YA Writer, Tech Support Girl & Tea Addict

Today, for their Road Trip Wednesday feature, YA Highway asked: If you couldn’t use your own name, what would your pseudonym or penname be?

This is a question that, due to my own over-thinking about branding and the future, I’ve already dealt with in small ways.

My original penname was just my full name, ‘Emma Maree Urquhart’, but for future books I’m shortening my penname to just ‘Emma Maree’.

It’s short, it’s memorable, it makes a snazzy URL, it’s easier to spell and pronounce than ‘Urquhart’ (Urk-hart), and it helps avoid any fussing about if I ever have to change my maiden name.

I wouldn’t mind trying out a brand new name if I ever had to write anonymously, it would be kind of fun to create a new identity from the ground up. I think it would have to have either a nice ring to it, or a subtle pun there somewhere – most of my favorite pseudonyms do (Frank Quitely, for instance).

EDIT: Thanks to the lovely Colin in the comments, I’ve now decided my super-anonymous(/gender neutral) pseudonym is: M. Amaree. Ta-da!

While mulling over Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction writing prompt, I ended up re-imaging as scene from my current project in a sci-fi setting (and in present tense rather than past). Just a bit of fun that I thought was worth sharing:

I smell ozone. Moments after I smell it, I feel a pulse that isn’t mine forcing blood that isn’t mine through my veins. My gag reflex ripples, then the buzz hits – energy, out of nowhere.

I open the eyes that are no longer mine. A soldier waits by my bedside, his hand tensed and ready to reach for his weapon. The bed sheets are bathed in green light.

“Welcome back,” he nods, taking a quick puff of a cigarette and breathing out menthol smoke.

“I shouldn’t be back,” I say. “I should be dead.”

“The higher-ups disagreed. They thought your, uh, killer skills might come in handy.”

“I killed myself.”

“Yeah,” the soldier says, breathing smoke again. “Then you came back and killed a few more.”

“Balls.”

I sit up in the bed, my new wings dragging across the sheets. I can hear them humming. The material is thin, and the heat from my blood radiates off them and leaves my skin sticky.

“What do I do now?” I say. I shut my eyes, feeling every hot line of blood running through my body. They’ve replaced my bones with lightweight metal, and my joints are rigid – my fingers unfold stiffly, my fist clenches like a steel trap.

“Well, the expect me to show you the ropes,” the soldier says, “That OK?”

Of course they brought me back to kill. This body is designed for murder, fast and strong and deadly in the right hands. Trained, safe hands. But I am not stable, and I am not safe.

And I am not pleased.

“No. It’s not.”

Today, for their Road Trip Wednesday feature, YA Highway asked: What’s your numero-uno reason for writing?

I feel like what I should be responding with is ‘to be read’. Because that’s what we all want, right? To have people read our stories, love our worlds, remember our characters.

(Alternatively, some might say they write because they enjoy it – but I’m a firm believer that sometimes you hate writing, hate your stories and hate the words that come out on the page–and this is all a necessary part of the struggle to improve your own work.)

But the head, the heart and the gut all agree that this isn’t why I started writing, and it isn’t why I still do it. I write because story ideas and characters show up in my head and I think: ‘That’s really cool. I want to share that.’

I write because these are the kind of stories I love – and the books I would read and obsess over for weeks afterwards. These are the stories that would dig deep into my mind and make me ask questions, and the characters that I’d want to know in real life.

The old writing adage definitely holds true for me: I write the books I want to read.

(And the books I think other people will want to read, too. Because I have fantastic taste. ;P)

EDIT TO ADD: A fitting and very true image…

Today’s topic, courtesy of the ladies at YA Highway, is:  What time do you prefer to do your writing? Early Worm? Night Owl ? Any five seconds you can grab?

Anyone want to guess what I am? As much as I try to write at other hours of the day, the evening is when the stars seem to align. I have free time! I’ve done everything I need to do! I need to write! And… I need to be at work in 5 hours.

…Yeah. My ‘inspiration’ has the habit of colliding with that point I should be in bed. 1 – 3am is a magical time when the words flow, and nothing can keep me away from my work – especially not sleep.

These days, because I’m old and doddery and freakin’ love my bed, I try to keep it constrained to ‘the evening’, forcing myself out of the nocturnal schedule and into something vaguely human.

I’m not quite there, but I’m close.

I always feel a bit awkward offering tips for writers. I have endless reams of excuses: I’m not famous enough, I’m not good enough, I’m too flawed and I’m still trying to follow some of these tips myself…

But here’s the thing: I learn from my faults, and everyone other writer out there has moments of feeling flawed and not good enough.

So I’m going to stop hiding my head and start passing on what I’ve learned. Without further ado, here are my top 5 writing tips.

• Keep writing. You can’t go anywhere until your novel is finished. Then you’ve got revisions, and your next work to start. Writing is the best way to learn how to write, so keep at it and don’t get distracted by your worries over the state of publishing, the querying, the cover art or who’ll play who in your amazing movie adaption.
• Learn the craft. The art is writing is in the editing. Read up on editing and structure, then take your book and rip it apart. Shape and rebuild it until it’s close to perfect.
• Learn the business. Read industry blogs, research agents, learn about queries and covering letters, learn how to polish your work and display it to agents in the most attractive way possible. You can also keep to grips with social media, but don’t get too sucked into it – if you’re writing fiction, keep the big social pushes until after your book is signed. (If you’re writing non-fiction, on the other hand, develop as big a prescience as possible beforehand).
• Stay humble. Learning the business means putting yourself out there in the best way possible. You have to sell yourself, as cringe-inducing as that may be for if you’re a shy, bookish type like me. But whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of developing an ego. There are very few things more disgusting than big-headedness. Stay confident in your work, but seek out criticism – find beta readers and honest friends who’ll help you see the flaws in your work. This will help prepare you for the world of editorial letters and reviews that will come once you ‘make it’.
• Don’t stop reading. Reading is how you develop your writing, and as your develop your writing, craft and business sense books will take on new forms for you. You’ll be able to pick apart the structure, adore the voice, love the craft, smile at the savvy use of advertising. You become some crazy, telepathic hyperreader, seeing through the book to all the effort the author has but into it. You’re a telepath, seeing the thoughts that put it all together. You’re awesome, and best of all, you now enjoy reading even more.

Those are my favourite five writing tips, and they’ve served me well. I hope you find them useful as well.