February 2012
1 post
December 2011
8 posts
THE NAME OF THE STAR HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: NOW IN...
Welcome to THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR. The HOLIDAYS.
I love the holidays more than you can possibly imagine. Right now, I am sitting here next to a tree, dressed as an elf, eating mistletoe.
Now, I realize that while the holidays are excellent in every possible way, it can sometimes be difficult to get all of the right gifts purchased in time. I am here to help you. Here are seven reasons why...
Maureen Johnson’s “The Name of the Star” →
This radio interview was going so well until I brought up the subject of a box of human hair clippings. Oh well. If you’d like to hear me use my SMOOTH VOICE and talk about THINGS, this is the link for YOU.
I am a Dork: Maureen said to write this scene so I... →
plasticcandle:
So I don’t know if anyone has done this, but i figured it would be a good writing exercise anyway. It’s not very good as I have never been very good at creative righting however it was fun to do. :) (Its more of a weird little short story than a scene.)
The Violetto family lived in a normal…
November 2011
40 posts
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: WHERE DO WE GO NOW?
cheapandflimsygrandeur asked you:
Where do we go from here?
Dear cheapandflimsygrandeur,
IT IS HERE! The final day of NaNoWriMo. The end of the road. The last stop. The jumping off place. No matter what you’ve done with NaNoWriMo-whether you wrote 50,000 words or 5,000 or 500-you did something. Yay! Something! It’s something you didn’t have on October 31st!
So what do you...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: ONE FLEW OVER THE NANOWRIMO NEST
saidreadertorider asked you:
Dear Auntie MJ, recently one of my best friends has started treating me like I’m insane because I talk about my characters as though they’re real people. How do I explain to him that I understand the line between fiction and reality but I like ignoring it and that I’d rather be crazy than bored or boring, without alienating him further?
Dear...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: THE HARD QUESTIONS
alinatheduck asked you:
Dear Auntie MJ, I am concerned that if I discuss religion and the faults in certain denominations in my NaNoWriMo novel that I will be seen as disrespectful towards religion just because my character is. How do I do my characters’ views justice even though people will think of me as judgmental and horrid?
My dear alinatheduck,
You do not make things easy on Auntie...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: NOW YOU ARE JUST MAKING UP WORDS
lacitedamour asked you:
Is it okay for me to make up words for my novel? I have a habit of making adjectives adverbs or verbing nouns that makes the story make more sense to me, but I’m not sure if the English language allows for that.
Oh lacitedamour of my heart,
Here is a fact that people love to pull out at parties*: Shakespeare is credited with adding 2,000 words to the English...
ASK AUNTIE MJ: DOING THE RESEARCH
katwaterflame asked you:
Do you do research for your books? If so, where do you find the research items?
My dear katwaterflame,
Auntie MJ has an MFA, a fact she sometimes brings up, but only SOMETIMES, and only in the right circumstances. This is largely because no one cares. But it is relevant here, because Auntie MJ has an MFA in nonfiction writing and learning HOW to do research was a major...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: LET'S GO TO BEARDY MOUNTAIN
ajunkiesloins asked you:
I stopped having fun writing. How can I try to make writing fun again?
We must go to the mountain now, and we must know the truth. We must climb and seek out the people in flowing robes who have big beards. Even the women of these mountains have big beards—that is how WISE everyone is. We must sit before them and ask, “Why is this no fun anymore?” And...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: THERE IS NO SPOON
afashionablefrown asked you:
MJ, I have finally succumbed to asking you a question. Hear me out. How do you know when you’re ready to begin? I’m scared that I am plotting out too much, but every time I sit down to start my first draft, I realize that there is a vital detail I am missing. Am I drowning myself in self-doubt?
Dear afashionablefrown,
When Auntie MJ was a Teenaged...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: WHY AM I DOING THIS?
erraticartist asked you:
Dear Aunty MJ, it seems as though there is a certain amount of pressure to edit and rewrite ‘finished’ NaNoWriMo novels, is there anything wrong with just writing for the fun of it?
Dear erraticartist,
Your question fills Auntie MJ with joy and she happily provides the answer: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. In fact, there is everything RIGHT about...
PERHAPS YOU CAN VOTE FOR THE LAST LITTLE BLUE... →
LAST VOTE. I’m just saying. LAST VOTE.
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: HULK EDIT!
lisapizza asked you:
this is really a question for the end of the month, but now that i have a first draft, how do i edit it? i won nano a couple of years ago but trying to edit the behemoth was so intimidating that i never looked at it again.
If you have reached the end, CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU! (Or near the end! Or whatever! For the purposes of this answer I must assume that there is some...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: TITLE TROUBLE
butonlyslightly asked you:
Should I worry about the title?
My true love butonlyslightly,
The word worry has two meanings. The first meaning is to think about something in an anxious way. The second is to work at something, to gnaw or pull or tug until it gives way. Auntie MJ suggests that the second meaning is more useful here than the first. You don’t need to worry about the title. There...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: READY OR NOT
heidiloveslife asked you:
What do you do when you feel like you don’t have enough life experience to write the story that you want to?
You have asked QUITE a question. This is one of the biggies that you can wrestle with for a long time, and answer in a lot of different ways. That you are asking it at all feels RIGHT to me. It’s a sign of some good thinking about your writing.
To...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: COPY THAT
erraticartist asked you:
Dear Aunty MJ, I’m having the OPPOSITE problem that you blogged about a few days ago, in which you talked about finding books that have similar themes to the Novel that is being written right now. I find that I am stealing elements from novels that I really enjoyed in the past, even from books I read years ago. I red recently that ‘all art is stolen’. Is...
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WatchTHE TRUTH REVEALED. Dear Internet. I apologize for this. But I have agreed to come clean about certain conversations between John Green and myself.
PERHAPS YOU CAN TAKE A MOMENT...
…and vote for The Name of the Star in the Goodreads Readers’ Choice Awards? Or for The Last Little Blue Envelope in a TOTALL DIFFERENT category? Perhaps you have time to vote for both? Maybe?
*waits*
[PEOPLE WHO REPOST THIS BECOME MY FAVORITES.]
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: THINGS ARE GETTING TENSE
boywithbread asked you:
Hello! So here’s my question: What are your thoughts on present tense for a novel (specifically first person/present tense, but also just present tense in general)? A lot of my favorite books are written this way, and I find myself writing in that style as well, but I’ve heard so much flack about it (from my creative writing teacher in college and various...
dysmedia asked: How do I get rid of the rest of the body in this trunk?
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: THIS ROOM IS CROWDED
midwest-aftermath asked you:
What is the largest number of active characters you can include in a scene without confusing a reader? How do you keep the reader from being confused?
My dear midwest-aftermath,
Stories do not have occupancy limits imposed by some literary fire department. You can have as many characters in a scene as you want. You can have five, ten, twenty characters, and it can...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: DESCRIBE THIS, PART TWO
Yesterday, I had this question from bunn1:
So I am having trouble developing my male character, I have a name for him and he has a distinct personality. However, I want to introduce his appearance somehow. Should I be doing this when we first meet him? How do I do it in a way that isn’t horribly boring and longwinded, but does him justice.
And I attempted an answer. The trouble with something...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: DESCRIBE THIS
bunn1 asked you:
So I am having trouble developing my male character, I have a name for him and he has a distinct personality. However, I want to introduce his appearance somehow. Should I be doing this when we first meet him? How do I do it in a way that isn’t horribly boring and longwinded, but does him justice.
Well met, bunn1!
You guys are getting down to the day-to-day issues that...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: SHINY THING
Today, Auntie MJ is answering TWO questions that are quite alike:
texarshead asked you:
Oh all-mighty MJ… “AHHHH!!!” *Panics* I keep getting NEW ideas and NEW plots to consider writing, but I’m already started on one I thought was amazing at first. Do you have any advice for sticking to an idea and keeping it interesting and fresh in ones mind for as long as possible? How...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: THE CURSE OF THE SIMILAR THING
chickswithcrossbows asked you:
Auntie MJ - Let’s talk about originality. Every time I come up with a plot or an element for a novel that I think is new and undone, it seems like within a week I stumble across at least one book (sometimes more) that have the same element/plot/thing I thought was totally new. I know every story has been told, yadda yadda yadda, but it’s discouraging....
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: INSPIRATION ATTACK
daysofinspiration asked you:
Maureen, do you have any suggestions for what to do when inspiration hits at the wrong time? I block off time to write, but it’s when I’m not supposed to be writing, say when I’m studying for a test, that my best ideas hit me and I can’t focus on anything else until I get them down.
Dear daysofinspiration,
I like the word INSPIRE. It’s...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: FINDING A VOICE
decodedjoy asked you:
Hi Auntie MJ, I have a question… How did you develop your writing “voice”? People say that the world needs more story tellers, but the world doesn’t need more people who merely try to copy other story tellers… right? As I aspire to be a writer, I sometimes worry that that’s what I’m doing, that I’m just mimicking my favorite...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: WHAT'S IN A NAME?
raggedyanndy asked you:
Let’s talk names. How do you choose your characters’ names? Any advice or resources for people looking for names? How important do you think it is to have the “right” names for characters?
Dear raggedyanndy,
Are you familiar with the quote, “Wherever you go, there you are”? It’s been attributed to many great minds over the...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: SKIPPITY DO DA
handful-of-berries asked you:
Do you think it’s better to start at the beginning of your novel and just write straight through or skip around and write the parts you’re most excited about first?
Glorious handful-of-berries,
Auntie MJ is a skipper. I don’t usually write books from start to finish. I know loads of people who think this is CRAZY TALK and start very the first...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: TIME WARP
gitana1 asked you:
Hi! I am doing NaNoWrimo this month while I’m a Junior in college and I work 30 hours a week. My classes are hard this semester and when I’m not in class or at work or doing homework I am exhausted. Do you have any encouragement or tips for me? Thanks so much!
My dearest gitana1,
Auntie MJ feels your pain. That is a lot to take on. Many people have this problem...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: SHORT PARAGRAPH SYNDROME
insomniapple asked you:
Dear auntie MJ, my paragraphs are really short! I know it shouldn’t matter but I feel like I must be missing something. Does it matter if they are short? *Flails in front of laptop*
My precious insomniapple,
There is nothing particularly wrong with having a short paragraph. There is actually no rule in the English language concerning the length of paragraphs. You...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: "BUT...THE INTERNET IS ON!"
navigatefreedom asked you:
How am I supposed to motivate myself when I have the wide world of tumblr sitting here?
Dear navigatefreedom,
You are fortuitously named! This might be my shortest answer yet, and perhaps the single most important one I write.
I realize that I said before that software is not the answer. But this may be the ONE CASE where software IS the answer. I strongly suggest...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: FORWARD, HO!
hpsummer asked you: I have a habit of restarting about every 5000 words. I reread what I’ve written and cringe. This causes me to start over. Any advice?
My darling hpsummer,
Auntie MJ has some very simple advice for you: stop rereading. That should do the trick.
Let me tell you about a friend of mine, the wonderful Ally Carter. The first time I ever wrote with her, she took this THING...
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megaera asked: What is a really good, kind of creepy, not run-of-the-mill reason why 7 strangers would end up with all of their names on the same coffee-stained, handwritten list?
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: 50,000 WORD FREAKOUT
iamdanilamb asked you:Hi! This is my first year doing NaNo and I’m trying really hard to just write but the goal of fifty thousand words is freaking me out! Do you have any advice for this? I want to finish but I feel like I’m freaking myself out on the second day.
My dear iamdanilamb,
Let us consider the number 50,000. It is a non-trivial number. It must be examined and respected,...
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ASK AUNTIE MJ: WELCOME TO THE CHEESE ROLL
karmaisawierdname asked you: So I just started NaNoWrimo and I am wondering what we should do if we feel like our writing is kinda going downhill. I was just writing a little bit (and I know I’m still at the beginning but…) and I just thought it wasn’t very good and it really discouraged me.
My dear and precious karmaisawierdname,
Every Spring Bank Holiday on Cooper’s...
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IT'S NANOWRIMO TIME, AND AUNTIE MJ IS IN
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? It’s November 1st, and that means it is NaNoWriMo time again! And this year I am EXTREMELY EXCITED to tell you that I am the OFFICIAL AGONY AUNT of NaNoWriMo.
I have already anticipated some questions.
1. What is NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. Thousands of people-hundreds of thousands-will write first drafts of books this month from scratch....
October 2011
9 posts
