Changing the Game

I've said this before, but I'm a very Type A person. Which is weird, because I'm also really creative and go-with-the-flow on lots of things. But I'm very focused and driven when it comes to setting and meeting goals. I love goals. I set deadlines, and create to-do lists. I know that it's important to break a big deadline down into steps, and I love to celebrate accomplishing one of those steps. When I'm writing a first draft, I usually set a daily word count goal. Something like 750 or 1,000 words a day, with the intention of finishing the draft in about 75-90 days. I've often written even faster first drafts, my record being six weeks (and that's with a full time job, a kid and other responsibilities). It's worked really well for me.

Until it didn't. I've been working on my Zyan Star series, trying to get books two and three done, with the anticipation that my agent could sell my Huntress series at any time, and I'll need to shift my focus to that. So I want to get as much done on Zyan as I can before that happens. I'm on the third book now. But the second book was a struggle honestly, and the third was starting out that way. Part of it is me learning to write a series. And part of it was just me putting too much structure and pressure on it. Which brings me to that thing we all know as writers, but still surprises us (or at least me): every book is different. And sometimes you have to change the game.

So I hid my word count from view. And I'm writing each day until I feel done. Sometimes this is probably just a couple pages (and obviously I'm guessing here since I can't see). And sometimes it's a lot. The story is flowing much better now, and I've put in several really great writing sessions where I felt like really good stuff was getting onto the page. I was getting way too hung up on word count, and writing to meet that instead of letting scenes unfold naturally. Since I've rebooted my process, it's going great. 

Do you change things up from time to time? What ways have you found to change the game?

Thriving in the Darkest Hour

I read an awesome blog post by Robin LaFevers the other day on Writer Unboxed. It's about how a writer can not only survive but thrive in that "almost there" phase before they get an agent and a pub deal. It spoke so deeply to me, because I've been in that "almost there" phase, or the "Dark Night of the Soul" as Robin put it, for well over a year now. I was a semi-finalist in one online writing contest, and won my age category in another popular online pitch contest, but the agents that requested ended up passing. I got very complimentary feedback from an agent that loved my writing but had something too similar, and requests to submit my future work from a couple others. In essence, it's been an extremely frustrating period of near misses. A period of good, but not good enough.


Reading Robin's post was like a beacon in my dark night, and inspired me to keep at it with gusto. Not that I was thinking of quitting, but it enabled me to smell the roses again. In her post she talks about using this phase in your pre-career to really amp up the excellence in your craft. So, being the list freak that I am, I decided to list out what I felt were the main elements of a story, with the sub-elements that make a novel delicious. My goal with this is to take an honest look at how I stack up in these various areas, both overall and for each book I've written, since each book is of course a unique creature. Here's the list of elements I came up with:

• Character
  • Depth, details, uniqueness
  • Motivations
  • Emotions
  • Relationships
  • Dialogue
  • POV
  • Character voice
  • Arc
  • Antagonists
  •  
• Plot
  • Concept – new or archetypal?
  • Scenes
  • Pacing
  • Tension
  • Hooks and Cliffhangers
  • Turning points – inner and outer
  • Twists/surprises
     
• Voice/Style/Skill
  • Writer’s voice/style
  • Skill with words, mastery of craft
  • Structure
  • “Feel” of the story
  • Ability to immerse reader
  • Subtext
     
• Worldbuilding
  • Description – range from lush to minimal
  • Visual and full-sensory experience of reader
  • Details – whether real or fantasy world
  • Setting as character 

So, writer friends: have you experienced a dark time in your writing career? What do you think of the list above - what did I miss? How do you self-evaluate?


I'll let you know how my self-evaluation process goes. I've been reading writing craft books and I have some other exercises to experiment with. Whatever you're up to, I hope the summer is unfolding beautifully!

The Voices In My Head

One of the many reasons I heart my writing friends? Because I can have a post title like that, and none of you will think I need to be committed. Because you guys hear the voices, too. And as writers, we all know that the stronger the voices, the better the writing!

In my last post I talked about juggling projects, and a lot of you commented that I was really lucky to be able to work on multiple projects at once, because it's hard to switch back and forth from the voice of one book to another. And honestly, I haven't had a strong voice for both. The new urban fantasy voice is so strong, it kind of flows from my fingertips almost without conscious thought. The middle grade is different though. It's a project I'm working on for fun with my son, but I've never written for kids and so the voice has been hard to pin down. I keep alternating between a British voice (from my Tolkien and C.S. Lewis saturated youth) and a more modern voice.

So, I got to thinking, how do you guys handle voice? Does it always come from that inspired writery place in your heart, or do you have to purposefully form it? And when you have to work on it, what's your best method for capturing it? Do tell!

Also, I was delighted and honored to receive the Liebster Blog Award from the fabulous Lora Rivera! Thanks, Lora! If you guys haven't checked out her blog, you should pop over. Lora is a former agent turned writer, so she has an insider's perspective on the industry. And she's just a super cool chic!

Isn't it so cute? Liebster is German, and translates into something like favorite or dearest. There were various definitions online, but basically it is reserved for someone you think rocks. As a recipient of the award, I am asked to pass along to five bloggers, who hopefully will spread the love some more! But, I'm going to break the rules and double up (blame it on my rebellious streak). Even at ten, it's near impossible to pick since all of you guys rock so hard, but here it is:

Jennifer Hillier
Alex Cavanaugh
Rachna Chhabria
Michelle Fayard
Carol Riggs
Talli Roland
Beth Sanderson
Erica and Christy
The Happy Whisk
Meredith Moore

I encourage you to haunt these blogs like I do! Hope you guys have a great week! Write hard, be happy!

A Trip to EditLand, Anyone?

Hello, writer friends! As I mentioned last week, I am currently in the midst of a bunch of edits I had been procrastinating on. Further, I decided to give myself a deadline of this weekend to get it all done. I work better under pressure. So, I've been a busy little writer bee this week.

I got to thinking about how everyone's process is different for first drafts and editing. I love writing the first draft and mostly detest the many edit phases. I know it's a completely necessary process, and indeed there's that famous quote about real writing actually being rewriting. And sometimes I have an awesome breakthrough and it feels really great for a couple seconds. But mostly, it's fairly torturous for me.

Here's my process:

1) Idea (Aha! What if....)
2) Brainstorming (aka Lala Land)
3) First draft (This is awesome, I'm so inspired, I rock)
4) Six week cool off (This is actually something I got from Jennifer Hillier)
5) Print out book (I used lulu.com last time and got it bound and everything like a real book)
6) First read-through and edit (Focus on major issues - plot, character development, flow, etc. Also where I think of how much I suck)
7) Finish/flesh out any research that needs to be done (I often skip this in the first draft)
8) Second read-through and edit (Focus on smaller issues - weak verbs, passive voice, word choice, awkward sentences, words I use too much, etc.)
9) Polish
10) Repeat as necessary

What's your process? Do share!

When Characters Get Busy

Yes, I mean exactly what you think I mean.

So: romance in writing.  Love it or hate it?  For me, I like a nice balance.  A little sizzle and some romantic tension is the icing on a really good read.  But no need for gory details.  I want no mention of shafts, pillars or secret places of desire in what I read or write.

The second part of that question is, if you like it, can you write it?  Some people just don't have it.  You guys know I love J.K., but her attempt at romance is pretty terrible - "and then suddenly they started snogging".  What the heck??  But it's hard to write good scenes without being cheesy.  And then there are the writers who build up a ton of awesome tension, and then it fizzles out into nothing when the deed is done (I'll pick on Stephenie Meyer here).

Further, how do you decide who's going to hook up?  Do you know from the beginning that certain characters are destined to get together, or does it evolve naturally?  I'm currently working on the second book of my trilogy, and have been debating this for my MC (which kind of makes me feel like some sort of literary pimp).  Does she have a fling with the hot shapeshifter, even though she's in love with this other character?

So, writer friends, how do you feel about romance?  How much is too much (or can you never get enough)?  Do you like to write it, or does it make you blush?  Does your MC have multiple love interests?  Do tell! And happy V-Day!

The Shunning

Hi writer friends! Sorry I haven't posted anything fresh for a few days - I was busy on my major novel facelift and then three days ago our internet went down (again). I am using my work computer at the moment and hopefully the home service will be up again soon.

Since I've been completely obsessed with my edit process, my husband has been getting less attention than usual. We have a joke between ourselves, which some of you may have gathered if you read his comment on my last blog post. When one of us is pretty much ignoring the other to get some sort of project done, we tease each other about being shunned. We'll banter back and forth, like "I'm going out to the living room to shun you now" or "Take your time running errands because you know I'll just shun you if you’re home." Yeah, we're kind of weird.

Anyways, since I know many of you are enthralled in NaNo this month or other writery projects, I began to wonder how other writers handle the balancing act. I am blessed that my husband is supportive and understands my writing and puts up with his regular shunning. Me and hubby usually make up our 'us' time by watching Castle, Desperate Housewives or South Park (no laptops on laps to multi-task whilst watching).

So, pray tell: What do you do to appease the loved ones in your life? How does your spouse/bf/gf/friend(s) handle your writing obsessions? And, does anyone have a spouse/bf/gf that is also a writer?

Lavender Sky

Happy Wednesday! Today I've been exercising my brain trying to think of something to post. Which kind of led me to thinking about how inspiration strikes us writers. For instance, today I was inspired by the sky, which was a perfect lavender color right before nightfall. Not too pink, not too blue, just the right shade of pale, smoky purple. And earlier in the day I started wondering about history and how funny it would be if someone just made up fictional characters or fictional events, and wrote all these stories that they passed off as real happenings, just to screw with people centuries later who read about it.

I also sometimes get ideas for my books from dreams. Yes, I do realize I sound like a Stephenie Meyer copycat - but it was happening to me way before she was dreaming of sparkly, muscular immortals (I know because I read one of her interviews. Or maybe more than one.). As for characters, those are easiest for me. They just kind of pop into my head fully formed - what they look like, their personality, everything. While sometimes I realize new things about them later on, for the most part they show up ready for action.

So, how you do get inspired? And what do you do when it happens (do you carry a notepad, tape recorder, etc)? Three cheers for inspiration!!