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?

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?

Editing Bound

Well, Nano is over for another year, and I once more find myself sitting in December wondering how I'm going to edit all of the words I wrote during November.  The answer, of course, is one book at a time.  I just wish I was faster at the editing process than I currently am.

Anyway, as I'm sure all of you noticed, my blog got a little bit of an update this week.  I (sadly) took down the donation link to nano (though if you would like to donate, just visit www.nanowrimo.org and you can definitely make the donationt here).  It will be back next year, though I won't be travelling to San Francisco in 2013.

You might also notice that I've added a 'goals' section.  This is very important, because I have a lot of goals for next year, and I'm hoping that tracking them here will make me focus on them a bit more.  Now, I didn't want to discriminate, so any and all goals I have will be making it into that section.  You'll see that getting Pandora submission worthy is first on the list.  What isn't there is getting it to Beta's by the 24th.  I decided not to add that, because technically the list is for 2013 goals, and that's still 2012.

I've actually started to continue reading through Pandora to get it edited (almost done.  On chapter 35 of 40) and I'm finding that there are actually some chapters that I enjoy reading!  This is shocking because I'm definitely my biggest critic.  I will sit there and rip my stuff to shreds, and then I hate putting it back together again.  I think this is why I don't enjoy editing as much as some of my friends do.  Anyway, the point is, I didn't find myself cringing during every chapter, and I think that means that maybe I'm ready to start raking in the rejection letters! (Let's face it, we're talking about a werewolf book.  While I think it's great, most places are going to tell me that it's a hard sell...)

Of course, I'm still waiting to hear back for the short story I submitted.  I'm not frantically checking every email, because I almost want it to take longer.  Every day I don't hear back is another day that I haven't been rejected, so I'm looking at it as a good thing that it's been over a month since the submission!

I'm slowly reorganizing myself to truly become serious about writing.  I always thought that last year I was ready for it, but I didn't even begin to be serious enough to truly make it as a writer.  I'm not quitting my day job just yet, but I'm going to crack down.  I'm going to follow through on my goals, and I'm going to be published.  Maybe not this year, but soon.  I have so many stories that I want to share with the world!

P.S. I have decided that, for now at least, the Sunday and Wednesday schedule is good for the blog, so I'm going to stick to that!

A Brief Overture

So...I may have missed my post on Wednesday.  Honestly, I don't even have a good excuse for why.  I was home (having had some plans cancelled) and all I did all night was watch shows.  I didn't even write.  So why couldn't I get words down to post on my blog?

I think it may have been lack of inspiration.  It's been months since I've missed a post, and as much as I love posting twice a week, lets face it, sometimes it's hard to come up with things to write about that I haven't already said a million and a half times.

But here I am posting today (though I actually don't have a firm topic for this post...you may have noticed already).  I'm getting back on track.

In that spirit, I thought I would tell you all just what my goals (and plans) are for the next month.

October is probably going to be just as busy as August was, except that critique group is still meeting, which means that I have to have two submissions for the course of the month.  The first is going to be a short story that I wrote and submitted to an online magazine.  The magazine in question has yet to get back to me, and has told all submitters that if they wish to send their stories out to other publishers, they understand.  I have decided that it's just been too long for them to have not gotten back to me and will be withdrawing my submission and shopping it in other markets.  As I view this story as one of the best things I've ever written, I'm hoping that it will get published.

For the second submission, I have no idea what I'm going to send in.  Originally I was planning on writing another short story to submit, but now that I'm looking over my month, I'm thinking that idea is going to be just about as smart as thinking I could do Camp Nano in August.  In other words: that's a dumb idea...so I'm still working on that.  If my month goes the way I expect it to go, I doubt it's going to happen.

We will be moving at the end of the month (lame...I hate moving).  This wasn't exactly our choice, and we will be moving further away from my work, which means my drive is about to double (and take me on roads I don't particularly enjoy driving on.) But I'm grateful that we have a home and we're not scrambling to find somewhere to live.  Unfortunately not only does that take a day for the actual move, but then there's the packing and the unpacking involved.  Coupled with the weekend getaway to my grandmother's house and all the other random little plans I make on a week to week basis, I'm worried about getting any of my work done, never mind anything else.

Pandora, my novel that I'm trying to edit, isn't going as well as I had hoped.  I have four chapters left to edit, and it's the last day that I was supposed to be working on the second draft.  I have already done two chapters today, though, and I have a friend working with me online.  I'm hopeful that I'll get it done tonight (and by hopeful I mean that I'm going to be frantically editing for most of the night before falling in to bed exhausted.) but I don't know if I actually will.  Wish me luck!

I have been plucking away at the planning for my fourth and final novel for nano.  So far my lineup is: Stolen Magick, Aliens Stole My Socks, Betraying Eden and Birth.  Birth is the one I'm currently working on.  I have some brainstorming done, but I'm actually ahead of schedule on that one.  I wasn't even supposed to start the planning until tomorrow, so I'm not too worried.  But I need to make sure I don't get behind in those goals.

This month is going to be hectic, but I'm hoping that I still manage to get everything done.  Now I just need to go finish the second draft of Pandora.

What are your goals for the month of October?  Are you going to join us in our blog post a day challenge in November?

The Next Big Thing

 I have been tagged in another challenge, and I thought it would be fun to post it.  So, here it goes.  I'm going to use the book that I'm currently editing and hoping to query in January.

What is the title of your book?

Pandora - Book 1 of the Jayne Pheare Series

Where did the idea come from?

I've never been a huge fan of this question, but that's mostly because I don't always remember where I get my ideas from.  Thankfully I do actually remember where this one came from, so I can answer the question.  Last nano I was hanging out in our chat room (which I may be slightly addicted to during November)  where we have an awesome name generator for all of those character naming emergencies you have during nano.  (If you've never done nano, trust me, these do happen.  More often than you would think.)  Anyway, one of the other regulars (we're having the room tested for drugs...so far it's clean) was randomly generating names.  I don't know if he was actually looking for a name, or just procrastinating, but regardless, many a name was being brought up, most of which were being made fun of or just out right rejected.  And then Jane Fear popped up.  I was hooked immediately.  I knew I had to make that character, though I honestly didn't know anything else about the character (as you may have noticed, I have since changed the spelling of the name.).  I took the idea and ran with it.

What genre does your book fall under?

Urban Fantasy

What actors would you chose to play your characters in a movie?

 Honestly, this is probably the hardest question on here, as I don't cast my characters before I write the book.  I prefer to imagine them exactly the way I want them, rather than equating them with a face that isn't exactly right.  But, as it's a question being asked on a challenge I've committed to doing, I suppose I'll do my best, though I guarantee nothing.

Jayne - Eriko Tamura

Dax - Chris Pine

Ashley - Brian Tee

Zane - Chris Hemsworth

Lashon - Kristen Bell

Mac - Rupert Grint

Reggie - Malin Ackerman

Jerri - Michelle Williams

Brooks - Michael Ealy

Yep, I was right, that took me longer than all the other questions I answered.  But that's my cast.  I thoroughly enjoyed casting my characters ^^

What is the one - two sentence synopsis for your book?

A conscience can make an assassin's job hell.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I'm definitely hoping to be represented by an agency.  Not that I have anything against self publishing, and will probably self publish if the traditional route doesn't go anywhere, it's just that I don't particularly trust myself to do everything correctly.  To have a solid book that I wouldn't cringe while reading if I had bought it.  To be able to advertise it enough to make any kind of profit.  So, I would prefer to have an agent and publisher.

What else about your book will pique your readers' interest?

While assassins and werewolves have both been done, putting them together isn't something you see very often.  Add in a conscience, some sexual tension and a bit of a mystery, and I think this is a book any Urban Fantasy reader would love.

The Tags

Alright, so here are the tags.  The person who tagged me tagged three people, so I'll do the same:

B.A. Matthews
Eric Satchwill
Breeana Putroff

My Goals

Today I thought I would revisit the goals and deadlines I have set out for myself.  This isn't a new topic by any means.  I've discussed my goals on here more times than I care to count.  Unfortunately, I have yet to be able to actually finish a goal.  Somehow I always end up behind on every deadline I set for myself.

I've always wondered why I could do nano so well, but my own goals seem to be pushed to the wayside and never seems to happen.

It could be because nano is a deadline that's been set out by another person.  Rather than just the arbitrary goals I come up with in my head.  I have something that tells me how far I am to my goal, something that reminds me how long I have to complete the goal.  It's something I can't change, because it's not a goal that I came up with.

So, I've come up with some more goals for myself, and I'm hoping that I won't flake out on them like I normally do.  I'm going to really try hard not to.

The Goals:

Finish editing to chapter 20 of Pandora by Friday August 17th.  This dead line has obviously already passed, and sadly I have no accomplished it yet.  I'm working on chapter 14 right now, so I'm actually not even close.  Which means that I'm going to have to push back all of my deadlines for Pandora.  I'm going to have a tentative goal of finishing the second draft by the end of September, and ready for submissions by the end of January.

Finish planning Aliens Stole My Socks by the end of August.  I'm actually on track for this one.  I've broken it down into steps, and set goals for those steps.  The next part I'm working on is a point by point outline for it.  After which will come character bibles (of which I have about six or seven) and then a full plot.  I think I can keep on track for this one.  I kind of need to, because I have two more books to plan out before the beginning of November, and I only have two more months to do it.

Which brings me to my next two goals, which I'm going to lump together.  Finish the planning for the last two novels I will be writing in November. I'm giving each novel (one about a world were air is a valuable commodity, and the other about a Phoenix.) a single month.


At this point I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it all done.  I hope I can, but I definitely can't guarantee it.  There's a lot of work to do.  Each of the novels I'm writing in November is a new project, which means that new worlds need to be explored.  I can't put them off too long.  I'd have to start planning each new novel on the first day of each month.

Plus, I really can't put off Pandora, because there's no reason to continue writing new projects if I never get my work out there.  I actually need to finish a book, all the way through to a final draft.  I can't just sit on it anymore.  I want people to read my work, which means that I need to send it out into the world.  I can't continue to constantly work on new projects.

So I'm going to commit myself to these goals.  I may not make them all, but I'm going to damn well try my best.  If I don't succeed, at least I'll know that I did everything I could.

When Editing Takes Over

Last time I talked to you about how my inner editor had escaped, and how I was planning to catch her, put her back in her cage, and make sure I locked it this time.  I swear that was my intention.  I was going to do it.

I'm not sure what happened, to be honest.  I had the cage open, the editor in hand, and I was really trying to get her back in the cage...and then she was gone again.  Slipping away as if I had never caught her in the first place.

Here's the thing, though, I've never had a great relationship with my inner editor.  Okay, so actually I had a great relationship with her.  I just shoved her into her cage and forgot about her.  I never checked on her.  Hell, I don't even know her name.  It was the perfect writing relationship.  She never got on my case, so I could just keep writing all of the time without having to worry about it.  I was even able to leave those little red lines under the words alone.  At least, I was until the end of the word war.

It was fantastic!  So, what happened, you ask?  Simple.  I let her out.

I decided it was high time I did some editing.  July was always supposed to be an editing month for me, so when the betas didn't get back to me, I had a very cranky editor bitching at me every day about how this was supposed to be her time.

So I gave in.  I pulled out the other novel I happened to have finished (don't give me that look, it's the one I wrote in June...) and started the edits on it.  You might have heard me ranting...um...I mean discussing...the fact that there were going to be some major rewriting going on with the novel.

I was actually looking forward to it, which I'm starting to think may have something to do with how often I leave her locked up.  Honestly, more than I really should.  Even when I'm editing I'm not really consulting her.  I tear through it and don't fix most of the problems.  It's not a good way to edit, and as a result I've never gotten  a novel to the point that I can actually say I was happy with it.

Now, though, my inner editor seems to have had enough.  She's battened down the hatches, and she intends to stay for the long haul.  Which means, she wants me to edit.

Of course, now all I can think about is the book that I've been editing.  My writing has gone absolutely no where in days, despite my decision to hold off on the sequel I was writing in order to finish editing the first book.  I stare at the screen for hours instead of doing anything productive, all because I keep trying to put her off.

Maybe I need to give in to her.  I write enough during the year that maybe right now I need to get down to editing.  I need to focus on this novel that could be the first one I publish (if anyone is willing to take on another werewolf book...).  Maybe I shouldn't keep on ignoring her, even when she's yelling in my ear.

I guess it's about time that I actually take my editing seriously.  That I finish editing a novel, step back and think, that's pretty damn good.  It's time for me to sit down with my inner editor and fix everything that's wrong with this novel

Hmmm...I wonder if my inner editor has a name?

Well, off to tackle the challenge of getting this book up to par!

It's Baaaack!

On this the last Sunday of the month, I feel the need to mention, however obvious it might be, that camp nano will be returning to the world in only a few short days.

I, of course, have already figured out what I'm going to write.  I actually have it plotted and ready to go.  Not because I'm amazing, just because I need to know it's ready before I even start writing.  I have to have that plot, or I start to freak out.  Trust me, I know this.  How?  Because I'm (literally) in the middle of a pantsing novel that does nothing but stress me out when I so much as think about it.

So with my mind firmly on the novel I'm about to start writing (with the occasional distraction of the novel that I'm currently editing) I thought I would make today's post a little shorter than normal and give you all an update on what's going on with me and my projects.

I've never been one to have only a single project that I focus on.  I get bored and need to move on to something different, so I currently have a few different things on the go.

Pandora a novel about a werewolf who also happens to be an assassin (I love it so far, even if I did just realize that I need to rewrite half of it) is in the middle of heavy editing.  I was supposed to be editing The Commons this month, but unfortunately feedback has been delayed, and I haven't been able to work on it.  I ended up pulling out Jayne's story, and now I actually can't wait to see how it turns out.

I've finished planning out the novel Stolen Magick, a YA about a school that teaches Arcanists (humans with the ability to wield magick) how to control their powers.  I'm very excited for this one, because I can't wait to see where the series goes.  Unfortunately, it will have to wait until November, as I won't be writing it until then.

I have 3 more novels I'll be planning for November as well.  None of them are named, but I have started brainstorming for a mid grade about a 10 year old who catches an alien stealing socks out of the dryer.  Stay tuned for more.  This one should be fun.

Three short stories have been written this month.  One has been submitted, and I'm waiting for a response.  One is going to be looked over one last time before I try to find somewhere that I want to submit it, and the last is going to be a kick off point for one of the novels for November.

The Techs, the second book in The Commons series is completely planned and ready for me to dive in August first.  (I've been eagerly awaiting writing this book, and can't wait to start.  The goal is to have it done by the 20th.)

I got some feedback from a beta reader today on The Commons and have come to the realization that I need to go over it many times more and fix many problem spots, but I can't wait to get started.  Unfortunately, it's now going to have to wait until I get through Pandora.

Okay.  I think that's all the updates I have for now (Yeah, I know, it's a lot.  I'm a little crazy...)  I'm excited for every single one of these projects, and I can't wait to see where they go.  I hope that your camp nano is amazing!

***I'm currently collecting donations for OLL (Office of Letters and Light) who hosts NaNoWriMo every year.  My goal is $500 and I've already hit 60% of that.  I need your help to complete my goal, however.  Help me raise money for the organization that single-handedly helped me to figure out jthat I'm a writer.***

A Short Visit

So, I've been busy trying to get this novel written.  My character has been doing all sorts of things she's not supposed to be doing, and completely messing with the end of this novel...we're going to have to sit down and have a talk, her and I.

Anyway, I'm sitting here waiting for the next round of wordmongering to start, and I realized that I needed to post something today.  Of course, having not realized this before hand, I have exactly nothing by way of a topic to talk about, so I thought I would just post a short (very extremely short) update for all of you.

I have written a total of 66k words so far in the month, and should be finishing Pandora sometime tomorrow (after which I will be working on a single chapter that I owe a collaboration partner, then onto the pantsing novel, that I'm actually quite nervous about.)

While this isn't anywhere near my finishing on day five during nano in November, I'm quite pleased with how quickly I've gotten this writing done, as last year was a bit of a mess (I barely finished in July, and didn't come close to finishing in August)

I also wanted to give you all a heads up that sometimes soon I should be posting a review/author interview for a series of books that I've recently read.

Anyway, that's about all I have for you today.  I promise I'll get something better up Wednesday or Thursday.  For now, I've got to go figure out the end of this novel, since my character obviously didn't like the one I came up with.

A Pantsing Experiment

Well, here it is, a week into camp nano, and rather than feeling like I wasn't going to get through it (as I did last year) I'm actually doing really well.  A  lot of this probably has something to do with a certain wordmongering friend that has been challenging me to keep my word counts up.  But another part of this is the fact that everyone is actually doing camp nano, rather than last year when it fell a little flat.

Of course, because I was basing my success this year on how I did last year (I won the July round of camp nano, but only int he last weekend when I sprinted across the finish line by writing 25k words...) it's come to my attention that I simply don't have enough story left to finish out the month.

Sure, I suppose I could stretch it out.  Write less words each day so that I don't type out that very last sentence until the last day of camp nano, but where's the fun in that?  To know I can do it and purposely slow down just so that I'm not bored for the rest of the month?  That really isn't me, something I learned my very first nano when I hit the 50k mark halfway through and decided that I couldn't stop the journey just because I'd run out of material.

Naturally, when I realized that I was about to run into the same situation (I project that this book will be completely written no later than Friday, and that's only if I take more days off like I did today) I started to worry about what I was going to do for the rest of the month.

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I think of Nano as a journey.  It's not just about getting the words on the page.  It's a self challenge.  The only person who's going to end up disappointed in the end if you don't finish, is yourself.  Of course, where you consider 'finished' is another story entirely.  Going out to the write ins and meeting other authors who are struggling with the same issues as you is another part of this journey.  As is all the ups and downs your characters give you.

To this day I have never heard a person say 'My nano novel went exactly the way I planned' because no matter how much time you put into plotting something is always going to come up in the middle of a word war that throws you for a loop and has you furiously trying to figure out where that little twist is going to fit into the rest of the story.

Even if my word count is done early, stopping when it's over, to me, is a little like ordering the wrong meal at a restaurant.  It's food, and it's good.  It will satisfy the hunger that brought you to that restaurant, but at the end of the meal, there's always something missing.  That little extra something that you know you would have gotten if you'd just ordered that other meal you had been contemplating.

Nano runs for a month, and I think the experience should be a month long.

So this month, I've decided to do a little experiment.  I'm going to try pantsing a novel.  That's right, you heard me (or read me?).  The queen of planning is going to grab a story by the horns and give it a whirl.  I even have the idea picked out (one that I've looked at before and dismissed as not catching my attention suddenly jumped off the page today and shouted out an idea that makes it so much more interesting than it was before).

Wish me luck!  As soon as I finish Pandora a new novel will be written, and I don't know what's going to happen.  As a good friend told me, it's time to jump off the cliff with my eyes closed.  No seeing where I'm going, no aiming for the soft bushes.  It's time I landed in the wild roses and got skewered by thousands of tiny thorns.