Life's like a jump rope

Currently Reading:
The Danse Macabre, by Stephen King.


The title of this blog refers to a song by Blue October, which happens to be particularly fitting for my life right now as I try to navigate the big scary world of online networking. So far, I'm keeping it pretty small. Not quite getting my feet wet yet, more like putting one toe in. Reading all the writing/agenting blogs and such has made me depressed more than once.
On the bright side, I'm seriously considering putting a book online, so we'll see where that goes. My goals are pretty modest right now.
I'm still slowly working through my agent list for queries, so...well, we'll see where that goes, too. So far, it's a learning process, and for someone as impatient as me, that's difficult. But I hope it will pay off in the long run. I had my first nibble from an agent, so that was some badly needed encouragement.
And since then, I've been forcing myself to write again. I had a few bad weeks or maybe a month of stasis, possibly brought on by reading too much gloom-and-doom stuff online about the end of the publishing industry. I'm trying to limit my consumption of these blogs from now on. Also, I may change the content of my blog here soon as well, in hopes of obsessing less and controlling my writerly neuroses (yes, that is plural, I have lots of them).
Cheerios.

By the Numbers

Lots of writer's set writing goals for themselves, something that I try to do, but I'm not very strict about sticking to it. Mostly because one day might be busier than the next, and I might not have time to write, or I might be lazy, or need to get an overdue DVD back, or have plans that night, or...you get the picture.

The point was, I got to thinking about writing goals. Some people have a word count goal, but I prefer to stick to pages. Otherwise I get to obsessing about watching that little counter at the bottom lefthand corner of the page crawling upwards, or I stop to check way too often.

Well, here's what I figured out. If I take 5 days off, and still meet my 5pages per day writing goal the other 360 days of the year, that makes....1800 pages per year. That's 6 adult books or 9 young adult books, approximately. Of course that assumes all 1800 pages are good, which would never happen, at least not for most of us. Even assuming half the pages are crap (hey, I'm an optimist), that's not too shabby. Now if I could only stick to my goal, and stop getting in slumps, and stop procrastinating, and stop watching TV at night and...ah, well. It was a nice thought.

Prioritizing

I haven't been posting a lot lately, as I'd meant to do. But the reality is, I've been busy writing. And though I like blogging, the book comes first. So, now that I've finished the first draft, I have time to write a blog. Phew. It's a whirlwind, mentally-exhausting process. I didnt get major brain-drain this time except maybe one day. It's like when I write, I go to this other creative place where my conscious brain is only halfway engaged. If I have off work and it's a writing day, sometimes I get so into a book that I spend 8 or 10 or maybe even 12 hours in one day writing. I might stop to eat. But I've been known to forget lunch until 4pm during a bout of intense writing. But after I write all day, my brain feels...well, limp. Wrung out. Creatively exhausted. When that happens, it takes a few days to recharge so I can write again. In my spare time? Well, I write other, more intellectually engaged things, like blogs (fun), query letters (scary), my finances spreadsheets (scarier).
So now I'm in that after-book limbo. Recovered from brain drain, waiting for inspiration to strike and tell me what to write next, if I should start something new or go finish one of the other 5 books I started and abandoned. Or if I should write one more and make a trilogy, or stick with the books and sequel I've already written. Hmmm...only time will tell.

To outline or not to outline, that is the question.

My goals for March? Keep up with blogging, for one.

I meant to write one again last week, but alas, I was consumed with thoughts of my book and procrastinating. And Glee.

I'm on the sequel of my outlined book. This time around I thought I'd make an outline before I even started. Last time, I started the outline fifty pages in. The great and not so great thing about outlines is that I get caught up in outlining and maybe spend oh, hours, staring at and tweaking my outline to make it all pretty and neat. Yes, I'll do just about anything to keep from sitting my butt down and doing the work (writing, that is). In fact, I spend so much time avoiding that I get lots of other stuff done--laundry, outlines, query letters, to name a few.

Well, this time I started with an outline, and I'm not sure if that's keeping me from wanting to write. I like the spontaneous approach. However, it is a useful tool in keeping me on track. I usually know major plot points, the ending (or how I envision the ending, though it often changes as I go). But having an outline has helped with pacing so far. I don't go off on random tangents as much, although some of my plotlines may seem that way. The downside is that sometimes I think the story seems too forced with an outline. Like I have to stick to it, so when I do go off on a tangent then the next chapter starts back on the outline and I wonder if it doesnt leave something to be desired continuity-wise. But, I'm sticking it out for this one at least.

Not sure if I'll stick with outlining for the future, but I can see how it helps keep things on track. Maybe I'll use it more for editing next time--make an outline after the book, check to make sure everything follows through, the plot points are in the right spots, etc.

Jury's still out on this one. I may always be a pantser.

Ye Olde Query letter...arg.

Feeling a little pirate today, so you must read at least the title in your pirate accent.

I have a strange confession--I actually enjoy writing query letters. I know, I've probably lost some marbles to say that, but they can be fun. And of course necessary. So I'm looking on the bright side. I've written....gaw, hundreds of them it seems. Mostly rewritten, I should say. Usually, I like working out a summary, then chopping everything out that isn't absolutely essential. I've got one query letter that I've never gotten right, but maybe that says something about the book. Hmmm...might be time to pull it out for another rewrite?

Unfortunately, that's the book I decided to shop first, way back when I had no idea how to write a query letter (or even what a query letter was). I banged out a query and thought it was all easy-peasy and wow. When I read it now, it's so bad I laugh. But I've stuck with it and all its revisions, and there have been lots. I don't want to start querying a new book when I haven't finished querying my last one. Big no-no. So I'm rewritting (again) my query and sending it out a few more times.

THEN if I don't have any bites, I may have to start polishing my other stuff and figuring out if any of them are good enough to shop. At least my query letters are decent (I think!) and useful, and give a sense of the character and voice along with plot.

That's a first.

In honor of the first draft I just finished, here's a blog.

This book was great fun to write, but interesting and challenging, too. I tried some new things this time around, and it turns out, I'm pretty pleased with the result. Here are some of the new and unique experiences I had while writing this book.

1. I wrote an outline. I know, I'm supposed to do that for all my books, right? Wellllllll....I'm more of a "pantser" as it's called. I've never made an outline before. I'm not even sure how it's done. But I saw an organizational chart a published writer had made after writing a book, and I thought, I could do that. I was so sucked in to the book I was writing that I didnt want to go do a chart for a book I'd already finished. So I did one for the chapters I'd written in this book. Then I went ahead and did it for the chapters I hadn't written. Scary, but pretty handy. I already knew what would happen, but it helped to have it all laid out in chronological order (that's how my brain works). Of course I had to tweak things, add and subtract characters, combine and expand scenes and chapters. But overall, it was a good experience. Will I do it on my next book? I'll get back to you on that. I don't really have anything waiting in the brainwaves begging to be written.

2. I wrote a young adult book that's actually appropriate for young adults. I think. I've written young adult books before, but they usually morph into adult books, as I just don't have a pure and innocent mind, haha. Usually between the sex, swearing, and violence that works its way in there, no one would ever let a young adult read my books (myself included). So I end up changing them to adult books. This one...pretty PG13.

3. I wrote an entire book where not one person smirked. Not once. I even did a "Find & Replace" search to make sure, after I read the first draft and noticed that my usual smirky, annoying guy was strangely absent. I did it. Really, really I did. Not one smirk to be found in a single character. Yes, the sky may be falling. Now if I could only write that book without a love story....

4. I had something else for right here, but I'm burned out from writing my first draft, so reason number four is cruelly forgotten in the wasteland of my post-drafting brain. Right now, not much is going on up there except visions of cupcakes dancing. It's true. After I crank out a first draft, I'm completely devoid of brainwaves for at least three days. I'm pretty sure a writer coined the term 'airhead.' 

Happy Monday, all!

This book's for you!

So, yesterday I posted a list of reasons why someone might not like my books. Then I thought, that was a little discouraging. I wouldnt want to tell people not to read my books, after all. So I thought I'd make a more positive list today. Here it is. Ten reasons someone might actually want to read my books.

You might want to read my books if:

1. You like getting to know the characters more than a ton of action sequences
2. You don’t mind people who swear, smoke, drink, and otherwise misbehave
3. You like amusing dialogue that makes you squirm a little sometimes
4. You can overlook a lot of character flaws and still like someone
5. You don’t mind a mixed-bag ending or one that’s more hopeful than happy
6. You throw a book against the wall but you’re still likely to pick it up and finish it
7. You can deal with a lot of pop culture references, even if you don’t know them
8. You like smirky guys
9. You can love a character who has absolutely nothing exceptional about her
10. You don’t mind if no one smolders.