I have to laugh that I thought I'd cut words with all the rewriting of the first fifteen pages. Not so much. Sure I cut a scene. I also added one. According to the over all word count once I'd shuffled my Word doc back into Scrivener, I added about 500 words with a honkin' huge 4550 word first chapter that defies chopping up.
So I've been glancing through--not reading thoroughly--making a list of the scenes I have and seeing what seems choppable. Or at least snippable. I'm on Chapter 7 of 21 and have a growing list of places to tighten. I think I can do this without losing too much. And I think I must resist the siren call of all the places that beg to have the theme expanded, and deeper characterization. Etc.
Showing posts with label Chloe's story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chloe's story. Show all posts
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Story Math
So the original romance novel that I wrote during NaNo was about 54,000 words. The market I'm aiming for is 55-60K. I threw out a bunch of scenes and added new ones. Apparently they are longer ones!
Today I discovered that, at 38K, I've reached the half-way point of my printed-out copy of the original draft. Kinda scares me. I can't afford this book to come in at 76,000! I'm on scene 25 of 53, which seems to tell me about the same thing, lengthwise.
On the other hand, half of the original length is 27K, so if I add 27 (what's LEFT to rewrite) to the current 38, I get 65, which should be much easier to whittle down to 60 than 76 would be.
I'm always on the other end of this stick, trying to lengthen without padding! It's new to be worried about over-length. However I slice it, though, I have a whole bunch of words to go, so I refuse to sweat about it this week. When I actually get through Scene # 53 is when I'll figure out a plan of attack.
I'm still on target for finishing this pass by the end of March, unless it really does turn out to be 76... Nah. I'm NOT going to worry about that today.
I'm not.
Still, that's kinda long, isn't it?
Today I discovered that, at 38K, I've reached the half-way point of my printed-out copy of the original draft. Kinda scares me. I can't afford this book to come in at 76,000! I'm on scene 25 of 53, which seems to tell me about the same thing, lengthwise.
On the other hand, half of the original length is 27K, so if I add 27 (what's LEFT to rewrite) to the current 38, I get 65, which should be much easier to whittle down to 60 than 76 would be.
I'm always on the other end of this stick, trying to lengthen without padding! It's new to be worried about over-length. However I slice it, though, I have a whole bunch of words to go, so I refuse to sweat about it this week. When I actually get through Scene # 53 is when I'll figure out a plan of attack.
I'm still on target for finishing this pass by the end of March, unless it really does turn out to be 76... Nah. I'm NOT going to worry about that today.
I'm not.
Still, that's kinda long, isn't it?
Friday, February 27, 2009
Pushing for words
My main excitement these days is the romance rewrite, so there's not a lot of variety in my life. There isn't room for it when I'm pushing for 3000 words a day around customers, sales dudes, and freight trucks. I admire folks who can work all day and still put out a meaningful set of words regularly in the evening. My brain just shuts down. (My kids used to call 10pm Mommy Pumpkin Time, but I have to admit 9pm isn't much better!)
Looks like I'll be up for teaching a workshop at Forward Motion in May, so I'm mulling over that and will soon have to start doing more than mulling and actually start planning!
In other news, my website redesign is coming along nicely. The old one is still what's showing when you click over, but I'm hoping to launch the new-and-improved version sometime in March. My daughter is doing the design and tech work on WordPress. Adding static pages is my job, and one I've already started. Coming soon to a valeriecomer.com near you!
Looks like I'll be up for teaching a workshop at Forward Motion in May, so I'm mulling over that and will soon have to start doing more than mulling and actually start planning!
In other news, my website redesign is coming along nicely. The old one is still what's showing when you click over, but I'm hoping to launch the new-and-improved version sometime in March. My daughter is doing the design and tech work on WordPress. Adding static pages is my job, and one I've already started. Coming soon to a valeriecomer.com near you!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Revision Outline
As near as I can remember, I am currently working on my sixth novel revision. By the time I'd written my first novel, I'd figured out that an outline would be a huge help. Why did it take me so long to understand that the same thing would be true of revision?
In 2007 I spent most of the year revising one novel, and I'm happy with the result. The process, however, was like pulling hair out by the handful. I worked through from beginning to end, going back and forth as I discovered issues. For instance, realizing something needed to be foreshadowed, then searching out the best place to put in a mention earlier. Realizing I'd dropped a thread, and looking for places to tie them off later on without drawing undue attention. Or should this thread have become more important rather than dwindling? Back and forth, back and forth. Just keeping track of all this (in my head, of course--where else?) was headache inducing and there were days I simply couldn't face the mental gymnastics required.
Holly Lisle talks about a one-pass revision. I thought I was doing this, for the most part. But I was so bogged down I couldn't see the forest for the trees. Many days, I couldn't see the trees for the twigs and leaves in my face.
About a year ago Margaret taught a workshop at Forward Motion about using a revision outline. I could see that this method worked with what Holly had been trying to teach. Since then, I've taken Holly's How to Think Sideways online writing course (highly recommended, by the way!) and feel that the process has clarified for me.
I guess the proof is in the pudding, as they say. I've read through Chloe this past week using techniques learned in the Think Sideways class, and analyzed my scene list with all the insights I've learned since the last big revision. Today I deleted scenes (in outline form) that were either weak or misleading or pointless, and replaced them with ideas that add greater conflict and move the story forward more forcefully. I've still got about the last 20% of the outline to rework. There are several really lame scenes coming up that need to be reworked, but I think I've got the underpinnings in place to deal with it.
This is all going in Scrivener. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this program for Macs? One thing Holly teaches is something she calls The Sentence Lite, in which one tries to get to the central kernel of the conflict of the individual scene. This Sentence Lite is what goes on the front of my Scrivener notecards, but, being as they're virtual notecards, there's plenty of room on the *back* for additional details, such as what subplots are carried in this scene, what additional characters are present, etc.
This is giving me the best of both worlds. I used to simply write *about* the scene on the notecards, and then wonder why the scene, when written, fell flat. Well, some of them weren't really scenes, didn't have solid conflict, didn't do any thing that pushed the whole story forward. They had good information in them and were often needed to a degree, yet still fell short of the goal. Spending a bit of extra time to focus on the core conflict of each scene ahead of time helps me to clarify the path through the scene.
At least, that's the goal. I wrote the new first chapter to Chloe's story yesterday, then went back to the re-outlining today with a new sense of purpose. I have a much clearer vision of where this story is going, and what I'd like to accomplish with it. Having this version of an outline is energizing!
In 2007 I spent most of the year revising one novel, and I'm happy with the result. The process, however, was like pulling hair out by the handful. I worked through from beginning to end, going back and forth as I discovered issues. For instance, realizing something needed to be foreshadowed, then searching out the best place to put in a mention earlier. Realizing I'd dropped a thread, and looking for places to tie them off later on without drawing undue attention. Or should this thread have become more important rather than dwindling? Back and forth, back and forth. Just keeping track of all this (in my head, of course--where else?) was headache inducing and there were days I simply couldn't face the mental gymnastics required.
Holly Lisle talks about a one-pass revision. I thought I was doing this, for the most part. But I was so bogged down I couldn't see the forest for the trees. Many days, I couldn't see the trees for the twigs and leaves in my face.
About a year ago Margaret taught a workshop at Forward Motion about using a revision outline. I could see that this method worked with what Holly had been trying to teach. Since then, I've taken Holly's How to Think Sideways online writing course (highly recommended, by the way!) and feel that the process has clarified for me.
I guess the proof is in the pudding, as they say. I've read through Chloe this past week using techniques learned in the Think Sideways class, and analyzed my scene list with all the insights I've learned since the last big revision. Today I deleted scenes (in outline form) that were either weak or misleading or pointless, and replaced them with ideas that add greater conflict and move the story forward more forcefully. I've still got about the last 20% of the outline to rework. There are several really lame scenes coming up that need to be reworked, but I think I've got the underpinnings in place to deal with it.
This is all going in Scrivener. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this program for Macs? One thing Holly teaches is something she calls The Sentence Lite, in which one tries to get to the central kernel of the conflict of the individual scene. This Sentence Lite is what goes on the front of my Scrivener notecards, but, being as they're virtual notecards, there's plenty of room on the *back* for additional details, such as what subplots are carried in this scene, what additional characters are present, etc.
This is giving me the best of both worlds. I used to simply write *about* the scene on the notecards, and then wonder why the scene, when written, fell flat. Well, some of them weren't really scenes, didn't have solid conflict, didn't do any thing that pushed the whole story forward. They had good information in them and were often needed to a degree, yet still fell short of the goal. Spending a bit of extra time to focus on the core conflict of each scene ahead of time helps me to clarify the path through the scene.
At least, that's the goal. I wrote the new first chapter to Chloe's story yesterday, then went back to the re-outlining today with a new sense of purpose. I have a much clearer vision of where this story is going, and what I'd like to accomplish with it. Having this version of an outline is energizing!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
How Writing Changes
I wrote a contemporary inspirational romance novel a few years ago, for NaNo 2005. I promptly pushed it off to the side and proceeded on my merry way playing with fantasy novels and ideas again, but the story resurfaced about a year ago when I was chatting with my friend Jean. I snippeted her a few bits and then she read the whole thing. The first draft, scary thought. And said nice things. (Not ONLY nice things, mind, but included them).
Through that the idea of revising and shaping up this story took hold, though certainly not to the exclusion of anything else, lol. I played with it a bit at the time, but soon came to realize the problems were deeper than I'd thought at first and set it aside again.
So, the other day I printed out the whole thing and began to read through, making brief notes on every scene. Along about fifty pages in, the note for one scene was simply a large X and "delete." And for the next scene, I scrawled across the page, "Seriously?" I'd found a few really good bits (the ones I'd first shared with Jean!) but way more dross. A LOT of dross.
I sat back in my chair and thought about the characters, their kids, their issues. She's too nice, I thought. She takes monumental stuff totally in stride. Superwoman! Okay, so it's official. She needs a makeover. I began mulling over *logical* makeovers that would tweak things but not necessitate ALL new scenes!
After a few minutes, I turned my attention to the hero. Also a pretty good guy. Slightly less perfect than the heroine, but nothing that really qualifies as a character flaw. A little case of temper, perhaps, would go a long way. Or maybe...
In just over three years, my writing style has changed a lot. I've learned to characterize much better (even my stupid whiny hero from Tempest has more personal issues than these folks). And I've learned to get much deeper into point-of-view. Quite a bit I've done since then has been in first person, which helps with the deeper, but the potential markets for this romance novel want third.
Even in third, this main character thinks too much! So the first thing is to bring someone directly into that opening paragraph/scene so she can TALK about stuff instead of THINK about it. The meeting with the hero later in the scene is reasonably okay as is. She shouldn't tell him all this stuff yet. But she needs a new best friend to bounce issues off of.
I've set aside the month of February to hit this novel and bring it into line. I'd like to think I could do it all in one month--after all, I wrote the entire 52K in one November!--but I'm thinking it may take a little longer. Hopefully not a lot longer, though. Maybe six weeks? Two months tops.
I'm reworking character profiles as we speak, and I still need to mine the previous manuscript for more good stuff to carry over. It's in there. The bones are decent, and worth rebuilding from.
If you're wondering why I'm not writing either Tempest or Dottie these days, the answer simply is that I'm not. Though I've been poking at Dottie recently and getting good ideas of how things need to proceed. One thing her story does not suffer from is weak characterization. The novel is populated with true individuals and they agree on very little. Lots of fun sparks. I'm stopping short of calling Tempest dead. But she's on life support, which is sad as it is some of my strongest writing thus far. One day the answers to my questions about her will erupt in my mind and she'll hit the road running again. I hope.
Through that the idea of revising and shaping up this story took hold, though certainly not to the exclusion of anything else, lol. I played with it a bit at the time, but soon came to realize the problems were deeper than I'd thought at first and set it aside again.
So, the other day I printed out the whole thing and began to read through, making brief notes on every scene. Along about fifty pages in, the note for one scene was simply a large X and "delete." And for the next scene, I scrawled across the page, "Seriously?" I'd found a few really good bits (the ones I'd first shared with Jean!) but way more dross. A LOT of dross.
I sat back in my chair and thought about the characters, their kids, their issues. She's too nice, I thought. She takes monumental stuff totally in stride. Superwoman! Okay, so it's official. She needs a makeover. I began mulling over *logical* makeovers that would tweak things but not necessitate ALL new scenes!
After a few minutes, I turned my attention to the hero. Also a pretty good guy. Slightly less perfect than the heroine, but nothing that really qualifies as a character flaw. A little case of temper, perhaps, would go a long way. Or maybe...
In just over three years, my writing style has changed a lot. I've learned to characterize much better (even my stupid whiny hero from Tempest has more personal issues than these folks). And I've learned to get much deeper into point-of-view. Quite a bit I've done since then has been in first person, which helps with the deeper, but the potential markets for this romance novel want third.
Even in third, this main character thinks too much! So the first thing is to bring someone directly into that opening paragraph/scene so she can TALK about stuff instead of THINK about it. The meeting with the hero later in the scene is reasonably okay as is. She shouldn't tell him all this stuff yet. But she needs a new best friend to bounce issues off of.
I've set aside the month of February to hit this novel and bring it into line. I'd like to think I could do it all in one month--after all, I wrote the entire 52K in one November!--but I'm thinking it may take a little longer. Hopefully not a lot longer, though. Maybe six weeks? Two months tops.
I'm reworking character profiles as we speak, and I still need to mine the previous manuscript for more good stuff to carry over. It's in there. The bones are decent, and worth rebuilding from.
If you're wondering why I'm not writing either Tempest or Dottie these days, the answer simply is that I'm not. Though I've been poking at Dottie recently and getting good ideas of how things need to proceed. One thing her story does not suffer from is weak characterization. The novel is populated with true individuals and they agree on very little. Lots of fun sparks. I'm stopping short of calling Tempest dead. But she's on life support, which is sad as it is some of my strongest writing thus far. One day the answers to my questions about her will erupt in my mind and she'll hit the road running again. I hope.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
2009 plans
Well, here it is the 17th day of the new year. You'd think I could post up some goals for it at some point, eh? Perhaps my first goal should be...
1. Blogging more. Aiming for at least once a week might be a good idea.
2. Getting my website completely redone and the blog integrated. Hopefully within the next month.
Most of the things in my life that I have *some* measure of control over are writing related. While many of the highlights of last year (and previous years) are in family areas, those aren't areas where public goals make sense. So here goes on writing ones:
3. Novel Submissions: Keep Majai's Fury in submission. (I've sent queries out twice already this year, and it's been rejected once. So I'm succeeding in this goal, thus far.)
4. Writing: Finish Dottie and Tempest. (It looks like Dottie is going to move forward and be the first for concentration. I'm taking her story through the How to Think Sideways course as we speak.) I'll consider doing NaNo this year, if these are complete and nothing else seems to be more pressing.
5. Contests: I plan to submit at least two entries into the Genesis. Of course I would like to increase my *streak* of finaling and increase my standing. *If* I final again this year, I'd like to try to get to conference in September. But that's not quite a goal.
6. Revising: I'm not sure what will hit the front burner on this one. It depends on how long the writing from Goal 4 takes. At the moment it's a toss-up between Quest to Be Queen and Chloe. I wish I revised faster is the real truth!
7. Critiquing: I'll take on up to four novels this year for crit, though I'm not sure right now which of my partners will have something ready. So this goal is a bit vague.
8. Forward Motion: Continue with moderator duties at FM, including writing and facilitating one new workshop this year. Other things may come up.
9. Book Tours: I'm committed still to touring at least a dozen new books on this blog this year. Maybe it's cheating to stick it in my goals when there will be two next week!
1. Blogging more. Aiming for at least once a week might be a good idea.
2. Getting my website completely redone and the blog integrated. Hopefully within the next month.
Most of the things in my life that I have *some* measure of control over are writing related. While many of the highlights of last year (and previous years) are in family areas, those aren't areas where public goals make sense. So here goes on writing ones:
3. Novel Submissions: Keep Majai's Fury in submission. (I've sent queries out twice already this year, and it's been rejected once. So I'm succeeding in this goal, thus far.)
4. Writing: Finish Dottie and Tempest. (It looks like Dottie is going to move forward and be the first for concentration. I'm taking her story through the How to Think Sideways course as we speak.) I'll consider doing NaNo this year, if these are complete and nothing else seems to be more pressing.
5. Contests: I plan to submit at least two entries into the Genesis. Of course I would like to increase my *streak* of finaling and increase my standing. *If* I final again this year, I'd like to try to get to conference in September. But that's not quite a goal.
6. Revising: I'm not sure what will hit the front burner on this one. It depends on how long the writing from Goal 4 takes. At the moment it's a toss-up between Quest to Be Queen and Chloe. I wish I revised faster is the real truth!
7. Critiquing: I'll take on up to four novels this year for crit, though I'm not sure right now which of my partners will have something ready. So this goal is a bit vague.
8. Forward Motion: Continue with moderator duties at FM, including writing and facilitating one new workshop this year. Other things may come up.
9. Book Tours: I'm committed still to touring at least a dozen new books on this blog this year. Maybe it's cheating to stick it in my goals when there will be two next week!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tempest
I'm making reasonably steady progress on Tempest, though not as rapid as I'd have liked. Still, it seems that it's better to think a bit here and there than to rewrite/rewrite/rewrite. Of course I'll probably still have to! It might be that this story just didn't have as long to percolate, so there wasn't a huge build-up of words just waiting for the starting gate to open (think the rush of the first hour of Nano!). It might be that my muse is a bit reluctant, being as this is definitely a bit darker story than anything I've written previously. Or it might be that this is just the perfect pace for this story!
I'm doing in the neighborhood of a chapter a week, and they're averaging over 4K each. So if I can just keep the wheels turning, it will get itself done in a few months. That's fine.
I'd been thinking that I'd go on another round of revisions of some of my older stuff once I got rolling with this story, but it's not happening yet. I'm teaching another workshop at Forward Motion in August, and I've recently signed up for a six-month writing course put on by author Holly Lisle, How to Think Sideways. Even after only one week, I'm beginning to see that this investment is quite likely to pay off in a practical sense.
So it'll be at least September before I start revising again, and it's a toss-up still whether it will be Joy Comes in the Morning or Off Beat. Off Beat (aka Squid) has finaled in the Genesis contest, but I won't have the results of that until mid September. I'd hoped to enter Joy in the 08 contest as well, but didn't have time to revise the opening pages to my satisfaction, so I'd like to enter it in '09. A whole new category for me: romance!
And if I'm going to get chapter five written this week, I'd better get rolling!
I'm doing in the neighborhood of a chapter a week, and they're averaging over 4K each. So if I can just keep the wheels turning, it will get itself done in a few months. That's fine.
I'd been thinking that I'd go on another round of revisions of some of my older stuff once I got rolling with this story, but it's not happening yet. I'm teaching another workshop at Forward Motion in August, and I've recently signed up for a six-month writing course put on by author Holly Lisle, How to Think Sideways. Even after only one week, I'm beginning to see that this investment is quite likely to pay off in a practical sense.
So it'll be at least September before I start revising again, and it's a toss-up still whether it will be Joy Comes in the Morning or Off Beat. Off Beat (aka Squid) has finaled in the Genesis contest, but I won't have the results of that until mid September. I'd hoped to enter Joy in the 08 contest as well, but didn't have time to revise the opening pages to my satisfaction, so I'd like to enter it in '09. A whole new category for me: romance!
And if I'm going to get chapter five written this week, I'd better get rolling!
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Goals for 2008
I went hunting my blog for my 2007 writing goals so that I could have a good laugh. It worked! The complete list is here.
To sum up, I thought I would :
What of that did I actually accomplish?
1. I set aside the revision pass of Quest to be Queen and started back at it in November of '07. It isn't quite done.
2. The only thing on the list I actually completed! Marks of Repentance did, in fact, get revised. It took nine months, but I did complete a pass! It finaled in a contest and is currently out at another one, so I guess you could say I *kicked it out the door*.
3. Write something? Not so much.
4. Revise something else? Not so much.
5. Recipe book project? Decided it wasn't my passion and shelved it.
Yikes.
In the spirit of providing amusement to us all again in twelve months, what are my plans for 2008?
To sum up, I thought I would :
1. Finish this revision pass on Quest to be Queen.
2. Complete one (or, if needed, two) passes on Marks of Repentance and GET THE THING KICKED OUT THE DOOR!
3. Write something. Maybe two somethings.
4. Revise something else if time permits. Squid?
5. Work on the recipe book project.
What of that did I actually accomplish?
1. I set aside the revision pass of Quest to be Queen and started back at it in November of '07. It isn't quite done.
2. The only thing on the list I actually completed! Marks of Repentance did, in fact, get revised. It took nine months, but I did complete a pass! It finaled in a contest and is currently out at another one, so I guess you could say I *kicked it out the door*.
3. Write something? Not so much.
4. Revise something else? Not so much.
5. Recipe book project? Decided it wasn't my passion and shelved it.
Yikes.
In the spirit of providing amusement to us all again in twelve months, what are my plans for 2008?
1. Keep sending out Marks of Repentance. After awhile, analyze whether the novel and/or the query package need another revision.
2. Complete revision of Quest to be Queen, get it out to critters and hopefully into submission in 2008.
3. Revise the opening chapters to Chloe's story (romance) and The Girl Who Cried Squid and submit both to the Genesis contest in April.
4. Revise both novels, send to critters.
5. Write something. Maybe two somethings.
6. Keep critting
7. Keep up with moderator duties at Forward Motion
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Marks pass pretty much done!
I've done the read-through of Marks of Repentance and the spell check and all that fun stuff, and discovered one little scene missing, which I'll write and tuck in within the next couple of days. I've promised a few people they could read this version and I'm not sure who. Er...sorry. If it was you, please email me and I'll get it off to you by mid-week.
I completed another big project today, the crit of Selkie for Mar. Much as I like both her novel and mine, I'm very excited to leave those files closed and open different ones.
Jean's a bad influence on me. She was sharing bits of her Nano-novel with me the other day and we were chatting about how bad a house could get if ignored. Well, for Nano '05 I wrote an inspirational romance that I've been gleefully ignoring ever since, remembering all the issues with the story. But because I thought I remembered some fun scenes where the male mc, Dean, deals with his house and his 12-year old twins, I opened the file.
Why?
So now it's in Jean's hot little hands, and she is ZIPPING at the Nano finish line. Not just so she can read this unnamed, unedited, very rough novel, I'm sure. But now I've read the darn thing through myself from beginning to end and I'm curious what she thinks. I have the next two revision projects lined up already. As well as a writing one. I don't really want my apple cart upset. It would be nice if I could revise a novel in less than ten months, I guess. And being as these two (three? :P ) are pre-critique revisions, they will go faster. Next round, after somebody besides me has actually looked at them in the cold light of day--THAT round goes much slower.
But still, do I really want to write romances? Do I have ideas for more of them?
Help.
I completed another big project today, the crit of Selkie for Mar. Much as I like both her novel and mine, I'm very excited to leave those files closed and open different ones.
Jean's a bad influence on me. She was sharing bits of her Nano-novel with me the other day and we were chatting about how bad a house could get if ignored. Well, for Nano '05 I wrote an inspirational romance that I've been gleefully ignoring ever since, remembering all the issues with the story. But because I thought I remembered some fun scenes where the male mc, Dean, deals with his house and his 12-year old twins, I opened the file.
Why?
So now it's in Jean's hot little hands, and she is ZIPPING at the Nano finish line. Not just so she can read this unnamed, unedited, very rough novel, I'm sure. But now I've read the darn thing through myself from beginning to end and I'm curious what she thinks. I have the next two revision projects lined up already. As well as a writing one. I don't really want my apple cart upset. It would be nice if I could revise a novel in less than ten months, I guess. And being as these two (three? :P ) are pre-critique revisions, they will go faster. Next round, after somebody besides me has actually looked at them in the cold light of day--THAT round goes much slower.
But still, do I really want to write romances? Do I have ideas for more of them?
Help.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
I guess I should verify...
that not only did I complete Nano, I completed the first draft of the novel. I was aiming at about 60-65K for this one, being as it is a contemporary inspirational romance, but as always, it came in short, at 51690. Sigh. It was an interesting experiment, but now the book dives to the bottom of my revision pile and gets to wait its turn. It'll be lucky to see the light of day sometime in 2007. Will it still be contemporary then? Hmm.
It's actually causing me some loose ends. I really thought the first draft would take me a week or two into December, and then it would be nice to have a little break before all my critiques on False Perceptions (2yn) appear in my inbox. Third round of FP is first up for 2006, as I really want to get SOMETHING kicked out the door making rounds to agents/publishers.
It's kind of a shock to look at an entire empty month. I can't very well hurry up the critters, but a month isn't long enough to tackle a different revision in, either. And it only took me one day to clean my desk, so that's already taken care of!
So, let's see. A novel crit for a friend. Some goal-setting. Some pre-planning for a new writing project.
Oops, that's a brick wall. What will my next writing project be? Will it be the sequel to Marks of Repentance? Or should I write a stand alone? Because it really is my goal to have a career in publishing, which would be the better career move, to have two books ready in a series, or to have two totally different options to present? I don't know. For what it's worth, False Perceptions is in its own little universe, so it will be a standalone. I don't have any plans for anything else there, though I suppose I could one day, if readership demanded it. (Come on, readership, start demanding new books of me...what do you mean, you haven't ever heard of me yet???) Another option is to choose a new cast of characters in Shann's world (MoR) and write a standalone in there. It's the option that is most appealing to me at the moment.
Some writers have huge files with half-baked story ideas jostling for position to be written next. My cupboards look pretty bare, without even the ingredients. So far I've always found a new idea when I needed one most, they just don't line up and beg for spaces in advance. I'm not too worried about it, but...
Also, some of my books would be targeted more to Christian publishing, others would fly equally well in either airspace. And the idea of multiple book contracts seems more common in CBA. Dilemmas. Guess for now I'd better just keep writing and revising and start submitting and test the waters for myself.
It's actually causing me some loose ends. I really thought the first draft would take me a week or two into December, and then it would be nice to have a little break before all my critiques on False Perceptions (2yn) appear in my inbox. Third round of FP is first up for 2006, as I really want to get SOMETHING kicked out the door making rounds to agents/publishers.
It's kind of a shock to look at an entire empty month. I can't very well hurry up the critters, but a month isn't long enough to tackle a different revision in, either. And it only took me one day to clean my desk, so that's already taken care of!
So, let's see. A novel crit for a friend. Some goal-setting. Some pre-planning for a new writing project.
Oops, that's a brick wall. What will my next writing project be? Will it be the sequel to Marks of Repentance? Or should I write a stand alone? Because it really is my goal to have a career in publishing, which would be the better career move, to have two books ready in a series, or to have two totally different options to present? I don't know. For what it's worth, False Perceptions is in its own little universe, so it will be a standalone. I don't have any plans for anything else there, though I suppose I could one day, if readership demanded it. (Come on, readership, start demanding new books of me...what do you mean, you haven't ever heard of me yet???) Another option is to choose a new cast of characters in Shann's world (MoR) and write a standalone in there. It's the option that is most appealing to me at the moment.
Some writers have huge files with half-baked story ideas jostling for position to be written next. My cupboards look pretty bare, without even the ingredients. So far I've always found a new idea when I needed one most, they just don't line up and beg for spaces in advance. I'm not too worried about it, but...
Also, some of my books would be targeted more to Christian publishing, others would fly equally well in either airspace. And the idea of multiple book contracts seems more common in CBA. Dilemmas. Guess for now I'd better just keep writing and revising and start submitting and test the waters for myself.
Monday, November 28, 2005
50112!!!
I cleared the 50K today, and may even finish the novel tonight. Apparently one of the reasons I revise is to grow novels to an appropriate length... Anyway, whew.
Friday, November 25, 2005
46012
It's interesting. This first draft actually won't be much longer than 50K, but I also don't think I'll have trouble hitting it to start with. Two chapters left to write, and the final one will likely be a bit shorter as it wraps things up. Some threads are already being tied off in today's chapter. I'm a little surprised to be so close to the end of the story, but not worried about lengthening the book to make a more saleable length. My habit is to write short and weave more in later, and this will be no exception, though I do believe I did better than usual at description as I went along.
I wonder what I'll spend December doing, after all? I'm sure my critiques for False Perceptions won't be back that much too early. Hmm.
First I'll finish this, then I'll worry about that. Deal.
I wonder what I'll spend December doing, after all? I'm sure my critiques for False Perceptions won't be back that much too early. Hmm.
First I'll finish this, then I'll worry about that. Deal.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
36640
Still moving right along. Metaphorically speaking, the sun just went down, and its always darkest just before the dawn. Poor Chloe and Dean.
Hubby is feeling enough better that he left a bit ago for his apartment, hoping to be able to manage two twelve hour day shifts starting tomorrow. You may recall that he'd already booked off this set's night shifts, which is good. He figured the two day shifts seemed manageable.
If there's supposed to be something more to life, I'm not remembering what it might be. Hoping to get to bed early myself tonight; I'm pretty tired (but NOT getting sick. Really not...)
Hubby is feeling enough better that he left a bit ago for his apartment, hoping to be able to manage two twelve hour day shifts starting tomorrow. You may recall that he'd already booked off this set's night shifts, which is good. He figured the two day shifts seemed manageable.
If there's supposed to be something more to life, I'm not remembering what it might be. Hoping to get to bed early myself tonight; I'm pretty tired (but NOT getting sick. Really not...)
Monday, November 21, 2005
33591
I had another good writing day today, for which I'm thankful. Starting to approach the grand finale for the book, currently estimated out at about 65K. Ish. I cut a couple of *future* scenes out of the outline today as I realized they didn't have enough reason to exist. Anyway, everybody in the story is supremely stressed out at the moment, so its time to tighten the screws and make it all worse.
My calendars are in the mail! WooHoo!!! I'm so VERY glad they're out of my hair.
Hubby is home for his four off, sicker than a dog. Not pretty. Just when I thought we'd have a nice weekend together, I'm trying to avoid him so I don't get it too. Yay us.
My calendars are in the mail! WooHoo!!! I'm so VERY glad they're out of my hair.
Hubby is home for his four off, sicker than a dog. Not pretty. Just when I thought we'd have a nice weekend together, I'm trying to avoid him so I don't get it too. Yay us.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
28485
I've had a couple of good days this week--over 4K yesterday and 3K today, so I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of winning Nano at this time. I have nine writing days left, which requires an average of 2390 per day to make the grade. All things being equal, this should be doable. There's always the *option* of working evenings or weekends, but my plan is to do without if possible. Jim will be home this weekend, and we all know how rarely his days off land over a weekend, so I'm not planning anything else when he's home. Then, he mentioned that he has two floaters he has to take before the end of November, or lose them, so he's chosen to ditch his next pair of night shifts. They were due to land on the following weekend, so that means an extra weekend with him this month. Yay!!
This year, for the seventh year in a row, I'm making calendars for my family. A few years ago my mother clued in that it would be great if she paid for them, and it becomes her Christmas gift to her kids and grandkids. It works well for me, because I had sometimes waited quite awhile for some of the checks to drift in. Now I get a lump sum at the beginning, and go ink shopping from there. Seventeen calendars uses about two color cartridges and two blacks, so it's fairly significant. My mom has 11 grandkids and 11 great-grandkids, and this year's calendar is all about the little ones, one page each, with the twelfth page showing a photo of my sisters' reunion in August. Last year I had no end of trouble with my new printer, but it seems to be behaving fairly well this year. I've just got a few more pages to finish printing, and then I can take a lunch hour to do the binding at a local graphic arts shop that a friend of mine owns. Maybe tomorrow? Then all the hangy holes get punched (by hand!) and they go in the mail. Two of them have to go overseas, so I'm hoping to hit the mail by Monday at the latest.
That's about all that's new in my little world. How's yours?
This year, for the seventh year in a row, I'm making calendars for my family. A few years ago my mother clued in that it would be great if she paid for them, and it becomes her Christmas gift to her kids and grandkids. It works well for me, because I had sometimes waited quite awhile for some of the checks to drift in. Now I get a lump sum at the beginning, and go ink shopping from there. Seventeen calendars uses about two color cartridges and two blacks, so it's fairly significant. My mom has 11 grandkids and 11 great-grandkids, and this year's calendar is all about the little ones, one page each, with the twelfth page showing a photo of my sisters' reunion in August. Last year I had no end of trouble with my new printer, but it seems to be behaving fairly well this year. I've just got a few more pages to finish printing, and then I can take a lunch hour to do the binding at a local graphic arts shop that a friend of mine owns. Maybe tomorrow? Then all the hangy holes get punched (by hand!) and they go in the mail. Two of them have to go overseas, so I'm hoping to hit the mail by Monday at the latest.
That's about all that's new in my little world. How's yours?
Monday, November 14, 2005
Still alive!
Nine days of writing (less one sick day in which I did nothing useful) has netted me about 19K. I'm still on a decent track, if I can average 2600 a day. Today I did 3300, so it's doable. The story is fun, contemporariness notwithstanding. I have been finding many entertaining ways to make my male main character's life miserable. His lady friend is doing better at the moment, but I'm looking for a role reversal there anytime soon. It's all good.
The really good news is that in the past four or five days I have been relatively painfree in the neck and shoulder for the first time in ten weeks. It has been a long haul, and there have certainly been times I didn't think this flare-up would ever flare back down. I'm very thankful for the many people who have been praying for me; I've been very aware of you. I see the doctor again tomorrow.
This past weekend we took the long trip out to visit our daughter and son-in-law, and from there added more miles to see Jim's 94 year old grandmother. She's not doing very well, and it had been over a year since we'd seen her. I'm sure she forgot we'd been there within five minutes, and we wished we could forget, too. Somehow it still seems important that we went, though.
Jim decided I needed a recliner (my kids figure I'm the one who's ancient, now...) to help out with my neck problems. We found a good price on a good quality chair, so that is kind of cool. When you're kind of short, it's hard to shop for an easy chair. It was a huge store, specializing in upholstered living room pieces, and there were exactly three chairs that fit me. At least that brought the choices down to a deal-with-able level. It was good to spend a few days with family. Which of course means that Jim is back up-country for work for the next few days. Can't get used to having him around...
The really good news is that in the past four or five days I have been relatively painfree in the neck and shoulder for the first time in ten weeks. It has been a long haul, and there have certainly been times I didn't think this flare-up would ever flare back down. I'm very thankful for the many people who have been praying for me; I've been very aware of you. I see the doctor again tomorrow.
This past weekend we took the long trip out to visit our daughter and son-in-law, and from there added more miles to see Jim's 94 year old grandmother. She's not doing very well, and it had been over a year since we'd seen her. I'm sure she forgot we'd been there within five minutes, and we wished we could forget, too. Somehow it still seems important that we went, though.
Jim decided I needed a recliner (my kids figure I'm the one who's ancient, now...) to help out with my neck problems. We found a good price on a good quality chair, so that is kind of cool. When you're kind of short, it's hard to shop for an easy chair. It was a huge store, specializing in upholstered living room pieces, and there were exactly three chairs that fit me. At least that brought the choices down to a deal-with-able level. It was good to spend a few days with family. Which of course means that Jim is back up-country for work for the next few days. Can't get used to having him around...
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Day 8, 12688
I lost Friday to the flu (and had company over the weekend), so I'm about 1600 words shy of where I wanted to be by the end of my sixth writing day. However, once I get rolling on my day's words, they've been coming fairly well so far.
I've had almost no energy leftover, however, for posting or surfing or even cooking dinner. Survival mode it is.
I've had almost no energy leftover, however, for posting or surfing or even cooking dinner. Survival mode it is.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Two days in - 4971
I guess that makes Nano off to a reasonably good start. Of course, last year I did that many words in the first DAY. let alone two, but I didn't have as much Real Life last year.
I did discover that my male main character, Dean, has more psychological problems than I thought he had. I'm gonna have to get the guy into counseling, because that is NOT what this book is about. Chloe is doing fine. I guess I knew her a little better to start with.
For me to write fifty thousand words on one month's worth of work days alone, my goal is 2381 words per day. If I want to finish tbe entire first draft (you can stop laughing your head off any time now), it would require about a thousand a day more. Or some weekends. We'll see how it goes.
I did discover that my male main character, Dean, has more psychological problems than I thought he had. I'm gonna have to get the guy into counseling, because that is NOT what this book is about. Chloe is doing fine. I guess I knew her a little better to start with.
For me to write fifty thousand words on one month's worth of work days alone, my goal is 2381 words per day. If I want to finish tbe entire first draft (you can stop laughing your head off any time now), it would require about a thousand a day more. Or some weekends. We'll see how it goes.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Countdown to Nano
Something like 8 1/2 hours to go here. Around the world, the calendar rolls over to November first, one timezone at a time, and thousands of crazy people begin their own private (and collective) Nano insanity. We pledge to write a minimum of 50,000 words in the month of November, and some of us are greedy for completed first draft novels of larger girths. We will only give up if we run out of chocolate before the end of the month. Obviously, stocking up is a vital process. We are crazy, but we are not alone. The characters in our heads are clamoring to get out, to quit talking about what they're going to do, and get on with doing it. Of the thousands (anybody know how many people signed up this year?) of participants, we also array ourselves in little groups of online writing chums, in larger forums at nano and elsewhere. We talk big.
We're already tired. Maybe I should skip the *we* already. :P I know its possible, as I did it last year, and so did tons of other people. But was it really this busy at work last year? I don't think so. I do know I was running on far more energy a year ago than I am now. Now I'd just like a nap.
Maybe I'll settle for stocking up on chocolate instead. Er, I mean food. It does take more than chocolate to get through an entire month. I guess I'll hit the grocery store on my way home from work. It's Hallowe'en, they might even have chocolate on sale! :)
We're already tired. Maybe I should skip the *we* already. :P I know its possible, as I did it last year, and so did tons of other people. But was it really this busy at work last year? I don't think so. I do know I was running on far more energy a year ago than I am now. Now I'd just like a nap.
Maybe I'll settle for stocking up on chocolate instead. Er, I mean food. It does take more than chocolate to get through an entire month. I guess I'll hit the grocery store on my way home from work. It's Hallowe'en, they might even have chocolate on sale! :)
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