Genesis contest

Having experienced a measure of success in the ACFW Genesis contest the past two years, this year I decided to try out some of the other genres I've been writing in. This morning I got my third (and final!) entry into the '09 contest. I've had a lot of help over the past couple of months from my critique partners as I've polished three sets of 15 opening pages and their accompanying single-page synopses. Now they're out of my hair and can be ignored until the first round results are released in early May.

Next week I'm back to the romance rewrite, currently sitting at almost 45K out of 60. Back to critiquing, back to workshop writing, back to rebuilding my website, and back to *normal* writing life. Whatever that is.

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 :

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

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.

Laptop Love

Being as hubby's rotation had him away at work all weekend and I hadn't been feeling the greatest lately, I sweet-talked him into leaving the laptop home for me. I mean, I know I have two desktop computers (one at work and one at home) and of course the adorable Palm Tungsten E2 but none of those are a laptop. And I envisioned comfy hours in my recliner with heat on my back, surfing the internet and working away all weekend.

Still, all sitting is bad--even in the world's greatest recliner. So I brought the timer over and set it for 45 minutes...and began critting a novel for Mar. When the timer went off, I re-set it for 15 minutes and went off to do some housework.

The second set I spent working on my synopsis of Marks of Repentance. The first market I'm looking at wants a synopsis of 1-3 pages and mine is currently 2, so that at least is a help. What is hard for me to tell is if it is clear, so it's going out to a few folk who aren't familiar with the novel and then I'll see where I've confuzelated things. (Great word, huh?) And then 15 minutes of housework.

Third set I spent at the desk-top computer working on my family calendar that I take on every year. This is the ninth annual coming up! It's not at crunch point yet--still waiting for some photos to come in from family, but I was pleased with what I got done even so. And 15 minutes of housework.

Then I went back to the synopsis. And housework. And critting. And housework.

By then it was late afternoon and I decided I'd had enough productivity. So I went on to other things, like cooking up a LOT of dry beans and making a mega-pot of soup. Canned some of the beans and saved the rest for today, when I also canned up the soup. Yes, I'm crazy.

The beauty of the laptop came into play again, because with the wireless now set up on the broadband, I could leave the laptop open on the peninsula (well away from stove and sink) and work on things while the canner canned. So I worked through a few more chapters of crit. And now I'm blogging from the recliner again! Gotta love it.

When one of my desktop computers dies, I'll replace with a laptop and the remaining desktop will live at home. I think I still want to have at least one desktop though.

Spoiled? Perhaps. Three computers (and two Palms) might seem like over-kill for two people. The same two people have only two vehicles--one, if you count the fact that the truck has been out of commission for a couple of weeks. It's supposed to be home, (almost) as good as new tomorrow. I hope. I'm ready for my own wheels again too.

It's been a lovely weekend.

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed that when I'm writing well and things are moving along smoothly in my little world, that I also blog well? But as soon as I hit some glitches, I don't want to talk about it. I guess I just want to report the good stuff.

So it's a good thing that there is good stuff to report! Yesterday got kind of balled up with crit group stuff. It was good, it needed doing, but it didn't advance my story any. Well, maybe it did. Not in word count, but in shoring up the support structure that I will desperately need again later!

The other thing that sidetracked me was finishing the novel *The Burning Land* by Victoria Strauss. If you enjoy fantasy, give this book a read. I thoroughly enjoyed it on several levels. First off, it's a great read. Second, I liked seeing how Victoria wrote a fantasy based firmly on her world's true religion, and the doubts and growths of the various characters, some of whom are condemned as heretic or apostate. And finally, I liked that every time things got so bad that they couldn't possibly get worse, I was wrong. They COULD get worse, and did so. Have I mentioned I liked the book?

So, this morning. Finally. After wishy-washying all over the place for the past week, I finally got some new words on the screen, just barely over 1K, but still... And now I discover that both of my main characters are depressed. Jeepers. Somebody should take a stick to them. Hmm. Tomorrow.

Forward Ho!

One more calf yesterday; now we're up to 14 out of the expected 18. We haven't tagged this one yet, so don't know which gender the cutie-pie is. With the 13 we were at 7 heifers and 6 bulls.

Late last week (before my fight with the cow) I pulled a muscle or tendon in my left elbow. It's been causing a fair bit of pain when I try to lift anything with my left hand. (Thankfully it hasn't affected my typing comfort or speed.) Just in the past couple of days it's felt a little better so I tried Curves this morning, thinking that I might have to pass by one or two of the machines. Bad idea. Really bad idea, actually. That's all they'll see of me this week, I'm thinking. Hopefully by Monday it will have receded. The really odd thing is that I have no idea how I injured the elbow. I hate when that happens.

*False Perceptions* is zinging right along at over 2K today. And I might have been right. This might be the second last chapter after all. Suddenly things are getting more condensed, which may be an okay thing. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get first draft done this week. What a relief that will be. I'm looking forward to several FP-free months. After that I'll be in a better position to decide on the quality of the story.

Got one more crit out the door today, but there's still one in the line-up. This one doesn't have a rush on it, so I may leave it until next week. My main goal the rest of this week will be to get the 2ynovel done.

Not that I've remembered yet whatever it was in Shann plot points that I thought of late the other night. I'm trying really hard not to obsess about that. Grr.

Progress...

Weekends are always so busy that I struggle to stay awake Mondays at work. I got plenty of sleep last night, too. There were a few customers in the morning, but the afternoon was fairly quiet.

I managed about 1500 words of *False Perceptions*. I'm in a confusing spot, because as I was writing, I realized another scene should come first, so I started on that one. So now I've got two partially done bits.

I had planned to do a crit this aft (I have two in the wings) but just couldn't deal with it. Too, too tired to make sense. So I poked and massaged the *Shann* outline some more, and I'm up to 59 scenes. I've even found some places to add conflict that don't require anyone getting captured and escaping yet again (Jean will be glad to know...) I'm about half way through the outline massage, and I know of a couple more places that are looking a little thin, so I'm hopeful to have a decent lengthed outline to start with. Getting closer...

Tomorrow is the second monthly Celebration of New Christian Fiction. If you had a look around last time, you might enjoy this one as well. I'll post the info in the morning, when I get it all. I think there are more bloggers participating this time than last.

Why a critique group? What's in it for me?

What benefits are there to a good online critique group? While I don't have vast experience with these circles myself (or with their sisters, the walk-in crit groups), I think different people expect different things when they hear the term.

Not every writer needs or desires a team approach. I know several fine writers who write, polish, and submit without any other eyes looking over their manuscripts. Some of them sell stories and books, too. It's a sound way to do things.

My understanding of many published writers (alas, I am not yet in a position to know this for myself...) is that their agent and editor act as a crit group for them. The writer pitches an idea, and the agent may suggest changes. The writer writes the story; the editor suggests changes. And the line editor will go through every sentence with a fine-tooth comb. Etc.

Some folks may think that a bunch of unpublished writers have nothing valid to offer each other: what do these unwashed writers actually KNOW, what expertise do they actually HAVE that another writer should listen to them? I firmly believe that we have much to offer each other.

These are specific areas that we can help each other with. Complex worldbuilding can use an extra set (or more) of eyes. Sometimes when I am neck deep into building a backdrop I don't see the inconsistencies I've created. I've been at it for weeks, eating and drinking it, sleeping and dreaming it, and I can't see the forest for the trees.

I also appreciate comments on the plot outline before I start to write, for the same reason. Sometimes I think a character will do one thing when it is obviously not in his character to do it, or it is not consistent with the worldbuilding. Is it just sloppy plotting on my part? Maybe. But it is hard to think of everything when *everything* is so all-encompassing. Someone with a narrower field of view can zero in on potential difficulties more readily.

As I critique another writer's work, I come to understand some of the flaws in my own work reflected in theirs. Perhaps their villain's actions don't seem logical. And as this makes me think of my own villains, I begin to see similar problems, and possibly ways to solve them.

Some groups require each writer to submit a certain number of pages each week for critique. To my lopsided way of thinking, that may not be useful. My preference is to push my way through the entire first draft without formal feedback, with few exceptions. In one story I wrote, I had a child nearly drown. I submitted that particular scene to a lifeguard for review before going on. I needed to know it was valid, the way I saw it in my head.

After the first draft is complete, I think it should rest a bit, if possible. Go do something else: write another first draft, plot out a new novel, or revise an earlier work before coming back to it. When you think you've gotten the bulk of the tweaking done, that's when I think new eyes can be helpful once again. Line edits may be useful here, but maybe the story isn't ready for them. I wasted several people's time when I asked them for line edits, but the story had more fundamental problems that needed addressing. Don't waste time on line edits when vast paragraphs or even chapters need to be ripped out and rewritten.

Should writers in a group be jealous of another writer's more advanced skills? No. When that writer sells, it benefits the whole group. They all stand to gain much information and encouragement from it. Should a more experienced writer look down on those who have less skill? No, not if they're willing to work on their craft. A little mentorship can go a long way. Every writer's learning curve is different, but I believe it is valuable to give a helping hand where needed, as much as I am thankful to those who reach down and give me the same.

If you sell a book, does that narrow the market for me? Not really. Maybe this particular publisher now has a full list for this quarter, but the real problem is not how many books are available, but how few people are readers. Support the industry: give books as gifts whenever you can! Help turn your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews into lifelong readers.

Is there a difference between Christian crit groups and *regular* ones? Yes and no, with emphasis on both.

There is no difference. Both should hold up the highest standards of the craft to each other. Both should treat each other with respect, encouraging and cajoling one another to meet their goals.

There is a difference. A group of Christians who band together in such a way has the added benefit of a more focused goal, that of glorifying God through their stories. They also pledge to pray for one another through the journey, sharing and supporting one another at a deeper level.

Is this view of critique groups *the last word*? No, not at all. It is simply my personal viewpoint; what works for me. There are a few other people who share this vision with me, and we have formed a small group. Others are considering joining us. While many have certainly traveled the road alone, and reached their destination, others may falter or lose their way at an unmarked crossroad.

Share the burden. Share the joy.

Some folks will do anything to keep from writing.

Today, however, it required a two-pronged approach. First, customers are always good for that kind of procrastination, and today they produced for me in a big way. Most of them found it hard to believe they'd have to wait at least two months before the guys could come replace their flooring. But only one person actually said she couldn't wait that long, sorry. I set up three new measures for the guys to do. We have three entire brand new houses between now and freedom, and by then there will be more stuff. The usual spring rush is just now starting.

My second approach was in fielding emails to and from folks interested in joining the Christian sff crit group that I'm involved in. When I posted openings, I didn't expect quite so much attention. If everyone who asked for initial information today responds again and wants to take the process a step further, I'll have a fair bit of critting to do as well. All in a good cause, though. We need more brains to bounce ideas off of, and are perfectly willing to bounce other people's ideas too. And if you are reading this as one of those applicants, don't worry, I didn't get SO MANY that we're turning folks away on that account. We'd be full, though!

Have you heard this before? Tomorrow I MUST get back to work on my novel.

Blog carnivals

Ever heard of a blog carnival? If you have, you're ahead of me. Well, that is to say, I HAVE heard of it, but just in the past couple of days. Pat Loomis will be hosting one on Tuesday, Feb 15. In it, she will be pointing folks to various blogs, including mine; we'll be discussing some variation of the topic of new directions in Christian fiction. If you're curious about how the carnival works, go on over to her site, she has blogged about it.

What can I blame today's lack of getting anything done on? Not customers. It just was a washout as far as new words go. I opened my file, stared at it a bit, and closed it. I don't think I so much as changed two words. I did post something for my crit group to comment on regarding religion in my new little world, and finally got a handle on the government for the other country, that I gave up on last week. So I did make some progress, but it wasn't on what I'm supposed to be working on. I do have a headache, and Jim came home from work mid-morning sick, so I may be able to pull an excuse or two out of the hat if I try hard enough. Try. Try. Try.

It's CRITTING time!

When you think of me writing away, this is where I am.

Months go by with no critiques at all, and suddenly I have a week with two of them. Today's synopsis crit took most of the morning. I have to do all I can do to help my friends to break into print!

I got a few hundred words on *Quest* this afternoon. Not as much as I would have liked, but interruptions were rampant at work. Yes, that's me (the invisible one) sitting in that chair in the photo, hopping up constantly to get the phone. Eventually I gave up and spent some time organizing a bunch of the worldbuilding I've been doing for *Shann*. That needed doing, too, and didn't require as solid of concentration.

Did I mention that calf #6 was waiting for us when we got home from work last night? So far all is well on the western front.