Well, here goes. I'm currently sitting on the train heading to York, going to my first ever writing conference, the Festival of Writing. I think I'll be fine when I get there, but at the moment I'm mainly trying not to think about it! I'm definitely excited, but I'm also pretty nervous. It's an amazing opportunity to meet some fantastic people in the UK writing world and get some helpful input, and I'll try to post some kind of report soon after I get back.
But that's all to come. For the next hour and a half, I'm just aiming to get some revising done. This revision is taking much longer than I'd hoped, for a number of reasons - my routines have been entirely shot to pieces lately, so time hasn't been on my side, but my process is also proving difficult.
For some reason, I'm finding that this time around - perhaps because the revisions and rewrites are just so extensive - I'm having to do a few scenes on paper and then type them up and slot them into place. Last time I was revising I did the whole thing on paper first - I marked up my existing scenes and wrote in new ones, but nothing got typed up until I'd worked through the whole manuscript. This new process is helpful, since it's giving me a much better grasp of how the whole thing fits together, but it does feel much slower and as if I'm stopping and starting a lot.
Still, I'm getting through it, although I'm itching to get this draft done so I can start playing with my new shiny plot idea. All I've let myself do is write down a couple of sentences on what the story's about, and I really just want to get on and start discovering the rest. (Ideally, I'd be doing the discovery along with the Lucy March/Lani Diane Rich workshop over at Storywonk, but unfotunately my budget needs time to recover from the Festival!)
Well, that's where I am. And since I'm now fifteen minutes further into my journey, my manuscript is now screaming for attention.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, 9 April 2010
Friday, 12 March 2010
Revisions, query letters and creativity
I'm ploughing on slowly through my edits. Well, actually, the editing itself is going pretty well, and I even feel like the synopsis is pretty good - the difficult part is the introduction and author bio I have to write. Essentially, it's a query letter, and having never actually had to do one of those before I'm struggling a bit. I have two days left to get it how I want it. Then I'll have to get it sent off, so at least then I'll be able to concentrate properly on the actual revisions. But yuk, it does feel very messed up doing this now, when I still have so much more editing to do. I know it'll be worth it for the chance to get some decent feedback, but it just seems very unnatural to be essentially writing a query letter before I've properly finished the book. Mainly because it is. And in an ideal world, I wouldn't be doing it. But hey - I covered all that pretty thoroughly in my last post. Kindly allow me to shut up, and I'll try to talk about something else.
I've been feeling a real need for other creative input in my life lately, which has mainly manifested itself in something of a book-buying binge. Financially, this isn't a great thing, but from the point of view of that whole filling-the-creative-well idea? It's fantastic. It's not that I'm feeling all that uninspired, or that I'm finding it particularly difficult to write just now, but I think it's a pre-emptive thing. It's been a while since I had an obsessive reading splurge, which is a shame, and I think if I hadn't given in to the urge I probably would have found myself running on empty pretty soon. (I may still do so, who knows - but I'm hoping not, with all the new and exciting territory I have to uncover in that pile of books.)
The only problem I'm having at the moment is that I'd bought the first two books in a series (Holly Lisle's Secret Texts trilogy) and once I'd finished those, of course, I had to have the third one. I immediately ordered it online, and it was posted on Tuesday, but it has yet to arrive. Now, I have that whole pile of other books waiting to be read, and there's a part of me that wants to just dive one of those - but I'm still very much in that particular world, and so I'm really, really hoping that the third book arrives tomorrow. If not, I guess I'll just have to try something else, because for some reason I'm seriously craving other people's writing just now. I mean, I always love to read, but at the moment, it's making me a little crazy!
The other thing I'm obsessing about just now is fantasy art. Not just looking at it - no, I want to draw it. The problem, of course, is that I can't draw, never have been able to, and so, although I am dying to pick up a pencil and start sketching, I know without the slightest doubt that the moment I do, I will be disappointed. But I think I may just have to risk it. Maybe I just need that additional outlet, even if the product of said outlet ends up heading straight for the dustbin.
What do you do to keep that creative well from running dry?
I've been feeling a real need for other creative input in my life lately, which has mainly manifested itself in something of a book-buying binge. Financially, this isn't a great thing, but from the point of view of that whole filling-the-creative-well idea? It's fantastic. It's not that I'm feeling all that uninspired, or that I'm finding it particularly difficult to write just now, but I think it's a pre-emptive thing. It's been a while since I had an obsessive reading splurge, which is a shame, and I think if I hadn't given in to the urge I probably would have found myself running on empty pretty soon. (I may still do so, who knows - but I'm hoping not, with all the new and exciting territory I have to uncover in that pile of books.)
The only problem I'm having at the moment is that I'd bought the first two books in a series (Holly Lisle's Secret Texts trilogy) and once I'd finished those, of course, I had to have the third one. I immediately ordered it online, and it was posted on Tuesday, but it has yet to arrive. Now, I have that whole pile of other books waiting to be read, and there's a part of me that wants to just dive one of those - but I'm still very much in that particular world, and so I'm really, really hoping that the third book arrives tomorrow. If not, I guess I'll just have to try something else, because for some reason I'm seriously craving other people's writing just now. I mean, I always love to read, but at the moment, it's making me a little crazy!
The other thing I'm obsessing about just now is fantasy art. Not just looking at it - no, I want to draw it. The problem, of course, is that I can't draw, never have been able to, and so, although I am dying to pick up a pencil and start sketching, I know without the slightest doubt that the moment I do, I will be disappointed. But I think I may just have to risk it. Maybe I just need that additional outlet, even if the product of said outlet ends up heading straight for the dustbin.
What do you do to keep that creative well from running dry?
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Revising on a deadline
It has to be said - I never expected to be working to a non-self-imposed revision deadline before even attempting to get anything published. But because attending the Festival of Writing in York this April includes two meetings with agents/editors who have read through a first chapter and synopsis beforehand, I need to get those together. And I now only have three weeks left to do so.
I've been using the How to Revise Your Novel course by Holly Lisle so far, and it's been incredibly useful in highlighting problems I would almost certainly not have noticed without it, but I'm going to have to wing it a bit from this point on. I don't have enough time to put Amulet through the rest of the course, so it's time to take everything I've learned so far and start figuring out how best to use it to ensure that my first chapter is gripping and my synopsis is accurate.
There are a lot of changes that I know need to be made to strengthen the story. By necessity, I need to figure out all the intricacies of my new plot now, so that I can get my synopsis sorted. Then I need to get on with tidying up and rewriting that first scene, before working through the rest of the story. It's far from ideal and obviously if this were for a traditional query I'd be holding off on sending anything out until the story were as ready as I could make it, but under the circumstances... Well, I can't afford to miss out on the opportunity for professional feedback.
Today I've made some decent progress, writing out the scene by scene synopsis of the manuscript as it currently stands and then marking in broad strokes what needs to be kept and what needs to be cut. But there's a long way to go. So I'd better get started.
I've been using the How to Revise Your Novel course by Holly Lisle so far, and it's been incredibly useful in highlighting problems I would almost certainly not have noticed without it, but I'm going to have to wing it a bit from this point on. I don't have enough time to put Amulet through the rest of the course, so it's time to take everything I've learned so far and start figuring out how best to use it to ensure that my first chapter is gripping and my synopsis is accurate.
There are a lot of changes that I know need to be made to strengthen the story. By necessity, I need to figure out all the intricacies of my new plot now, so that I can get my synopsis sorted. Then I need to get on with tidying up and rewriting that first scene, before working through the rest of the story. It's far from ideal and obviously if this were for a traditional query I'd be holding off on sending anything out until the story were as ready as I could make it, but under the circumstances... Well, I can't afford to miss out on the opportunity for professional feedback.
Today I've made some decent progress, writing out the scene by scene synopsis of the manuscript as it currently stands and then marking in broad strokes what needs to be kept and what needs to be cut. But there's a long way to go. So I'd better get started.
Friday, 12 February 2010
My writing space
Quite some time ago - approximately eight months ago in fact, when I first moved into this house - I promised the Wiffers some photos of my writing room. And since I am way behind in my blogging and currently trying to make my way through the rather messy world of my revisions on Amulet, this seemed like a good time to make good on my word. Well, better late than never, right?
So, here we go.
My whiteboard is on the left, with the collage for Amulet taking up most of the space. While I was working on the first draft of The Bonded, that collage was up instead. I use the part below the collage for random notes, key quotes, and change it whenever something better or more relevant comes along. On the right I keep track of my goals.
Then there's the desk, as you can see. When I'm writing, the laptop's in pride of place. Since I'm editing at the moment, there's revision notes, pens, index cards, and usually the lever arch file containing the manuscript.
And there's the view from my desk, looking out onto the park. I got lucky there.
The rest of the room consists of two bookcases, a filing cabinet and my craft drawers. And that's it really.
I like it. I'm not really at home often enough to take full advantage, of course, but when I am, it makes a pretty good writing space.
What about you? Where do you like to write?
So, here we go.
My whiteboard is on the left, with the collage for Amulet taking up most of the space. While I was working on the first draft of The Bonded, that collage was up instead. I use the part below the collage for random notes, key quotes, and change it whenever something better or more relevant comes along. On the right I keep track of my goals.
Then there's the desk, as you can see. When I'm writing, the laptop's in pride of place. Since I'm editing at the moment, there's revision notes, pens, index cards, and usually the lever arch file containing the manuscript.
And there's the view from my desk, looking out onto the park. I got lucky there.
The rest of the room consists of two bookcases, a filing cabinet and my craft drawers. And that's it really.
I like it. I'm not really at home often enough to take full advantage, of course, but when I am, it makes a pretty good writing space.
What about you? Where do you like to write?
Friday, 27 November 2009
Dana Is My New Best Friend
I've been longing to get an Alphasmart for months. For the last few weeks, I've been watching Ebay like a hawk, and generally losing out at the last minute to sniper bidders. This week, however, I got lucky, and won myself a lovely Alphasmart Dana.It's already proven invaluable, as my new part time job involves an hour on the bus each way, and I also have an hour once I arrive before I actually start work. So the day after it arrived, I managed 1800 words before I started work. It was a great start to the day!
It was particularly good since I've lost a bit of my lead over the last couple of weeks - I've managed to stay ahead of the minimum NaNoWriMo word count, but there were a few days where I got very few if any words. I'm at 48K now, so overall I'm still pleased with my progress, but life did get a little annoying for a while.
I finally managed to get to a NaNoWriMo meet this week as well, which was great - it's so rare that I get to spend any time physically in the company of other writers that it was a real treat. (All my online writer friends are truly fabulous and I honestly don't think I'd have got nearly this far with my writing without the wonderful community at Will Write For Wine, but there's a special kind of energy that comes from actually being in the same room.) Even better, the group is planning to continue meeting after NaNo finishes, so I may finally have found a writing group.
I also had a rejection this week on my short story, but it was a personal one and said that there was some nice writing in there, so it was actually quite uplifting.
The WIP itself seems to be going okay - I think it would have benefited from a little more planning, but since the idea came together about three days before the start of November there wasn't much time for that. It will need some pretty heavy editing I think, but the story seems pretty strong.
Tomorrow, I have a three hour car journey, and a date with Dana. So if I don't hit 50K tonight, I very much hope to do so tomorrow.
So, that's my fortnight covered. What about yours?
Current word count:
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Note to Self: Write This Scene
The writing continues to go well on my NaNo book, despite a couple of stumbling blocks this week. For the first time I'm finding it useful to leave little notes to myself about scenes and passages I need to add in later, which is allowing me to keep going even when I feel I can't quite write the next scene yet. For example, one of the scenes I need is where my MCs are brought up to date on the battle they're going to have to join, but since I haven't quite figured out the details yet I thought I'd leave it for now. So I wrote a few lines in square brackets about the things I need to cover, and just doing that helped me get a better feel for the scene. Usually, when I get to a scene I don't feel ready to write, I go off and do something different and hope the words come next time I sit down at the laptop.
I'm finding my notebook really useful for keeping track of things, especially names of some of the less important characters. There's one name though that I keep forgetting to put in, and since I can't be bothered to scroll up to check what I actually called her I've given her a new name, which will likely become permanent since by the time I get round to checking I'll have used the new one more than the old. Ah well, such is life.
I was aiming to hit 30K by Friday, and I just managed it, scraping in at around 22:30 that night. It feels pretty good to be ahead of the game - minimum word count for yesterday would have been 22K.
My goal for this week is 43K. It would have been 45K, but since I've just got an additional job over the Christmas period I've decided not to push it quite that much. However, if all goes to plan, I'll be getting an Alphasmart this week, which will make the one hour commute perfect writing time.
Current word count:
33367 / 50000 words. 67% done!
I'm finding my notebook really useful for keeping track of things, especially names of some of the less important characters. There's one name though that I keep forgetting to put in, and since I can't be bothered to scroll up to check what I actually called her I've given her a new name, which will likely become permanent since by the time I get round to checking I'll have used the new one more than the old. Ah well, such is life.
I was aiming to hit 30K by Friday, and I just managed it, scraping in at around 22:30 that night. It feels pretty good to be ahead of the game - minimum word count for yesterday would have been 22K.
My goal for this week is 43K. It would have been 45K, but since I've just got an additional job over the Christmas period I've decided not to push it quite that much. However, if all goes to plan, I'll be getting an Alphasmart this week, which will make the one hour commute perfect writing time.
Current word count:
Friday, 6 November 2009
Off and Running for NaNoWriMo, with Collage!
My goal for this week was to hit 10K. I did it - and this morning I hit 15K, which means I'm three days ahead of the minimum word count and averaging 2.5K a day. This is great, especially as I'm unlikely to be writing much this weekend so needed that extra buffer really.
For next week, my goal is 30K. That means I really need to keep this momentum going after the weekend. Minimum word count by next Friday (according to official NaNoWriMo recommendations, that is) is 21,671, so if I meet my goal I'll be well ahead.
The last two years I've found hitting 1667 words a day a bit of a struggle, but this year I'm finding it much easier. I think the key is that I've been writing so much more this year. I'm lucky in that I do tend to write quite quickly - inevitably this means there will be that much more editing to do, but that's okay. I'm just hoping this streak continues, because I'm loving every minute.
Last week I mentioned my collage and soundtrack. I've been listening to the soundtrack regularly, although only when I'm about to write - usually in the morning while I'm having breakfast. I've also put a version of my collage into my project notebook, which is fantastic - each place and person has a page in the book with pictures, where I can jot down anything I need to remember. This is already proving invaluable as I try to keep track of everything going on. Anyway, the fabulous Pamela Cayne asked to see my collage. The structure surprised me, as the last collage I did was more just a collection of images. This one has a timeline running through it of all the places involved in the story - starting top left, running to bottom right - pictures for all the key characters, and images for some of the themes as well. It's different, but I like it. Here it is - click on the image to see a larger version.
Current word count:
15394 / 50000 words. 31% done!
For next week, my goal is 30K. That means I really need to keep this momentum going after the weekend. Minimum word count by next Friday (according to official NaNoWriMo recommendations, that is) is 21,671, so if I meet my goal I'll be well ahead.
The last two years I've found hitting 1667 words a day a bit of a struggle, but this year I'm finding it much easier. I think the key is that I've been writing so much more this year. I'm lucky in that I do tend to write quite quickly - inevitably this means there will be that much more editing to do, but that's okay. I'm just hoping this streak continues, because I'm loving every minute.
Last week I mentioned my collage and soundtrack. I've been listening to the soundtrack regularly, although only when I'm about to write - usually in the morning while I'm having breakfast. I've also put a version of my collage into my project notebook, which is fantastic - each place and person has a page in the book with pictures, where I can jot down anything I need to remember. This is already proving invaluable as I try to keep track of everything going on. Anyway, the fabulous Pamela Cayne asked to see my collage. The structure surprised me, as the last collage I did was more just a collection of images. This one has a timeline running through it of all the places involved in the story - starting top left, running to bottom right - pictures for all the key characters, and images for some of the themes as well. It's different, but I like it. Here it is - click on the image to see a larger version.
Current word count:
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Two hours and fifteen minutes to plot a novel...
I'm a day late posting, but I seem to be a day behind on all my goals this week.
There were two reasons for the delay, and these also explain why I've failed to complete the plotting modules. As you may remember, last week I'd decided that I was going to write a completely non-magical story this time around. Well... that sort of fizzled out. As soon as I tried to take it a step further than concepts and actually work out a story, I realised I didn't care enough to write it. So instead I'm writing a fantasy story that's been hiding in the depths of my imagination for a few years - I finally feel it might be the time to write it. So today I found names for the four key characters, and then I put together a collage.
It's now 21:45. I have two hours and fifteen minutes until NaNoWriMo starts. I really want to get some key plot points outlined on paper before I go to bed - I have a very rough idea in my head, but I want more so that when tomorrow morning rolls around I can get on and write. So... that's tonight's goal. As for my week's goals - well, they're pretty straightforward, given the month.
Current word count:
0 / 50000 words. 0% done!
Finish ficlet- Story plotting using How to Think Sideways methods
Collage
There were two reasons for the delay, and these also explain why I've failed to complete the plotting modules. As you may remember, last week I'd decided that I was going to write a completely non-magical story this time around. Well... that sort of fizzled out. As soon as I tried to take it a step further than concepts and actually work out a story, I realised I didn't care enough to write it. So instead I'm writing a fantasy story that's been hiding in the depths of my imagination for a few years - I finally feel it might be the time to write it. So today I found names for the four key characters, and then I put together a collage.
It's now 21:45. I have two hours and fifteen minutes until NaNoWriMo starts. I really want to get some key plot points outlined on paper before I go to bed - I have a very rough idea in my head, but I want more so that when tomorrow morning rolls around I can get on and write. So... that's tonight's goal. As for my week's goals - well, they're pretty straightforward, given the month.
- Hit 10K in NaNo story
- Blog post
Current word count:
Friday, 23 October 2009
The End, and Onward
Last week's goals:
As for the rest, well, I've yet to revisit the short story, but I'm fairly sure I won't be doing anything else with it. Maybe I'll post it here at some point, but it was just a short, fun little piece which I don't think will really find a place in a paying market. And I'm happy with that.
As for the writing sessions - I didn't quite get seven. I didn't write all weekend in fact, but then Monday came around and as I was capturing tapes to the editing PC for the day job I got a lot of writing done - over 10K in the end, which took me past the 70K mark and well towards the end. So on Tuesday, I finished the first draft. It came in a little short, but since I know there are things to be added earlier in the story I'm not too worried about that.
This means that technically, I've now completed two novels. I doubt I'll ever do anything with the first one - I started it nearly exactly a year ago, for NaNoWriMo 2008, but I've learned such a lot since then that I know it would need a complete rewrite to work. I definitely plan to revisit some of the ideas and maybe even one or two of the characters, but I hadn't really grasped the concept of actually telling a story when I first started it.
I'm feeling more positive about the second one. I'm putting it to rest for a while now - after all, NaNoWriMo is nearly here - but when I come back to it in a couple of months I think I can do something with it. I loved the concept and with a bit of TLC I'm sure I can make it work. Finishing it was a bit odd, because I'd been enjoying the writing so much that I felt rather bereft when it was done, so I'm looking forward to diving back in.
First though, I have a new story to write. This week will be dedicated to plotting (having written one book with plotting and one without, I now know which I prefer). This story is going to be very different to the previous two - as far as I can tell, there's nothing magical or paranormal about it. However, there will be a white horse.
So, this week's goals:
76358 / 76358 words. 100% done!
- Fit in seven writing sessions
- Reassess short story and see what can be done with it
Start on new ficletBlog post
As for the rest, well, I've yet to revisit the short story, but I'm fairly sure I won't be doing anything else with it. Maybe I'll post it here at some point, but it was just a short, fun little piece which I don't think will really find a place in a paying market. And I'm happy with that.
As for the writing sessions - I didn't quite get seven. I didn't write all weekend in fact, but then Monday came around and as I was capturing tapes to the editing PC for the day job I got a lot of writing done - over 10K in the end, which took me past the 70K mark and well towards the end. So on Tuesday, I finished the first draft. It came in a little short, but since I know there are things to be added earlier in the story I'm not too worried about that.
This means that technically, I've now completed two novels. I doubt I'll ever do anything with the first one - I started it nearly exactly a year ago, for NaNoWriMo 2008, but I've learned such a lot since then that I know it would need a complete rewrite to work. I definitely plan to revisit some of the ideas and maybe even one or two of the characters, but I hadn't really grasped the concept of actually telling a story when I first started it.
I'm feeling more positive about the second one. I'm putting it to rest for a while now - after all, NaNoWriMo is nearly here - but when I come back to it in a couple of months I think I can do something with it. I loved the concept and with a bit of TLC I'm sure I can make it work. Finishing it was a bit odd, because I'd been enjoying the writing so much that I felt rather bereft when it was done, so I'm looking forward to diving back in.
First though, I have a new story to write. This week will be dedicated to plotting (having written one book with plotting and one without, I now know which I prefer). This story is going to be very different to the previous two - as far as I can tell, there's nothing magical or paranormal about it. However, there will be a white horse.
So, this week's goals:
- Finish ficlet
- Story plotting using How to Think Sideways methods
- Collage
Friday, 16 October 2009
Building the Writing Momentum
Last week I set myself these goals:
But it's the writing that's the interesting part. After last week's post, where I said that "I need to remember that evenings are available too", I decided that I was going to see what I could do with that. But rather than just doing so when I skipped my morning writing session, I thought I'd try for both. The results were pretty surprising.
I've found this before, and in so many ways it seems entirely obvious, but the more I write, the easier the words flow. I get completely into the story, so that when I come back to the page a few hours later it's still fresh in my head. This is why the rule "write every day" is so important for me - if I don't, I lose track of where I am, and it can take me a whole scene to get back into the story properly. I know there are some writers who work differently, but I'm learning that this is the most important rule for me. And writing twice every day places me even more solidly into the story, and lets me remember how much I love it.
I actually lost track of my number of writing sessions, but my total for the week is about 16K - by far the most I've written in one week since last year's NaNoWriMo. It might actually be my most productive writing week ever, which is a fairly staggering thought, because it's just seemed so easy. There's got to be a stumbling block just around the corner, but for now, I want to keep up this momentum and keep writing. At this rate, the first draft of this story could be done before this year's NaNo starts - and although I haven't got a clue what I'd write if I were to take part, I'm pretty sure I'd have to give it a go. Provided of course I don't run into total burnout, which is probably very likely.
All in all, though, an excellent week, making it a bit more difficult to set next week's goals. I don't want to lose momentum, but I'm not keen on setting daily word count goals, and it isn't practical to aim for two sessions daily, even if it is the best case scenario. Still, I need something to write on my whiteboard, so this week's goals are as follows:
62587 / 80000 words. 78% done!
Fit in five writing sessions- Submit short story to another magazine
- Start on the next lesson in How to Think Sideways
Blog post
But it's the writing that's the interesting part. After last week's post, where I said that "I need to remember that evenings are available too", I decided that I was going to see what I could do with that. But rather than just doing so when I skipped my morning writing session, I thought I'd try for both. The results were pretty surprising.
I've found this before, and in so many ways it seems entirely obvious, but the more I write, the easier the words flow. I get completely into the story, so that when I come back to the page a few hours later it's still fresh in my head. This is why the rule "write every day" is so important for me - if I don't, I lose track of where I am, and it can take me a whole scene to get back into the story properly. I know there are some writers who work differently, but I'm learning that this is the most important rule for me. And writing twice every day places me even more solidly into the story, and lets me remember how much I love it.
I actually lost track of my number of writing sessions, but my total for the week is about 16K - by far the most I've written in one week since last year's NaNoWriMo. It might actually be my most productive writing week ever, which is a fairly staggering thought, because it's just seemed so easy. There's got to be a stumbling block just around the corner, but for now, I want to keep up this momentum and keep writing. At this rate, the first draft of this story could be done before this year's NaNo starts - and although I haven't got a clue what I'd write if I were to take part, I'm pretty sure I'd have to give it a go. Provided of course I don't run into total burnout, which is probably very likely.
All in all, though, an excellent week, making it a bit more difficult to set next week's goals. I don't want to lose momentum, but I'm not keen on setting daily word count goals, and it isn't practical to aim for two sessions daily, even if it is the best case scenario. Still, I need something to write on my whiteboard, so this week's goals are as follows:
- Fit in seven writing sessions
- Reassess short story and see what can be done with it
- Start on new ficlet
- Blog post
Friday, 9 October 2009
Nowhere to go... and no time to write?!
I'm finally at home with no plans to go anywhere in the immediate future, which means there is the smallest chance that I might actually be able to manage a blog post now and again. I'm not making any promises though - life is unpredictable.
Despite being in one place, this week hasn't been the greatest writing-wise. I keep sleeping badly, which means I end up staying in bed longer than I should, which means that by the time I get up I feel like I really need to get on with the day job rather than fitting some writing time in. (This is a serious hazard of working a) from home and b) with my husband. Because I hate working late into the evening, but if I don't get the hours in then I'm letting him down - which means working when I get up is the best option.)
When I get up early enough, I love writing in the mornings - but tonight I realised that actually I quite like writing in the evenings too. This is the first time I've done this in months, so it was something of a revelation. The biggest problem with it is that I'm far more likely to be disturbed, but for those days when early morning writing sessions aren't an option, I need to remember that evenings are available too. If I plan my time well, I can actually have quite a bit to play with, and I'm incredibly lucky in that - but somehow it's easy to forget.
Despite not updating my blog, I have been working with weekly goals. I write them on my whiteboard, but I think it would make sense if I were to start posting them here too. I didn't do too well on this week's goals. (My week is from Saturday to Friday, incidentally, because that's how we do at Will Write for Wine.) In fact the only goal I met was to make a blog post - and you can see how last minute that one is. This means that a couple of my goals are carried through to this week - and the other two should be happening every week anyway.
Current word count:
46041 / 80000 words. 58% done!
Despite being in one place, this week hasn't been the greatest writing-wise. I keep sleeping badly, which means I end up staying in bed longer than I should, which means that by the time I get up I feel like I really need to get on with the day job rather than fitting some writing time in. (This is a serious hazard of working a) from home and b) with my husband. Because I hate working late into the evening, but if I don't get the hours in then I'm letting him down - which means working when I get up is the best option.)
When I get up early enough, I love writing in the mornings - but tonight I realised that actually I quite like writing in the evenings too. This is the first time I've done this in months, so it was something of a revelation. The biggest problem with it is that I'm far more likely to be disturbed, but for those days when early morning writing sessions aren't an option, I need to remember that evenings are available too. If I plan my time well, I can actually have quite a bit to play with, and I'm incredibly lucky in that - but somehow it's easy to forget.
Despite not updating my blog, I have been working with weekly goals. I write them on my whiteboard, but I think it would make sense if I were to start posting them here too. I didn't do too well on this week's goals. (My week is from Saturday to Friday, incidentally, because that's how we do at Will Write for Wine.) In fact the only goal I met was to make a blog post - and you can see how last minute that one is. This means that a couple of my goals are carried through to this week - and the other two should be happening every week anyway.
- Fit in five writing sessions
- Submit short story to another magazine
- Start on the next lesson in How to Think Sideways
- Blog post
Current word count:
Friday, 18 September 2009
Writing Lessons Learned
So. Yes. Once again, rather a long time between posts... what can I say? Life is hectic.
I haven't been writing very consistently of late - I'm noticing that my periods of blog-silence generally correlate rather neatly with the times when I'm not getting any writing done. Which makes sense, I suppose, since if I'm not writing, I have nothing writing-related to post about. And if I'm not making the time to write, I'd rather I wasn't making the time to write about not writing, if you see what I mean.
Anyway, despite the very small progress I've been making on the writing front, I have learned one or two things recently.
It really is easier if you write every day.
I know it's said all the time, but I'm seriously growing to recognise the truth of this. If I skip a few days, a week, a fortnight, then when I finally get round to actually sitting at the keyboard I've lost all sense of who my characters are and where they're supposed to be going. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if I were writing short stories, but it isn't just the story itself that I lose track of - it's the actual writing. Words fit together much more easily if you're making it happen regularly.
If I plot, I have to plot every scene.
With the first novel I finished, it was pantsing all the way for me, until about 20K from the end when I hit a solid stone wall and found I had to figure out what was going to happen before carrying on. With this one, I actually plotted out the bare bones before I started. As I've gone along, I've found myself planning additional scenes - and having to plan them before I write them. Not intensively by any means, but if I don't have a sentence or two describing what needs to happen then I can't seem to write the scene. They've crept up on me, and developed from the story as I went along, but once they pop up they have to be plotted. I'm finding this rather baffling, since I've always considered myself a pantser or discovery writer. But when I realised a few days ago that there were two days in my story timeline that needed to be filled, I was incapable of writing another word until I'd figured out what had to be accomplished in that time and how I was going to do that. (I ended up with five extra scenes plotted.)
I need to be more flexible about my writing time.
One of the reasons I've been writing so little lately is that I'm travelling all the time. I like routine - I like being at home and being able to get up in the morning and shut myself in my little room that nobody else uses just to write. But when I'm staying with other people, I don't have my own little room. (I have somewhere to sleep, obviously, but since my husband sleeps later than I do as a rule it's not an ideal place to write in the morning. I need to try and make the time later in the day - perhaps in the evening - to creep away to a quiet corner of the house I'm staying at and write. Otherwise I keep coming back to that first problem and not writing for days.
In other news, I was delighted to learn recently that Will Write For Wine is returning to regular podcasting from October 9th. This is a fantastic show - thoroughly entertaining and always useful. There'll be a new podcast each month, and you can help influence what Lucy March and CJ Barry (AKA Lani Diane Rich and Samantha Graves) talk about by posting in the forums. I can't wait!
I haven't been writing very consistently of late - I'm noticing that my periods of blog-silence generally correlate rather neatly with the times when I'm not getting any writing done. Which makes sense, I suppose, since if I'm not writing, I have nothing writing-related to post about. And if I'm not making the time to write, I'd rather I wasn't making the time to write about not writing, if you see what I mean.
Anyway, despite the very small progress I've been making on the writing front, I have learned one or two things recently.
It really is easier if you write every day.
I know it's said all the time, but I'm seriously growing to recognise the truth of this. If I skip a few days, a week, a fortnight, then when I finally get round to actually sitting at the keyboard I've lost all sense of who my characters are and where they're supposed to be going. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if I were writing short stories, but it isn't just the story itself that I lose track of - it's the actual writing. Words fit together much more easily if you're making it happen regularly.
If I plot, I have to plot every scene.
With the first novel I finished, it was pantsing all the way for me, until about 20K from the end when I hit a solid stone wall and found I had to figure out what was going to happen before carrying on. With this one, I actually plotted out the bare bones before I started. As I've gone along, I've found myself planning additional scenes - and having to plan them before I write them. Not intensively by any means, but if I don't have a sentence or two describing what needs to happen then I can't seem to write the scene. They've crept up on me, and developed from the story as I went along, but once they pop up they have to be plotted. I'm finding this rather baffling, since I've always considered myself a pantser or discovery writer. But when I realised a few days ago that there were two days in my story timeline that needed to be filled, I was incapable of writing another word until I'd figured out what had to be accomplished in that time and how I was going to do that. (I ended up with five extra scenes plotted.)
I need to be more flexible about my writing time.
One of the reasons I've been writing so little lately is that I'm travelling all the time. I like routine - I like being at home and being able to get up in the morning and shut myself in my little room that nobody else uses just to write. But when I'm staying with other people, I don't have my own little room. (I have somewhere to sleep, obviously, but since my husband sleeps later than I do as a rule it's not an ideal place to write in the morning. I need to try and make the time later in the day - perhaps in the evening - to creep away to a quiet corner of the house I'm staying at and write. Otherwise I keep coming back to that first problem and not writing for days.
In other news, I was delighted to learn recently that Will Write For Wine is returning to regular podcasting from October 9th. This is a fantastic show - thoroughly entertaining and always useful. There'll be a new podcast each month, and you can help influence what Lucy March and CJ Barry (AKA Lani Diane Rich and Samantha Graves) talk about by posting in the forums. I can't wait!
Monday, 27 July 2009
SocNoc, Blogging Fail and New Routines
June was an utterly insane month, as we moved house and juggled some of our biggest jobs ever, and as a result I didn't do very well in SocNoc at all. I wasn't really expecting to win, but I only managed 12,336 words, which was less than satisfying. Still, I'm up to 25K in the new manuscript and really enjoying the story, so I won't complain too much.
Blogging, of course, dropped off my to do list entirely, for which I can only apologise. Actually, I think double apologies are in order, since I should have posted a couple of weeks ago when we finally managed to stop in our new house for more than two days at a time. The problem with that was that I wanted to post about my new writing room, and in particular put some photos up, but the truth is I haven't got round to taking a single picture of the house yet. (I did, however, manage to write an article about Using Writing Spaces and Rituals to Your Advantage, if you're at all interested.)
Another thing that was rather ignored during the madness of June (and most of July, obviously) was my How To Think Sideways lessons. I nearly have all the lessons now, but I'm only half way through what I have (I'm on lesson 11 of 22). When I've had the chance to work on it, it's continuing to be very useful indeed, but lately that's not been very often.
As a result of the last couple of months, I've changed my routine a bit. I missed so many writing sessions that I got quite grouchy about it, so I've lowered my sights a little. I'm setting myself a weekly word goal of 4000 words and giving myself weekends off. That works out at 800 words a day, which is usually quite manageable, and if I hit my word goal earlier in the week, I can have an extra day free. (I'm also considering an Amazon reward system, but I'm not sure that's entirely wise.) It's an odd way to do it, but it seems to be working - it's not that I don't want to be writing on weekends, it's just that we're still so busy at the moment that I need to let myself off the hook a bit.
I'm really only working on the novel in the mornings now, although I'm trying to make a point of doing something writing-related in the evenings - whether that be blogging, writing an article, or working on an HTTS lesson. Assuming that I manage to stick to that, I hope it won't be quite so long before my next post.
Blogging, of course, dropped off my to do list entirely, for which I can only apologise. Actually, I think double apologies are in order, since I should have posted a couple of weeks ago when we finally managed to stop in our new house for more than two days at a time. The problem with that was that I wanted to post about my new writing room, and in particular put some photos up, but the truth is I haven't got round to taking a single picture of the house yet. (I did, however, manage to write an article about Using Writing Spaces and Rituals to Your Advantage, if you're at all interested.)
Another thing that was rather ignored during the madness of June (and most of July, obviously) was my How To Think Sideways lessons. I nearly have all the lessons now, but I'm only half way through what I have (I'm on lesson 11 of 22). When I've had the chance to work on it, it's continuing to be very useful indeed, but lately that's not been very often.
As a result of the last couple of months, I've changed my routine a bit. I missed so many writing sessions that I got quite grouchy about it, so I've lowered my sights a little. I'm setting myself a weekly word goal of 4000 words and giving myself weekends off. That works out at 800 words a day, which is usually quite manageable, and if I hit my word goal earlier in the week, I can have an extra day free. (I'm also considering an Amazon reward system, but I'm not sure that's entirely wise.) It's an odd way to do it, but it seems to be working - it's not that I don't want to be writing on weekends, it's just that we're still so busy at the moment that I need to let myself off the hook a bit.
I'm really only working on the novel in the mornings now, although I'm trying to make a point of doing something writing-related in the evenings - whether that be blogging, writing an article, or working on an HTTS lesson. Assuming that I manage to stick to that, I hope it won't be quite so long before my next post.
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
From May to June: Goals and Achievements
So... the May Marathon over at Will Write for Wine went pretty well for me, all things considered. I'm pretty sure I met all my goals - it surprised me, but I'm pretty pleased with myself.
May's Achievements:
- Wrote, edited and submitted a 2500 word short story - two rejections so far, waiting to hear from the third market.
- Typed up all of my handwritten edits for my NaNo 2008, making further changes as I went alone, and sent that off to be beta'd by my sister.
- Using Lessons 7 & 8 of Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways course, I actually did some serious plotting and produced about 35 scene cards for my new story idea, creating a full story skeleton.
June's Goals:
- It's SocNoc, so my main goal for June is simple: write 50,000 words. Hopefully on this new story idea that I've got all plotted out.
- As far as short story stuff goes, I'm hoping that the market I'm currently submitting to will give me some helpful feedback. I already have a couple of things in mind I'd like to take another look at with this short story, so before submitting it elsewhere I think I'd like to do one last pass on it. I was so excited about my first submission that I think I may have sent it out before it was really ready to go. Or perhaps I'm just being paranoid. Either way, I'll at least check it through once more before resubmitting.
- Lessons 10 and 11 of the How to Think Sideways course. I'm on the six month version, which means I get a sent a new lesson each week, and I was hoping to get through them faster than I am - but being able to take it at my own pace is going to prove very useful this month as we're in the process of moving.
So that's that. We'll see how we do. The whole moving thing may cause a few hiccups this month, but I think it should be okay. I'm aiming for 50K, but honestly, I'd be happy with 25.
Have a good month!
May's Achievements:
- Wrote, edited and submitted a 2500 word short story - two rejections so far, waiting to hear from the third market.
- Typed up all of my handwritten edits for my NaNo 2008, making further changes as I went alone, and sent that off to be beta'd by my sister.
- Using Lessons 7 & 8 of Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways course, I actually did some serious plotting and produced about 35 scene cards for my new story idea, creating a full story skeleton.
June's Goals:
- It's SocNoc, so my main goal for June is simple: write 50,000 words. Hopefully on this new story idea that I've got all plotted out.
- As far as short story stuff goes, I'm hoping that the market I'm currently submitting to will give me some helpful feedback. I already have a couple of things in mind I'd like to take another look at with this short story, so before submitting it elsewhere I think I'd like to do one last pass on it. I was so excited about my first submission that I think I may have sent it out before it was really ready to go. Or perhaps I'm just being paranoid. Either way, I'll at least check it through once more before resubmitting.
- Lessons 10 and 11 of the How to Think Sideways course. I'm on the six month version, which means I get a sent a new lesson each week, and I was hoping to get through them faster than I am - but being able to take it at my own pace is going to prove very useful this month as we're in the process of moving.
So that's that. We'll see how we do. The whole moving thing may cause a few hiccups this month, but I think it should be okay. I'm aiming for 50K, but honestly, I'd be happy with 25.
Have a good month!
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
May Goals, Sims 2 and Other Stuff
Okay, so I think it's time for another update on my May goals. If it's just crossed out with no explanation, then I already covered it in my first update on my May goals.
So I'm doing pretty well, all in all. I've also done some other stuff on my NaNo - I finally drew a decent map for it (yay!) and I also built two of the key buildings in Sims 2 (my gaming weakness). That's really helped me get a feel for the world and the layouts - I had most of it pretty much in my head anyway, but it's really helped to clarify a few things. I did create two of the characters as well - limited accuracy, really, but it made me think a bit more about the physical characteristics that I maybe haven't described as well as I should. I've also been doing some behind the scenes work on my new website - not quite ready yet, but it's getting there.
Oh yes, and I'm moving to Wales, where I will have a gorgeous view over a beautiful green park from the room I've already labelled my Writing Refuge. If that doesn't help my muse, I don't know what will.
-Write a 3000 word short story - it's pretty much all planned out now, and even has a working title (which is more than I can say for my NaNo), so I hope to get started on that in the next couple of days.
- Work through Lesson 8 of the How to Think Sideways course, Planning. - I have started this. Or at least, I've read through the lesson. I'm deliberately putting off the actual task, though, since I don't want to start properly until all my edits for my NaNo are typed up.
- Type up all my handwritten edits for my NaNo story and send it to my sister to read. Will also probably get my husband to read it, although he's insisting that he wants me to read it aloud to him! Try and line up another writer to take a look at it, terrifying thought though that is. - I'm getting there. I'm nearly at the halfway point. I scrapped 3000 words today. Ugh.
-Put the pre-plan modules from Lesson 7 of HTTS into practice for my new novel idea.- Done.
-Edit the short story.
- Put Lesson 8 into practice for new idea. - Nope - see above!
-Further research into possible markets for short story.
-Submit short story.- Done. First and second rejections already received. Third submission made - and this one gives mainly personalised rejections, so hopefully if I don't make it in I'll get some helpful feedback.
So I'm doing pretty well, all in all. I've also done some other stuff on my NaNo - I finally drew a decent map for it (yay!) and I also built two of the key buildings in Sims 2 (my gaming weakness). That's really helped me get a feel for the world and the layouts - I had most of it pretty much in my head anyway, but it's really helped to clarify a few things. I did create two of the characters as well - limited accuracy, really, but it made me think a bit more about the physical characteristics that I maybe haven't described as well as I should. I've also been doing some behind the scenes work on my new website - not quite ready yet, but it's getting there.
Oh yes, and I'm moving to Wales, where I will have a gorgeous view over a beautiful green park from the room I've already labelled my Writing Refuge. If that doesn't help my muse, I don't know what will.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Writing Resources
I'm still waiting on feedback for my short story, and in the meantime I'm getting on with typing up my edits on my NaNo 08 novel - which still hasn't got a title. I'm not even close to one. But anyway, it means there isn't really much to tell you, so instead I'm going to talk about writing resources.
As I'm still working out my process (and I hear that's something that can go on indefinitely) I like to try out new things from time to time, and here are a few of the sites, programs and other resources that I've found particularly useful.
Software
Websites
Podcasts
Fun Links - I'm not going to explain these ones. They really just have to be seen to be appreciated...
As I'm still working out my process (and I hear that's something that can go on indefinitely) I like to try out new things from time to time, and here are a few of the sites, programs and other resources that I've found particularly useful.
Software
- yWriter 5. This is a completely free piece of software which I've found works really well for organising longer pieces of fiction. It allows you to create chapters and scenes, with individual notes for each if required, helps you build character bios, allows you to generate a timeline for your story and keeps you on track by letting you know how many words you've written that day. (As I'm editing at the moment, though, this isn't always a good thing - yesterday my word count was minus 1500.)
- SuperNotecard. Another free piece of software (although you can upgrade to the full version for $29), this is great if you like your 3x5 index cards. It allows you to group and move around notecards on the screen, so it's great for plotting and outlining. It has a number of other features I haven't quite got round to exploring yet - for example, factors, which look like they allow you to create relationships between cards.
- Evernote. I only downloaded this yesterday, but already it looks like it's going to be really useful, especially for keeping research notes together. I was sceptical until I actually tried it, since although I've heard lots of good things about it nobody had really explained what it does clearly enough for me to quite grasp. Essentially, it allows you to take 'clips' from whatever you're looking at or working on - a webpage, an email and so on - and save them to what's called a notebook, so that all the pieces of information relevant to one topic, from whatever medium, are available to you in one place. As well as being downloadable software, you can also access all the things you've saved straight from the web - so you don't even need to be at your own computer to bring up all those important bits of research.
Websites
- Remember The Milk. Okay, so this one isn't strictly just for writing, but it's been invaluable to me since I started using it a couple of months ago. Essentially, it lets you create to do lists - so for example, I have one list for work, one for personal stuff, and one for writing. You can schedule tasks for a particular due date, give them a priority level, and set them to recur. Currently I have 'Type up changes' on my writing list as a task which occurs every morning, and every weekday evening. I get so much satisfaction from ticking things off lists that sometimes I'll add things I've already done, just so I can hit the 'Complete' button. It's really helped me to organise myself - so if you're a bit absent-minded, like me, give it a try.
- Books And Such Literary Agency Blog. This is a fairly new addition to my favourites, but there's a lot of really good information here. At the moment they're doing a Kiss of Death series of blog posts - to quote, "The phrase “kiss of death” is shorthand for “Uh-oh, that writer has just stepped off a precipice.”" It's a very interesting look at some of the things writers can do wrong in their careers!
- BookEnd Literary Agency Blog. In another great agency blog, Jessica Faust's posts are very honest and fair, and always fascinating to read. She often answers questions which have been posted, and I haven't yet seen a post in which there wasn't something I was really glad to have read. Well worth checking out.
- Genreality. Another blog, but this time from the author's side. There are six bloggers, each of whom have a different day to post, and they all have interesting insights into the writing world. (I'll also point you specifically to this post, which is what prompted me to try Evernote.)
- Will Write for Wine forums. Writing can get lonely sometimes, but there are lots of other people in the same situation. If you can join a writers' group in your local area, then do it - but if not, there are hundreds of communities for writers on the internet. This is my favourite, which grew out of the fabulous Will Write for Wine podcast (which I'll get to in a minute). If you're looking for somewhere to find other writers, and especially if you also have a fondness for wine, Joss Whedon and procrastination with online games, then come on by and say hello. We're currently in the middle of our May Marathon, where we're all trying to psych each other up and get on with some writing, so now's a great time to join.
- Duotrope's Digest. Particularly good if you're writing short stories, this is a fantastic resource - a huge database of markets for your work, which lets you search, browse and find the publisher or magazine you're looking for really easy. It also allows people to track their submissions, and from that generates helpful information about which markets have a higher acceptance rate, how likely they are to give you personalised feedback and how quickly they respond. Really invaluable.
- How to Think Sideways with Holly Lisle. This is the writing course I'm currently working my way through. I have to mention it, because although I'm only eight lessons in it's made a really huge difference to my writing. I really do feel as if I'm learning a lot more as I go along - not just about the craft, but also a lot about me, my process and how I work best. And I'm definitely running into some surprises there. It's really spurring me on, and if you are looking for a course, this is well worth checking out.
Podcasts
- Will Write for Wine. Although sadly this podcast has come to an end, there are around sixty programmes in the archives. Presented by Lani Diane Rich and Samantha Graves, the podcast covers a huge range of publishing and writing topics, and is filled with useful information, as well as being highly entertaining. Definitely worth checking out.
- Writing Excuses. This one's really great when you don't have much time to listen, as each episode is only fifteen minutes long, which means that it's almost pure information. Although it's mainly aimed at writers of science fiction and fantasy, there's a lot of great advice in there for any writer.
- I Should Be Writing. First started when the podcaster, Mur Lafferty, was entirely unpublished, listening through the archives to this and following her journey is fascinating. As well as her own thoughts on various writing and publishing issues, Mur also posts regular interviews with other authors.
Fun Links - I'm not going to explain these ones. They really just have to be seen to be appreciated...
Friday, 8 May 2009
Update on May Goals
Just over a week ago I set myself some goals for May as part of our May Challenge over at Will Write for Wine. Here's how I'm getting on - completed tasks have a line through them, my comments and additions are in bold:
-Write a 3000 word short story - it's pretty much all planned out now, and even has a working title (which is more than I can say for my NaNo), so I hope to get started on that in the next couple of days. - I had a first draft before the 1st May was over. It turned out that it wasn't quite going to make it to 3000 words - there wasn't enough story for that - but I was pretty pleased with it.
- Work through Lesson 8 of the How to Think Sideways course, Planning. - Haven't done this yet - seems silly to start it when I haven't finished the previous lesson's exercises yet!
- Type up all my handwritten edits for my NaNo story and send it to my sister to read. Will also probably get my husband to read it, although he's insisting that he wants me to read it aloud to him! Try and line up another writer to take a look at it, terrifying thought though that is. - Nothing yet.
- Put the pre-plan modules from Lesson 7 of HTTS into practice for my new novel idea. - I've started this - I've done character sheets for my protagonist and antagonist. Hoping to get some more done over the weekend.
-Edit the short story. - Done - I'm on the third edit now. First I showed it to my husband, who was very helpful, and followed his suggestions. Then I asked a couple of the people in my HTTS workshop to take a look at it, and have taken their comments into account. I'm waiting for their feedback on the changes now, and then I think it's about ready.
- Put Lesson 8 into practice for new idea. - Nope.
-Further research into possible markets for short story. - Done - I've found six I like and put them in the order I'm planning submit to them. I'm not expecting miracles - these are pretty difficult markets to crack and I am after all entirely new at this - but I'm kind of looking forward to that first rejection. Also a couple of them seem pretty good at personalising rejections, so that should be useful.
- Submit short story.
-
- Work through Lesson 8 of the How to Think Sideways course, Planning. - Haven't done this yet - seems silly to start it when I haven't finished the previous lesson's exercises yet!
- Type up all my handwritten edits for my NaNo story and send it to my sister to read. Will also probably get my husband to read it, although he's insisting that he wants me to read it aloud to him! Try and line up another writer to take a look at it, terrifying thought though that is. - Nothing yet.
- Put the pre-plan modules from Lesson 7 of HTTS into practice for my new novel idea. - I've started this - I've done character sheets for my protagonist and antagonist. Hoping to get some more done over the weekend.
-
- Put Lesson 8 into practice for new idea. - Nope.
-
- Submit short story.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
May Goals
At the suggestion of the lovely Karen Pinco, we're holding a May writing challenge over at Will Write for Wine. I have quite a few things going on right now (at least in my head!) so I thought it might be a good idea to write down my goals for the month.
- Write a 3000 word short story - it's pretty much all planned out now, and even has a working title (which is more than I can say for my NaNo), so I hope to get started on that in the next couple of days.
- Work through Lesson 8 of the How to Think Sideways course, Planning.
- Type up all my handwritten edits for my NaNo story and send it to my sister to read. Will also probably get my husband to read it, although he's insisting that he wants me to read it aloud to him! Try and line up another writer to take a look at it, terrifying thought though that is.
- Put the pre-plan modules from Lesson 7 of HTTS into practice for my new novel idea.
- Edit the short story.
- Put Lesson 8 into practice for new idea.
- Further research into possible markets for short story.
And if I manage all that, maybe I'll even get to start writing that new story!
- Write a 3000 word short story - it's pretty much all planned out now, and even has a working title (which is more than I can say for my NaNo), so I hope to get started on that in the next couple of days.
- Work through Lesson 8 of the How to Think Sideways course, Planning.
- Type up all my handwritten edits for my NaNo story and send it to my sister to read. Will also probably get my husband to read it, although he's insisting that he wants me to read it aloud to him! Try and line up another writer to take a look at it, terrifying thought though that is.
- Put the pre-plan modules from Lesson 7 of HTTS into practice for my new novel idea.
- Edit the short story.
- Put Lesson 8 into practice for new idea.
- Further research into possible markets for short story.
And if I manage all that, maybe I'll even get to start writing that new story!
Monday, 27 April 2009
Deadline's creeping up on me....
I have seven chapters left to edit. Fifty-four pages. And three days to do it if I want to reach my self-imposed deadline.
I've been averaging a chapter in the morning and a chapter in the evening, so in theory if I do one extra chapter in a session (and I know a couple of them are quite short) then I don't need to make any real extra time for it. Of course that doesn't allow for any additional scenes I might need to write in. So far I've added an extra ten or so - well, sort of. Some of them are really extensive rewrites rather than actual new scenes.
Anyway, one way or another I think I should be able to make it. It would be nice to be able to just say I'll take a morning, an afternoon, even a day and get it done, but unfortunately work is rather hectic at the moment so that's not really practical.
Once I'm done with this bit, of course, I'll have to figure out the best way to process the changes - I can't decide on the practicalities. On one hand, working in yWriter 5 is amazing - I love the way I can move scenes around and so on. On the other, though, I don't want to overwrite the original draft in that form, and it doesn't seem to come with a Save As button! If I were to work from an exported file, I'd have to do all the scrolling that comes with a long Word document, but I wouldn't be making any changes to the original. Decisions, decisions.
I decided a while ago that I wanted to try my hand at writing a short story, and with some considerable help from Thinking Sideways I've come up with an idea I really like. I've done some work on the idea and I think I have it pretty well mapped out, so before I start transferring all the edits I think I'm going to try and write that. It should mean that when I get back to it I'm a little more distanced again too, which will hopefully help.
As an extra bonus of the How To Think Sideways course (and yes, I know I'm linking to it a lot, but really, it's wonderful) I had the chance to submit up to 500 words to Holly Lisle for a new concept she's starting, the Writer Crash Test. Essentially, if she picks mine I'll get a free crit - but in video form, on the internet. If you visit the site you'll see that the first crit is up - and even if mine isn't used, I think it's going to prove to be quite a useful resource.
I'm currently on Lesson 7 of the course, which is to do with getting everything you need together before you start writing - pre-planning, if you will. It's not plotting, exactly, more getting particular ideas and conflicts in place. I'm just working through the theory at the moment but it will be interesting to apply it to both the short story and the novel idea I've had recently.
And I think that about wraps it up for now.
I've been averaging a chapter in the morning and a chapter in the evening, so in theory if I do one extra chapter in a session (and I know a couple of them are quite short) then I don't need to make any real extra time for it. Of course that doesn't allow for any additional scenes I might need to write in. So far I've added an extra ten or so - well, sort of. Some of them are really extensive rewrites rather than actual new scenes.
Anyway, one way or another I think I should be able to make it. It would be nice to be able to just say I'll take a morning, an afternoon, even a day and get it done, but unfortunately work is rather hectic at the moment so that's not really practical.
Once I'm done with this bit, of course, I'll have to figure out the best way to process the changes - I can't decide on the practicalities. On one hand, working in yWriter 5 is amazing - I love the way I can move scenes around and so on. On the other, though, I don't want to overwrite the original draft in that form, and it doesn't seem to come with a Save As button! If I were to work from an exported file, I'd have to do all the scrolling that comes with a long Word document, but I wouldn't be making any changes to the original. Decisions, decisions.
I decided a while ago that I wanted to try my hand at writing a short story, and with some considerable help from Thinking Sideways I've come up with an idea I really like. I've done some work on the idea and I think I have it pretty well mapped out, so before I start transferring all the edits I think I'm going to try and write that. It should mean that when I get back to it I'm a little more distanced again too, which will hopefully help.
As an extra bonus of the How To Think Sideways course (and yes, I know I'm linking to it a lot, but really, it's wonderful) I had the chance to submit up to 500 words to Holly Lisle for a new concept she's starting, the Writer Crash Test. Essentially, if she picks mine I'll get a free crit - but in video form, on the internet. If you visit the site you'll see that the first crit is up - and even if mine isn't used, I think it's going to prove to be quite a useful resource.
I'm currently on Lesson 7 of the course, which is to do with getting everything you need together before you start writing - pre-planning, if you will. It's not plotting, exactly, more getting particular ideas and conflicts in place. I'm just working through the theory at the moment but it will be interesting to apply it to both the short story and the novel idea I've had recently.
And I think that about wraps it up for now.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Progress Update On Edits
The past week has been fairly slow for edits, what with being away and Easter get togethers and so on. Still, I'm half-way through now, and although the really bad bit is still to come (that would be the bit before I completely changed the villian's story) I still think I can reach the end before the 1st May. I think there will still be some tidying up to do after that - mostly making sure that I've actually followed up on all the notes I've made during this process - but to my surprise I'm finding that there's less actual rewriting to do than I expected. I've only got about five A4 pages of completely new material, although of course that's on top of all the bits I've written directly onto the manuscript.
I had a bit of a breakthrough the other day when I finally got a handle on my single sentence blurb (thank you, Thinking Sideways course!), quickly followed by figuring out my theme. So my sentence is as follows, although I'm sure I'll rework it a few times:
And it turns out that my theme is all about how people deal with the pressure of expectations. I suddenly realised that this affects all of my four main characters in pretty significant ways, but I'd completely missed it until now.
So all in all, I'm feeling fairly positive about things at the moment. I am definitely thinking that this WIP may be veering to YA, but that's okay - my younger sister ought to be able to tell me if that is the case. She loved my sentence and kept trying to steal my manuscript when I went to visit this weekend, so at least I know she's willing to test drive it!
I haven't yet completed another Thinking Sideways lesson, but the next one is all about figuring out your market, so it should be fairly appropriate.
One last thing - a fabulous quote from Dennis Lehane printed in my Writers' News magazine last month:
I had a bit of a breakthrough the other day when I finally got a handle on my single sentence blurb (thank you, Thinking Sideways course!), quickly followed by figuring out my theme. So my sentence is as follows, although I'm sure I'll rework it a few times:
With powers so great they scare even the Guild of Magic, a naive new witch is dragged into a struggle with the ambitious King of the Elves for control of magic itself...
And it turns out that my theme is all about how people deal with the pressure of expectations. I suddenly realised that this affects all of my four main characters in pretty significant ways, but I'd completely missed it until now.
So all in all, I'm feeling fairly positive about things at the moment. I am definitely thinking that this WIP may be veering to YA, but that's okay - my younger sister ought to be able to tell me if that is the case. She loved my sentence and kept trying to steal my manuscript when I went to visit this weekend, so at least I know she's willing to test drive it!
I haven't yet completed another Thinking Sideways lesson, but the next one is all about figuring out your market, so it should be fairly appropriate.
One last thing - a fabulous quote from Dennis Lehane printed in my Writers' News magazine last month:
"It's good not only to realise that you can't please all of the people all of the time, but that you don't want to. There's a certain type of reader that you don't ever want to write for. And that really helps."
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