Monday Musings and new directions

I've recently thought about where I want my writing career to be. I have several (FOUR) stories that have yet to find a publisher. Apparently it's not the writing or even the concept, but the marketing aspect I guess traditional publishers don't understand that as an e-pubbed author I've been doing my own marketing for years already!

To that end, I've decided to dig those stories out, polish them off, polish them edit-wise, and see what's what. I may go the self-publish route, I may trash the stories, not entirely certain--it depends on how they read.

But all in all, I think it's time to re-think Isabel and where I want to be.

Tuesday Comings and Goings

I've been absent from the blogging world for a bit while I try to figure out my next step. Right now I'm focusing on editing several mauscripts. I have a harddrive full of unusual historical manuscripts I'd like to publish, but want to make sure they're as good as I'm remembering them! Sometimes distance does make the book better.

What's on your agenda this week?

Thursday Progress

This month I've devoted to reading over 2 stories I have completed but not published. Everyone knows the game: Write the book, send it out...and wait. Then revise and do it all again.

I'm in the revision stage. Not because I think plot elements need fixing, but because, as with all my stories, I think the opening can be tighter. I also wrote one of them with very stick guidelines and want to relax those to see if I can find a wider audience.

And the beat goes on...

What's your latest project? Writing, gardening, home repairs, or otherwise!

What was then

I can't believe how much I've learned writing-wise in 3 years. (In other things, too, but let's stick with writing.)

Just recently I read over In the Shadows, my Civil War novella. Coming in at 10,838 words it's one of the shorter stories I've done. It's also one of the weakest. I know what happened, it fell into the category of the write until the end and be done with it.

Since then, I've learned 2 very valuable things: Plot out your stories to the finest scene. (If that isn't your way #2 is even more important). Know your characters.

The end of In the Shadows is much stronger than the beginning. Why? I know who Jack & Marion were by the end. In the beginning, not so much and it reflects my lack of knowledge.

I'll be spending the next 2 weeks adding to this story, both in content and character development. When it's finished, I know it'll read so much better!

4 Things Never to Think About Your Book

This was originally going to be FIVE things, but then I realized I could combine so it ended up being FOUR. Less of a round number but alas.


Over the last few weeks, I've re-read 2 of my short stories. Shorter stories I guess you'd call them. Shadow State and In the Shadows, the stories I recently received the rights back to. I've learned several things in those read-thrus

1. Editing is super important. That 3rd reading you really don't want to do? Do it. I can't believe I missed a couple mistakes! Misspelled words, missing quotations, weird spacing.

2. Give yourself time between readings. I once finished a story and started the read thru that evening. Wow, what a mistake! Not only was my brain fried, but it was stuck on the ending when I needed to read the beginning.

3. No word you've written is that great. No matter how cool it is, how literary, how well it fits with the theme or style of the book, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If people are stumbling over just to pronounce it, if you can't spell it on your own, it does not belong!

4. Going off, no word you've written is that great, edit yourself. Just because you wrote it doesn't mean it's the best thing since Shakespeare. I'm all for choosing every word that fits, carefully crafting the sentence/paragraph/scene/chapter...but if it needs cutting do it.

Thursday Progress

Have you ever looked back at a story and wondered just why you went in direction A instead of B or where you made a wrong turn when you should have taken a left at Albuquerque?

Not saying the story's wrong, just that I seemed to have missed a twist somewhere. And this is why there are 1st drafts (2nd drafts, 3rd...etc.). And why we self-edit before sending a story in. Not only for plot, grammar, and characterization, but for intensity.

Dark Inheritance (the working title of my Dark Regency story) is an extremely shadowy story with murder, betrayal, suspicion, spies, and a romance that's ever so intense. But the romance has to fit the plot and vice versa. It all comes down to words. The correct choice of them and the correct placement of them.

That's what I'll start this weekend, the final read-through of the story, one act at a time, before sending it in. Wish me luck!

Thursday Progress: 1920s story

Yes. I'm still running the Title Contest, but here are some more details about the story.

1. Emma Hunt is a PI working undercover to discover who's behind a kidnapping for ransom scheme.
2. Jared Callon is working for the US Government. Yes, he's interested in solving these high profile kidnappings, but he has a secret he's investigating, too.
3. From the first they're attracted to each other, but who is Emma, really, and what's Jared's true goal?
4. February, 1922 in Washington, DC
5. Bootleggers
6. Prohibition
7. Vaudeville

I'm more than halfway finished with the editing/rewriting of this story and couldn't be happier with it. I can't believe I wrote some of this stuff, and clearly I changed plots about 1/4 way through and never went back to fix anything.

To be fair, I also immediately set this aside once it was (nominally) finished to work on other stories, and never looked at it again until I pitched it to a senior editor at the NJRW Conference.

1920s story redux

Tri-dux? Is that a word? Re-redux? Either way, I'm slowly widdling it down. Revamping, rewording, basically rewriting large sections to get this story ready for submission. Man, makes me wish I'd done this when I finished it! Would've saved me lots of time now...

Alas I didn't. So I am now. But all this is really why the term 'FIRST DRAFT' was coined. I'm on draft 3, and am so very much happier with this, I can't begin to describe it.

The good news is that I'm through Acts 1 and 2 (of 5) and moving on through Act 3. I think I actually will have this finished by Christmas!

And don't forget my Title Contest!

Slowly editing

In reading the Prohibition era story over several obvious problems jumped out. Man, am I ever glad there's time to correct these? When did I decide it's a good idea to start with back story? When was it every okay to use an information dump?

Delete.

Delete.
Delete.

Phew! And 3000 words gone. Just like that. 9000 left to cut! But that's all right, now that the opening chapters flow better, it's easy enough to see where the rest of the story is going and let it go. Things are cut, there are extraneous details that no long fit and that can happily go. That'll cut thigs down significantly.

Back story

First, before I get to anything, I want to say that I'm glad all my relatives are back safe and sound (in body if not in mind) from their various setbacks. Alex, I demand pictures of Italy! And no. I'm still convinced "calm, cool, and collected" is no one I'm related to!



Now, back story: Was watching Singing in the Rain last night, or the beginning at least. They take considerable time to go through Gene Kelly's Don Lockwood characters early life. How he got into show business, his move from stunt man to leading man. While slightly interesting, it wasn't very relevant to the story.

I know a lot of writers (me included until a very nice critique partner bashed me over the head and told me to cut it all) have a tendency to include long stretches of back story for their characters. They want everyone to know them as the writer does.

But that doesn't really move the story forward, nor does it do anything but slow the pacing down. Anything relevant to the character's past--as it pertains to the story--should be threaded through the story itself. Little bits of things that come out when they're important.

How do you thread your characters story into your novel? Or does he/she live in the here and now?

Not as easy as it sounded

Once upon a time, being published sounded so easy. It was fun - the book was done, people bought it, end of story. Until the next. I'm on the next. It's not fun. Re-reading Sex & Subterfuge I realized the middle sucked. It was stilted, awkward, tedious, you name it, it was it. Except for exciting. It most definitely not exciting. It's now on the cutting room floor, so to speak, and I'm rewriting it.

Did I mention it's due January 15?

Yeah.

Stupid edits. Make me realize how awful my story is.

Back to the grind. I'm not getting any sleep tonight.

Critique Partners

Dark Desire of the Druids: Tryst is now available from Ravenous Romance!

I belong to a wonderful critique group. I haven't used them in almost a year but it's a wonderful group nonetheless. They know what I write and understand my time period, the Victorian Era so I don't have to explain the neat inventions that came about then. And they always nitpick those punctuations and grammar issues. Overall plot is harder, since we do a chapter at a time over 2 weeks. By the time they read chapter 10, months have passed.

That's what self-editing is for before they even see the story. Plot points are tricky little buggers, but they're what drives the story. You can't rely on others to pick up those things from your story.

Now that I have deadlines (not as cool as I thought it'd be and that's a shame) and more stories to work on that I even conceived of 4 months ago, I've started keeping a file of plot ideas. Basically, I have a story, say book 2 in the Dark Desire of the Druids series, Sex and Subterfuge. I have an overall synopsis for the major points, then a chapter-by-chapter breakdown.

Each chapter has some sort of cliff at the end. It wasn't hard to come up with the cliffs, but it was difficult to fill in the blanks between chapters. In the long run, it made the story tighter and more interesting. Easier to write, too.

And now that I know where I'm going, and with my Victorian critique group set to start up again after the holidays, I think they'll enjoy the story. And not find so many problems with it. *G*

Editing

Sure, I knew my story wasn't entirely perfect, but the first time I got edits, it was a real blow to know that I had to change things. OK, a comma here, un-capitalize something there. But additions? I wasn't prepared. Then I read the story with the editor's comments in mind. Sometimes it takes a couple reads, but with that outside perspective, those comments really make sense.

When writing a story, you're in the moment - you get your characters, you understand where they're going and what they're talking about. Shouldn't everyone? Isn't that why you wrote the book?

Well of course, but only if you explain it and don't assume. You know what they say about assuming...

So now I read through everything one extra time with my editor's imaginary comments in my head. There's no harm adding a word or extra sentence so that readers who don't have access to the voices in your head can see where you're going. Makes for a better story and for less stress when editing yourself later on.

Tomorrow: Critique Groups!

Self Editing

Is possibly the hardest thing to do in writing. Isn't everything you write wonderful and quote worthy? Um, no. Not for me. There are some days I write something and even as it's coming out and I can read it on my screen I think "What drivel! What horror! What the hell was I thinking?"

And hit the delete button, tute suite! (OK, am not even remotely sure that's spelled right.)

I have an adverb thing, as in I love and adore them, but apparently they're not 'in' just now. An editor friend did try to warn me, and I did somewhat listen but once all those -ly words (minus the obvious like belly and all) were ignored, it was damn hard to ignore the rest. Highlighted LY everywhere. It was bad.

So that's my project for the week. Go over my stuff - completed, WIPs, current, everything - and change, delete, and modify my adverbs. While I'm doing this, I might go over the opening hook of them, too, since I'll be in the story. Good a time as any to make sure the hook hooks, and doesn't drag along the bottom.