My Hero, Meg Cabot
With 2016 wrapping up and 2017 right around the corner, I've been thinking a lot about what I hope for in the next year. What I want to happen in my life - and even more so, what I want to make happen in my life. I mean, don't get me wrong, this year was not a bad one for me: I graduated from university, held three different jobs, read a ton of books, and started writing some really cool new stories that I'm loving.
But 2017... I want it to be big. I want it to be the year I get one of my books out there. And I mean really out there, like not just on Swoon Reads (though it is pretty awesome there) but either self-published on Amazon or published traditionally. So, I've got a lot of work cut out for me. I have to do some major editing to prep my first book for Amazon while also sending out query after query to agents, hoping that one of them takes a chance on me. Ugh, I'm definitely kind of dreading sending out queries again while also still job searching. That's like begging for my email to mock me with rejection. But it's got to be done!
And I know that what I'm working for is the right thing for me. I'm working towards being a published author who loves what she does. I want to be the kind of author whose words find their way into the lives of people who need them. I want to share my stories with people who will keep coming back to them over and over again. That's what happened with me and my favorite author after all.
I got my first Meg Cabot book when I was twelve years old. My mom worked in a used bookstore at the time, and one day she brought home The Princess Diaries: Princess in the Spotlight. It didn't matter to me that it was the second in the series and I'd never read the first. I was just excited to read a book about a modern day princess!
I've been hooked ever since. And not just on The Princess Diaries series. No. I went to the library and checked out all of her books. I read all The Princess Diaries books that were out at the time, then I read The Mediator series, then the 1-800-Where-R-You series. If she came out with a young adult book during my teenage years, I read it. And then when I had money from jobs or my allowance, I bought them. I ended up needing to get a bigger bookcase once the Abandon series came out - no, not all from Meg Cabot books, but they definitely are a big part of it!
But 2017... I want it to be big. I want it to be the year I get one of my books out there. And I mean really out there, like not just on Swoon Reads (though it is pretty awesome there) but either self-published on Amazon or published traditionally. So, I've got a lot of work cut out for me. I have to do some major editing to prep my first book for Amazon while also sending out query after query to agents, hoping that one of them takes a chance on me. Ugh, I'm definitely kind of dreading sending out queries again while also still job searching. That's like begging for my email to mock me with rejection. But it's got to be done!
And I know that what I'm working for is the right thing for me. I'm working towards being a published author who loves what she does. I want to be the kind of author whose words find their way into the lives of people who need them. I want to share my stories with people who will keep coming back to them over and over again. That's what happened with me and my favorite author after all.
I got my first Meg Cabot book when I was twelve years old. My mom worked in a used bookstore at the time, and one day she brought home The Princess Diaries: Princess in the Spotlight. It didn't matter to me that it was the second in the series and I'd never read the first. I was just excited to read a book about a modern day princess!
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| My very first Meg Cabot book surrounded by other her other awesome books! |
I've been hooked ever since. And not just on The Princess Diaries series. No. I went to the library and checked out all of her books. I read all The Princess Diaries books that were out at the time, then I read The Mediator series, then the 1-800-Where-R-You series. If she came out with a young adult book during my teenage years, I read it. And then when I had money from jobs or my allowance, I bought them. I ended up needing to get a bigger bookcase once the Abandon series came out - no, not all from Meg Cabot books, but they definitely are a big part of it!
It was during this past year when I was away at college that I suddenly realized, "Hey, Meg Cabot has written a bunch of books for adults too. I'm 22. I'm an adult now! I should read those!" So I did. The Heather Wells series is my favorite of her adult series. Probably because I happened to work at a front desk of a residence hall - and the higher ups really do harp at you to say 'residence halls' instead of 'dorms' - at the time I was reading them... Luckily, there were no murders in my residence hall. ;)
Now my bookcase has almost all of her books. The only ones I'm missing are the Allie Finkel series, some romance novels she wrote under a different name, and a few young adult novels that I didn't really care for. But for me to own and like about 60 out of her 80 or so books (had to go to her website and do some math!) is impressive! There are plenty of authors who write a series that I love, and then I hate the next thing they write. It happens more often than I can believe! The only exception to this - besides Meg Cabot herself - that I've found thus far is Sophie Kinsella (because she's basically the British version of Meg Cabot!). Meg is just a true talent who writes fantastic stories again and again.
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| All my Meg Cabot books on the bookcase! The Boy is Back isn't circled because I just got it and haven't read it yet! |
What I love about her writing is that all her characters are just so incredibly relatable. I didn't think that I had anything in common with a teenage girl who sees ghosts, a princess from New York, or a woman who keeps finding murderers at her work, but after reading all of these books? I can find a part of myself in every single protagonist that Meg writes.
And what I don't have in my own personality makes these characters even more fun to read. I love how Heather Wells, a former pop star, is suddenly solving murders at a college she works in. I love that Mia Thermopolis is a princess who is terrible at math and science. I love that Meg can write entire books by only using text messages, emails, notes, and instant messages! I can only imagine the astounding amount of work it takes to format those books! I love that she can write about normal teenagers, normal women, and then also write about teenagers who fall in love with the ruler of the Underworld! Or a mediator who travels back in time to rescue her ghost boyfriend from becoming a ghost! The versatility of her writing is fantastic.
It's not even just what she writes, but how she writes. I've been writing since I was fifteen, and I have absolutely taken a lot of cues from Meg Cabot's writing style. And that makes sense. She's the author whom my love of reading and writing really came from. Of course I wanted to emulate her! Even now, I'll find myself writing and think, huh, I feel like that's a Meg Cabot kind of sentence. Whether it's the sentence or the structure of it, I find myself still inspired by her words.
When I first began writing, I noticed how Meg used a lot of dashes. She would use them a lot to make phrases or sentences into one really long word - like a rapid train of thought. I use those occasionally, but I'm more of a dashes instead of commas or parenthesis kind of girl (though, if the mood fits, I'll use parenthesis too). I've also recognized that Meg does a lot of inner thought with her first person characters, and I can't emphasize enough how I tend to focus on inner thought and dialogue more dominantly than big blocks of exposition.
I have to say, I've adapted a lot of the techniques and things I've seen in Meg's writing to fit my own style, but her influence is always there. If it wasn't for her and her writing, I don't know if I would have been as inspired to begin writing my own books as I was. I don't know if I would have really succeeded in ever finishing 1 book, let alone 12.
And even now, I still find her educational and inspiring. Like I said at the very beginning of this now very lengthy post filled with my love for Meg Cabot, I am sending out queries for my first book, Forever Nineteen, again. And I am trying not to get discouraged by the amount of rejection emails I already have in my inbox. But when I do feel a little down about it, I just go to her website - partially hoping to see that she has a new book coming soon or that she has a book tour near me soon - and see in her Frequently Asked Questions tab that it took her three years to find an agent, and another year for a publisher to pick up the book. Three years. I've been at it off and on since about March... So, I've got time. If I've got the determination (I do! I really do!) I've got the time.
Alright, I should probably wrap up my lovefest for Meg Cabot now before you get annoyed by my geeking out over my favorite author and click the big X on your browser tab. If you're a wannabe writer like myself, you will find yourself being discouraged at some point. Whether it's in a writing class, when sending out queries, or by just not finishing a story. When I've felt disheartened and like I wasted my time getting an English degree so I could write even better stories, I go to Meg's website (it's megcabot.com if any of you love her as well!) and I look at her Frequently Asked Questions. She has writing tips, facts, and all sorts of little anecdotes that cheer me up every time.
If you have a favorite author that you absolutely adore, I suggest you do the same as I do when you're feeling down. In my head, Meg is this amazing writer who goes on cool book tours to France and tells so many fantastic stories. But she's also a person who's gone through the struggle of getting published too. She understands and has advice. Other authors do the same thing!
So keep writing. Keep editing. Keep going. I'm right there with you!
Amy
P.S. Meg Cabot, if you ever read this, you're awesome and I love you!
And what I don't have in my own personality makes these characters even more fun to read. I love how Heather Wells, a former pop star, is suddenly solving murders at a college she works in. I love that Mia Thermopolis is a princess who is terrible at math and science. I love that Meg can write entire books by only using text messages, emails, notes, and instant messages! I can only imagine the astounding amount of work it takes to format those books! I love that she can write about normal teenagers, normal women, and then also write about teenagers who fall in love with the ruler of the Underworld! Or a mediator who travels back in time to rescue her ghost boyfriend from becoming a ghost! The versatility of her writing is fantastic.
It's not even just what she writes, but how she writes. I've been writing since I was fifteen, and I have absolutely taken a lot of cues from Meg Cabot's writing style. And that makes sense. She's the author whom my love of reading and writing really came from. Of course I wanted to emulate her! Even now, I'll find myself writing and think, huh, I feel like that's a Meg Cabot kind of sentence. Whether it's the sentence or the structure of it, I find myself still inspired by her words.
When I first began writing, I noticed how Meg used a lot of dashes. She would use them a lot to make phrases or sentences into one really long word - like a rapid train of thought. I use those occasionally, but I'm more of a dashes instead of commas or parenthesis kind of girl (though, if the mood fits, I'll use parenthesis too). I've also recognized that Meg does a lot of inner thought with her first person characters, and I can't emphasize enough how I tend to focus on inner thought and dialogue more dominantly than big blocks of exposition.
I have to say, I've adapted a lot of the techniques and things I've seen in Meg's writing to fit my own style, but her influence is always there. If it wasn't for her and her writing, I don't know if I would have been as inspired to begin writing my own books as I was. I don't know if I would have really succeeded in ever finishing 1 book, let alone 12.
And even now, I still find her educational and inspiring. Like I said at the very beginning of this now very lengthy post filled with my love for Meg Cabot, I am sending out queries for my first book, Forever Nineteen, again. And I am trying not to get discouraged by the amount of rejection emails I already have in my inbox. But when I do feel a little down about it, I just go to her website - partially hoping to see that she has a new book coming soon or that she has a book tour near me soon - and see in her Frequently Asked Questions tab that it took her three years to find an agent, and another year for a publisher to pick up the book. Three years. I've been at it off and on since about March... So, I've got time. If I've got the determination (I do! I really do!) I've got the time.
Alright, I should probably wrap up my lovefest for Meg Cabot now before you get annoyed by my geeking out over my favorite author and click the big X on your browser tab. If you're a wannabe writer like myself, you will find yourself being discouraged at some point. Whether it's in a writing class, when sending out queries, or by just not finishing a story. When I've felt disheartened and like I wasted my time getting an English degree so I could write even better stories, I go to Meg's website (it's megcabot.com if any of you love her as well!) and I look at her Frequently Asked Questions. She has writing tips, facts, and all sorts of little anecdotes that cheer me up every time.
If you have a favorite author that you absolutely adore, I suggest you do the same as I do when you're feeling down. In my head, Meg is this amazing writer who goes on cool book tours to France and tells so many fantastic stories. But she's also a person who's gone through the struggle of getting published too. She understands and has advice. Other authors do the same thing!
So keep writing. Keep editing. Keep going. I'm right there with you!
Amy
P.S. Meg Cabot, if you ever read this, you're awesome and I love you!
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