Middle Grade Monday: James Ponti Author Event

 

On Friday, I went to RJ Julia's to see James Ponti and Alyson Gerber.

I've seen James Ponti a few times before and he never disappoints. 

Read my recaps of each event:

Time 1

Time 2

Time 3

I reviewed EUROPA already, I adore this series.

The room was packed, which was nice to see.

Themes:

James writes four themes in his books:

1. Family Drama

2. Mystery

3. Action/Adventure

4. Humor 

* He writes about Family because of his own story.

Writing Advice:

1. Write something small and work up to a book - it's like training for a marathon, you don't go out and decide to run a marathon in one day. You have to build up to it. It's the same thing with writing. 

2. Read your world aloud. You will catch more mistakes that way - of even strangely worded scenes.

On Coming up with the concept for The Sherlock Society

There’s a lake near his house. There are nine benches around the lake. One day, he decided to walk about the lake to plot his book. At each bench, he would stop and ask a question. Each question would be harder than the last and he couldn’t leave the bench until he solved the answer to the question.

Example: The new book would be a mystery.

The kids would get around Florida thanks to their Grandfather.

Why would he be taking them around to solve mysteries? He had a vested interested as a former investigative journalist.

After two laps around the lake, he had the book figured out.

Book three: Art Attack comes out in September and I'm so looking forward to it!  

Why Europa is Dedicated to Suzanne:

When James was coming up with the idea for the Shakespeare Code, he remembered a conversation with former co-worker Suzanne Collins. He wrote her a quick note about it. She immediately called him up. They had the same conversation again and then spent time figuring out the code for this book. 

Our newest pictures:

Alyson was busy with other readers, so we didn't get a chance to talk, sadly. 

But what another fun night! 

NaNoWriMo Tips and Tricks

This is the first year in a long while (since 2006) that I'm NOT going to be writing 50,000 words this year. But that doesn't mean that I won't b writing. I'm just going to focusing on editing. So I won't be counting words, but I will be cheering everyone on and sending good thoughts your way.

Here are some tips I learned while writing:

 * Pace yourself 

* Determine a daily word count and stick to it

* Leave off in the middle of a scene so you know where you're going the next day

* Let everyone in your life know what you're trying to accomplish so they understand if you're not available for plans

* Think about your writing when you're not writing

* Join a region and attend some of the Write-Ins (lots of local libraries host them)

* Jot down a few plot line ideas (I like to do this before November hits)

* Take a Day off if you need to, just make up the word count later

* Talk about it on social media, people will cheer your on 

* Know that this is only first draft and you will polish it later. Just get the words down on the page.

* Update your word count daily on the NaNoWriMo page - it helps with the accomplishment feeling

* Talking to people helps if you're stuck with the plot, even if they don't know the whole story.

* Have fun with it and feel accomplished when you finish (no matter how many words wrote.)

NaNoWriMo Tips and Tricks

Happy writing month to all my fellow writers out there.  Yesterday was the start of the fast and furious novel writing month. I've been taking part in this for 8 years now and because I've learned a few things, I'm sharing them with you. 

Also if you're on twitter follow #NaNoWriMo15 or #NaNoWriMo for updates from writers everywhere! 

Here are my past posts:

1. Are you thinking about it?
2. Tips 1
3. And finally, it can happen to you: Authors who wrote their first draft during NaNoWriMo and after edits and revisions, became published.

Most importantly, have fun with it!

NaNoWriMo Check In

How's everyone doing? It's a little over than halfway through the month - which means, everyone should be near 25K or a little over.

I'm at 31K and I know that it's going to be a rough writing week for me because I'm crazy busy this week. I wrote a little extra yesterday because of it.

Are you on target?

Are you enjoying it or does it feel like a chore?

Are you needing to find some creative juices (I like dancing around the room like maniac - it helps loosen me up and makes me feel a little silly.)

Are you finding yourself trying to edit your work (Try to avoid this - that's what the new year is for - editing process)

Do you know where you're going in the story and how to get there? If not, maybe a plotting session is in order.

Leave a comment and let me know how it's going for you!