What I Have Learned About Failure From Author Beth Revis...

Every writer has her own journey, but of all the author success stories I have heard and read over my years as an aspiring writer, Beth Revis's journey inspired me the most! So I want to share with you what she shared with me, and the thousands of people who have already seen...

...this video:

Beth says: Everyone says, "It'll get easier!" But they are lying to your face.




Failure is really just success in training. 

Beth's first book, Across the Universe was much hyped when it first came out, and for good reason. It had one of those beginnings that is so absolutely, perfectly written you would wait in line just to read the next chapter, and you would read through the night just to find the resolution of the killer problem she introduced so beautifully in chapter one. I read her first chapter online and was immediately hooked. In fact, I can compare it with only a handful of other first chapters that have moved and shocked me to a similar extent. Her first chapter alone guaranteed her a spot on that bestseller list. Of course the rest of the series is killer, as well, so that helps!

But seeing this video after I read her first book really gave me the greatest gift I could have received as a struggling and aspiring writer:

The Gift of Perspective.

Thank you, Beth Revis, for being so real! That amazing first chapter, that beautiful prose and shocking intro was the master stroke of an artist who had been honing her craft for years. It wasn't a first draft. It wasn't a lucky step into the darkness. It was the hand of a practiced surgeon. The perspective she gave me saved me from making the mistake of saying, "Well, she's just so talented, and I could never do that." The knowledge of her nine previous unpublished manuscripts forced me to acknowledge the fact that I simply wasn't trying as hard, that I could be a better version of myself if I did.

One more lesson from Beth:

Always write the story of your heart. 

In the first installment of her book series for writers, called Paper Hearts, Beth explains what her particular objective was as a writer--to be published by a big press--and that she didn't regret writing any of her "practice" novels, except for one.

That was the book she wrote "for the market." The book was good, she explains, because she was up to date on all the trends in the publishing industry and she knew exactly what tropes to keep and which to avoid. But as she came closer to getting it published, she pulled it, and the reason was that there was nothing of her in it. It was empty.

Her advice to aspiring writers is not to make the same mistake by trying to please the market. Write the book of your heart, every time, no matter how painful it can be to let go if it's not "the one."

This advice came to me at a time when I needed to hear it, too.

(Her Paper Hearts series is chock-full of great counsel for writers in all stages of development. The video above came from the first free online writing conference ever, WriteOnCon, and is a great example of the many ways Beth has given back to the writing community. The founders of Operation Awesome were inspired by all the writers who put together WriteOnCon, and since our launch in 2010, our ever-changing team of operatives has been working toward that same worthy ideal.)

THANK YOU, BETH!

Have you ever heard the perfect writing advice for you at exactly the right time? What's the best writing advice you've ever received? 

Across The Universe: The Winners

Thank you for all the comments and entries to the AtU contest.

I wish I had enough to give everybody a book, but *sniff* I can't. But I'm sure we shall have more awesome contests in the future.

The two winners are...

Katie Mills & Lisa Gibson

There should be an email from me waiting in your inbox.

And don't forget, we have the Mystery Agent contest on the 1st of February. Polish those 25 word pitches for that MG/YA.

Happy Sunday.

Across The Universe With Beth Revis

I've put down my cookies today. Why? Because I'm excited to be joined by Beth Revis. Beth is the New York Times bestselling author of Across the Universe. And she hearts Doctor Who!

First, a bit about ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awake on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into a brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

And now onto the questions. *rubs hands together* 

1) What made you decide to switch between narrators for this particular story?

I *had* to. I needed Amy and Elder to know and not know certain things. I needed an "inside" character who knew was it was like to be born on the ship, and an "outside" character who, like us, was new to the ship.

2) Which part of the world-building was the toughest to develop? Which part was the easiest? 

All of it was tough! World-building is what I struggle with the most--*I* know what the world looks like, and I often forget that the readers don't. The thing I've learned to make this easier is to periodically rely on other senses, like smell or touch.

3) If there is one thing you'd like readers to leave with after finishing AtU, what would it be? 

A sense of hope--that no matter how bad things look, don't give up.

4) Do you have any quirks, habits or must do routines when you write?

Not really! I'm weird like that, I guess--everyone seems to have a ritual or something to get them in the mood, but I just sit down and start.

5) The title of AtU is from a song by the Beatles. Did you have a soundtrack during the writing of the book? 

Not really! Another thing that makes me weird--it seems like every writer has a soundtrack. But not me. I like noise, but I will play one or two songs on repeat over and over and over again until I tune them out. But "Across the Universe" was definitely one of those songs.

6) How did you manage to leave such well-placed clues that make you suspect or wonder but not quite know? Did it just come out that way or were they added in later?

A combination! Some things were just little, throw-away details when I was writing, but when I came to the end of the story, I realized I could use them as clues for the plot. Some of them I hid inside the text on purpose--cackling wickedly the whole time, like a parent hiding Easter eggs.

7) How do you write such epic chapter endings and transitions? Every single one left us either shocked at a new revelation or tortured by an intense emotion. 

I don't know! It just comes out that way!

8) We're all about the awesome here. What do you think makes YA such an exciting genre to read/write?

You can do anything in YA! YA is about a style moreso than an age-range, in my opinion--it's a style that embraces fast-paced plotting, clever characters, and awesome story-lines.

9) What is the one tip you could give to an aspiring author? 

Write the next book. I have ten trunk novels. I couldn't have written AtU without having first written them, but I couldn't have published any of them, not the way they were. There's certainly something to be said about not giving up and editing and revising--but there's also a point in time when you've got to just move on to the next story.

10) If you could be any character out of the Harry Potter books, who would you be?

Ginny!!! I would SO love to know more about her--I sort of wish JKR would write another book told from Ginny's POV in the last year...and besides, she gets Harry!

Beth Revis lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and dog, and believes space is nowhere near the final frontier. Across the Universe is her first novel.

Huge thanks again to Beth for being our guest today. Across the Universe is available from all bookshops/online retailers now, but I'm also giving away two copies. How can you win? Just let me know you'd like to enter and add your email address in the comments. I'll pick the two winners at random on Sunday. Simple. 

Across the Universe PRE-ORDER GIVEAWAY! - CLOSED

Update: erica and christy you won the drawing! 


It was SO fun reading your awesome word inventions.

Thanks to everyone who entered! 

Guess what comes out next Tuuuuessday!

This:

I know, right? 

I'm dying! I've already pre-ordered my copy, but I was thinking about all those other times an amazing book came out and I just didn't get around to picking it up until much after it came out, and I didn't want that to happen to you guys. 

So we're giving away one pre-order of Beth Revis' ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.

If you haven't gotten around to pre-ordering it yet, then this will be perfect timing for you! I'll pre-order tomorrow so there's a good chance it will arrive by Tuesday in the U.S. (no promises for outside the country, though, but still... a free book!) 

All you've got to do to be included in this random drawing is this:

A) Follow us if you're not

B) In honor of the epic spaceship setting, turn your WORD VERIFICATION non-word into a science fiction term at the bottom of your post. 

You can do this by leaving a comment, pressing POST COMMENT, and then EDIT your comment to include the WORDVER new definition. Don't forget to enter the word verification for the camera, too (you know, so our blog doesn't think you're a really clever robot).

Amparo will be blogging a review once it's out, so be sure to check back for that. And now for the juice of the book (for those of you who have missed all the ever-present buzz):

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules. 

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.