The Plans of a Planner

As I'm certain you are all aware by now, I have a million things I want to do this year.  And every day seems to bring with it something else that I'm desperately wanting to try.  I have writing conferences, and editing.  Rewriting and drafting.  Critiquing and writing exercises.  All of which take time.  Time, that I've come to realize, that I just don't have.

I've always had the issue where I realize that I can do something, and I decide that I'm going to do even more.  (This is called being competitive with oneself.  It's not the healthiest thing in the world to do.  And yet, I find it hard to stop...) Then I end up setting ridiculous goals for myself that there's not way I'm ever going to finish, and get frustrated when instead of succeeding, I get overwhelmed and end up getting less done than I would have if I hadn't over planned everything and tried to make myself do more than is humanly possible.  (Don't be fooled by the nickname, folks.  Much as my writing group likes to call me a robot, I really am still human.  I swear it.)

So, this year, when I set up all of my goals, certain that I needed to do all of it while still working forty hours a week at my day job, I was blissfully unaware that I was falling into the same cycle that I always find myself in.  I'll tell you one thing: Ignorance is not bliss.  And whoever said it was should be shot.

I made it through January alright.  February, I stumbled.  A lot.   This had something to do with some feedback I got on a project that I had labelled nearly finished, and had to look at under the microscope again.  So, instead of writing the first draft of the second book, I rewrote half of the first book and scraped pretty much the entire plot that I already had worked out for the second one.

In March I seemed to find my feet again, though I also began to realize that I hadn't made any allowances for unexpected things coming along, and started to sort through what I had planned for the year.  First to go were the writing exercises.  I wanted to do all 201 this year, but I hit a road block at about 17, was never really able to recover, and soon found myself so far behind that the thought of them just stressed me out.  For the good of my health (and the projects that trying to catch up on those exercised would have taken time away from) I decided that it wasn't worth it to continue.  I will get back to them eventually.  They were a lot of fun, and I was learning from them, but right now it's just not feasible.

I did manage to get the planning done on a novel I wanted to completely rewrite.  I decided I was going to do Dangerous Waters in April, but because I finished the planning early in March, I started writing then too.  I even made it to 25k before Camp Nano officially started!

Which, of course, is when my motivation decided that it wanted to rest for a while and I found myself completely engrossed in a tv series, and unable to pull myself away from the story line to work on, well, anything.

Now I've managed to catch up on my camp nano goal (though I'm still only planning on 50k, and I'll need another 75k afterward to finish this project) as well as fairly up to date on the script project myself and a couple of friends have going on.

While I know what months I'm going to be writing during (Junowrimo, Camp Nano - July editing, and Nano, of course) the rest of the months are up in the air.  And I think I prefer it that way.  Even if I am a planner.

Of course, I might be less worried about getting everything done if my current obsession wasn't a book that I don't need to have even planned out until next April, but that's another blog post.

Here's the real question: Will I, one of the biggest planners around, be able to pants my way through the year?

The Future in Recap

Lately I've been watching a sci fi show based in Vancouver called Continuum.  It's about a group of people from the future that get out of prison (and their sentence of death) by travelling back into the past.  Except, instead of the six years they intended to go, they find themselves sixty-five years in the past.  Namely, they find themselves in 2012 (though I assume that it moves into 2013, as this actually started last year.)

I've actually been meaning to watch this show since it started, but the reason I finally opened the file on my computer is because I'm currently in the midst of planning out a sci fi, and I want to get a feel for the genre.  Granted, my novel is nothing like this show.  While they're both, at their most basic route, procedurals, my novel is set in a generation ship travelling to a new world.  There will be no time travel in it.  Still, I was able to pick out a few things that I need to watch for when I'm planning and writing my novel.

1) The language.  At one point one of the young members of the terrorist group that went back said something that was purely 2012 slang.  Now, I suppose this could be explained away because they were trying to blend in, but the truth is, in 2077 their slang and English is going to be a lot different than ours.  Language evolves.  While the core language stays the same, slang develops, and eventually our language accepts it.  So I find it just a little bit odd that in 65 years they somehow haven't developed new slang and are still using ours.  After all, we certainly don't speak the same as the people who were alive in the forties or the fifties.

For my novel, however, while I still need to figure out some new slang that would have developed before they took off from earth in this ship.  Once their on the ship, however, preserving their culture and language would most likely be a priority for them.  While they would have acquired new phrases simply to refer to their new circumstances in their surroundings, their language shouldn't be all that different.

2) Familiarity of the characters with their surroundings.  One of the things that this show does great is make sure that we understand just how comfortable the characters are with everything.  The main character --  a cop in the future who was accidentally transported to the past when she tried to stop the terrorist group from escaping -- is extremely comfortable with her own tech, which isn't available in the time she now finds herself in.  But at the same time, she's completely unfamiliar with the things around her in present day.  For example, when putting on mascara she has a hard time of it.  And driving a car?  Not something she learned at sixteen, that's for sure.

My first step is, of course, figuring out what their technology is going to look like.  Once I figure that out, though, I have to make sure that my character's aren't acting like this is something they've never seen before. They need to not just be familiar with it, but adept as well.  Their technology would actually probably be old for them, as it's highly unlikely that their technology is advancing while they're in space.  So it might not all work as well as it once did.

3) The differences in the world that have happened between now and then.  One of the things that really gets me is that in 2077 apparently corporal punishment is something that has been accepted in Canada.  To me, I think of this as a step back for our culture, but that's not really the problem I have with it.  The biggest problem I have with it is that it has yet to be explained how we managed to get from a world where we didn't have corporal punishment to one where it's an actual option.  I've been told by my friend who has seen more episodes than me that they do eventually tell us what I want to know, but every time they talk about it (because it is a major plot point) I get just a little bit more annoyed.  While I understand that you can't throw in all of that kind of information without it being obvious that's what you're doing, I do think they had ample time to get that information across.

In my own story, the changes will be fairly obvious from the get go, and getting that information out to the readers is going to be difficult.  I highly doubt that most of my characters will be thinking about the reason they're out in space, since it really is an every day occurrence for them.  I haven't figured out how I'm going to do this yet, but I am aware of the problem, and am going to figure it out.

There are many more problems that writing a sci fi deals with.  Like, for instance, how they're travelling from world to world.  What kind of technology they would have that allows them to get between the planets without having to wait years.  But I think it's kind of part of the fun.  Kind of.  After all, I was never that good in science class.

But I will get there.  Eventually this book will be planned, and I will be writing it either in June or July.  I'm excited, as it's a genre I've never tried to write before, while at the same time being utterly nervous for the exact same reason.

What do you guys think?  What annoys you when you're reading (or watching) a sci fi?  And how much science do you like to see in your sci fi?

Master Manipulators

My favourite characters in books are the ones that seem to be behind everything.  And yet, they never seem to be behind anything.

I realize that sounds contradictory, but anyone that reads a decent amount of books knows what I'm talking about.  They're the characters that you're fairly certain are idiots who have no idea about anything going on, but then turn out to be the ones behind it the entire time.  Where at the end of the book you think 'no freaking you.  Seriously?  You're the one that did that?'

Sometimes, of course, I have to wonder if the author intended that to happen.  Because, as a writer, I've got to tell you: I very rarely am intentionally creating those characters.

On more than one occasion I have started writing a character that I assumed was background, only to have the entire story turn around at the end and I suddenly realize that the character I thought was no one was more important than any other character in the story.

Why am I talking about this?  Normally these sorts of speculation are brought on by one of my own characters.  But, no.  This time it's because of a critique that I gave today.

In the book we've been critiquing, the author has lined up this character who often appears to simply be stumbling through the world, unsure of what he's doing or if he's even heading in the right direction, and yet things tend to work out for him.  Up until this point in the book, I was wavering between him being competent, and everything just being a happy coincidence.

Unfortunately I have a bit of an insider's point of view, as I know exactly who is pulling the strings, but at the same time, I still don't know all of the details.

This past chapter, though, that character finally pulled up his socks and admitted that he was, in fact, competent.  That he wasn't just a puppet whose strings are being pulled, and that he could manipulate at least those closest to him without too much trouble.

It was nice to see.  Because I enjoy those characters (so long as they're not completely evil with no redeeming qualities) he instantly shot up in my regard.  Suddenly he's far less of a character whose chapters I have to suffer through, and much more one that I look forward to reading about.

As for my own writing, manipulators seem to be few and far between.  At least in my current project (Birth) where all I have is a main character whose voice I can't seem to figure out.

But that's another blog post (check back Wednesday...) For now I'm going to impatiently wait until next week when I should get the next chapter in the book I'm critiquing and see where he takes it.

What's your favourite kind of character?  Do you ever wonder if authors do everything in their novels on purpose?

Critique At the End of the Tunnel

In my critique group we, of course, exchange critiques.  Every fortnight (we've decided that we're resurrecting this generally considered archaic word, as it applies to so much in our lives) we get together and tell each other what we thought of the latest chapter that was sent in.  It's been extremely helpful, especially in areas like description, where we all lacked when we first started out.

We also started meeting up every couple of months with short stories and getting feedback on those.  We dubbed these meets 'Pen Duels'.  Basically what we do is I send out two writing prompts, and everyone has to come up with a story based on one or the other of the prompts.  Then we get together, read them out loud, then discuss.

This time we decided to do things a little bit differently.  Rather than getting together and reading them out, we sent them out to each other and are doing critiques on them before we get together to discuss on Saturday.

When we originally decided to do this, we talked about how these critiques shouldn't be too long.  Not like what we do for regular critique group.  Just small summaries of what we thought while we were reading through the stories.

Turns out, my brain isn't so good at holding back.  My first critique is behind me and it's just as long (if not longer) than anything that I've done for critique group.

This wouldn't be a problem, of course, except that I now have two more short stories to critique before Saturday, and a chapter to critique by Monday.

Yep.  I know.  We planned that well.

So now I'm sitting at home working on my pile of critiques rather than working on Pandora, which I'm supposed to be sending out at the end of the month.  I'm starting to feel like I might have taken on too much this year.

For the record, I've decided to cut back the epiphanies to only 100 for the year, rather than trying to get through the entire 201.  More manageable, and I won't feel like I'm going crazy.

Anyway, to get back on topic: Critiques.  Lots of critiques.

I'm working on critique # 2 right now, and I'm planning to, at the very least, get done the short stories tonight before I head to bed.  Though, if I really make myself do work, I might even get the chapter done.  Somehow, I doubt it, though.

So much to do, so little time to do it!

Are you in a critique group?  Do you ever find yourself spending more time on critiques than on writing?

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

As a writer there are certain things that affect your ability to write.  For example, I find it nearly impossible to write when I have a headache.  Each word I drag out sends another round of pain shooting through my skull, and when I look back on any progress I may have made I realize just how bad it actually is.  Especially if the mood of the scene isn't angry or annoyed.

So, I've learned to adapt.  Or, rather, I've learned to accept the fact that writing is not going to get done if I can't get rid of the headache.  It's not an excuse, it's the matter of whether it's worth it in the end, and I've determined that it just isn't.

Of course, there are other things that can affect this as well.  Things like what happened to me on Monday.

On Monday I had a bad day.  It started right when I got to work (I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of my day job, but I can usually get through the day without thinking about quitting).  I'm not going to get into details of why it was such a bad day, but suffice it to say that by the time the day was over, my mood was foul.  And I left work early!

Unfortunately my bad mood didn't just affect my writing.  I didn't get to just go home and do nothing while moping around and indulging in my bad mood.  (I know what you're all thinking, but I let myself wallow in my bad moods.  They last one day, and they don't happen all that often, so I indulge.)  Instead I got to go to critique group.

Now, normally I love critique group.  I love getting feedback on my work and learning how other people interpret what I've put down on the page.  I enjoy the dynamic we have in our group and how much I learn as a writer from the process.

When I got there on Monday, however, and one of my critique partners said something negative, I found myself fighting with him.  Arguing his point and not letting him explain where he was coming from.  I was getting frustrated and angry, and I really couldn't control those emotions, even though I knew I was being irrational.

I even had the thought that I should just toss that novel and pretend I had never written it.

These aren't normal things for me.  While I love a good discussion about my work, or anyone's work, for that matter, what I was doing on Monday was fighting.  And defending my work.  And thinking that I should scrap an entire novel because of one moment of feedback?  I just spent the entire day yesterday restructuring a novel that I've already rewritten twice.  I don't just cast things off because of one piece of criticism.

It was hard for me to accept what was being said because my emotions were already shot from the hard day I'd had at my day job.

I hate that a job that I don't enjoy can make the thing that I do like so much harder.  This is the reason that I don't want to be working a day job.  Unfortunately I don't have a choice at this point.  I'm not published.  I don't have someone that just wants to let me work on my writing full time.  I have to continue to pay my bills in order to keep writing.

So I just have to work on trying to not let a bad day at work colour everything else I do.  This would be so much easier if I could compartmentalize.

Now to make it up to my critique partner.  Maybe I should buy his dinner at the next critique group.

My Protagonistic Views

Yesterday I read a question that someone had asked a published author.  It was: Why are so many books written from the point of view of a female?  They were implying that most books tend to have a female protagonist.

The author replied by telling them some statistics that showed that, in fact, most books were actually written from a male perspective.  For years, in fact, female protagonists were quite rare when it came to published works.

To be honest, my favourite books tend to have female protagonists.  That's not to say that I won't read anything else.  I enjoyed many books that had male perspectives.  Not the least of which was Lord of the Flies. I read it during school, and I loved it.

Since high school, though, I've found myself gravitating more towards the female perspective.  Why?  I have a theory.  Because I am female.  Therefore, I find it easier to relate to the female characters and understand their motivations.  This doesn't keep me from reading the male perspective.  I've read the Harry Potter series, and I thoroughly enjoy Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, along with the rest of his books.  Most are from the male perspective.

Each person has their own preferences when it comes to reading, just as anything else in the world.

As a writer, I think that each of us tends to gravitate more toward what we like to read.  I, for instance, prefer female protagonists, so that's what I use when I'm writing.  When the characters introduce themselves to me, it's always the females that are more prominent and demanding.  They want to be heard, and they usually drag some male characters along with them.

That doesn't mean that I'm never going to write from the male perspective, though.  I have a couple characters that are wanting their point of view to come out.  Neither of them are my protagonist, but they're there and insistent

I do want to write a book from a male perspective.  There's just one little problem.  You see, it's hard to write something that you don't know.  I know that I don't know the male perspective.  I tried to write a middle grade during nano that was from the perspective of a ten year old boy.  It didn't go very well.

But I'm not going to give up!  Maybe not this year (just because I have so much going on this year already, and adding another book would only earn me a sigh from my boyfriend as he shook his head and reminded me that he would like to see me at some point) but eventually I will find a story idea that I want to write from the male perspective.

While I'm writing it, I'll probably pick the minds of all the men I know, trying to make sure that it's as accurate as possible.

But until then, I will be sticking with the female perspective.

What do you like to read?  What do you like to write?  Have you ever tried to write from the other perspective before?

In With the New!

This week me and a couple of my friends are starting a brand new project.  Something that none of us have ever done before, and that we all thought would be so much fun, we just had to do it: We're writing a script!

This all started last year when we realized that during Script Frenzy (a program that was offered by the Office of Letters and Light where the goal was to write 100 pages of script in a month) you could work as a team.  None of us thought that we would be very good at writing scripts by ourselves, but if we were working together we might actually have a chance of coming up with something noteworthy.

Of course, by the time we figured this all out, the month was nearly over, and we didn't have time to be starting anything new.  So we decided that we would put it off until this year.  That this year we were going to do script frenzy together!

You know how sometime life has a way of looking at the plans that you make and laughing in your face?  Usually it's rolling on the ground laughing hysterically until you walk away.  And even then it continues to laugh, though now it's doing so while trying to gasp out a 'wait, come back' and following after you with it's arms crossed over it's stomach because it was laughing too hard.

No?  Just me then?

Anyway, we made these plans and we thought 'this is going to be great!' and then OLL announced that it would have to regrettably drop Script Frenzy.  That since they started it, sign up rates had held steady or gone down, and the program wasn't making enough money to keep itself going.

The decision makes sense, of course.  If they're losing too much money on a project that isn't growing, why would they keep it open?  The timing was just bad.  One year earlier, and we would have managed it.

Of course, the one thing that you should know about me and my friends is that we're all damn stubborn.  We decided that we really didn't care if Script Frenzy was technically still up and running!  We were going to do a script in April no matter what!

So, in April we will be writing seven episodes (one an hour long, the others half an hour) of an original script that we've come up with.  I won't be sharing the plot of it at this point, mostly because I'm not sure we have an actual plot at this point, but I'm very excited about this.

It's the first time I'll be working on a script, and each one will be collaborative (every episode will have two writers.).  It should be an interesting experience.  With any luck, we'll have a usable script at the end of the month.  If not, well, at least we'll have tried something new.  Because nothing makes you a better writer than trying.

What are some new things that you have planned for the year?

This Feels Familiar

Today I get to do the very thing I've been so happy to not do so far this year: I get to tell you that I'm falling behind on my goals.

Yep.  You read that correctly, I'm finally falling behind.

January set me up to think that this year was going to be different.  That I was going to get through all of my goals, and I was going to be amazed at how productive I was.  Turns out, though, that I'm still quite capable of not finishing.  Of procrastinating for hours until I realize that I no longer have time to finish everything I need to get finished.

I'm not being down on myself, despite the slightly depressed tone of this post.  No, I happen to know that falling behind on goals is something that everyone does, and I know that I can turn it around if I just put my mind to it.

I also know that today isn't the day that's going to happen.

Today I have plans.  Ones that will eat up most of the hours of the day, and I only have another two hours to get as much as I possibly can done before I have to take off.  Two hours in which I have to shower, get ready to go, finish my laundry, and make my lunch for tomorrow.

Needless to say, I'm not anticipating getting much done today.  It's a depressing thought, seeing as how I'm so far behind.

Thankfully, I know that I have Tuesday off.  And I don't have any plans at night (and will not be making any) so I'm planning on getting completely caught up that day.

So, what do I have to do in order to get caught up on those goals?  Let me show you:

1) Complete 5 Epiphanies (writing exercises)
2) Edit the short story I wrote for Pen Duels
3) Write 13,000 words of Malice
4) Do two critiques

Those are my goals for the end of day Tuesday.  I have plans tomorrow too, so I'm going to have to work all day Tuesday in order to get caught up.

I think I can do it, I just need to stay focused.  Which has not traditionally been my strong suit.  But I did it last month, and I'm going to do it this month too.  I just have to keep moving forward.  Don't look back.  Don't question.  Just do it.

And don't think about all the things I have to do the rest of the year, or I start to feel overwhelmed.

What do you do when you find yourself falling behind?  How do you keep yourself on track?

It's A Celebration

This year, as I'm sure you've all noticed by now, I have a lot of goals.  I want to prove to myself that I can be a prolific writer.  That I have the capability of producing four complete (and well written) novels in one year. Of course, I am hoping that one day I'll be able to support myself with my writing (despite being advised to keep the steady job.  If I'm making enough money on my books, unsteady as that money may be, I don't think I could stomach working the day job) right now I've got a full time job that takes a significant chunk of my writing time.

So January first I started editing the first of four books that I'm hoping to get to the second draft (at least) before the end of the year.

Stolen Magick.  One of the four novels I wrote during Nano.  The first one, in fact, and the one I liked the most, despite all the headaches it gave me.  I had two characters show up that I wasn't planning on.  One character that didn't step up, even though I had made a character bible for her, a love interest that wasn't supposed to be there and more subplots than I could have ever planned out.

The way I judge how well a book goes is by how much happens that wasn't planned.  So I did pretty well.

Anyway, the goal was to have it done by the end of January.  But I've never been very good at keeping my goals.  I find them too arbitrary.  They aren't deadlines, they're just dates I pulled off the calender and decided was the day I was going to have it by done.  There's nothing holding me to that except myself, and I'm not very good at holding myself accountable.

So, when in a day of uninterrupted wordmongering I realized that I had actually finished the book and BEFORE SCHEDULE, my first thought was 'what?'

Yep.  I didn't believe it.  Even though I print off my books and there was literally no more pages to turn.   Even though I had just read the ending that I had written.  Even though I had been on track with my goal all month.  Despite all of that, I still didn't believe that I was done the book.

But I was.  Only to a second draft, don't get too excited.  And I'm already thinking that I need to play with the structure before anyone sees it.  None of that matters though, because the biggest thing here is that I accomplished my goal!

I have huge goals this month, and it's going to be key to finish the small ones in time.  So it's awesome that I'm not falling behind already.  2013 is turning out to be great so far.

Now to celebrate.  What should I do?  Here are the options:

1) Start rewriting Dangerous Waters (and epic fantasy that's far too short)
2) Start rewriting The Commons (A YA that I love, but it was just all wrong)
3) Start rewriting The Descendants (My first ever book, and a YA), or
4) Watch TV shows until February.

What do you guys think?  Post below!!

How Soon We Forget

With Nano ending only a couple of months ago, I've been hard at work editing.  In December I finished Pandora, and this month I've been working on Stolen Magick, and it's been going quite well.  I've gotten through the chapters at record speed for me.  The manuscript is reading more like a second draft than a first, and it's been making me feel pretty good about myself.  Especially since I've been finding myself with some actual free time because everything is getting done, and it's getting done early.

So what can possibly happen that would knock me back a few steps?

A short story.  Simple as that.  I had to write a short story for critique group, and I had it scheduled for Monday.  So I sat down to work on it at 11:30 in the morning.  I didn't expect for it to take too long.  I guessed about an hour.  Two tops.

Then I stared at the blank screen in front of me, not quite sure where to start.  I had an idea, but I just didn't know how to start it.

And then, when I finally got the words put down on the page, they weren't right.  Nothing was right.  I stopped after about three sentences, and immediately erased everything.

Next I started to do some research.

I just want to stop and point out here that I don't like research.  Actually I hate it.  With a passion.  I don't even like to do it for my novels.  And yet I found about six tabs open, all of them with different bits of information that I needed to write the short story.

When I had finally managed to get everything that I needed to know, I pulled up that blank page again.

It still didn't go well.  I needed names.  And then there was a million other things I needed to look up in the process of writing.

By the time the story was done it had been five hours.  FIVE!

It hasn't taken me that long to finish anything since...well...since Nano!

That's when I remembered.  Drafting doesn't always go as smoothly as I want it to.  In fact, it never does.  If I'm not struggling to force the words out, then new things that I didn't plan are appearing, and I find myself getting annoyed, and more often than not, frustrated.

I'm not saying that I hate drafting.  Far from it, it's one of my favourite part of the writing process.  I'm just glad that I remembered that before I started working on the first draft of Malice next month.  I can't wait to do it, and I'm glad that I didn't remember just how long it can take when I was getting started on a novel I have to work on for a month.

Now I just need to finish Stolen Magick so that I can move onto Malice without getting distracted.

Do you ever forget about parts of the writing process?  How do you get yourself into the story so you can write it??

Oh, The Joys of Writing

Today I get to kill someone.  Okay, well I get to decide who gets killed, but not actually kill them.

Before you call the cops, I suppose I should explain.  My epiphany (which is what I'm calling the writing exercises I've been working on) today requires me to gather together three or four ordinary people whose task it is to decide who should be killed.  I'm not allowed to convey why they have to do this, and I'm not supposed to reveal their thought process, other than what is spoken out loud to each other, and the death is not supposed to happen in the scene.

My first reaction when I read the assignment?  This is going to be fun!

Which started me thinking.  Just how sadistic am I?  This is a topic that my friends and I have all the time.  And our non-writer friends usually give us that look like they're worried we're about to have a mental breakdown.  We don't take offense to that.  If we were them we would probably be worried about the same thing.

Because I'm a writer, though, I understand the thought process that goes into the idea that having a group of ordinary people deciding on who they're going to kill is fun.  I understand that if this were happening in real life, I would be absolutely horrified.  No doubt I would seeing a news story about it, my mouth would drop open and I would think  'that's terrible!'

The fact is, though, the person getting killed is a character.  And not just any character, but my own character.

While I often contend that my characters are real to me, the truth is I know just how not real they are.  And how real I need to make them feel.

That's the heart of it, really.  We as writers are aware of just how not real our characters are.  And we know that our readers will feel the same way.  So we make them real by putting them in situations that no one would ever want to be in and force them to make a decision, or react.  That's how we can make them 'real' even in our own heads.  That's how they get their voices and personalities.  It's how we form them in our heads.

So when I say that it will be 'fun' to place characters in this situation, what I really mean is this is going to be interesting.  To see how there characters grow and develop in the short amount of time I'm giving them.

To see what answer they come up with.

Now I'm going to go force my characters to make an impossible decision.  Wish me luck.

What's the worst situation you've ever put a character in?

Productive Days

This isn't something I get to talk about very often.  In fact, most of the time I'm complaining about how far behind I am in all of my goals.  But not today.  No, today I get to tell you all about the productive day I had on Sunday.

It started out fairly well.  Without the use of an alarm clock, I was up by ten.  (For those of you who know me, you'll know that this really is a feat.  I tend to sleep in when there's nothing waking me up).  As I thought it was closer to noon or one, I started the day on a happy note.

I didn't get up right away (because, why would I?) but I also didn't go back to sleep, which I'm pretty proud of.

By eleven, though, I had already gotten to work.  The first order of business was to catch up on the editing that I hadn't managed to get to the two days before.  That wasn't difficult, as I'd already gone through the chapters, I just had to put the changes into the computer.

Then came the blog post, which was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  See, I had tried to do my epiphany, and got a little stuck, so I wrote a blog post, which helped with my idea for the epiphany.

By the time I had done all of that, it was about one, and all I had left to do for the day was to do the two chapters of editing that I had scheduled for that day.

I'll admit, I slacked off a little at this point.  I might have gotten distracted by gag reels of comedies.  It started with How I Met Your Mother and quickly progressed on to Friends.  I had a few good laughs, but eventually I had to get back to work.

When I had finished my daily editing for the day (and had even managed to polish off the epiphany for Monday and got it all set up to post) I decided that I deserved a treat for sticking to my work all day (I don't really count the slacking off.  It was just a break, I swear!)

Anyway, I decided to watch Pitch Perfect, which I've seen before, but can't seem to get enough of.  It was a nice little way to reward myself, and when I was done, I thought, I might as well get a bit more work done.

So I did my Monday editing, and threw together another blog post (yep, this one right here) just to give myself a kick start for the week.

Now, if that isn't a productive day, please, tell me what is!

I'm happy with the progress I made.  I'm sticking to my goals for the year, which is surprising me.  I'm not usually good about keeping them.  Generally I procrastinate so long that it's no longer plausible for me to finish on time, and decide that I might as well just push back that deadline since I'm not going to meet it anyway.

With the way this year has been going, I'm going to accomplish all of my goals.  My first novel of the year is going to be edited to the second draft by the end of the month, and I couldn't be happier!

Now I'm going to go...I don't know...maybe work on another chapter of editing that doesn't need to be done yet.

How are your goals for the year going?  Have you started on any of them yet?

When You Just Can't Write

There are times in a writers life where writing just becomes impossible to do.  I'm not talking about writer's block.  For those of you who are wondering, I don't believe in writers block.  Of course sometimes we get held back because we really don't know where the story is going, or we just can't figure out what about the plot isn't working, but I don't believe that's a time to throw in the towel and complain to anyone who is willing to listen about how there's no way the writing is ever getting done and damn you, writer's block.

No, when those uninspiring times hit, in my humble opinion, there's only one thing to do: Write.

Yep.  Do the very thing that you think you can't do.  Even if that scene isn't perfect, or the plot isn't going exactly where you want it to, if you just leave it to sit on the screen and be glared at, nothing is going to happen.  Keep writing, even if what's being put down is utter crap.  You can fix it in editing later, and you'll get past whatever was slowing you down to begin with.

Anyway, as I was saying, I wasn't talking about writer's block.  I'm talking about those days when writing is the last thing you want to do.

Usually these come about for particular reasons.  Like, say, a headache that you just can't shake.  Writing with a headache is like poking a bruise over and over and not understanding why it's hurting more and getting bigger.

When headaches appear, the writing goes away.  I've learned from experience that even if I force myself to write through it, what I produce isn't worth the effort.  I'm talking about unrelated tangents and stupid decisions.  It's just not feasible, at this point, to continue.

Also up there on the list are bad moods.

Don't look at me like that, yes I did just say bad moods.  Not one of those 'my day wasn't spectacular, and I feel bleh' kind of moods.  No, one of those 'Go ahead.  Try it.  See what happens.' kind of moods.

Yesterday I wasn't having a good day.  Nothing overly bad happened.  Well, the car doors were frozen shut, and I did over sleep.  Then my sister managed to piss me off.  And that was all before I even got to work.  Throw in finding out that my books were supposedly delivered last Wednesday (but never arrived) and by the time I opened my computer to begin writing -- or editing, rather -- all I wanted to do was punch someone.

Since none of my characters were about to be punched, I turned to the critiques I was supposed to do.

After a few minutes of trying to get through a paragraph, I gave up.  The last thing I want is to give someone an unjustly harsh critique.  So, rather than being at all productive, I spent the day watching TV shows.

While I regret that I'm not about four chapters behind on my editing goals, I don't regret not working yesterday.  I was in such a foul mood, I didn't talk either on the way to, or on the way home from work.  And, if you know me, you know that's serious.

Today I was hoping to make up for that.  But, as this is the first thing I've done today, and it's already so late, I'm guessing that's not going to happen.

Still, I'm going to do as much as I can tonight, and try to finish the rest tomorrow.

Sometimes writing is harder than we realize it's going to be.  Sometimes we surprise ourselves with how much we can dread the process that we love so much.  But the truth is, just like everything in the world, sometimes we do need a break.  And the biggest challenge we have is to figure out when those breaks are required.

Have you had a day where you just couldn't write?

Plot Points, Characterization, Descriptions, Oh My!

For the last year I have been doing everything I can to improve my writing.  This included starting a critique group with a friend (that has improved my writing more than I ever imagined)  Then we added Pen duels, where I send out two prompts, and everyone picks one and writes a short story (there's always rules to follow).  When we're all done writing we get together and read them out loud then give feedback.

All of these things are awesome, of course.  Every exercise we do helps me in some way or another, and as a result I find that my first drafts are getting better and better.  The biggest problem that I seem to be having now is that getting the book to a second or even third draft is far too difficult. And I think I know the reason.

I have been spending so long working on my writing (which isn't a bad thing, by any means) that I haven't worked on my editing skills at all.

Okay, I'm not horrible at editing.  I catch most of the mistakes, but I think the biggest problem I have is that I don't know how to find everything that needs fixing.  I need to figure out how to determine exactly what needs fixing in order to have my editing go better.

My solution: Get books on editing.  No, I haven't done it yet, but it's going to happen (right as soon as I have money again, which is definitely going to be after Christmas.)  I can't wait to get my hands on one and see what other ways I can edit to make what I'm doing more effective, and hopefully to cut down on the amount of time I'm spending on it.

So, this year I have a couple of goals (why would I want free time anyway?  That's just boring...):

1) Edit 4 complete novels!! (Hence the need to cut down on the time editing)
2) Participate in April's Camp Nano session (script with friends)
3) Complete all of the exercises in 'The 3 A.M. Epiphany' (201 exercises)
4) Participate in July's Camp Nano session (novel)
5) Write at least one novel not during Nano
6) Write 300k in November (One epic fantasy novel)
7) Attend WWC in August
8) Attend SIWC in October
9) See my boyfriend at some point...

Okay, I don't know if all of these are going to happen, but let's see if I can try!  All exercises I do from 'The 3 A.M. Epiphany' will be posted.  Either on my blog, or on my website (which is another goal for this year).

Do you have any goals for this year?  What's something that you need to work on when it comes to your craft?

All The Ideas

First, I would just like to say, I'm sorry I'm a day late on my blog.  Yesterday was a not great day.  It was stressful at work, I had no sleep because my mom was admitted to the hospital and the doctors didn't know what was wrong, and I editing on my break really didn't go well

Anyway, the point of the matter is that I made it through the day, but the concept of putting up a blog made me want to cry a little bit, so I decided that I would just wait until today.  Hence, a blog post on Thursday!

Lately it seems like I've been completely focused on Pandora, and the Jayne Pheare series.  This isn't a bad thing.  I have other projects I'm working on, so I don't want to be too wrapped up in it, but on the whole I would say that being focused definitely has more benefits than drawbacks.

I'm currently editing Pandora (Book 1) and planning Malice (Book 2).  Along with that comes unexpected surprises.  Like ideas for book 4 (it has a name, can't remember it right now.)  I've had ideas for book 3 running through my head since I started the series, but to suddenly be hit with ideas for book 4 was a new experience, and one that has me excited.  It means that I'm really starting to take this series seriously.  I'm starting to see where it's going, and that means that I might actually see this one through!  While I've completed books before, I've never completed a series, but I have hope now!

When I start a new series, I can usually see the first book pretty clearly (hopefully, since I'm planning or writing it) and the rest just seems to be shrouded in fog.  I have vague glimpses of a light shining through, giving me a general idea of where I want the books to go, but there are no details to accompany it.

Now that I'm getting further and further in to the series, that fog is beginning to lift.  I'm starting to see how some of the things that I've known are going to happen will come about.  I can see the motivations that I knew must be there but didn't really understand.  And while I can't see the exact ending, I'm starting to get hints of how things are going to turn out, and that makes me so excited.

Not all of my characters have happy endings, of course.  I have at least four characters who die (I hate the idea just as much as you guys, but sometimes it just has to be done).  And I know that I'm going to have a YA spin off that features kids that don't even exist yet in the book (like, not even the possibility...).  But the closer I get to these things happening, the more I know that it was the right call, even if the way it happens wasn't what I originally thought.

So now I anxiously want to start writing a YA series that I can't start until (at the very least) book 4, but which I probably actually can't put out until after the series is done.  I desperately want to plan book 3, but can't until I'm done Malice, and all I think about are these characters, which can be a problem when I'm getting a critique about a different book.

For now, though, I'm just going to do what my brain tells me to, which is to work on the Jayne Pheare series.  I'm going to get it done for January, and then I'm going to get it published.

Have you ever gotten caught up in a book?

There is Only One Goal

Each writer has their own goals, set using different variables.  How fast we write.  How fast we edit.  When we need to have something done by.  What's going on in our lives.  etc.  But there's one goal that every writer has: To be able to call themselves an author.

There is a difference, of course, between a writer and an author.  While you have to be to a writer in order to be an author, the same is not true for the other way around.  You see, writers are people who write, but have yet to be published.  Authors are people who write and have had a piece of work published.

I'm a writer.

My friend Eric A. Satchwill, however, is an author.

This momentous occasion occurred today!  He wrote a short story and submitted it to an anthology.  One yes, a couple blog posts, and some publishing later, and he finds himself with the brand spanking new title of Author.  Shiny, right?

Of course, there may have been some small amount (or huge mountains full of) jealousy on my part, but I still couldn't be happier for him.  He has achieved the first step in making it in the world of writing.  He's gotten published, and -- for today at least -- he can sit back, look at that short story and think that he has achieved something.  He's accomplished his goal.

Just like the rest of us, though, his journey isn't going to stop there.  Let's face it, I doubt there is a single author out there that got their first book/short story/poem published and thought 'yep, that's it.  My life goal.  I'm done!' No.  We always have more dreams, more goals, more accomplishments to push toward.

His is the novel he's been working on for the past two years Fallen Things.  As someone whose a part of his critique group, I can tell you that it's great, and one day it's going to be out there on the shelf ready to be purchased.

And me?  Well, we all know that I have a short story out for submission (50 days and counting...hoping to NOT get a response, because they're saying that an early response is not generally a good thing).  And, of course, there's Pandora, which I'm currently editing.  It's going well, for once.  I think that may be because I got most of the issues ironed out in the first go around.

One day soon I'm going to join Eric in the ranks of published author.  I'll have that shiny new title (may even make a name plate that says so...just for the hell of it) and I'll be ready to jump in to the work of authors and make my mark (I'll probably use a red pen...)

How close are you to getting your shiny new title?  Do you already have it?  What are you working on hoping to get published??

Becoming More Productive

During NaNoWriMo this year, I wasn’t quite as productive as I was last year. Rather than 300k words, I only ended up writing about 286k words. Which doesn’t seem like a whole lot less (and in fact produced an entire extra book) but it’s enough for me to feel like I let myself become less prolific.

Now, I know this isn’t actually true. I have four novels sitting and waiting for my attention. Most of which I’ll probably need to add words to, but I’m alright with that. I just have to figure out where I can add a little bit of action.

Anyway, because I felt less productive during NaNo, now I feel like I need to be more productive when it comes to my editing.

As any of you that regularly read this blog will probably already know, I consider myself to be a slow editor. I’m not saying it takes me years and years to get anything edited, and I probably only think that because I can get through a first draft so quickly, why doesn’t the rest of it go as quickly?

Despite knowing all of that, though, I can’t help but feel like I can go at least a little bit faster. So I’m going to be working at trying to make that happen. There’s going to be a few steps involved:

1. Actually stick to my goals. One of the big problems I have with productivity (and I know I’ve said this before) is that I seem to have a hard time keeping on track with the goals I lay out for myself. So the first step to being more productive is to lay out goals and actually stick to them.
2. Learn how to edit. I’m not saying that I’ve been doing it wrong since I started, but I’ve never really looked in to how other people edit, so I’m looking at getting some books and reading up on the subject. Hopefully I’ll learn some tips and tricks to getting through the process quicker.
3. Don’t give up! In the past when the editing seems to become really bogged down, and I feel like there’s just too much work to do to make it worth it, I give up on the novel. I’m going to try not to do that anymore. While this may not help, necessarily, with the speed of my editing, it will help with how many viable novels I have.

There you have it. My three step process. I’m also going to be changing up what I’m working on. Try to have different projects in different stages. One editing (Okay, I have two: Pandora and Birth), one planning (Malice) and one writing (I don’t have one of these yet, but I do plan to have something ready to start writing for February). That way I can move on to other projects and not spend all of my time obsessed with one.

Hopefully this will help. If not, at least I know I tried something. And it’s not like I’m ever going to give up writing. This is what I want to do with my life, now I just have to actually see it through.

Do you feel like you need to be more productive with your writing? What do you do to keep yourself on track?

Skillful Liars (Day 15)

Today is midway through nano, and I spent the day not writing.  Okay, I got some words done, just not as many as I was hoping for.  Apparently, the day before a trip is typically crammed full of last minute errands.  Who know.  Okay, probably everyone, except for me, because I've never really been on a trip like this one.

Anyway, while I was running around not writing today, I started thinking about my story (because when I'm not writing my story, I'm generally talking about it or thinking about it, or really doing something that could somehow be related back to writing.)

So, while I was thinking about my story (and talking about it to my friend) I couldn't help but realize just how skillful writers are.  Writers are the best liars out there!

Now, this might not be true face to face.  I know how to tell a lie, but I've seen some writers who are absolutely terrible at it.  But on the page, that is where the talent really shines through.  I mean, we don't write stories, we sell worlds.

We have to take something that we've come up with and create a world that the reader knows and loves and never wants to leave.  We have to bring it to life for them, and in order to do that, we have to make it real to ourselves.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  If there's one thing writers are really good at, it's lying to themselves.

Today I was so far in to my world that I was talking about the fashion.  The fashion!  I barely care about that in our world, but I was describing it with absolute glee.  (In case you're wondering, picture a mixture of modern and late eighteenth century clothing.  I have character that matches a tight bodice, corset included with capris and a hairstyle with feathers sticking out of it.  Just saying.)

Because the fashion is so relevant to how everything works in this world, I had to figure it out, and I had to care.  I had to make the world real to myself so that I can sell it to my readers.  That's just the way writers work.

There's just one problem with it.  You see, when a writer sells a world to themselves, sometimes that world becomes an obsession.  And I'm not being sarcastic.  I think about my books far more often than I probably should.  I know a few things that are going to be happening in the third book of one of my series, and I'm not even done the editing on the first book.

The characters become so real, when I talk about them to other people (who aren't my friends and therefore don't know who they are) they assume that I'm talking about some of my friends.  It gets really awkward when I start to mention things like how he or she is a werewolf, or then the Lady in th fountain showed up.

Now, I say 'problem' but the truth is, I think it's great that we have the ability to immerse ourselves in our writing so much.  We get to live in this world for a while as we try to portray it on the screen.  We get to watch these scenes that we've had running through our heads for who knows how long come to life on the page.  And then we get to watch our readers fall in love with it to.  In my opinion, there's nothing better.

How involved do you get in your stories? Do you have someone who knows your characters as well as you do?

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Daily Word Count: 5,500

Total Word Count: 123,089

Eden Has Been Betrayed! (Day 13)

So, last night I finished Aliens Stole My Socks. I liked the book, but I didn't get into it as much as I normally get in to my novels, so it's almost with a sense of relief that I put it aside and get ready to work on Betraying Eden.

As always,because I know you all love to hear me talk forever about the books I'm working on, I'm going to give you a short run down on the book I'm about to dive in to.

When the world broke out in yet another war, every nation was forced in to the fighting. Japan fought alongside China against France, Canada and the US fought each other with the UK taking Canada's side, and Mexico giving US all of their support. There wasn't a continent or country that wasn't effected by the violence that ravaged the earth. And the result was a bomb that was set off that poisoned the very air we breath.

The seven major corporations of the world acted quickly, and designed an air filter that would save the population, and installed them in underground shelters. They weren't large enough for everyone, and soon most of the population had been wiped out, and the landscape that was once rich with greenery was barren.

The underground shelters worked temporarily, but it wasn't long before people began to long to be outside. Seven cities were designed and built, each with a large dome to hold the poison at bay, and each outfitted with the air filter that would allow the residents inside the dome to survive. Then those corporations each claimed a city as their own, then declared themselves a monarchy.

It has been 150 years since the cities were built, and once more the population is growing too quickly for the domed cities. In order to moderate the people living within the cities, each one imposed a rent that those living within must pay each month to remain a resident. If this rent is even a day late, the resident is evicted with only a single canister of air to get them to the next city.

Charlie has been evicted from four different cities in her life. Her father, once a minor nobleman in Camelot, had lost all of his money, and has recently fallen ill. Now she has to care for him while trying to find the money to pay for both of their rents. Life hasn't been easy, and Kai, the guy who seemed to be infatuated with her, wasn't making it any easier. She doesn't know how to tell him that she's been taking care of herself for years, and she doesn't need his help.

Mordecai is the son of the King of Eden. His father doesn't approve of him and his forward thinking ways, but he refuses to not name him the heir. Instead he keeps all the power out of Mordecai's hands, and Mordecai has to find other ways of helping those he thinks deserves it. But on one of his trips to Snake's Ridge, he finds Charlie. He's fascinated by her. She seems so strong, despite everything that's happened to her, and he doesn't know what to make of it.

He does everything in his power to help her, usually making things worse, until one day he get's them evicted due to criminal charges. The trial, presided over by his cousin, ended with them charged as guilty and kicked out of the city.

Charlie brings them to one of the underground shelters, which has become a refuge for those that can't stay within the city, but finds themselves in the middle of a hostage situation. Now their separated, and neither sees a way of getting back home.

Alright, that's Betraying Eden. I can't wait to see how the first draft turns out.

How is your nano project coming along?

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Daily Word Count: 4,918

Total Word Count: 115,255

Hello Aliens. Please, Steal My Socks. (Day 8)

Last night I started on the next novel I had planned out for this November (I didn't get very far, but that's another blog post). Because today is the first day I get to concentrate solely on this novel, I thought I would tell you guys all about it, and where the idea came from.

In 2010 I took part in my first every NaNoWriMo, and it was a success! With 150k words under my belt, I was feeling on top of the world when I walked in to the TGIO party. I had my three novels tucked away in my bag, and I sat down with some new friends I had just made that month.

Giddy with success, and excited about what was to come afterwards, we started talking about the next NaNo.

We came up with all sorts of ideas for books, but the one that stuck with me (The one that I claimed I was going to write the next year) was an idea about a book that explained how one socks inevitably goes missing in the dryer. I said that, obviously, aliens ate the socks, and that needed to be a book.

Obviously I didn't write that book in 2011. First of all, I had forgotten about it, second, I just didn't find it plausible to actually become a book.

This year, though, when I sat down to pick out the ideas I was going to use for NaNo, that idea stuck out to me. I stared at it for a while, wondering what I could possibly do with a story like that, rejected the very thought that it could be turned in to a novel, and then finally gave in and sat down to start planning.

What I ended up with was no where near to the idea I had originally started with (which does tend to happen with most of my story ideas, honestly.)

My main character is a ten year old by the name of Tommy Thompson (yes, it did take me a while to think of the name, and yes I did pick it because of how memorable it is). In the very first chapter his world is changed forever when he finds an alien stealing a sock out of the dryer.

The alien tries to kidnap him, but when Tommy evades him, he goes after Tommy's half-sister instead. He trieds to tell his mom, but she doesnt believe him. When his friend Felicia says they need to go after Emily themselves.

The story follows them as they go on an adventure up to the mother ship, find countless other kids the aliens have stolen to bring to their home planet and serve them and begin searching for the little sister Tommy never thought he wanted.

As you may have noticed, it's a Middle Grade novel. I've never written anything like it before, and I am a little worried about having such a young main character. I think I've already made some mistakes with word choice, but that's editable. Plus, I started the story in third, but I really do think I need to change it to first.

Other than that, though, I'm excited to see what comes of this idea that I jokingly called a novel two years ago. Who knows, this could be the novel that puts me on the map as an author!

Do you have any story ideas that you're not sure would work as a novel? What are you currently writing about?

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Daily Word Count: 4,722

Total Word Count: 75,600