Welcome to the new followers this week - glad you could join us. Don't be shy, jump in anytime. :-)
It's been a good week...though I was late posting the serial installment on Friday (sorry about that). It's much more of a stretch than I thought it would be having the readers control the flow for the next installment...but I love it, so don't stop voting! You can vote until 11:59pm tonight, so if you haven't yet, go read this week's chapter and let me know what *you* think Stacy should do next time when she's confronted with her insider knowledge.
From what I've heard, the first newsletter last week was a hit. Thanks to everyone who signed up last week! There's a little green box to the right for the rest of you (hint). This week's edition includes a couple of excerpts in addition to my normal features. My mailing list is secure and protected - it won't be sold or given away for any reason.
I've finally started populating the link section of my web site with other author sites, writing resources, and a spot for some of my writing. Check those out when you have a few minutes. I've finally got a blurb posted for Hearts on Trial too, if you care to see what that novel will be about.
Finally, I'm going to schedule posts at this blog to go up around 8:00am (Mountain time) from now on. Assuming I can get ahead again, that is.
This Week on The Variety Pages
Monday: Weekly Goals Tuesday: Construction Zone – Scenes Wednesday: Round Robin – Road Trip Thursday: Wildcard – Writer, Brand Thyself Friday: Ch. 5 of Indelibly Inked Saturday: Notable Posts
Elsewhere on The Variety Network
Spiced Variety Pages is finally running! Topics are posted by 5:00pm (Mountain time) on Monday, Thursday and Friday - for details on the topics and how to participate if you choose, go here. You'll probably want to follow that blog if you're interested in the "Flash Me" posts so you don't miss out...
Nail Art Tuesday will feature something snowy this week, I think.
Short & Dry will feature my "gardening plan" for this year - along with the upside down experiments I intend for my poor, unsuspecting plants.
That's it for now - check the newsletter for more goodies. Here's to another great week in the blogosphere!
Anything I should watch for on your blog this week?
Adam stepped back, propped his hip against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. She was right. This one setback could require big changes in everything from her announcement tomorrow to her clothing choices. Her publicist was going to earn every cent Claire was paying her.
A soft beep drew his gaze back to her. She put the phone back in her purse and shrugged. "Stacy isn't answering," she said. A worried look crossed her face. "She always answers her phone - even in the middle of the night. She said she was going over to the hotel to check the meeting room again, and then straight home from there." She frowned, and Adam longed to smooth the wrinkle from between her brows.
He settled for swinging her up off the table and into his arms. She gasped and locked her hands around his neck, her purse somehow still cradled in her lap. "What are you doing?"
"Taking you home." He carried her into the hall and out the back door, lowering her to stand on her good foot beside his black Nova. He wondered if she would remember the last time he'd driven her home, in this same car. She kept quiet as he opened the passenger door, and helped her slide across the front bench seat, then walked around to get behind the wheel. Finally daring a glance at her, she was running one hand over the seat, a thoughtful, almost sad look on her face. Was she remembering? "If you put your foot up on the seat, it shouldn't throb quite so much." She obediently swung her leg up towards the door, sliding closer to him. Awareness slid over his body as she brushed his shoulder, quickly drawing back. He started the engine, and hoped that her place was close. He needed to get some distance. Now.
"Where do you--"
"Can we stop at--"
She started to speak at the same time, and he gestured for her to go on as he backed the car out of the parking lot. "I was just wondering if we could stop by the hotel and see if Stacy's still there. It's not like her to ignore my call. I'm worried - what if something happened?"
"Sure," Adam said, turning toward The Beaumont, the largest hotel in town. Political candidates always booked press conferences there. It was the only venue large enough for the purpose. "I'm sure she's fine. Maybe she had a date or something." He was starting to guess that maybe this Stacy was the same one his brother had dated his senior year of high school. He hadn't recognized her voice on the phone, but he hadn't spent much time with her. If it was Stacy Newman, she hadn't been picky about men. At least not enough to keep her from sleeping with several members of the football team when David had been helping out with their father's campaigns.
Claire shook her head as he pulled into the parking lot. "She doesn't date." He found a spot and put the car in park, leaving the engine on.
"Ever? Did--is she married?" He almost bit his tongue on the wrong word, forgetting for a minute that he wasn't supposed to recognize Claire.
"No." Claire peered through the windshield at the tall, dim windows. "I think our room is that one," she said, pointing to the center door. "If you'll just help me out..."
Adam shook his head. "I'll go. You stay and keep your foot up." Not wanting to hear any protests, he got out and shut the door, quickly striding to the nearest entrance. He let himself into the dark conference room and saw a small beam of light coming from a door near the front. He started to call out, but something made him hesitate. He skirted the edge of the room until he was just outside, low voices just barely audible behind the heavy divider curtain. He leaned in to listen.
"I can't do that to her. I won't," a woman hissed.
"You don't have a choice. Either follow the plan, or your little secret is out."
It was another woman who spoke, someone who sounded very much like his mother. What would she want with Stacy, and what kind of secret could they possibly share? From what he remembered, David had never even introduced the two. High heels clicked across the floor on the other side of the wall, and he assumed one of the women was leaving. But which one? Only one way to find out.
He took a few steps back from the door, then called out. "Stacy? Are you in here?"
Shadows moved into the light as someone poked her head out the door, squinting into the darkness. Yep. Definitely Stacy Newell. He felt like he was being dragged back in time. "Who's there?"
Adam moved forward, into the beam so she could see him. "Adam - from Indelibly Inked. You hired me to do some work for Claire Taylor. I was driving her home, and she wanted to check on you. Is everything okay?"
"Of course it is," she said, her voice tight and professional. "Why wouldn't it be?" She looked over his shoulder, leaning out to survey the space behind him. "Where is she? Why are you taking her home?" She fidgeted nervously, taking a step away from him. This was not the Stacy he remembered. She still looked the same, but there was a haunted, wary look in her eyes. Had his mother put it there?
He backed away a few more feet, wanting to put her at ease. "She can't drive at the moment. She fell on those high-heeled shoes and broke two toes. When she couldn't reach you, I told her I'd take her home."
"Oh god - I must have left my phone in the car." She checked her watch. "It's so late too. I need to get home."
Adam waited, knowing it was going to hit her any second.
Her eyes widened suddenly, and she reached out to steady herself on the back of a chair. "Did you say she broke two toes?"
"'Fraid so."
Stacy shook her head. "This night can't possibly get any worse. Did she recognize you?" He shook his head, wondering why she'd made the appointment with him if she'd known who he was all along. Something definitely wasn't right in all this.
"Stacy? Are you okay?"
They both turned to see Claire hobbling slowly up the center aisle of chairs, her face pale in the darkness.
What do you do when you're not writing? I have a few hobbies - most of you know I'm into nail art (fingernails, that is), and obviously I read a lot. I even crochet when no one expects me to make things for them (it becomes work then). In the spring/summer, I enjoy gardening...and this is the time of year I think about seeds.
This week I ordered my seeds for the year (online, of course). Vegetables and flowers for our small, short season garden. It's a drier garden now too, since our city went to a sliding scale for water rates, and we live in a semi-arid climate. At any rate, we bought a small greenhouse a few years ago, and I love being able to start my seeds on the dining room table in February, then grow them on in the greenhouse until it's time to plant outside (mid-late May here). Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans and peas are on my list this year, along with herbs, petunias, pansies, and a few other lovely annuals.
What does a blogger do when she wants to record/journal a hobby? She starts a new blog, of course. "Short & Dry" is my new garden journal (also linked at the top of the page). If you're into gardening, head over there for all things seed and gardening related - posts will be sporadic for awhile, then go to once per week when I start growing stuff, and cut off completely for the winter when it's time to think about Halloween again. Yes, even my hobbies have somewhat scheduled cycles and seasons. It's either pathetic or just really weird - I didn't plan it that way, honest!
So, do you garden? If so, what's your favorite thing to grow (mine's roses)?
And just to add a little writerly note, have you ever set a scene in a garden? What kind of a scene was it (murder, love/declaration scene, gardening scene, etc)?
Welcome to the weekly Round Robin! Each week I post a four-sentence prompt, and your mission, should you choose to accept it is to continue the story (up to 4 sentences at a time) in the comments. You may post more than once, but not consecutively. You don’t have to be a writer to join in – anyone can play, and take the story whatever direction you want.
Amy sighed as the lovers two tables over kissed again. She checked her watch for the third time, and leaned over to retrieve her purse. She laid a few bills on the table for the drink and walked out, angry that she’d been stupid enough to set up another date off that silly internet site. She glanced down to unhook her keys from her purse, and when she raised her head, she found herself staring at a shiny gold police badge.
I first came across the idea of using notecards to outline a novel on Holly Lisle’s site a couple years ago. It should come as no surprise to any of my readers that I like to find the fastest, most efficient way to do…well…anything, so this seemed right up my alley. Never one to follow instructions to the letter, I simply took the *idea* of using notecards to create a rough outline, and skipped the rest. It worked great until I ran out of notecard scenes (yes, I realize had I followed instructions, that probably wouldn’t have happened). Then I had to “pants” the rest (it was my 2008 NaNo novel, Chameleon), and things got a bit – okay, a lot weird towards the end. Not un-fixable, but it needs a rewrite rather than just revisions.
I discovered yWriter by the time I decided to write Her Private Chef, and instead of getting out notecards, I used the “notes” section in each scene window to create a rough outline – again, incomplete. Turns out I didn’t have a good enough grasp of the story, and not enough story to tell when I started. I was still learning how to plot the hard way – you know, the “do it until you learn how to do it” method. At the same time, I was writing Tempest, and because it was a serial I was *forced* to plan at least one or two weeks ahead to ensure that it would be coherent throughout. Funny thing about writing for immediate public viewing – you get much more obsessive about coherent linear plotting, and it almost requires some sort of outlining, even if it’s just notes as you go. Or it does for me, anyway. I loosely plotted Desert Heat the same way – like a daily serial, and it’s amazing how much easier that came together.
Obviously it’s not true for everyone, but my brain works differently when I’m working on screen as opposed to with pen and paper. I’m less likely to skim, more likely to think a little slower and more deliberately. I edit from a hard copy – things I miss on screen jump out at me on paper. Lesson three of Holly’s revision course entails summarizing every scene in the draft to one sentence on a notecard – it’s an exercise to pinpoint problems at the scene level. And amazingly enough – they jumped right out the minute I started summarizing my scenes down to one sentence on notecards.
That’s when the light finally went on, and I decided to notecard my scene outline for Hearts on Trial. Not only am I able to *create* scene elements just by making sure they’re in my scene summary, I can note what’s missing from the summary, and work to add it as I’m writing each scene. Then when I get to the revision point, I can use them to check my work, and diagnose whatever still might be missing at that level.
The important things for me to have in each scene are conflict/tension and something that moves the story forward. So that’s how I try to outline my scenes. This time, I’m intentionally trying to note the tension and movement for each scene…leaving it blank if it’s something I’ll have to discover while writing. At least it’s there for me to think about when I get to that scene.
The photo above are two of my notecard “outlines”. The green box holds my cards for the HPC revisions. I went to the store to get more of those handy file boxes the other night, and they only had red…which just didn’t work for me at the time. So I bought several of those notecards-on-rings and started one for my HOT outline…they’re nice, even have little movable dividers to pop in and out.
For my outline cards, I put the POV character name at the top, and then just write one sentence that summarizes everything I want to go on in that scene (sometimes it’s a long sentence, sometimes not). At the bottom I note what isn’t there yet, but needs to be, ie, “Add – Conflict” or “Add – Tension, Twist”. Nothing is set in stone, of course – it’s all subject to whatever happens once I start writing. Before I start a scene I transfer the summary sentence into the notes of my scene window, so it’s always right in front of me as I’m writing.
So that’s my outlining method thus far – I’m still developing my exact process, but I feel like I’m getting close to what will work the majority of the time. Have you tried using notecards for outlining or revisions? How do you keep your scenes organized (or do you write in "scenes")?
It’s the last week of January already? How did that happen? It feels like this month just sort of flew by. Thanks to everyone who signed up for my newsletter – if you haven’t yet, you can sign up in that little green box to the right, and read the first issue here.
This weekend I finally came up with a title for my new WIP – it is hereby dubbed Hearts on Trial (a title my husband assured me wasn’t *too* cheesy for the plot). With a little push from twitter/blog buddies (thanks!), I got started last night. It was too late to write much, but 159 words down to start. Only 59,841 to go…
As for the rest of last week’s writing goals – I decided to follow Lesson 3 for the HPC revisions, and create notecards for each scene to organize my revision further. I’ll post more on using notecards for outlines, etc tomorrow in the Construction Zone – I’m finding it very useful. I still didn’t actually finish my outline for the new WIP, but after beating my head against it for days, finally decided to just start writing with what I have (which is what I did last time, and it turned out pretty well). Since I’m using notecards for the outline, I can add scenes whenever I think of them, so I’m going to try to sort of write/outline in tandem this time…more on that tomorrow too.
I still need to write a blurb for HOT (cool acronym, eh?) and post it to my web site, and the Spiced blog posts will be resurrected this week (those post in the evenings).
As for personal goals, the Halloween inventory is *done*, which makes me super-happy. I didn’t get four workouts in last week, though I couldn’t really say why. I did get two done, and am planning four this week. A new twitter group was started this weekend for workout motivation under the hash tag “#teamlazywriters” – feel free to jump in if you’d like. Rules are at Regan Leigh’s blog.
The main content for my site is nearly finished – I still need to add links. And my seed orders are pretty well finalized, but not sent. Need to get on that before January slips away.
Goals for the Week
Writing
- Lesson 4 of the revision course w/HPC – read and apply or not, as needed.
- Write 2000 more words for HOT, and post blurb on web site
- Write/schedule posts for Spiced blog
- Ch. 4 of Indelibly Inked
Personal
- Workout 4X / 30 minutes minimum
- Get seeds ordered & post lists to new blog for friends/family (I know – I know!)
- Write those letters
- Clean out tea stash and reorder favorites
- Reorder makeup before I run out (been trying to remember for days)
That’s probably enough to keep me busy this week. What are you up to? Read any good books lately?
As you may have noticed, I've been busy again this week. I think the major busy-ness has abated, and I can scale back to maintenance levels again - which is good news for the much neglected "spiced" blog.
If you look over there to the right, you'll see a new nifty little green box in the sidebar. I'm starting a weekly newsletter, and you can either sign up there, or if you'd like to choose which format you'll get (html, text or mobile), you can go to the "Newsletter" page on my web site and sign up there. Variety News will include the Notable Posts links, the weekly blog topics, exclusive excerpts of my current WIPs, and I'll include announcements whenever a subscriber gets an agent, releases a book, launches a new blog/website or joins a new social network to help get the word out. I may even throw a contest in there occasionally, along with social media tips and twitterers to follow. I hope to make it a valuable resource for us all. You can view this week's newsletter online without signing up.
I know all of this probably looks like far too much work for an unpublished writer to go to (and some probably think I should be focusing only on writing at this point), but it's all part of my "business plan" for a potential writing career (and I didn't use any writing time to do it). I'll expound on that further in an upcoming blog post.
This Week on The Variety Pages
Monday: Weekly Goals Tuesday: Construction - Notecarding Wednesday: Round Robin - Tangled up Thursday: Wildcard - Do you Sow? Friday: Ch 4 of Indelibly Inked
Elsewhere on The Variety Network
Spiced Variety Pages - I haven't given up on this yet! Look for new posts starting Monday.
Nail Art Tuesday - I'm experimenting with glitter polish and matte top coat this week.
Scaryview Cemetery - I will finally post my method of inventory and tracking, probably on Friday.
That's it for now - here's to another great week in the blogosphere!
How Can We Tell If Our Blog Is Good? from Author, Jody Hedlund
Jody did three posts this week on blogging, blog followers and platform on Mon/Weds/Fri - I highly recommend them all, excellent reading. This is the Monday post.
A quick aside - these will continue to be posted here every Saturday, but they will also be included in my new "Variety News" newsletter. So if you don't have the time/inclination to stop by on the weekends, sign up for the newsletter (right sidebar) to get these (and more) in your mailbox every Sunday morning.
Her heart sped up as she waited for him to continue. Did he know who she was? She held her breath. He was going to ask about the initials. Her mind frantically searched for an alternate name to give him, some explanation other than a silly high school crush.
"...I don't want to alarm you, but I think you might broken a couple of toes."
She frowned, trying to switch gears as she peered down at her foot. He moved the bag of ice enough so that she could see the last two toes, bright red and swelling up like mini sausages. She realized they were numb, and tried to move them. A cry escaped her lips as white-hot pain shot through her foot and up her sore ankle as her whole body tensed in agony.
"Damn that hurts," she said, gulping deep breaths of air as the pain slowly subsided. She felt the ice being moved closer to her toes, and blinked up at the ceiling several times to control the tears trying to escape. She looked back at Adam, who appeared to be trying not to laugh.
She frowned again. "What? You think me breaking two toes is funny? Wait until you hear from my lawyers, buddy. You won't be laughing then."
He held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just surprised at your word choice, is all. I'd have been cussing up a storm." He opened a drawer behind him, and took out medical tape and scissors. "I assume you'd rather not go to the hospital for this?"
She looked at the items, then back at her toes, still covered by the bag of melting ice. "Won't they need to do x-rays to make sure they're broken? Put a cast on my foot?" He pulled the bag away, revealing her toes again. She cringed. That wasn't the color toes were supposed to be, and was the little one supposed to be angled like that?
"I think it's pretty obvious they're broken, don't you? We'll have to straighten that little one out..." He handed her a glass of water and some pills. "It's ibuprofen - trust me, you'll need it." She swallowed them, and he took the glass out of her hand and set it on the counter. "You might want to grab the edges of the table there..."
Claire panicked as he took her foot in one hand, and moved to grasp her little toe in his fingers. "Wait! What are you doing? Shouldn't we call...aaiiieeee!" Searing pain shot through her body, and Claire felt faint as the world started to spin. Bright light flashed white before her eyes, and then everything faded to black.
***
Adam pulled Claire's little toe straight, a twinge of guilt striking him as he saw the fear in her eyes. Relieved that she'd fainted, he quickly wrapped the toe with guaze and medical tape to keep it straight. He anchored the other toe to the healthy one next to it, and put a fresh bag of ice on it to help with the swelling. Claire was starting to come around, and he went around the table to her side. "Hey there," he said, touching her shoulder lightly. She blinked, her green eyes glistening up at him. The confusion cleared away and she struggled to sit up.
"Ow...what the heck did you do? God that hurts!" She sucked in one breath, then another as she glared at him. "Why didn't you just let me call Stacy? She could have taken me to the hospital, where they have painkillers and everything." She slid to the edge of the table, her arms poised to take her weight as she started sliding to her feet.
Adam reached her in two strides, his thick chest even with her head. "Not so fast there - you need to stay off of those toes for a few days. And your ankle needs to rest too." She tilted her head back to look up at him, and he couldn't help staring at her full, moist lips for a few seconds. He wondered how she would taste if he ran his tongue over them. He leaned in, watching her face flush with desire as she waited.
He closed his eyes, felt her breath on his skin, the warmth of her body as he pulled her closer.
"Ow...ow ow. Damn." She pushed hard against his chest and he stepped back, hands in the air. Her face was lined with pain and she took a deep breath in, her eyes scrunched tightly closed.
His gaze went to her foot, and he realized he must have bumped it with his leg. "Damn - I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." He ran a hand through his hair, thinking. Ever since high school he'd wanted to kiss her, and she hadn't objected until he hit her foot. But the timing was all wrong again - a fling with him could ruin her campaign, and he still didn't want anything to do with politics.
"I...um...should probably go home." He looked up at her quiet words. Her face was still deathly pale, but she appeared to have the pain under control for the moment. "If you hand me my phone, I'll call Stacy to come and get me. I don't think I can work the gas pedal like this." One side of her mouth turned up in a wry smirk and he wished he'd worn loser jeans.
He got her purse off the counter and handed it to her. He knew all too well that she was probably in for a lecture from her publicist on the way home. He put his hand over her phone just before she could dial. "I'll take you home," he said, knowing it was a bad idea the moment the words came out. "Then you won't have to deal with the fallout until tomorrow."
"I don't think that's such a good idea," she said, her finger moving over the buttons. "I really should let her know what's going on, and see how this is going to affect my campaign." Her hand was shaking as she held the device to her ear and she turned her head, refusing to make eye contact.
We’re not talking email here, people. We’re talking honest-to-goodness paper letters sent through the postal service. “Snail mail”.
Do you remember going to the store just for the purpose of buying stationary? Or maybe getting a nice boxed set as a gift, complete with paper, note cards, envelopes, and maybe even a pen, all tied up neatly with a ribbon? Everything was coordinated, of course, with patterns ranging from “pretty” to “cute”, and the whole purpose was to set pen to paper, and in your best handwriting, have a long-distance conversation with a friend or relative.
I grew up writing letters, as I’m sure many of you did. Not just thank-you notes either, but several-page letters to grandparents, godparents, friends who moved away, and those nearly anonymous pen-pals that used to be all the rage. I wrote to a guy in Papua, New Guinea for awhile – he was doing missionary work there, but he was someone I considered a friend. I’m pretty sure I had pen pals when I was younger, I just can’t remember them now. I still have a box of letters that my best friend wrote to me when I spent six months on the East coast (I was twelve/thirteen). Naturally I wrote her just as many. I even corresponded by mail with an insatiable flirt from Italy while I was in college, and another college guy closer to home who wrote letters on graph paper with hand-drawn flames throughout. Yes, I had email then, but it wasn’t nearly as popular yet, and even people who had it were still getting used to it. I was one of those people always asking my friends, “Do you have email?” The answer was almost always “No” or “Yes, but I don’t know how to use it/really like using it.” I know. I know! It’s the same disconnect I’m sure a friend had when she asked what my phone number was (she was talking to me on my home phone). I laughed, and pointed out that she’d called me on it…but what she wanted was my *cell phone* number – and she sounded a bit lost when I told her I didn’t have one. But I digress….
These days, everyone just asks “what’s your email address” rather than asking if someone has email. But there are still people out there who don’t have email, and rarely (if ever) actually use a computer (I know!). My grandmother is one, and my godmother is another. My grandmother writes letters pretty regularly for holidays, and I admit, I’m horrible at responding in a timely manner. I skipped sending a holiday letter this year with our Christmas cards, and my godmother wrote somewhat frantically in my birthday card “Are you okay? Is hubby okay? Haven’t heard much from you this year!” I skipped the Christmas letter thinking about all the friends and relatives that are now on Facebook (and my grandmother got a personal letter in her card)…somehow missing the fact that my godmother doesn’t get all that daily information from me, and might want it. Oops.
I have a love-hate relationship with letters. I love them for their nostalgic qualities, and there’s something about reading someone’s handwriting (bad as it might be) that makes that person more “real” than email could ever do. I love stationary – those half-sheets decorated with just about anything you can imagine, though it’s getting harder and harder to find these days. I love how it feels to get an envelope addressed to me in someone’s script, with stamps and postmarks from “somewhere else.”
I don’t love writing letters though. It takes a long time, and any writer will tell you that the brain works differently with pen and paper than it does with keyboard and screen. Then there’s the handwriting – mine is so bad now I have to really focus to make sure it’s readable (or at least decipherable) to the reader. Deciding what to put in a letter is hard sometimes too – filtering out the things I consider mundane that they would be interested in vs. the actual mundane is not easy. And a hand-written letter is by it's very nature long...it takes at least a couple days to get where it's going, and a reply is not going to be coming right back as so many email conversations do.
As you may have guessed by now, I owe both my grandma and my godmother letters – and they have to be the real, handwritten kind because neither uses email. Somehow, it doesn’t seem right to send a typed letter in reply to a handwritten one either – I always hated it when my paternal grandmother did that when I was a child (her handwriting was worse than mine, so I get why she did it, now).
Do you still write “real” letters? Do you enjoy it? Do you notice a difference in your attitude when receiving a handwritten letter vs. a typed one?
Welcome to the weekly Round Robin! Each week I post a four-sentence prompt, and your mission, should you choose to accept it is to continue the story (up to 4 sentences at a time) in the comments. You may post more than once, but not consecutively. You don’t have to be a writer to join in – anyone can play, and take the story whatever direction you want.
Ben pulled into the driveway and glanced down at the clipboard to check the address again. Frowning, he got out of the truck, and approached the rickety steps. Making a quick note of the rotted wood, falling shutters and skirting a large hole in the porch floor, he carefully stepped up to the door and knocked. The hinges squealed in protest as it opened, and he arched a brow as Sue Nelson, his former lab partner and high school nemesis stepped out.
I flirted with this idea while I was drafting this particular draft, and wrote about it here. I seem to have come to the same conclusions, only in a more concrete form this time around - apparently I needed time and distance to really grasp this particular issue.
An issue I have being a very linear thinker is that I tend to “see” one storyline at a time – it takes a lot more work for me to weave several together and make them all fit. I did better with that in my Desert Heat draft, and I’m trying to go farther still with my next outline. I can come up with plenty of ways to add depth and complexity, the problem is in the execution, and in deciding how much is enough, and how much is just too much.
I started off Her Private Chef with a single idea (as I often do) – what if a girl embarrassed herself in public, caught the attention of her celebrity fantasy, and he decided he wanted to interact with her? It was enough to start the story, but not enough to write a whole novel about.
On my first revision pass through my draft, I realized that the story on paper is okay, but flat. It lacks depth and complexity, even with the few half-hearted attempts at sub-plots I tried to throw in here and there. It’s like one of those blow-up yard decorations when the air isn’t on…just a puddle of fabric on the lawn. Then someone flips the switch, and suddenly it takes shape, dimension, and becomes a larger-than-life representation of whatever it’s meant to be.
I need to flip that switch for my novel.
For me, that means tapping into deeper emotions for my characters. At the moment, they feel pride, desire, longing, and fear…but all on sort of a superficial level. Upon a closer look, they need to feel the deeper versions of those – greed, lust, and fear born not of the moment, but of something in the past that intensifies the moment. I recognized that while drafting, but just couldn't seem to pin down *how* to put that on paper.
As soon as I started plugging all those heavier emotions in during my revision pass though, the complexity started coming out. In the planned revisions, my characters react far more strongly to what’s happening around them, and it will (hopefully) add that shape and dimension I’m looking for (without unnecessary drama). The basic premise for my story will remain the same as far as the catalyst for all these lives colliding, and the chain of events it sets off. A lot of the conflict will change and grow though, fueled by these deeper, more intense emotions. The risk for my characters will be greater – and the reward will be that much harder won (and more deserved). The sub-plots will all be related closely to the main plot, and serve to push it forward…and when they all tie in at the end, it will be far more believable than it is at the moment. That’s the idea, anyways. I’m hoping to use emotional conflict to “drive” the physical conflict forward.
How do you add complexity and depth to your novel? Do you find that intense emotion is enough to add that extra dimension, or is there some other way you “flip the switch” and bring your novel to life? Are you able to do that on the first draft, or does it take distance and a "revising" mindset to finally see the deeper emotional conflicts?
If you read yesterday's post, you know that I got a bit distracted last week. All in all though, it was still very productive. I finished lesson 1 of the revision course and started lesson 2 - I think I'm already a bit ahead of the game, but kind of expected that to happen. I'll read through 3, and see what I need to do to modify it to suit my own needs a bit better. I've never been one to follow any program (course, recipe, or bit of advice) to the letter...just rebellious that way, I guess. It's still great information - I just need to make it work for me. I'm fairly certain I'll have this revision done before the end of the course, but will stay with it for the information, and to make sure I don't miss anything.
Needless to say, I didn't get my synopsis/outline done for the new novel with all that going on. I worked on it last night though, and made good progress, so I'll have it ready to go by next weekend. I have six writing nights per week, and I've decided that Tues - Friday will be for working on revisions, Sat. and Sun. will be for new words.
The Halloween inventory is almost done - and will be by the end of the day (I have today off - Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Woohoo! I must say, I'll be really happy to have that done and out of the way.
Weekly Goals
Writing
- Start writing/rewriting scenes for HPC
- Finish synopsis/outline for new novel, start writing
- Post blurbs for Indelibly Inked and new novel on web site
- Write/post Ch. 3 of II
- Write/schedule posts for "Spiced" blog
Personal
- Workout 4 nights per week (2x treadmill/2x Wii)
- Finish main content for web site
- Write letters to my grandma & my godmother.
- Finalize my seed lists for this spring and get those ordered.
That's what I'm up to this week - what's on your list? Read any good books lately?
Last week I got distracted by a very shiny new thing after Erica Vetsch's web site unveiling on Tuesday. She asked who else had a web site, and I commented that I'd do one later, closer to publishing.
Her post (along with all the other recent web site launches recently) got me thinking though. I do want my own name as my domain name. So I decided to at least register the domain name. The thing is, to a web designer an unused domain name is like a blank sheet of paper to a writer - the urge to be creative eventually takes over, and I just can't leave it alone.
So today I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new web site, JamieDeBree.com. I'm still getting all the content put together, and it will expand as needed, but for the moment, it's got contact information and blurbs for my current projects. I'm sure I'm not the only one having trouble with the "About Me" page...but I'll get that done soon too. There's not much there that isn't here at the moment, but one of the wonderful thing about having a web site is that I have storage space now, and will be able to make .pdf's available for download soon. I see ebooks in my future! Pop over if you have a minute, and let me know what you think so far.
In other news, today is my 35th birthday, which deserves an emoticon. :-) Birthdays have never bothered me, so it's all good, and I plan to enjoy the day with much relaxing, goofing off and work on my novel. Incidentally, it's Regan Leigh's birthday as well, so head over there and wish her a Happy Birthday too - she's a bit younger. ;-)
This Week on The Variety Pages
Monday: Goals for the week Tuesday: Construction Zone - Adding Complexity Wednesday: Round Robin - "Fixer Upper" Thursday: Wildcard - Writing Letters Friday: Chapter 3 of Indelibly Inked Saturday: Notable Posts
Spiced Variety Pages was pretty neglected last week due to that shiny new web site project. This week, I'll get back to it with a Monday massage, and a Thursday "Tease Me" post.
JamieDeBree.com will get links, info about me, and information on my hobbies as well.
So that's what I'm up to this week - how about you?
Adam struggled to keep his hands off Claire Taylor's skin as she considered his offer. It was obvious that she wanted to keep the tattoo, and he wondered how it would affect her decision if he'd introduced himself. It had been a long time. He'd been surprised to see the hint of rememberance in her eyes. Everyone he grew up with always marveled at how much he'd changed from the skinny, geeky looking kid he had been in high school. No one recognized him right away, and that was fine with him. He wanted nothing to do with his old life, filled with his father's political campaigns and keeping up appearances.
"I'll keep it." Her voice trembled slightly, and she shifted on the table, the paper cover crackling loudly. He held back a grin and gave a curt nod, allowing his fingers to brush her ankle once more.
"Let me just do a quick touch-up," he said, peering down at the image again. The lines were a little blurred, and the colors faded from years of wear. He turned to the counter and started prepping his tools. "On the house." Paper rustling behind him made him turn to see her scooting off the edge of the table.
She didn't look at him as she poked her foot back into it's demure navy shoe. "I appreciate the offer, but I really shouldn't take any more of your time." She took quick steps across to the door and reached for her coat, tossing it over her arm. Finally she glanced back at him, a shy smile on her lips. "I really should get home and run through my speech again before bed." She slung her purse over her shoulder too hard, almost dropping her coat. He leaned a hip against the counter, just watching her nervous movements and the telltale blush rising up in her cheeks again. This was the girl from high school, unpolished and adorably clumsy. He'd always watched out for her back then, even though he was too afraid of his father to make a move. He'd always wished he'd done things differently back then.
She turned to go, and her heel caught on the threshhold, sending her sprawling into the hall with a yelp.
Adam ran to her side, kneeling down as she started to push herself up. "Are you okay?" She sat up and he reached for her hand to help her stand.
"Ow." She cringed as she got to her feet, holding her right foot slightly off the ground. "These stupid shoes," she said, wiggling her foot out of the offending article. "Stacy says I have to wear heels if I want to look professional. I honestly don't know how women walk in them every day without breaking their necks." She put her foot down again, wincing when she put her weight on it. "It's sprained, I think. Damn."
"Hold on." Adam bent and curled an arm under her knees, sweeping her off her feet. She gasped, her arms automatically circling his neck as he carried her back to the table. He liked the feel of her in his embrace. Too much. He laid her gently on the table, lines of heat scoring his skin through his shirt as her hands slid slowly off his shoulders. Her eyes were wide, mirroring the same confusion and longing that he felt. He stepped back, resisting the urge to claim her lips as he should have done long ago. "I have some ice in the back." He walked away, wondering who needed it more as hot awareness pulsed through his body.
***
Claire shivered as Adam put a bag of ice on her ankle a few minutes later. She bit her bottom lip, wondering how she could have missed it before. When he'd held her in his arms, pressed against his body she'd finally recognized him. It felt the same as it had on prom night, when he'd saved her from Blake Halverson under the bleachers. He'd knocked Blake out, then carried her back to his car and drove her home. It was one of the only times she'd felt safe with a boy, and she'd wanted to cling to him, promise him anything to stay with her, just like her mom always did with men. But she hadn't wanted to be one of those women, and after that night he'd kept his distance. She'd watched him though, and vowed to rise to his level someday.
"Too cold?"
She jumped at the sound of his voice. "I...uh...it's fine." She studied his profile as he prodded her foot with a finger. It was strangely disappointing to think that he hadn't even recognized her name, she thought. Apparently the connection she'd felt back then was one-sided, though she wasn't sure she could say the same about this particular meeting. Did he feel it too? She looked up to find him watching her carefully, an odd look on his face.
Sometime before Christmas, I joined a challenge on Lost Wanderer's blog to read 100 books this year. I figured it would be good motivation to finally keep track of the books I read, even if the rest of my library remains unorganized. I thought about starting a spreadsheet (easily one of the most popular ways people keep track of books, from what I can tell), or a database to log my books with.
But I kept seeing these widgets on people's blogs with book covers on them (I wanted one!), and posts on Twitter with links to sites named “Shelfari” and “Goodreads”. A good number of those were from published authors who spoke about the sites as though they were promoting and discussing their books on them with readers. Needless to say, I decided I should check those out before I went “old school” with my list. No point in missing an opportunity to use a task I was already committed to do for more networking. Never know when one of my books will sell – I'll admit, I want people to know my name if/when they do.
So I did a search for “online book libraries”...and quickly found that there are three “main” sites that people use (and some other less-popular sites). Library Thing, Shelfari, and Goodreads. All three offer a place to keep track of a personal library, so I decided to try all three and see which one would best suit my needs. I wanted an easy interface, quick book entry, a way to keep track of the date a book was finished, and some way to import/export the list. I also wanted to be able to tie my library into my blog and all of my other online haunts (the secret to networking is tying things together as much as possible, IMO). A question as to who liked which best posed on Twitter only garnered one response – from someone who uses all three for different purposes. While I'm perfectly willing to take advantage of a networking opportunity, I only have so much time to mess with my library, so I was determined to choose just one. Unfortunately, reading blog posts and articles really only revealed one thing – different personalities seemed to like different sites. The only thing to do was try them all.
I started at Library Thing, and fell in love almost immediately when I was able to sign up, fill out my profile, enter sixty books and put a widget here on my blog all in the space of about forty-five minutes. It was quick, easy, and adding books was fairly intuitive. It took me a little longer to figure out how to put books in the “to be read” and “currently reading” categories. Overall, I was sold on the online cataloging process, especially when I found out I could check my library from my PDA in a bookstore (free WiFi), to see if I had a book before buying it. With a spreadsheet or database, I'd have had to format it for the smaller screen somehow (no, I'm not carrying a printed copy of my library database to the store with me). So that was a bonus I hadn't even considered, even though I rarely shop in physical stores anymore. Then I exported my library in a couple different formats to my hard drive, and moved on to the next site.
I wish I could say that the experience was as easy at Shelfari, but that was “easily” the most frustrating site I visited. Signing up was easy, but the process of finding books and adding them to the catalog was unwieldy. I spent a long, frustrating hour trying to upload my file from Library Thing – it did work, finally, but by that time I was both exhausted and annoyed. The only reason I'd really considered Shelfari was the cool bookshelf widget, and I found a spot on the site where it said I could attach my bookshelf to my Facebook profile. Cool! So I initialized the app, went to my profile...and nothing. I spent way too much time trying to make it work, with no luck. Turns out the Shelfari-Facebook app just plain doesn't work, and apparently Shelfari isn't interested in addressing it from the comments on their FB discussion page. Needless to say, I crossed Shelfari off my list. Too many problems, too much frustration.
Goodreads was the last on my list, and I was intrigued simply because I saw it mentioned everywhere, but no one seemed to really talk about it – they just used it. I signed up, and within a half an hour not only had I uploaded my file from Library Thing, but I'd added more books, classified them (the quickest process yet), and connected my account to Twitter (plus found all my followers with accounts, and sent “friend requests” ala FB). Another half an hour and I had the Goodreads account hooked to Facebook, and my current reads showing up on my profile. Some parts weren't completely intuitive, but overall it wasn't hard to figure out, and fairly intuitive.
Down to Library Thing and Goodreads, I went back to LT and looked for a way to link to Facebook & Twitter. There is an app for facebook, but it's a little more involved than the one GR uses, and after the ease of GR, I didn't bother messing with it. Unfortunately, LT doesn't seem to interact with Twitter all that easily, and I wasn't able to get it done.
Needless to say, my personal “winner” is Goodreads – ease of use, quick entry, pleasing interface, ease connecting to...well...everywhere, and high popularity all swayed my vote. It's pretty much “facebook for readers”, and really, the only reason to keep an online catalog (aside from the mobile features and blog widgets) is to network with other readers. GR seems to excel in that.
As a side note, LT allows you to enter up to 200 books for free. Then it's $25 for unlimited storage for life...not a bad deal, in my opinion. The other two sites are free.
Another note about all three sites – they all sell or link to bar code scanners for cataloging libraries. I'm completely sold on that idea as an easy way to enter my books, and will be ordering a scanner in the next few weeks to make the cataloging process even easier. I've decided to make that my organizing project for February.
So now that I've done my due diligence, I want to know – do you use a social book cataloging site? Which one(s)? If you don't, have you/would you consider it? What do you use to catalog your library now (if anything)?
Welcome to the weekly Round Robin! Each week I post a four-sentence prompt, and your mission, should you choose to accept it is to continue the story (up to 4 sentences at a time) in the comments. You may post more than once, but not consecutively. You don’t have to be a writer to join in – anyone can play, and take the story whatever direction you want.
Felicia stooped down to gaze through the pet store window, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. Puppies romped gleefully together in a wire pen, giving off a nervous energy she could feel even through the glass panes. Could she really do this? Maybe the therapist was wrong.
Now that I've got a handle on my revisions, I'm planning the next novel. I've planned each of the last two novels just a little bit better - a little more depth, a little more detail. The last draft was actually pretty clean - no real plot holes to speak of, which is a huge improvement, but it's short by 10-15k or so. Naturally, I want this one to be even better. And with any luck, closer to a workable word count.
My ideas start with a scene - usually something I've daydreamed (I've always been a daydreamer). This particular novel starts in a bar - a result of all the Wednesday nights I spend writing at the bar while my husband plays pool. My daydreams always star me, but not as myself, if you know what I mean.
This particular one starts with a woman sitting in the bar, typing on her computer (big stretch, eh?). Then the scene just started rolling in my head, like a movie, and pretty soon, I had a whole opening scene.
I've found that writing a short synopsis of the story helps me figure out the basic plot, and uncover some sub-plots if I'm lucky. I try to throw every twist I can think of into the synopsis, to make sure I have enough material to build a novel from. It's basically a brainstorming session of "what if" answers - what if this happens, then that, and maybe that happens, but what if they do this next? I keep going until I run out of answers or get to the point where it starts getting unbelievable, or close to a big finish.
This particular story just kept growing, and the synopsis is full of twists, turns and complexities. It's possibly be the most complex story I've plotted so far. Yes, I know that sounds arrogant - indulge me. I'll be positive the whole thing sucks once I'm deep in drafting it.
I start with short character bios - basic stuff like hair, eyes, basic build, occupation. Never too much detail so that my characters can "evolve" as I write them.
The next step is what I'm working on now - creating an outline of scenes to write from. I've tried writing just the "big" scenes first, but I'm such a linear thinker that I have trouble even writing the outline out of order. So I start at what I think is the first scene, and write a paragraph with a general description of what happens. I just keep going, writing in order until I have twenty-five or thirty scenes. At that point I can generally write a few "major" scenes I see coming up later. To this point, I haven't written enough scenes for the whole novel, but I'm really going to try to get closer to the end with my scene outline this time.
I normally type my scenes out in a single file, so after that's done, I transfer them to scenes in yWriter. I normally divide them loosely into chapters based on the content of the scene, subject to change in revisions.
That's all the planning/prep I do before I start writing. I never plot the ending, because once I know the end, I have hard time staying motivated to write the story (I just know that in general, the guy will get the girl, or vice versa - I write happy endings). Once I start writing, I add scenes as needed.
That's my novel prep process...becoming more refined each time I do it. It normally takes me a week or so, start to finish (longer this time, but only because I've been busy with revisons).
So how do you plan/plot/prep to write a novel? Are you a big planner, or do you just start writing?
Last week was a very productive week, if I do say so myself. I stayed marginally on top of all my personal goals, and achieved the main one of starting the Halloween inventory. I had optimistically thought that maybe I could *finish* it too, but no such luck. It takes time to enter every single piece into a database as I’m organizing and storing it. More on that later this week on the Scaryview blog, if you’re so inclined.
The other major thing I did was start over with my HPC revisions when I decided to take Holly’s course on Tuesday. My goal was to move faster on mark-ups…which I have been, but those goals will change a little depending on the lesson for each week. This also affects the goal to finalize time for new writing. Word on the course forums is that the first few lessons are pretty time-consuming, but after that they start moving more quickly. Each lesson is available one week from the day I started the course, no earlier. So I’ve decided that whatever time I have left to wait for the next lesson each week will be for new words – a “reward” for getting the lesson done as quickly as possible.
Needless to say, I get no “new words” this week, but I’m working on that synopsis and outline. For those of you who were with me over at the Word Blizzard blog before NaNo, I’m going to write Natalie’s story next. More on that tomorrow in the Construction Zone.
Indelibly Inked is started and outlined – with a very flexible outline to accommodate reader participation. Thanks to all who voted this week…and don’t worry, no matter which way you vote, I’ll always figure out some way to torture the character. Promise.
Weekly Goals
Writing
- Finish lesson 1 for HPC revisions
- Finish synopsis and outline for new draft
- Chapter 2 of Indelibly Inked
- Draft a quick flash piece (if time) for Spiced blog
Personal
- Finish Halloween inventory project
- Settle on one book cataloging site/method
- Do quickie morning workouts (push-ups/sit-ups/squats/lunges)
Not too many personal goals this week – that inventory project is going to take up most of my free time if I want to get it done anytime soon.
That’s what I’m up to this week – what’s on your plate? Read any good books lately?
Last week was a good blogging week – I actually had all except one of my posts scheduled early. It's so much easier not having to get it done last minute...
For anyone interested who may not have noticed, the new serial novel Indelibly Inked started Friday, and three people have voted on the next chapter so far (thanks!). If I used the poll creation software correctly, the voting should be open until the end of the day today (Sunday). I'd love suggestions for better polling programs – specifically one that will let us view the results here instead of linking offsite for results.
I've been dutifully trying out all the major online book cataloging programs, so this Thursday I'll post a run-down on them all, and which I like best so far. And while I'm dying to share all the stuff I'm learning in my revisions class, I want to wait a little, and get more into it before I do that. This week's Construction Zone will focus instead on planning for a better first draft, since that's another thing I'm currently working on.
This Week on The Variety Pages
Monday: Goals for the Week Tuesday: Construction Zone - Novel Prep Wednesday: Round Robin – “Therapeutic Fur” Thursday: Wildcard – Book Cataloging Friday: Chapter 2 of Indelibly Inked Saturday: Notable Posts
Elsewhere on The Variety Pages
Spiced Variety Pages is off to a slow but steamy start! Join us for “Massage Me” Mondays and “Tease Me” Thursdays – play along or just read along.
Nail Art Tuesday will feature something rich and royal this week.
Scaryview will get a rare update as I report on our Halloween inventory project and how we're organizing things.
That's it for me – anything I should be watching for at your place this week?
Here's to another great week in the blogosphere...
Welcome to the first chapter of my new serial blog novel. New chapters will be posted every Friday, and for something a little different, you'll have the chance to vote after each chapter on where the story goes next. I hope you enjoy it!
Indelibly Inked
Chapter 1
Claire parked her car at the curb and stared at the blue neon letters that spelled out “Indelible Ink” across a dark window. She got out and locked the door, her stomach fluttering at the thought of what she was about to do. Stacy had insisted it was necessary, and had even made an after-hours appointment with the owner to avoid any bad publicity before the press conference. Claire still wasn’t convinced. It was such a small thing. Who would even notice?
She rapped twice on the door, and jumped when it swung open right away. The shop was dark and she hadn’t even noticed the man standing on the other side of the glass. She stepped inside, unable to see the artist in the dark storefront. A sliver of light drew her eye down a long hall, and she assumed that was where they’d be working. Heat flooded through her as his warm, male scent enveloped her senses. Suddenly she was grateful for the darkness, embarrassed at her reaction. Obviously it had been too long since she’d been this close to a man. A real man, anyway.
“Thank you for meeting me after hours,” she said, anxious to break the silence.
He closed the door and secured the deadbolt with a loud click. "No problem," he said. His voice was low and rough, sending another prickle of awareness over her senses. “I’ve got a room set up back here, if you want to come with me.”
Boy do I, she thought, following him down the hall. She grinned at his back, coming more into focus as they walked closer to the light. Well-defined muscles stretched his black t-shirt tight, and she fought the urge to run her fingers over the lines. It had definitely been too long.
An exam table complete with a paper cover sat under a bright spotlight in the back room. He stepped over to a counter on the far wall and washed his hands while she hung her coat and purse on a hook beside the door. “Go ahead and hop up there,” he said, opening a drawer. She gave an awkward little jump to hoist herself up as he snapped on a pair of white latex gloves.
“I really don’t think it was necessary to sneak around, but my publicist thought…”
She lost her train of thought the second his eyes met hers. Steel gray and cold, there was something so familiar about them that she couldn't look away. She struggled to remember what she’d been saying, heat flooding her face as he stepped closer to the table.
"You’ll need to slide up more – it’s on your ankle, right?"
The question startled her. "Um, yes. Sorry." She moved farther up, until just her feet were hanging over the edge. He slid her high heel off and she froze as he reached out to gently grasp her right foot. She turned it out to reveal a small image on the inside of her ankle.
"Let's see what you've got." His touch was gentle as he ran a finger over the tattoo she'd gotten so long ago. She couldn’t see it clearly from her position, but in her mind she saw the small tree trunk inked into her skin, a crude heart with an arrow in the center and two sets of initials. A talisman from another time.
His hands were warm as he gently rotated her leg, his brows drawn together as he examined the image. "Nice tat. Who did the original work?" He glanced up, and she smiled.
"Bailey's on Fourth Street," she said. “Nathan Bailey did it for me. My best friend had a crush on him back then. She, uh…dared me to get the tattoo."
He nodded, and ran a finger over her skin once more. She fought a shiver from his touch. "It's nice work. Who’s the lucky guy? Or unlucky, I guess, considering why we’re here."
She laughed, knowing the blush was creeping back into her cheeks. "It was a guy I had a huge crush on in high school. It sounds silly now, but he sort of inspired me to do more - to want more out of life."
"So what went wrong?"
She shrugged, giving him a sheepish grin. "He...ah...he barely knew I was alive, to be honest. We weren't exactly in the same social set." Or on the same planet, for that matter, she mused silently. He'd been rich, the son of a senator. She doubted his parents would have approved of him dating the daughter of a strung-out stripper.
"But you inked his initials on your ankle." Claire nodded, avoiding eye contact. She'd never told anyone the story before, and after tonight, it wouldn't matter anyways. Still, she blinked back sudden tears that threatened to spill over. He laid his hand casually over her calf, and she could feel him watching her. That feeling that she’d met him before tugged at the edges of her memory.
She looked at him again, focusing on the lines of his face. They’d definitely met before, and she frowned. He must not recognize her either. “Have we—“
"So you want me to cover this up?" He spoke quickly, and she wondered if it was just bad timing, or something else.
She nodded again. "I'm announcing my candidacy for Mayor tomorrow. Stacy - my publicist - thinks that some curious person will notice the initials, start digging into my background. She's afraid of the impact it might have on my campaign, start people wondering who the mystery guy is."
"I see." He turned back to the counter, a chill moving over her skin when his hand left her ankle. "And you're willing to give this up for politics? Seems like you have a lot of history with this guy, whether he knows it or not."
She shrugged. “I don’t really see the problem, personally. I’m the only one who knows who he is for sure, and I’m not talking. I have far bigger skeletons in my closet to worry about.” She blinked back the sudden moisture building in her eyes. “But Stacy says that’s the point – get rid of the small problems so we can focus on the bigger ones.”
“Seems kind of backwards to me,” he said, handing her a plastic sleeve holding a sheet of design sketches. “You have a couple of choices here," he said, his matter-of-fact tone helping her regain control. "I can work the lettering into a vine or some flowers - you can pick something from this sheet." She glanced at it. The images were well drawn, but generic. Somehow it didn't seem right to cover up something so symbolic with leaves or flowers.
He tapped her tattoo firmly with his index finger, bringing her attention back to him. He looked straight into her eyes, a challenge reflected in his stare. "Or I can touch this up for you, make the lines crisp, add a little color, and you can keep your inspiration intact. Might not be such a good idea to mess with something like this." He raised his eyebrows, pinning her with his gaze. She was sure he could read her mind, knew all the questions and desires swirling like fireflies in her brain.
She broke eye contact, looking down at her ankle. When she’d taken Jenny’s dare, she never imagined what an impact that afternoon would have on her life. Now it had brought her back to the starting point, to the same decision with far bigger things at stake. Did she dare hold on to the past, or was it time to let go of her girlish dreams?
I was going to post about book cataloging today, but haven’t gotten all the research done on that quite yet. So I’ll do that later. Instead, I’ll talk about another of my resolutions for the year – revising and submitting novels.
Last fall, I had a plan. I would finish the novel I was working on, write another draft for NaNoWriMo, then revise the first novel and submit it while I was revising the second draft. I was so sure it was all going to go smoothly…and then I sat down with the first draft and started marking up pages.
I quickly realized I didn’t really know what I was doing.
I prodded the internet a bit, was told by many people that I’d be revising and editing for a long time and many drafts. I couldn’t wrap my head around that, considering all the authors I’d been talking to or reading about who write two, four, and six novels a year. No way are those authors spending that much time on revisions (maybe that many drafts, but not long periods of time). They wouldn’t be as prolific as they are if that were the case.
I decided to try Holly Lisle’s one-pass revision method from the free information on her web site. An organized, focused system like that made a lot more sense to me than all the stumbling around that I was doing. I recently realized that it was still going to take me more than one pass, and longer than a month and a half to get through it. It was very disheartening to realize that no matter what I did, I just don’t have the skills yet to do a quick revision, or even several quick revisions on the same manuscript. Editing flash pieces is one thing – novels are a whole ‘nuther beast.
Honestly, my novel intimidates the heck out of me.
I’m sure I could have eventually taught myself how to adequately revise my novel, but it was going to require some sort of outside study aid (books, help, something). Since I already liked what I saw of Holly’s method, I decided to sign up for her online course, “How to Revise Your Novel”. It’s a five month course that teaches how to pull your novel apart, revise, edit, and eventually streamline the process so you can do it all in one pass (she throws in how to pull your query letter out of your revisions at the end too – bonus). I balked at the length of time, but it would probably take me at least that long to figure out how to do it on my own anyways, and I’ve used her short courses before with good results. If you have a few minutes, go read through the course description (scroll down). There is a *ton* of information packed into this thing that will hopefully make my next draft better too.
So I signed up, and I’m currently working on the first lesson. I can’t share the actual process, as it’s all copyrighted (the page linked above outlines what is covered), but can I just say I’m already blown away by how much easier it is to have organization, focus, and guidance through the process? I’m impatient to have it done, but at the same time, I have hope that it will end up far better in the end, and that revisions will be far easier & faster after I go through this initial learning phase. I’ll let you know when I get to the end sometime in May.
Obviously this particular course isn’t for everyone, but I am curious about how other writers deal with this – have you ever taken classes, online or off for your writing? I know a few people in the UK who have been doing some studies (Writer’s Bureau?), and they seem to be enjoying those. Lots of high praise for Bob Mayer's Writer Warrior workshops too (link to his site on the right). What other online courses or classes have you heard of, or would you recommend for floundering writers - especially for different revision processes?
Welcome to the weekly Round Robin! Each week I post a four-sentence prompt, and your mission, should you choose to accept it is to continue the story (up to 4 sentences at a time) in the comments. You may post more than once, but not consecutively. You don’t have to be a writer to join in – anyone can play, and take the story whatever direction you want.
Alex glided smoothly over the frozen lake, cold air whistling past his cheeks. It had been five years since he’d been home and he could still see her skating toward him, her golden hair sparkling in the sun. She came closer, and he looked away, trying to banish her from his mind’s eye. A loud popping sound broke the morning stillness, and he whipped his head back around as a familiar voice cried out for help.
I’ve been editing a couple of scenes in Her Private Chef that thankfully don’t really need revising, just a lot of line editing. That’s when my personal “big three” writing ghosts taunt me, daring me to enforce some sort of grammatical order on the page. I rise to the task of course, handling each carefully, and reading aloud for clarity. Interestingly, the first two sort of “feed” each other – when I get rid of one, the other often goes away on its own.
Commas: I love, love, love commas. If you’ve been reading this blog long (or any of my writing), you know I also love comma splice sentences. Oddly, I hate the comma’s distant cousin, the semicolon. Never use them. Ever. Commas are all about cadence for me – I use them whenever I “hear” a natural pause in my head as I’m transcribing a scene. The problem is, sometimes the pause slows things up too much. Sometimes the sentences need to be separated (when the action moves quickly, sentences should be shorter, in my opinion). Sometimes they read just fine with nothing more than the removal of the comma.
Take this short sentence from Tempest:
Jake hiked up the trail, with Adrienne close behind.
Yeah. Sometimes I can’t believe I do that either. But I know why it happened. If you read it aloud with the comma, the cadence on both sides is nearly equal. It’s almost hypnotic, and probably reflects the sing-song rhythm my brain happened to be in at the time. I don’t know if it’s from all the Shakespeare I read when very young, or lots of poetry (read, not written), but often when I’m transcribing I’ll fall into that “rhythm”, adding extra commas in “tune” with the cadence. It flows much better when the comma is removed:
Jake hiked up the trail with Adrienne close behind.
It’s still not a great sentence (I'd probably rephrase the whole thing in context), but you get the idea. Needless to say, I take a *lot* of commas out of my writing when line-editing.
Present tense verbs ala “ing”: The present tense verbs in my drafts are a direct function of the way I write. A scene plays out in my head, like a movie. I transcribe what I’m seeing. So as I’m watching Tanya poke her head around the corner of a building, she’s wondering (at the same time she’s looking) whether her attacker is going to come back or not. Translated on the page, it ends up as:
Tanya peered around the corner, wondering if her attacker would return.
Look – a comma and an “ing”! Technically, it should probably be:
Tanya peered around the corner and wondered if her attacker would return.
That sort of structure makes it sound as though they happen one right after the other though, rather than simultaneously. It also sounds stilted to me when read aloud.
I could change it to:
Tanya wondered if her attacker would return as she peered around the corner.
This isn’t as concise, and I tend to overuse “as” – which could be a problem. In this particular instance though, the third option is probably the one I’d choose if there were no other sentences close that used the “as” linking structure. Otherwise, I have to say – I’d leave the “ing” word in, opting for concise and simultaneous action rather than stilted and technically correct.
I do pay close attention to how many “ing” words I leave in – most are changed to the proper past tense form, or rephrased away completely.
Adverbs (“ly”): I love adverbs. They make our language descriptive, poetic, and far more interesting, in my opinion. When I’m drafting, I give myself permission to use them copiously and often. When I’m editing, I force myself to delete about three-quarters of them, leaving them only where they just can’t really be replaced or deleted without ruining the flow of the prose. I won’t take them out completely – to my mind that would be a travesty of the English language. Honestly, when was the last time you read a novel that was completely and utterly devoid of adverbs? If you think of one, go back and check it to be sure you just didn’t notice them because they blend into the writing so well. Adverbs are like salt in the kitchen – I try to use them sparingly, but none at all leaves most dishes bland and unappetizing.
Those are my three “ghosts” – now it’s your turn. What ghosts haunt your sentences? Do you stick to rigid rules when dealing with them, or do you let some of the friendlier ones stay to play? Does it make a difference when you read your work aloud?
It’s the first week of the new year, and I’m ready to get back to my normal routine after slacking for far too long. I’m way behind on my revisions, but catching up on housework/personal stuff. Funny how those never seem to stay in sync, isn’t it?
Last week wasn’t too bad – I did get my serial novel plotted out, and some work done on my revisions (though not the 8-10 pgs per day I was aiming for). And gifts were dealt with, some organizing took place – the house is passably clean.
This week is all about getting ahead for me – setting myself up for success. The more organized and efficient I am, the more I can get done without running too hard, and well…I have a lot I want to do. So without further ado…
Weekly Goals
Writing
- Finish outlining serial novel (Indelibly Inked) and write/post the first chapter with poll question
- Keep working on HPC revisions. Try to move a little more quickly through mark-ups.
- Write synopsis for new novel draft
- Write and schedule all four Round Robin prompts for this month
- Finalize a schedule that allows me one or two nights per week of new writing, the rest for revisions
Personal
- Finish catching up on laundry and stay caught up.
- Keep mail organized and moving as it comes in.
- Finalize posting schedule and topics for Spiced Variety Pages
- Ten push-ups or sit-ups every morning when I get up.
- Start inventory of Halloween stuff so I can find the treadmill
Reading List
One of my resolutions is to catalog and keep track of the books I read this year. I was going to use a spreadsheet, but decided to research online cataloging tools instead, and signed up for a Library Thing account. I think this is going to suit my purpose just fine, and now you can always see my current reads in the right column (just after the “Free Reads” section, where it says “Currently Reading”).
You don’t have to be a member to view/browse my library (I don’t think, anyways), so you can click the link below the widget to view my catalogs, comments on books, etc. I’ve been entering the books I currently own, but it’s kind of slow going, as you might imagine. There will only be reading dates on the books starting with this year. In the interest of time and non-duplication, I’ll just enter my notes and reads over there. It seems inefficient to post them in both places, when you can just pop over there and have a look if you're interested.
That’s what I’ve got going this week, and where you can find my reading list/library from now on.
What’s on your plate this week? Read a good book lately?
It's the first week of a new year, and I'm ready to get back into the normal groove. Yes, that means Friday I'll be starting a new serial novel - no, I don't have the title yet, but I'll have one by Friday. Just to make it a little more interactive, readers will have the chance to vote on the next direction the story will take after each installment. If no one votes, I'll decide. Otherwise, majority rules. I think it will be both fun, and a stretch for my writing abilities. Or a complete plotting disaster, one of the two.But since I'm the one coming up with the choices, that's really all up to me...
And "Notable Posts" will be back this week as well - I already have a few links to recommend that I came across over the holidays.
This Week on The Variety Pages
Monday: Goals & Reading List Tuesday: Construction Zone - Commas, "ing", and "ly" Wednesday: Round Robin - On Thin Ice Thursday: Wildcard - Organized Reading Friday: New interactive serial novel begins. Saturday: Notable Posts
Elsewhere on The Variety Network
Spiced Variety Pages explores the anatomy of a kiss this week on Wednesday. I should have a regular posting schedule figured out by the end of the week for this new, spicier blog.
Nail Art Tuesday features naked nails and my nail/hand care routine.
Welcome to another new year! I hope everyone had a good "eve", and that you aren't *too* hung over...
I'm listing all my resolutions, but since I know many of my readers are writers, I'll list the writing ones out first, and then you can skip the rest if you want. I've expanded my specific plans for the writing goals in case people were interested, but not the others. If you want to know what my specific plan is for anything else, just ask. I'm an open book (so to speak). After I post these, I look forward to combing through your blogs to see what everyone else is resolving to reach for this year.
Resolutions 2010
Reading/Writing
Establish/keep record of books read during the year (think my goal at Lost Wanderer's blog was to read 100 books – or more? Will have to look.)
- Create a spreadsheet on January 1st for recording books.
- Update spreadsheet once per week, and list books on the blog weekly.
Don't over-commit – be more cognizant of time constraints, and schedule projects accordingly.
- No short stories promised unless they're complete.
- Write blog posts and serial novel installments at least a few days ahead (preferably 1 week when possible.
- Don't commit to anything without first double checking schedule and knowing for sure I have time to get it done, or that it's important enough to me to push something else off the schedule for.
Polish and submit at least two novels for publication
- Finish revising HPC by end Jan/early Feb.
- Submit HPC by mid Feb.
- Start revising DH by early Feb.
- Submit DH by late March/early April
Write at least two more drafts.
- Schedule writing time/daily word counts to finish drafts in 8-10 weeks (except NaNo, of course)
- Start next draft in January
Work out a method for writing and editing/revising at the same time (on different projects), just in case I ever land a multiple-book contract.
Personal
- Organize the mail center and deal with mail as it comes in. File, recycle, or shred immediately.
- Get back into nightly laundry/cleaning routines (stop being lazy).
- Re-establish a loose menu plan for the week, including new recipes.
- Limit time for computer games, but allow guilt-free time to play.
- Buy a new composter, and compost all kitchen scraps, shredded bills and whatever else I can.
- Quit using facial cleansing cloths. Switch to cleanser and a cotton crocheted cloth.
- Use biodegradable pots for potting up when growing out seedlings this spring.
- Inventory Halloween decorations.
- Have the Halloween party organized so we're ready one day early this year.
- Have all Christmas gifts bought or made before December 1st.
Health
- Be more active.
- Watch portion sizes (use smaller dishes).
- Take better care of my skin, feet in particular.
Finances
- Balance checkbooks/pay bills on a set day every month.
- Pay off three credit accounts.
There you have it - my resolutions, laid out for all to see. Can you guess which one I'll be able to check off at the end of January? Which one will be my "mission impossible" this year? If you're not posting your resolutions - care to share one of them here with us?
Here's to a great start to what will hopefully be a wonderful year!
