Floundering

I have to admit, I haven't been on top of my game the last few weeks. My unedited manuscript from NaNoWriMo keeps staring back at me. I told myself I would edit Shadow Bound again, but I'm way too close to it still.

With Shadow Bound, I feel like the story is set in stone. Like I can edit the scenes, but not change them completely. I think that's my problem. Scene X is boring not because the dialogue isn't quite right, but because nothing happens! It needs to be done away with completely, but it's so hard to see things like that after editing so many times.

And then there's Song of the Muse. I'm scared to even look at it. It's shameful, really. I think that because it's a NaNo novel, I tell myself it's awful and needs a complete overhaul. But it's not that bad. It really isn't.

I know a lot of writers deal with this kind of slump and I've always felt guilty because writing on a daily basis came so naturally to me. But now it's catching up to me. I got maybe four or five chapters into Shadow Bound and then pthtt! And my Muse is being fed (and not driving me to write) because I've been reading such wonderful books during the Christmas break.

**sigh**

I've also been preoccupied with some major family/life changes including our new puppy, who needs constant attention and training. Then there's the holidays, being sick, and focusing on my health. It's really just a lot of excuses, I know. These are things I just need to push through. Every writer has setbacks. And every successful writer overcomes them.

After the Frenzy

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, we can get back into regular posts.

I have a finished draft right now. I went back and wrote down everything I loved about my story and everything that went wrong, just to help keep things in perspective. I was surprised to find that what I had wasn't all that bad. In fact, with some tweaking, this could be a really great book!

As usual, I'm taking a "two-week" break from my book (working title: Song of the Muse). I think last time I lasted a week before I started cheating. Maybe not even that long.

Today I realized I had a choice. I could wait two weeks, catch up on my reading, and be bored for an hour or two a day, or I can start tearing apart Shadow Bound. Yes, I'm still determined to make something of that story. I love it too much to cast it aside (and usually I have no problem doing that, once a book has been finished, edited, and rejected my every agent in the country). I'm hoping that Shadow Bound will someday reach the shelves. It may not be the book that breaks me in, but I want it to be published.

So, the question: Edit Shadow Bound now, or take a break and then work on Song of the Muse? (I'm not really the kind of person that likes to work on multiple things at once, so both isn't very appealing.)

How to Get Great Ideas and What to Do With Them

Each of us has a creative side. You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't. It's that little voice in the back of your head that throws out ideas. I call mine my Muse and I've talked about her before. (Yes, my Muse is a she.)

I was thinking about what makes my Muse "sing". Typically, if your creative voice is on, your cognitive, logical voice has to be turned off. If you're familiar with right-brain, left-brain research, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Your left brain has to take a back seat if your right brain is going to have any say. (Sometimes transition is pretty quick. There are exercises you can do to help with this.)

So how do you hand the microphone to your Muse? How do you turn off the left brain?
By doing something mundane, everyday, or mind-numbing. Sounds fun, right?

My Muse hates to be bored, so when the left-brain turns off, she steps forward and tries to make things interesting. (This is why TV usually isn't a great way for me to brainstorm. My Muse is already entertained.)

So if I need some good ideas, I have to do something like fold laundry, go for a walk, rake leaves, stare at a blank computer screen, or try to fall asleep. (Unsuccessfully. Usually. I do get some awesome dreams on occasion.)
It's darn inconvenient, but I get my best ideas as I'm drifting off to sleep. (A great reason to keep a notebook handy on my nightstand.) For example, last night I was trying to sleep while my husband was reading with the light on. And a voice came into my head. Not a literal voice, just words that had personality. And the personality wasn't mine. I had struck gold!

Unfortunately, my daughter had run off with my notebook. I didn't go and look for it and of course, I don't remember the whole thing. But I'd like to share my train of thought and the words that I do remember.

I was thinking about how to begin my story. I have a premise in mind and several scenes planned out, so I wasn't starting from nothing. My mind drifted to books that I love. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is my favorite and it's young adult fantasy, just like Phantom. Ella Enchanted started just outside the story with the first-person narrator talking about something that happened before the story actually begins.

The other book I thought of was The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I loved this series. It was the series I wish I had written. Anyway, the book starts with Percy (the main character, also in first person) talking directly to the reader. He tells us something about the main theme of the book and beautifully melds his world with ours.

So then I moved back to my book. I'm pretty sure I want to do first person. I write better characters and cleverer detail that way. I wanted to begin my books like Riordan and Levine did.

That's when my Muse sang. (Not literally. I'm not crazy.)

The words for the beginning of my story popped into my head. My memory only recalls bits and pieces, but here's what I have:

My school is haunted. They should have seen it coming, building a boarding school where a prison used to be.

That's all I remember. Sad, huh?

So let that be a lesson to you. It's always worth getting out of your nice warm bed to go get a pen and pad when an idea hits you. Make yourself do it. You won't be sorry.

Making Time to Write

This month, I've had to give myself a good swift kick in the pants about sitting down and writing. Apparently, I'm not the only one. Usually, I would get on the computer, thinking I would write, but of course I had to check my email. And Facebook. And my writing blogs of course. And my critique group forums. And...

Yeah. Before I knew it, the baby was awake again and I hadn't done any writing. (Shameful, I know.)

So my new policiy is: I check email and all that in between getting breakfast for Rebecca, prepping for dinner, and if she watches a movie quietly I'll do it then. I also get chores done during this time. (I do the dishes while she eats breakfast. It works out nicely.) Also, if she sleeps in, I can get a lot done in that first hour of my day.

But when she takes a nap, that's it. Put everything else aside, it's writing time. I got a lot done today. I worked on my book for an hour and a half, which I thought was pretty good, then I ate some lunch. Cause I was hungry. :)

Prepping for NaNoWriMo

This past week, I've been working through Think Sideways from the beginning. I'm currently working through the (numerous) modules that come with lesson 7. I already have some good stuff brewing: characters with needs, I'm beginning to see some depth in my characters, I have a handful of scenes in mind, there's already a lot of conflict, and a ton of cause and effect.

One module has you take the main conflict and find "organic conflict" that sprout from the planned stuff. You match up characters' wants and actions and find the effects of those wants as they clash to create new conflict and new scenes. It's really fun to see what pops up from my Muse.

If I work hard, I think I can get through all the planning stages of Think Sideways before NaNoWriMo starts.

Are you going to do NaNoWriMo? Look me up! My username is jollygreen23.

Coping with Rejection as a Writer

The rejections are coming in. Some are more helpful than others. Each rejection tells me one of two things: either the story isn't a good fit for the agent, or my writing needs some improvement.

And I'm okay with that. No agent has told me, "Please never send me any more of your material. You'll never get good enough." I will get better. It may be that Shadow Bound is the book that will get me published. It may be the next book. Or maybe not. As long as each book is better than the last, I'm happy. For now. ;)

Whether I get an agent for Shadow Bound or not, I'm starting the early planning stages of my next project: Phantom. I'm so excited about this book. I've already worked through lesson 6 of How to Think Sideways, using whatever I can apply to this new project. I'm really pumped about this one. I'm really going to focus on voice and character with this one. There's always room for improvement with voice and character.

Anyway, I know some of you are dealing with rejection, so over the next couple of days I thought I'd share some posts that I've found helpful.

Killing Time Between Projects

I'm itching to get started on my next project: Phantom. But I'm making myself wait until October. As much as I want to buckle down and plan, I feel like I should let my brain rest a little from writing. I'm always amazed by how much good can come from breaks.

My main character is starting to take shape, though. An eighteen-year-old girl with a fiery personality. Not at all like Christine. (I always thought she was a bit of a wuss in the book.)

Waiting is tough. I focus on querying agents instead. And reading. Always lots of reading.

Which reminds me... look me up on Goodreads.com. It's a great website. You can use it to see what I'm currently reading. (Okay, I'll tell you. I'm reading The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. It's fantastic.) I use Goodreads to keep track of my to-read list (which is constantly growing).

What are you reading?

What Now? Life after the manuscript.

I think the manuscript is ready for submission. So right now, I'm nervous. I don't want to get my hopes up and then be let down, but I really think this one has a shot. It's ten times better than my last novel.

I've already sent 7 queries--my top picks. I'm on edge, expecting a reply any day, though it could take months. I'm still researching queries and agents and all that good stuff. I think I'll write another post on the subject, since I've found some good stuff.

So for the rest of the month, I'll submit my story to a few agents a day until I've exhausted my list of potentials. Starting October 1, I'll begin planning my phantom novel :) I'm excited about that. I may not be able to wait.

How to Cope with a Writing Workshop

I had my first Advanced Fiction Workshop this week, and I think I'll keep going. Our first assignment is people-watching, which I need to do more of. This class will be good for me. Looking at the assignments, I can see that there's a lot that I would never do on my own.

We'll be writing a short short story (2-3 pages--yikes!) every WEEK for the first half of the semester.

I'm intimidated. Getting a full story in three pages is just plain scary. Not to mention the fact that I need to come up with a new story idea on a weekly basis...

ON TOP OF revising and rewriting Shadow Bound AND planning and writing my phantom novel.

Our last day of class is November 30th. How inconvenient. This means crunch time falls right in line with NaNoWriMo. I'll definitely have my hands full.

But it's worth it. I'll grow as a writer and I'll get to use some techniques from Think Sideways. In the first month of the course, we're taught to "summon lightning", or a story idea. I did it, but I wasn't looking for a new story idea at the time. Now I'll get to put it to good use. :)

There's also a later lesson on using "spies" -- basically, people who know more about what you're writing than you do. For example, I ask a doctor about hospital procedures so my writing is more authentic. Well, guess what? One of our assignments is to write a story that requires research and an interview. Nice how that works out.

How to Get More Writing Done

I'm back from my little experiment. I took off nearly a week from the internet in order to get more writing done.

First, if you think you might want to do this, you need to realize that if you shut down your internet access (and, as I did, your computer access) that a bunch of other things will try to fill in your time gap. I had no idea how many things I wasn't doing. Seriously.

But, not having the distraction of the computer did help my writing. No question. I revised a huge chunk of my book and wasn't pressured by my goal of fifteen pages a day. I hit the mark with ease :)

I was more focused when I wasn't working, too. If I was doing something else, my mind was a little clearer and I could think about my writing and what I wanted to change, and all that good stuff, so I was more efficient when I did sit down to work.

And when I came back? I turned on my computer and sorted through emails, checked (and read) the blogs I follow, checked and replied to a slew of forum posts, checked facebook, etc... all in about three and a half hours! Over the course of five days, I usually spend closer to ten hours doing all that stuff. An amazing time saver, though I may have missed some stuff.

So, I'm halfway done with the hard copy edit of my ghost novel. My goal is to finish by the end of the month, then do my soft copy edit. (Basically, going back and typing in all the edits and notes I made on the hard copy.) That leaves me with querying agents. I should be done with plenty of time to plan my phantom novel for November.

So, my next post will be on revising a manuscript. I've searched for different methods in preparation for what I'm doing now, and I'll share the best of it with you.

Tomorrow. I'm exhausted.

Hope all is going well with your writing!

Okay, New Plan

I just finished Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways and, to be honest, I'm a little overwhelmed. Basically, the lesson says to write a sentence (called the Sentence Lite) for each scene that describes the protagonist, her conflict, the obstacle/antagonist, the twist, and maybe the setting. If you don't have these, then the scene is incomplete. Thinking back, I'm glad I have SOME scenes with all of these elements, but there are a lot of scenes that don't.

So, I need to go back, make a plot card for each scene with the complete Sencence Lite on each one, and figure out how much I have to revamp.

This is really going to help my writing. Now that I'm more aware, the scenes with all of these elements are the best scenes in Shadows. Now I have the tools to make every scene just as good. This is going to be a challenge.

I knew I'd have a lot of work to do. Don't get me wrong. But now that it's time to get crackin' I'm nervous. How much will I have to cut? How much will I need to rewrite? Will I have enough time to plan my phantom novel before November?

Stay tuned.

A Problem and a Challenging Solution

Okay, so I've got an interesting problem to deal with. I'm almost done with my first draft. I've got two very short scenes, one really long scene (the final battle!) and then another quick one to wrap it up. Only problem is, this was supposed to be a 60,000-word novel and I'm only at 32k!

A little tip for other writers: filler is bad. I don't want to use filler.

So what do I do?

Fortunately, I've already planned to go back and insert entire chapters from Nathan (my hero's) point of view. This will add depth to my love story, a new voice, maybe a little history (because he is a ghost after all), and we can see the heroine from another perspective.

(I expect the unexpected to happen when I do this. My muse likes the throw some cool stuff on the page when I do stuff like this. )

And then I'll add a romance for poor Lisa, who has desperately wanted a boyfriend since chapter 1.

I'll also rewrite some of my current scenes from his perspective and see which is better. Then, I'll go back to the beginning and add rich detail, a LOT more conflict (I've decided life's been way too easy for Rachel), and a ton of showing (vs. telling).

I should get my words in, but this is going to take a lot of planning.

First of all, when I finish the first draft I'm taking a break! Maybe two weeks. I'll work on my phantom project, maybe catch up on my reading, stuff like that. Then I'll go through what I have and write out what I'm hoping to get out of each scene. What do I want to tell the reader? How do I show it instead? What's the conflict? What could make it worse? How would EACH character (present or not) react? What are my characters seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, tasting, thinking, doing, and saying? What do they want to hide from the other characters? What other motivation might they have?
etc...

Yeah, it's a long process, but the product that comes from it is more than worth it!
Then, I read through a hard copy of my book, writing in comments, suggestions, thoughts, and nit-picky edits. THEN I go through a soft copy and actually MAKE all those edits. (By now I'll be exhausted.)

I'd like to get all of this done by October 1st. (I know, good luck, right?) That way I'll have a full month to plan my phantom project in time for NaNoWriMo.

Think I can do it?

We'll see.

By the way, the Writing Tip of the Day is:
Never resist editing, because your writing isn't etched in stone and can always be improved for the reader.

How appropriate.

Too Many Ideas!

I don't recommend juggling more than one project at a time.
My current WIP is Shadow Bound. I'm a little over halfway done with the first draft and hopefully I'll have that done the first week in August.

Then I'll take a few steps back and leave it alone for a couple of weeks so I can come at it fresh. In the meantime, I'll do a lot more planning on my next novel, code named: Phantom. Not a very clever code name, but oh well. This is the project I've been working on in Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways course, since most of the planning for Shadows is already done. (How Think Sideways has helped me.)

So on the days I'm following along in the course and doing my lessons, I don't get much (if any) writing done for Shadows. The problem is, I'm at a point now where I really need to focus on Shadows because I need I nice tight ending. This is the hardest part of writing a first draft for me--keeping all the details and twists in my head while plotting an ending that's both exciting and satisfying. All while maintaining voice and character and grammar and setting...

I should probably set Phantom aside, but these thoughts keep popping into my head: "Ask John about musicals!" and "Ask Jenny about music schools!" and "Ooh, do a dot and line exercise for the hero!" It's like I have a little girl prancing around in a candy shop, trying to sample everything.

Just stop. Breathe. And Focus!

Writer's Block

I've had this idea for my next book for a while now, but I'm stuck. I don't know what it is, but I just can't bring myself to buckle down and really start this thing. Is this a stupor of thought?

I have maybe two thirds of the first scene written. I have about 10 scenes planned and I think I know how it ends. I have all the dots, but part of me refuses to connect them. What's wrong with me?

Maybe it is a stupor of thought and I should take this as a signal that maybe I shouldn't be working on this project right now. I do have another idea for a book, but it's just an idea. Perhaps it would be better to pursue that project instead..