it's been a while....

Well. Thanksgiving is over and like I suspected, I had about zero time to write. And here I thought I might finish my last book in November. Oh, well. It's been a harder road than the others--so much happens, and i have so many loose ends to tie up. So far, only one major surprise for me...writing along and I'm like, "what? where did that come from? oh, crap, how is that going to affect the plot? now I'm going to have to twist and turn everything even more so it meets at the right spot, ie, the end." Well, I guess I can't plan everything. I know some people believe in that, but I'm not of that school of thought. I'm more of a go with the flow sort. So I'm going.
I know generally what happens for the rest of the book, but getting it all down and making all the stories meet at the right time is a difficult thing for me. Plus, when new plot twists pop onto the screen as if by magic, it makes things even harder! I mean, sheesh. Things seem to be getting further apart instead of closer together. And I'm already fifty pages past the longest one of my other books. So we'll see. I'm either going to have a really long last book or have to split it in two. I'm just going to write the whole thing out before I decide. I have a pretty good shift midway through, so if I need to, I can split the book. And seven is a good number for a series. However, it would take some major tweakage of the new beginning and I'd have to add in backstory. So who knows. Maybe just a clunker of a last book.
Well, I should get back to my hungry vampires....

RAWR.

severely bummed that i spent hours researching and falling in love with certain agent, only to be shot down like a doe in deer season. bleh.
on another note, do i really have to be antisocial to be a writer? i mean, sheesh. i really want to write, but i have all these other obligations...are ALL my friends born in november? sheesh. how many birthdays am i obligated to go to? not to sound ungrateful, i love my friends. i want to be a good friend. but i also want to sit on my butt and spew a good 30pgs one night. but with work, and friends, and all these birthdays...is there ever enough time to do what you love, do what you need, and do what you're obligated to do?
phew. got that off my chest.
so it's another night away from my dear, sweet, bloodsucking vampire. sigh. and next week will be pretty much a bust in terms of writing. i'll be too busy stuffing my face to type a word. my goal was to get this baby done by December. now i'm thinking, by christmas. need to get the 1st draft all wrapped up before too many breaks dull my inspiration.
Happy Thanksgiving, world!

distractions in unlikely places

is it wrong to say i really really love reading what i wrote a while back? i still remember what happened of course, but somehow it doesnt make me like reading it any less. when i start reading my old stuff, i cant seem to stop! haha, i guess i'm an egomaniac after all. but i'm banning myself from reading my old stuff until i finish my last book in the series! it's really hard! not b/c i'm uninspired, but more along the lines of, i'm disturbed by the things my characters are doing, and i really dont want some of them to happen. grrrr. but i have to buckle down and make myself write. not for a few days though. my day job is calling.

getting out of a slump.

So, i had a small writer's slump for about a week to ten days. i thought i might literally lose my mind. But i refuse to submit to the term 'writer's block' as it sounds very painful, and about as final as death. Well, my writer's slump came to a glorious conclusion and i churned out about 50 pgs today. So, here is my official list of tips to end writer's slump/brain drain/inspirational drought/or whatever other term you like.

Tip #1: Go for a walk. do not bring music, a book, or anything distracting. daydream about that glorious day when you'll be published, your characters, the characters from another book you wrote, someone else's characters, or what you'll say if you ever meet Jake Gyllenhaal, or who would play your characters in a movie (that last one is my favorite).
Tip #2: Read over the stuff  you've written before. This can help or not. I did a lot of this during my slump, ended up reworking and changing one of my endings, possibly throwing out an entire book. but when my ending was done, i knew that had been my calling, and i'd been stuck partly b/c i needed to go back and fix that. once i did, i was ready to get back to my current story. However, i also think that reading whatever you've written in a book so far will help you write the rest. I was lost in my other characters from another book, but rereading what i'd written up to this point made me want to write about these characters, now.
Tip #3: Skip ahead. My brain tends to work faster than my fingers (thank goodness), so sometimes i have ideas that have nothing to do with a current scene, but are still inspired. Sometimes i leave them alone and let them marinate for a while, and when i'm ready for the scene they've polished in my mind. but not very often. usually, i think and rethink the scene while i'm walking, driving, working, or doing something else requiring little attention. i think, wow, this scene is really inspired and great. Then later i write it down and it's crap. So my best suggestion is to write it down while it's fresh and shiny in your mind. Yes, maybe it happens in chapter 48, and i'm only on chapter 15. Or maybe it happens in book 6, and i'm only on book 3. doesnt matter. write it down. it's in my mind, so it needs to be spewed. maybe i'll use it, maybe i wont. maybe by the time i get there, it's summer instead of winter, and i have to change the snow to rain, or a hundred other little things. but it's usually better than if i dont write it down right away. Also, if i'm having a hard time where i am, it helps to write something that's inspiring me. it makes me want to keep writing to get there.
Tip #4: Switch POV. Someone told me adding a new character always gets them out of a writing slump. that doesnt help me. but writing from a different character's POV helps me tremendously. maybe that other one is boring me, or not much is happening with him, or i have so many things that need to happen that i'm overwhelmed. if i stop and leave that story for a bit and write about a different character and what's going on in her life, i'm fresh when i go back. That also just happened to me.
Tip #5: be flexible.
this goes back to the last two. when i was stuck, i kept staring at the screen, reading the last few sentences, dragging out a few more. Then i had an inspiration, and it wasn't from any of the characters i'm writing about. But so what? So maybe this book will have 7 POVs instead of the usual 4. maybe i'll cut some of them out later. But you know and love all the characters so far (or know them anyway) so you won't be lost if i go ahead and halfway through the book revert to some people you haven't heard from for 3 books. Right?

so that's it. those are my writing tips for ending a slump. i'm sure there are a gazillion more, but that's what worked for me. Also, thank your characters who got you out of your slump. on that note, thank you Marisol, Milton, and Meyer. My reverting M&M&M's stories jump-started me. i'm sorry for the fateful end of one of you, but hey, somebody had to do it. :( Just because i killed you doesnt mean i love you any less.

writer's...glitch?

so, i'm not going to use the term writer's block for what's going on right now, but i think it's like three counties over from where i am. i think the problem is this: i'm third of the way through my final book, the threads are not pulling tightly together, i dont want to write ANOTHER book, and i'm not sure how to fix it. plus, i really think my subconscious is sort of freaking out that it's my last book, so it's just stalling and not giving me anything good. you know, breaking up is hard to do or whatever. i dont want to end it because then i have to say goodbye to my characters, and i love them too much!
i thought maybe i'd give it a rest so i've just been proofreading some old stuff i diddled around with last year, but i sort of got sucked into that whole world, and now my vampires are just sitting there waiting and i dont know how to give them a kick-start. anyhoo, my giving-them-a-rest thing didnt really work out so well.
maybe i'm just stalling because i dont know what on earth i'll do with myself when i'm done. i mean, what if all the ideas are gone? when i have nothing left to write about...and i'm finished...then what? i guess i could edit, search for agents, fix my disaster of a query letter, write the suggested 5-pg synopsis. But it's not the same. it's not organic. it's not creating. i like the word-spewing, finger-flying, brain-absorbing lust of the first draft.

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!!

ha, well, the final book anyway. on page 22 stumbling around blindly like a vampire in sunlight. wahhhh!
i have a lot to cram into the last book to tie up all the ends and link everything together in a final, book-two-worthy, dramatic conclusion. i hope. but i never know what's going to happen and along the way something TOTALLY different than what i planned might happen. like the total plot-fuck ending of my last book. excuse the language. it was much different than i thought it would be. ah, well, i had to tell what really happened, and in keeping with my characters, that's what really happened. i say, let the bad guys be bad and the good guys be good and those ones you can't quite figure out...well, they can stay an enigma i guess. and if i love the bad guys sometimes and hate the good guys sometimes, then i guess i'm telling the elusive truth of fiction. because that's how people are. at least, the ones in my books.

Rejection.

Well....i got my first two agent rejections. YAY! or whatever you're supposed to say to that. anyway, i'm officially a starving artist now. official because i am putting it out there as opposed to storing it on my jump drive. anyhoo, that's about it.
agent #1 said he had too many clients although his site said he was accepting queries.
agent #2 was not interested, although he assured me someone else would be.
pretty much the equivalent of "it's not you, it's me." But i'm only getting started. someday my agent will come!

"Final Fifty" frenzy.

book five is rapidly drawing to a close. i'm barrelling down on the ending, which turned out to be WAY more dramatic than i had originally thought. i always get so manic towards the end of a book, just wanting to write and write and do nothing else until the book is done. but of course i have work and family and life. and behind that in the back of my mind is always this gnawing need to get it all out.
Well, i certainly got it all out in this book. then on to the final chapter for my dear vampire and his pet. i will be sorry to stop writing about them--i've gotten to know and love them all so much that it will be like saying goodbye to an old friend. i guess i can always go back and read them, but when i'm writing they're so ALIVE.
this book will certainly need some editing, though, and probably some dumbing down of the sex stuff. i've never written anything adult-ish before and i'm not sure how much i can get away with. so i'll probably be cutting a bunch of stuff that's too graphic or whatever. it's not exactly romance-novel stuff, but explicit in a non-sexy way (i think). anyway, the next one will be much different, just as this one was much different from the other four. Not sure how to begin book 6, but by the time i finish book 5 i hope i'll have some idea. if not, i guess i'll just let my fish float at the surface and write my nano-wrimo book. or finish one of the other two books i started and never finished.
happy writing, happy reading!