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Monday, September 3, 2012

GUTGAA Blogfest


I’m participating in a blog hop. It’s the GUTGAA Blogfest. When I first saw that acronym, I thought of DNA, but then was confused because DNA doesn’t have Uracil (the U), but if it was RNA, there wouldn’t be the thymine (the T). (Okay nerd girl moment over).
What GUTGAA stands for is Gearing Up to Get an Agent. Pretty self-explanatory. And awesome--very very awesome. What better way to get excited for querying than to polish up your novel's pitch.
It’s not too late to join the fun!
For the first week, we are having a meet and greet to get to know the other participants. Here are my answers to the get-to-know-you questions.
Questions for the Meet and Greet

-Where do you write?

I write anywhere. The living room. My bedroom. Outside. In the car. At a friend’s house.


-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?

My phone. On most days though, it’s either my cat or my dog.


-Favorite time to write?

I can write anytime. I tend to write a lot at night.


-Drink of choice while writing?

Water. It’s boring, but it serves its purpose.


-When writing, do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?

I usually need some sort of sound or visual distraction to keep me focused.

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

For my latest manuscript my inspiration came from listening to a song on the radio while driving to work. The song lead me to think, “What if . . .” and the story idea blossomed from there.

-What's your most valuable writing tip?

Never ever ever give up. If this is your first time writing a story, know that it is difficult. If it’s your first time editing a story, it is difficult. If this is your seventeenth time editing a story, it’s still difficult. Giving up is selling yourself short. Of course, your first draft is going to be awful. But you can’t edit something that isn’t written down. Just finish it. Then worry about making it better.

Happy writing! Hope to see you all participating in the blogfest!

68 comments:

  1. Songs are one of my favourite things to draw inspiration from! If I hear the right lyrics, I can whip up an idea very quickly! :D

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  2. "Never give up" and "Keep writing" seem to be common themes here.

    Nice to meet you.

    Lauren
    Lauren-Ritz.blogspot.com

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  3. Okay, fellow nerd girl, you're absolutely right about how important it is to stick with it... whether it be writing or some other (much less important, of course) aspect of your life. Good luck in your quest to find an agent.

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  4. Nice to meet you! My muse likes "What if..." a lot and I get answers easier when I ask her that! I love your blog. Good luck with GUTGAA

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  5. Enjoyed the DNA musings at the beginning. :) Good luck!

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  6. Hello! *waves* SO nice to meet you!

    As a chemical engineer I appreciated the ramblings about DNA :)

    And the advice is great. Just gotta keep going.

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  7. Hey, thanks for dropping by. Not sure if you're the second person to make the GUTGAA-DNA link, or whether the person who said it the first time on twitter was you as well. Nice blog, sure I'll see you around :)

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  8. Hi Jessica! Nice to meet you. Good luck with GUTGAA. The pic of your pets with the laptop is cute!

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  9. I have a dog that likes to sit in my lap sometimes while I type. That works okay, but luckily she doesn't want to sit on my keyboard. That might not work so well. :)

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  10. My cat long ago gave up trying to sit in my lap while I work. He didn't like competing with the keyboard, nor did he enjoy the constant movement and noise of my typing. He hangs out across the room on the couch now.

    Good luck with GUTGAA! :)

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  11. Nice to meet you! I so agree with you comment 'just finish it', of course as you pointed out, you do need to write it down first. :-)

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  12. Hi Jessica! That's cool you got inspiration from a song. That's easy to do. I have a book I"m waiting to read called Impossible, which was inspired by Scarborough Fair. I thought that was pretty cool.

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  13. I also write anywhere. Sometimes, the story just strikes you, and you can't help but get it down! Nice to meet you, =)

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  14. I love 'what if...' moments. So many possibilities.

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  15. Hey Jessica, nice to meet you. I love getting inspiration from songs. Music has such a wonderful correlation to writing.

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  16. nice getting to know you!
    great writing advice =)

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  17. Love that your pets keep you company! My cat is too lazy to bother visiting my attic space. :P Either that or the dragons chase her away. Water is the best! Not boring at all, and keeping your brain hydrated makes for better stories. Love that you said never give up. It's truth. :D Best of luck.

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  18. Hi, Jessica,
    Seems like a lot of writers hale from Utah. Must be something in the water. Love your advice; I've been following it for forty years.

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  19. Songs and What Ifs... great inspiration for a story! You're right that editing is a huge challenge. I've learned a ton by reading other writer's critiques of my work, and in turn, critiquing their work. Some of it is subjective, but I always learn something.

    Here's my GUTGAA Meet & Greet post: A Girl and her Diary

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  20. Nice to meet you! Love the bit about DNA and RNA you wrote. :)

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  21. Nice to meet you and thanks for checking out my GUTGAA blog! Hopefully someday we'll get the chance to read each other's awesome works! :)

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  22. Soooooo every time I look at GUTGAA all I think of is "GATTACA" (y'know, that movie with Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, and Jude Law in a wheelchair) - I'm glad I'm not the only one who jumps to a DNA-esque thought :)

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  23. Hip Hip Hooray for WATER! And your profile picture looks SO familiar. Have we met? I just moved from Utah. Were you at LDStorymakes this year or last?

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  24. "I usually need some sort of sound or visual distraction to keep me focused." Such an oxymoron, but I'm the same way! I've seen a lot of other participants who've said similar things, too. Interesting. Very nice to meet you!

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  25. I'm not participating in the blogfest but it was interesting learning about your writing process. I don't think I could drink only water when I write.

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  26. Will you divulge what song it was? Nice to meet you and good luck with GUTGAA!

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  27. Oh, and PS. LOVE the title of your blog and the quote it came from. :)

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  28. So funny! I thought of DNA too - although I didn't know enough to think about what would or wouldn't be included (the U and the T). So nice to meet you!

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  29. Nothing is boring about water! It's the stuff of life. Songs are good at providing inspiration.

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  30. So sorry I'm late getting to your blog! And thanks for commenting on mine :) I'm totally with you on the "never give up" thing. I need to tattoo it to the back of my hand so I can read it when I'm writing!

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  31. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Good luck to you!

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  32. Thanks for stopping by my blog and for the feedback. Goodluck with GUTGAA

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  33. Hello! It's great to meet you too! Seems like we have a few things in common namely water and never giving up. This is blogfest is beyond awesome, consider me a new follower!

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  34. Nice to meet you and thanks for stopping by my blog. Wonderful answers! I especially love your writing tip. I'm a new follower now. And good luck with GUTGAA!

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  35. Yay! Another girl who knows her DNA and likes ponies! I'm more of a mix between Applejack and Twilight Sparkle myself, but Rainbow Dash is my favorite ;)

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  36. Water may be boring, but I drink it a lot, too. Thanks for visiting my blog and nice to meet you!

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  37. Don't leave us hanging, what song was it?? ;)

    And amen to not giving up! My favorite author was on his 13th book by the time his 6th got published... that's a lot of writing, and a lot of waiting.

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  38. Nice to meet you! WOW, I am very impressed at your ability to write on the go. In the car? Wow!

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  39. I drink water too non-stop when I'm writing. Nice to meet you!

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  40. Good writing tip! I'm a great believer in the stinky first draft. You can't polish nothing...

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  41. I love your piece of advice! Thanks for stopping by my blog, it's nice to meet you :)

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  42. I had to drop out of this because I've got too much going on, but maybe I'll get to join in later. Hope you have fun!

    What does your friend do while you're writing in their house? :)

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  43. Hello Fellow GUTGAA'er, thanks for stopping by my blog. I have to have noise when I write too.

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  44. Ha! I love your nerd girl moment! I knew those letters had a familiarity to them! Nice to meet you and I'm sure I'll see you around GUTGAA!

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  45. I love that you're inspired by songs, too! I don't get playlists, but more than one of my story ideas have come from a song. I mean, what ELSE are we supposed to think about while listening to the radio? :)

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  46. Hi...I like your take on GUTGAA. I was mostly in the "rare disease" camp, but now I think I like the DNA angle. :) Great blog. My inspiration for my current WIP (which is really more planning in progress) was music.

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  47. Hi Jessica,
    Nice to meet you! You are right. Writing is difficult but the most difficult thing is editing something you haven't written yet. Excellent point! Have fun with GUTGAA!

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  48. So nice to meet you via GUTGAA, Jessica! Sweet blog and I love the colors! I'm a New Writer and so this is a nice way to meet others, I see. I was in a car accident with my 3 year old daughter (she is fine) and became a patient for waaaay too long. But it served a purpose, as do all bad things in life...it got me writing! Wishing you well and glad you drink water....it is good for the skin too! LoLv.

    Dr Margaret Aranda
    www.drmargaretaranda.blogspot.com

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  49. Thanks for stopping by my blog to say hi :) I'm really glad you enjoyed the link to Janice Hardy's blog and I'm happy to meet another fellow GUTGAA blog-hopper :D

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  50. Good advice, especially getting an idea on paper and worrying about the editing later. I remember having a fairly good idea one time, but I didn't bother to write it...I wanted to work out some details in my mind. Of course, within a day or two I'd forgotten a quite a bit of the story!

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  51. Hello Jessica!! Enjoy GUTGAA!!!

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  52. Nice to meet you :) GUTGAA is super fun (I did it last year). I'll try to join in on the blog hopping next week once my computer's fixed.

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  53. It's great to meet you. Dogs and cats are so wonderful to have around even if they do like to sleep on the keyboard. Great advice about never giving up. There have been many times I've thought about giving up, but I just can't do it. I love to write, and I'm much more of a reviser than a writer. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

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  54. Hi, Jessica! 'What if' is the best beginning to a new story :) See you around GUTGAA!

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  55. Love the photo of your pets - I thought they were both cats had to do a double take!

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  56. I've dropped out of GUTGAA because, like Nick said, I have too much going on, but I'm glad you stopped by my blog! I love that water is your drink of choice. It's soooo good! :D

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  57. Water may be boring, but it's way better for you. I like that GUTGAA made you think of DNA & RNA. I find biological science interesting, though I don't know a lot about it.

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  58. Writing with your pets is always a good decision :)

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  59. Hi Jessica! It's nice to meet you. That "what if" questions pops into my head non-stop. :)

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  60. Jessica, I love your writing tip! So important to remember, lots of things are difficult -- which, maybe, makes them even more important. It's always the stuff we hate to do that we really should do!

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  61. Love your tip and hearing about your inspiration! nice to meet you!

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  62. Hi Jessica! Good luck with the pitching! You know I'm crossing my fingers for you.

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  63. I loved your advice-especially the part about you can't edit what has not been put down! Thank you for sharing your blog in GUTGAA!

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  64. Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier! And your advice is spot on. I think that's the hardest part to remember, because there are so many times I wonder if I'm ever going to get to that next level. Good luck!

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  65. Nice to meet another water drinker! And I liked your DNA GUTGAA comment. sounds like something my bio friends would say :)

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  66. Hey, Jessica, if you'd like to beta swap, email me at markedforpower@gmail.com :) Mine is new adult, so I thought you might be interested.

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