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The Juices Are Flowing

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on December 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been in revision mode for a couple of months, now, and while I don’t really mind revisions, it’s not the same as writing the story in the first place.  The creative juices just don’t flow quite the same way.

Oddly enough, starting a different revision has got the juices flowing again.  That’s probably because the revisions to DREAMER’S ROSE amount almost to a rewrite–which means a fair amount of new material.  The chapter I’m currently in will be almost all new.  And ideas, snatches of dialog, bits of plot are swimming in my head just like I was laying out a whole new book.  I sometimes have to stop what I’m doing to jot down an idea for further along in the chapter or in the story. 

This is the really fun part of writing. Discovering new things that happen to your characters.

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Back to the Beginning

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Off and on, I have been trying to decide what to do with my first novel, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  For starters, it needs a rewrite. It rambles too much and it got over-edited to death.  However, I still really like the characters and the story.  Plus, it’s a very rich world that I developed for that series.

One of the problems is that I think THE SHAMAN’S CURSE itself probably should be young adult. Several first readers asked if it was YA from the beginning. The main character and many of the problems he faces fit YA very well, but, if it was going to be a four-book series, then the main character would quickly get too old to be the hero of a YA novel.  What to do?

Yesterday, inspiration struck.  As usual, at the most unlikely time.  When I rewrite THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, I’ll do it with an eye towards making it YA. 

I’ll have to ditch, at least for now, the middle two books. THE IGNORED PROPHECY is written and the plot for TROUBLED COUNSELS is laid out.  That’s okay. I learned a lot from writing–and rewriting (several times)–THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  That effort will never be wasted. Someday, inspiration may strike and I’ll revive it.

For now, however, I will plan to move on to what would have been the fourth book, still untitled. However, I will focus on two younger characters instead of the main character of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. He’ll still be there, but his kid sister will take more of the role of main character, thus keeping it firmly in the YA camp.

Ha!  No telling how long it will take me to work back around to this project, but at least now I know what I want to do.

I love it when a plan comes together.

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Parts of the Story

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on December 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Listening to David Farland talk about the parts of a story persuaded me to add back part of the epilogue to MAGE STORM.  Not all of it, only about a thousand words.  So now, MAGE STORM is 59,000 words–a hair long for middle grade, but hopefully not fatally so.

He laid out the parts of the story very neatly. It was his discussion of the denouement that convinced me I had cut off Rell’s story a little too abruptly. Even though there is the potential for a sequel or two, there were a couple of conflicts left dangling that I really wanted to wrap up in this one. I’d just taken too long about it in the first book, so I cut it down to the absolutely necessary scene and stopped there.

Where did I hear David Farland talk about the parts of a story?  In Tuesday’s Author’s Advisory sponsored by Farland’s Writers’ Groups.  You can find the link in the side bar.

Wish you had known? Sorry you missed it? You can listen to a recording of it on Robin Weeks’ blog (also in the side bar).

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Not YA

Posted in writing, tagged , , on December 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Well, the results are in (or as close as they’re likely to get at this busy time of the year).  Four votes to one that BLOOD WILL TELL is not young adult.

In my opinion, I’d call it closest to New Adult.  The characters are the right age.  In the course of trying to escape from the unknown would-be assasin, they’re forced to leave their usual support system behind and set up for themselves–finding an affordable place to live, finding jobs without being able to use previous employers as references (because they don’t know who to trust), etc. Unfortunately, that’s a category only one publisher recognizes (and they don’t take unsolicited submissions) and there are no shelves for it in the book stores. 

It’s a relief to have that settled, at least, but it does take away one of my excuses for why this didn’t generate more interest than it did.  I still believe in this story.  For now, however, I’ll be moving on.  I’ll start querying MAGE STORM after the first of the year.

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Goal Tracking

Posted in writing, tagged , , on November 28, 2010| 1 Comment »

Well, it’s the time of month and almost the time of year for measuring our progress against our goals.  Since I blogged about goalsetting a little while back, I might as well blog about the other side of the equation.

My goals for the month were:

  1. Get half-way through the third draft of MAGE STORM.
  2. Complete revisions on a short story and submit it to Writers of the Future.
  3. Make some progress on SEVEN STARS.
  4. Make a decision on whether BLOOD WILL TELL is actually YA or not.

It was a challenging set of goals.  My progress:

  1. I completed the third draft of MAGE STORM, not just half-way.  Initially, it was a little intimidating to be dealing with four critiques on the entire novel at once. Once I built up some momentum, I didn’t want to stop until I got to the end.
  2. I’m still working on the short story. It is just possible that I’ll complete this goal this month, but it’s looking more likely to be a few days late.  For WotF, I’d rather take the extra time and have it be right. The actual deadline for the quarter isn’t until December 31st. I’m in very good shape to make that with weeks to spare.
  3. Well, I made some.  Not a lot, but this goal was nebulous enough that just about anything counts.
  4. The jury is still out on this one.  Of four responses I’ve received so far from people who read a lot of YA, the voting is running three to one for adult rather than YA. Again, I don’t know that I’ll have made a final decision (and so completed this goal) by month-end. Either way, BLOOD WILL TELL is likely to get a rest while I start querying MAGE STORM next year.

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Knowing When to Stop

Posted in writing, tagged , , on November 24, 2010| 4 Comments »

This actually has more than one meaning.  One of the important meanings is knowing when to stop editing. You can kill a story with too much editing.  My first novel, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE suffers from this. In places, the writing lost all life. It’s just words, no sparkle. The only cure for that story will be to rewrite it, probably completely from scratch. That won’t happen until I get a better handle on exactly what kind of stories my authorial voice is best suited to. If it’s going to be Young Adult, well, there are more things than the writing that will have to change.

Ever since realizing the problem I’d created for THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, I’ve tried to stick to three drafts. First draft, get the story down. Second draft, fix the things I know I left out or didn’t give enough time to in the first draft. Make it as good as I can. Then get some readers. Third draft, revise based on those critiques. And stop there. Move on to another story, ’cause I’m not going to make this one any better by beating it to death.

The other meaning of knowing when to stop is, of course, knowing when the story ends. Usually, I don’t have too much trouble with this. When the main conflict is resolved, take a little space for denoument and get out gracefully.  I think I failed to do that in MAGE STORM, though.  It goes on too long after the climax. I should let a couple of small subplots resolve and then stop. So, as I work on the third draft, I’m expecting to cut quite a lot from the ending. That’s probably going to save it in terms of length, because it’s creeping up past 60,000 words, now.

Some of what I cut may actually end up being the beginning of the sequel. That’s where what happens next to these characters really belongs anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Long

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on November 21, 2010| 4 Comments »

Back when I was finishing the first draft of MAGE STORM, I posted that it was a little short.  I wasn’t worried about that at the time because I knew I’d end up expanding it in the revisions.

Now that I’m about two-thirds of the way through the third draft, the tables are turned. 

Since I’ve decided that MAGE STORM is really Middle Grade, not Young Adult, I’m now concerned that it’s creeping up towards being too long.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

I know there’s some stuff at the end that I’ll probably cut or at least cut back.  Probably it will still end up about the right length.

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Goalsetting

Posted in writing, tagged , on November 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It’s what management by objective is all about and it’s also one of Kevin J. Anderson’s tips for prolific writers.  Goalsetting is obviously important.

To be useful goals have to be:

  1. Specific
  2. Objectively Measurable
  3. Have a definite time frame
  4. Be at least a little challenging

“I want to be a published writer” is a dream.  Goals (and sometimes a bit of luck) are what will get you to that dream.

I like to set different levels of goals. 

Generally, I will set a longer-term goal: I want to be ready to start sending out queries on MAGE STORM in January. And then I will set smaller goals: What do I have to do today, or this week, or this month to make that happen.  It’s easier to track progress on the intermediate goals.  Plus it provides a sense of accomplishment that’s very motivating for me.

Sometimes, I’ll also set two levels of goals–and easy goal I’m fairly sure I can make (to keep the momentum going and provide that motivation) and a more challenging goal to shoot for and try to raise my productivity.  Since I’m a fairly competitive person (and most competititive with myself), I often make the harder goal.

Gotta go.  My goal for today is to finish the 3rd draft revisions of Chapter 11 of MAGE STORM.

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Conflicting Critiques

Posted in writing, tagged , , on November 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

The thing about critiques is: No matter how much the reader wants to help you improve your story it is still your story and only you can decide what’s really right for it.

Whenever you get multiple critiques on any work, there’s bound to be some disagreement.  The question then arises, which do you believe?  I’m on the horns of this dilemma in two separate cases. 

On the latest revision short story (yes, I’m withholding the title for a reason), I’ve gotten three critiques so far (and two still out).  One reader thinks it’s good as is, one thinks it needs minor tweaks, and one thinks it needs some major changes to deepen the point of view. 

On my novel, MAGE STORM, I occasionally have a similar issue.  Out of four critiques, there’s one that consistently wants deeper point of view.  In some cases, I agree.  In others, not.  Other issues, often places where the story needs a little more detail or depth to make something work well, most or all of the critiques agree.

On one of my writers’ forums the answer to this situation was put very clearly: The only two times you really must respond to a critique (other than to say thank you), is when three or more people agree or when the critique resonates with you.  I’d add one more: There are certain people to whose critiques, through experience, I’ve learned to give extra credence. 

So, if three people see a problem, it probably really is a problem you should address.  And if a comment feels right to you or, better yet, triggers some new ideas, then that’s pure gold.

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Good News, Bad News

Posted in writing, tagged , , on November 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

And they came in the same e-mail. 

Actually, the bad news came first.  The familiar “Thank you, but we’ll pass” rejection letter.  Almost as an afterthought down at the bottom was the notation that the story had made it to the second round.

That’s actually very good news.  It got beyond the slush pile.  It just couldn’t quite make it that last step to publication.  At least, not this time.

The story in question is the short story version of “Mage Storm”. Now I’m in a bit of a quandary with this one.  The next two markets I’d planned for this story, if necessary, are unavailable.  One because the new editor has already rejected an earlier version of the story, the other is temporarily closed to submissions.  I may just decide to sit on this one and use it as a teaser when the novel version gets published (thinking positively).

On the brighter side, I’m starting to fall into a rhythm with the four full-novel critiques of MAGE STORM.  The first two chapters were pretty hard work, but I’m starting to hit my stride, now.

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