Lindsay Smith's Blog

Well, this is going to be an August Wrap-Up/September Check-In, but I know, I know, I’ve been pretty much MIA all summer. For good reasons and dumb ones. Let’s start with the great, and talk about my favorite topic, process, along the way!

Last week I went on an amazing, restorative retreat in Canada with five other YA authors. We were all working on wildly different projects at wildly different stages of the process, and each had colossally different approaches to the work, but it was such a...

The entire Sekret series is now available in paperback! To celebrate, I’ve been posting teasers and cool new character artwork to social media, and I shared a Valentin short story with my newsletter subscribers, as well. Today I’d like to talk about my learning experience in writing my first series, and how I plan to use that experience moving forward.

Whether you’re writing a duology or an eight-book epic saga, whether you’re a plotter or pantser, know where yo...

Another two-week recap. Someday I’ll be caught up~

New Releases This Week

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This Week in Cover Reveals

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And some new book deals announced that I’m ridiculously excited for:

The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

The Wanderings of Dessa Rose by Lauren Spieller

This Week on the Internet

How do you take your writing to the next level? from Janice Hardy

When In Doubt, Write What You Love: Chuck Wendig on dodging burnout, or why I can have one month...

Hi, friends! I’ve been radio silent for the past few weeks dealing with an avalanche of deadlines and a tyranny of promotional events (including for the stellar A Tyranny of Petticoats anthology, in which I have a story)! So this weekly recap will actually be for the past few weeks. Mea culpa.

The Past Few Weeks In New Releases

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The Past Few Weeks in Cover Reveals

(I know I missed a TON, so I apologize!)

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These Past Few Weeks in Internet Reading

Moneyball for Book Publishing...

I’m so excited to announce that my first series, the SEKRET duology, is going to be out in paperback in just under a month! To celebrate, I’m going to be hosting a giveaway and releasing a bunch of cool content, including teasers, dossiers, and even–for those who sign up for my newsletter–a new short story from the POV of someone I know you all love. WINK. WINK.

To enter the INTERNATIONAL giveaway:

Tweet, Tumbl, or Instagram anything related to Sekret & Skandal–pictures of the books in the...

Earlier, I talked about how game theory works, and hinted at the way writers might use it to inform how they design their plot twists. So today, let’s look a little further at how that all plays out!

Once upon a time, audiences were almost always playing the storytelling game at Level 0–which is to say, they had no idea they were participating in the game at all. They had no idea a big plot twist was coming their way. So they weren’t even knowing that they should expect any wild twist, much l...

I know, with a title like that, how could you NOT click? /sarcasm And yes, this will be a multi-parter.

Let’s talk about media consumption. Specifically, the fact that we are living in a veritable golden age of choice in media. No niche untapped. Whether you’re into shapeshifter billionaire bear porn, psychic teenage Russian spies, cute fluffy middle grade blackmail series, or anything else–there is probably a book there for you.

We are consuming more media than ever before. And it’s making r...

A Tyranny of Petticoats

From an impressive sisterhood of YA writers comes an edge-of-your-seat anthology of historical fiction and fantasy featuring a diverse array of daring heroines.

Crisscross America — on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains — from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today’s most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their ow...

New Releases

Cover Reveals

Accomplished in Writing

Completed revisions on the season finale of The Witch Who Came In From the Cold. Very bittersweet! But chances are very good we have another season on the horizon . . .

Drafted a short story for a guest spot on The Hanging Garden. These ladies produce what I think is the best free YA fiction on the web these days.

Great progress on the middle grade draft, Ghosts of Grimley. I even talked a little bit about it in my outlining post this...

I received the following Ask on Tumblr but figured the answer warranted a more detailed post here, too.

You may have already talked about this at some point, but I was wondering if you could talk about how your outlining process works? It sounds stupid because I know there are a ton of different ways to outline but I don’t really know how to outline at all….?

Hey there! You’re correct—there are a ton of different ways to outline, and none of them are wrong, though some may be better for you...