…and then a month’s gone by with nothing! I’ve been filled to the brim with so much freelance work (on top of my full time job) that even my family is missing me. And writing?

• Dropped the ball on editing Commoner Days more than a week ago, can’t remember how long.
• Dropped the ball on my Holly Lisle course after second week.
• Didn’t even attempt NANO.
• Decided not to a $15 editing workshop that I should do.
•  Had a “writer’s crisis”

You know the kind, well, maybe, if you are a writer, then most likely, you do.

The whole “should I be doing this” crisis.

Do I want to be a novelist? Good LORD, it is a hard-core task of stick-to-it-ive-ness, not my strong suit, the likes of which I’ve never imagined.  And then editing, the whole thing about this being a YA book, and switching it to strengthen the mother-daughter conflict - a key element - from position of an teen-to-adult woman, well, geez, it had “throw in the towel” written all over it.

I thought: short stories?  But I don’t care for them much. There are some great ones, don’t get me wrong, but I’m all about character, and good characters with issues require a book because a short story is just a tease.  I don’t want to lose this; I lost my gift of poetry some years back for the 2nd time, and apparently 2 chances is all the Muses give ya.

What to do? Well, I consulted with a good writer friend and she told me that’s just how it is with writing, we all go through it.

Ugh. It’s a terribly painful career, but I suppose in some aspects, it has to be.  It’s the pain that makes us great writers.

Add to this that I’m reading “Wuthering Heights”, a painful wretch of a book in it’s…shocking portrayal of humanity at its most passionate, if passion encompasses all the negative attributes of human emotion.  (I did used to believe this, as a young woman. I was quite the nihilist in my day, hence I know every lyric to every single Smiths song…)

My sage friend recommended I write something else for a bit. I’m desiring to write a bit of non-fiction that requires some planning  and research, and it would coincided nicely as an ebook (or partial ebook) and a reconstruction of mom-blog.  I don’t know, but it sounds good to me.

Well, at any rate, the fiction is NOT off the table. It’s still my dream to be a novelist despite the dismal state of book marketing.  And believe it or not, somewhere in between reading “Heights” and watching that boring “New Moon” film tonight, there lies an anti-hero in development and a strong woman who can choose to take him down or give him her heart, with action and angst in the middle.  Hmmm…

Ok, so maybe what I need to get back to is “CHARACTER STUPID”, since that what draws me to write in the first place…

peace out, I’m going to sleep.

maybe…

To be continued.

 Yesterday in the shower, it was plain as day that my high fantasy WIP has to be YA.  The main character is, after all, 17, so what was I thinking?  This has some benefits:

• YA is 75,000 words, unlike the typical 110K or so for standard fantasy.  I’ve been just over 60K the whole length of this process, so I can maybe actually write a novel in a salable size.
• This makes a great way for me to approach the mother-daughter tension in the book which I’ve been struggling with, since it seemed to come out of nowhere.  Positioning as YA makes me consider a different audience, and breaking up with mom is right in there with teen angst.

There are some bad sides:

• As you know, I know nothing about fantasy. Turns out I know FAR LESS about YA.  sigh…

The next novel I’m writing may not be an historical romance, or I may go for broke and do 2 at the same time.  For now, I’m wiped out and need to get to my 5 minutes of editing…

It’s about editing (or writing) when you don’t have time:

Five Minute Editing

Well, I feel terrible that I haven’t updated this blog, nor upgraded, nor redesigned.  If ANYONE is still reading, here’s what you  need to know:

I’M WRITING

Yes, truly, only 5 minutes a night and that leads into much, much more. Thought I was doing NANOWRIMO but I’m so deep in now, I feel silly to start my next novel.  Maybe I’ll do it on my own in the spring. But “Commoner Days” is coming along, at last! I have to find  a good system for remembering all the threads. If I had a Mac, I’d had Scrivener.  Hm, maybe after I get my Mac, I can start my next novel! Something to shoot for.

That’s it for now, I promise I’ll work on upgrading this week!  Happy writing…

As some readers here might know, I wrapped up round two of editing my novel in April.  I actually just started Round 3 this week, which is going better than expected.  (Wish I’d started it sooner!)

Round 2 was around January 1, 2009. It took longer than expected, but much of the editing was actually rewriting and reworking things.  (Which means that Round 3 should be interesting!)

What you  may not know is that before writing this, I purchased a copy of Holly Lisle’s How To Write Page-Turning Scenes.  Holly Lisle is a writer who’s made a living at it for 20 years…a put-food-on-the-table type of living.  Sure we all dream of getting that Stephanie Meyer phone call, but most of us won’t.  Once you come to accept that, you begin to rethink this whole “writing fiction” business.  But once you get past that, it’s time to check out Holly’s rock steady advice.

Because I’m a just-do-it writer, I had no notion of scenes (or chapters) while writing a novel.  I’ve taken lots of workshops over the  years, online and off, and I can remember a single teacher discussing either of those elements.  I’d never even considered scenes in a novel, which is odd because back when I wanted to be a filmmaker I took screen writing, which is all scene writiing.

Enter How To Write Page-Turning Scenes.  Holly breaks down exactly what a scene is and why it’s a useful to think in terms of scenes when writing or revising your novel.  She gives some clear cut exercises that really break down how to determine if a scene forwards your story or not, how to know which scenes to add, delete, or revise, and what to watch out for along the way.  She gives clear cut examples of the different kinds of conflict and how and when to use them.

Strictly speaking,  How To Write Page-Turning Scenes is really a book that gives you tools for step-by-step scene creation if you haven’t written a word, but only have an idea. However, I found this extremely useful to help me get organized with my first round of revisions.  I didn’t do a strict scene-by-scene revision because I had too much story still to create, but this gem of a guide did give me tools I needed to get revising.  I highly recommend this book for novices, first-time revisionists, and anyone who need to better structure their scenes.

I feel so bad - it’s been nearly a month since I’ve updated this site!  My apologies, but up until April 19th, I was diligently revising The Novel, which means that I completed my 2nd round of edits 10 days ago. Woohoo!  There is much more to do. This week I’m furiously reading “The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile“, to get the first 3 chapters ready starting next week to send to Viable Paradise.  I’m also planning on doing a book review when I’m done.

As a reward, I took some time off to plot my next move, visit a college I’m interested in attending, and went to an AMAZING book fair, where I snagged 10 BOOKS for $8.50. Woohoo!  I also found a great local used book shop (didn’t know they existed anymore), and I’m compiling a crapola pile for trade in purposes.  (I always keep my worthy books.)

Speaking of book reviews, very soon I’ll be reviewing How To Write Page-Turning Scenes, which I read before I started editing.  Very helpful!

Finally, I have a top secret project possibly in the works now that some time has opened up in my life.  Coming soon: yet another post of links, a new blog look and style, and writing tips!  (I’m actually getting good at writing fiction, who knew?)

Not sure how THAT happened, but last night I really got into editing my book.  It was awesome that after this weekend, I came to the sweet spot in the plot.  This too after realizing that it needs A LOT more work, world building and thickening of characters.

In fact, I’m not really sure how I have to do the next rewrite, just know I have to, and that’s OK.

Hit 1000 followers on Twitter today, how many read fantasy or at least my kind?  It’s a first novel, but I do have to give it my all.  It’s almost to the point where the NEXT novel is not pulling me off it anymore.

I also really want to go the Greater Lehigh Valley Writer’s Conference next month, since it will feature a fantasy author workshopping the genre and worldbuilding, PERFECT.  The job I did this weekend should pay for most of it, but this is also BIG PAYCUT MONTH so I need a little… um…manna from heaven, shall we say? Wish me luck.

Ok, it seems every week I’m learning something as I edit my novel and read or watch more SF/F.  Here’s what I learned this week:

1. We saw Babylon A.D., which struggled to be a good movie (ultimately, hubby and I didn’t think it made it, but this is not Film Critique 1010).  As I watched, I realized it was an old plot, I even recalled what movie it mimicked (though I’ve forgotten).  Basically, hardened man rescues young girl and through many trials encountered on a journey, discovers love. (OK I can see a whole buncha guys throwing their BluRays at the screen, but really, that is how it breaks down for a woman).  I realized as I’m watchin Babylon that my plot is similar.  The romantic interest is not a bad guy, but it IS  a journey story- a classic tale where a physical journey develops your protagonist.  It always was meant to be such, but I forgot along the way.  A bit.  It’ll be stronger.  It also needs more action - on their journey, it would be better if they met with foul play (they don’t at this point).

2. Starbucks is a writer’s heaven.  This is another thing I’ve forgotten.  I’ve been finding alone time to edit late at night (with deep exhaustion and zero motivation).  Saturday late morning, I went to Starbucks, which plays the PERFECT soundtrack for me, and sat with my over-sized coffee.  I got more done in an hour, plus I wrote a poem.  Hm, could it be the lack of children underfoot?  (They don’t sleep well, so even at night privacy is rare).

3. I learned that there is a writer’s conference in Allentown, which is a stone’s throw from my house.  In fact there is a pretty promising looking fantasy author teaching there on, of all things, my nemesis, world building.  If Chris gets his job, he agreed I could attend, so let’s all pull for that!

That’s it, and really, that’s enough.  Ok back to work.

yes, Lisa Simpson got her first rejection letter, for the first fantasy novel she co-wrote.  Amusing, Matt Groening.

I fell off the wagon with my book, but got back on, doing about 14 pages of editing. Still about 10-11 days behind my schedule.  At this pace, I may have completion for round 2 of revisions by Feb.15.  I’m figuring I need probably 2 more rounds, since I’m still working on getting the story into shape.  Next round I’d like to make it more literary and make the world more complete, the last round will be hard core grammar and final “whip into shape”. Perhaps I’ll have a 1st reader before that last round. Not sure.  4 rounds of editing sounds about right for what I’m trying to accomplish.

Perhaps, once I get 3 chapters into next round, I’ll submit it for Viable Paradise. Briefly mentioned it to hubby. It’s a long shot, but why not?

Picked up “Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis.  I’m really enjoying thus far, no wonder it won so many awards.  I am committed to primarily reading fantasy involving: royal societies with  mind manipulation, time travel books (whatever’s left I haven’t read, and books about non-vampiric immortals (and I read all the Anne Rice ones).  Open to suggestions!

Ok, the bad news is the editing is NOT going as planned.  The good news is, that’s ok.

A series of events happened yesterday that rearranged my thinking.  In the afternoon, I was listening to an archived episode of “I Should Be Writing“.   The experts, who were doing a round table on new media and publishing your novel, were suggesting that if you want to podcast a novel, it could take you about 3 years to get it going. Hm.  I thought about my work in progress and wasn’t sure if I wanted to dedicate the time to it.  One of the authors, both of whom were successful authors and podcasters, said it took 5 revisions to get it right.

I thought about this in more depth, and realized that I am starting to care about this book more, and that I want it to be just right.  I ALSO want to start on  my next novel, so I’ll have to assess all that and figure it in.  In fact, I think I’m going to outline a plan for 2009 - perhaps in my next post - about my fiction writing career.

Meanwhile, hubby and I watched “Lost” last night.  I enjoy this show a lot and the direction it took, as I’m obsessed with fiction about time travel.  Good fiction, apparently, begets more good fiction.  I’ve read some books over the last few weeks that did nothing for me and inspired me even less. But that ONE episode last night had in lying awake in bed last night, writing…

Wait for it….

really…

Religious mythology for my WIP.  WOW!  I haven’t been this creative at night in a long, long, long time.  I began with a creation story and worked my way out, even coming up with names that you would call the Goddess (ie, Light).

AWESOME.

Finally, another decision was made.  This year, I’ll work on my immortal novel idea as well, but I will spend the rest of the year reading fiction about mind manipulators (this novel), immortals (next novel), and time travel, because I intend to write my 3rd novel tackling my favorite subject, AND I’ve already got a number of books under my belt.

And finally, I’d like to submit my current novel to Viable Paradise, but can’t really do that without my husband’s ok.  I’ll have to think and pray about it.  Cool.

life as a writer right now is good…