And...Ta da...Z stands for...

zany: Some writers are a little bit, well yanno, cuckoo, zany. *feels people staring* Uh, er, sometimes I've been a little craazzy. Uh-huh.

Zebra: Now I know you are wonderin' what this has to do with my theme of writing. I'm sure one time that a writer has ridden a zebra. *rubs hands together*

Zero: The amount of money prepubbed writers earn. *sobs* (Also zilch) *bawls*

Zest: The thing writers have for their lovely words.

Zing: Writers add this to their precious stories during revision # 543. *wonders why I couldn't have thought about it on revision #2.* *kicks chair*

Zits: Uh, some writers get these. Hmmm, I wonder if it's all the chocolate. Naaaaa

Zoo: What writers live in sometimes. *wink*

ZZZZZZ: "Robyn, wake-up."

"I had the wildest dream. I was traveling through the alphabet, from A to Z. Oh well, back to work." *wink*

I'll leave you with a couple more quotes.Thanks for reading and following to all my writerly friends. *throws kisses*

"Dear Mister Language Person: I am curious about the expression, "Part of this complete breakfast". The way it comes up is, my 5-year-old will be watching TV cartoon shows in the morning, and they'll show a commercial for a children's compressed breakfast compound such as "Froot Loops" or "Lucky Charms", and they always show it sitting on a table next to some actual food such as eggs, and the announcer always says: "Part of this complete breakfast". Don't that really mean, "Adjacent to this complete breakfast", or "On the same table as this complete breakfast"? And couldn't they make essentially the same claim if, instead of Froot Loops, they put a can of shaving cream there, or a dead bat? Answer: Yes." -Dave Barry, Tips for Writer's

"Start early and work hard. A writer's apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he's almost ready to begin. That takes a while." -David Eddings 

"Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the most. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window." -William FaulknerIeWillsuchas eggs, and 

Y stands for...

yacht. All writerly folks want to have a yacht to relax in. *you feel it, don'tcha*

YAP. All writerly peeps yap a lot and listen in on others that yap. (Cuz that's a great way to learn dialogue.)

Year. Sometimes it takes a year for writers to write their lovely stories, sometimes longer.

Yearn. All writers yearn for the title, AUTHOR.  *sob*

Yell. Writers have a thing called protagonists and antagonists that sometimes yell, shriek, shout, and howl. *I haz a thesaurus, uh-huh*

Yes. All writers yearn to hear YES! The agent loves ya, baby. *grin*

Young adult. Some writerly peeps write for this audience.

Younger. I write for this crowd. The younger than YA bunch. I do have a YA in my head. It swirls in there until I'm ready to write it. *that's how I'z outline*

Yucky. Form rejections taste like this.

Join me tomorrow for Z. I'z took the challenge and will leave you with a quote or two.

" Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to better than yourself." -William Faulkner

"Reading... a vacation for the mind...." -Dave Barry
oothejust to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. -Williaer

X stands for...

Xcited: Writers are very xcited when they finish a first draft of their novel.

Xlerious: Writers become xlerious upon receiving a request for a full.

 Xfection: Writers have an xfection toward agents and editors. They just love them with all the lovin' their little hearts can hold.

Xiety: Writers feel this when subbing to agents or editors. It manifests itself by the constant reloading of their email.


Xjection: Writers DO NOT like these. They come in many forms and they cause writers to smash their mailboxes. You there?

Xlissful: All writers become xlissful upon holding a copy of their book in their itty-bitty hands.

Xtraordinary: Writers and bloggers are xtraordinary folks. (you like this?) *wink*

Xzapolis: Most writers have all kinds of Xzapolis going on in their little corner of the world.*high five*

Only two more days left. I think I can say, that I definitely took the challenge and ran with it. *bows* *handed roses* (^_^)

W is for Where...

oh where, does all my time go?  Where does all your time go?

Wade. Writers wade in water while thinking about their lovely stories.

Waddle. Quacker my hero from one of my picture books waddles. Some of you wanted to see him, so here he is.              

 Waffles. Writers eat this yummy, tantalizing, syrupy, goodness before starting their early morning work.

Wages. What this writer hopes to earn from her books soon. Her sparkly words should do the trick and an agent she is sure to get. *bows*

Wag. Some writers have dogs that wag their tails lots and lots while they're working on their precious books.

Wagon train. Writers insert these into their books if they write western. Ye haw!!!!

Wahoo! Writers scream this when they snag an agent or a book deal. You will be able to hear my scream in South Africa. *practices scream*
.
Warm. Writers write about warm summer days, with a gentle breeze blowing, the birds are singing and they're by the pool with a tall glass of lemonade.

Warm-hearted. My blogging pals. *wink*

Wash. Writers must still wash clothes and dishes even though they are published writers. *boo-hoo*

V?????

Okay, we're gettin' down to the last five letters in the alphabet and this writer just figured out why these letters are last. Because only W plays nice. At least there are words that pertain to writing beginning with W. See? It isn't even W's day, yet I just used two.

*sigh*

*double sigh*

*flashing light*

V is for violin. Writers write songs that are played on the violin. YEAH!

Vacation. Writers love these. It refreshes them. And they usually write lovely words when they are on one of these.

Valiant. Writers write stories with valiant heroes. *eyes sparkle*

Validated. How snagging an agent makes a writer feel.

Vanilla. Mmmm goodness. Some writers eat this in ice cream.

Veggies. What mama writers want their kidlets to eat.

Velvet. Writers love this. They dream about having wall to wall velvet. They swear it will help the words to flow. *glows*

Veranda. Writers dream of writing from one of these in Italy. *grins*

Verbs. All writers have to use these. They are a good thing unless they are overused and passive. Action verbs add sparkle to our writing.

Pats self on back after realizing how many V words she came up with.

Looks up and sees X coming like a freight train. *cringes*

Er, U is for

Umpteen:

I have written umpteen drafts of SEVENTY-TWO HOURS. How'z about you? Do you get where I'm coming from?

Understand:

Writers must understand the writing process. If they don't understand the writing process, lo, lo, they are in for a surprise. :-)

Unashamed:

Writers must be unashamed of their writing, so they can show it to their crit partners and betas.

 Unconditionally:

Writers must love their fellow bloggers unconditionally. (You like that?) *wink*

 Ultra:

Bloggers are so ultra cool. *double wink*

USA:

Some writers live in the USA, some do not.

Whew. I made it through U. But the real test comes Thursday. Lee? Are we allowed to make up words??

                               Happy Easter

T is for...

TIME. Stands still for NO one. Not even writers. *sniff*

Talk. What the characters do in our lovely books.

Tall. How a writer stands when he/she snags an agent.

Tax. An unfair burden. UNFAIR I TELL YOU!

Tea. Some writers drink this. UGH. I gots to have coffee!

Tea cup. Some writers drink their tea from this with their little fingers stuck out.

Tears. What writers shed when they read a form rejection in the mail. (And before they smash their mailbox.)

Thank you. What I say to all my blogging pals. :-)

S is for...

Sabotage.

This is what writers do to their mailboxes after receiving an ugggglllly form rejection. :-)

Sad. How writers feel after reading a form rejection and before sabotaging their mailboxes.


Schedule. Writers sometimes schedule time with their computers. *writes reminder to schedule time*


Self-editing.

The art of self-editing haz to be learned. Uh-huh. And a writer MUST turn off the inner editor while writing the first draft.

Self-editing makes writing better. More exciting. Eliminating all unnecessary words. And I always find a lot of those. Have I mentioned my love affair with the word was?  *frowns*

Sparkly.

This is what writers who are in the KNOW do to their query/cover letters.  Recipe: dump a huge amount of sparkly glue into the envelope. And won't that editor be surprised when she opens the envelope and out falls the sparkly glue all over her new outfit. She won't soon forget you, I'll tell you that much. My pal and your pal, Sharon M. had an added touch. She recommends a nice red lipstick kiss. She says, "that way they know you are a serious writer." I see Sharon knows where I'm coming from. *giddy*

R is for

Robyn. She's a crazy writing maniac. "Nuff said?" (Pshaw to those kids at school who always asked me, "Hey Robyn. Where's Batman?") PSHAW, I say!

Rain. Writers write about this. Rain is a great thing to describe.

Ramble. Writers can tend to do this on and on? Say what??

React. What writers do everyday in one way or the other. (Of course, all living things do this too, but Iz had to make it go with writing. And I did. *high five*

Reality. Writers don't like to go there. It pulls them out of their writing and reading. *wink*

Really nice. What most writers are.

Rear. What writers put in chairs.

I'z on a roll here people. As you can see, R is not a hard letter for my writing theme.

Recook. What writers have to do to their stories sometimes. *grin*

Recount. What this writer does to word counts. That dang computer LIETH I tell you. I know I had 5000 words and the computer says I only wrote 500. It left a 0 out.

Q stands for....

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Bell in Robyn's brain rings.*relief*

Quacker the Duck. That's the name of one of my picture books. I even have a stuffed Quacker on my desk (I didn't kill a real duck and stuff it.)

 Quality. The stuff writers write. :-) Uh, er, most writers.

Quantity.  The dreaded word count. (Of course mine is always huge, what with all my lists that I add to it.) *grin*

Quench. What writing does to our entire beings.

Query. GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Need I say more????

Quit. Something writers never do. :-) *booyah*

P is for...

Poo!

Sorry, but that word is so funny. I just had to use it. And yes! It fits into my writing theme. Some writers muck poo out of their horses stalls. *wonders how these horses could go so much* Some writers (namely me) write poo on their first drafts.

Pack away. What writers do with manuscripts after they revise. Then they pull (another P word, did ya notice that?) the MS back out and revise fifty more times. Sometimes the MS stays packed away, because the writer is annoyed that he/she wrote such crud. *sigh*

Paper. Writers print their magnum opus out, and send it off into the world. Yes, some agents require this.

Paper clips. Uh yeah, writers use these by the ton.

Paragraph. If you write books, you gots to understand what this means.

Parade. Writers love these, because they dream that they are being honored in the parade. WHAT? Oh, I'm the only one who dreams that??? *blushes*

It's Time For The Letter O

Opinions.

These come to writers in the form of crits. They can be awesome. They can be dreadful. When you receive these opinions, ponder the good ones, toss out the nasty, unkind remarks. I've had a few of those. One told me a way I could write my novel over again to make it work. Now folks, that one went the way of the delete button. There were some other things she said, but I have pushed them out of my memory. The good ones are constructive, gonna help you make your story better, crits.

Oath. This is a pledge you take. Lenny Lee has one. :-) It is a good thing to pledge to write everyday and to give crits that help, not hurt. (You also haz to take one when you stand before a judge.) *shiver*

Obnoxious. The people who give mean spirited opinions come under this category. *grumble*

Observation. Writers watch other folks all the time. They look at the way people hold their heads while talking and they watch their body language. Then they add it to their books. (They also enjoy listening in on folks conversations.) Purely for study, I assure you. *wink*

Obsolete. The typewriter. *exhales*

office. Where I write my best selling masterpieces. (Of course, even the first thing I ever wrote is a masterpiece.) I'z just waitin' on the right editor who understands my genius. :-)

Can anyone say, "YIPPEE?"

Tremendously, gigantic giveaway over at Dear Editor.com. Edit of your MG,YA, or adult manuscript. THE ENTIRE MANUSCRIPT, PEOPLE! Go on! Git over there. Dear Editor.com  :-)

N is for...

Well this writer says it ONLY stands for NO when Ivy is asking for a panda hat. (What does she need with a panda hat?)

But unfortunately it is a writing word. A BAD, UGLY writing word. *sniff* It is usually attached to rejections. UGH. UGGGLLLLY! SO UGGGLLLLY. *shiver*

*sob*

I've been through the mailbox bashing. (Hammer meets mailbox)

Nada. Same thang. Bad, bad word.  Naughty word. (Like how I used two N words there?) *it's your birthday*

Negative.

Fellow writers, readers, and bookish type peeps. Negativity brings you down. It registers in your brain and goes to your toes. Never (another N word) (I'z on fire) accept negative thoughts. If you think like that, you're bound to feel like that and then negative things will come your way.

A P word.

Poo. You thought I was going to say positive. Made you look. Bwa ha ha ha

M is for...

Maniac. Some writers have been called this from time to time.

Mac. A computer writers use when they don't like PC's.

Mad Magazine. Ahahahahahaha Really funny writers contribute to this. (No, that is NOT how I became mad.) Humph.

Magic wands. Writers use these in their fabulous stories.

Mailbox. Writers love these when they hold royalty checks, loving letters from fans, idolizing letters from their editors. They DON'T like them when they hold rejection letters. (Huh? The dents in mine? Oh, those are from hail damage. I did NOT beat it with a hammer.) *hides hammer behind back* *grins shyly*

L is for...

Laptop.

My MOST important writing tool. Without that this writer would be in trouble. Ya see, my L doesn't have internet service flowing into it. This means there is NO way I can Facebook, twitter, blog, or otherwise goof off, while I'm supposed to be writing. YAY me. *feeling pretty smart*

Libretto. Someone wrote this. It's an opera. They sing really high and hold their notes really long. They can break glass. *feeling like a genius*

Lists. Writers like these. They add to the daily word count. *wink*

Loopy. (This is definitely a word.) How I feel right now. :-)

K...

Kansas, Kentucky, and Key Largo (my home town).

I hear the snickers. I'z pickin' up the gasps. But YES. I will turn them into writing words in the next sentence.

Writers live in Kansas, Kentucky, and Key Largo. *exhales*

Kidlets, kiddies, kids.

Some writers (me included) write books that are suited to these wee folks. (They are not Leprechauns.)

Kindhearted.

This describes all my writerly blogging pals. (^_^)

J...

Jellybeans. Nothing to do with my writing theme, I'z just wanting some. You can only git 'em this time of year, yanno?

Brain's cramping up.

Desperate, she flips through the dictionary.

Jig? The jig is up? *sniff*

JOB! Writing is a great job to have.

*high fives self*

Walks away, munching on jellybeans, grinning.

I...

I is for itsy. You know, itsy bitsy.

Don't know? Okay, I'll use it in a sentence.

I could eat an itsy piece of cake, but I choose to eat a colossal hunk instead. (YES, I do think of food all the time.)

Itsy has to do with writing, too.

The itsy bitsy spider was a favorite rhyme/song from my childhood and someone wrote it. (Didn't possibly see how I could make that work, did ya?)

Or how about this: Writers that write even itsy amounts every day, will finish a book in time.

I'm on a roll:

It takes longer to write a sentence containing itsy words, so it stands to reason if I'm writing a book with itsy words, it will be quite a while before I'm finished.

She bows.

H is for...

 Hat

Hear. That's the still small voice that says, "Robyn, you will be a million dollar author." *she leaves feeling quite satisfied with self* It's also that inner editor that DRIVES me CRAZY on first drafts.

Heart. Every single writer I know has to have heart. *Hmm, I'z gettin' good at this A to Z blogging*

Homey

Homie

Honey

Hope. Every single person that has ever considered writing books has had to be acquainted with hope.

Humpty Dumpty. Someone named Mother Goose wrote about him. He sat on a wall. And then, *bless him* he had a great fall. Tons of people tried to pick up the pieces and put him back together again, but alas, it wasn't to be. *sniff*

See you on Monday sponsored by the letter I. hehe Have a great rest of the weekend.

AWESOME Shannon. She Knows Who She Is

POSSESSION!!!!!!!!!!!! The ARC. Yanno?? You want it, don't ya? Well not as bad as I want it. Right??

Shannon in all her awesome goodness is GIVING it away. Yeah! GIVING it away. Here's the link to her place: Book Dreaming

*Robyn secretly hopes they are all still hypnotized*

G stands for...

 Gaggle! Er, not really. Just foolin'. :-)

GRATEFUL! For Jesus. I couldn't do this writing thing without him. Grateful for my family, and oh so grateful for Christopher's health. Can anyone see my grin??

This writer is grateful for all the things her crit partner, Beth taught her. She's on her way and I'm right behind her. If you haven't bought her book, (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) head to the bookstore right this minute. After you read this post, that is. (Though, I don't believe there are many that haven't bought or read her AWESOME sci-fi. Book two will be just as awesome.)

Grateful for my betas, cause they do it with love. Grateful for all of my blogosphere writerly pals, because they hold me up and make me laugh and sometimes I just need a good chuckle.

Grateful that I am a writer. I can be anyone I want to be. I travel through the universe and even out of the universe. I can fly with an eagle or swim with a barracuda. I can be in Switzerland as quickly as I can open a document.

What a life. WOW! You in??? (^_^)

I'm done with all the sappy stuff now. Onward to the next A to Z'er.

F is for...

Fun! No, well writing is fun. *head bangs desk* "Ouch."

FOREVER! I will write forever. When I am old and wrinkly and gray. *shiver* I will still write. I might need more naps. And there will be less writing, but that won't matter, because I'll all ready be a top selling novelist and picture book author. I'll be famous. I'll be asked for my autograph wherever I go. Mobbed, I tell you, mobbed. I'll fly to my castle in Ireland and write the days away. Then I'll ride my green pastures on my favorite mare. Ahhh the life. I will mentor new writers and be bombarded with speaking engagements. Ahhh...

"Robyn, wake up." It was all a dream. A very sweet dream. Well, back to reality. Chapter 10. :O)

E is for...

Perspiration trickled...Robyn paced the floor. 

Will they go for today's E word being associated with writing? It was the ONLY E word you could think of, you dumb dumb, you.

Then she decided to spring it on them. Effect/affect

Wait a minute. I'm not teaching a class here. I'm writing a blog post.

Eensy! And yes, my writerly pals, I can turn that into a writing word. We DO write eensy sentences when we write picture books. *whew* She hoped they wouldn't notice her nose twitch. It always twitched when she was worried. Would they fall for it?? Only time would tell.

And when we write MG novels, we write less eensy sentences.

*pat, pat* That's the sound of this writer patting herself on the back.

Another day, another letter. See Lee, I KNEW this challenge was for me.

Cool contest over at Shannon's place

Head over and enter for a chance to win The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens. This is one cool contest from one cool lady. So what are ya waiting for??  Let's do this! Or maybe you don't want to win a book. That's okay, I'll do that for ya. Look at the watch and repeat after me: "Robyn wants the book, I do NOT." Yeah, you gots it. :)  Book Dreaming

D is for...

This one took some considering. :-) I mean my theme is writing. I thought, and thought some more.

By the by...

It came to me! Eureka!

DO! hehe

Do read, do write, do your agent research, DO sell your novel! Do all this and you shall become a PUBLISHED novelist. I promise. :0)

Yeah, I'm slack today. It was only after my struggle, I thought of draft (not the beer), dark glasses (This has nothing to do with what we're talkin' about, just thought I'd throw it in.), deadline, debut, and dedication.

Daffy.

C is for...

Christopher, my son. I loves him, so I had to put him on C. He's a most wonderful blessing in all of our lives. :-) And he ALWAYS makes me smile.

C  is also for characters. No, I don't mean weird Aunt Pearl, or strange Uncle Herman. Though, you could put them in your books. *wink* They would add dimension, now wouldn't they?

I'm talking the characters we invent. For the worlds we create in our stories. Now I have been known to take parts of Aunt Pearl, (Yep, I really had one.)  and add her feature to a character I was developing. *smiles to self* My Aunt Pearl was an old maid, as they called it, years ago. She never married and lived with about twenty cats inside her home in Ohio. She was engaged, but he was killed in the war. So I have lotsa fodder with her.

I ask you, what would you do with my aunt in your stories? Uh-huh, you can borrow her or my uncle Herman. He was a man that couldn't leave the ladies alone. Yup, my family tree stands tall and proud. *ahem* :-)

Books, Books, Books!

I say B stands for books. Say it with me! B stands for books! I say if you write you read. If you write novels, reading other books teaches you. If you write poetry, reading the poets helps you learn. If you write, you MUST read. NO matter what you write, reading books is the MOST important thing you can do. There are a lot of writerly help books and they're all good. We can learn a lot from them. But. Real. Writers. Read. 


Lately I've noticed a lot of writers along the blogosphere of life say that they don't read. They write. 


*Ahem*


Excuse me????? If you write and you don't read, that tells me something smells NASTY here. How do you know how authors put their books together? Can you really get a feel for the way books are written? DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK WITHOUT READING IN AND OUT OF YOUR GENRE????? 


*Ahem*


If I didn't read tons of MG novels, I might dream I could write a book, but sriously, yanno?


I'd be beaten before even getting started. So take it from someone who's IN THE KNOW. 


I say if you write you read.

Agents

From my buddy Webster:
agent: somebody who officially represents somebody else in business. Guess where the word agent is derived from. To drive, to act, to do. Hmmm, I found this when I looked up the word agent and I thought it was so interesting. This is exactly what an agent does. He/she drives your book around to lots and lots of publishers. This is why I feel most writers who are serious about becoming published need the expertise of an agent. They have your back. They're there for you.



Remember that they work for you. But as good as they are, they need a revised, polished book from which to work with. I am writing this post, because I just told a writer that her work is not ready. She needs to find her inner editor and go through the entire book again. And she needs to get a beta or two to read and make comments on her book. Then when the book is wonderfully refined. Then and only then will it be time to do the agent search. She understood. She knew deep down that she wasn't ready. I've made that same mistake. Wanting an agent so much that I queried too early. But. I stopped after three or so and made the book stronger.

Agents aren't miracle workers. Only God can do that. But they are worth their weight in gold. Just be sure you're ready. Really ready. :) A polished book, a sparkling query letter, and fingers that are crossed. Tightly!

It's Time!!!!!!!!!!

A to Z Blogging Challenge! Let's go...mine will be a little late today. :-)

I decided my theme would be on writing books. So it goes...

I'll announce the winner of Ian's books later today, too.