Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, everyone! Now that I'm full of lasagna (our Christmas dinner of choice many, many decades running...I couldn't change it if I wanted to, which is good because I don't!) and all my presents are unwrapped (95% of which were Harry-Potter related...fan girl much?), I wanted to wish you all a great holiday season. Whether your holiday ended several weeks ago, or will end several hours from now, I hope it was full of food, family, friends, and relaxation.

P.S. Sorry I didn't update last week! I had a wicked cold that pretty well knocked me out...you all know I'm a night writer, but one night I went to bed at 8:40. 8:40!!! Yeah. I was exhausted. But I'm almost back to normal now, so regular posts should resume starting tomorrow!

Oh, hai.

So I haven't updated my blog in a week.

A WEEK.

And I missed all of banned book week, which I had a lot of post ideas for.

Reasons for my slacker-ness:

1. I've developed wrist/hand pain that made typing nearly unbearable. Probably because I type all day at work, then come home and type all night. Or something. *coughs* But I got it under control and it's getting much better.
2. Revision-related stuffs.
3. CP reading.
4. Mostly I'm just a slacker.

Please forgive me. I know you will because most of you are also writers and you understand how these things go.

And I will be back next week FULL FORCE with lots of AWESOME for you!

But for now, I have this video, stolen from failbook.com, which is SO ADORBS and a great little exercise in the power of communication. (You might want to expand to full screen if you have a hard time reading the text - it's a little hard to read this small but it doesn't fit in my blog panel otherwise.)

Fun Non-writing Sites Every Writer Should Know

As writers, we use many resources to help us in our quest to create perfect prose - support groups, forums, editing software, etc. Today, I'd like to highlight some of my favorite sites to use for character development, plot research, and the like that I think every writer should know. (OMG most boring intro ever! But I'm too tired to be creative and I don't want to skip this entry until I have time to write something better. So, yeah. Lame intro it is.)

Polyvore. Polyvore is great for people who like to create character boards or people who like to play with fashion or character clothes/setting (read: girls.) The site allows you to make your own style boards by pulling fashion elements, background designs, faces, etc. from around the Internet, and even uploading your own if you can't find what you're looking for. They have a great selection of stuff and the site is extremely user-friendly. I actually made a style board for my next project, but I left it on my other computer and I can't access that right now. Plus its kind of boring. So instead I'll show you two examples straight from the Polyvore site:

See how these images bring to mind two very different ladies? To use the style creator I'm talking about here, click on "Create a Look." To browse other style boards, click on "Explore."

Playlist. I personally can't listen to music while I'm actually writing, but I do think it's fun to create playlists that match the mood and theme of my novel. And that's where Playlist comes in. Although there are many other music sites, I think Playlist has a pretty good selection (because I can sometimes have obscure taste, and Playlist seems to usually have what I want...usually), and I like that it's all online - no download required, and it integrates easily with blogs and other social networks. Of course, when I find something I love or when it moves from my "experimental playlist" to my "official playlist," I take a cue from Maggie Steifvater and pay the 99 cents to download the song. Support the artists! But until then, Playlist works well for introducing me to new songs and artists, and helping me rearrange my list from anywhere. 


Picnik. Ever wanted to experiment with a book cover, graphic element in your novel, character face, or other image, but don't have the fancy photo editing software required? Look no further than Picnik, an online image editing site that's easy and free. It has a TON of features and makes complicated tasks like resizing, messing with the saturation, etc. super simple. I even used Picnik to make a super awesome lame banner for my 2009 NaNo project, which I'm still editing and trying to make awesome.

OK, so those are my non-writing sites you should know! What are your favorites? And come back on Thursday (because tomorrow is Book-Crush Wednesday!) for the writing sites everyone should know!

Best Word Games for Writers

I love word games. They're a great way to increase your mental clarity, and sometimes I'll stumble across a word I'm not familiar with, look it up, and realize it's exactly the word I've been looking for - and it will end up in my story. So today I thought it would be fun to do a post about my favorite (FREE!) word games, all available to play on the Internet without downloading anything. 

As if we needed more distractions.

Oh well. It's sort of related to writing....right?

Text Twist: One of my all-time favorite word games is Text Twist, and now there's Text Twist 2. We used to play it in my copywriting class, but I was playing it before that, too. In high school, my friends and I would gather around the computer in the drama department's green room and all play together. Later, after college, when things were slow at my first job, my co-workers and I would play on the giant computers we had at the photo studio - the ones that we were supposed to use for showing our customers their pictures. So Text Twist and I have a long and fun history together. The concept is simple - it's basically a word jumble, but you can only advance to the next round if you find the seven-letter word. In the timed version, you have two minutes to get as many words as possible. It's fun and addictive and a good way to kill some time while you're working through that plot hole.

What Word: What Word is another favorite of mine. In this game, you get between one and four words that you have to find in a jumble of letters. You find the What Word by rearranging the jumble to form actual words, saving letters in the What Word until you have them all. But there's definitely a strategy - if one of the what words is, say, PHONE, and you put the ONE together without the PH first, then the ONE will register as a word and disappear, and you'll have to start all over again. Likewise, if you're saving the H and then happen to stick a T above it and an E below...well, there goes your H.

Word Descrambler: Writer's Digest has a few fun games on their site, including this one, Word Descrambler. It takes a little while to play because you have to play for 15 rounds, but since you can only mess up twice before it boots you off, I never make it the whole 15 rounds.

Word Bubbles: This last game I found one day when I was poking around on Hyperbole and a Half, which is quite possibly most definitely the most hilarious blog in existence. She called Word Bubbles "the most addicting game ever," and while I don't think it's quite as addicting as some of the other ones I mentioned, I do think it's challenging and fun. The site that hosts it also has a ton of other fun mind games to keep you from dying of boredom if you, like me, happen to have a boring day job. In Word Bubbles, you get three letters - say sta - and you have to come up with as many words as you can that begin with those three letters. BUT you can only give a certain number of words with the same number of letters before it won't let you guess anymore. So once you get, say, four 5-letter words, you can't guess any more. There are only three rounds that last about 30 seconds each, so it's good for a quick pick-me-up when things are a little slugish in your brain.

Now, you tell me - aside from crossword puzzles, because I know where to find plenty of those - what are some of your favorite word games (or just general games)?

Suggested Activities for the Waiting Period

Many of us have been there. You've finished your latest round of revisions (for me, it's round five...maybe six? Possibly seven? Who can keep track anymore.) and have fired off emails to some readers to get that all-important feedback. Is your WIP awesome? Does it suck? Does it make any sense AT ALL? Will you have to rewrite that make-out scene YET AGAIN? (Are you intentionally failing miserably at writing it in the first place because you love writing make-out scenes so much? Hm...)

Of course, your readers have lives (stupid them) and they won't be able to get back to you overnight. I mean, sure, it should be quick and painless to provide feedback on a 60,000 word document, but not everyone has perfected the art of speed reading. So while you sit on tenderhooks waiting for the feedback so you can dive back into revisions, here are some activities you can participate in that might be more enjoyable then waiting for those crit comments (I also believe these activities will work well when you're waiting to hear back about MS requests from agents.)

1. Deep-sea fishing. OK, so you don't know anything about fishing. And you get a little bit seasick. But there's no email in the ocean, so it will prevent you from obsessively checking your email while you wait for those all-important comments. Also, you might just catch dinner! And then you can cook it! Deboning fish is hard and messy, cooking it can be time consuming if you want it to be, and eating it is yummy. Sounds like a great, time-wasting way to spend an evening!
2. Ostrich riding. Apparently, this is a real activity. One which you must train for vigorously, then fly to Africa to compete in. Sounds like the perfect time-killer to me!
3.  Wallow in self-doubt and loathing. This seems to be the perfect activity of choice for writers (and, indeed, any artist) waiting to get feedback or news of any kind. Sister activities include binge drinking, not bathing, not eating (see also: binge eating), and collapsing in on oneself like a dying star. 
4. Start a Twitter account dedicated to Bieber. Because there aren't enough of them already, and because paying him his due homage will obviously take up all of your time.
5. Bungee jumping and/or sky-diving. While neither of these activities will last longer than an afternoon, they're both moderately dangerous and may even result in injury that could lay you up for a few weeks - just enough time to get the feedback you've been waiting for. Will you take the risk?

OK, chances are good that you might not be interested in those activities. So you might opt to just do some CP reading of your own, read a book (For example, it's really convenient if you time the sending of your WIP with the most highly anticipated book release since Deathly Hallows....yeah, I didn't get into Twilight until after Breaking Dawn came out, and I'm kind of glad because I would have been disappointed by that conclusion.), or watch Veronica Mars. But really, are any of those as exciting/awesome as riding an ostrich?

I think not.

Alright, I admit this post was kind of silly/pointless. But no one's really reading it anyway, and my mind is so NOT on the blog today. We're all too consumed with MOCKINGJAY FEVER that we can hardly stand it. THE ANTICIPATION, PEOPLE. IT KILLS.

Tapping Into My Crazy

I'm a little bit crazy.

It's OK. I'm a writer. I'm allowed to be.

Every writer has those slightly seriously crazy habits that they will never admit to having - unless, of course, they have a blog, in which case they'll tell everyone on the Internet about their secret weirdness.

Which leads me to today's post.

You see, readers, I have a tendency to talk to myself. I guess that's not so weird. But you know what IS weird? Having fake interviews with yourself where you talk to a non-existent "reporter" about the inspiration behind your book, and what you're planning for your characters in the next installment.

Not only is this totally INSANE because I'm literally TALKING to NO ONE (like this conversation isn't taking place in my head. I'm actually saying the words. Aloud. To NO ONE. CRAZYTOWN.), but it also might be crazy because:

1. I haven't sold a book yet.  (I mean I don't even have a representative to sell it on my behalf.)
2. Probably because I haven't even finished revising my book. (But oh BOY am I close, readers. Like it's palatable.)
3. So not only are journalists absolutely NOT lining up around the block to scoop my story, but they certainly don't care about what's going to happen in the next installment.
4. Because there isn't a next installment.
5. And if there WAS a next installment, I wouldn't be telling all my secrets to a journalist.
6. Because I don't like spoilers.
7. Also because I AM a journalist, and I know better than that.
8. Watch out for journalists. We are smarter than we look. 

And yet. I still bring the crazy, by living out my future dreams and interviewing myself. Usually these interviews take place in the car when there's a song on that I don't like. But today it took place in the kitchen, where I have decided all the MAGIC happens because my fake interview totally helped me put the final pieces into place for the greater plot-arc of my potential series!!

So you see!! There's a reason writers are crazy! It helps us think. And plan. And figure things out. So that when (not if - when! - you must believe, dear readers) my book sells, and when my Awesome Agent scores me a totally Sweet Deal with an Excellent Editor, and all my dreams come true, and my book becomes a series, I won't be staring at my Mac going, "CRAP! But that's a clue I needed to leave in the FIRST book! STOP THE PRESSES! REDACT! RECALL! ETC.!" Instead, I will say, "It's cool. I've got this covered. I went all crazytown in my kitchen for a reason."

So, basically, readers, what I'm saying is this: It's OK to be crazy sometimes. Writing is hard. It's exhausting. Sometimes you're living on little more than coffee/tea and chocolate, which is pretty much a diet of caffeine and sugar, and possibly no sleep, so if you didn't embrace the crazy you'd be in trouble. So go a little crazy, have your great ideas, then come online and write blog posts that make little to no sense whatsoever.

Tell me readers! Have you ever embraced your crazy and ultimately had it work out for the best?

I Respond to the Google Searches that Missed the Mark

Like most dedicated bloggers, I have analytics set up for my blog. I like to see who’s stalking me (apparently, people actually are finding my blog by searching for “Heather Trese,” and I can’t decide if that’s totally awesome or a little creepy. Probably both.), how long you folks hang around on the site, which of my posts you think is most interesting (the long-standing winners are still, after months and months of awesome content, my kissing day blogfest entry and my post on female characters who kick butt.), and, most hilarious of all, which search terms you use to find my blog.

That last one always cracks me up. Sure, there are the normal ones – See Heather Write, writing advice, adverbs are evil (yes, really a search term used to find my blog!), SCBWI. There are the ones that are weird, but still make sense – teenagers vocabulary, how to write a murder scene, crippling fear of rejection, Jessica is funnier than Heather (You see that Jess? You’re funnier than me. YOU WIN AT LIFE.)

And then there are the ones that are just…weird. They make no sense at all, and I have no idea why those people would have ended up on my site from those searches. But I’d like to address those people now, since apparently they are in need of help and are, I suppose, ending up on my blog in search of it. Here goes.

Inappropriate Google Search Terms that May Bring You to Heather’s Blog (According to Google Analytics):

I’m in love with Severus Snape

It’s OK. So am I.

(There is another one I want to post SO BAD but it’s a spoiler for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I just can’t bring myself to do it, because sadly there are people in the world who haven’t experienced the awesome. So I’m blaming you for keeping my blog readers from reading this cheesy and awesome line that apparently led someone to my blog.)

I’m a bad writer/So I’m a bad writer/I feel like a bad writer?/I want to write a journal but I’m not a good writer

So this search appears in my analytics…a lot. Are you trying to tell me something, Google? I think I’m getting a complex. (On a side note, if you really do think you’re a bad writer, but you want to start a journal or even a novel, my advice is: start it. You can only get better. The more you write, the better you’ll get. Write until you have little keyboard-shaped calluses on your fingers, then keep on writing. Eventually you’ll be mediocre, then good, then awesome, then you’ll be the next J.K. Rowling and maybe you can get together with the guy in my next search term. Just don’t unleash that wrath on the world. Please.)

Erotic Harry Potter

I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing here, or when the word “erotic” ever appeared on my blog aside from these two times, but I would really like you to drag your mouse to the upper left corner of your screen and back out of here. Now please. Weirdo.

Sexy language used by teenagers

OK, seriously? What kind of site does Google think I’m running here? You can follow Mr. Erotic Harry Potter right out the door. Kthxbai.

Writing a story about Heather

Oh, you’re writing a story about me, hm? And I see you were on the blog for…10 minutes? So you think you can get all of your background research done in 10 minutes, do you? Well, I don’t think 10 minutes on my blog will tell you that I have a silver Honda named Hannah, and I named it Hannah because I like alliteration. And it won’t tell you how many freckles I have, or the way it sounds when my laugh fills a whole room, or what my tears taste like. I’m a person!! TASTE MY TEARS! 

What are some of the weirdest search terms that have led people to your blog?