? Do you go around imagining yourself doing everything you do throughout the day?

I like first person because you can slip into the head of the character. You aren't watching the character. You are experiencing BEING the character.

So beyond a mention of hair color or some distinguishing characteristic (sidenote: ignore this if the character's appearance is important to the plot), it shouldn't matter. Readers. Use your imagination. Writers, don't sweat it.

I have never finished a book and gone "Well that was a terribly flat character! I didn't know how many freckles she had!" Like we say in real life, character is more important than appearance. Unless it has a direct bearing on the plot (is an athlete, has an eating disorder, has "eyes like his mother," is the only pale redhead on a spaceship of multi-ethnic people), why does it matter?

Use your imagination. That's why we're in this industry.

The author of ELEANOR & PARK, Rainbow Rowell, had this to say about Eleanor:

I don’t know exactly what Eleanor looks like . . . . Here’s all I can tell you for certain about Eleanor’s appearance: She has curly red hair, a thousand freckles, and a smile that can be scary. She’s pale. She’s fat. And Park thinks she’s beautiful—so she is.

That's not much. No eye color. No how-big-are-her-boobs. No button nose or ski slope nose or hawk nose. No thin lips. No arched eyebrows. No pear shaped body. No long legs. No hair length, even. And yet With Eleanor's actions, and those few well-placed details, we know exactly who she is.

Consider the protagonist in David Levithan's EVERY DAY. The MC doesn't even have a gender, let alone a specific appearance! We're treated to visuals of each body s/he inhabits BECAUSE each body is a new experience (plot-point) to the MC. But the MC is fully developed, independent of appearance.

Character isn't appearance. Stop whining about it and focus on what matters about the character.

This post came out rantier than I expected; sorry guys! I'm one of those writers (like Rainbow but not at all) who has no idea what her characters look like. I see "cast your characters" posts, and I draw a blank and end up googling "blond actress" and pick the first one I see. Are you this kind? Or are you 100% visual?

Handstands and Commitment (2)

I started writing this post and had an overwhelming sense of deja vu. When I looked back in my archives, I saw I'd actually already written a post with this very title. You can read it here. It's good stuff, but it's not what I want to talk about today. (I mean, it sort of it. But not exactly.)

I can already tell this is going to be a meandering post. Uh-oh.

SO. Handstands. You're all able to see how a handstand is a great metaphor for commitment, right? If you don't put enough effort into it, you're gonna fail. If you put too much power into it, you might get there...but you'll crumple soon after. There is no "halfway handstand." Gravity doesn't allow it.

To illustrate this point, I would like to tell you a story about pinterest. We all like pinterest, right? Good. (This is not going to sounds like a story about pinterest at first. Bear with me.)

2 years ago, during the summer of 2011, my dad got really into CrossFit.

CrossFit, in a nutshell

I'd always enjoyed weightlifting, and at that point, I was in pretty good shape because of swimming, so I went with him during the summer, and I liked it. But my focus was still on swimming. Well, I quit swimming this past January, and I have been somewhat stuck in a no-workout rut for a variety of terrible reasons (crappy gym at school, no car, etc). But I've missed working out. I've missed being sore. I've missed it so much.

I used to only use pinterest for WIP inspiration (told ya we'd get there), but I started eating healthier, which led me to creating a Paleo recipe board. If you know anything about CrossFit or Paleo, you'd know there's a lot of crossover. So in my Paleo recipe searches, I was reminded of the world of CrossFit. And I missed it.

I started doing dorm room workouts, workouts without equipment. But it wasn't the same.

Yesterday, this happened:

12: research CrossFit gyms in my area
1: facebook with friend. Learn she would let me borrow her car.
2: email CrossFit coach, asking about pricing/times/etc
3: commit to this new gym

Within three hours, I had gone from saying "I can't do it; it's not practical" to having everything set up and in place.

Because I committed.

I could have just kept pinning things to my brand new CrossFit pinterest board and said "Oh, I'll get back to the gym when I'm home for the summer." I could have just researched the gym near my school and said "Oh, I wish I had the means to get there."

No.

Be proactive. Commit to something.

Let's bring it back to your manuscript. I think you all know where I'm going with this: If you don't write, nothing will change. I know 10 words out of 70,000 feels like nothing. But what we tend to forget is that slow progress is still progress. Don't say "I'll write in an hour." Don't say "I'll start my MS tomorrow."

Commit. Because . . .