As a writer, it's important to um... well, write . This goes without saying. Another important thing is to be all professional and go to a writer's conference. This is a great place to meet other writers, get ideas, and be smart and shit. If you're new to the conference scene, you might be overwhelmed by the amount of things: people, freebies, ideas, agents, and the concept of not wearing pajama bottoms while conducting your writerly self. Fortunately for you, Flippant Girl is here to help. 1. Bring a stenographer. You'll be too busy being in awe of your workshop leaders to take notes. Because you don't want to kick yourself for not doing this, find someone to do the hard work for you. Let them write down the crucial bits while you fangirl/fanboy out over how brilliant so-and-so is. 2. Wear roller skates. With only a few minutes between conference sessions, speedwalking is too slow. Zip through the crowds to get that prime seat for you and your stenographer....

One thing that most of you guys can relate to is that new releases sort of creep up on you and then you want nothing else but for the world to stop so you can devour that book you've been waiting endlessly for. The next few weeks have so many releases that I've been dying to read that I'm not sure how I'm going to handle all that reading combined with all of the revisions I still have to do. What books am I waiting on? Let's start with the two that I ended up reading last week because I just couldn't wait another few weeks. BLACK HEART came out on April 3rd and I managed to hold off for FIVE DAYS before breaking this open. I told myself that if I finished writing out all the new scenes I needed to write, I could take a day off to read this. SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY comes out in July, but I'm lucky to be part of the ARC tour. The ARC came to me on Wednesday and by Thursday I was done. (I justified this as writing related work, so reading it du...

On non-Leap Year years, February 14th marks the exact halfway point of the month*. It’s also Valentine’s Day. Known first as one of the millions of saint’s days, we can thank Chaucer for making it about sex **. It would be great if that’s all what the holiday turned into, but we all know that is so not the case. If you’ve been around for a while, you know about my thoughts about red roses . So if you’re like me and can’t abide by what you’re supposed to do on this “holiday” or if you’re alone and feeling sorry for yourself, never fear— FLIPPANT GIRL IS HERE . 1. Role play . Pretend you’re an urban cupid, complete with foam bow and arrow. Walk around the crowded city streets and shoot unsuspecting passersby with your love arrow. 2. Live tweet your romantic dinner . Whether it’s for one or twenty, share all the things with the world. Did the waiter have a nice rear? Share! Did the guy with the off-kilter toupee make a pass at the college girl? Share! We should all live vicariously thr...

Fact: revision is part of the writer life. Further fact: Revision is fuck all hard. You can see where this is going. The point of revision is to take that amazing previous draft and make it that much more awesome. If you Google “how to revise a novel,” you’ll get over 12,000 search results. You can even learn some revision tips here by reading Susan Dennard’s guest post . While all of these posts give you incredible information to make your revision process smoother, faster, more productive, none of them share tricks to maintain your composure under the red pen. Scenes and characters you have lovingly slaved over are about to be sliced and reformed. How the hell can you go through this without crying? 1. Curse and yell. A lot.   The angrier you get at your WIP, the less painful your revisions will be. Make sure you practice saying, “WHY!?” and “You fucking asshole” to the point where a diagnosis of Tourette’s might be in order. It doesn’t matter, because swearing like a trucker...

Disclaimer: Just like the previous Flippant Girl’s Guide, this one is also written days in advance, during the NaNoBoston 24 hour write in. Thanksgiving (and holidays in general) can be a stressful day filled with cooking disasters and logistical nightmares*. Some people would prefer pajamas and cribbage all day and yours truly is no exception. What people like us need is a no-frills, pain-free way to celebrate Thanksgiving that doesn’t have you contemplating suicide for the day. Lucky for you, I’ve thought about this. A lot. If you’re anti-dinner planning and entertaining, you will love the dinner and a movie option. Take your Thanksgiving guests to your closest all-you-can-eat buffet. For about ten bucks per person, you can eat all the turkey and fixings you want without the prep or clean up. Then instead of working off your turkey coma by watching hours of football, go watch a movie. This year I’m voting for The Muppets, though if you’re in a heckling mood, may I suggest the ...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's Topic : What themes, settings, motifs, scenes, or other elements do you find recurring in your work? I'd love to say that I'm so freaking original that nothing from Story A shows up in Story B because as a writer's it's my job to make sure everything is fresh and unique and non-redundant. However, I can't. Some things just show up no matter what. One parent is always either dead or missing from the protagonist's life. And when I say missing, I do mean that in a "they've never physically been here" kind of way*. Sometimes both are gone. Project count: 4 The F-bomb shower. Found in early drafts only**, my love for this four-letter word gets showered across all dialogue and exposition. Project count: 4 Blonde girl who is e...

Lurkdom, you're officially reading post 500! *throws confetti and glitter* Because of this and the fact that math has broken my brain*, today's post will be short. I read some fantastically awesome published books this summer**. After having such a reading slump at the start of the year, it's amazing to see how my reading picked up. Pam raves about Ellen Hopkins and after her and a few other people talked it up enough, I caved.  Crank is cleverly written and covers a serious issue without being preachy. It's understandable why it's been banned*** in places, but you can't discount that Hopkins knows what she's doing. You can read my mini review here . Everyone who has read Anna and the French Kiss has loved it. At first it made me think that there was Kool Aid in the water. Then I read it. There were both funny and sweet moments. The description was fantastic. Believe you me, I'll be reading it again. Soon. You can read my review here . Th...

So yesterday was Labor Day in the US, which meant somebody wasn't chained to her computer. (Shocking, I know.) What sucked about that was I couldn't post my entry for AJ Mullarky's blogfest right away. But Alicia, you could've scheduled it ahead of time. I know, but I'm kinda weird in that I don't like doing that. What if I changed my mind? Anyway. If you've lurked for a while, you've probably noticed my odd references to hard-to-pronounce rose fields or scary-ass trains. Then again, you might not have. If you're from the camp of "I don't know what the hell you're talking about," you're about to be schooled on one of the best series in the world. The Dark Tower series has pretty much ruled my life for a while. I totally believe in Roland's cause and identify with more than one person in his ka-tet. Bestie Danielle and I have discussed many aspects of these books over various email chains. A brief synopsis, ...

First apologies for the rather lame title. It's been established that titling is beyond my realm of success*, not to mention it's Friday before a long weekend in the US meaning Weekend Brain has already arrived. Thank goodness Paper Hangover's topic is easy peasy. Back when the topic was book covers , I mentioned that with books the cover catches my eye more than the title. This doesn't change the fact that sometimes the title does win out. Some examples of purchases based off of title alone are... Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging . When I saw this in the YA section of the bookstore, I stopped and stared. The hilarity grabbed my attention right off. The jacket copy totally cemented the purchase. The Fuck Up . Saw this at Newbuy Comics and thought, "Best. Title. Ever." It contained my most favorite swear and who doesn't love reading about slackers? A Visit from the Goon Squad . Between the title and the cover, I'm totally...

It's Friday. That means it's time for Paper Hangover's Friday Fives. Today's topic ? Oh, apps. You little things that can become such a time sink for yours truly*. I don't really have an addictive personality, but there are certain things that make me forget outside things exist. Take this example: back in dial up only days, The Lou had an old computer in our basement. This computer had Tetris. I would shoot down there for a "quick game" only to re-emerge five hours later. So because my favorite non-productive apps are games like Tetris, I should probably focus on things that tie into writing. You're shocked, I know. Write or Die . I actually paid the $10 for the download so I can use it when I'm not attached to the internet. You set a word count goal and a time limit and -BOOM!- you write to your heart's content. It kinda forces you to turn off your editor. Freedom . My love of all things shiny runs deep. This means I have a cons...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's topic : The Five Senses. How you use them in your writing, how you are inspired by them, pictorial essays, that character with smelly socks, books that have used them well, the ones that are currently missing from your work, etc. For someone who writes, I'm one of the least observant people I know. I have to make sure that I pay attention to things like the exact smell of grass or the nuanced flavor profile of Hubby's chili* or I get nothing. This totally explains why my initial drafts of anything lack detail**. One way to help notice more of the details around you is to do an observation exercise. Sit somewhere with paper and a pen. For five minutes, jot down everything you observe: smells, sounds, sights, textures, tastes. Don't worry...

This time next week I'll be an active participant of The Real World Cape Cod and let me tell you: it can't come soon enough. This summer has been somewhat of a suckfest so getting away for a few days is a definite must. One thing I always make sure I pack for vacation are books. The more, the better. I think about this before the all-important clothes issue*. Back in June , I declared this summer the fluff read summer. While I haven't been entirely successful, I'm aiming to continue on next week. And because it's Monday, I thought I'd share my book packing list with you. The Real World Cape Cod Book List Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen Supernaturally by Kiersten White Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols Possession by Elana Johnson I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It by Adam Selzer Withering Tights by Louise Rennison I know. That's a lot of reading material to devour in between writing and organized activity**, but I like to be prepared. What books ...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's topic : What's the biggest writing / querying / publishing mistake you've made? Oi. I've been writing for a loooong time which means there's a long bucket list of things never to do again. Like writing a 100K YA contemporary, Or being too cocky in a query letter, Or not doing proper agent research. These are just a few of my many mistakes. But the biggest one of all has to be when I took every single piece of feedback my crit group gave me. This is the same crit group that birthed Nemesis, so that I listened to everything they said is crazy. Doing this added another 3 years on getting my WIP back on track*. I was so intent on everyone liking my writing that I forgot to listen to my instinct. I won't be making that mistake ever again....

First, I'd like to announce the winner of the Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance Giveaway... KO! Now back to our originally scheduled Friday Fives . In every writer's life, a bit of research must fall. Yours truly isn't an exception. Where do I go for all my researcherly needs? Google by far. I just type in a question and bam! instant answers. Yeah, sometimes I get some hits that are wicked off the mark, but 99% of the time Google gives me answers. Wikipedia. Great for fact-checking, Wikipedia picks up where The World Book left off*. Naming the World. The resource used for monthly writing workshops at Newtonville Books, I've gotten a lot of prewriting and scene work done with the exercises from this book. Guide to Literary Agents, Writer's Market, and QueryTracker. I'll be swimming in all three of these as the summer pushes it's way into fall. These are great for all things literary agent-y. Google Earth . One of my in-development project...

It's Friday and in under six hours I'll be having a fantastic long weekend. Until then, you're stuck with me and my five favorite cliches. When the general public thinks cliche, chances are they'll think a catch phrase. When I think cliche, I think things in writing. Let's count them down: The dumb blonde and dumb jock. Even though they're fun to write, it's a challenge to see how far you can go with the stereotype before busting up in laughter. There can be only one. Chosen one, that is. It's a convenient plot device and shows up in almost every book that has a fantastical element to it. Roland's the gunslinger. Anita has all the power. Buffy is the chosen one. The love triangle. As long as it doesn't involve a questionably sparkling bloodsucker, a werewolf, and a dipshit, the love triangle is awesome. If done properly we can see multiple sides of the person stuck in the middle to help solidify which "team" you're on. Howe...

As the dreary, winterish months are my most busy, the sunshiney, summery months are my most productive. The warmth energizes me and the sun stays out way past it's bedtime. There's color and sound and overall awesome*. I'll admit it: I like the Daystar. I also like the color yellow**. Today's post isn't about confessions. It's all about what exciting things are on the summer front for yours truly now that Falling to Normal is going out for one more beta***. New projects. I mapped out two during Weekend of Awesome and I have a few more in my brain. The first order of business though is to work on something that is purely fun. Summer reads. A couple of Fridays back , I listed the books I was planning on reading this summer. Because the all had a light, summery feel, I decided I'd rock that theme as long as I'm able to****. New writing techniques. My new thing is to try a new approach with each new project. I have a copy of 90 Days to Your Nov...

Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's Topic : The house is on fire and you've only got time to grab five things. What are they? I live in a pretty questionable house that has tons of religious artifacts and questionable wiring**. Example: a lamp works where there are no outlets because it's hard-wired onto another wire. Somewhere. The grace of god is probably the only thing that keeps my house standing. So because of this, I go through periodic bouts of fire paranoia--that thing where you're convinced the house will burn down in the middle of the night***. Thanks to this, I have a plan in place. The cats. Much easier said than done, this will take the most time to do. Have you ever tried stuffing two cats into a carrier? The laptop bag. This always includes t...

As I pointed out on Tuesday , I tweet a lot, so it's timely that Paper Hangover wants to know who they should follow. Below you'll find a nice mix of resources plus contributors to my 10K plus tweets. Writer Thesaurus . Angela Ackerman's other Twitter handle for sharing useful links that pertain to things like description and all kinds of sensory detail. 4KidLit . Pretty much a link aggregator, the ladies behind Adventures in Children's Publishing supply you with a constant string of useful links. Agents. There are a shit-ton out there, and if you're serious about publication, you should follow agents to get an idea of their likes, peeves, etc. Fox 25 News . When I bother to watch the news, these are the people I watch. I love their morning program. This would only work if you're from the Boston area or writing about Boston, I suppose. The Weekend of Awesome ladies. Holly Dodson , Erinn , Marquita Hockaday , Pam Harris , and KO . All of them are...

I've never been so glad for Friday to come. This weekend promises to be a busy one filled with seeing friends, housework, and revisions on yet another WIP*. Summer makes me more productive, even if I feel like dying while I do it. Since we had our unofficial kickoff to summer almost two weeks ago, it's time to think about beach reads. You know those light books with no dark themes that you devour while you take in too much sun? The Paper Hangover peeps want to know ALL ABOUT THEM. Confession: I've only consciously picked books with summer in mind once. That was last year for the week I was at the Cape Cod version of The Real World house. This year I'm planning out the entire summer of reads, but here are my top five in cover form.   That first one, by the way? I'll be giving away later this month. However, I'm also giving something away today. During NaNoEdMo, one of my writing friends Megan had this awestome-tastic notebook she was sticking her notes i...

Steve Almond talks about song and how it's a great way to study concise storytelling. When you think about it, it makes sense; songwriters have to do it in three minutes. Because I can, I want to share my top five* storytelling songs. As always, this isn't in any particular order and subjected to change at my discretion.