Welcome to Outside the Lines...

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries
Are outside the lines

We've been conditioned
To not make mistakes
But I can't live that way, no


First time I heard "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield, I thought, "Wow, that's just the perfect song for a writer." Not only that, but to me, it was the perfect song to describe how I write. Although, with respect to her lyrics, it's not so much that I haven't been conditioned to not make mistakes, but more this idea of having to play by the "rules" and not venture beyond the mainstream in order to succeed as an author.

Yeah... those of you who know me know how I feel about "rules" and about anyone telling me I have to play by them in order to succeed.

To say I rebel against such proclamations would be putting it mildly. Honestly, I think the same could be said for all of us who are contributing to this blog. There's no one overwhelming trend or style among us. Nothing that could be pointed to as any one unifying factor other than in looking at the very wide and varied list of books by our authors, you might agree that one thing we're all very good at doing is venturing beyond the mainstream.

This was a deliberate choice on the part of the six of us who migrated over from the former MTV Books blog. When we were casting about for a theme for our new venture, "Unwritten" immediately occurred to me as something that bound us together (beyond "We all wrote for MTV Books at one time."). And when we made the decision to invite a few friends to join us, that became our mantra—let's find others who are like us. Who write a bit outside the lines of what's expected or even considered popular in YA.

So here we are. Happily writing outside the lines. And I'd like to extend my humblest gratitude to my fellow Former MTV Books Blog contributors for selecting me to kick off our new adventure. So to Jenn, Jenny, Danielle, Steph, and Jan: here we go ladies! And to our new contributors, thank you so much for choosing to cast your lot with us.

As for the rest? Well, it's still... unwritten.

Comments

  1. Barb, I couldn't have said it better myself!

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  2. Love it! My writing blog is named The Ending Unplanned based on this song. I love jamming to it for inspiration and to get in the writing mood . . . My girls also jam out to it as I think the lyrics are great to follow for life in general.
    Loved the MTV blog and looking forward to following everyone here!

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  5. Awesome! That IS our theme song as writers. "Staring at the blank page before you, open up the dirty window, let the sun illuminate the words that you cannot find."

    I loved this post and look forward to following YA Outside the Lines!

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  6. Thanks for leading us off, Barbara!

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  7. Very exciting launch day! Thank you, Barbara, for kicking us off with a terrific post. I will embarrass myself by admitting that I do a rockin' version of that song on Karaoke Revolution...

    I'm excited to be a part of YA Outside the Lines and am looking forward to more!

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  8. Trying this again (sorry!!) Great post..took the words right out of my mouth. I'm so glad to be in the company of so many talented 'out there' writers :)

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  9. Really looking forward to seeing what you guys post up! I've spread the word via blog post. ;) Hope other bloggers who've already followed will spread the word, too.

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  10. LOVE the song and love being surrounded by talent! Not a write but I do love to read!

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  11. Holy cats, y'all! What a wonderful beginning! (And Tara, glad to see you reposted-- when your original responses disappeared I got all paranoid... *G*)

    Anyhow, I'm thrilled with our beginning and I can't WAIT to see what my fellow authors have in store for the blog.

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  12. I'm so happy that you have a new blog besides the last MTV Books blog now it's officaly gone! but I will read your blog every single day just about!

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  13. Great post, Barb! Thanks for starting us off on our blogging journey!

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  14. What a perfect selection, Barbara! And thanks for kicking things off for the new blog!

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  15. What a great post, Barb! I'm thrilled and humbled to be included.

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