Category: freakouts

And the Year Ends and I’m Still Writing

Nova Ren Suma

December 31, 2011

The year is ending on a good note. Not that there’s any great news to report—I have no news, actually, I am utterly and entirely between bouts of news, since this is a quiet period of simply working hard and writing—but I’m ending the year with the knowledge that I’ve found it again. It-it. My love of writing.

After a tough grumble of a year, most of which occurred behind the curtain, a year that included a faceoff with writer’s block the likes of which I’ve never had before (and, honestly, I never before truly believed “writer’s block” existed) and such a furnace of doubt raging inside me I’m surprised my hair didn’t catch fire, I have it back. The pleasure in writing again. That’s why I’m here in the first place. It’s all because writing—the act itself—brought me such great pleasure all those years ago before publication was even a possibility and I wanted to find a way to continue to do it for the rest of my life. With 2011’s writing struggles and hiccupping sense of inspiration, I found myself holding this small, urgent question inside me for a long time: Do I really want to be an author, now that I know what it’s like? Which led to another more urgent question: What am I if I don’t write? Which led to an answer: I can’t not write. Which circled back to tell me: I have to write because I love it, and I’ll always write books, no matter what.

It seems so obvious now.

So the end of the year is here, and I pulled through, and I’m in a wonderful place, revising 17 & Gone thanks to my editor, and tweaking my new book proposal for what could be my next YA novel thanks to my agent, and simply feeling better in general thanks to the generous people in my life (hi, Mom! hi, E!). All is well. My writing is going well, and I love that feeling.

If you’ve been struggling, I hope it passes. I hope you look back in your rearview once we speed ahead into this new year and see your struggles are long gone.

Happy New Year, writers and creative people! May we make good things in 2012.
The Title of My New Novel Revealed

Nova Ren Suma

December 1, 2011
For some time, if you’ve been reading this blog, you may have noticed that I’ve been hard at work on a secretive new novel. This was a novel that first started coming out of me when I was away from home, outside my real life. I still vividly remember writing its very first words (then pounding out its first 50 pages in a mad spree of inspiration never matched since) while I was away in the spring of 2010 at Yaddo. When I got home after my four-week stay up in Saratoga Springs, I put the novel aside to revise Imaginary Girls. I didn’t return to it again until I was away from home for another residency, this time at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire in the winter of 2011. It was there, in my little house in the woods, where I wrote some more dark and darkly inspired pieces of this new book. It wasn’t until I came home in February of 2011 that I started to work on this book in the harsh light of day. By that I mean reality. By that I mean in my overly distracted and scattered life here in New York City. This is where I stalled. The first draft wouldn’t come easily. It threatened my sanity. It forced me to relearn everything I thought I knew about writing novels. Let’s just say that it took a lot out of me.

Even once I finished the first draft and turned it in to my editor, I was knotted with doubt and fear. I was feeling very low and was beginning to worry that I’d written an unpublishable thing that couldn’t be salvaged. But I’d forgotten something. THE REJUVENATING POWERS OF REVISION*! (Cue the choir, the birds chirping, the foil-covered chocolates raining from the sky, the bubbling fountain of pomegranate** margaritas.) I still have work to do, but I can see what the novel will become now. And I’m here to tell you it can be salvaged. It will be a book. I can’t wait.

So, to celebrate, I am going to tell you the title of this new novel! I got permission to reveal it and everything.

My new novel is called…

17 & GONE

…and it’s forthcoming from Dutton in 2013!

I will reveal
1. the season
2. the hook
3. the summary
4. the voice
5. the genre
6. the inspirations
7. the girls
8. the significance of 17
9. the moment this book title was first uttered in the cramped kitchen of my tiny apartment
10. and by who
11. the real-life experiences from the artist colonies that entered the book, including
12. the girl on the bicycle
13. the tick bite
14. the ice storm
15. the dark road in the dark night
16. the knock on the door
17. and more…
when I can!

17 & GONE is like nothing I’ve ever written before… and yet it is so completely, deeply me. You’ll see.

* My editor is made of magic.

** In my land, the perfect drinks are always made with pomegranate.
A Finish-Your-Novel-Or-Else Song

Nova Ren Suma

August 29, 2011

Have a deadline? Trying to finish your novel in a week? Trying to revise before your eyes fall out? Need motivation? A kick in the pants? Something that makes you stop sobbing?

Sometimes an upbeat song helps.

If I share mine, maybe you’ll share yours?

Here’s a song I listen to when I feel sure that the pathetic cloud of doom hovering over my mess of a first draft is about to crush me:

It keeps me from crawling under the writing desk and napping in defeat instead of finishing this new scene! (It’s also a great collaboration between two artists I love. Why didn’t I think to collaborate and write a novel with another author?! The book would’ve been done already.)

How about you? If you have a song that forces you up and keeps you going pounding those words on the page, do share. Maybe I’ll add yours to my motivating playlist.
You Can’t Know (Or: a Telegram Not Sent)

Nova Ren Suma

July 10, 2011

You can’t know how you’ll handle things.

You can guess. You can even make an educated guess, based on what you know of yourself from all other experiences that came before, like the fact that you published a book once before, you were read and reviewed and rated before. You survived.

I’d been through this once before. Dani Noir was published in September of 2009, and I was writing Imaginary Girls then, and I seem to remember that the writing went really well that fall. My biggest struggle was balancing my day job with the writing of the book due early that winter (and I ended up having to leave the day job), but other than that I felt good. I felt creative. I felt confident. I brushed off disappointments and looked ahead.

Most important: the words came.

I made my deadline.

So when I embarked on this year, 2011, the year Imaginary Girls would come out, I expected it would be like last time. I’d write a new book while waiting for Imaginary Girls to enter the world. It would get read and reviewed and rated. I’d do whatever promotion things I needed to do. I’d survive. Hey, I’d do better than survive—if my life followed my plan for 2011, I would have finished two new novel drafts by now. (Or at least one novel draft plus a proposal for another.) I’d celebrate. I’d feel AWESOME.

What I absolutely did not in any way expect was how difficult these past months have been.

I never expected to be unable to write for days at a time. I didn’t expect to get blocked. To feel so insecure. To question everything. To fall behind. To worry so much. To worry more. (Not to mention get sick last month.)

I thought I knew, and I didn’t know. I was caught by surprise. I was wrong. I guess my lesson here is that every book is different? Or my reaction to every book will be different? Or I will get better and learn more each new time?

I’ve gotten over the funk I was in—I have, or else I wouldn’t want to talk about it—and writing this new novel is really going well now (it feels like it is, anyway, and I’ll soar ahead on this feeling for as long as I can).

I wish I could have known, but you can’t know, can you?

In other words, I am not going to send an email like this to my editor tomorrow:

(a telegram Dorothy Parker sent to her editor in 1945)

And good thing, too, because from the way I see this one getting shared all over the internet I can tell a lot of writers have felt this way about their books at one time or another. This is normal, I guess. This is to be expected. Actually… I guess I should have known, huh?
Midnight Winners of IMAGINARY GIRLS Because Today Is Pub Day!

Nova Ren Suma

June 13, 2011

It is exactly midnight as I prep this post, and guess what? Imaginary Girls is out today! June 14! Today! It’s real! It’s happening!

And I’m so excited about the book that I’ve randomly picked two giveaway winners! Each will get a signed hardcover and five Imaginary Girls notecards!

(I think I should be allowed to use exclamation points ALL day, don’t you!)

I am going to randomly select the winners now. Hang on… it takes a second… Okay:

WINNER #1:

Raychelle

WINNER #2:

Kai

So, giveaway winners, look out for my email!

To all those who didn’t win this giveaway—so many entries, wow!—thank you for wanting to read the book, and I hope you’ll consider going out and looking for it today. You’ll find it in the US and Canada wherever books are sold, and I hope some local libraries, too. (Australia, you have your own pub date… coming very soon on July 1!)

I’m collecting photos of the book on sale. If you see it, please email it to me at nova [at] novaren.com, post it on my Facebook author page, or tweet it to me on Twitter.

Thanks, everyone! And congrats to Raychelle and Kai!
There Should Be Balloons in This Post

Nova Ren Suma

June 7, 2011

There should be a bouquet of balloons, ribboned tails flying. There should be wild horses and twirling dancers and firecrackers and someone who can hold a tune singing songs. A blue blimp soaring through the clouds with the name of the book and June 14 stamped on its sides. Water rides. Chalk murals filling the sidewalks. Enough strawberry-banana pancakes to feed the world.

There should at least be something exciting I can do here, because we are now ONE WEEK AWAY from Imaginary Girls.

…

(note to self: say something witty, or wise, or so cryptic it sounds philosophical here)

…

(at least give away free stuff!)

…

I’m afraid I’m too tired / busy / scattered / distracted / crazed with this book deadline I need to finish writing my book / nervous / anxious / shy / loopy / outrageously and deliriously excited to the point that I cannot function (circle one) to organize anything special for this one-week-to-pub-day moment.The best I can do is write this blog post. But you can pretend if you want to. Here…

WATCH the book trailer: It has hypnotic music.

READ the first four chapters online: They are free.

VISIT the book’s official website: It is gorgeous.

And think of me fondly as I survive the next week of anticipation, including being patient with me for posting all these links and talking about my book so much, and I hope you’ll consider going out and buying Imaginary Girls on Tuesday, June 14.

Thank you for reading this post even though I don’t have a picture of balloons in it.

I might do a giveaway of some signed books next week. Here on this blog. Or on my Facebook page. Or on Twitter. Or entirely confined inside my own imagination, in which case I guess I’d win. We shall see.
One Morning You Wake Up and Go, THIS is my BOOK TRAILER!

Nova Ren Suma

May 25, 2011

I’m so thrilled to share this with you, blog readers. I’m so thrilled that it even exists in the world. The first time I saw it, I was openmouthed and utterly entranced. Did I say I was thrilled, did I? Because I am. Thrilled. My publisher just gifted me with a book trailer.

Here it is! The official book trailer for Imaginary Girls—thanks to Penguin Teen, and made by Mess (you guys are amazing!)—and utterly successful in making the book’s author intensely, wondrously happy.

In order to see it, I want you to go to THIS PAGE:

www.imaginarygirlsbook.com

Why? Because they even made a landing page to showcase the trailer!

…Which makes the book’s author EVEN HAPPIER, if that is even possible (I honestly didn’t think it was)!

I hope you find the page and the trailer as beautiful as I do.

I know I need to be working on my new book, but this is the kind of distraction I should go online for, don’t you think? You would, wouldn’t you?

Category: freakouts

17 & GONE