Resolve to Write: 52 Writing Exercise to Hone Your Craft is a useful list more of books than of writing exercises. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of prompts or exercises, as these things inevitably aren’t what I’m interested in or what inspires me. But reading the books or the shows it suggests, I find I do find something that inspires me and that I want to explore myself.

Finding What Works for Your Writing is one of those anecdotal “this is how a published author writes stuff” stories that I find interesting, if not something necessarily to emulate.

So we begin again, in first.

Hazel’s voice is just ten kinds of fantastic, and though there are certainly a lot of things missing from my own attempts at writing, voice was definitely a big one. Most YA is first person, too–so what naivete propelled me to write in third, I dunno. Live/read and learn.

Thanks John, and thanks Hazel. Still not sure about that Gus kid, but you’ve got some delightful smarm.

I’ve got about ten books ahead of it, but The Fault in Our Stars is definitely going on my reading list.

Power has a lot to do with future youth culture, and one element of that is hacking. And the more computers occupy our lives, the more power these hackers will have.

Haruki Murakami: Talent is Nothing Without Focus and Endurance

Of course this is hard. But I run every day. I must be able to do this, too. And I’d better start, if I want to get anywhere.

Inspiring Novel Openings from Distraction no. 99

Harness the Mental, Creative, and Emotional Benefits of Regular Writing from Lifehacker, because I need to take my own damn advice.

Finding Your Normal from The League of Extraordinary Writers, because it’s always refreshing to hear that writers who have accomplished the goals you want to accomplish (finishing a book, getting it published) is also a fallible human being who no greater or fewer quirks than you.

The Shotgun Approach to Writing from Omnivoracious, because even though I’m not doing National Novel Writing Month it can still be a useful writing tool.

How to Make Ideas Real by Hank Green of the Vlog Brothers: Hank condenses a lot of wisdom about how to make ideas happen in a lovely 4-minute video. Both he and his brother are terribly accomplished, articulate creative people and I really admire all the work they do. DFTBA.

Fatally Flawed: How to Write Tragic Heroes on Omnivoracious: The post really only talked about one kind of tragic hero, but I like their examination of how certain types go in and out of fashion. Though I think it’s a little different from a trend, it works much the same: would your hero resonate with people right now? Who are our heroes now versus who they were ten years ago versus who they will be ten years in the future? And what does all that say about the world you/I/he/she lives in?

To Plot or Not To Plot, Parts 1 and 2 on Ingrid’s Notes: Ingrid offers a helpful technical breakdown of some aspects of writing.

How I Wrote it: Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding: I usually don’t link to author interviews until I’ve read the book (because getting published doesn’t mean you don’t suck) but I do like anecdotes about other people’s’ writing processes. Because writing is such a private pursuit and developed so much in isolation, it’s nice to see what other people are up to to get an idea for how I might fine-tune my own process.

I’ll continue to post items related to fiction writing here.

As with most actual life stories the last few days aren’t that interesting apart from the details. I sat next to a very nice and very chatty young man who just graduated from the Navy’s Search and Rescue school and was going to be stationed in Fukuoka (where apparently there is a naval base – you learn something new every day!). I probably would have tried to strangle him if he tried to chat the entire plane ride, and since he was huge and I’m tiny I’m glad he didn’t. Someday I’ll find a way to communicate my antisocial tendencies without being offensive, but that was not the day, so I was just nice and stuff.

Despite my neurotic obsessing about hooow haaaard it was going to be to get my luggage from baggage claim to customs to the baggage delivery service, I came through immigration (which, as compared to when I studied abroad and was taken out of line because of some bizarro mix-up of my first and middle name, was super fast and easy) I saw… carts. Because duh.

And unlike a few of my fellow countrypeople who I saw talking to earnest but befuddled Japanese clerks in English, which the earnest but befuddled Japanese clerks didn’t speak, I muddled through the whole luggage delivery thing and train ticket thing and calling my house manager thing in Japanese. I probably only half understood what was going on but I’m going to blame half of that half on being really exhausted.

Upon arriving at my room I had a minor panic attack that it only had one outlet and that outlet only had two-prong (vs three-prong) slots. After about five minutes of this a friend on GChat helpfully reminded me of the existence of power strips.

I ate about five pounds of cashew-almond-macadamia nut mix that I’d packed, because I was exhausted and not sure my brain could operate at the capacity to allow me to wander around, find a grocery store, purchase food, and find my way back.

The typhoon that was supposed to hit Tokyo the day I arrived never materialized, but it was crazy windy and the storm shutters rattled all night. Finally I woke up at 2am and just stayed up. Thankfully the internet was teeming with American friends who were awake at a more reasonable hour where they were.

Since then I’ve managed to buy, cook, and eat food, and get the ball rolling on all the other errands I need to run. I’d forgotten the little details of how hard it is to get settled in another country, like not knowing store names or having any brand recognition. These things are so gradually absorbed and ultimately ingrained in me in America (of course I know what kind of clothes Ann Taylor/Urban Outfitters/H&M sells, that I like Smart Balance better than Earth Balance, that Target and Walmart are shops and the former is more expensive than the latter, etc). Now I’m a blank slate, and just figuring out what is toothpaste, let alone figuring out which one I prefer the taste and texture of, is a bit of information overload.

On the plus side, research. Though write what you know is poor advice, sometimes you have to know firsthand before you can convincingly make up the rest.