Blogger Notes

As I mentioned in the previous post, my outlines are extremely detailed. Sometimes they contain dialogue. Sometimes they contain descriptions. Sometimes they even have voice. Other times, it's just a jumble of thoughts with lots of "maybes" and options I could take the scenes. I thought it would be interesting to show examples from my most recent outline. One where the final draft* stays pretty close to my planning, and one where I left the outline vague and made my first draft writing harder on myself. It won't make sense to show you parts of the outline that changed completely during revisions, like when I threw out all of act3 and started from scratch.
*When I say final draft, I mean the most current draft as of December 14, 2008.

I tried to find my outline for The Art of Selling my Sister, but I wrote that before I started meticulously backing up my writing every night. The computer I wrote the early drafts of TAOSMS on died a year ago, and I apparently never backed up the outline. But fear not, I have all my material from Rhythm & Clues. This ms is sitting tight with my agent while we wait on feedback for TAOSMS.
Please keep in mind that I wrote my outline as a guide for myself to aid in first draft writing and not as some perfectly polished piece of prose.

First up, an example of working out all the plot/character problems in advance so the writing is effortless. This is the meet cute scene where my protagonist, Moxie, first encounters the love interest, Gavin.

Moxie reads an article in the paper about band auditions. She has always wanted to sing, always wanted to feel a part of something, so she goes. The auditions are being held in a really sketchy place. She wonders if this is a scam to murder her, but she refuses to be scared. About anything. She has to go into an alleyway and sneak into an abandoned building. There’s one room that’s lit by candles like in a séance. There’s only one person in the room: Gavin. His hair is cut like Zac Efron in High School Musical 2. He’s average height and lanky. Moxie doesn’t recognize him, but he doesn’t look scary. Gavin is thrilled someone showed up. He thought no one was going to. He's a bit anti-social and slightly intimidated by her rebellious appearance. Her hair is streaky and skunk-like. Lots of bleached blonde mixed with Goth black. All to hide Moxie’s natural brown hair color. Gavin tells her she can audition and she asks where the rest of the band is and he says, "If all goes well, you're the rest of the band." She laughs, this was a cruel joke, everything about her life has been a cruel joke so far. She’s about to walk out when Gavin stops her and says he’s serious. Says he’s been stuck home-schooled for years and doesn’t know anyone in the town even though he’s lived here his whole life. Moxie thinks this is weird. But lets it pass. He's evasive about her interrogation. It only makes him more intriguing to her. After all, she hasn’t been home-schooled, but she might as well have been because of her outcast status. Moxie tries too hard to stand out, while this boy goes out of his way to hide. Maybe they can learn something from each other.

A few things changed over the course of revisions. The first line about the auditions in the paper? That's now a full scene where Moxie spots a hand-written advertisement on a bulletin board at a grocery store where she works. The candles changed to paper lanterns. The part where Moxie almost walks out now comes toward the end of the chapter when she auditions, it's not included in this excerpt but it stayed in the novel. I'm a little embarrassed to have the Zac Efron comment here, but usually my outlines contain references to famous people to help me figure out what the characters look like, then during writing I replace with my more unique descriptions. I left it in so you could see how it worked below. The last three lines obviously can't translate into a scene and don't necessarily come in this excerpt. I often include general observations about the characters to help me remember what they're thinking, which I then use to guide their actions. So even if I don't explicitly state her backstory here, it's driving all the things she does in this scene.

I peered down at the address on the sticky note to make sure I was in the right place. The breeze picked up pace, blowing dust devils down the road like even the dirt wanted to escape the dreariness. Several buildings lined the path; their rundown structures yearned for restoration. Dusk’s shade covered most of the decay, turning the buildings all the same murky gray hue. I left the safety of my car and crossed the entryway into darkness, sucking back the gasps that wanted to betray me. I reminded myself I wasn’t scared. Debris from the building’s deterioration littered the floor, and everything smelled like moldy bread. A spark of red light caught my eye, flickering in the distance. A paper lantern dangled from the ceiling, twirling on a string, a small light bulb trying its best to stay illuminated. Up ahead, another lantern guided my way. I followed the glowing lanterns up the stairs like Dorothy’s yellow brick road until I found a guy sitting cross-legged on the dirty floor, fiddling with a laptop. He looked up when I entered, his eyes widening in surprise. His hair hung in his eyes, cascading around his face in long strands like all those emo rockers on TV. He placed his computer on the ground and stood. His lanky body nearly reached the low ceiling. With my 4’10” stature, I had no concept of height; everyone was taller than me. “Didn't think anyone would show." He flashed me a striking smile. "You didn’t make it easy.” “Really?” His brow furrowed and a slight hint of a frown crept on his lips. “I just meant...” I reached up and swatted one of the lanterns hanging low from the ceiling. “Most make their advertisement flashy. Yours looked like you used the board as your personal trash can.” “Got you here, didn't it?” He moved from his defensive position at the far end of the room and sat about ten feet away from me. Afraid to get too close? “I was curious,” I said, nudging a discarded sandwich wrapper with my shoe. “Besides, it takes a lot to scare me.” "Curious about being in a band?" “That too, but mostly about who would hold a band audition in such a strange place. I think I’m the only one who reads that grocery board. I work there, you know." "I know. You're a checkout girl." He couldn’t be lying because he had his facts right, but I'd remember someone like him. Someone so tall, with trendy hair and clothes that screamed mommy dressed him. Someone gorgeous in a way that wasn’t intimidating because it seemed like he had no idea. “I don't recognize you." "Yeah, we've never gone through your line. I think your hair scares my mom." I reached up to touch my strands. "It scares my mom too. That's kind of the point." For the last few months, I'd been dying my boring hair a dark black and then pouring bleach on random strands, creating a streaky, almost zebra-like appearance. It resembled that phase of Christina Aguilera's rainbow dipped ends, but I'd never admit the influence came from pop. "I'm Gavin, by the way. Gavin Tully." He approached me with an outstretched hand, too polite for such an informal meet up. His hand trembled, like he didn’t want to touch me, but he still felt the need to use proper etiquette. "Moxie." I snubbed him to spare him the horror of making contact with me. "And seriously, why haven't I seen you before if you've seen me?" I unhooked the least flickering red lantern from its string to act as a campfire flashlight. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I avoided getting tangled in the electric wires, which were pulled taut, straining to reach the power supply. "Moxie? That's a strange name." “It’s a nickname. And stop trying to change the subject, Gavin Tully." "I don’t go to your school or anything, if that’s what you’re asking." Was this guy not in high school? He either attended Milford Brook High or was some kind of archaic Internet predator who preferred post-its to chat rooms. "How old are you? Can I see your ID?” “Oh. I don’t drive. But I'm seventeen.” What teenager didn’t bother to get their license when they turned sixteen? He’s had more than a year to practice. “So,” he said. “What kind of instru—“ “Did you just move here?” I asked. Maybe that’s why I didn’t know him. “Um…” Gavin twisted his hands together. Avoiding such an easy question made me think he lived here. That would explain the intricate lighting. “You’re a bit strange. You know that? I guess the warehouse should have been my first clue.” “Yeah. Sorry about that. I didn’t really have any other options within walking distance.” Okay, so he lived elsewhere. I glanced at his laptop, realizing the reason for his evasiveness. He must go to some rich private school and didn’t want me to feel too blue-collar. “Right, the no car thing. What happened? Your chauffer couldn’t drive you?” “I—What?” He tilted his head to the side. After a moment, he said, “Oh, no. It’s just…my parents don’t exactly know I’m here.” Obviously this boy was trying very hard to be secretive. But he intrigued me, so I tried another approach. “I like boys who break the rules. I think we'll get along just fine."

I also thought it might be interesting to post a little from my chapter 1 outline. The final draft of chapter 1 is available on my website so I won't repost it here to reserve space. The outline below contains dialogue and actions that made it into the final draft in some form. An interesting part of this is the line that says, "The girls sneak out of school." See how vague that is? I found while writing that the more detailed I made my outline, the more I planned out in advance, the faster I wrote and the less things changed in revisions aside from the usual line edits/condensing. Leaving things to figure out later only led to me writing scenes with glaring mistakes, resulting in more extensive revisions. I'm not about to post my crappy first draft here because it's riddled with passive sentences and typos. (My motto when writing: I don't break for typos.) Anyway, you can compare this outline to the excerpt on my website. Sabrina is Gavin's younger sister, and this is her first day in public school. It was supposed to be Gavin's too, but he didn't show up, a fact that shocks and confuses both girls because it goes against everything Gavin wanted.

Sabrina glances in the box. Picks up the fork. Says it looks familiar. It has some kind of intricate design on it. Moxie tells her it’s from a certain restaurant. The night she and Sabrina met. Something dawns on Sabrina’s face. She tells Moxie they need to leave now. The girls sneak out of school. Moxie asks why. Sabrina says, “You really must not be dating my brother because you obviously don’t know him at all.” Moxie needs clarification, but the words sting. Sabrina tells her they’re clues. That the parents not letting her go to boarding school must have set him off (moxie is happy it’s not the kiss, though she’s still skeptical), that these must be clues. "He wants us to visit these places to find him. He must have realized you wouldn’t have figured it out on your own. That’s why he included me." That one hurt. Moxie asks where they should go first. Sabrina says, “Chronologically. We have to think like Gavin.” Moxie says: CANDLE STUB it is then.

Read the real chapter one here.

In case you noticed the difference between tenses in the final draft excerpts, the novel is told in alternating timelines. It begins in the middle of the story when Moxie learns Gavin ran away. The first timeline, told in present tense, chronicles her difficult quest to find him. The excerpt above with the Meet Cute is from the flashback timeline, told in past tense, which reveals the reason why Gavin ran away and why it may or may not be Moxie's fault. Both R&C and TAOSMS utilize this structure. It's not confusing when you read the books, I promise.

I hope that gets a good idea of my outlining methods and how it changes through drafts. I have much more detailed parts of my outline for scenes that appear later on in the novel, but I can't post them because it would spoil too much. (Like the kiss scene! That one is the most detailed in my outline). And I also had parts of the outline that needed to be thrown out immediately when I came to them. I'm experiencing the same thing with my current WIP. Nearing the end of the first draft, I realized my last few scenes didn't work anymore. I'm currently mulling over a replacement ending.

Next week, I'm going to continue this series and discuss the differences between outlining a novel versus a TV pilot/screenplay. I have some experience with pitching television shows and writing TV bibles. More on that later.

My critique partner, Denise Jaden, came in 1st place in RWA's Launching A Star contest! I know this is only the beginning for her. She's an awesome writer and a great critique partner.

CONGRATS!

Here's a list of the rest of the results in the Young Adult category:

Young Adult Category

Final round judges: Kristen Daly, HarperCollins Children’s Books, and Elaine Spencer, The Knight Agency

First Place: Losing Faith* by Denise Jaden of Abbotsford, Canada
Runners-up:
Diary of a Teenage Demon Magnet by Teresa Wilde of Ottawa, Canada
Eternally Emma by Jeanne Rutgers of Centennial, Colorado
Feral Instinct by Sandi Jones of Augusta, Arkansas
My Dog Ate My Teacher by Kelly Fitzpatrick of Bremerton, Washington

*Editor/Agent Request
**Double request

1. Last night I stepped back into high school. One of my favorite bands from the 90s, Letters To Cleo, played a reunion concert in NYC after an eight year hiatus, even though they all tour with Miley Cyrus now as part of her backup band. I attended the concert with my best friend from high school, Jeremy. Lyrics to songs I haven't heard in over a decade came back to me like they'd never left. I have a lot of history with this band. Back in high school, I used to run a super cool (read: super geeky) music ezine devoted to my favorite bands. Actually, I ran several, each showcasing a separate band. Due to my research on fun articles for the 'zine, I learned a lot of tricks about getting backstage at concerts. Now, I should note that I was around 14 years old with a mouth full of braces. I looked kind of adorkable in a pinch-your-cheeks and help-with-homework kind of way. I would make scrapbooks for the bands I saw, printing out the pages of the ezines and filling the rest with drawings I did. I'd sidle up to a bouncer or a bartender, acting all innocent and endearing and ask if they could find a way to deliver the scrapbook to the band. This worked on many occassions; one band even dedicated songs to me at a concert. Though Letters To Cleo didn't appreciate me enough to dedicate any songs, I did receive something better from them back in high school. The drummer, who I had a major crush on at the time, kissed me on the cheek to say thanks for the scrapbook. I hoped for a repeat performance last night. My boyfirend even gave me permission! Sadly, I didn't take into consideration that he might not have aged well or that he would have developed poor judgement when he decided shoulder-length curly hair looked attractive on him. Nor did I take account that I am not 14, and while in high school I could stay out until 3am and go to school the next day, I could barely keep my eyes open by 11pm. As soon as the concert ended, I made a mad dash for my bed. I entertained grand plans of posting photos of me with the band, then and now. I can only do the then, and I promise to get the photos from my parents' house the next time I go home. They are quite funny, and very embarrassing. Anyway, I'm feeling nostaligic today, the songs evoked long-sleeping emotions in me as I recalled listening to certain songs on repeat in my room until they spoke a mantra about particular events in my life. So for now, I leave this bullet point with one lyric I hadn't heard in years. I dedicate to all those boys I crushed on in high school who never knew I existed:


2. Concerts always make me think of writing. I started my foray in writing novels at a concert, though not a Letters to Cleo one. I'd been writing short stories for years, had notebooks full of poetry, a very detailed journal, and even won a few competitions in high school. But I hadn't written a novel until I attended a Goo Goo Dolls concert back when I was 17. We had just studied Camus' The Stranger as well as Hamlet. You could say I was on somewhat of an existential kick. Standing in the crowd of that concert, knowing how much the lyrics affected me but the lead singer didn't know I existed, it changed something in me. I wanted to affect someone the same way. Give back, if you will. I knew I had no business trying out the music industry. Though I play a lot of instruments, I'm far from musically talented. Mostly, I memorize and practice certain songs until I get them right, but I can't quite hear the difference between playing it well and playing it decent. I am tone deaf. If I ever auditioned for American Idol? It would probably become a classic YouTube video everyone laughed at. Until the Goo Goo Dolls concert, it had never occurred to me to write a novel, something in long form, something someone besides my teachers or friends would see. That night after the concert, I sat down and started. I came out with a book of absolute crap because it had no plot, no characters names, and contained essentially 75k of existental ponderings. But I'd done it. I'd written something in long form. It taught me not to be afraid again. (And Mom, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I ever forced you to read that thing.) Thankfully after that, I started writing things with actual premises and plots and conflict. I also learned the beauty of revising. But whenever I go to a concert, I'm reminded of the day I started writing, and that's what I find myself thinking of today.

3. I'm also thinking about how tired I am. I must warn you all, when I'm tired, I tend to make bad jokes! I am trying to keep my lips zipped at work, but a terrible one just slipped out. My poor coworkers; they should invest in earplugs. I'd like to sleep in tomorrow, but I've got to get up early and brave the cut throat jungle of the mall parking lot for Christmas/Hanukkah shopping. Last time my boyfriend and I tried to go to the mall three weeks ago, we drove around for an hour looking for a spot before giving up and indulging in ice cream instead. That may have been a victory instead of a failure, depending on your perspective.

4. Writing update: I've got two scenes left to write in the super secret WIP. I hit a roadblock a few days ago and realized my carefully planned outline no longer worked. Luckily, it only affected the last act of the book. I took some time to mull over the new direction, and I think I know what to do now. I hope to finish draft one by the end of the weekend. Incidentally, I've made a lot of progress on the brainstorm book idea I blogged about last Friday. I'm now 6k into that one and it's going really well. The super secret WIP is nearing 100k, which is pretty normally for me. By the time I'm done, it will be down to a managable size of about 70k I predict.

5. Part Two of my ode to outlining series will be up tomorrow. I'm still organizing my thoughts and going through my outline/WIP for the best excerpts. The concert and busyness at work derailed my progress so far.

I'm probably more meticulous in my outlining methods than most people. It takes me longer to outline a book than it does to write the first draft. I always find it interesting to hear other writers' methods. We all start and end at the same point, but the routes we take from blank page to final draft are all different. I'm curious to know your methods, please feel free to include them in the comments or blog about this yourself (and send me the link of course!)

I didn't come to outlining right away. I started as a fly-the-seat-of-your-pants writer. In November 2006, I came up with an idea for a new YA book. It was essentially a logline and nothing more. I sat down at the computer and realized within five minutes that my premise sucked. I abandoned it and freewrote. Magically, two sisters showed up on my page, hiding some kind of dark secret. I wanted to know what it was, so I kept writing until they revealed it. When I finished my first draft, I realized 40k of it needed to go. I had taken half the story in the wrong direction, so I cut it and started from scratch.

This is how I came to outlining. I knew why half the story wasn't working, and I wanted to organize my ideas on how to fix it so I didn't make the same mistake again. I didn't rush the process, I mulled over the story in all my waking hours (and a lot of non-waking hours too). I jotted down notes when they came to me, revised those notes, and eventually ended up with a short outline of my proposed revision. This time, I sent it to my amazing critique partner, Denise, before I started writing. She made suggestions, but mostly approved my direction, and I set about on the rewrite. Since I'd worked out most of the story problems in advance, I found I could stick pretty closely to the outline while writing. Over the next few months, the manuscript went through several drafts, each time getting more polished. I whipped up a query, found an amazing agent, and after some more revisions, it's now out on submission. Fingers crossed!

Though THE ART OF SELLING MY SISTER turned out to be a success, I felt the process from conception to completion could be improved and condensed. So when I started my next WIP, Rhythm & Clues, I approached it differently. In August of 2007, I had an epiphany moment where a premise came to me when I least expected it. The character of Moxie had been swimming in my head for a long time without a plot. I put the two together and everything fell into place. But it didn't happen overnight. I spent three months on that outline, carving out the story in pieces. Sometimes scenes came to me fully formed. Sometimes I had to work hard to excavate them myself.

Often, the dialogue would play out in my head. I didn't want to lose it, so I jotted it down, including it in the outline. Descriptions, metaphors, and actions came to me to. I put all the details into the outline. This was my bible.

My outline for Rhythm & Clues ended up at a whopping 18k. It read like a bare bones first draft. Even though I planned to tell the book in Moxie's 1st person narration, I included all the other characters' thoughts to help me figure out actions that would show what they were thinking. When my critique partner read the outline, she said, "You kept me up last night reading it. And this is only an outline, so good for you!"
She gave me a lot of extensive notes on what worked and what didn't. Some of my character relationships weren't clear, some of the characters had repetitive outlooks on the situation when they needed opposite views to amp the conflict. I needed to figure out a whole new act 3 and solution to my mystery (which in turn would happen several more times over the course of revision). She also suggested I drop a planned character and find another way to get her purpose across. Denise's suggestions made sense, and I revised the outline one last time before I began writing.

The first draft of Rhythm & Clues flowed out of me at the pace of 3k-4k a day. The writing never felt forced, and I always had a concrete plan of what I needed to work on that day. I did stray from the outline when I found it necessary. It became clear that the pacing of the mystery was off, so I moved some information earlier instead of waiting to reveal it. Individual scenes shifted focus, characters showed up in scenes I didn't expect them to be. I went with it, while still reigning myself in to get to the planned end point.

Because I'm an overwriter, my first draft came in at 94k. The book went through several rounds of revisions, and even with my careful planning, I still rewrote act three nearly four times from scratch until I got it right. Still, that's better than figuring out an entirely new plot for half the book. And for what it's worth, the final draft clocks in at 67k, so I also did a lot of condensing along the way.

Well, I think this post proves my long-windedness. I'll split this up into two parts then. Coming soon: part 2 of outlining, which will include excerpts from both the outline and final drafts to illustrate the process I went through. Check back!

I'm back in the US, back at work, and almost all caught up on TV, news, and blogs. I had a great time overseas, but I must admit, it's quite a luxury to once again understand what people are saying without straining my ears. I love the Scottish accents, but man, I could never tell what they were saying!

Though there were a lot of differences between the UK and the US (fries=chips and chips=crisps), there was one thing that hadn't changed. The love for Twilight. The buses were plastered with banners, the bookstores proudly displayed the text, and reports of the UK Twilight premiere littered the television news programs. I think my boyfriend had been eager to escape Edward, he feels somewhat inferior to the sparkly vampire, but I assured him
	We didn't get to eat here, but I finally snagged a non-blurry/dark photo of The Elephant House.
I'm sorry, but is this not the best store title EVER?

After London, we spent the day traveling to Cramond fishing village, about forty five minutes by bus from Edinburgh. We had every intention of trekking out along the bridge to the tiny island in the distance. Unfortunately, we didn't check the tide times before we left, and we'd missed low tied by about two hours. The tide already came in and covered the bridge. I still got some great shots of the scenery.


First photo: My boyfriend, Josh's, family. Second photo: Josh standing on what's left of the bridge

Below: This is my favorite shot. I want to paint it eventually. I think the monochromatic blues really capture the mood of the image.

As you can see, I am very cold and trying not to show it. Thankfully, I am a writer, not an actress.



First photo: I must get the name of their fabric supplier. Second photo: Josh's brother Dan in his graduation kilt. I'm in the center and Josh is on the right. Congrats on graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Dan! He now has a masters in creative writing. My boyfriend is pratically the only non-writer in the family (his mother is a poet). I run with my own kind.

On Thursday of last week, we went Loch Ness monster hunting. It's less like I imagine deer hunting would be and more like looking at an image of Where's Waldo. We took a twelve hour bus ride, and our kilt-wearing tour guide proceeded to give us a twelve hour history lesson. Too bad I'm not still in high schoo, because I would surely ace any exam right now. This was the day I outlined my new book idea, but I'm excellent at multi-tasking, so I absored the info while also working on my outline. Though I don't have any pictures of the locations because we didn't actually stop the bus, we did view a few of the Harry Potter filming locations including the spot they filmed Hagrid's hut, the Dragons in Movie 4, and some of the train scenes from Movie 2 where Ron and Harry chase the Hogwarts Express in their flying Ford Anglia.

We did however stop for mountain scenery photos. Here's a few below. I should mention that growing up, my mom ingrained in me the idea that scenery shots should always include one of the family members in the foreground. I'm sure most photographers will disagree with this, but because I'm a good girl and follow the rules, I only have scenery shots with people blocking the beautiful views.



Finally, we arrived at Urquhart castle, which overlooks Loch Ness lake. The monster is there in this picture, he's just hidden beneath the surface. Please be my guest and try to find him. Note that there's a 100k pound reward if you capture the first photographs of him. I would like a cut if you spot him, 10% maybe? See blog readers, I give you the opportunity to win loads of cash here on this blog.


Inside the castle, once again, my awesome photograph skills at work. Well, okay, I can blame Josh this time. There was supposed to be a beautiful shot of lake Loch Ness behind me. Instead, you get a really nice blown out white glow. I just know this was my money shot of the monster. Let's blame Josh for our collective loss.



Don't worry, I punished him for you guys. Here he is in the dungeon.
















Another day at the office for me, lifting heavy stones.





















That concludes my vacation slide show from Scotland. I have some fun blog posts planned over the next few days, I want to post a response to my critique partner's entry about outlining. Plus, I hope to have her here as a guest blogger next week where we'll square off about our different writing/editing styles and why it works well that we're critique partners. (I'm an overwriter, she's an underwriter. I'm a taker-outer. She's a putter-inner. We need each other to condense or expand, respectively.) Thanks for stopping by!

1. I have a lot more pictures and funny stories from my time in Edinburgh. I went Loch Ness monster hunting yesterday, but unfortunately I didn't snag the coveted shot of the creature. Nothing a little photoshop can't fix! I will post more pictures tomorrow when I get back in NY. I don't think I'll have time to upload until then.

2. Yesterday I woke up with a new book idea that really came out of nowhere and took me by surprise. I spent the entire 12 hour bus ride outlining this thing. I have the whole plot worked out, all the character arcs, a beginning/middle/end, even subplots. My new characters are interesting and unique, and I can't wait to explore their story in more details. Some of them even showed up with names. Has this ever happened to you before? Usually I'm carving out the story in bits and pieces, trying to figure it out as I write, but this one came to me almost fully formed, like Athena springing out of Zeus' forehead. I'm not sure when I'll write this, my super secret WIP is definitely my priority because my agent can't wait for it and I love it too. I might try to write this one simultaneously because I'm so inspired right now.

3. Progress on Super Secret WIP is going well. I still have about three more key scenes to write. I hoped to have more time here in Scotland to finish so I can start revising as soon as I get back. I plan to plow through to the end on my 7 hour plane ride tomorrow. I'm itching to start revising and get a draft off to my critique partners asap.

4. My sister will officially be declared a lawyer today in NJ! She passed both the NJ and NY bars, but the NY ceremony isn't until late January I think. Congrats, Becca!

5. There's a really interesting discussion going on in the comments of my fabulous critique partner, Denise's, blog. She discusses her method for outlining, and I weighed in a bit with my own method, though I am planning a blog post with much more details some time next week. Anyway, check it out and join the discussion! I find everyone's individual methods so interesting.

I spent the last few days touring the most important sights in Edinburgh, Scotland and London, England. No, I don't mean the cliche historic landmarks everyone expects a tourist to visit. I'm talking about the important cultural landmarks that no one ever chronicles: those found in books, movies, and music. The cute little row houses of Notting Hill always interested me more than palaces and bridges, though the Fergie song did put that on my list of sites to visit.

BOOKS

There were three stops on my tour of places utilized in YA books, or in one case, where JK Rowling birthed the legendary Harry Potter. As a non-magical muggle, Hogwart's refused to even look at my application. Not deterred, I decided to try to hop on the next train heading to Hogwart's, hoping the off-peak travel would help me blend in. Besides, the foggy clouds had descended all over London, so I knew the dementors were occupied. Unfortunately, as you see below, my luggage made it through safely, but the wall detected my lack of magic. The smile on my face is evidence of my embarrassment.



Still not deterred, I headed back to Edinburgh in hopes of setting up an impromptu meeting with the woman who could write me into...er...who could grant me the magic I needed. JK Rowling.

I knew just where to find her: The Elephant House, the place where she gave birth to a boy. A boy who lived. Unfortunately, along with magic, I also lack the talent of photography. This is the least blurry photo I took of the cafe where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter 1 and outlined the rest of the series. I hope to have better photos coming since we plan to eat there later this week. JK was absent when I showed up.



Continuing my YA tour, the next place I hit up (back in London) came from Maureen Johnson's Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes.

Maureen has blogged about her adventures at Harrod's, and Ginny in the book experiences some crazy things. All this intrigued me. I had to visit myself. Unlike Maureen, I wasn't armed with a video camera. I only had a cranky guy on my arm who desperately wanted to sit down. (His feet hurt, I told him to wear heels for a while and complain to me then). The other thing hindering me from an exciting adventure was the amount of people herding into tight spaces. They stole the seats from us. So we steered away from them and entered what I now refer to as In-Your-Dream-land. It included things like 45000 pound watches (that's about 65 thousand american dollars) and fine wines of about the same price. The clerks must have realized we weren't exactly browsing to buy, they looked at us and backed away.




MOVIES


How could I go to London and not stop by Notting Hill? I hoped to see Hugh Grant. I wanted to go into a book store and find love. In fact, I dragged my boyfriend into a bookstore and waited. He didn't tell me he was just a boy, standing in front of girl, asking him to love her. Instead, he pointed out the Twilight books on display and how thin they were compared to mine at home because of the spacing between text lines. This picture below looked like the houses from the movie:



MUSIC

For those that know me, they won't find this odd. Others might. When I was in high school, i had a bit of an obsession with the band Bush. Particularly the lead singer Gavin. In fact, I named the love interest from RHYTHM AND CLUES after him. And, um, I used to run a fanzine back when I was 14 that had over 50,000 /hits to the website. I avoided homework just so I could put together each issue on time. Bush got their start in Shepard's Bush, London. So i had to go see it. Gavin is currently busy with babies in LA, and the rain really did prevent me from doing more than stepping outside the subway this time. But I loved seeing his old haunt just the same.



I also took photos of other random landmarks that haven't yet appeared in any books, movies, or music. But I have my fingers crossed! And if they do end up making an appearance, I'll have photographic evidence that I have been there, done that. Maybe one day someone will embark on a star tour of places found in some of my books. If you're itching to start planning this, I'll be happy to give you a list of potential landmarks, or you can just book a cruise because most of THE ART OF SELLING MY SISTER takes place on one.

If you're interested in my out of focus photo album, you can friend me on facebook where I uploaded those photos.