And Progress Is Made!

Despite the lack of motivation that I've been suffering from during the last week or so, I'm happy to report that progress has officially been made on my latest project, Dangerous Waters.

I've been trying to rework this project, which I've written once, and am currently in the process of giving a complete overhaul, for a couple of weeks now, though only seriously since I finished Pandora and sent that out to my last beta reader before it moves onto the stage of agents (scary!).  But this last week, I had stalled out on it.

I was worried it was because of how I was planning it out.  Rather than doing a full on planning (which I didn't think necessary, as the story has already been written once, no matter how different it's going to be when I'm done) I've been using the cork board I bought to help me figure out the restructuring Pandora currently went through.

The last time I worked on it, I had nine chapters up on the board and absolutely no idea on where the story was going.  In fact, those nine chapters weren't very good.  Okay, it wasn't the chapters themselves, just the order (and the emphasis I was putting on them).

I figured out the problem, eventually.  The novel centres around three women (who are the main characters of the entire series) and I was trying to give them all equal say in the novel.  In order to do that, I was structuring it very specifically, making sure that they each got a turn one after the other.

Needless to say, it wasn't going over very well.  So, I decided that one of the characters needed to be the main POV, whether or not the tension of the story revolved around her.  When I figured that out, I tried to restructure again, this time giving her twice as many chapters as the other two.

Again I found myself looking at those opening chapters and thinking that they just weren't right.  There wasn't enough action, or plot, or even world building.  They all felt like filler chapters, and that couldn't happen.

So tonight, when I finally decided that enough was enough and I was going to get some work done or die trying (okay...I wasn't actually willing to die over getting work done...but, hey, I'm a writer, I'm allowed to exaggerate) I sat down and stared at the board.

It took a while to get into it.  At first all that happened was taking down the cue cards and trying to figure out what was wrong with them.  Eventually, though, I managed to get that ball rolling.  Scene after scene started to present itself to me.  And, rather than focusing on whose POV was being used, I focused on where the story needed to go, and what would help me get there.

As a result there are currently seventeen chapters up on the cork board.  And the best part?  They feel right!  Like the story is actually moving, and there's enough tension and plot to not stall out!

I'm pretty excited to rework this project.  It was one of my favourites, and I know that my critique group will be happy too.  I can't wait to see what the final result will be.  I have a good feeling, though.  This novel is going to go somewhere.  Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to work on next.

Do you have any tips on how to get past those block?  How do you figure out what POV each scene needs to be from?

The Big Distraction

During Nano I always have this incredible focus.  I'm not sure what, exactly, about that month that allows me to just lose myself in my writing.  I've theorized in the past that it's the competition.  Anyone who knows me is aware of just how much that drives me through the month.  Watching my word count rise, and comparing it to that of the counts around me.  I find that incredibly motivating.

I've also wondered if it's just because there are so many people around doing the same thing as me.  Having the ability to go on the chat and know that every person there is struggling to get out the words they need to meet those goals is highly motivating.  It tells me that I'm not alone.  That we're in it together.

Whatever it is, though, it's certainly not present right now.

I've challenged myself to do NaNoEdMo.  Basically I have to edit for 50 hours this month. I haven't done too bad so far.  I've actually finished the book I was editing, and I've moved on to another project.  This one is getting completely rewritten, and it requires a lot of planning on my part so that I don't end up with the same issues that I had with it in the first place.

I'm counting it all as editing, because this isn't a first draft.  Well, technically it is.  There was so much wrong with that original draft, I can't even really call it an outline at this point.  But, to me, all of those hours that I put into that original draft weren't wasted.  It helped me to get to the point with my writing where I feel like I have the ability to write the story that it originally deserved to be, so I'm counting it as a rewrite and therefore editing.

I'm also going to count it as writing next month, but that's completely besides the point.

The point is that I've edited for seventeen and a half hours so far this month.  I'm supposed to be at twenty-two hours.

Why am I behind?  That's simple: distraction.  I'm not blaming the distractions themselves.  Is it Deception's fault that when I watched the first episode I couldn't stop watching it until I finished?  No!  Is it my friends fault that I would rather hang out in my email and wait to see what they say next rather than opening my scrivener project and getting to work?  No!  Is it my cat's fault that I walked away from my computer to go cuddle with her for twenty minutes so she would stop meowing outside my door?  Okay...that one might be on the cat.  But she didn't know that she was distracting me!

I can't concentrate.  I don't know why.  I tell myself that I'll do something, and then I just don't.  I need to figure out how to capture the feeling of NaNo in a bottle so that I can take a swig anytime I need a kick in the butt.

Until then, though, I suppose I'll just have to rely on twitter and my friends there to keep me going.  I need to have, at the very least, the planning for this book done before next month.  No more procrastinating.  No more telling myself that I can catch up on my next day off.  I need to focus.

Now to just tell my motivation that.

How do you keep your motivation in check?  Do you ever find your attention wandering, even when you really want to be working?

A Tangled Mess of Cords

If there is one thing everyone knows about me, it's that I hate editing.  With a passion.  If I could, I would just write out perfect first drafts and never have to look at it again.  Sadly, because flawless first drafts are something dreams are made of, I have come to the realization that I will never be able to pump out first drafts that people should actually read.

I've accepted this as fact, and have moved on with my life.  So now I spend my time trying to look at editing in different ways.  Sometimes it's to try and show myself just how necessary editing really is (I once compared it to surgery.  The novel is broken, and when it goes into the operating room the bad parts are taken out and new stuff is put in to help fix it.  Not a perfect analogy, but close enough).  This latest one, though, was more to just explain how I feel when I'm editing.  So, I thought I would share it with you, so you could understand just why I hate editing so much.

I know from experience what the most annoying thing in the world is reaching into your pocket and pulling out the tangled mess of headphones that the perfectly knotted bundle you put in your pocket that morning has become.  I swear sometimes the headphones actually knot themselves, because that's the only explanation that I can come up with for how they end up so tangled.

Now, take those knotted headphones and add a whole bunch of other cords, all of them the deepest black so that you're not quite sure where one starts and the next end.  Or if the knots are even knots or just massive lumps of cord that have somehow formed out of what was once perfectly fine headphones.

That is what editing feels like to me.

I don't just mean that moment when I first pull the headphones out of my pocket, though I certainly do get that feeling when I first print off my manuscript and read thought it.  No, it's the process of untangling those headphones that is rather like editing.

The first thing you do is choose one cord.  Of course, you never know what this cord is attached to, but you're really hoping it's the headphones.  And you start to follow it until you get to the first knot, which is never all that hard to undo.  You laugh a little because this is going to be so much easier than you first thought.  Surely everything was going to be just as simple as that, and therefore you had nothing to worry about.

Right around then is when you hit the second knot.  Except this isn't just a knot.  It's a super knot.  It started out as a single knot that somehow got caught up with other knots.  Cord tangled around it, leaving you with a zillion strings coming out of it, and no idea how to even start untangling it.  That's when that tiny bit of hope you had been feeling disappears.

Eventually you get through it, painstakingly unravelling every knot, separating the cords so that you know which one is when, and when you're done...you have a cord in your hand that isn't tied to anything.

You have to start over.  For just a second you consider going to the store and buying new headphones.  Surely that must be easier than untangling this mess, right?  But, no.  You can't go to the store every time they get tangled.  You're never going to end up with those magical headphones that won't tangle (Okay, actually there are untangleable headphones, but shhh!)  No, you really should just suck it up and keep untangling.

So you grab a new cord and start all over again, painstakingly picking at each knot.  Slowly unravelling it, and discarding unusable cords along the way.  The further into it that you get, the more clearly you start to see the end.  You can see the loops and knots that created this mess, and you start to see how you can fix it.  You know before you unravel which cords aren't attached to the headphones, and you start to feel like maybe -- just maybe -- you can get them untangled!

And, eventually, you do.  Eventually those headphones come loose with one final tug, leaving you finally able to listen to your music in peace.  And in that brief shining moment you forget that the next time you put those headphones in your pocket they'll tangle again.  You ignore that those headphones are imperfect, with tiny knots that you didn't quite get still hanging around in it's length, and you relish the music that pours through them.

That is how I feel about editing.  And the next draft I do tends to get better and better.  Until I send it out to beta readers, and then it feels like I have those same cords in my hands begging to be untangled.  But, I know that eventually I will get through it.  I just have to take it one knot at a time!

How do you feel about editing?  Do you even find yourself wondering if that book is even worth it in the end?

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!!

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?

Motivation, Thou Art Fickle

Well, it happened.  The thing I knew was going to happen.  How did I know?  Because it always does.  I always fall prey to the mindset of not wanting to do anything for a single day.  And that single day somehow always follows the day when I was too busy to finish all of my work.  And where does that leave me?

Behind.  That's where it leaves me.  I'm supposed to be finishing up chapter 10 today during my editing challenge, and instead I'm stuck on chapter 6 (which requires rewrites) and I shouldn't be.  Because yesterday I had the entire day to work, and instead I chose to watch TV shows.

Now, you might think, how is it that I could just decide to watch TV shows and not feel guilty over not doing the work I promised myself to do?  The answer to that probably isn't what you think.  I do feel guilty.  Unfortunately guilt doesn't seem to keep my motivation in overdrive.  It just makes me wallow.  And when I wallow, I don't get any work done, I just keep putting it off more and more until suddenly I find myself piled under a mountain of work that I would have been able to get through if I hadn't been so damn lazy.

Don't get my wrong, I'm not complaining.  I did this to myself, just like I always do.  And I'm going to try and make sure that I get the work done today.  (This means editing 5 chapters -- at least -- writing one epiphany, and this blog post.)  At least I've gotten started before it's dark outside.

Unfortunately, now is when my brain has actually started to feed me information about the novel I'm currently planning.  (I don't know a whole lot about it yet, but I can tell you that it's set two hundred years in the future where only the very rich own cars, and most people travel around via teleportation pads.  The main character is a spy who has been forgotten and has taken to drink and sleeping around to forget .)  The problem with that is that I need to have Stolen Magick edited to a second draft by the end of January.  The other novel isn't going to even be written until June at the earliest, so why am I focusing on something that doesn't need to be done for a couple more months?

Okay, maybe I've slipped in to complaining a little bit.  Sorry.

Anyway, I'm once more recommitting myself to my goals.  I need to get this book editing.  I've promised myself that I'm going to plan, write and edit four complete novels this year, and damn it, I'm going to do it!  I just have to make sure that the motivationless days don't come around very often.  I have things to do, and if that means that I can't always keep up on all of the shows that I love, well so be it.

This is what I want to do with my life, and I'm not going to let a little bit of laziness get in my way.  So it's back to the YA for me.  I've got some words to wrestle into shape.

Do you ever find yourself unable to stay motivated?  How do you force yourself to keep working?

Another Dip in the Editing Pool

In November, a group of us spent a lot of time writing together, which does tend to happen during NaNoWriMo.  It's so much easier to get the writing done if you have other people doing the same thing as you.

Anyway, we were talking about it, and we couldn't help but wonder why we, as writers, are so willing to work together and have a similar goal during November, but not the rest of the year.  Why do we let ourselves become less productive just because it isn't time for NaNo?

It didn't take us long to decide that we needed to come up with another month that was much sooner than April's Camp Nano session where we could all work together, and decided to have a February challenge for writing.

Why February, you ask?  Simple.  That was when I thought I would have something ready to write.  Yep.  That was the entire reason.  Turns out, I could have had something ready for January.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have something ready, but it's all good, I can just start planning another novel.

Here's the agreement:  During the month of February, we would have a writing challenge.  We all pick a writing goal (mine is 100k words, which should get me the second novel in my Jayne Pheare series written).

I'm quite excited for this.  It will be a month that isn't Nano where I might actually be productive (which was one of my goals for the year).  There won't be any websites to track our progress, but we will all be accountable to each other, and try to keep everyone on track for the month.

But wait, you say, what does all of this have to do with editing?  Now, that's where the story gets interesting.

You see, we were discussing this idea of ours to have a writing challenge and another girl said she would love to do it, but why not do an editing challenge in January too?


I, for one, was more than happy with this idea.  I have a ton of editing to get done, and having other people working at the same time for some reason always seems to help.  So I agreed immediately, and after a few other yeses, we had ourselves an editing challenge.

Of course, I finished the novel I was editing, and it's currently with beta readers, but I'm going to be editing Stolen Magick, a YA about a young girl who discovers that she has the ability to wield magick.  I had a lot of fun writing it, because a lot of stuff happened that wasn't originally planned.  Characters, plot points, love interests and entire chapters were added in, and I can't wait to see how it turned out.

So on January first, I will be diving head first in to the pool of editing another novel (which means that I have to actually pay attention to a world than the one I've been living in for the last little while).  It's going to be interesting.

2013 is going to be a great year, and it's going to start with some editing.  (nope, I never thought I would ever say those words either).

Are you going to get some editing done in January?  What's your favourite part of the writing process?

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?

Welcome to the World of Writing

One of my favourite quotes of all time comes from a movie called Stick It.  It's about ja girl who's forced back in to gymnastics after she walked out of the worlds.  If you haven't seen it, it's a fantastic movie.  Anyway, here's the quote:

Gymnastics tells you no. All day long. It mocks you over and over again. Telling you you're an idiot. That you're crazy. If you like running full-speed towards a stationary object, vault's for you. If you like pealing pieces of skin the size of quarters of your hands... bars is for you. Because the only thing more fun then rips, is when your rips get rips. It's super sexy. And floor, are you serious, I mean who doesn't want to parade around in a leotard getting wedgies and doing dorky choreography? It's delicious. If you like falling, then gymnastics is thee sport for you! You get to fall on your face, your ass, your back, your knees, and your pride! It's a good thing I didn't like falling... I LOVED IT!

So, why am I telling you this quote?  Quite simply because, in my eyes, I can equate it to writing.

Sure, as a writer we don't actually physically run toward a stationary object, but we do run toward the ending of a book, not knowing exactly how it's going to turn out.  We may not have skin peeling off our hands, but we have wrist problems from writing so much, and headaches from listening to characters.

But, most of all, it's the falling that really got to me.  We don't literally fall on our faces, our asses, our back or our knees.  But when you don't know where to take the book, it feels a little like you were running full out and landed on your face.  When you realize half way through a chapter that you don't need it, or the one before, it feels a little like the ground has fallen out beneath you and you find yourself on your ass not sure you want to do the work.

And out prides?  The pride of a writer takes a beating unlike almost any other profession in the world.  We work for ages on this book, something that we've poured our heart and soul in to, we fuss over it like it's our child, and worry about whether it's any good.  Then we send it out in to the world and hope that we've done everything right.

As I learned this past week, more often than not that results in a fall.  Our pride takes a beating as we get back rejection letters telling us that the work that we poured in to our manuscripts or short stories wasn't enough.  That we did it wrong.

Being a writer isn't all fun and games.  To be a writer, we have to (as the quote says) not just like falling, but love it!

We have to be able to get past those beatings and continue onward toward our ultimate goal.

With that in mind, I'm going to take that story and submit it somewhere else.  After I lick my wounds for a couple of days.  Because, no matter how bad of a beating my pride took, I know that this is what I want to do.  And if I want a story published, I have to be persistent.

Now, I just have to find somewhere that I think is good enough for my story, and hope they think it's the right fit too.

Wish me luck!

Have you gotten any rejection letters yet?  What do you do to keep yourself from thinking that you're not good enough?

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??

Christmas Is Coming!

Well, it's that time of year again.  That time that we all look forward to all year, thinking about how we're going to spend time with our families, exchange beautifully wrapped presents, laugh and maybe drink a little egg nog.  Where the house smells like turkey and christmas cookies, and for once you don't mind the dog being underfoot because this is the time when everyone being together is exactly what you want.

Of course, the reality of the holiday often pales in comparison with what we hope it to be.  Family can't make it because of work, or they do show up and every starts yelling at each other.  That dog gets in the way even more than he normally does, and more than once you send him whimpering off to the corner because you stepped on his tail.  The turkey is dry, you forgot the stuffing, and why did your aunt think that her 'famous' fruit cake (which no one can stand) would make a helpful addition to the menu?

For me, of course, Christmas comes with it's own set of challenges.  Every December I promise myself that I'm not going to let myself slack off just because it's Christmas.  I'm going to get that editing done (and, yes, it's always editing) and then I go ahead and give myself a pass because I really do have a lot of things going on in December.  From birthdays (Mom's, Dad's, Aunt's, Uncle's and Cousin's.  That's not even including my friends.) to travelling for the holidays.  Add to that the fact that my boyfriend wants me to go see his family too, and I'm faced with a very long month and not enough shifts at work to cover it all.

I can get pretty stressed, and my writing and editing suffers because of it.

Don't get me wrong.  I still love Christmas.  I love getting to see my family (even if I do have to travel in the snow to see them).  I love smelling my grandmother's cooking (and then eating it too, of course.) Not all the presents I buy or get are the most amazing things in the world, but it's nice to know that we're thinking about each other.  And, yes, my family does sometimes yell and scream at each other, and yes it can be overwhelming, but that doesn't mean that I'm not glad to be there and to have them.

There are people in this world that aren't nearly as lucky, and I thank God every day that I have so many people in my life that I can be this stressed at Christmas.

This year, though, I have a very firm goal in my head.  I want to have my novel edited and out to Betas by Christmas.  Which means that with everything else going on -- the buying of presents, the baking, the wrapping and the travelling -- I have to make time to editing.  I have to force myself to set aside time to sit down and work on my writing.  Because, if I can't do that, what am I doing trying to write?

I want to be published.  I can't continue to act like it's something fun I do on the side.  I have to make time for it and not think that it's something I can do later.

What are you doing for Christmas?  Will you be making time for writing or editing this December?

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!

Life After Nano (Day 28)

Today I read a blog post talking about NaNoWriMo (it was during a word war when I was supposed to be writing, but don't judge me!  I got my words for the day done early,  I swear!)

Anyway, in this blog post (which I'm sure wasn't actually intended as negative toward Nano) they basically said that nano isn't the end all of writing.  That at the end of the day it doesn't matter.  That getting the first draft of any book done isn't the biggest step.

Of course, I know that nano isn't the last step you need to get published.  You can't finish a book and hand it over, expecting them to give you money for it.  An author once visited my school and told us about the writing process.  He glossed over a lot of it, of course, as he was talking to ten year olds, but the basic thing that I came away with was LOTS of drafts.  So, I've always been aware that this isn't an easy thing to do.

The thing is, though, that I don't necessarily agree with everything that he said.  No, the first draft isn't the end of writing.  You can't finish writing the first draft and assume that you're done.  And if you're doing something like nano (which can create some real crap writing, when you hit a part that you can't figure out and know you need to get the words, so you just write down whatever you need) then you really need to go back and look over your work.  Not just for the spelling mistakes, but for everything.  Plot holes, faulty character development, the stupid ball, and even bad choices.

But without that first draft, without getting something down on paper, there isn't anything there to edit, to double check, to get beta readers for, and finally to submit.

For me, that first draft came with Nano.

Yes, I know that 50k words doesn't generally a complete novel make.  I knew that the first time I wrote nano.  Of course, that year I did end up doing 50k novels, but just because the goal of nano is 50k doesn't mean that you have to stop there.  You can keep going!  Keep writing.

For me, Nano has blossomed into a novel nearly ready for submissions, and multiple novels awaiting my attention.  A critique group who occasionally dabbles in writing exercises, and something to work toward (in case you're wondering, I'm hoping the Nano will one day ask me to do a pep talk for them.  Step #1: Get Published!)

So, yes, there are so many more steps after finishing the first draft (especially if the 50k doesn't finish off your story) but Nano doesn't promise you something ready to submit.  That's not the point.  The point of nano is to make you pick up the pen (or, generally more common, put your fingers to the keys) and get writing.  Get started on putting down that novel that's been running rampant in your brain for years.  Make those characters talk and prove to yourself that you can do it.

Then, come December, remember that Nano just starts the process for you.  YOU have to be responsible for the rest of it.  It's up to you to keep writing.  To fearfully look back over that first draft, certain that you won't be able to keep anything.  To find those diamonds surrounded by the crap that you can really build a novel from.  To rewrite as much of it may need to be rewritten, and to finally show the world that, yes, you are a writer!

So hold those heads up high.  Shout to the world that Nano helped you accomplish something you never thought you world!  And don't ever let the world tell you that what you've done so far isn't an accomplishment, because it is!  Then, keep going.  Don't give up!  One day, those words will be polished enough for you to show another person.

Happy Writing.

What do you plan to do once Nano is done?  Have you ever managed to go back and edit a nano novel?

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Daily Word Count: 15,296

Total Word Count: 270,391

Forbidden Submissions (Day 12)

Well, we're not quite half way through the month, and already my mind is wandering away from the first drafts I'm currently working on and focusing squarely on something I really shouldn't even be thinking about during NaNoWriMo: Submissions.

I'll admit, this topic isn't quite as forbidden as editing is during November, but I'm probably still going to get people telling me to focus on the writing. December is for everything else. To those people I would say: Have you ever had to sit at work with no access to your current novel knowing that you could be doing something productive? That's what happened to me.

It's a holiday today, so a lot of people seem to be assuming that we're closed (we are a registry, so I can see how they came to that conclusion, but lo and behold, we are open.) This means that there has been a lot of chatting, and wasting time going on. Which, for me, tends to mean I have a Word document open on my computer and I'm typing away.

The current project (other than Aliens Stole My Socks, which I should have finished last night, but I didn't. I'll do it tonight, I promise!) is a short story for a submissions call I found out about nearly a month ago.

I've had an idea for it floating around in my head since I saw the call, and I've been looking for a way to find time to write it. Today that time presented itself on a silver platter. (Okay, okay. There was no silver platter. Sue me, I'm a writer).

Anyway, I opened the word document, and started typing.

Now, this story is a little on the darker side, and I'm feeling a little awkward writing it at work, but at the same time, I know that if I don't write it here, I'm never going to get it done. At least not this month. While the submission deadline isn't until February or March, it also said, basically, first come first serve, so I'm trying to get it in as soon as possible.

I'm not very far in to it, but I think the dark feeling is coming across. I'm hoping, anyway. But writing it also made me think of my other submission that I sent out in October. I haven't heard back from them, which I'm taking as a good sign. I'm desperately hoping that it's in the 'We Must Have This' pile, even if that means I won't hear back until March. That story deserves to be published, and I would love for my first choice to accept it.

Anyway, now I'm thinking about submissions instead of my novel. It could become a problem. But there's a write in tonight, which should get me focused back on NaNo. At least I'm hoping it does.

For now, though, it's back to work on the short story and serving any customers that wander through our door. Maybe I'll get this first draft done today!

Do you ever get distracted by non-nano projects? Should I use the word count from the short story toward my nano count?

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Daily Word Count: 9,490

Total Word Count: 110,337

The Shut Down (Day 2)

Normally I'm pretty good at getting my stuff done. Stop laughing, I am! Okay, so I can procrastinate with the best of them. I think I even procrastinated on procrastinating once, but that's besides the point. The point is that I normally get my stuff done, if not on the day it needs to be done, then pretty close. Especially if it's a precursor for something else. Like, say, the planning for nano.

This year is my third year doing nano. The first year, I was terrified out of my wits that I wasn't going to write my 50k. The second year I was more prepared, so I upped my goal (then had someone challenge me and I upped it again). This year, though I did up my goal, it was by so little that my brain barely registered it as a challenge.

So, rather than frantically planning and getting things done the couple of weeks before nano, my brain did what I'm assuming it thought was logical. It shut down.

I'm not even kidding on this one. Two weeks before the start of nano, and suddenly I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't even decide what my characters looked like. I found myself watching far too many tv shows, unwilling to even look at the pages I needed to fill before the beginning of nano. The boxes for my move sat unfilled, and the editing I swore I would have done before November sat remembered, but ignored in my bag.

I shut down.

Of course, the sudden descent of unproductivity made for a rather unorganized move, and more than a few headaches on my part.

Add to that the fact that I had to cram all of my planning in to the last two days before nano started, and had to put off the editing until December (which sucks, because I wanted to have it submission ready for January) and going in to November, I wasn't feeling like the robot I normally am.

Despite that, though, I'm determined to get my 320k this year. That might be a little rough, as the first book I've started is coming in under the goal (which might actually be a miracle for me) but I'll make up those words somewhere.

I have an office, I have a calender, and I have all the support of the wrimos here in Calgary. I have everything I need to accomplish my goal. Now I just have to fight off the lazy unproductive part of my brain, and keep writing!

What do you do to get yourself ready for Nano?

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Daily Word Count: 11,488

Total Word Count: 27,683

Just a little Critique

This week is the last time our critique group is meeting before nano.  As a rule we don't keep up with the critiques during nano because there's really not enough time for all of us to complete our nano goals and try to keep up with critique group.

I have mixed feelings about this.  While I have a bit of a break -- not having to worry about getting the critiques done, or even what I'm going to submit -- at the same time, those critique groups helped my writing more than anything I've ever done.  I've learned about my own writing more from hearing what other people have to say about it than while writing any of the multiple novels that I've managed to complete the first draft of.

That being said, sometimes I feel like I'm a little stuck.  I'm going through a routine of writing in November (or during camp nano) submitting to critique group, and possibly getting to a second draft, but I never seem to get any further than that.

I want, more than anything, to be a published author.  I want my name to be printed on the cover of a book.  I want to be able to walk in to Chapters and find my books alongside my favourite authors.  I want a complete stranger to read my books because someone recommended it to them.

So how can I do that when I can't even get to a third draft?

In order to get published, I have to submit my manuscript to someone.  As I want an agent, it would be to the agents I would love to have as my own.  Before I can submit, I have to actually like my manuscript. Which is probably only going to happen after I get feedback from my betas.  In order to get feedback, I have to send out my manuscript to my betas.  And to send it out, I really have to get it to the third draft.

Of course, I had a goal.  I wanted to finish my third draft of Pandora by the end of this month.  I managed to finish the second draft at the very beginning of the month, and I thought that I might actually get done this third draft in order to send it out.

I haven't.  I'm not even done going through it to see what changes I still need to make.  I'm about halfway through reading it and I don't foresee myself actually making it through the entire manuscript before November gets underway.  I'm not even entirely sure I'm going to be able to finish the list of changes before then.

It's a disappointment.  I want to have it ready for submissions by January, but it is what it is.  I can accept that I didn't get as much done as I wanted.  I think I took on too much this month anyway, so I'll get by.

What I won't be able to forgive myself for is if I don't get this manuscript done and sent in to an agent.  This is probably the best book I've written to date, and I just can't wait to see what other people think of it.

My critique group is filled with amazing writers that have given me great insight in to my work.  And if I never go any further with it, what am I saying about them?  About the time they've invested in to my novel?  I can't do that to them any more than I could do that to myself.

So while I may not finish my editing quite as quickly as I had hoped, I'm going to finish the third draft, I'm going to get it out to betas, and I'm going to find an agent for it.  No matter how long it takes.

Are you a part of a critique group?  Have they helped you as much as mine has?

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 Amazing Disappearing Chapter

At the beginning of the month I set out some goals for myself for my editing and planning.  The planning I'm ahead on.  I've completed one novel (the planning stages) that wasn't supposed to be done until the end of the month and started another one that shouldn't have been started until October, so I'm pretty happy with that.

The editing, though, hasn't been going so well.  I was doing fine until I came to a chapter that I had to rewrite.  I knew what I wanted there, but every time I sat down to write it I felt like it was going absolutely no where.

What did I do?  I procrastinated.  I assumed that eventually I would figure it out and get it done, and I continued on blissfully unaware of just how much time was slipping away while I allowed this chapter to just sit there and taunt me.

The other night, though, I decided that was enough of that and sat down seriously to finish writing it.

I wrote about 120 words in a half an hour.  120 words.  That's about what I write in 2 minutes, not half and hour.

At the end of that, I decided that it was time to figure out why it just wasn't working.

I looked at the chapter before it, which ended with my main character frustrated and feeling the need to just get out of the house.  Then I looked at the chapter after, which had my main character trying to work out that frustration with the use of a punching bag.  Then I looked back at the chapter I was trying to rewrite where my main character did something that had to be done eventually, but ultimately put there changed the pacing and tone of the novel too much.

So, I did the only thing I could do.  I took out the chapter.

Don't get me wrong, this wasn't an easy decision for me.  I didn't want to lose the words.  I know how long I want this novel to be by the end of this process, and right now it's about 3k below that goal, and that's all thanks to this chapter.

It was frustrating to watch it go, because I've been trying to make the thing work for so damn long, but I knew I had to let it go for the good of the book.

Sometimes chapters or scenes that we originally write just don't end up working, especially after revisions and changes.  It's hard to hit that delete button, because that's work that we did.  We wrote those words, and now we're watching them disappear knowing that we're not planning on replacing them.  But we can't just leave them there.  If we do, it makes the book less than it could be, and ultimately that's what we want more than anything in the world.

So with a heavy heart I will say good bye to that chapter, and continue editing the rest of the book (which needs to be done in 7 days!  Eep!).  At least now I can move past that chapter and actually make some progress on it.