Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: Revision & Self-Editing: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Finished Novel
Author: James Scott Bell
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: I was looking for a practical guide to editing my first draft.

Summary: A national bestselling author and writing teacher lays out a plan for revising your novel’s first draft.

Review: I wish I could roll up all the tips in this book into some Silly Putty and stick it directly on my brain.

So far, I’ve flipped through about 20 different revision books. Most of those books were too abstract in their advice, and some others (while excellent) were focused on line editing. I needed a book to guide me on the macro edit—pacing, character development, setting, voice, and so on.

This book has all that and more. Including a revision checklist at the back. I am a checklist sort of a girl. (Sometimes in the morning, while I’m in bed waiting for my daughter to wake up next to me, I’ll start composing my checklist for the day in my head and then obsessively repeat the items over and over so I don’t forget them before I get to paper & pen.)

The advice in this book is practical, with writing exercises that aren’t just busy work. It’s clear they’ll get you further along on your revision goals.

As the author suggests, I’m going to expand the checklist to include all the other nuggets throughout the book I want to be sure to check for. But I’m out of the school mindset, so I’ve otherwise drawn a blank on how best to absorb all this wonderful knowledge.

Here’s one tip I plan to use soon:

Then, after some cooling off, produce a summary of the novel. A synopsis, but one’s that subject to change. Because you’re going to try to make it better and deeper. You may even change it significantly.

The summary should be no more than 2,000 to 3,000 words, and you should produce several versions. …If you produce several of these summaries, and finally fine-tune the best version, the method will give you a roadmap for an organic second draft.

You can bet I’m going to read the rest of the Write Great Fiction series.

Your Turn: What tricks do you use to learn and internalize new things from a book you’re reading?

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did You Like This Book? Try:

• Description & Setting
• Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint
• Plot & Structure
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

A couple weeks ago, one of my Goodreads kindred spirits said she’d like to see my TBR list. And suddenly my skin felt a little clammy.

Because I don’t want anyone to see my TBR list. It’s sort of…big. Minus the “sort of.” I’ve been adding books to it since 2003, but books don’t come off at anywhere near the rate they go on.

How big? 555 books, to be exact. At my current rate of reading, it would take me over 5 years just to read what’s currently on my list, which doesn’t even take into account all the new books coming out in that timeframe that I’ll want to read.

I bet this sounds familiar. Maybe your TBR list/pile/albatross has a physical presence on your bookshelves. Sure, I’ve figured out some tricks to help me resist the urge to buy books, so my list is virtual. But no less overwhelming.

I never want to pick a title off my list because I know I’ll never get through it all anytime soon. If I read a good review, I add the title to my library hold list. Unless my hold list is already maxed out. Then the title goes on my TBR list, and it’s never going to get out of that list alive.

What would you recommend as my next steps for whittling down my list to something more manageable?

I’d like to get my list into shape so I can convert it from my Google Docs spreadsheet to a Goodreads and/or LibraryThing list. But in the meantime, at least I can show some pretty charts from the spreadsheet.

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Author: Carrie Ryan
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Why I Read It: This was a title in Rhiannon’s Dystopia Challenge, not to mention I’ve read a ton of glowing reviews.

Summary: Mary lives in the last known human village in a world overrun by the undead. A system of fences separates the humans from the Unconsecrated who crave their flesh. When the fences aren’t enough to protect her family and then the man she loves asks another to marry him, Mary is forced to join the Sisterhood.

Review: Man oh man, I loves me a good dystopia. I devoured this zombilicious story in less than a day. I was a little skeptical about that tricky little thing called suspension of disbelief because, c’mon. Zombies. But aspects of this world were eerily plausible.

From a writer’s perspective, this book is an excellent example of how to not go easy on your characters. As a reader, I ate up every juicy bit of it. Mostly. In a few spots when hope was as scarce as a tan in a throng of zombies, I wanted a silver lining. Even a speck of metallic dust would have been nice.

Still loved it, though. And oh dear, the Mary and Travis scenes. Mmm. Imagine me using my best zombie voice when I say “MORE!”

A little taste for you:

It is a complicated process, giving a living human over to the Forest of Hands and Teeth. The Guardians found out years ago that the transfer cannot be done too early because a live human cast into the Forest is nothing but food for the Unconsecrated who will tear at their flesh and eat until there is nothing left.

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did You Like This Book? Try:

• Need
• The Hunger Games—My rating: 5/5
• Wintergirls—My rating: 5/5
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Audience Pick!

Title: Love You Hate You Miss You
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 2.5/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: After a tragic car crash, Amy goes to a rehab facility to get a handle on her drinking. But when she’s released, life just isn’t the same. Her best friend Julia is gone, her parents are faking a happy family routine, and her therapist wants her to start a diary.

Review: This is a heavier story than others I’ve read by Scott with not as much in the way of romance, although it does have a bit in that department.

But as with her other novels, this one didn’t speak to me. Putting on my YAnnabe hat, the internal dialogue was too much for me. I would love to see Scott write a novel in third person because I think that might be more to my taste.

Here’s an example of the internal dialogue I’m talking about. Amy has just told a potential new friend about her time in rehab:

…and then I ended up telling her about Pinewood.

I don’t know why I did. I just felt like it, I guess. I didn’t even feel weird. Well, maybe a little. But she wasn’t—she didn’t react like I thought she would. She didn’t say anything stupid, and she didn’t try to be all positive or sympathetic or anything.

The frequent hesitations in the narration (like “But she wasn’t—she didn’t”) called extra attention to the internal dialogue, and I like that technique better in actual dialogue.

Still, this was an enjoyable and quick read. If you like Scott’s other novels, I think you’ll like this one too.

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did you like this book? Try:

• Touch
• Something, Maybe—My rating: 2.5/5
• Gorgeous
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

This post brought to you by Chris, Debi, Nymeth, and Kelly!

Dursley-ish parents throwing a fit over their kids reading a curse word or about—gasp!—magic, books thrown into bonfires, kids having to make do with My Friend Flicka when the mean people make Captain Underpants go into hiding. These things are not good, I think we can all agree.

But there is one situation when banning books is a good thing. And that’s when you’re addicted to buying books.

Addicted? Surely You Jest!

My name is Kelly, and I am addicted to buying books. There was a time when I couldn’t walk out of a bookstore without spending over $50. And we’re talking weekly visits, if not more. My husband knew not to take it personally that I never made eye contact with him while inside a bookstore.

When all 5 bookshelves in our house were overflowing and I had to choose between installing bookshelves to span every wall and putting our animals in storage to make room for more books…I knew I had a problem.

And I’m not the only one. So Chris, Debi, Nymeth, and I put our heads together on the topic of book-buying addiction to share what we’ve learned.

What’s So Bad about Buying Books?

I know, it’s fun. Reminiscing about the good ol’ days up there made me a bit twitchy to get myself to the nearest bookstore NOW.

Even if I could afford to spend that much on books, there’s something about finding a book, holding it in my hands, and deciding I want to own it that gives me a high. Maybe it’s the possibility that the story within will be an instant favorite. Or I could be about to discover a hidden gem that I can tell the world about.

But what I learned is that I don’t have to spend my hard-earned money on a book to fall in love with it. And if I do find a new favorite, I can always buy it after I return my library copy.

Even if you’re not addicted like we are, cutting back on the new books you buy has a few benefits:

• Save money—A couple years ago, I was spending thousands of dollars on books each year while trying to pay off credit card and student loan debt. If you have a financial goal, this might be an easy area to cut without much of an impact to your quality of life.



• Save your sanity—Debi has reached the point where it’s downright stressful trying to figure out where to put the new books that make their way into the house. Not to mention that the more books you have, the more you have to dust.
• Save space for what matters—When you buy only the books you truly love, your own personal library becomes a little more special because it’s filled with the books that have earned a place in your heart.
• Save time—If I buy a book I haven’t read before, I feel like I have to finish it and get my money’s worth, regardless of whether I’m actually enjoying it. Your reading time is finite, so don’t get yourself in a situation where you feel obligated to finish a book that makes you go “meh.”
• Save it for a treat—When you’re buying books left and right, it’s nothing special. When you buy books with deliberate intention, it becomes a treat. Nymeth is approaching 20 books read since her ban started—the point at which she’s allowed to buy one book. It’s been a long time since the idea of buying one little book has felt so good!
• Save your excitement—As more time lapses between when you buy a book and when you get around to reading it, the excitement wears out. You may like it when you finally get around to reading it, but that first blush of booklust has long since faded. Nymeth’s goal is to get back to the habits of her pre-blogging days, where she’d get a couple of books, read them, then get some more and read those.
• Save the planet—By switching to the library and buying only your favorites, you’re still supporting your favorite authors, but you’re also cutting your carbon footprint by 30 pounds a year.

8 Tips for a Book-Buying Ban

Ready to try it out? We pulled together some handy dandy tips to guide you in your journey to healthier book buying habits:

1. Set your purchase parameters—Sounds common sense, but it really does help to explicitly articulate the circumstances in which it makes sense to buy a book. My rule is that I need to read the book before purchasing it. If it’s a nonfiction book I think I’ll reference later, I can buy it. For fiction, if I think I’ll read it again, I can buy it. Nymeth’s rule is no impulse buys.
2. Give yourself an allowance—Cold turkey didn’t work for us. So give yourself permission to buy once in a while. Try setting a dollar limit or a limit on the number of books you buy in a month. Or copy Chris: For every 15 books you knock off your TBR list, you get to buy one book. Debi says Paperbackswap doesn’t count for her, but she’s not allowed to buy credits.
3. Decide on a punishment—As Nymeth pointed out, “a good behavioural plan also requires penalties.” If you slip up, maybe you have to take one of your books to a used bookstore. Or like Nymeth, you can donate a Bookmooch point to charity.
4. Learn the ins and outs of your library—Where’s the web site, and can you use it to put titles on hold? If they don’t have a title, can you suggest it or get it through interlibrary loan? Is there a limit on how many books you can check out? Becoming familiar with how your library works will build confidence that the books you want will be there even if you don’t shell out the cash yourself. Chris has learned to love his library since he started his ban—it’s like a giant bookstore that’s free! (You don’t get to keep the books, of course, but that’s just a small complaint.)
5. Make a TBR list—If your “to be read” list consists of gazing upon your many bookshelves of purchased books, try a virtual list. LibraryThing and Goodreads both have a way to record the books you want to read.
6. Don’t go into a bookstore alone—Bring a weapon. A piece of scratch paper will do, or a little notebook if you want to do it up right. If you feel like picking up a book, do it. Pick them all up. But before you get in line, sit down with your paper and look at each book in your hands. Do you really need that book right away? If not, write the title down and set the book to the side. Odds are you’ll walk out with just your handy list, which you can then upload to your virtual TBR list!
7. Enlist support—Ask someone to remind you of your ban if you start to get weak in the knees at the thought of a new book. Spouses work well here, since they usually like the idea of saving money. Debi lives in a house full of book-buying addicts, so she had to look for support elsewhere. Her book-blogging friends have already been invaluable in keeping her on track, with Chris saving her from a momentary lapse.
8. Try it, you might like it—If the idea of not buying books gives you the shakes, just try it for a week and see how it goes. You can always go back to your regular routine, but you might find that you still get to read what you want, just with extra cash in your account.

But Wait, There’s More!

For more great tips, check out these posts!

• From my lovely collaborators:
  • It’s Time For A Ban and a Woohoo!
  • Sunday Salon…the ban
  • The Sunday Salon – Operation Climb Mt TBR Begins Now
• Gluttony—Over 100 thoughts from bloggers on book gluttony.
• Down, TBR, down!—Rules for what to add to your TBR list.
• buy no new books for three months—How one woman’s ban turned into a torrid love affair with her library.
• 2009 Personal Book Challenge—What to do when you realize you have enough unread books in your house to last 10 years.