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Posts Tagged ‘Young Adult’

Outlining

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on September 22, 2013| 3 Comments »

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a discovery writer. Actually, I consider myself a modified discovery writer. Modified because I did once manage to write 100,000 words that didn’t come out to be a story. (I’m embarrassed to admit how many tries it took me to figure out why it wasn’t a story and fix it.) So, now I like to have at least a few stops along the way to my destination.

I’ve heard the idea floated that even those of us who claim to write by the seat of our pants are actually outlining; we’re just doing it in our heads instead of on paper. I think there’s something to that. Of course, if we’re holding the outline in our heads, it’s not as detailed or extensive as some of those written out. And it’s also more subject to change. That’s just the nature of the two methods.

I tried outlining a couple of times early on. Once, I spent way too much time revising the outline–time I could have been spending on writing the story. The other time, I wrote the outline and then never looked at it again. I think the story diverged from the outline in the first five chapters and never came back again. I haven’t made a serious attempt at outlining since.

However, every story is different. And even I–confirmed discovery writer that I am–am starting to think about outlining. I’m still only on chapter 7 of my “Weird Oz Story” and that’s partly because the story is just developing that slowly in my head.

So, maybe it’s time to drop back and punt. Open that copy of David Farland’s MILLION DOLLAR OUTLINES on my kindle, and try a different method. Maybe this is a story I need to outline. Learning a different way is always good, even if I never use it again.

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When Inspiration Strikes

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on September 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I had to get up in the wee hours this morning to make a couple of notes on my Weird Oz Story so I wouldn’t lose them. That’s actually good.

The times and places where ideas strike can seem strange. In the shower, washing the dishes, walking the dogs. A big one for me seems to be driving. That’s when the idea for my Weird Oz Story first came to me. Waking up with an idea is another good one. These are the times when my subconscious throws up the new ideas and solutions to plot problems that fuel (and sometimes) fix my stories. For me, these ideas will only turn up, though, when I’m actually spending some part of my day writing. If I’m not doing that, I can walk the dogs all day without turning up any ideas.

I learned some time ago to take inspiration when it comes and always write it down (or record it in some way) as fast as I can so I don’t lose it. I can always decide whether or not to use it later, but only if I remember what it is.

Last night, among other things, I think my subconscious gave me a piece of the puzzle. Maybe one of the things that’s been holding me back from making better progress on this story. Here’s hoping.

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More Thoughts About Starting

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Last Sunday, I posted about how much trouble I was having starting my Weird Oz Story (real title to be determined). Well, I’m still not exactly burning rubber but I think I am beginning to build momentum. I think it’s clear that this is just going to be one of those stories that takes a little longer, for whatever reason.

That happens. Every story is different. BLOOD WILL TELL just poured out of me in about a month. THE BARD’S GIFT took about six months to write. Most stories fall somewhere in the middle. Just because one story is slow coming out doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong. Some stories are just like that. And you can’t really rush the ones that want to be slow and steady.

Some, like BLOOD WILL TELL, appear fully formed like Athena in my head and all I have to do is open the floodgates and let them out. That’s a wild roller coaster ride when it happens, but they’re not all that way. Sometimes I just have to let a story take a little more time.

It also doesn’t mean that I should worry about my productivity. It bears remembering that this is actually my third project for this year–so far, not counting  revisions.

  1. I completed MAGIC AND POWER (likely to be retitled DESERT ROSE) earlier this year. That’s the one that was supposed to be only a novelette or novella, but turned out at 85,000 words.
  2. I completed a rewrite of one of my earliest novels, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. It still needs work, of course, but that’s what revisions are for.
  3. And now I’m working on Weird Oz.

Well, that’s still pretty darn good for a single year, especially when you add a revision/partial rewrite of MAGE STORM and the revisions to BLOOD IS THICKER to get it ready for launch next month.

Note: A new chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER is now available on wattpad (or you could just buy the whole thing.)

Blood Is Thicker Cover

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Starting Is The Hardest Part

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 8, 2013| 2 Comments »

Sometimes I feel like I have a split personality. I’m working on so many different things at the same time (well, not at the some minute, but you know what I mean). And that doesn’t even count, you know, my ordinary life.

Querying MAGE STORM, trying to promote both FIRE AND EARTH and BLOOD IS THICKER, getting feedback on DESERT ROSE (MAGIC AND POWER), and trying to write the first draft of my Weird Oz Story (no title, yet).

I wonder if that’s why I’m having a hard time getting started on Weird Oz. I’m only on Chapter 3. (Here’s a teaser, Chapter 3 is titled “Pixie Spiders”.)

Could be that, or it could be that this is a bit of a departure for me. It’s the first novel I’m attempteing in first-person point of view. I’ve written a couple of shorter pieces (“Heart of Oak” and “Becoming Lioness”) in first person, but never a novel. It’s also a very different story to what I’ve been writing recently.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t completely built this world in my own mind yet. I’m a discovery writer (somewhat modified), so I’m generally okay with that. I can fix anything in revision (except the empty page I’m staring at right now). And sometimes the only way the ideas will start to come is when I start to write.

It’s also occurred to me that this may turn out to be a middle grade story instead of young adult, as I’ve currently envisioned. Well, I can fix that, too. But only if I get the story down first.

Well, once I get it well and truly started, hopefully it will start flowing better. Forward, ho!

In other news: Check out Clean Romance Reviews on Tuesday, September 10th for my first ever author interview. I’ll try to post a direct link on Wednesday. She did a very nice review of FIRE AND EARTH.Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

Also, a new chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER is up on wattpad. Or, you could just buy the book.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

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Moving Forward

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s much better than moving backward, in general.

Joking aside, this seems to be a week for making decisions. I decided earlier in the week to go for a blog tour for BLOOD IS THICKER.  There are still a couple of things I need to take care of before I attempt to finalize that.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

This morning, I decided to go ahead and send THE BARD’S GIFT to a small publisher (as in, not an imprint of one of the big six–or is it five, now. I’ve lost count.) I thought of one I trusted and that could be right for it. (With smaller publishers, you have to weed out the well-intentioned start-ups that might not be around long enough, the ones that are already on shaky ground, and the ones that are just thinly disquised rip-offs. There are good small publishers out there, but you’ve got to do the research. This particular press has published titles and authors I recognize and is listed as a qualifying market for SFWA. Good enough for me.)

So, that’s what I’ve been doing this morning before I got around to blogging.

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Miscellany

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 25, 2013| 6 Comments »

A little of this and a little of that, today.

I have started  looking for potential reviewers for BLOOD IS THICKER. Not nearly enough yet, but sometimes just getting started breaks the log jam. It’s certainly the first step.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

I got my proofs for the paperback version. I might make one change before launch, but I haven’t decided, yet.

Meanwhile, my first review for FIRE AND EARTH went live. Check it out, here. There’ll be a giveaway on that site next week and an author interview in early September.

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

In other news, I’m extremely excited that my middle grade fantasy, MAGE STORM, got second place in the pitch+250 contest on Adventures in YA Publishing. I’ve just started querying this and I find this a very auspicious beginning. Besides, I get a critique from one of the judges. Who knows?

I’m almost finished with the paragraph-by-paragraph rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. If nothing else, this has been a great learning experience. I’m confident this story will see the light of day one way or another before too long.

As always on Sundays, a new chapter of BLOOD IS THICKER is up on wattpad for free. This one is one of my favorites. What if a couple of dragons in disguise arrived in our world just before Christmas, and had to go shopping for clothes? Well, take a look and find out. Or, of course, you could just buy the book. (Click on the pretty picture of the cover above.)

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Taking Stock

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 18, 2013| 4 Comments »

It’s time to take a step back and figure out what I want to do next with THE BARD’S GIFT. This is a tough one.

When I first sat down to write TBG, I had a choice to make. I could either write the story as straight up second-world fantasy or I could do a lot of research and write it as historical fantasy or alternate history. I chose to stretch myself as a writer and go with the historical–a story with fantasy elements set in 14th-century Greenland.

On some levels, this may have been a mistake, but I’m not sorry I did it. I really like the way it turned out. And, frankly, some elements of the story would have been different–maybe not as good–if I hadn’t done that research.

However, it looks like a young adult story set in 14th-century Greenland is a tough sell, at least to agents. Since the very first book I queried, I’ve never had so little response to a query.

It’s odd, though. I’ve had half a dozen or so of those repsonses queriers will tell you that you never get–personalized rejections. These rejections from agents who read a part of the beginning along with the query have complemented the writing, the main character, what they know of the plot–and then gone on to say that they just can’t take it on. I have to conclude that it’s the historical setting.

So, here are my choices:

  1. I could shelve it. But my gut and those peronalized rejections are telling me that’s not what I need to do.
  2. I could rewrite it as a second-world fantasy and try again. See if that gets any better response. I’m thinking about this one, but it doesn’t quite feel right.
  3. I could try sending it directly to some small and medium presses that accept unsolicited manuscripts and see if I get the same response from editors, but–wow that could take a very long time. Unlike agents, editors generally want exclusive submissions. And they may take months to get around to reading an unsolicited manuscript.
  4. Or, in today’s digital marketplace, I could just go ahead and epublish it myself. I’m leaning towards this one.

Meanwhile, following WriteOnCon, I’m ready to start querying MAGE STORM. Hopefully, this second-world middle grade fantasy will get a better response.

And, of course, I have to really dig in and start to prepare for the launch of BLOOD IS THICKER.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

Also, Chapter 8 is now available free on wattpad.

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Getting Serious

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I won’t say I’ve been slacking off, because I’ve certainly been keeping busy. But I have sort of dropped the ball on promoting FIRE AND EARTH

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

and planning the launch of BLOOD IS THICKER.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

I recently read a post by a traditionally published author about the critical launch period. It’s helped clarify things for me. I think I have a better idea of what I need to do when, now.

Since I really need to start at least three months ahead, so I’m pushing my launch date out to November 18. However, in order to line up book reviewers, I’m actually going to have to make it widely available well before that. We’ll just pretend the launch is in November–and you’ll know that it’s really out there before anyone else. Well, except me, of course.

So, what I have to do first is get the various versions out. The catch in that is that I haven’t been completely happy with the formatting of BLOOD IS THICKER. It’s something small. Just a couple of chapter headings that are different than all the others. But it’s not right  and it’s been bugging me. I haven’t succeeded in fixing it, so I’m going to have to go back and just redo the Smashwords formatting. Then I can go ahead and do the Amazon and CreateSpace formats.

I need those to be able to get books to reviewers and start planning some giveaways.

I need to start devoting a specified amount of time every week to these things, even when I’d rather be writing.

Meanwhile, I’m about to wrap things up with THE BARD’S GIFT. In another week or two, I’ll be pulling it back. Then I’ll have to decide what I’m going to do with it–major revision or go indie. I’m getting ready to start querying MAGE STORM. Fingers crossed for WriteOnCon in a little over a week. And I’m still working on the rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. So, yeah, keeping busy.

The first six chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER are now available free on wattpad.

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Audience

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on July 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

One of the ways we divide up stories, along with genre, is audience. We label stories as being for middle grade (8 to 12-year-olds), young adults, or adults. Some stories, of course, like Harry Potter, cross over multiple audiences. It’s a convenient distinction for traditional publishers and book stores, but maybe it’s becoming less important in the age of digital publishing.

Now, it’s not an issue for a lot of stories. MAGE STORM is a solidly middle grade book (though, of course, I would love it if someday it also crossed over to gain a wider audience).

Other stories don’t fit so neatly. After reading this post, I’m starting to question whether I should call THE BARD’S GIFT young adult. Not for any of the reasons cited in that post, though.

THE SHAMAN’S CURSE has always been a problem this way. Yeah, it starts with a fifteen-year-old protagonist. But the original version spanned eight years–ending with the hero at twenty-three. In the current rewrite, I’m trying to shave a year or two off of that, just to tighten things up. It’ll still take him outside the young adult age rage. And that doesn’t count the three potential sequels.

I made a couple of attempts to carve this story up to fit into either the middle grade or young adult audience, but it just doesn’t want to fit that straight jacket. And now, I have the freedom to let it be what it wants. I like that.

Reminder: You can read the first five chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER free on wattpad.

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Too Much Fun

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on July 28, 2013| 2 Comments »

I’m having a lot of fun with my rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. I’ve never stopped loving this story or the characters. The execution the first time I wrote it–now that needed a lot of help. It’s amazing as I use the original written in 2008 as a very extended outline.

Wow. Dialog mechanics. Yeah, I didn’t understand that at all. Obviously had no idea what a beat was or how to use it. (For non-writers, a beat, in this context, is a bit of action or body language paired with dialogue which acts as the dialog attribution as well as allowing the characters to interact with each other and the environment. It isn’t necessary to use “he said” for every single line of dialog.)  Showing vs. telling. Yes, I have a much better handle on that on several levels.

I may be having too much fun with this, though. I’ve been playing instead of doing the harder work of planning the launch for BLOOD IS THICKER.

Blood Is Thicker Cover

Blood Is Thicker Cover

I may have to push the launch date out to compensate for this. I also haven’t done what I need to on promoting FIRE AND EARTH.

Fire And Earth Cover (Provisional)

Writing is just so much more fun and it goes fast when you have essentially a 100,000-word outline to work from. That’s the good news. I’ll have this first draft done in record time.

I suppose it doesn’t hurt–could even help–to take a little break every now and then. But I seriously have to force myself back to the work that is outside my comfort zone.

Meanwhile, you can read the first five chapters of BLOOD IS THICKER free on wattpad.

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