Taking your own advice

People sometimes ask me for writing advice. And I'm happy to give it, for what it's worth. I've always been all, 'Hey! Don't worry about your first draft being crappy. All first drafts are crappy. Power on through to the end and worry about fixing stuff later. That's what the second draft is for!' Pretty decent, not-at-all-grounbreaking advice, wouldn't you agree?

But yesterday I realized I haven't exactly been practising what I preach. I've been lucky, in that the first drafts for my first two books were not crappy (and I do put this down to luck). I didn't have to rewrite whole chunks/excise characters who weren't pulling their weight/throw massive swathes of text out the window. Like I said, LUCKY. So it was all very easy for me to tell people not to worry about things like that during the first draft, because I hadn't had to do it. Ever.

Things are a little bit different with New Top Sekrit Project. I am writing so far outside my comfort zone that I can't even see my comfort zone (not even with binoculars). And it's fun and scary and HAAAAAARD. I'm 13k in and already I can tell that so many things are going to have to change in the second draft, and that the second draft is going to involve a hell of a lot of thinking. Trouble is, thinking hurts my brain (much in the same way that coming up with titles hurts my brain... Clearly my brain is very sensitive). The temptation to try to sort things out now is proving very, very hard to resist. But if I do that, there's a strong possibility that the amount of work that needs to be done will scare me silly and I'll end up not bothering to finish the book. And that would make me a quitter. (Actually, I've always been a bit of a quitter in other areas of my life, but not in writing. Not yet. And I don't intend to start now.)

So... I'm taking my own advice. Powering through the first draft. Not looking back over my shoulder. Ignoring the bits that stink worse than bin juice. It's kind of frightening.

Have you ever given advice and then realized that YOU'RE the one who should be listening to it? Makes you feel a bit stupid, no?

Pardon my French (and my Czech)

A bit of bookish new for you this fine evening. French rights to ENTANGLED have been sold to Editions Robert Laffont and Czech rights have been sold to Nava. I'm pretty excited to see my book in languages I can't understand very well (French) or at all (Czech).

In other news, top sekrit project is driving me to distraction. Writing it is like wading through waist-deep treacle at the moment. Sticky.

In other OTHER news (which isn't strictly news, more a recommendation), you should probably go and read this post by my wonderful friend, Nova Ren Suma. It's very interesting. Now shoo!

It's my birthday and I'm on the Guardian site!

Hello, my dears. I hope you are all fine and dandy. If you want to find out my top ten books with teens behaving badly, I suggest you go and have a look here. Very excited to be on the shiny new Guardian children's book site - it's ace.

Here's something that makes me smile. It might make you smile too.

Titles hurt my brain

I'm not very good at coming up with book titles. And by 'not very good', I mean 'really quite rubbish'. I didn't even come up with ENTANGLED. Yes, I did manage to come up with TORN, but that was after much anguish and plenty of *facecat* (think *headdesk* but less jarring on the brain).

I spent most of the weekend trying to come up with a title for a book I haven't written yet. There was really no need to spend my time doing this. I should have been writing, obviously. But thinking up titles is the best type of procrastination, since you can convince yourself you're still working. And you are... sort of.

After a quick look at my bookshelves, here are some titles I love and how they made me feel when I first picked up the book:

The Forest of Hand and Teeth, Carrie Ryan (Ewww... sounds gross. Me like gross.)

When I Was Joe, Keren David (Who is Joe and why are you no longer him? Colour me intrigued.)

Twenty Boy Summer, Sarah Ockler (Twenty boys in one summer? Now that's impressive.)

Some Girls Are, Courtney Summers (SOME GIRLS ARE WHAT?! I need to know!)

Going Bovine, Libba Bray (Er...WTF?!)

Shark Girl, Kelly Bingham (Sharks? I love anything to do with sharks so I am bound to love this.)

So what do you look for in a book title? Are titles important to you? Any favourites?

Randomness

Bit of a mish-mash for you today:

1. Authors for Japan raised a grand total of £10,962.25! Amazing! Big thanks to Keris Stainton and her band of helpers for making this happen.

2. I went for a run on the beach this morning. It was lovely (apart from the taste of blood in my mouth, which I googled when I got home... turns out it's something to do with DOING EXERCISE. Shock, horror).

3. I finished the first season of Supernatural yesterday. Dean is my favourite.

4. I registered at my local library this week and it has the best YA section I've ever seen. Huzzah! I borrowed Charlie Higson's THE ENEMY and Gillian Philip's FIREBRAND. Reading THE ENEMY first and man, Mr Higson can certainly spin a yarn. Suitably gory, edge-of-your-seat stuff. I do love zombies.

5. I am waiting for two emails. If they don't arrive today I will be annoyed.

I hope your Wednesday is sunny and full of good things such as kittens, popcorn and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I'm writing

Yup, I'm writing again. So that's good. But am I working on the thing I'm supposed to be working on (i.e. my WIP)? Hell no! I'm working on a Top Sekrit Something instead. In your face, WIP!

The TSS is very different from anything I've written before - completely out of my comfort zone. And by gum, I'm enjoying it. It's hard work and I'm having to THINK and write notes and RE-THINK and (gasp!) actually plot, for a change. Now you know I'm a committed pantser, right? But this project just demands plotting. It goes against everything I believe in, but it seems to be working. My whole world has been turned upside down. I'm not sure what to believe in any more. If I'm no longer a pantser, then WHO AM I?

On a lighter note, who is this Rebecca Black person? And WHY, GOD, WHY?!

Authors for Japan

The wonderful Keris Stainton has set up Authors for Japan, an auction site where you can bid for items in aid of the British Red Cross Tsunami Appeal.

Bidding starts at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, and there are some incredible items on offer, so please do have a look. You'd better be quick though, because the auction closes at 10 p.m. on Friday.

If you want to, you can bid for a signed copy of ENTANGLED plus the jigsaw that was used in the book trailer here.