Visionary (#atozchallenge)

Welcome to today's post on the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. My challenge, as I have chosen to accept it, is thus: I have asked on my Facebook and Twitter accounts for people to contribute random words beginning with today's letter. From Random.org, I have selected one of these words, and will below challenge myself to connect said word to writing.

For the letter V, I received 54 suggestions. Random.org selected number 9: visionary.


Visionary

When I first started writing again, I had a vision. No, literally, a vision. Well, okay, it wasn't one of those show-my-destiny-through-mental-images vision, but it was a message my brain wanted to tell me. A repeated scene in my head over and over. My psyche whispering to me in my dreams. Too bad my psyche really wanted to scare the pants off of me... and succeeded, to be sure.

But this vision turned into something. It's the climax in my first (hefty) manuscript, something that no one will ever see but me, one supportive friend, and my super-supportive sister-in-law. But that's not the point.

The point is that we're all visionaries in our own worlds. We create from nothing but the synapses in that gray matter under our skull and some personal experiences. We have visions.

Yeah, yeah, are you bored with my "we're the awesomest" speech yet?

I bring this up because sometimes the original vision isn't the best. My writing instructor once told us that revision and re-vision aren't the same thing, and I believe her. I've seen it in action. Sometimes moving scenes around and editing the syntax aren't enough to provide the best story within us. Sometimes you have to delete a third of a novel and rewrite it, re-visioning how it should play out. Sometimes you have to rethink a character's actions. If, upon further inspection, that character wouldn't do that huge action that creates the tension for the rest of the novel, then something needs to be re-visioned.

I'm currently rewriting the first, oh, third (the number above was either arbitrary or subconsciously apt) of my novel Fighting Fate. The original was poor. The tension lagged. People did some stuff, but, eh, people do stuff all the time. This time around, though, I'm rethinking everything, including the backstory, to get them where they need to go. And, if I do say so myself (*dusting off shoulders*), it's not too bad.

Ever had to re-vision your work? How far are you willing to go to rewrite your fiction/poetry? Are you willing to scrap everything but your basic characters and start over? How much re-visioning is too much?

Clean (#atozchallenge)

Welcome to my 3rd post on the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. My challenge, as I have chosen to accept it, is thus: I have asked on my Facebook and Twitter accounts for people to contribute random words beginning with today's letter. From Random.org, I have selected one of these words, and will below challenge myself to connect said word to writing.



For the letter C, I received 68 suggestions. Random.org selected number 8: clean.

PS--My Mondays and Wednesdays have me running around without good internet access all day until 9pm EST (US). I'll get back to you, but it might be late tonight.


Clean

So, I thought about taking the easy route with this, talking about cleaning up and polishing your work, making sure you've got a good editor, etc., etc., but we've heard that all before, haven't we? And, well, we need something to help us get over the Monday blues, right? Who wants to talk about cleaning up after yourself when you've spent a weekend Spring cleaning (or Fall cleaning, maybe, for our dear friends south of the Equator), or cleaning up after kids, or after dinner, or cleaning up the yard...

You get the idea.

Instead, I want to talk about you. Now, before I do, please don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way. I am in NO WAY implying that any of my readers (or myself) are unclean. But if you have one of those skin conditions that comes from not bathing, I'm not judging. I just don't need to know about it :)

Thus, exhibit A:

Image courtesy of Wiki Commons

Poor Pig-Pen. All he wants is to have fun with his friends, but he always ends up dirty and smelly. Why is that?

Enthusiasm!

Pig-Pen loves everything he does. He gets deep down in the dirty while he's playing, and loves every minute of it. The boy's not afraid to get a little messy.

When it comes to writing, we need to get messy before we can dust off our hands and call the creation "done". That's one reason, in my opinion, events like NaNoWriMo are so successful. It's like an entire month of rolling around in the mud and never taking a shower. By the end, you stink, and BOY OH BOY do you want a good, long, hot shower or bath, but look at the prize that's waiting for you. The diamond of your enthusiasm awaits. Yeah, maybe you got muckier than you wanted, and you can't stand to look at that gem again for a while. I haven't looked at my 2010 NaNo yet, that's for sure, and I have no intention of doing so before June. BUT, I know it's decent... deep, deep, Deep, DEEP down. I just need to clean it up.

My bottom line is: Clean isn't always good, nor is it always what's best for us. Let the words flow, get the ides down. Later you can find your diamond in the rough. It's there, no matter what. Sometimes the mud just makes it a little easier to see.

How do you write? Do you polish as you go? Or do you spew words and tidy up after yourself later? 

Have you tried challenges like NaNo? What others have you participated in?

Want to play along with my A-to-Z Challenge? Today I'm taking suggestions for the letter G. I'll take as many or as few as you'd like to contribute. :)

Happiness is a Warm Draft

For some reason the original Beatles song is running through my head. I felt compelled.

This will be short for many reasons, the biggest of which is I'm running late and don't have much time, but I wanted to be sure to post today.

First, Nathan Bransford will be posting the finalists for his Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge sometime today. Hop over to his blog to read and vote for the finalists.

[poor segue]

So I mentioned last week that I have gone back to revising my first WIP. I realized I had to completely change the backstory to make the present story more believable. Well, in the process, my brain has been ON FIRE, creating this trajectory for my MCs. So much fun!

This morning, in my half-awake-half-asleep, please-don't-bother-me-because-the-sun's-not-up-yet state, I was plotting out a scene in a park with my four main characters. Now bear in mind that, in my original draft, the story is told in 1st person. Well, my imagination took me to a place where my supporting male character separated from the rest of the group—or security reasons, of course—and my mind followed him. The scene evolved, and not only did I like it, but I realized it might be rather crucial.

Thus, a new draft was born (I believe this one is marked number 592, give or take a few hundred). I started working on it yesterday morning, and wrote over 1000 words yesterday in time that I didn't have to be working on it. But when the fire is lit, it's hard to contain, no?

So, in the spirit of Nathan Bransford's Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge, I give to you my new and latest first paragraph.

Title: The Monarchy's Lies #592 (title subject to change, since I don't like it anymore)

Genre: YA Romance/Urban Fantasy

Anabelle Lindsky tugged at the collar of her shirt. She’d never felt comfortable with things around her neck—turtleneck sweaters, tight necklaces, even her fingers to check her pulse—but today was different. Today she would endure anything to get to the Mansion.

And, folks, I promise I'll get off my editing/revising kick soon. I'm just so excited about how this is going for me that I need to share. Thanks for reading. :)

What person do you normally use to narrate? 1st/2nd/3rd? Do you jump back and forth? Do you just know which will work best? How do you decide? Have you ever written something completely, and then started over in another POV?

ReEdited Again

So I got no reading done this weekend on my stack of novels and memoirs. I printed off my first WIP last Wednesday (11pt font, .5" margins, 1.5 spacing).  I hadn't looked at the thing since before NaNo and had honestly forgotten many things about it.

For reference, especially since a handful of you awesome readers are new after Alex J. Cavanaugh's awesome Top Ten Music Blogfest on Monday (Welcome! And thanks again to Alex for hosting :) I must tell you the brief history of me and this WIP. I started it on 18 July 2009 (don't ask why I know the date; I just do) and worked tirelessly on it and its two sequels until all three were written at close to 450K in March 2010 (don't know this date, though). And then I never let go. And I didn't let go. And I didn't let go. I didn't start anything new...

Well, no, that's not entirely true. I worked on something akin to garbage for about 10 days, which amounted close to 50K of stylistic nonsense. Even the plot was pretty boring. But even so, I couldn't take my mind off of the first WIPx3.

So, like every idealistic new writer, I put my first 250 words on Nathan Bradsford's blog for critique (my entry has not yet been selected), and my first 5 pages up on WriteOnCon.

A. Sobering. Experience.

After only one person critiques my first 5 pages on WriteOnCon, without holding back and essentially telling me the idea had merit but the execution stank like rotten composting roasting on an open fire, I snapped back to reality. I got involved in a critique group, found a fabulous individual critique partner from it, and rewrote the whole thing.

Then it sat. I stopped looking at it in the middle of October. I did NaNo, finished my semester, started another project, and then realized I could finally get back to the original.

On Friday I read 1 chapter. I didn't get any further than that.

That was enough. I realized how all entirely completely utterly horribly wrong some of the basic foundational material was. While the main plot works okay, I have to entirely rework my backstory. I need to make it more relatable.

People had made this suggestion before, but I hadn't been ready to hear it. Three months away from my WIP, and I think I'm ready. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, for the three of you who might have read a little bit of it, here's a shot of Emma Roberts (courtesy of EmmaRoberts.net), which is how I picture my MC, Anabelle (minus the blowing of the hair, of course, unless Olivia's around).

How do you edit? Have you had any editorial surprises? How long do you wait before you return to your WIP? How much overhaul do you take to your work? (Please don't tell me that it's perfect the first time! I might have a brain spasm.)

Notes on Revision

As you may (or may not) recall from December, I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing. There are two major reasons why I'm still reading it. First, I went on a reading binge over winter break—7 books in 19 days—which was amazing, but I limited my reads mainly to fiction. Second, every time I pick up King's book and read a section, I want to grab my computer and write! Not too helpful in keeping up the reading stamina.

My latest insight from Mr. King has to do with WHEN to revise. He suggests leaving your baby on the sidelines until you've all but forgotten about it. It's the writer's version of the "old" adage, mentioned in the movie Swingers—she won't call until he's completely forgotten about her. King suggests a minimum of 6-8 weeks apart from your latest prodigal work.

I had promised myself at least a month away from my NaNo work before revising it, but over the break I cheated a little. I tried working on it one morning and I'll tell you, it was PAINFUL. The whole thing continually frustrated me. I didn't get very far, to say the least.

King also suggests working on something else in between the original write and the revising. Something that can easily fill in the time slot between draft 1 and draft 2. Something that's completely different from the original project in question. So I've been working on this new dystopian, post-apocalyptic YA mumbo-jumbo that, unfortunately, for the first time for me, has no set ending in my mind. I mean, the mental outline is coming along, developing some decent plot twists, and the basic stuff at the beginning isn't going to make or break the ending, but I'm in personal uncharted territory. And it's scary. And it's hard.

I'll push through, though. Don't worry.

But with all of this, the funny bit is that I did set aside something before NaNo, and I have all but forgotten about it. It didn't even occur to me to go back and revise it until I read this section in King's book. My first big piece (that doesn't fall into the FanFic category) is sitting on my hard drive, all but forgotten, waiting for me to come back and edit it up. I can read it as if it had been written by someone else, rip it up, and decide if I want to market it or not. I might be able to do a better job with fresher eyes.

So, to summarize:

• Monarchy's Lies (currently in search of a new title): ready for the knife.
• Demon (also in search of a new title): desperately needing some time on the sidelines.
• Underground (working title, but, knowing me, it'll probably change): causing pain and anguish; still working on the mental outline; trying my hand at chapter 4.

What's your strategy for revising? Do you wait until you can look at a piece with "stranger's eyes" before revising? Do you have any revision secrets you can share?

My Own Personal Challenges

I've been reading (among many other things at once) On Writing by Stephen King. I enjoyed reading his books when I was younger. After having read every Christopher Pike novel published to that point in my life at least three times, Stephen King was the next step, moving into the world of adult horror/suspense/thriller/what-have-you. And, honestly, even if you don't like Stephen King's style or his stories or are simply jealous, you have to admit—the man's got something.

So when a friend loaned me his writing memoir a few months ago I thought, "Okay, sure. Seems like a good idea."

Then it sat on the shelf until I reached 50K for NaNo.

I thought to myself, "What now?" as I'm sure many other NaNo's do. So I picked up King's On Writing to see what advice I could glean on how to dust off my work boots and get back into it.

The book is full of fabulous advice. Above and beyond the tips like "Read a lot. Write a lot", he suggests setting a daily goal. Don't do anything until you reach your goal. Don't give up and walk away. Write while eating your lunch if you must. Obviously great advice, and something I could stand to implement into my own life.

But the piece of advice that has resonated with me so soundly today is about description. I tend to be an under-describer in my writing, particularly in my first drafts. As I read, I thought about my NaNo creation (whatever it may be) and about the setting. What had I described well? Ne, what had I described at all? Oh, it hurts to admit that I may have let the description slide some. But now I know at least one thing to focus on when I go back for rewrites.

There are plenty of other gems in King's On Writing. This is just the one that inspired me today.

What's some great writing advice you've been given/come across?

Game, SET... Edit?

This is about writing.  Stick with me for a paragraph or two, kay?

Ever play SET?  Give it a shot.  Click on "Daily Puzzle" to the left.  You have to find three cards that make a SET, which means the number, color, shape, and shading each individually all match or all mismatch.  For example:

In this picture, even though the three red cards have 1-2-3, they do NOT make a set because 1) there's no squiggly shape and 2) there's no solid.  The three purple cards also do no make a set, but they would if the single purple were an oval and not a diamond.

Sets here include the three singles in the bottom row.  The numbers all match (they all only have 1 figure), but all the colors are different, the shapes are all different, and the shading is all different.  Also the upper left three-squiggle-solid-green goes with the upper-almost-right two-oval-empty-red and the bottom-almost-left single-diamond-shaded-purple.

Okay, got it?  Go play (when you're finished reading).

I hear you.  What the hell does this have to do with writing, right?  It does.  I promise.  It's about...

....drum roll....

....self-editing.

When you play this game online, you have to find six sets in the twelve cards.  After a while, you keep seeing the same thing over and over because the cards don't go away (notice how, in my example above, the single-diamond-shaded-purple is used twice?).  There are obvious sets, but you don't see them right away.  If the stupid game didn't time you, I'd walk away, eat an apple, and come back.  My time today was under 5 minutes, but I was about ready to pull my hair out, since I got the first five sets in a minute-twenty.

When we self-edit, we have to learn to find the things that we wouldn't otherwise see.  These are faults that we can easily see in someone else's work, work that we haven't dedicated weeks/months/years/decades/lifetimes to, and so we're not emotionally invested.  Pick up our own work, and it's really hard to see it.  Is there too much backstory?  Is this dialogue stilted?  Is that character really necessary?  The first few edits, you may see the first five problem-sets, but if you just keep staring at it, that last set of edits can elude you for months.

I try to get around my own blindness by walking away.  For me, that's the biggest help.  When it comes to spelling and punctuation, I read backwards (bottom to top, right to left), because then I can't become emotionally invested in my characters' lives on the page.  Read it on paper or a computer screen (whichever way you don't write it first).  Read it aloud.  Print white words on black paper/background (color changes do amazing things, or so I've come to learn by accident over the past couple of months).  And, when in doubt, ask a friend.  I realize this goes beyond self-editing, sort of. If the friend is a comma-commando, then that's "typical" editing, but if the friend is reading for content, s/he can help me at least see the problem.  It's still up to me to FIX it.  Just remember that too many friends/readers can spoil the plot--something I forget ALLLLLL the time--so be selective.


What are some tactics you use to help you self-edit and see the faults you wouldn't otherwise?

Let Me Show You

Dearest Blog Followers,

My sincerest apologies for my extended hiatus.  September took my soul and hid it among my piles of unending work.  The first weeks of October took my mind and made brownies for a bake-sale.  I'm still in recovery mode, but I'm back, sort of, and I plan to be a more regular blogger.

Love,
Rosie

Okay, on to the real meat.

Oh, wait, I recently returned to my vegetarian roots (root-vegetables?).  Perhaps I should say, on to the real kale.

How do you know when to Show and when to Tell? 

Okay, and now we all groan together and then get back to work, right?

No, I'm serious.  A few months ago I entered a contest in which everyone who entered their first three chapters automatically got a three-chap critique from an agent.  So, DUH! I entered.  In looking back at my entry, I cringe slightly, as it has gone through numerous revisions since, but I gave her what I had.  And, of course, it is my first novel, which I continue to beat into submission despite its own intentions.  So, let's just say, it's not super.  I'm still learning the craft.  I'm rusty like that drink you make with Scotch... or how you feel after you drink it, anyway.  So, yeah, I hadn't expected to win.  No way.

What I had expected were slightly less-than-generic comments.

When I got them, I wigged out.  Yeah, anger, etc.  You name it, I felt it.  The comments included the old stand-bys of "Show more" and "Remove clichés" and "Cut back on the wordiness", etc.  And that was it.  No specifics.  So, in my wiggy-outtiness, I sent those three chapters and the general comments to a woman in my critique group who, I might add, is awesome in her straight-forwardness and won't beat around the bush.

If nothing else, she said that the clichés weren't my problem.  *whew*

But that brings us back to show v. tell.  She and I began a long discussion about it, when telling is too much, and—here's the kicker—when showing is too much.

I believe in showing.  I do. Here's a great blog post that explains my understanding of it. And, yeah, I probably tell too much in my first three chapters.  I'm considering rewriting them blind and changing the basic premise altogether, anyway.  That aside, here's my question:

Can you show too much?

If you show EVERYTHING, does your reader get overwhelmed?  By showing everything, are we not trying to tell our readers that every minor flip of hair or memory is of the utmost vital information?  Sometimes events and actions occur to develop character, not necessarily to move the plot.  Are these to be given equal weight?

Or am I, in wondering these things, making the age-old mistakes of the green writer?

In the blog post I linked to above, in the first scene example she gives, the last paragraph—the one that gives the punch to the dialogue—is technically showing.  Am I wrong?  Seriously, folks, am I?  You can't show EVERYTHING!  If you did, we'd be reading War and Peace every time we picked up a novel, but even Tolstoy tells us things!

Help me out, folks.  I'm pretty sure I'm missing something here.

I Love Knowing Smart People

Okay, folks.  Remember how I've been trying to find balance and order between all of the many haphazard parts of my life?  Well, I found part of the answer yesterday on the blog of a very smart woman.

Jemi (Just Jemi) described how she's ordered her blog reading with folders in Google Reader.  Totally copying from Jemi, I not only set up folders for each day of the week, but I added a Daily folder (mainly for agents' blogs), and a "Whenever" folder (e.g., for the gluten-free food blogs I follow).  I know this is going to make my life so much more manageable.

Thanks, Jemi!

So, for those of you who I've missed recently, fear not.  I shall return.  I just might not return every day.  But at least this way I get to see you sometimes! :)

******

In writing-related occurrences, if you didn't see yesterday's post, I'm excited about my new photo acquisition for a character in my WiP.  I'm still working toward finishing my latest draft of WiP#1 by the end of September.  My current word count holds at about 36K.  I didn't get any time to work on it on Monday, but hopefully I'll find some time on Tuesday.

******

Here's a school update after day 1, for those of you who might be interested.  I've gone to my first fiction writing class already, and it was awesome.  The instructor's cool, excited, and adorable.  The other students are a wide mix from campus: seniors and freshman; creative writing majors, grad-me, and psychology majors; an even balance of men and women.

It looks like it's going to be a good class.  For the first few weeks, we'll be focusing on characterization one week, story arcs another, dialogue another, etc.  And at the end of each class she'll give us 5-10 minutes and a writing prompt to get the ol' brain cells activated.  We'll see what comes out of yesterday's prompt over the weekend...

I also had my German for reading class.  It was more or less what I expected.  The instructor said from the get-go that this would be a boring class—monotonous and tedious—but I so sincerely appreciated his honesty about it.  A few years ago I took the equivalent French class, and it was torture for many, many, many, MANY reasons (are you getting how torturous it was??), but the fact that the instructor RESENTED our boredom was ridiculous.  You translate sentences, go around in a circle to talk about your translation, you get a little bit of grammar instruction, go home, prepare, and do it again the next day.  What's exciting about that?  So, kuddos for the German guy for his honesty and bluntness.  And he doesn't care that I bought the e-book, which is good since it was 1/2 the price!

For said German class, I was dreading my hike to the library in the hopes that one more German-English dictionary could be acquired from the shelves, but I didn't have to go :)  My adviser loaned me his German-English dictionary from when he took the class XX years ago.  I'm smiling at it right now.  I love when things are easier than they should be.

In that vein, I get to pick up my books tomorrow, prepackaged and waiting for me at a pick up window in the Union.  How cool is that?

Oh, and finally, after German I went for wine with my awesome friend from the Spanish department—who, coincidentally, suffered with me through the French class.  This woman is so funny that, by the end of my third glass of wine, I was laughing so loudly I was probably irritating the wait staff (who were trying to go home... we were the last folks there...).  It was a great way to end the long first day.

And, today, the gym.  Duh duh dunnnnnnnn....


So, I stink and have no good question for you, my lovely readers, today.  My excuse: I'm writing this Monday night and am an alcoholic lightweight.  Sorry!  I promise for my interesting and writing-related insights throughout the rest of the week.

Happy Tuesday, y'all :)

To Prologue or Not To Prologue?

*sigh*

I recently joined an online critique group, and gave them my latest rewrite of the first 4 pages of WiP #1.  The latest rewrite has seen me scrapping the first 3 chapters, and starting at the height of the initial action.  But there was one catch.

What's going on?  Where does this take place?  Is this our world or another one?

Yeowch!  Too many questions are left outstanding, but need to be answered earlier.

I don't want to reintroduce three chapters (approx. 10K words) of backtory.  So, the question is, what do I do to make things clear early enough in the story while still avoiding large paragraphs of exposition?

Here was my thought, and I don't know how much I like it.  A prologue.  Now, everyone and their agent's mother says not to prologue, so I'm torn.  At the moment I have 1 page of prologue, approx. 260 words, introducing one key historical moment of background, still trying to capture the reader's attention.

One potential problem is that the prologue has to be told through a 3rd person omniscient narrator.  The rest of the story is (currently) 1st person.  I recently read a book that did this, and it didn't feel problematic to me, but my hubby (the lit PhD) was concerned about the transition.

Of course, the other problem seems to be that prologues are loathed and, by some, seem to be considered a sign of bad writing.  I don't exactly want to introduce myself that way, that's for sure.  I'm just not sure what else to do. 

So, folks, what do you think?  Do you prologue?  Do you hate prologues?  How do you feel about the narrator transition from one to the other?  Am I committing a mortal literary sin here?

When In Doubt, Throw Everything Out and Start Over

Whew!

WriteOnCon was an intense ride.  I learned so much in such a short period (3 days!).  Top that off with the final for my intensive summer class (as of Thursday I am officially class-free for two weeks!), and my already slushy mind simply melted into sticky sugar water.  I'm still trying to piece everything together and make sense of it.

One post (series) that impacted me from the conference was from agent Weronika Janczuk (and if I didn't love her from her posts, I would because her name is Polish!) on pacing and plotting—click here for part 1, part 2, and part 3.  I focused on her descriptions of plot arcs, what should happen in the first 1/4, the middle 1/2, and the last 1/4 of the novel, how to build tension, etc., etc., and applied it to my current painful revisions of WiP #1.

I'm not willing to admit that my first round for WiP #1 didn't somewhat conform to the formula set forth in these posts.  It did.  But I believe it can be better.  Scratch that.  While it does conform to the increasing tension and tight climax in the last 10%, it's a mediocre story at best, and a complete overhaul will help it shine.

Add to Weronika's posts this vlog by author Kimberly Derting.  I don't write YA thriller/suspense, but that doesn't mean there aren't ample lessons in this vlog on how to build suspense that can be applied to any genre.  As I contemplated Kimberly's words with Weronika's echoing in my sugary mind, ideas of suspense-building mingled with my pondering of story arcs, and I realized, huh, this could be more suspenseful.

My story is told in 1st person (for now).  In the "original" story, my MC finds out some key information less than halfway through the story.  I realized I could increase the suspense by delaying her discovery.  I've been outlining for a couple of days now a complete overhaul of the story, trying to put the events in a proper order to delay discovery, continually increase the tension, and raise the stakes in the climax.

Finally, I'd like to throw into the mix this post from Helen Ginger's post on the Blood Red Pencil—Writers are Hookers.  Beyond the inevitable giggle this invokes in me (yeah, even a few days later), she makes a beautiful point about where the story (and each scene) needs to begin.  After reviewing my first 4-6 chapters for over a month now, I'm almost willing to throw out the first two chapters.  They are mostly background information, and I know that.  I hesitate because I feel like it's important, but we all know that this information can be incorporated later.  And some of it has been moved through recent, pre-overhaul revisions, meaning that leaving it upfront is redundant.

To risk getting a little weepy, part of my hesitation in the complete overhaul is strongly personal.  This story began as a part of my recovery process after my father passed away.  While a strong part of me yearns to be professional and know what needs to get slashed and burnt to make this puppy publishable, deep down I want to leave it, considering it a sacred tribute to my dad.  It's a little silly—my father's nowhere to be seen in the entire story—but that doesn't stop the emotional connection and the need to protect my baby from the red-line.

What I've decided, based on this final post by Jennifer Hubbard, is that I don't have to throw anything away.  (Okay, I knew that, but it's nice to have the reinforcement.)  I can keep the sacred version of my story, the one that makes me think of my struggle and my progress in recovery, and I don't have to share it with anyone but myself.  I can love it and baby it and wrap it in a huge security blanket and save it from the big, bad publishing world forever.  But I can also take the bones, the deep structure (Snicker, GB linguistics out there! Snicker!), the character histories, etc., and weave them together with this new and improved baby, one that I'm willing to raise and help mature into an undeniable force to be reckoned with in the brutal publishing industry.  I'll teach it not to take criticism personally—my baby could never learn that.  I'll mold it into a giant who will box its way onto the desk of an agent, causing said agent to swoon.  After rebandaging its fearsome hands, stopping the bloody nose and tending to its swollen lip, it will be ready to move from the agent's desk to that of the publishers, who will also love and adore it...

Man, am I getting ahead of myself!  I haven't done anything more than work on the outline.  I need to stop daydreaming and get to work.


How do you feel when you have to start over?  The more seasoned writers out there must not do this as often, but I know we have all done it at one point or another.  Have you ever coddled something despite its disrepair?  How long did it take you to admit that some work had to move permanently onto the shelf?

Character Rap Sheet

My dear blogosphery friends,

I need your help.  Through much reflection, a newly received critique, and lessons learned through last week's WriteOnCon, I've come to realize that I need to do great things to improve my characters.  This is hardly a surprising discovery.  I've been slowly moving toward this for some time, and have blogged about it before.

But now I want a complete overhaul of almost every single character.

Yeah, there's one who's interesting and developed (in my not so humble opinion).  Unfortunately, she's second-string, and her deeper involvement in the stories doesn't occur until book 2 :(  Not much help when I'm gutting book 1, is it?

The plan:  I want to create an in-depth questionnaire for myself that I must answer in excruciating detail for every individual who crosses my pages.  I don't care if the character makes a 2-page appearance—well, actually I do, because it means s/he should get cut.  But each character needs to be examined under the bright interrogation lights until they sweat so much I can't read their words on the pages.

I have the following already:

Physical Appearance (eye color, hair color, other defining facial information, height, weight, scars, piercings, tattoos, is their second toe longer or shorter than their big toe? clothing style, hair style, makeup...)
General Historical Information (DoB, DoD (if applicable), education, extra-curricular activities, suspensions, broken bones, hospitalizations, first kiss, first extensive sexual experiences, mother's maiden name, heritage, children, parents...)
Personal Information (left/right handed, allergies, contacts/glasses/20-20, exercise routine or not, favorite color, food preferences, handwriting style...)
Personal Quirks (nervous gestures/ticks, sweaty hands, what do they do when they lie? phobias...)

Other Randomness:

• What did s/he want to be after growing up?
• Did s/he have any pets as a child?  Names?
• Hobbies?  How serious are they?  Past hobbies since abandoned?
• Favorite iconic figures? (actors, writers, musicians, artists, world politicians, historical figures...)
• Video game obsessions?
• City or country or suburbia?
• Boxers or briefs?
• Favorite type of music?  Favorite type of fiction or non-fiction? Drama, sitcom, or documentary?
• Do they drink?  What do they drink?
• If s/he had a million dollars (or applicable currency)...?
• Left brained or right brained?
• Favorite/Worst childhood vacation?
• Favorite/Worst childhood memory?
• If s/he could visit anywhere, where would s/he go first?

The problem with the list:  My list so far is a better description of who I am than anything else.  It demonstrates how I think, and not necessarily how my characters think.  The problem, therefore, is that my characters can only grow as much as I allow them to if I stick to this list.  I don't like that.  Not one bit.

(Personal information: type-A control freak...) 

My request to you, dear beloved cyber-friends:  Can you contribute anything to my laundry lists above?  What other questions should I ask my characters?  The randomer the better, folks.  Hit me with your best shot! :)

And thank you!!!

For the Love of Character...

Based on a particular comment on yesterday's post (i.e., I must be crazy if I'm a writer—which is quite observant), I've decided not to hide my weirdness.  There's no need to pretend I'm normal or mature. 

Though I doubt I've hidden it from you until now.

(This is not actually the point to this post.  The digression stops here, folks!  Insert poorly written segue...)

What is a story without strong characters?  There are many answers to this question, but the one that's vital is, it's unpublishable.  This is hardly a new concept.  Characters are bread and butter in this industry.  A great story can be written with little conflict (though I wouldn't recommend it), but a story is nothing without its people.

Tying all of this together now, my crazy brain likes to dream in wild ways that are so far from reality that the Milky Way looks no bigger than it's candy bar counterpart.  In this fantasy anti-reality, my current WiP comes complete with a soundtrack and full cast.  Well, not full, but close.  And by cast I mean actual contemporary actors who would play a certain role well.

Now we understand why I write fantasy—nothing in my head is real :)

This morning on my walk to class I got to thinking about my cast.  I'm a little embarrassed to tell you who's in it, but there are some definite highlights from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl (ten points to whoever can identify the actor in both).  One actor I've never even seen act, but only seen him in commercials for movies and television, or on the cover of something akin to Teen Beat while waiting to pay for my groceries. 

While trying to keep my balance on the worn, slick brick path through the woods on campus, I had a startling, painful, depressing realization.  I have no actor for my MC.  The story's told in first person.  My MC should be the person we know the best.  So why couldn't I pick an actor to play her?

Okay, there are two possible answers to this.  The optimistic one: I don't watch a lot of teeny-bopper TV and movies (Gossip Girl aside) and therefore don't know of a good actor to play this 19 yr old girl.

And the pessimistic one: she's not developed enough.

I just about needed a triple bypass after that thought.

I've been nervous about this ever since I received some preliminary notes that said the reader didn't get a strong sense of who my MC was and that she was a little too perfect.  I mentioned this to another reader, who responded that my MC is a normal teenage girl thrown into an awkward situation, and acts more or less appropriately.  I've been trying to rough up my MC a bit during this round of editing, but I'm questioning everything.  Is it enough?  Is her response here too predictable or not predictable enough?  Should she be good at this task on her first try or not?  Is she being honest enough about this awkward situation, or too honest?

Ack!

Then a fleeting thought raced through my head (crashing desperately just above my ear, preventing its escape), whispering that there are examples of first person narrators in literature who have little to no personality, and who are merely there to enjoy the boozy partying.  I won't name anything specifically because I wouldn't dare want to imply any comparison between me and said author(s), but it exists.  Do I think it's publishable in today's market?  Hell no.  I have no illusions here.

I really wish that thought had flown right out of my ear before I could hear what it said.  Hmph.  It shouldn't have been talking on its cell phone....

Okay, enough rambling from me.  I should get back to destroying my overly perfect, goodie-goodie narrator.


What do you do to further develop your characters?  Do you write diaries or external scenes that should never see the ink of print?  Do you outline or chart different characteristics?  Do you simply listen to the voices in your head? (This may be the only industry where that's not considered unhealthy.)


PS—I want you to know that I'm a member of GGWA (Gossip Girl Watchers Anonymous).  It's been six months since my last viewing.  There's a meeting tonight at 9pm EST/8pm CST.

Self-Indulgent Update

Sunday night.  I've spent all weekend not doing the work I should have done, and I'm okay with it.  My husband and I ditched work together yesterday, and today's been a lovely day of writing, etc.  I'm currently waiting for the multiberry crisp to come out of the oven, and my tea's already steeping.  Oh, and we just brought in some beautiful wild pink lilies that popped up on the side of our house.  *grin*  Aren't they pretty?

I guess that was the self-indulgent part.

As for the update:  Thank you once again for all of your suggestions on my writing crisis last week.  Based on suggestions (and that dreaming-to-waking transition creativity), I settled on two courses of action—the assorted expository hint through the first half-dozen chapters and a brief study session between my MC, her BFF (the abbreviation makes me cringe, but it's true), and two randomly generated people for purposes of exposition.  It currently fits neatly on 4 pages (less than 1000 word).  While it's a little boring in that expository-dialogue-y way, it could be much worse, and it's punctuated by my MC's narrative voice making fun of the situation. Hopefully it's not painful to read.  And nothing's set in stone.  It's not like it's going to print any time soon :)

I can also make one of those extra people useful, of course.  He'll bring lots of extra conflict into my MC's life long after this new guy disappears.  His involvement should also help (hopefully) to resolve one of my crit reader's complaints about my MC's lack of flaws.  It will at least make her more interesting.

On a tangential note, last week while walking to class I was listening to my "soundtrack".  It's not really a soundtrack, since it doesn't actually connect to events in the story.  It's more like a song or two that seem to portray a character's voice.  One song came on, making me feel painfully nostalgic for a character that doesn't appear in WIP-1, but only in 2 and 3.  I've vowed to focus on #1 for now until I'm a bit happier with the flow, etc., but the song made me literally miss my character.  I listened to it over and over and over.  *sigh*  Oh, Zoe.... we'll meet again someday.

Do you ever miss your characters when you take a break from your WIP, or after you finish it?  Or am I just nuts?

Thanks!

Wow, that's two thank-you posts in one week.  Apparently I'm feeling grateful.

I want to thank everyone for their answers to my advice question from yesterday.  I was extremely helpful hearing a few different points of view, and hearing that maybe—if done right, of course—the info dump wouldn't be too bad.  It seems like most people liked the exam studying options, be it textbook or study session.  There will surely be some general exposition—how could I possibly get around it, really?  Some of the information I'll try to spread out.  For example, in the opening chapter they're watching a special news break, and that would be an easy place to throw some of it in, but not enough.  And a decent amount shows up in Chapter 6 already, but the complaint I got was that it was too late and the reader was already skeptical about the reality.

Okay, well, I shouldn't info-dump here, either.  Just a big thanks to those of you who kicked in your two dollars (inflation, don't ya know?).

Cheers!

A Little Advice?

Hello, cyber friends.  I need your advice.

One of my critical readers mentioned that she finds my alternate reality a little difficult to swallow.  That's fair.  The problem is how to explain it.

You see, this alternate reality takes place in the "modern" US, but it's not so modern.  I've got 1000 years of history—not all of which has to be explained, I would say, or not up front—of royal history going back to the days of King Arthur, and a schism in the British royal family that eventually leads to one half taking over in the "new colonies".  I'm not changing a whole lot of the real history (the civil war is pretty feasible; the revolution against the monarchy), but I have to somehow weave this rather huge and important fact into the first couple of chapters.

So, the question is, do I:

A. Throw in general expository information (*yawn*)?

B. Have my main character studying for an exam and reading a textbook (this is where the reader puts down the book or just sets it on fire)?

C. Let my main character et al have a study session for said exam (icky expository dialogue!)?

D. Dear spirits on high, please tell me you have some better suggestions for me?

Thank you for reading this choose your own adventure post.  If you selected A, please turn to page 52.  If you selected B, please turn to page 124.  If you selected C, please shut your computer and never query again.  If you selected D, THANK YOU!

Waiting for the Rain

Last night I sat at my computer with seven word documents open: 2 chapters from draft 7,352; 2 free-writing documents to help with characterization; and 3 "new" chapters that I decided to try and blind-rewrite based on a suggestion from Alan Rinzler's blog (disclaimer: not from Alan Rinzler himself).  Normally this isn't a huge deal.  I don't have a problem hopping between .doc's, though I try to work on one as consistently as possible... or I can't move away from it because the juices are just flowing and maybe it's crap but I can't stop it.  However you'd like to describe it is fine.

But last night?  Not so much.  I stared at the doc entitled "Marcus" for 20 minutes, and then checked my email.  After responding to a message from July 16 and spending 30 minutes correcting a translation from a non-native-English-speaking friend, I decided not to go back to "Marcus" (he's laid back enough that he didn't complain).  I hopped over to "new chap 1-1" and read through what I already had.  I know—sort of—what I have to do next in chap 1, but somehow there were no words.  Skip over to "new chap 1.5-1".  I thought I'd had a decent idea on how to introduce all of my alternative US history, and as I started into it I couldn't help thinking about how lame it was, how it would just come off to the reader as me—not the characters, not even the narrator—trying to fill them in on how this land wasn't exactly the same land made for you and me.  Break.  "new chap 2-1".  Same thing.  "new chap 7"...

So I stopped forcing it.  We watched TV.  Well, I frequently "watch" TV and write at the same time, but I actually closed the computer.  That's pretty rare for me these days.  But there was no new email, no new blog posts, and I'm honestly getting kind of bored with FB at the moment.  So, closed.  Asleep.  To dream...

So this morning?  Well, I try not to get the creative side of my brain firing before I have to spend 4 hours learning about something completely unrelated.  Normally I'm reading other people's blogs and writing my own (ta da!).

The bottom line is, I think the soil's dry.  The plants aren't dead, but they just can't grow any more fruit.  I need a good, hardy rain.  But I'm impatient—a good, strong product of the American media insanity.  I don't like waiting for things.  Oh, and did I mention the perfectionism?...

So, I'm giving myself a prescription:

1) Take a break!  I'm closing word officially until next Friday.  If I have ideas, I have a notebook and I can write by hand.  (I hate writing by hand because I get excited and then I can't read my handwriting later on, which is a lot harder to deal with than typos from flying fingers.)  I should try not to write anything huge for the whole week, and see what happens.

2) Read more!  I'm currently in the middle of Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto—a collection of short stories that are beautiful, but there's no cliff-hanger ending to get me back into it.  I also have I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder and Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto sitting on the shelf from the library, whose covers have yet to be turned.  And, as is visible from yesterday's post, I'm now in the Eat Pray Love book club.

I think this decision was made for me.

3) Clear my mind!  I need to make my way through Clearing the Mind for Creativity by John Kao.  This book had been free from Amazon for the Kindle a few weeks ago, although apparently it's not anymore (but it's only $2.39).  I don't have a Kindle, but there's a free Kindle app for Mac OS X.  I've had Kao's book open for close to a week now, and I don't think I'm past page 3.  So much for clearing the mind.

I'll still be online, reading and blogging, etc., but Word is hereby closed until further notice.

Oh!  I just quit the app, and my stomach flipped.  Maybe it's because I haven't eaten breakfast yet...?

Wish me luck!

Don't Get Cocky, Woman!

Today, I had a reality check.  I'm currently taking an intense language course--1 year's worth of language in 8 weeks--to finish up my PhD coursework.  I'm the only person in the class (of 3) with extensive background within the same language family.  In fact, this is my 3rd Slavic language--Russian, Polish, and now Macedonian... And, no, it's not Greek.  It's Slavic.  I promise.

And the class--of course!--is moving quite quickly.

But, this weekend, I didn't study.  In fact, I did very little work for class at all (and I'm hoping that my instructor doesn't link to this blog from my other one to see me admitting this).  After a trip to the farmers' market and a little gardening, I spent virtually all of Saturday working on writing the correspondence between my 2 main characters, and trying to imagine what it would have been like for my male lead when he was 14.  Sunday, I got up late, cleaned a little, did the bare minimum of my homework, and then we had people over for a BBQ potluck.

So, how did that go for me, you wonder?  Or do you even need to ask?  How many words were there today that I couldn't remember from just last week?  How many ways did I mispronounce the numbers we learned on Friday?  And yet I could still guess what the verb is for "sell" and "sing" based on the other languages in the family.  But that doesn't mean I know what I'm doing.  That means I'm a halfway competent linguist with a good aptitude toward guessing.

After feeling rather embarrassed this morning by my lack of preparation, I've decided to kick it into a higher gear.  Despite the fact that I've spent the last two hours reading my blogs and finding a few new interesting ones, I'm getting ready to go to work.  You may think I'm procrastinating by blogging first (and maybe that's true), but I felt compelled to write about this.

As Charity Bradford has been comparing her writing process to cake baking in her recent blog posts, I would like to compare my language class to my writing.  When I finished the first draft of book 1 (ahem... Russian), I started book 2 without hardly blinking (Polish).  And then book 3.  Admittedly, my momentum dried up about halfway through #3, and I had to pause and "rewrite".  I put rewrite in quotes because what I did constituted hardly more than copy-editing.  So I "rewrote" #1-2 before making my way back to book 3 and "finishing" (Macedonian).

And then I got cocky.  People started asking me if I would want to get it published.  "Sure!"  Who wouldn't want to do just that?  I hadn't even spent a year on it, so why shouldn't I expect a nice advance and instant fame a la Stephenie Meyer?  HAHA!

A number of humbling experiences have brought me back to reality, and I've gladly pulled my head out of... er... the clouds.  I have good friends who are graciously critiquing my work, telling me which areas I need to work on more, or where I'm just missing the bigger picture.

Is this sounding like a good teacher yet?  There's only so much that a person can do on their own.  Of course, there are those few people in the world who sit down and 48 hours later they have a publishable novel, or they sit down with a textbook and are fluent in Chinese the next week.  I am NOT one of those people.  I need to talk things through.  I need a guiding hand.  Eventually, I can get to the point where I can be self-sufficient and continue learning on my own, but that takes time.  And I'm not there yet.

So, before I let my head inflate to unmanageable proportions, I'm off to study my vocabulary, my verb endings, and my numbers.  And I'll probably post at least one exercise on my other blog... after I go back and revise some of the old ones :)

My Personal Goat Goddess

Dear Laura,
Thank you so much for your initial critique of #1 in my Anabelle series.  Your comments are invaluable, even though you considered them vague.

Love, Rosie

The Highlights:

1) Title (oh, dear God, yes!  This MUUUUST be changed!)

2) more sensible setting

3) more letters (?)

4) flesh out what makes the world different (magic, language) earlier in the story

5) more character development of the main 2
     a) give Anabelle more flaws

Things I need to work out in relation to above:

1) This has already been a struggle.  But, I've also been slacking on it.  I needed the kick in the ass on this one.

2) Write my alternative history of the US (abbreviated, of course).

3) I'm going to have to work out if and where I can add more letters, or portions of them.  And unfortunately I'm not terribly poetic personally, though Marcus is.  I need to really think through some of the ways he would write more of the later ones.

4) Write:
     a) my abbreviated history of the royal family (although, how abbreviated can it be to cover 1000 years?)
     b) my handbook on their religion.  That will also take some work.

5) Yeah, Anabelle needs to be a bit more believable.  I guess I need to work out the balance of how to give her more flaws while she remains the true narrator.  She's a bit stubborn, and I don't think she'll want to admit to her own issues.

Wait, who's in control here?  Me, or her? .......... I suppose it depends on the weather that day.

I also need to find the balance between developing Marcus more and still maintaining some of Anabelle's innocence and idealization of him.  That's a fine line to walk.


The Plan:
1) Write my tweaked US history, my royal family history, and my guide to all things spirit-related.


2) Write more full letters between them.  Even if they never make it into the story, it'll be good for me.


3) Maybe write the story from Marcus's perspective (yeah, I'm stealing this idea from Stephenie Meyers, I'll admit).


4) Brainstorm a better title already!!!

5) I think I probably need a complete overhaul of Chaps 1-7.  And I am NOT allowed to do this until I have accomplished 1-4 above!!!  That will be the hardest part, I think.

6)  And I'm not allowed to even think about starting Zoe's diary!  That's going to be really hard....


Wish me luck!  

And thanks again to Laura.  I'm so glad to know you, and very lucky that you married my friend.  I can't wait for the rest of your comments.