Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been quiet on the blog lately. To tell you the truth, it's been busy--but the weird kind of busy where I look up and the whole day has gotten away and I can't name one single thing that I've gotten finished.

I really need to thank you all for your OVERWHELMING support of the new t-shirt contest! Wowza. Last I looked the tally was something like 1175 for...66 against. So I think you guys are pretty adamantly "pro".

So stay tuned, we WILL be doing a contest very soon I hope. In the meantime you guys can go ahead and start working on your designs.

Like last time we will be requiring that all designs be digital, and there is a very good reason for this.

You see, when it comes time to make the t-shirts I have to upload a file or send the image to the t-shirt place. The higher quality the image the better the finished product, so while pen and paper drawings will be allowed please remember that they need to be ready to be put on a t-shirt. (I'm afraid we simply don't have the staff or expertise to take an idea and make it into a reproducable file, so all images need to be ready to go!)

We'll be judging based on creativity and execution.

Just to refresh your memory this was last year's awesome winner by one of my favorite readers, Erin the Redhead.Isn't it awesome?

I sure think it is. And I can't wait to see what you guys will come up with this year!

Submission guidelines and full rules will follow soon. In the meantime, ready-set-design!

-Ally

Hey everyone!

I hope you've had a great week. For me it's been a FAST week. Seriously. Is it Friday? Really? Shouldn't it be Wednesday or Tuesday or something. Oh well, I guess this just means I need to get my rear in gear if I'm going to finish Act 2 by Monday like I'd promised myself.

But before I can do that, of course, I had to write with two things that made me really happy this morning.

The first is that I had to write and THANK YOU all for answering the poll questions yesterday. It was actually very helpful. You see, I have a tendency to worry about things sometimes. I mean really worry. About really crazy things. And this helped me to sort out some concerns about a pseudo-secret project I have in the works.

The results, by the way, were as follows:

QUESTION:
WHY DO YOU READ SEQUELS AND ADDITIONAL BOOKS IN YA SERIES?

Answers:

To get answers to questions asked in previous books-- 13%

To spend more time in the world or with the characters--40%

To find out what is going to happen with the characters and their relationships--47%

So I think you guys have spoken (and what you've said will be A LOT of help!)

Thanks again.

But there is one more that makes me happy...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI08-pCFJj0]

Yay!

-Ally

So very, very early this morning the phone rang. It was my (fictional) boyfriend George Clooney.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: What?!?

George: Oooh, someone's not a morning person.

Me: Please tell me you're trapped under a boulder somewhere and you're calling me for help, because if you're just calling at five a.m. to say hi--

George: Hi.

Me: Hi back.

George: So how's GG4 going?

Me: First act is finished. The other acts are getting there.

George: So what's it called?

Me: No comment.

George: When's it coming out?

Me: Don't know.

George: Where are you going on tour?

Me: Someplace where you get to sleep past five a.m.

George: That place does not exist on tour.

Me: Oh. Yeah. That's right.

George: Are you excited for Heist Society?

Me: Excited. Terrified. I can't really tell the difference anymore.

George: Why would you be terrified? Heist is my favorite of your books so far!

Me: Me too. That's what terrifies me.

George: That's crazy.

Me: I never claimed to be sane.

George: So what are you doing today?

Me: Well, I bought this pineapple the other day, and I think I'd probably better cut it up sometime soon.

George: No, really? What are you doing today?

Me: Seriously. That pineapple is mocking me. I need to get on that. And Act 2. So much to do to act 2.

George: Which has better odds of getting done?

Me: (long pause) It's a toss-up.

Have a great day, everyone!

-Ally

The writer who wrote the screenplay for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE wrote an article last week that has been posted and re-posted and linked to all around internet, wherever writers tend to congregate.

The article is his take on why he does not read scripts from acquaintances or strangers. (I won't link to it here because the language is VERY adult and the tone is--intentionally, I think--over the top but it should be easy to find if you're really interested and want to search just a little.)

Personally, I really related to what he said (not necessarily how he said it). It's something that all published writers hear and see every day--people we barely know asking us to read their work and give feedback on it.

Feedback itself takes a long time and a lot of energy and can also open us up to potential lawsuits down the line, so that's reason enough to have a blanket "no thank you" policy (which I do have).

But as the article (and the comments that followed) pointed out, feedback isn't really what a lot of people want. Nope. Most people who ask for this ask because they think published authors know some trick and if we'd just share with the person who is asking then they too will get an agent or a big-time publishing deal.

Nope. Sorry. It simply doesn't work that way.

I decided to blog about this today because I really want all of you to know (especially those of you who are in your teens and maybe just starting to write yourselves) that getting notes or feedback from an author you admire is not necessary for writing a book or screenplay that's admirable. You really, honestly do not need feedback from an author to be an author.

So how do you get feedback if you're just starting out and you tried to email your book to your favorite author but it bounced back?

Well, I can't tell you where you should go for feedback, but I can share where I went.

1. My mother.
Sure, maybe your mom isn't an English teacher like my mom and so isn't quite as comfortable with a red pen, but getting someone--anyone--to read your stuff is most likely where you'll be when you start out.

It's helpful not just for the feedback, but also because if you tell someone "I will have a draft ready for you by January 1" then you've set a goal and made a promise and now you have a DEADLINE.

Welcome the world of the working writer.

2. My local book club.
When I wrote my first book I was living in a tiny town that didn't have a chapter of any writers' organizations like RWA or SCBWI or any critique groups that I knew of. What we did have was a book club that met once a month at the local library, so that's where I went.

And here's the thing people tend to forget: you aren't writing for writers. You're writing for READERS. So go find readers.

I approached the book club and told them that I had written my first novel and asked if they would mind making my novel their book club selection for the next month (if I agreed to provide all the copies). They thought that sounded like fun, so that's what we did, and it was incredibly helpful.

Everyone got a manuscript and a red pen, and I probably wouldn't be where I am today without their help and support.

3. Contests.
I entered two contests before I started querying agents. One was for the Southwest Writers Association annual conference. It was great. I'd just "finished" my novel and sent off the first chapter and synopsis, just like I was asked to do.

Feedback came in two forms. First, from the fact that I didn't even place in the competition. Second, in a lovely, handwritten critique sheet about WHY I didn't place. I think entering the contest was twenty bucks or so and I feel quite certain that that might have been the best money I've ever spent in this business.

The second contest came at least a year after the first--after countless rewrites and doing things like meeting with the book club. This time, it was the annual contest from my state writer's association. I entered the contest and told myself that if I won I would take that as a sign I was ready to start querying agents.

I did win. And the critique sheet this time included the question "Why hasn't this been published?"

And that was when I knew I was ready to go pro.

Getting great feedback can be as simple as joining a critique group if you've got access to one. Go to conferences. Enter contests. But more than anything, remember that you don't need the opinion of a working writer. You need the opinions of working readers.

And if you STILL think that you need the opinion of a published/working writer, then ask yourself this question: do you want their opinion or do you want their "connections"?

There is no substitute for hard work in anything in life, I'm convinced, and writing is absolutely no exception. If you want to be a published, working writer, you have to write. You have to rewrite. You have to research and read and listen and study and learn the craft yourself instead of working on your "networking" and telling everyone you know that your sister's husband's sister is Janet Evanovich's dentist, so you're thiiiiiis close to having a three book deal with Simon & Schuster

Nope. Sorry. It simply doesn't work that way.