Category: The Writing

Posted on by — 5 Comments

RX Day 12

Writing is a journey.  Today was a test of will.

It all started wrong as far back as last night.  I didn’t get any additional writing done last night, although I do have 3 of my Eppie entries read.  I didn’t get to bed until very late and I was already tired.  I barely got up in time for the Evil Day Job this morning, let alone Dark & Early for writing, so I felt very bad sending the sheepish note to my accountability partner that I’d overslept.  Then minutes before leaving for school, Littlest Monster notified me that she was ill.  From her symptoms, I immediately assumed she had a bladder infection.

I got the other two kids to school and made her an appointment, but she couldn’t be seen until 2:35.  My Dad (Papa from Mexico) came by to entertain her for awhile while I worked, and then That Man got home well before lunch, so I didn’t have to take a whole day of sick leave.  We pushed fluids and she seemed to be feeling much better.

So much better that the Doctor doesn’t think she had an infection at all.  *scratches head*  She had some pretty distinctive symptoms, so it’ll be interesting to see if the culture comes back in a few days.  Anyway, the doctor did talk us into the flu shot while we were there, which LM was *not* pleased about.  I still need to go back next month for the other two monsters (and LM will need to get her second one).  Joy.

Of course then it was time to drive home in rush hour traffic.  We stopped by the local consignment store and I let LM pick out a toy while I shopped for some pants for her.  (Middle Monster wears all her jeans out long before LM can inherit them.)  I fantasized about the possibility of dinner on the table for us when I got home (after all, That Man had been home all afternoon and dinner was pulled pork which I’d already cooked earlier in the week), but alas, that bubble was quickly burst.  I can count the number of times he’s made dinner for me on one hand.

So then it’s dinner, dishes, and check in at work and make up some time, and then homework and library books and…

*do you see WRITING anywhere in there?*

So here it is, nearly 9:00 p.m. and I’m exhausted and so pissed off I can’t see straight because the day is just gone.  I refused to watch TV with That Man (he insists that’s “quality time”) so I could get at least a little writing done.  However, I swore to myself I’d be in bed at 9:30 tonight and asleep by 10:00, so I don’t have much time.  Let’s see how much I can accomplish.

791 words in the new scene.  Heading to bed as promised after I prep the coffee pot for D&E tomorrow.

Posted on by — 5 Comments

RX Day 11

I obviously can’t count.  I missed RX Day 9 but I guess I’ll continue with this sequencing.

I got a late start today.  I always set two alarms:  one for Dark & Early; one as my failsafe in case I oversleep.  I almost missed the failsafe alarm today, too.  Or worse, some mornings I turn the failsafe off (so I don’t wake up That Man), and then accidentally fall back asleep myself.  Those are always scary close calls.  I have this dread fantasy some day I’ll wake up at like 9 a.m. and we’ll all be late for work and school.

Yes, I admit, I have a bit of a compulsive obsession when it comes to the alarm clock.  Really big days — like important interviews or catching a red-eye plane — I wake up and check the damned thing at least a dozen times.

Anywho, I didn’t get a lot done today, but I did fix that continuity issue I mentioned.  I’ve always struggled with the passage of time in a story.  Ironic, isn’t it, when I am obsessed with my own alarm clock?

At this point, I’m obviously not going to finish Revision Xibalba by the end of the month unless a miracle happens and the laundry, cooking, and housecleaning fairies finally do show up.  So I’m not sure what I’ll do about NaNoWriMo yet.  I really want to participate but I can’t put this time-sensitive project on the backburner.  I’ll think about that tomorrow I guess.

Goals tonight:

  1. Get a start on the next new scene
  2. Keep grinding away on that day sheet.
Posted on by — 1 Comment

RX Day 10

Today was an editing day.  I went through 23 pages this morning.  Some had been fairly well edited in the past, but a few minor things needed to be changed to bring it up to the current timeline/flow.  Then I also smoothed in a brand new section.  I have 4 more pages to edit, and then the first 3 chapters are solid.

Goals tonight:

  1. Finish Chapter 3.  Done.
  2. Work on Day Sheet.  Worked on it awhile but it’s nowhere near finished yet.  I’m still having a hard time getting the righ balance between old and new.
  3. Made notes on a few things I need to fix–another timing issue I need to clarify.  Also jotted a few ideas for the new scene I’ll tackle in the morning.
Posted on by — 3 Comments

RX Day 8

I had to do some triage today.  Despite all my planning, timelining, and day sheet (at least for the first half of the book), I realized I had a significant time error this morning.

It had been going so well.  This new section adds some really nice suspense and tension to the story (and gore, but that’s why May calls me the Sister of the Severed Hand).  I needed a bit of a break between Jaid’s argument with her current boyfriend and the break in, and this scene fit the bill perfectly.  However… I had one scene happening at night and the other happening in the morning, and the follow up scene just minutes later at night.  Doh!!

Looking at my day sheet (both lines said “day 1” which was correct, but obviously not helpful), I couldn’t figure out how to get it to work.  If I moved the morning scene up in the story–it wasn’t believeable for my bad guys to move from Guatemala to Mexico to Laredo that quickly.  If I moved the scene later to Jaid’s “next morning”, then I had too many scenes in a row in her POV and a serious hole in the placement of Quinn’s “green” thread.

It’s dumb, but little things like this can really derail a project.  If you let it.

I finally decided to change Quinn’s scene around to night time instead of day so it would fit.  In the end, I think it works even better that way — it gives the bad guys nearly 24 hours to make their trip — and lets me break up Jaid’s ordinary world with a high action scene that literally screams.  Her world is going to change in a heartbeat and it’s only a few pages away.

So not a lot of “new” words exactly, but a serious hole fixed.  We’re going to Granny’s this weekend to pick apples, and I’ve got tons of crap to do around the house so I don’t know what kind of writing I’ll get done.  I’ll just have to fit it in the best I can.

Happy Friday!

Posted on by — 3 Comments

RX Day 7

The bad news:  I overslept a bit because I stayed up too late playing a stupid computer game again, which also means I didn’t do any of the writing work I was supposed to do last night.

More bad news:  I didn’t hit my 500 word goal and it’s time to hit the Evil Day Job.

Good news:  I *did* finish the current scene with 433 words.  So I’m pleased! 

However, I must get some work done tonight.  I need to take stock of where I am and get that blasted daysheet done.

Edited the new section and smoothed it into place in Chapter 1.  Began editing the second new section but didn’t finish it.  It’s smoother, though, and won’t require as much work.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

RX Day 6

I decided to be a hard ass with myself.  No blog feeds in the morning until I hit at least 500 words.  (Once I make that consistently, I’ll bump it to 1K.  I know that’s doable–it’s just a matter of making it happen.)  I did better this morning, only opening my e-mail briefly to contact my accountability partner, Jenna.  (We e-mail each other in the morning when we “meet” Dark and Early with mini “goals” and then report back in aftewards to see if we made it.) 

Anyway, I was doing really good until I decided to check my website stats, and then I e-mailed Deena about something…and before I knew it, I’d wasted another 15 minutes. 

So tomorrow, I get to e-mail Jenna and that’s IT.  Nothing else until I hit 500 words. 

I did make the minimum word count this morning.  The scene’s at 1592 words and almost done.  I’m not sure where it’s going — it sort of morphed on me today.  I’ll explore it a bit tonight and hopefully wrap things up. 

Goals tonight:

  • finish current scene
  • edit existing draft, smooth these new scenes into the mix, and take stock of where I am in the story.
  • finish the Day Sheet.  I stalled on it and I’m not sure why.  I need to figure things out before I get there!
Posted on by — 1 Comment

The Great Agent Hunt

Dee Tenorio is blogging about her Agent Quest over at Romancing the Blog.  It’s an interesting angle to the Great Agent Hunt.  So many blog entries, articles, and workshops have been dedicated to writing the perfect query, the dreaded synopsis, or all the research that we should do before querying, but few down-to-earth commentaries about agents are really out there.  Maybe because we’re all trying to be too careful?

You just never know who’s reading that blog entry bemoaning two rejections received on the same day, or Nathan Bransford’s lightning fast response (I read someone had a rejection in 9 minutes), or another form rejection from Dream Agent, or whatever woe is common in the Great Agent Hunt.  I know some agents I’ve queried have at least visited my website.  So I’m not going to flap too much about specifics, and I know most people probably feel the same way.

This isn’t the first time I’ve hunted for an agent.  Technically, I suppose it’s the third time.  I queried both Rose and Beautiful Death before they were contracted by Drollerie.  I actually had much better luck as far as requests went on Rose (thanks in large part, I think, to finaling in the Molly contest).  Yet even though this is my third round on a new book, I haven’t hit 50 queries.  Not even close.  I’d have to do some digging, but I’m probably between 20-30 agent queries on three books total.

I know all the advice out there says to hit many targets.  Always have 5-10 out at a time.  That’s just not my style.  I’ve been watching and listening for five years now.  I pay attention when authors talk about their agents.  I’ve read many agency blogs for years, all wonderful sources of information. 

But I don’t read for query to-dos any more, or rejection horror stories, or what’s hot.  I know what I write.  I know my style.  The trick is finding the agent that matches that style, who loves what I love just as much.

I’m studying communication styles and interaction.  Is the agent hands on or off?  E-mail savvy or snail?  Slow to respond?  I know an agent’s personna in public is very different from the private side her clients see, but true professionalism and love for Story come shining through, whether in interviews or in a blog post.

We’ve all heard tales of the towering mountains of slush our stories must shine through, but I think we should look at our own “slush” and do a little careful weeding.  There are thousands of literary agents out there.  Many of them are solid, good, dependable agents.  That doesn’t mean they’re right for me. 

A writer’s time is just as precious as the agents’.  I work full time, have three monsters, and a mountain of laundry calling my name.  I’ve got so many stories I want to write and time’s a wastin’.  Every minute I’m querying an agent is a minute I can’t write.  I’m sorry, I’m not going to wait around for 6-8 months on a simple query response, or worse, the no response camp.  I had two of them on the last round.  I know accidents happen, black holes suck up mail (even snail mail — one contest packet came back to me nearly a year overdue) all the time, but those agents are crossed off my list.  Sorry.

My list is small.  I try really hard to target stories correctly.  Letters is much different from my “brand,” but I’d like an agent who can handle both spicy contemporary and romantic sff, so that narrows the list even more.  I’m not querying just agents with an online presence — but I do “know” someone online who has worked with these agents in the past.  Every round of queries I send out, I learn something new.  I see which “hooks” attracted which agents.  I record response times. 

That’s not to say I’m afraid to take risks.  I have queried a few agents on a lark, just to test the waters, so to speak.  I used to do the contest circuit, trying to final in the “right” contest to get in front of Dream Agent or Dream Editor, but after one story propped someone’s desk up for three years…I decided to go the more direct route.  :shock:

If all of my current packages come back as “no thanks,” then I’ll punt and go to plan B.  I’ve punted before.  Hopefully each time, though, I’m getting a little closer to the goal line.  :mrgreen:

P.S.  It’s not surprise at all that the Great Agent Hunt = GAH.  That’s exactly how I feel each and every time I see a response in the mail box, whether snail or electronic.  GAH!!!

Posted on by — 2 Comments

RX Day 5

Well, this Revision Xibalba is grinding my bones to dust.  It’s been really slow going but I’m hanging tough.

Yesterday, I didn’t quite break 500 words, but I did make it up and started a new scene.  Today, ditto, only even less words so far.  My mind is just not in the game.  But it’s crucial here that I not let myself make up excuses or let another pretty shiny project steal me away.  I know, if I keep working and meet the story every morning, things will eventually click and it’ll be full steam ahead.

It would help tremendously if I didn’t have any games on this computer!  When the going is tough, it’s so much easier to let distractions rule.  “Cooking Dash” is ever so much more fun than slogging through revisions!  :oops:

 

I’ll report back tonight when I break 1K in this scene.

Update:  squeaked up to 1050 words in this scene.  I should be able to finish it tomorrow.

Posted on by — 5 Comments

RX Day 3

I had two simple goals this morning.

Get up.  (Don’t laugh.)  Friday mornings are hard for me to do D&E.  I made it, but only by going to bed before 10 last night.  I didn’t watch Survivor because I was doing some stuff for the Evil Day Job.  I didn’t watch the debate because I was putting the monsters to bed and then wrote a bit.

Write 500 words.  (Again, don’t laugh.)  I know 1K for a D&E session is more than doable, but for whatever reason, I’ve only been getting a few hundred words this week.  New scene, new POV character, etc. all valid excuses, but come ON.  I need some major wordage here.

I made both goals!  Total scene length:  1676 and it’s finished.

I decided last night that I only get to do NaNoWriMo if I finish these revisions.  I really don’t think I can get the whole book revised in a month.  I need around 40K in new words and probably 15K of the existing draft needs some serious work.  About 40K of it hasn’t even been edited once.  *dies*

It sure would be lovely to participate again and get some nice wordage completed on Return to Shanhasson though…  Dharman and Sal have begun to clamor along with Gregar now, which I suppose is only to be expected.  After all, they really want to nag Shannari.  :mrgreen:

We’ll see.  I really doubt it’s humanly possible to do a decent 2nd draft this month, but Sal is eagerly offering all sorts of assistance.

Posted on by — 5 Comments

RX Day 2

Up a bit earlier today.  Combined with yesterday’s measly word count, I’ve got 847 words in the new scene.  Just flying, I know.  :???:

However, this is the first scene in this new character’s POV and it’s also a new setting.  I’ve had to figure out several things that I didn’t expect.  Aspects of Laredo stymmied me until I decided to just wing it.  Some interesting backstory came out for Quinn too that I didn’t expect.  Some of it will likely get cut back in revision, but it’s good stuff to know. 

I’ll update any additional progress on this entry.

Edited 9:19:  You know, sometimes I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.  I had the most incredible backstory conflict screaming at me, just waiting for me to do something with it…and yet I almost missed it.  Doh.  I smoothed this morning’s scene and picked up this backstory undercurrent that totally drives this relationship up another notch.

Nothing like family betrayal to sweeten the pot. 

I’m hoping to break 1K in this scene before heading to bed…

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I researched a bit more about the FBI and found an incredible news release from this past month that fits PERFECTLY with what I was hoping to build.  I’m still a bit foggy on FBI procedure, especially involving international trafficking (e.g. from Mexico), but I think I can work my way around any technicalities.

Final word count today (total scene):  1144.