Sometimes I have a hard time finishing stories. In the beginning, I'm all jazzed up about a new idea, but then the idea begins to drag, everything goes wrong, and my novel ends up in a dusty computer file labeled "Grave Condition."
But what if I owed my characters the chance to tell their story--even if I tell it poorly, even if everything goes wrong? Maybe I owe them a beginning, middle, and end. Maybe I owe them some resolution.
Whenever I re-read a story I didn't finish, I usually get a sick feeling in my stomach because I want to know what happens. The story just stops, and I'm the only one who can finish it because it was my brain child in the first place. It's so frustraating!
Last year, I wrote a novel for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It made it to the quarterfinals. It wasn't a bad novel, but it had issues. For example, it had two protagonists. Sisters. I couldn't decide which one I loved more so I kept them both, and it ended up hurting my story, I think.
After a great experience at a writer's conference, I gave one of the sisters--Cacey--a novel of her own. Cacey got her beginning and midddle and end. She got her happy ending. Ironically, Cacey's story had nothing to do with her sister Ivey's story. One was contemporary, the other paranormal. One was set in the South, the other set in the North. The only connection between the Cacey in the first novel and the Cacey in the second novel was that she was the same young woman in my mind--she looked the same and acted the same and had the same hopes and dreams.
Now that I've given Cacey a novel of her own, I recently realized that I can go back and tell the first novel from Ivey's viewpoint solely. It's really her world, her life, her story. I can't tell you how relieved I am to give her the attention she deserves.
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Only Five Days and Eight Hours Left!
I've been working on NaNoWriMo since the beginning of November, but I've only managed to accrue about 30,000 words of false starts. That doesn't mean that I don't have time, though. I still have five days!
I've decided to try again to write a Harlequin Romance novel, and I have an idea that got some attention from an editor a few years ago. I'm going to have another go at it. I can do it, right? Only ten thousand words a day.
Inspirational Quote to Spur Me On: "It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
– Ursula K. Le Guin
I've decided to try again to write a Harlequin Romance novel, and I have an idea that got some attention from an editor a few years ago. I'm going to have another go at it. I can do it, right? Only ten thousand words a day.
Inspirational Quote to Spur Me On: "It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
– Ursula K. Le Guin
Thursday, August 11, 2011
A Quick Update
It's been a crazy couple of months.
After the SCBWI FL conference, I wrote another YA novel called Moneymaker that I really enjoyed writing and researching and can't wait to edit.
Then I decided that I needed some more income sources, so I've been writing freelance articles and blog posts. Some of them are fun. Some not so much. Let's just say I now know way too much about whole house water filtration systems. When my posts to the new blog I'm writing for go live, I'll definitely include the link in my bio. I'm super-excited about it because they're super-fun posts to write (Did I successfully convey my enthusiasm with my repeated use of "super"?).
I'm also gearing up for the farmer's market to start again in September so that I can start selling my homemade pet treats. I've had to get all my business things in order. They're actually amazingly friendly at the tax office--go figure.
For fun, I've been reviewing books for Kensington. I'll post the reviews to the blog once I figure out a seamless way to do so. I want them to be formatted nicely and not seem random.
Finally, I hope to get back to updating this blog more regularly, using some of the skills that I've learned. I have some ideas and hope to implement them soon! Stay posted.
After the SCBWI FL conference, I wrote another YA novel called Moneymaker that I really enjoyed writing and researching and can't wait to edit.
Then I decided that I needed some more income sources, so I've been writing freelance articles and blog posts. Some of them are fun. Some not so much. Let's just say I now know way too much about whole house water filtration systems. When my posts to the new blog I'm writing for go live, I'll definitely include the link in my bio. I'm super-excited about it because they're super-fun posts to write (Did I successfully convey my enthusiasm with my repeated use of "super"?).
I'm also gearing up for the farmer's market to start again in September so that I can start selling my homemade pet treats. I've had to get all my business things in order. They're actually amazingly friendly at the tax office--go figure.
For fun, I've been reviewing books for Kensington. I'll post the reviews to the blog once I figure out a seamless way to do so. I want them to be formatted nicely and not seem random.
Finally, I hope to get back to updating this blog more regularly, using some of the skills that I've learned. I have some ideas and hope to implement them soon! Stay posted.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Conference Round-Up
After spending two days listening to two published authors and an editor for Knopf speak at the SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Writer's Conference, the most important point that I took away was the necessity for a strong narrative voice in young adult fiction.
The consensus seemed to be that, in middle grade fiction, some authorial presence was acceptable. In young adult fiction, however, the reader has to feel intimate with the main character, as if he or she was looking at the world through the main character's eyes.
Anything that destroys, or calls into question, the reader's closeness with the main character is BAD!
What can destroy closeness?
-Making observations that the main character wouldn't make.
For example, if it's hot, and a character wants to put her hair into her ponytail, she wouldn't say, "I swept my curly chestnut locks up into my purple velvet hairband." When you think about "curly" and "chestnut" and "purple velvet," you realize only some of those descriptors would be important to her. For example, when I pull my hair back, I might think about how it's dark and I wish it was blonde. Or how it's curly and might look frizzy pulled up. Or how the purple hairband looks really stupid with my lime green top. I would not be thinking about all those things simultaneously, however.
-Working in backstory that the characters wouldn't be thinking about.
For example, if a character's best friend is going through a difficult break-up, it's the break-up that matters more than how the friends met or what the friends look like or how the main character feels about her friend--unless those details pertain directly to the crisis! Basically, any backstory must arise spontaneously from the conflict, or it seems forced and feels like authorial intrusion to the reader.
-Using dialogue as a means to end.
Dialogue should arise spontaneously from the interactions between the characters. It should be exciting--no hemming or hawing or circling around the main issue (unless that says something about the characters). It should not be a tool that the author uses to provide backstory, and it should not be so similar to speech that it's boring (real speech, when tape-recorded, is fractured and disjointed and not a pleasure to read).
One of the authors on the panel also discussed the issues of character lenses. A lens could be anything from a character's religion to her socioeconomic class to her favorite hobby. For example, a Catholic schoolgirl from the Deep South who wants to be an actress will have three obvious lenses that will influence her interactions with the world--religion, environment, and career aspirations. Giving your main character two to three lenses (while most real people have seven or more) will add to his or her depth.
In the end, I learned that the tightest narrative voices have almost a cinematic quality, moving from scene to scene in a purposeful, character-driven way. We have to get ourselves out of the equation and find a way to let our characters guide us--which is easier said than done.
The consensus seemed to be that, in middle grade fiction, some authorial presence was acceptable. In young adult fiction, however, the reader has to feel intimate with the main character, as if he or she was looking at the world through the main character's eyes.
Anything that destroys, or calls into question, the reader's closeness with the main character is BAD!
What can destroy closeness?
-Making observations that the main character wouldn't make.
For example, if it's hot, and a character wants to put her hair into her ponytail, she wouldn't say, "I swept my curly chestnut locks up into my purple velvet hairband." When you think about "curly" and "chestnut" and "purple velvet," you realize only some of those descriptors would be important to her. For example, when I pull my hair back, I might think about how it's dark and I wish it was blonde. Or how it's curly and might look frizzy pulled up. Or how the purple hairband looks really stupid with my lime green top. I would not be thinking about all those things simultaneously, however.
-Working in backstory that the characters wouldn't be thinking about.
For example, if a character's best friend is going through a difficult break-up, it's the break-up that matters more than how the friends met or what the friends look like or how the main character feels about her friend--unless those details pertain directly to the crisis! Basically, any backstory must arise spontaneously from the conflict, or it seems forced and feels like authorial intrusion to the reader.
-Using dialogue as a means to end.
Dialogue should arise spontaneously from the interactions between the characters. It should be exciting--no hemming or hawing or circling around the main issue (unless that says something about the characters). It should not be a tool that the author uses to provide backstory, and it should not be so similar to speech that it's boring (real speech, when tape-recorded, is fractured and disjointed and not a pleasure to read).
One of the authors on the panel also discussed the issues of character lenses. A lens could be anything from a character's religion to her socioeconomic class to her favorite hobby. For example, a Catholic schoolgirl from the Deep South who wants to be an actress will have three obvious lenses that will influence her interactions with the world--religion, environment, and career aspirations. Giving your main character two to three lenses (while most real people have seven or more) will add to his or her depth.
In the end, I learned that the tightest narrative voices have almost a cinematic quality, moving from scene to scene in a purposeful, character-driven way. We have to get ourselves out of the equation and find a way to let our characters guide us--which is easier said than done.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Conference Fun!
Well, I am ashamed to admit it, but it has been a long time since I posted anything. A very long time.
I blame lazy summer days and sick cats and vacation. The weekend before last, I attended Through the Veil in Atlanta. It was super fun. Went on a ghost hunt at Rhodes Hall. Got a mini-Reiki treatment, a palm-reading, and some intuitive life guidance.
On Friday (OMG, that's tomorrow!), I'll be attending the SCBWI Florida Mid-Year workshop. I'm hoping to get a summer inspiration boost. My next post will be about what I learned.
Hope everyone has a productive summer.
I blame lazy summer days and sick cats and vacation. The weekend before last, I attended Through the Veil in Atlanta. It was super fun. Went on a ghost hunt at Rhodes Hall. Got a mini-Reiki treatment, a palm-reading, and some intuitive life guidance.
On Friday (OMG, that's tomorrow!), I'll be attending the SCBWI Florida Mid-Year workshop. I'm hoping to get a summer inspiration boost. My next post will be about what I learned.
Hope everyone has a productive summer.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Love: How Do You Like It?
The "Drumming Song" by Florence and the Machine is, in my opinion, the perfect description of all-consuming, mind-blowing, soul-wrenching, dysfunctional romantic relationships.
Obsessive love is:
Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell
That's how it felt for me when I fell in love for the first time. It was as if someone hit me over the head, drowned out all rational thought, and made me a puppet to my emotions, to the passion that consumed me.
It was sweeter than heaven. And it was hotter than hell. And I'm not sure that I ever want to go back there again.
As a result, I don't want to take my characters there. I don't want the instant attraction of Edward and Bella or Jack and Rose because instant attraction tends to flare up quickly and burn out equally quickly, usually in a destructive blaze.
Instead, I like romantic relationships to heat up slowly like the controlled flame beneath a gas burner. I think about the British show Doc Martin and how the flawed hero and heroine's relationship develops slowly over the series. I think about GiGi and Gaston. Anne of Green Gables and Gilbert Blythe. Beauty and the Beast. And in the realm of literature, I think about my all-time favorite book Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause where the hero "waits" for his heroine, knowing that she is the woman for him.
If anyone stops by, leave a comment and tell me what you prefer. The knee-shaking, heart-pounding, instant-infatuation type of romantic love? Or a love that grows slowly over time, that may even start out as hatred or a general dislike?
Sunday, March 27, 2011
New Harlequin Superromance Challenge!
The editors at Harlequin Superromance are hosting a new writing challenge called "A Soldier's Story: A Memorial Day Writing Challenge," and the prize is a crtitique of your full manuscript by not one, but two, Superromance editors!
A Superromane is about 75,000 words long. I've already printed out the guidelines and have several hard copy examples of what they've recently published. I feel capable of conquering voice and pacing and style for this type of category romance. My biggest challenge will be telling a story that includes a soldier. I don't have any friends or relatives in the military. I'm going to have to do some research to make the soldier character feel authentic.
My second biggest challenge will be writing a second, 60,000 word manuscript for self-publication as part of the 60k in 60 days challenge in the same time period . I'm a fast write, though. I believe in myself!
If anyone happens to stumble upon this blog, why not share what writing challenges you are currently tackling?
A Superromane is about 75,000 words long. I've already printed out the guidelines and have several hard copy examples of what they've recently published. I feel capable of conquering voice and pacing and style for this type of category romance. My biggest challenge will be telling a story that includes a soldier. I don't have any friends or relatives in the military. I'm going to have to do some research to make the soldier character feel authentic.
My second biggest challenge will be writing a second, 60,000 word manuscript for self-publication as part of the 60k in 60 days challenge in the same time period . I'm a fast write, though. I believe in myself!
If anyone happens to stumble upon this blog, why not share what writing challenges you are currently tackling?
Friday, March 25, 2011
An Ode to Loquats
I took a long walk this evening--about five miles--on a search for Loquat trees in my neighborhood. Even though I'm normally a germaphobe, I like to rip the ripe fruit right off of the tree, rub the dirt off, and pop it into my mouth.
Loquats are soft and sweet and tangy. You can eat them in a single bite, and the seeds are big enough to spit out easily. I like to think I've planted new loquat trees in yards all around my house.
Loquats only ripen in the spring, and once you pluck them, they rot quickly. You have to eat them right away. Just like life, you have to savor the moment, the precious few weeks every year when the fruit ripens. It's sad to find so many trees bearing delicious morsels that goes to waste.
Last year in April, I visited Charleston, South Carolina to attend a workshop with Natalie Goldberg. The air was warm, and all the trees were in bloom. She said it looked like the landscape was making love.
I feel the same way about my hometown now. It's the end of the season for orange blossoms, and the confederate jasmine and gardenias are just starting to bloom. The birds on the lake are nesting. A simple walk down the road is an aromatic bouquet, and I feel so peaceful, so hopeful. Winter is over, and the stagnant heat of summer has yet to arrive.
Every season (as subtle as one might be in the South) possesses characteristics to be savored, but to me, spring is about hope. I'm hopeful about my writing. I have ideas brimming, waiting to be born, and nine more months to birth them.
Wherever you are, I hope you feel the same. I hope the world is warming for you, and your best idea yet is gestating.
Loquats are soft and sweet and tangy. You can eat them in a single bite, and the seeds are big enough to spit out easily. I like to think I've planted new loquat trees in yards all around my house.
Loquats only ripen in the spring, and once you pluck them, they rot quickly. You have to eat them right away. Just like life, you have to savor the moment, the precious few weeks every year when the fruit ripens. It's sad to find so many trees bearing delicious morsels that goes to waste.
Last year in April, I visited Charleston, South Carolina to attend a workshop with Natalie Goldberg. The air was warm, and all the trees were in bloom. She said it looked like the landscape was making love.
I feel the same way about my hometown now. It's the end of the season for orange blossoms, and the confederate jasmine and gardenias are just starting to bloom. The birds on the lake are nesting. A simple walk down the road is an aromatic bouquet, and I feel so peaceful, so hopeful. Winter is over, and the stagnant heat of summer has yet to arrive.
Every season (as subtle as one might be in the South) possesses characteristics to be savored, but to me, spring is about hope. I'm hopeful about my writing. I have ideas brimming, waiting to be born, and nine more months to birth them.
Wherever you are, I hope you feel the same. I hope the world is warming for you, and your best idea yet is gestating.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
60k in 60 Days!
I'm doing 60k in 60 days. Are you?
It's a great new endeavor similar to NanoWrimo but with a self-publishing twist. You write a 60,000 word novel or screenplay and self-publish it in two months.
I'm not allowed to figure out what I'm going to write yet (contest rules), but I'm leaning toward something set in a world that I'm intimately familiar with so that I don't have to research it. And something that has commercial appeal since I plan to publish it on Createspace through Amazon.com. Probably a Young Adult novel since young adult novels are the most fun to write (in my opinion).
My first experience with Createspace was during the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition, and I loved it! I always thought that I'd follow the traditional publishing route, but the immediacy of self-publishing is so powerfully enticing. People could read my work now. I could promote my work now. I could take my fate into my own hands...now. It's very appealing.
My greatest concern is editing. Self-editing isn't my forte. As a result, I want to hire a professional editor before I self-publish, but since I'll be writing 60k in 60 days, I may not have time. I'll have to see what happens.
It's a great new endeavor similar to NanoWrimo but with a self-publishing twist. You write a 60,000 word novel or screenplay and self-publish it in two months.
I'm not allowed to figure out what I'm going to write yet (contest rules), but I'm leaning toward something set in a world that I'm intimately familiar with so that I don't have to research it. And something that has commercial appeal since I plan to publish it on Createspace through Amazon.com. Probably a Young Adult novel since young adult novels are the most fun to write (in my opinion).
My first experience with Createspace was during the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition, and I loved it! I always thought that I'd follow the traditional publishing route, but the immediacy of self-publishing is so powerfully enticing. People could read my work now. I could promote my work now. I could take my fate into my own hands...now. It's very appealing.
My greatest concern is editing. Self-editing isn't my forte. As a result, I want to hire a professional editor before I self-publish, but since I'll be writing 60k in 60 days, I may not have time. I'll have to see what happens.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
My New Blog!
I am currently involved in the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. My young adult paranormal novel "Bloodstone" is a quarter-finalist. I was reading on the Amazon discussion boards that reviewers might want to find me on the web. As a result, I decided to create this blog.
In this blog, I plan to discuss my writing process and to post useful links that I find related to writing. I have read so many fantastic blogs by great writers and reviewers that are using blogspot. Now I can follow all of my favorite blogs!
I'm also a twitter addict. My twitter handle is @serendipbrit if anybody would like to follow me.
In addition to writing, I like to read (young adult novels, of course, as well as romance). I love any stories with paranormal elements in them. I have so many favorite authors that I can't list them all, but just a few are Laurell K. Hamilton, Melissa Marr, Sophie Jordan, Kiersten White, and Tera Lynn Childs. My favorite non-fiction authors are Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, and Eric Maisel.
Although I believe that what people "do" for living isn't all that important, I have worked as a martial arts instructor, a purse designer, a private tutor, a freelance writer, a test technician, a family housing specialist, and a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist. My undergraduate degree is in English, and I almost have a Master's Degree in Counselor Education (have to complete that pesky internship).
When I'm not writing, I enjoy spending time with my animals (four dogs, two cats, two rabbits, and a fish!).
In this blog, I plan to discuss my writing process and to post useful links that I find related to writing. I have read so many fantastic blogs by great writers and reviewers that are using blogspot. Now I can follow all of my favorite blogs!
I'm also a twitter addict. My twitter handle is @serendipbrit if anybody would like to follow me.
In addition to writing, I like to read (young adult novels, of course, as well as romance). I love any stories with paranormal elements in them. I have so many favorite authors that I can't list them all, but just a few are Laurell K. Hamilton, Melissa Marr, Sophie Jordan, Kiersten White, and Tera Lynn Childs. My favorite non-fiction authors are Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, and Eric Maisel.
Although I believe that what people "do" for living isn't all that important, I have worked as a martial arts instructor, a purse designer, a private tutor, a freelance writer, a test technician, a family housing specialist, and a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist. My undergraduate degree is in English, and I almost have a Master's Degree in Counselor Education (have to complete that pesky internship).
When I'm not writing, I enjoy spending time with my animals (four dogs, two cats, two rabbits, and a fish!).
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