That’s right, my friends. You can win a free copy of Girl Stuff and a ton of bragging rights by entering the giveaway from YA Books Central. Details are at the end of this interview. Yep, you have to slog through my words of wisdom first. You didn’t think I’d make this easy, did you?

YABC:   What gave you the inspiration to write Girl Stuff?

When I began developing this series I had two sons in middle school. I was surrounded by inspiration, growing pains, and serious B.O. (still am.) I realized I didn’t need to create a fantastical world to deliver drama. Puberty is dramatic. Maintaining old friendships while you’re discovering new things is dramatic. Crushes, peer pressure, school pressure, style pressure, and academic pressure are dramatic. All I had to do was pay attention to real life. It was all there.

YABC:   Which came first, the title or the novel?

The novel came first. It usually does. Titles are hard. But my favorite part about this one? The red period at the end of the title. You’re welcome.

YABC:   Do you have a favorite writing snack?

I chew disgusting amounts of gum while I write. My dog finds it off-putting, but it helps me think and she respects that. In 2019 I read a study in Psychology Today magazine that said gum chewing improved cognition. It was very validating.

YABC:   Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?

I learned that each time I revise, the work becomes 200% better. Keep this in mind if your computer ever crashes and you lose chapters. It’s happened to me several times. Of course, I had a complete breakdown, but my rewrite was always better than the original. I’ve also learned that when you ask someone for their opinion they will give it to you. Be your own editor for as long as possible. If you get people to weigh in too early it can be a huge confidence killer.

YABC:   What’s on your TBR pile?

I’d really love to get to the stack of Writer’s Digest magazines on my coffee table. I’m obsessed with them. I have a giant binder full of writing articles I’ve clipped and highlighted over the years. When I’m stuck or uninspired I look to my binder. There’s always something in there that digs me out of my hole.

YABC:   What’s up next for you?

I just finished Crush Stuff (the second book in the series) and I’m about to start writing the third. I also have another middle-grade series called The Pack that comes out later this year. It’s about a private school for girls with secret animal powers.

YABC:   Which character gave you the most trouble when writing your latest book?

To be honest, none of the Girl Stuff characters gave me trouble. They all came very naturally to me. That said, Drew and I are very different. She’s blonde and athletic. I’m a brunette spaz.

YABC:   Which part of the writing process do you enjoy more: Drafting or Revising?

Revising, by far! I’m a huge outliner so the first draft is like building a house. I’m concerned with strong foundations, solid structure, and flow. Snoooooozer!  Revising is like decorating the house. It’s all flourish and fun. The hardest part is over.

YABC:   What would you say is your superpower?

My writing superpower is character development and dialogue. I hear voices very clearly. In fact, they never shut up! I can also find humor in dramatic situations. Maybe that’s less of a superpower and more of a survival skill.

YABC:   What advice would you give to new writers?

The first question I get from new writers is often, “How do I get published?” My advice is don’t ever ask that question again. If you’re just starting out you should be focused on finding your voice. Journaling is the best way I know how to do that. I have hundreds of journals in my garage and they’re filled with embarrassing, tear-soaked rants that are teeming with grammatical errors and run-on sentences. They’re not about perfection, they’re about imperfection—connecting with the parts of yourself that make you unique and human. I spent decades working through my feelings and hearing the sound of my own voice. It’s how you discover your point of view, values, and cadence. It’s how you hear the sound of your own brain. Start there. Oh, and chew lots of gum.

*GIVEAWAY DETAILS* 

One winner will receive a copy of Girl Stuff (Lisi Harrison) ~ (US Only)

*Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter the giveaway*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

The post Words of Wisdom and a Free Book! You’re Welcome. appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

1. We’re not interested in what we’re writing. That, or we haven’t given enough thought to where we want the story to go.
2. We don’t know where we want the story to go because we haven’t outlined. The outline is a route your story travels so it can make it to its final destination. It doesn’t mean you have to stick to this route. It just means you need a general idea of where you’re going and how you want to get there. If it changes along the way that’s because you know more and can make an informed decision.
3. You lack inspiration. This is probably happened to me. I’m still recovering from surgery and I’m thinking about my pain too much. I’m not in the right mindset to have fun with my characters. In these cases it’s important to get inspired. Go do something else. Read or watch something that puts you in the right mood. Buy a candle. Eat popcorn at your desk. I did all those things. Yes, I watched Big Mouth. Judge me.
4. Maybe that scene you had your heart set on writing simply doesn’t work. Cut it. Try something new. Don’t get bogged down by events or details that don’t drive the story forward. Remember, you are the creator of your fictional world. You can give life and you can take it away.
5. Commit to S%!t. Avoid perfecting your early drafts. They’re not supposed to be pristine. They’re supposed to get the story out of your head and on to the page. You’ll never make it to the end if you keep stopping to fix details along the way. Trust your future self to fix it later.

Hey, I wrote something!

TTYW,
Lisi

The post Block Around The Clock appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

1. They write under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
2. They write without an outline or plan.

In all my fifteen years of authoring I have never done either. Until right now. Right now I am doing both. That’s probably why I just used the word “authoring.”

You see, two weeks ago I had knee replacement surgery.

That’s why I haven’t blogged. I thought I’d keep it up from the hospital so I brought my laptop and a Marc Jacobs bag filled with good intentions. This coming from the girl who packs gym clothes on book tour, but never works out. The same girl who used to bring homework on family vacations thinking she’d do it on the airplane.  I know. I know.

Now it’s week three and I’m at home feeling like a piñata full of pain meds. Yep. I’m tingly and spacey and drowsy. I’ve watched so many episodes of The Good Wife I’m about to open my own law practice. There are gluten-free pizza crumbs in my bra. But I refuse to let another week go by without staying in touch. So this is me, writing under the influence. It’s also me without a point, a plan, or anything meaningful to say. Usually, when I’m authoring I work off very detailed outlines. I can not, will not, let the muse drive. And yet, here she is, one hand on the wheel, the other hanging from the open window. Stereo blasting. Destination: Who the hell knows?

I tried to think of a good topic. Maybe share some of my experiences from the hospital. But come on, what a snoozer-downer, right? The whole trying to think of something reminds me of those times when I stand in front of my open closet and try to pick an outfit, but nothing jumps out. In fact, it all blurs together and looks like Lucky Charms barf. So I end up wearing sweats and I regret it all day because I feel frumpy and thick.

So here I am. A pain med piñata riding shotgun with a directionless muse. My respect cup runneth over for those authors who can do this and make something of it. Clearly, I can not.

TTYW,
Lisi

The post Writing Under the Influence appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

As many of you know, I’ve started tinkering around with a new idea. And with that comes a ton of character development. So this morning I made a Bug List. Why? Because my fictional friends need flaws and quirks and petty irritations. It’s those details that make them memorable. So don’t be surprised if you come across the any of these annoying-to-me traits in my next novel.

1. The term “awesome sauce.”
2. Food in bedrooms.
3. Coffee in bathrooms.
4. “Look how hot I am” photos on social media.
5. “You’re so hot” comments on social media. Can aim for something higher, please?
6.  Washing dishes without rubber gloves. I need those gloves.
7. My shortening attention span.
8. Your shortening attention span.
9. The excuse, “I was just doing my job.”
10. Gossip.

I would be so grateful if you shared some of the things on your Bug Me list because my #11 is running out of ideas.

TTYW,

xoxo Lisi

The post Positively Negative. appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

But my work on the Dirty Book Club was far from over. Proofs needed proofing. My dying social media sites needed defibrillators. Then they needed a new look. Then content. Gawd, the content. The book jacket art needed tweaking. A narrator for the audiobook needed approval. I met with movie producers, journalists, and a Facebook expert. I decided there just had to be a Dirty Book Club nail polish and a DBC key necklace so I met with Anya the polish expert and Gorjana the jewelry designer. I negotiated deals and sampled samples. There were giveaways, promotions, and sneak previews. I hand wrote thank you notes to everyone I came into contact with. And then hit the road for book tour. (More thank you notes.)

In a few months I went from a solitary burned out writer to the CEO, CFO, and WTF of what felt like a major corporation. Only instead of a staff run by knowledgable department heads it was just me. And just me was inundated. I was anxious, restless, irritated, and more fried than I was in January. But why? I was in the real world, dealing with all three dimensions, and getting out there. My goals had been met.

Still…

At the urging of my agent and my retirement account I sat down yesterday to the hum of my Doterra diffuser and banged out what may or may not be the first chapter of a new novel. No title. No outline. No solid plot.  Just some blurry characters pitching tents in the wilderness of my mind. And you know what? I felt joyful again. Calm. Hopeful and giddy in that flirting-with-my-new-crush sort of way.

The lesson here? No clue. It’s more of an irony, I suppose. Or maybe a reminder that there’s no place like home.

Here we go again…

TTYW,

Lisi

The post Writing The Ship appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

Then, in 2011, I had an idea for a novel. An adult novel inspired by my own dirty book club and I would call it, of course, The Dirty Book Club. Thanks to my track record, an intriguing title, and some Cuervo-flavored confidence, I was able to sell it over the phone from a villa in Mexico. As for the characters, the plot, the setting, the tone, the point? They would come. They always did.

“Writing for adults is different than writing for adolescents,” my agent warned.

“Puh-lease,” I said, with an audible eye-roll. “How hard can it be?”

Cut to 2016. The novel was four years late, and I knew the answer to my question. It was hard. Brutally hard. Like, write-the-first-100-pages-ten-different-ways kind of hard.

But why?

I blamed the full moon, burn out, my troubled marriage, the fact that it was sunny every single day in Laguna Beach and perfect weather does not evoke drama. Then, I dug deeper and exhumed the following four reasons for my struggle with the transition from YA to Adult:

1. Adult novels are so incredibly…adult. Burps aren’t funny in women’s fiction. Self-worth isn’t measured by popularity, and no one is afraid of getting grounded. Puns, acronyms, snarky comebacks, aspirational settings, bone-melting first kisses, and annoying parents don’t fly. The metrics for drama and humor are completely different. I had to endure a lot of red-penned notes from my editor reminding me of this before it sank in.
2. I wrote Middle Grade and Young Adult novels because I wanted young people to know that they’re not alone; the way they feel is the way we all feel. I also wanted to deconstruct the “mean girl” and show the tragic and ridiculous things we do to fit in. But what could I teach women that they didn’t already know? It’s the 21st century. How could I make the story of secret club that reads dirty books meaningful to the modern 25-45 year old? Sex is no longer taboo, so why would my characters hide? What was I trying to say? I thought about my own DBC. We were hardly sex-starved or repressed. Been there, done that, posted it. So what kept us hooked month after month? After a lot of soul searching, I realized that my dirty book club wasn’t about sex after all. It was about the intimate conversations these novels inspired. It was about truth, laughter, honesty, support, and trust. It was about the power of female friendship. And it turns out I have a lot to say about that.
3. During this time, Fifty Shades of Grey had exploded (Pun? You decide) onto the scene. I’ve never been one to jump on a trend, but flies unzipped at the mention of my title and I felt pressured to give the people more of what they wanted. I downloaded several books on how to write erotica, rationalized that my parents would be conveniently old and blind by publication, and reluctantly began. What followed was awkward, unnatural, and cringe-y. Still, I sallied forth. Then, I typed the word, “nipple” and was instantly overcome with what can only be described as flu-like symptoms. Delete. Delete. Delete. I couldn’t do it. I’ve never done “intentionally sexy” well. I am, however, a master at walk-out-of-the-bathroom-with toilet-paper-stuck-to-my-wedge-bootie. So why wasn’t I owning that? In other words, I wasted a lot of time trying to be someone I’m not. Funny, that’s what my YA characters did, and I’d always been dead against it—theoretically.
4. Those damn voices in my head wouldn’t shut up! Lisi, you’re a YA writer, stick to what you know. You’re not ready to eat at the big kid’s table. You’ve never read the classics. You can’t possibly live up to the promise of that title. Your friends are going to read this. Your kids’ teachers are going to read this. Critics are going to read this. Your parents will for sure. So will the neighbors. And what about those opinionated book club members? If they’re not finding flaws, they’re not earning their wine. But wait, what if no one reads it? Then what are you going to do? The voices were relentless and paralyzing. They bullied me into spending days on a single paragraph and scrutinizing every sentence until the words stopped sounding like English. I tried meditation, hypnotherapy, and Pinot Noir. But the voices couldn’t be silenced. Then Prince passed away. Prince! Small as he was, that man was larger than life, and yet, he was no match for death. And that got me thinking: “We’re all going to die. No one is going to remember this, so mute those damn voices and have some fun.” One for the textbooks? Nope, but it worked.

Fact: when we stretch ourselves we experience growing pains. We fail a lot before we succeed and we wonder why we ever bothered. We hear those damn voices. Then, when we’ve accomplished the seemingly impossibly, we know exactly why we bothered and we leap and stretch and grow again. Our willingness to endure this maddening process is why humans walk upright and have electricity and art and antibiotics and Amazon. It’s why we have stories to tell, and why all of them are about the journey, not the destination. And so I’ve learned to embrace the journey. Without it, no one would have anything to read about.

TTYW,

Lisi

The post Four Reasons Why Writing For Adults Sucked. appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

Well, call me Judy because I was super judgy.

I have written half of The Dirty Book Club about nine times in the past four years. It’s an ambitious project that spans generations, includes secret rituals, funny conversations about dirty books, and great characters in their early 30s with lives that need some serious fixing. And it’s HARD!

My latest start-over was this January. Among other things I changed it from a novel with multiple points of view to a novel with one main voice. Now, seven months later I am on page 175 of a very crappy first draft. Some days are fun. Most suck. But I truly believe in this more than anything I’ve ever done. But those damn voices in my head!! They won’t stop yammering.

Lisi, you’re writing for grown-ups now. Lisi, your friends are going to read this. Lisi, your kids’ teachers are going to read it.

Oprah might. Your parents will for sure. So will the neighbors. And what about those opinionated book club members? You better not mess this up!!

This morning I wondered why I never went through this anxiety with the Clique. Sure, there were uninspired days and major burnout, but for the most part writing that series was pure joy. It’s not that I didn’t care about what you thought. It’s just that, well, I didn’t let myself care. I wrote what I wanted to write. Critics be damned! I let myself show up on those pages like some freak at a cheerleader’s party intent on dominating the dance floor.

It’s been twelve years since the first Clique came out. You’re older now. Old enough to read The Dirty Book Club, that’s for sure. So I have named you my muses. The girls I’ve felt safe with since 2003. The ones who accepted me for the flawed and fabulous person that I am. I will think of you as I struggle to complete this first draft. Because you always understood me and you always supported me–way more than Oprah!

Long live My Clique!!!

TTYW,

Lisi

The post Good Cliques Never Die! appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

My brainwaves have short-circuited. Reduced to a blinking cursor; an anxious heartbeat flipping the bird at my lack of creativity.

Flip… flip… flip… 

As a professional writer it’s a terrifying place to be. All I’m good for are words and ideas. What am I supposed to do when I run out??

And yet, I am at my favorite sushi restaurant typing away. When I sat down I had NOTHING to write. Still, I forced myself to do it. And behold–A blah-g is born!

Okay, so technically, this is not about anything. But it’s also about everything–everything that being a writer is. Which is showing up and writing anyway, especially when the fridge is empty.

When you do, something filling always appears.

TTYW,

Lisi

The post A BLAH-G IS BORN! appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

A few years ago, I was having one of my many panic attacks while trying to finish one of my many books before one of my many deadlines. Not one to wallow in my own suffering, I looked for help and found Candice. I’m sure I’ve written about her before. She is a life coach and really helped me look at my stresses in a new way so I could manage them. One of my biggest issues was Life vs. Work. As a writer, you really need to enter what I call The Cone Of Silence and stay there for many straight hours.

There are no texts inside the cone. No phone calls. No e-mails. No paying bills. No online shopping. No visits from friends. No doing dishes. No haircuts. No waxes. No mani’s or pedi’s. No reading. No listening to music with lyrics. No helping old people or ducklings cross the road.

It’s a cone.

A silent one.

And there’s only room for me.

So when do all those other things get done? Not on the weekends. The weekends are for my kids. Not at night. That’s when I decompress. Candace’s suggestion? Create one non-writing day every week–preferably the same day–and make it about your to-do list.

I made mine Wednesdays. And I’m so in love with it I want to marry it. This is the day I do all the other stuff that life’s vomiting in my face, and it’s worked incredibly well.

Another thing I recently discovered is Intent.com

The website was created by Mallika Chopra (yes, daughter of Deepak, but she is so much more). She wrote a book called Living With Intent that has brought so much meaning to my life. For those of you who are inundated with exams and not quite ready for a summer reading list, I suggest you join the website and get the app. It’s a game-changer.

Taking a moment to think about what you want each day really helps you get it. It’s so simple and so effective. And it doesn’t have to be spiritual or deep in any way. Look for mine, you’ll see. It can be about anything–no one judges. In fact, everyone supports.

You can also:

* Share your intents with other community members.
* Receive encouraging comments on your intents.
* Show your support for other people’s intents.
* Adopt other people’s intents that you can relate to.
* Sync your account with Twitter and Facebook so that your intents are automatically shared with your Twitter and Facebook friends.
* Reaffirm you intents every day so you stay on top of your goals.
* Track the intents that you completed or accomplished.
* Add inspirational or informational photos and videos to your intent.

Let me know when you’re on so I can follow you.

I intend to TTYW,

Lisi

The post Intention Deficit Disorder appeared first on Lisi Harrison.

I’m receiving a number of comments and messages from readers looking for help becoming writers. Some of them lead me to believe you haven’t been keeping up with the Writing Process section here on the blah-g. Check this out first in case any of your questions have already been answered in depth: Blah Blah Blah Writing Process

And a few of you have asked me for some tips and tricks. Tips and tricks for writing, huh? I wish, sisters. I’ve said this before, but there aren’t any tricks. You have to write every day. It’s that simple. Read books in the genre you are writing so you can see how other people do it. Stephen King says if you don’t have time to read, then you don’t have the time–or tools–to write. So do it. Read and write as much as possible. Keep a notebook with you and write down amazing details you stumble on during the day. It’s these details that will bring your writing to life. And read about writing. Books on the actual craft are very helpful and inspiring. Be sure to check out my Tumblr I devote entirely to writerly things (okay, okay, there are some pups and Internet memes thrown in there, too) that I update every Tuesday and Thursday. It’s full of great writing tips for character development, story structure, inspirational words, and anything else you need to spark your creativity while honing your craft.

Most of all don’t try to sound like anyone else. It’s your voice we want to hear because no one sees the world like you do. Neil Gaiman has my back on this one, albeit his version is a little more harsh:

Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that — but you are the only you.

― Neil Gaiman

Which reminds me, developing a thick skin is step 1 in becoming a writer. Harper Lee agrees:

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide. — Harper Lee

Now hit it.

TTYW,

Lisi

The post WRITE ON appeared first on Lisi Harrison.