I don't know what it is but the last couple of days seem to have slowed down to a crawl. My kids have been complaining of being bored, nothin' to do they whine, all their friends are away, the weather has been hot, humid and thunderstormy. Everybody seems to have taken this week as vacation or is prepping to take vacation next week. A lot of the people who are usually on the message boards at Verla Kay's have been at the SCBWI summer conference in Los Angeles. I've sent off my WIP to my agent and it will be at least a few weeks until I have her comments and I'm reluctant to start the next project while I wait for the word from my editor about what she thought about the revisions to Illegally Blonde I did earlier this summer(which should come later this week).
Sigh. I'm bored too.
And you know what? That's a great thing. The luxury of being bored these days is so rare I should embrace it. Nothin' to do? And I'm complaining??? What the heck is wrong with me?
I should bookmark this post so that in September, when I'm drowning in day work, back to school craziness, revisions from agent, making my plans for how to help get the word out there about Illegally Blonde, hockey mom life, and just living my usual stressed out regular working mom life I'll read this and remember that for one time this year, for a few brief, blissful days I was actually bored.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
When You Know Your WIP Is Finished
1. When you want to clean out your refrigerator more than wanting to do another read-through of your WIP.
2. When you decide to suck it up and read through it just one more time anyway and realize, "Hey. It doesn't half-suck."
3. When your CP keeps telling you it's good. Don't worry. And you trust your CP.
4. When you start going through Google Images to envision what your book cover might look like.
5. When you are actually looking forward to sending it to your Agent, knowing it is the best you can make it and are actually hoping for some tough criticism so you can make it even better.
6. When you lay in bed at night thinking through the story and characters and seeing the book play out like a complete movie in your mind. And liking it.
7. When the "Other Idea" starts to push into your consciousness with more and more force and taking up more space because you are no longer working through plot problems with your current WIP.
8. When the only substantial revisions you seem to be doing involve changing an "And" to a "But". And then changing it back again.
9. When you can think of nothing more to make it better. And tinkering with it any more might make it worse.
10. When you realize that a book is not going to become a book unless you let others read it. Otherwise it's only a diary.
That's when you know.
It's finished.
2. When you decide to suck it up and read through it just one more time anyway and realize, "Hey. It doesn't half-suck."
3. When your CP keeps telling you it's good. Don't worry. And you trust your CP.
4. When you start going through Google Images to envision what your book cover might look like.
5. When you are actually looking forward to sending it to your Agent, knowing it is the best you can make it and are actually hoping for some tough criticism so you can make it even better.
6. When you lay in bed at night thinking through the story and characters and seeing the book play out like a complete movie in your mind. And liking it.
7. When the "Other Idea" starts to push into your consciousness with more and more force and taking up more space because you are no longer working through plot problems with your current WIP.
8. When the only substantial revisions you seem to be doing involve changing an "And" to a "But". And then changing it back again.
9. When you can think of nothing more to make it better. And tinkering with it any more might make it worse.
10. When you realize that a book is not going to become a book unless you let others read it. Otherwise it's only a diary.
That's when you know.
It's finished.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Back to Work - The Revision
So,I'm back from vacation this week and have tons of stuff to do - with the day job and at home but, most importantly, with the revision.
I've spent the past week lazily reading in a hammock by the lake so I'm well rested for the hard work of the next few weeks. I spent lovely, timeless stretches of afternoons immersed in the wonderful, complex, heart-rending The Time Traveler's Wife. What a luxury it is to have hours to read at one sitting! To really become immersed in a novel as big and beautiful as Ms. Niffenenger's. It inspired me, it awed me and I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to read it in chunks of time and not the few minutes I get at the end of an exhausted, rushed day. It recharged the spent batteries for sure. This is what a good book should do. Thank you Ms. Niffenenger. Thank you.
In the meantime the WIP has been sitting for two weeks untouched and unread by me. My wonderful CP, Stephanie, has read it, though, and given me the most important thing - the seal of her approval. I trust her instincts and she told me the story works. Thank God. Actually, thank you, Steph! So now it is up to my critical, nitpicky self to go through it as a reader and see where I'm pulled out, where the language is awkward, where I need to add a little bit more depth, and in general, make things flow as best they can. It's at almost 54,000 words right now. I'd like to get it over 55,000. But it's not about the amount of words. If the story works it doesn't matter if I'm slightly short (which as a person of Portuguese heritage I inevitably am. End pun). Seriously, what I really hope to achieve is characters that come across as real. That the emotion of the story is true. That the pace of it works. That the ending is satisfying. That I am satisfied. Both as a writer and as a reader.
Then, and only then, will I send it to the agent. And wait for her impressions. And hope I've done it right. And worry I haven't. And assure myself I have. And worry I haven't ... sigh.
Wish me luck.
I've spent the past week lazily reading in a hammock by the lake so I'm well rested for the hard work of the next few weeks. I spent lovely, timeless stretches of afternoons immersed in the wonderful, complex, heart-rending The Time Traveler's Wife. What a luxury it is to have hours to read at one sitting! To really become immersed in a novel as big and beautiful as Ms. Niffenenger's. It inspired me, it awed me and I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to read it in chunks of time and not the few minutes I get at the end of an exhausted, rushed day. It recharged the spent batteries for sure. This is what a good book should do. Thank you Ms. Niffenenger. Thank you.
In the meantime the WIP has been sitting for two weeks untouched and unread by me. My wonderful CP, Stephanie, has read it, though, and given me the most important thing - the seal of her approval. I trust her instincts and she told me the story works. Thank God. Actually, thank you, Steph! So now it is up to my critical, nitpicky self to go through it as a reader and see where I'm pulled out, where the language is awkward, where I need to add a little bit more depth, and in general, make things flow as best they can. It's at almost 54,000 words right now. I'd like to get it over 55,000. But it's not about the amount of words. If the story works it doesn't matter if I'm slightly short (which as a person of Portuguese heritage I inevitably am. End pun). Seriously, what I really hope to achieve is characters that come across as real. That the emotion of the story is true. That the pace of it works. That the ending is satisfying. That I am satisfied. Both as a writer and as a reader.
Then, and only then, will I send it to the agent. And wait for her impressions. And hope I've done it right. And worry I haven't. And assure myself I have. And worry I haven't ... sigh.
Wish me luck.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
No Writing Allowed
At least for the next two weeks that is.
I finished the second intense draft of my WIP and even though I know it needs another go through - another 'intense' go through - I am abstaining from the urge to take out the red pen. Instead, since I'll be headed up to the cottage for a week, I will read, read, read (as much as 3 kids and a hubby who will want to kayak, canoe, hike - you know active things? *shudders* will let me). I know that taking a break from my editing side and becoming a reader again will help the next draft. I will have removed myself from the euphoria of feeling finished and be able to see the warts on my my 'frog of a story waiting to turn into a prince of a novel' much easier.
It will be hard not to write especially since I have another story percolating in the back of my brain and another one already written that needs such an intense revision I might as well start it from scratch again. But these breaks are necessary for me. I need to read the story like a reader, not a writer. And it will help that my good bud/CP Stephanie will be reading it too since she hasn't seen a word of it. Two weeks will give me the distance I need to hear criticisms without falling into a puddle of "OMG. I just can't change that or add more! I'm sick of the story. Don't you know it's DONE??" Instead, I'll be able to apply solutions to any problems that are inevitable in a WIP. I'll be happy to tear into it again.
I guess there's something to be said for the old cliché "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". In a writer's case, the cliché can be re-written to say "Absence makes the story get better."
I finished the second intense draft of my WIP and even though I know it needs another go through - another 'intense' go through - I am abstaining from the urge to take out the red pen. Instead, since I'll be headed up to the cottage for a week, I will read, read, read (as much as 3 kids and a hubby who will want to kayak, canoe, hike - you know active things? *shudders* will let me). I know that taking a break from my editing side and becoming a reader again will help the next draft. I will have removed myself from the euphoria of feeling finished and be able to see the warts on my my 'frog of a story waiting to turn into a prince of a novel' much easier.
It will be hard not to write especially since I have another story percolating in the back of my brain and another one already written that needs such an intense revision I might as well start it from scratch again. But these breaks are necessary for me. I need to read the story like a reader, not a writer. And it will help that my good bud/CP Stephanie will be reading it too since she hasn't seen a word of it. Two weeks will give me the distance I need to hear criticisms without falling into a puddle of "OMG. I just can't change that or add more! I'm sick of the story. Don't you know it's DONE??" Instead, I'll be able to apply solutions to any problems that are inevitable in a WIP. I'll be happy to tear into it again.
I guess there's something to be said for the old cliché "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". In a writer's case, the cliché can be re-written to say "Absence makes the story get better."
Monday, July 20, 2009
How Many Drafts? And I Don't Mean Beer.
I'm in the process of writing the second intense draft of my WIP in the hopes of sending it off to my agent say, oh, by the next millenium or something. In actuality I had hopes of firing it off by the end of this month. I'm thinking next millenium might be more realistic.
It's not that I'm not pleased with it. There are occasions when I'm busily transposing my long-hand scribbled first draft into clean, computer-literate, hopefully grammar-perfected second draft prose when I think, hmm, not bad. Or even, hey, I wrote that? Wow. There are more occasions when I think "Oh, crap. This is falling apart. Oh, double crap. That plot point just doesn't work anymore. I have to change that. Oh no!!! Beam me up, Scottie! The engine 'canna take no more' !"
But there's no brilliant Scottie to rescue me from disaster. Only me. And so I plow through hoping that by the time I have everything in nice, clean computer-screened impartiality I can step back from the completed second draft and not be so worried/emotionally invested in this story. Hopefully, I'll be able to see its strengths and, more importantly, its weaknesses with an objective readers eye and not a writer's paranoia. When I start reading it from the top - again - in what I call my 'Readers Intense Draft' stage I hope I'll be able to have fixed any major, glaring plot holes or added in some much needed character depth that will make the story more meaningful.
So, my hope is that by the end of this third draft it will be in good enough shape to send to the agent to get her impression, views and suggestions and then, once I get those, tackle the story again in the fourth intense draft. I call them 'intense' drafts because I don't consider the constant tweaking of language and nitpicking of dialogue or descriptions I do all along in every stage to be drafts. To me they are a constant part of the editing process. Intense, to me, is an in-depth, cohesive examination of all characters, motivations, plots and sub-plots to make sure the whole story works.
By about the fourth intense draft, if the story isn't working, if the characters don't seem real, if there is still some niggling problem that won't go away I'm in real trouble mister. I know some writers who write dozens of drafts until they feel the story is there. Some from scratch! Yikes! Like the incomparable Jack Nicholson said in Terms of Endearment "I'd rather stick needles in my eyes." But that's what works for them. If that gets the story out all power to them. For me if the story isn't gelling by at least the third draft and if it's definitely not there by the fifth, it's time to stick that baby under the bed for awhile.
What I'd really like to know is which novels made it to print after one draft. Like any? If so then those are gifts from a higher power and the writer should just bow down and thank their lucky stars. I wish it was that easy for me. But, hey, a book should have staying power right? If after four intense drafts and countless hours spent writing and re-writing the darn thing and I still think it’s a good story that's gotta say something.
Now, if you'll excuse me. I gotta get back to that second draft ...
It's not that I'm not pleased with it. There are occasions when I'm busily transposing my long-hand scribbled first draft into clean, computer-literate, hopefully grammar-perfected second draft prose when I think, hmm, not bad. Or even, hey, I wrote that? Wow. There are more occasions when I think "Oh, crap. This is falling apart. Oh, double crap. That plot point just doesn't work anymore. I have to change that. Oh no!!! Beam me up, Scottie! The engine 'canna take no more' !"
But there's no brilliant Scottie to rescue me from disaster. Only me. And so I plow through hoping that by the time I have everything in nice, clean computer-screened impartiality I can step back from the completed second draft and not be so worried/emotionally invested in this story. Hopefully, I'll be able to see its strengths and, more importantly, its weaknesses with an objective readers eye and not a writer's paranoia. When I start reading it from the top - again - in what I call my 'Readers Intense Draft' stage I hope I'll be able to have fixed any major, glaring plot holes or added in some much needed character depth that will make the story more meaningful.
So, my hope is that by the end of this third draft it will be in good enough shape to send to the agent to get her impression, views and suggestions and then, once I get those, tackle the story again in the fourth intense draft. I call them 'intense' drafts because I don't consider the constant tweaking of language and nitpicking of dialogue or descriptions I do all along in every stage to be drafts. To me they are a constant part of the editing process. Intense, to me, is an in-depth, cohesive examination of all characters, motivations, plots and sub-plots to make sure the whole story works.
By about the fourth intense draft, if the story isn't working, if the characters don't seem real, if there is still some niggling problem that won't go away I'm in real trouble mister. I know some writers who write dozens of drafts until they feel the story is there. Some from scratch! Yikes! Like the incomparable Jack Nicholson said in Terms of Endearment "I'd rather stick needles in my eyes." But that's what works for them. If that gets the story out all power to them. For me if the story isn't gelling by at least the third draft and if it's definitely not there by the fifth, it's time to stick that baby under the bed for awhile.
What I'd really like to know is which novels made it to print after one draft. Like any? If so then those are gifts from a higher power and the writer should just bow down and thank their lucky stars. I wish it was that easy for me. But, hey, a book should have staying power right? If after four intense drafts and countless hours spent writing and re-writing the darn thing and I still think it’s a good story that's gotta say something.
Now, if you'll excuse me. I gotta get back to that second draft ...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Three Most Dreaded Words in the English Language
Double. Root. Canal.
Nuff Said.
Don't feel like blogging much this week. Hopefully back on track in a few days.
(P.S. Is it bad to consider chasing antibiotics with straight vodka?)
(P.S. P.S. If my kids are reading this I'm kidding.)
Nuff Said.
Don't feel like blogging much this week. Hopefully back on track in a few days.
(P.S. Is it bad to consider chasing antibiotics with straight vodka?)
(P.S. P.S. If my kids are reading this I'm kidding.)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
It Takes a Village to Build Self-Confidence
Writers know that self-confidence is a fragile thing. We're always one bad day of writing, one vague criticism, or one reject from an editor or agent away from declaring ourselves not worthy enough, not tough enough, or not good enough to handle this business. So where do we get the courage, the fortitude, the self-confidence to keep going in the face of all this? I always thought that self-confidence was something that was either inside you or not. I always thought that a belief in yourself meant that you didn't need others to believe in you. But this week I've seen someone very close to me struggle with their self-confidence, with their belief in their capabilities because of judgements from someone else. And I've come to realize that even if we might believe in ourselves sometimes we need to hear others say that they believe in you even when we might have stopped believing in ourselves. Especially when we've stopped believing in ourselves.
Friends and family are the most critical people in building - or re-building - the crumbling foundation of self-confidence. For writers, their critique partners, or their agents or editors are also key. If these people don't believe in you and tell you that you are good enough that your work is worthy, then you have to do the work of building your fragile self-esteem all by yourself. And some people can do that. Some people are very, very strong that way. Others need help. And there's something to be learned - for me at least - about how to support people when they're shaky. I've discovered that sometimes you need to back away from the struggle and re-trench. Sometimes you need to stop what you're doing for awhile altogether. And when someone you care about feels like quitting what is your job as a family member or friend or critique partner to do? Should you automatically say don't quit? Never give up? Nobody likes quitting after all but is it really quitting or taking another path? Who are we to say this is the way to go forward? No one has the right answers to these very personal questions.
All I know is that a person I care about is suffering and if that means they need to stop, re-group and try again later then that means I will support them. They are not quitters to me. They just need to find what the best building material is for their self-confidence and, once they figure that out, I'll be there helping to re-build that foundation.
Friends and family are the most critical people in building - or re-building - the crumbling foundation of self-confidence. For writers, their critique partners, or their agents or editors are also key. If these people don't believe in you and tell you that you are good enough that your work is worthy, then you have to do the work of building your fragile self-esteem all by yourself. And some people can do that. Some people are very, very strong that way. Others need help. And there's something to be learned - for me at least - about how to support people when they're shaky. I've discovered that sometimes you need to back away from the struggle and re-trench. Sometimes you need to stop what you're doing for awhile altogether. And when someone you care about feels like quitting what is your job as a family member or friend or critique partner to do? Should you automatically say don't quit? Never give up? Nobody likes quitting after all but is it really quitting or taking another path? Who are we to say this is the way to go forward? No one has the right answers to these very personal questions.
All I know is that a person I care about is suffering and if that means they need to stop, re-group and try again later then that means I will support them. They are not quitters to me. They just need to find what the best building material is for their self-confidence and, once they figure that out, I'll be there helping to re-build that foundation.
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