Oh jeez… Here we go… Camp NaNoWriMo is UPON US! Unlike NaNoWriMo, you get to set your own word count– but I’m tentatively sticking with the tried and true 50K. Because it would be nice to be legitimately working on another story while I try not to think about Apparent’s future. So in the coming month, expect many writing vents and epiphanies and write-a-thons and SPRINTS on this blog! NaNoWriMo is always crazy and I’m sure that Camp won’t be any different.
Writers mention the “voices” in their heads a lot. And usually the “voices” we refer to are all fun and games. They giggle the perfect joke for our manuscript. They excitedly pitch us a plot twist. They reveal what our characters are really thinking, where their true motivations lie. These are the voices that make me feel all warm and fuzzy; I know I’m among friends. But sometimes those voices get drowned out by others. And these new voices– the voices of self-doubt– bind up the positive vibes with strong rope, gag them, and stuff them into a corner where I can barely hear their muffled screams. And their whispers twine themselves around me. They dismiss me. Mock me. Laugh at me. “You’re a failure.” “You’re not good enough.” “You’re a crap writer. Your work will never be published the way […]
A quick summation of me as a college student: Papers or workshop writing pieces sprinted out a day or two before they were due; usually good enough for a ‘B’ Frequent all-nighters before mid-terms and finals since I didn’t study all semester; usually followed by mornings where I was so sleep deprived I’d have to ask my roommate where my shoes were… when they were already in my hands. And, as a senior, joy that I’d ‘never have homework again.’ …Let me repeat that. I thought I’d never have homework again. Basically, what I’m telling you is that, when I graduated from college, I didn’t understand what it was like to have enough passion for something that I would spend my free time working at it. Because, for my day job, I don’t have homework. I switch off at 5 […]
So, here is a plan: I’m going to update this post with revision progress day by day until I’m querying. WHICH means the last update to it will read: “MM/DD/13: Sent out first batch of queries. BRB vomiting.” And that will probably be the only thing I say re: querying on this blog because it’s seems kinda jinx-y to put that out there for the public. ANYway. I shall start with today’s progress: 5/2/13 2:30 PM: Completed Alex‘s revisions up to the end of Act 2. Began making a list of crutch phrases. Created a Wordle to help me figure out the really BIG crutch words. 5/2/13 10:47 PM: Finished Alex’s revisions. (!!!) Also I had a minor stroke-type episode where I decided I was going to rewrite the whole book in 1st person present tense… it’s currently 3rd past. […]
Sometimes, when I browse writing and publishing blogs, I see excerpts of blog readers’ work– whether it’s a query submission or first pages, or anything else. Sometimes, the work is strong, sometimes not so much. But sometimes, they make mistakes that make me blanch and wonder “Why didn’t their Critique Partners or beta-readers catch that?” And sometimes, I can guess the answer to that question: They don’t have a CP or beta. Because here is something else I see in the comments of those blogs: complaints about the difficulty of finding a CP or a beta. First of all, to those people, I say: you are wrong. Involve yourself in the writing community or in the community around your genre and it becomes easy. I met one of my CPs, Alex, in an online YA writing class on Litreactor. My […]
Last night at approximately 11:33 PM, I finished the third second? fourth? to be honest, I don’t even know anymore. My drafts were a pretty messy affair draft of Apparent with exactly 75,100 words. And I cried. There were many reasons for this. One was that I was flipping tired. I get grouchy when I’m not snuggled under my covers by an hour that my sleeping schedule deems satisfactory. The second reason was something I shall never reveal because I have to keep a certain air of “writerly mystery.” …I mean, I guess that’s is how this is supposed to go anyway. But thirdly and finally, I cried because I finally felt close like I’d gotten close to what I want the book to be. Both of my other drafts were… how do I put this delicately? They were a mess. I […]
Once, when I was in college, I went to my university’s writing center for extra credit on a paper. As I left, on a whim, I grabbed a few of the postcard-sized promotions that they had out for grabs to decorate my dorm room wall. I’ll never forget the question one of them posed: ARE THERE ANY NEW STORIES? What a stupid question, I remember thinking incredulously. Of course there are new stories. Countless books come out every week! There are short stories and fanfics and even multi-part works uploaded online (probably) every minute. How could anyone doubt that there are new stories? My twenties self could use a dose of the self-assuredness of my collegiate self. I think this is a plague of doubt that a lot of writers suffer from. We’re on twitter. We’re stalking agent blogs. We’re […]
Good morning! So Lindsey and I are BACK to give our darling manuscripts a little TLC. The last time that we did this, I was trying to finish up Act 2 of this draft (draft 3). This time around, I’m finishing up Act 3. I hope. So, what does this translate to? Well, I know I’m making some big cuts to a scene that currently goes on WAY too long and is MOSTLY unnecessary, so I’ll need to tweak it to where I talk about what MATTERS and edit it to make it ~flow. I’ll be killing lots of darlings and cutting other scenes that no longer work with the ending that needs to happen. And now that I’m really LOOKING/thinking about what is left to REWRITE in this draft, I don’t think it’s 3 chapters like I’m been saying. […]
(I blame you, Alex.) For round 2 of revision procrastination, today I made Game of Thrones House sigils for few of my characters. I’ve been meaning to do this for a few weeks, since Alex did it and… well, I was on a procrastination roll. You can make your own here! It seems only appropriate that since I ended my heroine generator post with my main character last time I posted, we let Bree kick things off this time around. Now, none of my characters actually have house crests (that I’ve discovered thus far anyway) and Bree has always lived as a peasant, but this is good representation of her path to self discovery and the mission she has to take on in Apparent. Side note: I thought about making her house motto: “Leave me alone and drink your beer” […]
A few months back, I stumbled on this post on Diana Peterfreund’s blog. Peterfreund lamented her lack of a drawing ability because she couldn’t create and share pictures of her characters. I suffer a similar fate. But yay for Diana Peterfreund for cluing us all into this “Heroine generator!” I can show you guys an approximation of some of the characters in my head! First, let’s meet Aleta, the princess of Nereidium and ward of the king of Egria. Aleta is wearing purple to denote her status as royalty. The wedding veil is a nod to her betrothal to the king’s son, Caden. She wears the roses in her hair in a specific scene and they definitely mean something… that hopefully you’ll all be able to read some day. 😉 Aleta doesn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve, so when […]