Category: Writing

Resurrecting Tell Me Tuesday

I’m resurrecting Tell Me Tuesday for the next few weeks, until I host my next Guest Blogger (Susan Gable, for those interested, who’s visiting February 9th, for those not inclined to check the schedule in the sidebar). So please share your news—good or bad. How’s the writing going? The non-writing? Great, horrible, indifferent?

As my faithful readers know, I took a Blog Holiday for most of December. Because My Liege’s work and the kids’ college/university didn’t start until Jan. 5/6th, the Blog Holiday extended as well. When I returned to my work in progress, I found it difficult to sink back into the characters. So I spent a good week editing from the beginning of the manuscript (I’m about 2/3 – 3/4 of the way through the writing of the whole thing). This gave me the opportunity to tighten and apply comments from The Suzannah contest, which the manuscript finaled in recently (and the finalists are currently being judged by an impressive array of editors and agents—eek). Interesting, I found the first several chapters required the most tightening. Even though I revise as I go, until you’re deeper into the manuscript it’s often not easy to see what can be tightened or deleted in the beginning. It became evident that the more I grew to know my characters and discover the plot, the easier it has become to tighten as I write. This gives me hope for the remainder of the book, but no doubt when I finish I’ll find all sorts of areas in the chapters I’m writing now that can be tightened as well. It’s a can’t-see-the-trees-for-the-forest sort of thing, I guess.

Now I’m back into fast-drafting and revising new scenes, plus revising scenes that I fast-drafted back when I fast-drafted the whole manuscript in chunks. I had a big chunk of novel missing in the middle-to-end part that I’ve been working on writing these past several weeks. It’s interesting that a great number of the previously fast-drafted scenes I’m encountering as I proceed through the book STILL work. Others, I notice I’ve already used the information in new scenes and can delete the old ones. So, a bit of double-writing happening, but not enough to really annoy me.

Okay, that’s me. Who’s next?

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Categorized as Writing

Wanna Sweat?

First, CONGRATULATIONS to my buddy and two-time Golden Heart finalist, Avery Beck, who just sold her first book to Samhain Publishing! Way to go, Avery. I’m so proud of you!

I’m sure Avery didn’t accomplish her wonderful achievement without losing a bit of sweat (note the clever segue to my previously scheduled blog post?)…

Not cut out for NaNoWriMo? Want to suffer for 70 days instead of one wimpy month? Check out The Seventy Days of Sweat Writing Challenge. Round 4 starts November 10th. Ends January 26th. In the ’09.

No, I’m not sweating with Sven. But I do like the concept of Seventy Days of Sweat better than NaNoWriMo. For NaNo, you’re supposed to just write, write, write. Write whatever dreck comes into your head. Yes, you’re allowed to plan out your novel beforehand, but the idea is to pound 50,000 words of whatever comes out of your fingers and then fix it later.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo, and I guess it’s great for first-draft writers. But those of us who edit, revise and polish as we go along? How are we supposed to plan out our NaNo manuscript beforehand and then just write, write, write when we need to plan AS we’re writing?

That’s my excuse, anyway. (Hmmm, what’s Avery’s?)

For Seventy Days of Sweat, the word length goal is between 60,000 – 100,000. MUCH more manageable, IMNSHO. Were I participating, I would be much more likely to succeed. So why not participate? Because. That should be enough explanation for you, my lovelies!

I might participate in the next round of 70 Days. For now, I know what I’m up against in various facets of my life over the next couple of months, and I also know I have less than 60,000 words to write on the WIP, so I’d be participating under false pretenses. I really know that once I’m finished the WIP, I’ll need a break. I call it December. Or at least 2 weeks at Christmas. And I plan to enjoy it.

Not to mention that my birthday falls during the current challenge. What sort of fool wants to sweat on her birthday?

If you want to sweat, you can sign up here. Then drop into my blog every once in a while and brag. I want to hear your achievements!

And, once again, CONGRATULATIONS Avery Beck!!!

A Cop’s Life A to Z

That’s Z as in Zed! Zed, I tell ya!

Okay, it’s Z as in Zee. Seeing as the instructor is American, I’ll give her the Zee.

During September, as part of my research for the WIP, I had the pleasure of taking Kathy Bennett’s on-line class, A Cop’s Life A to Z, put on by the RWA Kiss of Death chapter.

What an excellent class! As well as being a writer, Kathy is a cop with the LAPD. As it so happens, the hero of my WIP is an ex-cop with the LAPD, so I had to take this class and I recommend it most heartily. I have enough emails printed out to fill a binder (which I will do, you know, when the moon turns green), and I gained great insight into several aspects of a cop’s life.

If you’re a member of Kiss of Death and you considered taking Kathy’s class and didn’t, next time she offers it, sign up. I can’t see how you could be disappointed.

P.S. Kathy has a blog on her new website, too.

The Body Guide

Here’s a cool medical reference site, The Body Guide. Thanks to CJ Lyons for posting the link to the Crimescenewriters email loop.

The site allows you to choose between a male or female nekkid (aside from fig leaves) body. From the left, you select which body structure you need for your research, then hold your mouse over the Adam or Eve figure to I.D. the structure name. Navigation links on the right provide details and more illustrations. If you ever need to differentiate between the lumbosacral plexi and the sympathetic trunk in your WIP, this is the site to help you.

Now, quick, who can tell me which bodily system to highlight to remove the fig leaf from Adam’s body? First person to answer correctly wins Perv of the Week.

Friday Notes

The writing has gone well this week. Those two already-drafted scenes I mentioned moving up in my WIP? Turns out the first one didn’t work, but the second one meshed well after revisions. I’m giving it the final touches today. (Well, nearly the final touches. Because I re-read chapters as I’m writing, I confess I edit them again. But it’s my process, and it works for me, so there).

I’ve moved the first of the two drafted scenes back in the manuscript again. By moving it up, I realized later that I was trying to rush a secondary story line. A dream about my manuscript turning out 20,000 words below target alerted me to what was going on. 😉 Well, that and re-reading the new chapter that resulted from playing Musical Scenes. It just didn’t sit right. So back to the drawing board, and I came up with a new scene featuring the same POV character at an earlier point in her story arc. As soon as I drafted the new scene, I knew I’d done the right thing, so I dove headlong into revisions. The POV character for this scene is a secondary—the hero’s mother—but her story arc and subplot is every bit as important to her. Therefore, it’s important to me.

It’s challenging, working with secondary story lines. I’m constantly weighing if I’m devoting too much manuscript space to secondary viewpoints, or not enough. However, because I’m an organic writer, I find the best way to judge is to go on “how I feel.” If it “feels right,” then it probably is. And, if it isn’t, I can always revise later.

I find that rarely do I revise later, though. I edit later, but once a drafted scene has been revised for the first time, it becomes part of the core of my story and the next scenes arise from it. That’s what I mean when I say I’m an organic writer. And it’s also why, as much as I appreciate having previously fast-drafted scenes for a huge chunk of this book, the resulting time put into the manuscript isn’t much different. In other words, I’m not writing any faster. However, I do have a clearer idea of where I’m going than I usually do, so there have been benefits, too.

How has your writing gone this week?

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Categorized as Writing

Tell Me Tuesday

Phew, Motherhood Madness is almost over! In fact, I’m over the biggest hump and can now put most of my focus toward writing again. All last week, when I was able to sit at the computer, I was headed off on the wrong tangent on my WIP. I implored Elle Muse for an answer. Finally, and quite suddenly (while I was driving, of course, and didn’t have a notepad handy—bad writer), the answer came to me. I was writing the wrong damn scene. As soon as I admitted such, ideas for the scene I should have been trying to draft came flooding in. I didn’t get a chance to fast-draft the scene until yesterday, however, I’m already onto revisions (I’m a revise-as-I-go writer). Praise be to Elle!

Anyone else? Is your writing going smoothly? Hardly (as in hardly at all)? Or some variation of the two?

Oh, and before I forget, editor Deb Werksman of Sourcebooks is taking questions at the Casablanca authors blog today. Deb is very approachable, so if you’re interested in Sourcebooks, hop over and have a gander at the sub-genres she’s acquiring, ask a question if you’re so inspired.

Now I must get back to those scene revisions. Tally-ho!

By the way, if anyone knows how to use the Visual editor for WordPress 2.5.1 to insert links, please tell me. What was once so simple in 2.3.2 (or whatever I was using before—that’s close enough) is now impossible in WP 2.5.1. I keep having to go to the HTML editor to insert my links (yes, I’m lazy).

Okay, now I’m really leaving.