Goals & Reading List 8/31/09

Last week saw much more success for me as far as goals go. I’m not even sure why, except that things often run more smoothly right after I reorganize my priorities (which I just finished doing). Hopefully that will last for a little while at least…we’re getting into the busy season with Halloween party preparations starting to take over, well, everything.

My writing goals saw some good improvement. I actually did push through to 500 words per night on my novel draft, and I got another 500 words done on my short story WIP as well. I feel pretty good about both of those. I didn’t get an extra serial novel installment done – I had time, just not the motivation. And I didn’t get any editing done either, scheduling just wasn’t on my side for that. But it’s okay – those two things are flexible. It’s all good.

On the personal side, I didn’t win the lottery. Dang it anyway. I did catch most of the laundry up though, which is a relief. I also set aside Tuesdays to focus on my nail art blog (and visiting/reading in that sphere), and Thursdays for my tea blog. Writing blogs take a back seat on those days, so that I can keep up in those communities. I fully admit to being swayed by free offers to do better at keeping those two blogs moving along and growing. Which brings us to…

Weekly Goals

Writing

- 500 words per night on my novel draft again.
- 500 words added to my short story draft
- 2 extra chapters written for “Tempest” (above the 2 for this week)
- 3 pages edited on Loving Lana (Lord, I need a new name for this WIP *yesterday*!)

Personal

- Keep up with the laundry
- Finalize plans for Halloween party invitation design
- Send out several more interview requests for my tea blog
- Clean the office so I can start setting up Halloween stuff in there (gift bags, invitations, etc). I’m taking Friday off, so I’ll have a four-day weekend to get everything cleaned up and organized. Hooray for holidays!

Weekly Reading List

I’m in a down-cycle again for reading, so not much read this week. I actually spent the time I would have been reading on the Deaver book writing my extra 250 words a night last week…so no progress on The Broken Window. Bummer.

And what do I do when I don’t have time to read much? I buy books, of course. Last week I got The Novel Writer’s Toolkit by Bob Mayer, and Don’t Look Down by both Mayer and Jennifer Crusie – which I’m very much looking forward to. My “to be read” pile is huge…I think I need to take a week off work just to catch up on my reading!

I have new Harlequin’s to read this week (my subscriptions), so I’ll have more to mention next week. I read one of the free 60th Anniversary ebooks last week from the “Love Inspired” line, but I can’t recommend it. The first several chapters of the book were really confusing as far as time of day and time of year go – the author kept changing her mind, which resulted in noon coming after evening some days, and the month switching from March to January to “late spring”. It was a good story, but the lack of editing there just really kept me from enjoying it much.

That’s it for me…any big goals or good books going on in your neck of the woods?

Variety News 8/29/09

I'm pleased to announce that...

...I haven't changed a thing on this blog for the week. I know, weird, right? But I've been working on other things, and I seem to have hit the sweet spot over here. So we'll just coast through another week over here, shall we?

This week on The Variety Pages

Monday: Goals & Reading list...now with more success!
Tues/Fri: New chapters of Tempest, wherein the girls actually *do* get rescued.
Wednesday: Winner of the August photo contest announced, and a new photo.
Thursday: Wildcard post on Social Networking
Saturday: Construction Zone: Passages of Time

Elsewhere on the Variety Network

Nail Art Tuesday features a 3D nail art tutorial with porcelain rose decals, a new blog template, and a new Twitter account for all things nail/beauty related. Follow @NailArtTues. Pedicure post on Thursday.

Tea On Tap features reviews of Thai Tea Blend & Organic Darjeeling on Monday & Thursday, plus another Tea People interview on Wednesday. Twitter: @TeaOnTap

Scaryview Cemetery features new fencing for the graveyard & plans for an MRI machine.

Thanks for reading - here's to another great week!

Construction Zone: World Building

I've been working on edits for Loving Lana, and there are some details in the story that need to be changed in order to make the whole thing work better. I've been calling them "plot intricacies", but really, they fall under the realm of "world-building".

Before I started seriously studying the "craft" of writing, I always relegated world-building to the Fantasy & Sci-Fi genres. It's what writers had to do when they set their stories on other planets or planes of existence. Obviously there's no need to "build" a world when your story is set in a ready-made place, right?

I realize my mistake now, of course, and I also realize that I really should give more attention to world-building when I'm plotting a story, rather than leaving it for after. I'm sure many, many writers do just leave the major world building details until the edits, but it's one of those things I'd rather do some work on before hand, leaving less to do after.

In Loving Lana, the opening chapter starts out in a meeting wherein the company the heroine runs with her two closest friends from college is in major trouble due to sabotage from within. The saboteur has been dealt with, but now the company has to make things right with the customers that were harmed, in order to keep their contracts. I made the first business an interior design company that catered to businesses.

As the story grew, it was revealed that the main business was just a "front" and a source of revenue to run a secondary anonymous "whistle-blower paper" that causes much contention towards the end of the plot. Needless to say, now that first business doesn't really make sense to me - it's a poor pairing of interests, in my opinion. I also think that the secondary business could add a very important plot element to the hero's side of the story, maybe even contributing to his treatment of the heroine in the beginning.

So I decided I needed to change the main business into something that made sense...something capable of making a good revenue, but requiring little brainpower (relatively speaking) & actual time from the execs so they'd have time & money to devote to the paper. It really wasn't all that easy, and I waffled between several occupations before finally deciding that the girls would run a corporate cleaning business instead. This will not only give them revenue & time (since they manage cleaning teams, rather than doing the work themselves), and also adds sort of a "Cinderella" aspect that I can use to showcase the other friend's characters.

Needless to say, this will require some major changes as I go through the edits, especially where it affects the relationship between the hero/heroine. It has to be done though - I really hope it will make the whole thing better.

How do you approach world-building? Do you plan it out ahead of time, or just let it evolve as you're writing, and polish it up afterward?

Wildcard: Motivation & Ego

Last Sunday as I was getting my “Variety News” post ready, I picked “motivation” for this week’s Wildcard topic thinking that it would be a topic that applies in all areas of life, not just writing. Then yesterday, as I was thinking about today’s post, I found that I wasn’t motivated at all to write about motivation – some serious irony there, right? Just to twist things even more, my own lack of motivation just underscored the importance of the topic in my mind, and here I am, writing about motivation again. Funny how that happens…

I’m asked a lot about my reasons for doing things – my “motivation”. Not just online, but in “real life” as well. People ask me all the time why I do my nails every week. Why I blog. Why I make homemade dog food. Why my hubby and I go to so much trouble with our Halloween party every year (we get that one a *lot*). Why I do NaNoWriMo if I don’t plan to edit/submit the manuscript (in past years).

Needless to say, people expect an answer when they ask questions like these. My stock answer for many of them, “because I like to,” doesn’t seem to be acceptable for some reason. Which in turn makes me curious – why isn’t it acceptable to do something (anything) just because we like to?

Most of these folks are looking for some sort of outside stimulus that drives a specific action. I think it’s because we’re so ready to perceive actions as egotistical…self-centered, if you will. If someone asks me why I do my nails every week, and I say “because I like to,” it’s often perceived as being “vain” about how my nails look. If I answer “because my nails grow fast and if I don’t keep them manicured, they tend to break and peel,” people tend to think I’m not only vain, but that I’m judging their nails (when the truth is, I rarely notice other peoples’ fingernails unless they’re polished, and I’m admiring the manicure). If I answer “because I have a nail blog, and people seem to enjoy and be inspired by the artwork I come up with every week,” somehow it becomes more acceptable, since the perception is that I’m doing it for someone other than myself (even though the motivation actually hasn’t changed, it’s just been stated differently).

When it comes right down to it though, there are very few things in life I do that aren’t motivated by a desire to make myself happy. Even things I don’t necessarily enjoy doing (like spending 2 hours a week making homemade dog food, or going to work 8 hours a day) are still motivated through the end result making my life better in some way. Taking care of my “special needs” dog makes her healthy, and having her around makes me happy. Working gets me money…which makes me far happier than I’d be without it.

I have a theory that the majority of people are motivated to do things because it makes their own life better in some way. There are lots of mixed-messages out there about not being self-centered, but remembering to take care of yourself first, etc. It’s understandable why we’re all so afraid to admit that we do things mainly because it makes us personally happy.

I'm curious. When people ask what your motivations are, what do you tell them? Do you admit it when you do something “just because you like to”? How do people react when you do?

What Is It?

Wow - 5 correct guesses last week, and Jeannie gets an extra entry because she guessed the exact type of stuffed animal. A fluffy stuffed bunny it is! Great job, gang!
This is the last mystery photo of the month - I'll hold the drawing next Tuesday night, and announce the winner next Wednesday. Guess I'd better order some tea (terrible hardship - really)!

What Is It?

Good Luck!

To enter: Simply post a comment with your best guess as to what the subject of the photo is. Each correct answer = 1 drawing entry. Drawings held at the end of each month. Prizes include a book and tea.

Weekly Goals & Reading List 8/24/09

I walked down the hall and found a grasshopper on my pant leg when I got to my destination this morning. We have grasshoppers *everywhere* this year for some reason…must be the perfect weather for them or something. Anyways, it reminded me to post about Douglas Clegg’s new serial novel, The Locust – more on that below with the reading list.

I did pretty well writing last week, and I got those Halloween magnets mailed (finally, and after three attempts). I know most of my readers are women, so you’ll understand when I say that I temporarily lost my brain last week to hormones. I hate when that happens…can’t get organized for the life of me! This week will be better simply because my head is functioning properly again.

I designated Saturday nights as “Editing night”, and Sunday nights as “Short Story night”. I don’t generally work on my novel draft on those nights, so that should work.

Weekly Goals

Writing
- I’m raising my daily word count minimum back up to 500 words per day. I really want to finish my novel draft before November 1st, and I need to step things up if I’m going to manage that. I did the math (I know, made my brain hurt), and writing 5 days per week I’d need to write just over 700 words per day to finish…but I’ll bump it up slowly, which will be good prep for NaNo too. Wouldn’t want to sprain anything…

- Must count up my words for August. Tonight.

- Write one chapter ahead on Tempest. I need to start “stockpiling” chapters for November, when I won’t be able to write both my serial and get my 1,667 words per day done on my NaNo novel.

- Do line-edits & revisions of at least 3 pages of “Loving Lana”. I’ve decided to just try the whole one-pass revision shebang, because…well because I’m impatient. I’m sure I’ll end up going through it a second time, but doing one whole huge pass will make me feel like I’m making great progress.

- Write at least 500 more words on my short story, which has been languishing. I miss it!

Personal
- Win the lottery (kidding…but not really!)

- Catch up with my stupid laundry.

- Designate days for “category” blog reading. There are some writing blogs I just *have* to check every day, but I need to check nail art blogs and tea blogs too to keep up with the little “spheres” I have in those areas.

Reading List

First, Lost Wanderer, I don’t think I have The Coffin Dancer by Deaver yet – I’m sure I’ll read it eventually though. I’m still working on The Broken Window, but should finish it this week. It’s really quite fascinating/scary, and with my next paycheck I’m headed right out to buy a countertop shredder for my bills/junk mail.

And I mentioned Douglas Clegg’s new email serial (I think he has it up somewhere else too) above. This is a published author (if you read horror or dark fantasy, I’m sure you’ve heard of him) who posts a raw draft that is sponsored by his publisher. It will be cleaned up and released in print later on, so if you want to read a raw draft from someone who knows what he’s doing, go sign up for his email newsletter so you can get his installments. He doesn’t post on a schedule, it’s just whenever he gets the chapters done. The first chapter is *excellent* - don’t miss it!

Now, for the list of category romance reads I’ve plowed through lately (remember, last week was brainless week, which automatically translates to romance reading binge week):

Texas Heat by Debbi Rawlins: Debbi, I love you and hate you all at once. For shame, ending things that way!! This is three interconnected short stories about college friends and hot cowboys (uh…*smokin’ hot* cowboys) you do not want to miss. And yet, you’ll be left frustrated. It’s worth it though. I think.

Made You Look by Jamie Sobrato: This is such a sad, sweet story of frozen emotions slowly being thawed out as lust leads two people to love. Poignant and heart-wrenching.

More Than a Millionaire by Emilie Rose Cunningham: As far as “baby-based” romances go, this one wasn’t bad. The relationships between all the characters were incredibly complex and intertwined, which made for a very emotionally charged read.

Texan’s Wedding-Night Wager by Charlene Sands: A sweet story about a man trying to woo his fed-up wife back into his life after 5 years apart. The restraint and tension in this novel is just amazing…makes for a very good page-turning read.

Feels Like the First Time by Tawny Weber: A reunion story – literally, high school reunion. The hero & heroine in this novel are so vibrant, so alive and flawed and seriously deserving of each other that I nearly couldn’t put it down. Excellent read.

Getting Physical by Katherine Grill: This novel explores tantric sex, and tackles the oh-so-tough question, “What is Love?” It’s fabulous and very sensual, wonderfully different in the world of category romance.

I’ll stop there, as this post is too long already. What’s on your plate (or on your reading list) this week?

Variety News 8/23/09

Whew! I've been working in the yard today, and it's hot and muggy out. Looks like a storm is headed our way. Rain would be much appreciated!

Not much new this week. I've renamed the Saturday posts to "Construction Zone", because for me it seems like writing a story is like building a house. You draw up the plans (plotting, outlining, whatever comes before the actual writing), build the frame and then put up walls, cabinets, paint & decorate. So rather than limiting it to just editing, I'll leave it open for the discussion of actually crafting/building a story.

This week on the Variety Pages:

Monday: Goals & a fairly extensive reading list
Tuesday/Friday: New chapters of "Tempest", wherein hopefully Jake will rescue the girls. Or will they rescue themselves?
Wednesday: The last mystery photo of the month.
Thursday: Wildcard post on Motivation
Saturday: Construction Zone - Working out Plot Intricacies

Elsewhere on the Variety Network:

Nail Art Tuesday features a shiny Penny manicure, plus a bonus pedicure on Thursday.

Tea On Tap features a review of Caramel Dipped Apple green tea on Monday.

Scaryview Cemetery features room decoration plans for this year's hospital theme.

And we're off!

Construction Zone: Creating People

As you can see, I've renamed the Saturday posts "Construction Zone". More on that in Variety News on Sunday. For today, let's talk about characters.

In my first serial novel (Loving Lana), the hero's name is Brad. Unfortunately, he doesn't come off as a likable character to start with, and while he sort of gets better towards the end, I'm still not happy with him from a reader's perspective. Sure, *I* know his motivation for doing things - I know that deep down he's a good guy, but that didn't come through in my first draft. Recently, I've been trying to figure out why.

I've been doing some research online, using Holly Lisle's "Create a Character" course, and deconstructing the characters in the novels I'm reading to figure out what turns a fictional character into a believable "person". As far as I can tell, it comes down to two things:

1. Knowing the character inside and out, just like you'd know your best friend.
2. Showing his motivations, philosophy, and character through actions, dialogue and reactions.

I think for me, this all comes down to getting into Brad's head more, and tightening up my writing. He needs his own scenes closer to the front of the story...I wait too long to really introduce his main motivations. By the time I switch to his perspective, it's too late - negative opinions have already been formed.

To make Brad more of a real person, I'm going to give him more scenes, including a very early one where his insecurities & motivations are implied/shown through his interaction with his secretary & friends. I'm also going to really work his reactions into Lana's scenes...she may not know what they mean, but she'll notice things that will better clue in the reader to what's going on.

I have a few secondary characters who need tightening up as well - Sara & Sandra (one of whom will receive a new name) both have their own stories that I plan to tell later, and they don't read quite right in this one. They don't have their own POV scenes, so I'll just have to tighten up my writing with regard to them, and add more action/dialogue that will allude to their true motivations.

So that's my plan so far. How do you turn your characters into believable "people" on the page? Any tips you'd like to share?

Wildcard: How Does Your Garden Grow?

One of my love/hate hobbies in summer is our vegetable garden. I love seeing things grow, and eating fresh produce picked right outside the back door, but I hate weeding, and watering, and all the mundane stuff that goes along with having a garden. This year, I’ve been exceptionally lazy, so my garden grows more like a jungle, as you can see.

I have two raised beds for my veggies. The first one is for cherry & current tomatoes, along with a couple miniature pumpkin plants and some bell peppers. I don’t know why I keep bothering with bell peppers, except for the first year when I actually got several really nice ones. Haven’t gotten any from the garden since.

The second bed houses my jalapenos, bush-steak tomatoes and banana peppers, along with a single eggplant and two miniature watermelon vines. That oh so clear spot in the center with nothing growing? That’s where I had my cucumbers. The local bunnies quickly helped me out with those tasty “weeds” (my neighbor tried to warn me).

It’s amazing to me how every year is so different from the previous one. This is the first year in three that my eggplant has set on fruit – and finally I have two eggplants growing this year. Normally my Italian Ice (white) cherry tomatoes are ripe by now, but this year, the plants are full, but the fruits are green. My current tomatoes are doing great as usual, but the big bush steaks are ripening just one or two at a time. The plants that seem to be doing the best are the jalapenos & banana peppers, actually…well, and the mini-pumpkins that are trying to take over my little corner of the world. We’ll have a few home-grown mini’s to decorate with this fall.

To my surprise, the “Snack pack” mini-watermelons I put in are doing great, and I have three little watermelons growing now! They should be just enough for hubby and I to each have half at a time, and according to my neighbor, they’re super-sweet and delicious. I can’t wait to try them out this fall.

Last year, we had no apples. None. This year, the tree is loaded with them, and they’re ripening, but too early. They’re still really tart, which is disappointing. If they would have just waited until frost like normal, they’d be sweeter (still a tart apple – I’m not sure what kind, the tree came with the house), and better for apple butter to can. But they’re pretty ripe now, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to wait much longer since they’re falling off the tree (literally). Hopefully the apple butter will still turn out okay. I baked a few the other night just to "test" the flavor...tart, but good.


I got a really late start on the garden this year due to shipping problems for my seed-starting supplies. I wonder how much better things would have done had I gotten started earlier? Not that I’m complaining…everything we’ve eaten has been fabulous so far!

So, any fellow gardeners out there? How does your garden grow?

What Is It?

Last week's was a real stumper, eh? Aimee & C R, I'm giving you both an entry, because a furnace is very close, and fire is absolutely correct. It was a burning log from our fireplace last winter!
This week, something cooler (and less painful to the touch).

What Is It?

Good Luck!
To enter: Simply post a comment with your best guess as to what the subject of the photo is. Each correct answer = 1 drawing entry. Drawings held at the end of each month. Prizes include a book and tea.

Goals & Reading List 8/17/09

If you came here looking for the blog chain post, scroll down (it’s just before this post). Or use the link in the list to the left…those go straight to the blog chain posts for each blog (the ones that are up, anyway).

Last week, my biggest goal was to write a chapter for the Pass the Plot challenge on the Harlequin forums. I think people liked it well enough. You can check it out here, if you’re so inclined. Feel free to post back here with your comments (good or bad) if you’d like. It was way harder than I thought it would be to keep track of someone else’s characters and the clues that go along with a murder mystery plot.

Lowering my daily word count goal worked like a charm – I worked on my novel WIP most days last week, and got over 250 words (300 & 400, respectively) on two of those days. Felt good, and I really like how it’s moving along.

As far as my personal goals went…we almost finished the fencing project in the backyard (Lucy’s not happy, but I shouldn’t have to worry so much about her going out of the yard anymore). Other than that, I let everything else go downhill again. Oh well.

Facebook games have been eating into my time lately. They’re creepy like that. Not good.

Goals for This Week

Writing

- 250 words per day on novel draft, since that seems to be working well.
- Tally up my word counts for the month so far, since I haven’t done that yet.
- Assign myself a “short story” night and an “editing” night respectively, so I can get back to work on Hot Lunch, and make better progress on Loving Lana.

Personal

- Halloween magnets must be done and mailed out…finish tonight, mailed tomorrow!
- Laundry every night
- Start tackling the reorganization of our office (which is a huge mess again)

Reading List

I’m still working on The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver. Loving it – I wish I had more time to devote to it.

As for category romances, I’ve read several recently…and started a baseball themed one that I just can’t for the life of me get into. I’m not a baseball fan – never have been, so I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to that one. At the moment I’m reading one centered on Tantrism…which is quite intriguing.

That’s it for me this week – anyone else care to share (or link to your own goals post)?

AW Blog Chain Post: On Serial Novels

My normal Monday Goals & Reading list post will be up later today, but it's my turn to post for the Absolute Write August Blog Chain. If you haven't been following along, check out the previous posts - I've listed the links to the left, in the order we're posting. And don't forget to follow along as we continue!

My question comes from Dnic, who asked:

What prompted you to start the serial novels on your blog? And does the progression of the serial novels affect your other writings?

Such a simple question, with so many complex answers. I’ll assume for this post that we’re talking about why I chose the serial novel format (instead of a completed novel, or in addition to flash fiction/short stories). The most basic answer is, I wanted to transition my blog from a personal journal style (focused inward on my daily life, really not that interesting) that had a very small following to a blog that would provide something *to* potential readers. I was just getting back into writing after a rather long hiatus, and for a long time I’ve been reading the serial stories on the eharlequin.com site (they post daily, weekly & bi-weekly reads for free). I wondered if I could do something like that…and decided to try. I figured at the very least if I knew someone was reading, I’d be motivated to keep writing – and maybe I’d even get some feedback too.

As for how the progression affects my other writings – it’s much more than I originally thought it would. It works much like kinetic energy for me – a body in motion stays in motion. I know people are reading my bi-weekly chapters, and because of that, I feel obligated to get them written no matter what else is going on in my life. Because I’m writing 500-800 words twice a week without fail, it’s much easier to work on my other projects as well. Once I start writing, I keep writing…when I stop, it’s much harder to get moving again. The fact that people are reading my raw serial drafts motivates me all the more to write work for submittal – if my drafts are good enough for people to keep coming back to, then my edited manuscripts should be good enough to submit for publication. So says my brain, in any case.

I also use my serial drafts to try out new writing/editing methods. The first one, I only had a vague idea of the plot – and it fizzled too quickly. I’m using the draft of that novel to learn editing skills with right now, and because I can’t submit it, there’s no pressure to do anything a certain way. I have the freedom to experiment with different methods and find out what works best for me. My current serial “Tempest” is the first novel I plotted completely with Holly Lisle’s course…and that’s working so well that I’ve taken the knowledge to my other drafts. Again, since it was always meant for the blog, there’s no pressure to get it “right” – I can explore different ways for getting out of corners, experiment with style, voice, characters, anything I need to, really. I’m working on my description at the moment, since I tend to be a “sparse” writer. All of the knowledge I learn from my serial novels is applied directly to the drafts that I hope to submit eventually. I’d like to think that I’ve learned to write better, more active scenes, and leave out the “boring stuff” by writing serials, just because I want every scene in the serial to make people want to read the next one. It seems like that should be intuitive, but it wasn’t for me. The serials also seem to “expose” the structure of the story more for me…because I have to keep the story progressing every single time I post (and I’m only working 500-800 words at a time), it really makes me focus on the plot, the story arc, and the “bones” of a draft – as I’m writing it, rather than waiting for revisions. I’m still learning, but it’s definitely teaching me a lot about story construction in general. I think (hope) that’s translating to the other novel drafts I’m working on – and making me a better writer overall.

My question to LiliCray is: If you could see into the future, and found out that you would never be published, would you keep writing? How would it change the way you write, or would it?

Variety News 8/16/09

Last week was kind of hard to keep up with as I spent more time writing my "Pass the Plot" chapter than I thought I would. I hope they like it over there - haven't heard a word since I emailed it, but we'll see. Hopefully if they don't, someone will say something so I can learn from it.

I've been reading a couple of blogs on writing that I thought others might find interesting. If you have a few minutes, check 'em out for some intriguing editing advice/commentary:

Kristen Lamb's Warrior Writer

A. Victoria Mixon, Editor's Blog

Also, C R Ward of Random Writerly Thoughts has started a serial blog novel! Check it out...

And I'm participating in another blog chain this month for the Absolute Write forums...so be prepared for a random blog chain post sometime this week or next.

This week on The Variety Pages

Monday: Goals & Reading List
Tues/Friday: New chapters of "Tempest"
Wednesday: Another fabulous mystery photo
Thursday: Wildcard - something completely different.
Saturday: Clean it Up: Rounding out Brad

Elsewhere on the Variety Network

Nail Art Tuesday features...uh...a new manicure. Of some sort.

Tea On Tap is still up in the air for this week. I need to get more organized over there!

Scaryview Cemetery Scrapbook will have pictures of those magnets by tomorrow night, and a progress report on party plans.

And with that, another week begins...

Clean it Up: Finding the Plot Holes

My serial novel “Loving Lana” is the first novella-length draft I've ever started editing. The main purpose I have for editing it is practice and education...I'm learning how to edit a complete longer story, and exploring different methods for doing so. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been slowly reading through the draft start to finish after letting it sit for several weeks to get some distance.

One of the things that bothered me about this particular draft is that it ended too soon. I planned on making it a full-length 50,000 word draft, and the story petered out at 15,000 words. I knew it was something I did, but I wasn't sure what. When I read it through...it was all suddenly very clear. Not only did I neglect to develop the hero as a credible character (he'll be getting more scenes this go-round), I also left quite a few plot holes that when filled, will easily flesh out the story to a normal length category romance draft (50k).

How did I find the plot holes? Part of it was just reading through the draft, and going “huh?” at certain places in the story. In most cases though, I had a hard time articulating what should happen instead of or in addition to what was going on at the time. So I did a little work with a pen and notebook. Eventually I'll work up to Holly Lisle's One-Pass Revision method, but for now, I'm planning on two passes, the first for plot and major storyline issues (the second will be line-edits).

After I'd read the whole draft, I wrote out a basic synopsis of the entire story. Taking the story down to the bare basics made it very evident to me where questions still needed to be answered. It also made it clear to me how much easier it would have been to write with less plot holes had I planned better in the beginning (*ahem*).

Then I started planning the changes I'll make to address those questions. Basically, I'm rewriting the scenes where the plot holes are, and adding/cutting scenes where necessary. I should be ready to start the actual edits sometime next week.

So, how do you find your plot holes? Do you have a method, or just do it as you go through the draft? Are your drafts generally “holey” - and if so, are you a planner or “pantser”?

Wildcard Topic: Beta Readers & Critique Partners

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot, and I have no answers here, only questions. So indulge me, share your personal answers if you please, and then next week we’ll do something more fun for the Wildcard. Maybe another flash piece.

Anyway.

The first critique I ever got was in high school. I was writing in a notebook on a bus to or from summer camp about a cabin in the mountains. A guy in my youth group asked what I was writing. He wanted to see it. He was older and cute, and I handed it over, thinking, “It’s not perfect, but it can’t be that bad.”

He told me (very nicely) that there was far too much description. I needed to be more concise, less flowery with my prose. You must understand, I *love* descriptive language. I adore adverbs. I did then, and I still do. Writing simply for the love of language. Beautiful. Unfortunately, my teen crush also implied that perhaps I should pursue other interests. And I thought to myself, “It was really *that* bad?!” You know how teens are.

After that, I didn’t share my work with anyone for a long time. I knew I could write non-fiction, all my professors highly praised my work in college (which made me feel like a fraud, since all those papers were researched/written the night before they were due – definitely not my best work). I never even took a creative writing class though, because I still believed that while *I* liked my work, no one else would. I wanted to write fiction – and genre fiction at that, which all my English professors considered trite, brainless & a waste of time.

My second year doing NaNoWriMo, I decided to get involved in the local group. Which I didn’t do very well. I’m much better at being “social” in person now than I was back then. A woman who got together with a couple other people once a week to read and critique each other’s work invited me to join them, and I thought, “I should do this. If I truly want to get published, I need to get past my fears, and get outside input to see if my fiction writing is any good.” I can’t even describe how nervous I was the first time I emailed them a chapter to be critiqued the next week.

They ripped it apart, of course…not in a bad way, but it was an eye-opener to see just how much I had to learn. They didn’t even touch on the plot, since they didn’t have it, just the writing. Redundant words, my beloved adverbs, dialogue tags, etc. I was a bit overwhelmed, but committed to learning, so I changed *everything* they said to, very rarely even using my own wording. I felt like it was only “sort of” my work then, more of a collaborative effort. But I thought that was what it would take to be published, and that’s what I wanted to do.

I left the group due to a personality conflict with another member that had nothing to do with writing or critiques, ironically. I learned later that the whole group broke up for the same reason shortly after for similar reasons. I stopped writing (for various reasons) after that – only doing NaNo in the fall.

So now here I am. Writing again. Writing more consistently than I ever have in my life. Learning that a lot of the stuff I was told I *had* to change in my former critique group is actually more of an author’s choice sort of thing, depending on lots of different factors. Learning that I can make my writing better without losing my own voice in the process.

Now I’m finding it hard to reconcile myself to the critique partner & beta reader I know I should have if I want to get published. My mind is screaming conflicting messages. Most writers seem to be very close to their critique partners. How can I trust someone I consider a friend to give an unbiased critique? If I do get my work critiqued, how do I know which advice to take, and which to ignore? How do I do that while not offending this as-yet-unknown partner? And how do I find this illusive, perfect writing partner anyway?

What about beta readers? How do I find a reader who’s not a writer to read my work, and give me their honest opinion of it? Since I can’t “trade work” with a reader, how do I compensate them for their time?

If I continue writing as I have been, by the end of the year, I’m going to be in a position where a critique partner is either helpful or necessary (or both), depending on who you talk to. Early next year, I may want to find a beta reader. For some reason, this whole thing just seems completely out of reach for me, due to all the questions I listed above.

My question to you, dear readers, is how did you come to grips with these things? How did you find your critique partners or group, and suitable beta readers? Or did you choose to go it alone, and how is that working for you?

What Is It?

Jeannie, I have to apologize - I just sent your prize out today. It's going priority mail, so you should have it by Thurs. or Fri. at the latest. Sorry for the delay!

It's amazing how something can look so much like something else, isn't it? Only one correct guess last week - Susie, it was indeed a plastic rake! Congrats on your entry into the monthly contest.For this week, something a little brighter...

What Is It?

Good Luck!

To enter: Simply post a comment with your best guess as to what the subject of the photo is. Each correct answer = 1 drawing entry. Drawings held at the end of each month. Prizes include a book and tea.

Weekly Goals & Reading List 8/10/09

My writing goals pretty much tanked last week, much to my chagrin. It’s partially due to the increased word count, which registered in my brain as “too much to start late at night”. Not that I haven’t written 500 words late at night before, it just *seemed* like too much to my feeble mind. So I wrote two nights and let myself get derailed the rest of the week. We won’t even talk about any of the other writing goals – except I did manage to set a 30k total words goal for August on Lost Wanderer’s Blog. So that’s something.

I did a little better with my personal goals, though I only managed to work out twice last week. But I kept up pretty well with the dishes, laundry, etc until the weekend (family, concert, etc). I got the blank calendars ordered for gifts, along with some scrapbooking items, and I did spend an entire evening setting up Quicken on my netbook to keep track of my finances. I didn’t get the Halloween magnets done though, and they should have been mailed out last week. *sigh*

Enough of that whining though – on to something more positive, like…

This Week’s Goals

Writing

- It’s my turn to write a 1000 word chapter for the Pass the Plot challenge on the eharlequin.com forums! Hooray – and Yikes! That has to be turned in by next Sunday afternoon. My goal is to have it in by Saturday night.

- Dropping my daily word count goal for the novel to 250 again. Seems more “doable” when I finally sit down late at night to write.

- I’m not going to plan any work on the short story WIP at the moment. Between the chapter for eharl., and my blog serial and novel draft, I have enough to worry about this week.

- I was demonstrating to someone on the AW forums how I come up with a new idea, and…came up with a shiny new novel idea (naturally). I think I’ll use it for my NaNo draft this year, so this week, I need to just write the basics down, and leave it sit until late October. The goal here is *not* to think about or do much of anything with it!

- Prep and post my editing sample on Saturday regarding plot holes.

- Set up a spreadsheet to keep track of my total (all projects) daily word counts for Lost Wanderer’s challenge.

Personal

- Get those Halloween magnets done and mailed out!
- Laundry & exercise every night
- Finish the fencing project in the back yard.
- Reconcile my accounts with Quicken twice during the week.

Reading List

I’m not posting my reading list this week…because I need to keep track of the books I read as I go, and I’ve not been doing that. I’ll work on doing better – there are several great books I’d be happy to recommend.

Anyone want to share your goals for this week?

Variety News 8/9/09

Just a quick update today - somehow, this weekend sort of got out of control on me, and I'm struggling just to stay on top of things. Most notably, the "Clean it Up" post for yesterday that never quite materialized. Sad, because I had some plotting issues to discuss for editing. It will be back next week though.

One other thing before the weekly post schedule - I lost a follower last week. Due to the timing, I can only assume it was a result of Thursday's wildcard post on bravery and letting others read our work. I just want to say to my remaining followers - I appreciate you. :-) I sincerely hope that if you don't agree with something I post, you'll feel free to comment and open discussion on it...I'm very open to the views of others, and not easily offended. So don't be afraid to click that "Ugh" button, and maybe leave your opposing viewpoint. It's okay, really - I'd rather have a good discussion than have people just up and leave.

This week on The Variety Pages

Monday: Goals & Reading list for this week.
Tues/Friday: New chapters of "Tempest" (I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying writing this)
Wednesday: A new mystery photo & this week's answer
Thursday: Wildcard post on beta readers/critique partners
Saturday: Clean It Up looks at finding/filling plot holes

Elsewhere on the Variety Network

Nail Art Tuesday features a rain-inspired manicure in gray.

Tea on Tap features an interview with Lainie of Lainie Sips on Wednesday.

Scaryview Cemetery Scrapbook (finally) features photos of save-the-date magnets.

Here's to another great week!

Letting It All Hang Out

As you may have figured out, one of the main functions of this blog is to make my writing process transparent. Recently I’ve been getting a lot of comments on how “brave” I am to share my work in public, something I’m almost always certain is meant as a compliment, but it catches me off guard every time. Because what is meant to be encouraging actually makes me doubt what I’m doing instead. That niggling voice in the back of my head wonders if perhaps people think I’m “brave” because my first drafts suck, and they would never post something that poorly written for others to read. People don’t normally go around telling published authors that they’re “brave” for getting their works published, even though it takes far more courage to release your words into the vast world of readers than it does for me to post mine here, for far fewer eyes.

Now those of you who have called me brave are feeling defensive right about now, thinking I’ve misinterpreted your comments, and want to reassure me. “That’s not what I meant!” you’re thinking. Let me assure you – I know the comment is a compliment. It’s my constant struggle with self-confidence that introduces the element of doubt. It’s not you, it’s me – and I say that very sincerely.

So now we get back to the real question – if I have those moments of self-doubt, why would I want to expose my work to possible criticism by posting unfinished, raw writing on my blog?

To vanquish the fear.

Self-doubt is a deceptive master. It’s confining and chafing, but also comfortable, in a way. “I’m not good enough,” is a great excuse to maintain the status quo, even if you tack “yet” onto the end. I told myself that for many, many years – and whether it was true or not, the fact is, I hid behind it. I never actively pursued a career as a writer, because I believed that little voice that kept saying “I’m not good enough.”

It doesn’t really matter whether I’m “good enough” or not. Time and the publishing industry will decide whether I’m “good enough” to be traditionally published. The kicker is, I have to give them the chance. In order to do that, I can’t be afraid of letting them, or anyone else read my work. The fact is, everyday readers collectively will judge my words more harshly than any agent, editor or publisher will. The latter group *wants* to see me succeed – they have a vested interest in helping me make them more money. Readers have no such compulsion…they want to be entertained, and if I can’t give them that, they’ll read someone else’s work. That’s what my “reader self” does. The scariest part of writing for me is the average reader, not the publishing industry. Traditional publishing is a wonderful affirmation with far-reaching perks, but it’s still all based on individual, subjective opinions. Just because one can’t land a traditional contract doesn’t mean they aren’t “good enough”. I’ve finally realized that…and it’s very freeing knowledge. If publishers don't think I'm "good enough", that doesn't necessarily mean it's so, or that the average reader will agree with that assessment. It just means I'll self-publish instead - here on this blog and elsewhere.

By putting my work up here, I’m facing what I perceive to be my most demanding (and rewarding) audience head on. Perhaps it was “brave” in the beginning, when my hands shook as I posted the first chapter of my first serial novel. I wondered if anyone would read or comment on it, and whether anyone would savagely tear my writing apart. Now posting my work is more like an affirmation – one that says I believe in my words no matter who else does or doesn't, and that I believe I can entertain readers, even if my work isn’t always perfect or suited to everyone’s taste. I'm no longer afraid to show confidence in my work (just as I'm not afraid to admit my shortcomings to the world).

If we don’t believe in our own work and capacity to improve, no one else has any reason to either. I challenge you to believe in your work. Get it out there. Vanquish the fear.

What Is It?

Good guessing last week - several of you got entries into the contest. It was indeed a grater, and yes Jeannie, the finer side of the grater. I was grating beeswax for face cream last week.

We had excellent participation for this month's contest, with a whopping 11 entries from 7 individuals. This month's prize is your choice of "Holding Out" by Anne O. Faulk (hardcover), "Marley & Me" by John Grogan (trade paperback) or two "surprise" category romance novels from my shelf (all books gently used). The winner will also receive a sample pack of Strawberry Shortcake White Tea (read my review here).

So I guess all we need now is the winner...and the winner is:

Jeannie Campbell!!

Congratulations, Jeannie! If you would be so kind as to email me with your choice of book(s) and your mailing address, I'll mail out your prize this week.

Thanks for playing last month, everyone! Here's a new photo to start us off for August.

What Is It?
Good Luck!

To enter: Simply post a comment with your best guess as to what the subject of the photo is. Each correct answer = 1 drawing entry. Drawings held at the end of each month. Prizes include a book and tea.

Writing Method & Routines - AW July Blog Chain

I know – two posts in one day! Don’t everyone faint on me now – this is my contribution and the last entry for the Absolute Write July Blog Chain. Try saying *that* five times fast. I'll apologize ahead of time for being wordy. Can't seem to help myself.

If you haven’t been following along, everyone in the chain has asked the next person a question to answer. I started, and here’s my question(s) from The Lost Wanderer to close the chain:

What is your method of writing a book? Do you outline? Do you come up with characters first or a plot? Do you have any particular ritual/preference for writing, or can you write anytime/anywhere?

The first two manuscripts I finished were NaNoWriMo drafts, where I adhered to the motto “No Plot, No Problem!” The third draft I finished was also a NaNo draft, but loosely plotted out on note cards ala Holly Lisle. When I decided it was time to actually start editing a draft, I realized quite quickly that because my drafts were so raw with regards to plot and story arc, it was going to take me months and months to edit any of them into a workable novel. One major problem I have is that I read across so many genres that they all tend to work their way into my drafts.

Before I continue, you need to know one thing about me: I am inherently lazy.

Then I started writing a blog serial. I’d planned to have it stretch to around 50,000 words. It died at 15,000. Upon re-reading the draft, I realized that the story itself easily had the potential for 50,000 words, but because I had been just writing scenes off the cuff with no real plan, I’d left many, many plot holes that when filled would round out the story nicely. I’m working on fixing that now, but it’s a big job.

That’s when I decided I needed to put more work into knowing the entire plot of the novel before I started writing, rather than just letting one organically evolve out of the character/characters I started with. I’ve been working with Holly’s Create A Plot clinic (link to the right), and while I still begin with one main character, I now make sure I have a good working synopsis with a full plot and several major story arcs planned out before I start writing. Not only is it easier to keep writing, but I think my drafts are getting cleaner too. I anticipate less major plot editing work when finished with my latest two drafts than the previous three require. I’m actually going to completely rewrite my third draft using this method after my current WIPs are done.

I don’t outline as per se. What I’ve been doing that seems to be working is plotting out major scenes in the novel while I’m working on the story arcs. I plug those into my yWriter software – just a sentence or two to tell me what the scene is about. Then I write scene to scene, normally in a linear fashion, though I have been jumping around a bit on my novel draft (completely changed the beginning, requiring new scenes). So I guess you could say I have an outline built of scenes, but there could be several scenes between each of my planned scenes, if that makes any sense. If something I write changes the next scene, I run with it as long as it stays somewhat true to the original plot, just changing further scenes as needed.

I’m hoping that using this method to produce a novel draft will eventually allow me to write cleanly enough to use Holly’s One-Pass revision method on it in the editing stage. Like I said, I’m lazy – I want as clean a draft as possible the first time out, so I have to spend as little time editing it as possible. That way I can move along to the next idea begging to be let loose on the page.

As for where/when I write and rituals – the only things I really struggle with is writing before 10 or 11 in the morning, and writing by hand (my fingers can’t keep up with my brain). I’m a night person, so afternoons and evenings are my most productive times of day. Most of my noveling is done after 9:30pm. I can write anywhere really – most nights I’m in my chair in the living room, writing on my netbook with hubby talking, the TV on & my dogs hanging around. I’ve written on a plane (using my PDA & a keyboard), and in complete silence in my super-messy home office. I write at work quite often, stealing bits of downtime to work on stories. I don’t want rituals, because I never want to train my brain to look for some outside stimulus before it will start working. I just want to be able to write whenever, wherever I need to. So far, so good. Publication, here I come.

Here's the list of blog chain participants one more time, for your reading pleasure:

DniC
BigWords
Fokker Aeroplanbau
harri3tspy
razibahmed
Forbidden Snowflake
bsolah
jen.nifer
Lady Cat
rosemerry
aimeelaine
Proach
Apelle
lostwonderer5
JamieMT

Thanks to The Lost Wanderer for a great question, and everyone else for a very informative chain.

Weekly Goals & Reading List 8/3/09

Last week was a bum week for goal-reaching. That’s what happens when I start getting cocky and relax. Literally speaking…not much. Not much writing, virtually no exercising, and I actually fell behind on other day-to-day routines to! Time to regroup.

I did get a few more words written (around 1500), and kept up with my blog posts (which is sometimes a feat in and of itself). I also started planning out calendar pages, and found inexpensive blank calendars to order. The Halloween party save-the-date cards are designed, and we bought the magnets Friday night. So they just have to be put together and mailed out.

So this week, my goals are:

Writing:
- Set a monthly total word count goal for The Lost Wanderer’s August Word Count Challenge.
- Write 500 words per day on my novel WIP
- Write at least 1000 more words on my short story WIP
- Finish the read-through of “Lana”, and start editing
- I’m participating in the Pass the Plot challenge over on the eharlequin.com forums, so I need to keep up with comments on that, learn the characters, and start playing around with “what if’s” for my chapter (I’m writing Ch. 3).

Personal:
- Workout daily. No more of this screwing around with 2x per week, etc. A friend of mine and I have agreed to email each other with our daily workout, to stay accountable and get moving on some weight loss. So starting tonight, the treadmill is my friend.
- Pick up the daily routines I let lapse last week. Laundry, dishes, etc…

And that’s it. Sometimes you have to know when to back off a bit, and this week, I need to just regroup and set myself up for success again.

Weekly Reading List

Would you believe I didn't even do much reading last week? A couple category romances and a little more on the Deaver book, but that's it. I need to get moving on that...my romance subscriptions should be ready to download today!

So what are you up to this week?

Variety News 8/2/09

You know what? It's *August*. August! Time flies...

I was thinking I should open up "Clean It Up" Saturdays to submissions. I could offer my suggestions, and readers could offer theirs as well. We could make it a group thing if anyone is interested - so if you have an excerpt of around 150-200 words or so that you'd like to have critiqued here, email it to me (link in the sidebar). No reason you all have to read just my work all the time (not that I mind).

Coming up on The Variety Pages this week:

Monday: Goals & reading list (plenty of missed goals this week - and more to set).
Tues/Friday: Two new chapters of "Tempest", wherein I need to figure out what will happen on the hike to the ranger station, and what will happen once there to keep the story moving.
Wednesday: Winners of the July photo contest announced, and a new mystery photo.
Thursday: Wildcard discussion on courage in sharing one's craft with others.
Saturday: Clean It Up excerpt editing

Elsewhere on the Variety Network:

Nail Art Tuesday features shell patterns in a lagoon.

Tea On Tap features an interview with blogger Eric Daams from Tea Finely Brewed (Weds), and a review of Almond Oolong tea from The NecessiTeas.

Scaryview Cemetery Scrapbook features "save-the-date" magnets for this year's bash.

Ready for another week?