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Blurb:
Being a bully isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Sixteen-year old Brianna had everything she wanted: money to ski
all over the world, underlings to do her bidding, and parents who
gave her every freedom—as long as she played by their rules. But
when she’s busted shoplifting and assigned to the Chain Gang, she
ditches her shallow ways and realizes being herself is easier than
manipulating people.
Forced to partner with kids she’d never dream of befriending,
including Xavier, a boy who makes her pulse go into hyperdrive,
Brianna vows to be a better person. Breaking Old Brianna’s habits
isn’t easy, but her infatuation with Xavier—someone her
parents would never approve of—motivates her to keep trying.
Even when he convinces her to trade her swanky skis for a
beat-up snowboard.
Brianna lets go of her need to control everything and finally starts to
feel free—until her past threatens to jeopardize her first real
chance at love. She discovers balancing on the edge is as
challenging in life as it is in snowboarding, and when a new friend
is in trouble, Brianna must decide between the superficial things that
used to be her world and putting her friend’s safety before herself.
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If I Knew Then What I Know Now About Writing
I started writing seriously in 2007, published my first novel at the end
of 2012, and since then have published six novels. But I’ve written a
total of eight novels and one memoir. I didn’t publish my first two
novels because, well, they weren’t good enough. I needed more
practice. As much as I didn’t want to hear it back then, my writing
needed work—heck, I needed work—and I wish I’d known
a few things back when I first started.
It’s not a race
When you first set out to write a novel, it’s scary and exciting and
the words flow faster than you can type. But sooner or later, you’ll
hit a wall and the gushing flow will become a slow drip that slowly
drives you crazy. Or maybe that’s just me.
Most writers I know struggle with the middle of the first draft, and
the best way I’ve found to plod through is to have an outline and a
daily word goal. Neither will guarantee success—that’s where I’ve learned to go easy on myself on the days I don’t
reach my goals—but breaking a novel into manageable parts
(500-1000 words per day) makes the end goal less scary. As the
adage goes, if you write one page a day, you’ll have a book in a year.
It can seem like a long time, and that’s why we have to pace ourselves.
It’s not a competition—and stop comparing yourself to
other writers
It may feel like it, especially when all your friends are signing agents
or getting book deals or hitting the bestseller lists, but no two writers
have the exact same circumstances. I, like many others, have a day
job, but I don’t have children, and I marvel at how those with children
AND day jobs also manage to write. Lately I’ve averaged writing and
publishing one book per year, and my friends often congratulate me
for being prolific. Meanwhile, I’m in several online writing groups
with authors who write and publish multiple books per year (some as
many as one per month) and I feel like a complete failure.
If you let yourself get swept up in comparisons, you’ll psyche yourself
out and struggle to write. So stop comparing yourself to other writers.
Not your process, your pace, your style—nothing. Yes, it’s beneficial to read heavily in your genre to know
what others are doing, but only you can write the story inside you.
It’ll get easier
When I decided to write my first novel, I had NO idea what I was doing.
I had a rough outline, a pen and notebook (because I wrote my first novel
by hand), and a lot of doubt that I could actually WRITE A NOVEL.
But I did it. Then I did it again. For my second novel, I joined NaNoWriMo
[link: nanowrimo.org] and learned a lot about myself in the process:
by hand), and a lot of doubt that I could actually WRITE A NOVEL.
But I did it. Then I did it again. For my second novel, I joined NaNoWriMo
[link: nanowrimo.org] and learned a lot about myself in the process:
- I can write 1000 words in 45-60 minutes when I’m really on a roll
- I can rarely write more than 1000 words in one sitting
- I must break up my writing sessions if I plan to write more than 1000
words per day.
When I’m not participating in NaNo, my daily goal is 1000 words, and I
can usually accomplish that in the morning before my day job.
It’ll always be hard
That said, writing a novel is still a lot of work. Hard work. Like anything
in life, it will get easier the more you do it, but I promise you that every
author out there—whether they’re a NYT bestseller or floundering
below the mid-list—has days when she wonders why she ever
thought writing was a good idea. I outline and do character
development before I write, and it helps, but there’s always the
lingering doubt that this time it might not work and I worry I’ll never
get through the first draft.
Take solace in knowing we’ve all been there, and we’ll be there again.
Nothing compares to finishing a novel
Okay, I may have discovered this the first time I wrote those magical
words, The End, but it never gets old. If you’ve written—or even
attempted—to write a novel, you know what a commitment it is.
And we’ve all had people tell us how they’d love to write a novel, if
only they had the time. Whenever someone says that to me, I gently
remind them that we all have the same number of hours in a day, it’s
all in how we prioritize that time. I watch very few TV shows, I don’t
read nearly as much as I’d like, and my house isn’t the cleanest, all
because I protect my daily writing time. I feel my best when I’m
writing, and I look forward to the next The End.
About the Author
Multi-award winning young adult author Melanie Hooyenga
first started writing as a teenager and finds she still relates best to
that age group. She has lived in Washington DC, Chicago, and 7Mexico, but has finally settled down in her home state of
Michigan. When not at her day job as a Communications Director at
a nonprofit, you can find Melanie attempting to wrangle her
Miniature Schnauzer Owen and playing every sport imaginable with
her husband Jeremy.
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