MARCH MADNESS IS HERE!!!

If you’ve been looking for a challenge to get your writing in gear, you’ve come to the right place! Through the month of March we will be cheering each other on to meet challenging goals with our writing.

Also, this year we've decided to open up the challenge to Readers, Bloggers, and Illustrators. Anyone who wants to challenge themselves regarding books and win prizes for it!

Today is goal-setting day! (But if you don't make it here on the first day, not to worry. Feel free to add your writing goals here any time during the month of March).

March Madness officially begins tomorrow, and this is how it will work.

1. You set a goal here (anything writing, reading, blogging, or otherwise book related). It can be as small and simple of a goal as turning off your Internet while you write during the month of March. Or it can be as large as writing or revising an entire book.
2. You check in daily (Mon.-Fri.) at our check-in points. Let us know how you're doing with your goal. Share your victories and struggles. Encourage others. The key is support and camaraderie.
3. We give you prizes just for stopping by and letting us know how you're doing and for encouraging others!

Sounds easy and fun, right?! The following will be the check-in points for the month of March. We plan to have check-in posts up and running by 9AM PST (noon EST) each day.

Mondays, come right on back here to visit yours truly - http://www.denisejaden.com/Blog.html
Tuesdays, my fab critique partner, Shana Silver, will host the check-in - http://www.shana-silver.com
Wednesdays, my good writer friend, Angelina Hansen, who lives closer to me than any other writer will host - http://yascribe.blogspot.com
Thursdays, another good writer friend and conference buddy, Shari Green, will host  - http://sharigreen.wordpress.com/blog
Fridays, we'll show you that boys write too! I know, hard to believe, but true. Craig is also an awesome crit partner of mine! -  http://www.craigpirrall.com/craig/craigs-blog/

The prizes! We have some truly awesome prizes up for grabs this year! If you've followed my blog, you know about My Bookshelf Giveaways. I'll be opening up two of my bookshelves for people to choose something from throughout the month, starting today! I'll be giving away a book from my shelves to one person who checks in here with their goals within the next 24 hours!

Some other goodies that are up for grabs (these are in no particular order and have been donated by my generous co-bloggers for this event!):

A book of your choice (up to $15)  from The Book Depository! (for international winners, as long as they ship to your country)

An ARC of REVOLUTION by Jennifer Donnelly! (US only)

A fifty-page manuscript critique! (again, open to international winners!)

A hardcover copy of RADIANT SHADOWS by Melissa Marr!(US only)

An ARC of THE EXILED QUEEN by Cinda Williams Chima (US only)

A $20 Barnes & Noble gift card!

A copy of DELIRIUM (ARC) by Lauren Oliver! (Canada/US only)

And we MAY still add more prizes along the way!

Here are my goals for the month of March: Get up half an hour earlier and write first thing each day. Turn off the Internet for morning writing. Finish my revision of FINDING HOPE (I'm about 10 chapters in right now) and send it off to critique partners. Write a synopsis for the book. Complete my next revision for my editor on APPETITE FOR BEAUTY. 

Whew!

Don't forget to leave your goal(s) in the comments below, and head on over to http://www.shana-silver.com tomorrow for your first check-in! Remember, the more you check-in and encourage others, the better chance you have of winning some great prizes!

Friday Four!

1. If you haven't heard about March Madness yet, check out this post, because the Big Bad Goal-Setting day is coming your way this Monday! Why is it Big? Because it will take over your entire life, your friends and family won't even remember who you are!

Just kidding!

Because setting a goal is a huge accomplishment all on its own! And it doesn't actually have to be huge in the life-consuming sense. It could be as simple as "I'll turn off the Internet while I write for the month of March!" *Denise scurries to jot that down in her goal list.* Now why is it Bad, you ask? It's only bad in the ultra-coolest sense of the word! Trust me, you'll want to be back here on Monday, it's where all the really cool kids will be! Annnnd, I'll give away a pick of books from my bookshelves for one person who checks in with their goals within the first 24 hours (starting Monday morning).

What's on the shelves, you ask? Have a little look...

2. For a couple of years now I've been devouring books as quickly as I can possibly read them. But you know what I've noticed recently? The slower I read a book, the more I seem to remember it. I just recently finished a book that took me over five months to read. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy a good majority of the book, but I pushed myself to persevere because I wanted to read it for personal reasons. But upon reaching the end, I'm AMAZED at how much of the book stands out in my memory now. I'm thinking of a new strategy for the next couple of months. It'll be difficult, because there is SO MUCH that I want to read. But I'm going to choose my books carefully and read them really, really slowly - like a chapter or two a night at most - and I'll see if they're more memorable than all the others I've whipped through so far this year.

3. I'm off to teach my teen class more about novel-writing today. Sorry I didn't get a writing post up this week, but today's topic is Introduction to Characters, and we'll be having a lot of fun picking names for the characters in our new novels. We'll be talking about how multiple names with the same first letters can get confusing, and how different spellings of a name can seem to give a character a whole new feeling/personality. Hopefully next week I'll have time to share a few more thoughts on what we did and how it went!

4. As most of you have probably heard, we said goodbye to a friend from our YA community this week. LK Madigan (aka Lisa Wolfson) passed away on Wednesday morning. To be honest, my heart was so heavy about this that I just didn't feel like blogging on the subject. But I did go around and read other blogs and tributes, and what was truly wonderful and amazing was just how many lives Lisa touched. The hardest thing for her, I think, was leaving her husband and thirteen-year-old son. A trust has been set up in her son's name. You can donate by sending a check made out to the Nathan Wolfson Trust to:

Becker Capital Management, Inc.
Attn: Sharon Gueck/John Becker
1211 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2185
Portland, OR 97204

I hope you'll spend your weekend treasuring your life and being able to spend time with the people you love, as I will.

March Madness Writing, Reading, and Blogging Challenge!

It’s almost March and time for an Almost-Nano Challenge! If you have a writing project you’re ready to start, or a work in progress you’re ready to finish, come and join the fun. Accountability is our main aim and the more support we have, the easier it will be to sail on through the month of March, bouncing along on each others successes.

Annnnnd...this year I'm thinking of opening March Madness up to readers who want to challenge themselves to read more, bloggers who want to challenge themselves to blog more, and illustrators who want to challenge themselves to illustrate more! Basically, anything to do with books!

And did I mention there will be PRIZES? Prizes will not be awarded based on how much you write, read, draw, or blog, but simply on how involved you are in the Big Accountability Plan. There will be five check-in points per week (Monday-Friday). Each time you check in and record your progress, your name will be entered in a draw for some great prizes, including some high-demand ARC’s, books, gift cards, and even critiques! And not only that, but the more you encourage others along the way (in the comments) the more times your name will go into the hat!

Spread the word, and check out http://www.denisejaden.com/Blog.html this coming Monday, February 28th, to put your goals officially in writing and find out the locations of the check-in points. If you’re ready to get serious, don’t do it alone…Get serious with us!

I'll tell you my "official" goals for this March next Monday, but for now, I'd just like to share a little about my goals from last year's March Madness. Here is what I put in writing last year:

I'm gung-ho to do some serious damage on my work in progress. The book I've decided to work on is an older book of mine called APPETITE FOR BEAUTY. I've been reading through several versions and picking out all the plot points that I think work to build the characters and/or the story, and arranging them in what I hope will be an order that works. It's been difficult figuring out how exactly to fit this into a month-long goal schedule, but as of now, these are the things I'm planning.

1. To finish polishing a chapter per day if the chapter involves mostly rehashing writing from older drafts.
2. To finish a chapter over three days if it involves mostly new writing.
3. (and this is my only set-in-stone goal) Finish this revision and send off to a critique partner or two by March 31st.


I'm thrilled to let you know that not only did I accomplish my goals for March Madness last year, but I also sold APPETITE FOR BEAUTY to Simon Pulse this past September!!!

That's just a little something to encourage you that goal-setting and hard work DOES pay off.

Please spread the word about this Challenge. There will be lots to win throughout the month and the more support we have, the better all of our goals will go this month! Let me just show you a little peek at some of the books I'll be letting you choose from, but believe me there will be many more prizes yet to come!

Don't forget, spread the word, and I'll see you back here next Monday!

How Are Those New Years Resolutions?

To be honest, I don't set resolutions, or at least I haven't in a few years. But I do set goals each year...and then, well, I promptly forget about them.

So if you're anything like me, perhaps you've gotten a bit off track and will appreciate this reminder to rethink what you want from this year. Several of my goals for the year revolve around writing. I'm a little behind on those ones. One of my goals revolves around getting in shape. I'm really, REALLY behind on that one!

But listen, it's only FEBRUARY! We can still do something about these goals! Or if you haven't set goals yet this year, it's absolutely not too late. Did you know that people who set out achievable goals in writing are 95-97% more likely to achieve them than those who don't? Let's do something to really catapult our lives forward in 2011! Who's with me?

I'll be doing my little part to help, both myself and anyone else who wants to set and achieve some goals. Later in the week I'll be back with more details on March Madness. So start thinking about what goals you'd like to set, both for the month of March and for the rest of the year. Then keep an eye right here on the blog to find out how you can put it in writing and make yourself accountable!

My Bookshelf Giveaway Winner!

I have one winner from this week's My Bookshelf Giveaway:

A LOVE STORY STARRING MY DEAD BEST FRIEND goes to Lisa_Gibson!

Congratulations, Lisa! Email me your address at d(at)denisejaden (dot) com and I'll get it out in the mail to you as soon as I can.

And believe me, I still have lots of books to give away! Keep watching the blog for other opportunities, coming soon!

Friday Four!

1. Taxes.
2. I hate them.
3. Barely finding time to write, and they're sucking time from every other part of my life too.
4. I'll be back soon in better spirits.

If you're interested, I'll leave you with a fabulously informative vlog from Jackson Pearce about how books are stocked:

Swearing in YA

I was just reading a great post over at Ebony McKenna's blog about swearing in MG or YA fiction. During a recent round of edits, she was encouraged to take out a phrase that could be found offensive. I thought Ebony's reaction was very smart, and I think I would do the same.

This is a topic that's of interest to me at the moment, because my current work in progress is riddled with bad language. So much so, in fact, that it makes me uncomfortable. The thing is, though, I had to write the first draft this way to stay true to my character.

I've been discussing this with critique partners as I'm moving into draft 2 of the novel and trying to edit out as much of the language as I can. I believe wholeheartedly in staying true to characters, but at the same time, when I read a book filled with abundant curse words, I notice that most of them don't seem necessary to me. In fact, in many cases, the language will cause me to get annoyed by the voice.

So I'm making an effort to cut as many instances of bad language as I can. I figure it's hard enough to find an audience as a new writer, and I really wouldn't want something as simple as overuse of the "F" word to make readers bypass my book. What it has come down to for me, I think, is strong writing. Challenging writing. It's easy to show character, especially a rough character, with a swear word. Much, much harder to show who they are without it! But it is possible.