Blank Sheet of Paper

Moved to Livejournal

2007-07-27T17:56:00.000-04:00

Yet again (go ahead and laugh at me) I'm relocating my blog. I've been spending a lot of time on LJ on a private journal and have come to really prefer the format and all to blogspot. I like userpics, the friends page, all that jazz. So I'm relocating. I've copied and backdated a lot of my blogspot entries (though not all because an awful lot of them are boring and/or irrelevant, about false-starts and the like) over to my new journal here.

Motivation

2007-07-24T18:57:00.000-04:00

Posting this in an attempt to force myself to get back to work on Deception. I took a sort of unplanned break from it in the midst of Potter mania after hitting my 90,000 word goal and now really need to get back to it and just bang it out. I figure if I post updates here, I'll have to own up if I don't get some work done.

I've set a new goal for Deception, 105,000 words, based on my estimate of what I'll need in order to wrap up the story. I will update probably every Monday morning with my progress.

So, as of right now, this is where I stand on completing the Deception manuscript:

91,078 / 115,000
(79.2%)

And this is where I stand with the Taggert Twins 1 revision, because I totally got sidetracked when I realized I had major plot holes to finish. And even though I resolved them, I haven't been able to tie myself to a chair and focus on the revision. This I will also update every Monday morning (is in pages rather than words):

21 / 208
(10.1%)

Verdict on the book banning

2007-07-19T08:04:00.000-04:00

I'd blogged a while ago about the banning of Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle solely for having homosexual (though in no way explicit) content. There's a verdict now. You can read her post here, if you're interested.

In short, the school library will allow the book. However, it must be kept on a reserve shelf and only checked out for school assignments by students who have parental permission.

How asinine. And slippery slope. Dangerous precedent. All of the above.

Oh, and this is on the heels of the librarian on the book banning committee having been removed from her position and the school librarian resigning. What a world we live in.

Footloose, anyone?

"Baby shoes for sale, never used."

2007-07-17T12:45:00.000-04:00

Say what you will about Hemingway; I know he's far from my favorite author. In fact, I generally avoid his writings like the plague. But who else could write such a powerful story in under 7 words?

"Baby shoes for sale, never used."

What's your 7-word story?

90k and still kicking

2007-07-13T13:09:00.000-04:00

Well, I just hit my goal of 90,000 words for this book. At work, on my lunch break. After giving myself a silent cheer so as not to draw the eyes of more composed individuals in the office, I return to the writing. Because, although the goal I set for myself has been reached, this book is far from over.

In fact, I've just realized that, come revision time, probably a good chunk of what I've written is going to go out the window. Because it just doesn't work with the turn the book took in, oh, just the last thousand words.

Now, mind you, this is not some major plot twist. I haven't changed whodunit or why. I haven't changed the ending. I haven't changed the story in and of itself. But the route to get to the ending has just taken a very large--and hopefully rather interesting--detour. I'm going to say I've probably still got at least 20,000 words to go.

Which, again, means that I won't feel so horrible cutting entire scenes, entire chapters, when I sit down with my red pen. Because, let's face it, for most of us, taking out large chunks of our hard-won words is really quite painful. I'm still not going to like it but knowing that there's a lot of the story left may be able to soothe me.

Maybe.

It's funny. I know I've blogged about this before. But anyway. We talk about characters running away with us, doing their own thing. In my case, and not for the first time, the story has done that. I was writing one simple scene, one key scene that's intended to be the sort of turning point, the point at which the protagonist finally turns down the road toward finding the truth. And then it just popped into my head that this was the perfect opportunity for . . . well, I'm not going to elaborate. But it was just the perfect opportunity and I couldn't resist but it's making me really take it in a different direction from this point forward.

I also strongly suspect that my protagonist has just shifted from one character to another. But that's a change that's been a long time coming, I think, so I'm not too bothered. I'm just a bit worried about how to make that mesh with the beginning of the book, where the guy who just became the protag can't be included. Unless... hmm. Perhaps. Yes, that might work nicely. Massive changes though.

But that's what revision's all about, isn't it?

Fandom

2007-07-11T08:05:00.000-04:00

With the world in the throes of Harry Potter mania, what with the release of Order of the Phoenix today and the next book coming out in just ten days, I was thinking last night about Fandom and how it develops. Fandom, for those who might not have heard the word, refers to the following a particular story/book/universe achieves, and all that that implies--how ravenously fans devour books, how highly anticipated new releases are, the prevalence of fan fiction and fan sites on the Internet.

And it occurred to me that it seems that only sci-fi and fantasy works achieve the mega-followings in the world of entertainment. Look at the devotion of fans to Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the mother of all Fandom, Star Trek. The only non-sci-fi/fantasy thing I can think of that might even come close to paralleling the devotion with which fans seek out anything and everything to do with these fictional worlds is Pirates of the Caribbean, which could probably fall into the fantasy camp but I think of more as action/adventure.

Why is this? Is it a product of exposure (the fact that Star Wars, for example, has probably nearly 100 books published, plus resource books, video and board games, toy lines, etc.). Or is that exposure the result of the fan base?

Any thoughts?

(None of this is to suggest that books and movies outside the sci-fi and fantasy genres don't have their own rabid followings. There is just something about these large fandoms that seems unmatched anywhere else.)

Home Stretch

2007-07-05T12:58:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm in the home stretch on Deception, the adult mystery/pseudo-suspense I've been writing for the last 2 1/2 months. I've got 10,000 words to go before I hit my 90k goal. I fell short on my TT draft; hit 52k when I was going for 60k. This one, I'll surpass. There's still too much wide open to wrap up in such a small number of words and I'm by no means interested in rushing through.

Exceeding my goal will mean I don't feel so bad cutting the crap out of it when I start revising. Which I'm absolutely going to need to do, because this book has been doing its own thing from somewhere around the 40k mark. Just went off on its own, weaving its own story and leaving me to try to figure it all out along with my characters.

I think I'm just about there. Miracle of miracles.

I've started writing an urban fantasy. Done a lot of planning and I've gone a few thousand words in on the story itself. That'll be my next project and I think it'll be a fun one. It's my first real exercise in worldbuilding and its really going to make me stretch my creative muscles. Also, my research abilities. I need to hit the library; I need to expand my reading repertoire into books about vampires and werewolves. I blame Rowling's lovely Remus Lupin for my sudden interest in such creatures. I also need to read up on the rest of the genre, especially UF-style detective stories/mysteries.

But, before I pick up on writing that again, I'm going to set aside some time for revision. I'm nowhere in revising the Taggert Twins book and I'm going to have to start revising Deception. The good thing is that I've got all the big plot problems that arose in writing TT resolved, I think; I just need to put them into the book now. That's going to require quite a bit of rewriting, I think, but the book will be so much better for it. I'm quite excited, actually.

And I know the title Deception sucks. It's only a working title until I can devote the hours necessary to figure out a decent title. Because I'm firmly convinced that titles are evil incarnate and put on this earth to drive me to drink. Excessively.

Conflict

2007-06-27T07:45:00.000-04:00

I've discovered that the part of writing I struggle with the most (setting aside creating characters and the actual world in which I write) is layering conflict in a story. As I write I tend to forget that I need more than one single issue to hold the book together. I get caught up in the main plot and write to move that forward but I forget that in, say, a teen mystery the characters have other things going on. They have school. They have budding romances and unrequited love. They have rivalries and cliques and get pissed off at friends and relatives on a fairly regular basis.

I have a bad habit of letting all those other things fall away and without them, the work falls flat.

On any given day, I have a lot going on in my life. I have problems with work. I have problems with family and friends. I find myself, to paraphrase one of my senior managers, unable to get out of my own way. I get stressed out; I feel an overwhelming urge to curl up in a chair with a book and a hard drink.

And that's all without anyone trying to kill me, which is what my characters have to deal with on a daily basis.

But somehow, when I sit down in front of my computer and begin to type, I develop a one-track mind. Which, for me, is odd. Granted, I get hung up on various topics and I've been accused more than once of talking about work too much. But the way my brain works in general is that it jumps around. I can't just sit down and watch a TV show or movie. I have to read a book or surf the net or something like that. I can go to the movie theater and absolutely love the movie I'm watching but by the halfway point I'm checking my watch and trying to gauge how much longer it's going to last.

I get bored with things. Even when I go on a kick with a new TV show (MacGyver, at the moment), I can't just focus on that. I'll surf the net, read fic, and write all while watching the show. It keeps me engaged.

But when I write, I latch onto the one main plot and let everything else fall away. Yes, that main conflict is the driver of the story but if I want people to identify with my characters and be drawn into the book, it needs to have more.

So, while I can certainly fix this in revision (and I suspect that will be the case), my new writing goal is to consciously focus on all aspects of the story as I write, rather than leaving it to revision to repair. And I'm getting better at it. In my current book, my main character has an ex-husband who still wants to be in her life--and protect her from herself. She also has a boss who she'd like to push out her office window. She has two kids who are still reeling from her divorce. And she has the mystery.

And once a chapter or so I recall some (or, on a really good day) all of these. And I might even have a flash of insight as to how to work in one or more of them.

Have to start somewhere, I suppose.

x-posted to my LJ

Beloved characters

2007-06-17T19:02:00.000-04:00

I've commented on part of this before. The fanfic debate aggravates me because I know firsthand that the reason we fanficcers write these stories is because the characters have reached us on some level. I'm currently slightly obsessed with Remus Lupin (okay, slightly may be a tad of an understatement), which I'm sure y'all have noticed. His character draws me in. He's complex and wounded and honest and inspiring and he just interests me so much, which is why I keep blathering about him.

I have a lot of wishes and dreams relating to writing. I want to get an agent. I want to get published. I want to see my book--my own book--on a shelf in Barnes & Noble. I want to make a bestseller list. I want to make enough writing that I can quit my day job and write for a living.

But more than anything else I want to create characters that will instill in my readers the type of attachment I've felt to Remus Lupin, Dennis Booker (21 Jump Street), Templeton Peck (The A-Team), Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu (Star Wars). It would mean, to me, that I've done my job as an author and made my audience care about my characters.

Hell, I'd even be happy to have my fans up in arms about something I'd done to my characters because it would mean that my audience had developed a relationship with these characters to the point that they felt they knew them, believed in them, understood how they functioned and why--and had developed their own opinions on these characters.

Cross-posted to my LJ

Know that point in a story ...

2007-06-13T07:30:00.000-04:00

... where you're kind of grasping for something, anything, to just keep the book going forward until you get your momentum back and get the thing back on track and going in a direction its actually supposed to go?

Yeah, that's where I am right now with my current book, Deception.

I almost feel as if I've lost track of the story and just need to keep writing and things will start to fall into place again, and then I can get rid of the crappy stuff when revision comes around.

Altogether, though, knowing that writing the last word on the last page does not, in any way, shape, or form mean that this book is complete does not make me feel better about how lousy the story is right now. The writing itself isn't bad, I don't think, save for the fact that the story is just rambling along aimlessly and completely without direction.

This is why they say padding a story shows. It does. I'm not trying to make it longer at the moment; given that it seems to me that little has happened and I'm already halfway through, length is not a concern of mine. If anything I'm probably going to have to cut out a lot. But what I'm writing now is, really, filler. It's to fill in the blanks, get something down on paper, until I can pick up the action again and tie the story back together.

Does anyone else have this issue? (I'll refrain from linking yet again to Holly Lisle's piece on middles, which always makes me feel much better about my inability to write the middle of story coherently.

x-posted to my LJ

The first steps of revision

2007-06-08T07:49:00.000-04:00

So, revision is going well so far. Dining room table is rather covered with notebook, pens, clean manuscript pages, scribbled manuscript pages. Yet, for the moment, despite scatter, not chaotic. And I have a lid from a paper box on the table which cat uses as a bed. It pleases her to be able to watch me and it keeps her from laying on my papers and getting in the way. Spent the evening last night listening to Queen and U2 and revising. Queen is truly lovely dance-around-the-house-alone music. Cat thought I was crazy, I think, but it was fun.

I'd already been through most of the pages I revised last night, but I found so much more wrong with them on the second pass. I did the first pass on the living room floor in front of the television so I probably wasn't paying that much attention.

I'm working at the very beginning of my book so at the moment it's more stylistic changes, noticing poor word choice or bad use of punctuation. I haven't created plot problems yet, really, but as I read through the beginning I'm (1) noticing the things that I'd planned to do more with and which I know I forgot about later in the book and (2) coming up with ideas to elaborate later--and for future books if this takes off as a series.

All in all I'm currently pleased with how revision is going, although that is subject to change without notice.

Also, I have a new livejournal for posting more personal ramblings. See here.

Revision Time

2007-06-01T18:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm about to start revising my first book, the first Taggert Twins mystery. Anyone who'd like to read the draft and give me feedback, please leave a comment.

To tell you the truth, I'm really sort of scared to start. I'm going to use Holly Lisle's guide to revising a novel as sort of my guidebook, but with a few changes. You wouldn't know it to look at my apartment but I'm really big on organization -- at least when it comes to my writing. For the book I'm about to revise, I have four documents. And that's low. For the book I'm working on now I have, I believe, at least 9. I have things for the synopsis/outline, characters, plotting notes, the actual text, tracking my progress, tracking my scenes and chapters, etc. And I know that as I go through revision, I'm going to want separate lists for notes about plot lines, notes about my characters, notes about ... I don't know what but you get the picture. A single-subject notebook like she mentions in the linked page will just not do for me.

I'm completely anal about some things. What can I say? *shrug*

I'm also scared because, in the writing of the draft, I had a couple of characters and a whole plot line that, because I didn't know what to do with them in the end, I let completely drop off. The characters disappear and the plot line stops at a big ol' brick wall. Goes nowhere. So I know I have to either figure out where to go with that plot line or take it all out -- which is going to leave a massive hole smack in the middle of my story. (Sort of like Holly's dancing bears and clowns or whatever -- if you haven't read her article on Middles, I suggest you do. It's quite amusing.) And I'm no closer to figuring it out now than I was before.

I'm also worried I won't be able to keep up the current pace I have on my current book once I start revising the original.

But it's time for a trip to Wal-Mart so I can get my pretty notebook and my pretty colored pens. And sooner or later I need to get a filing cabinet or file box or something for the fifty bazillion notebooks I have floating around my apartment. They have fic from at least seven different fandoms and are in varying states of disarray. They need to go hide somewhere before they drive me insane. Hmm. Maybe something else to buy at Wal-mart.

On another topic, I totally didn't realize how thick 208 pages can be. And, dummy that I am, I didn't realize until I'd already printed 60 pages that I hadn't put in page numbers. Pray to god that I don't drop the damn thing or hold it too close to a fan. (Yikes)

Back from vacation

2007-05-29T07:16:00.000-04:00

So, I take a week or so off from work, writing, the Net, and return to find things sadly changed in blogland. Miss Snark has signed off. I read her good-bye posts after she'd disabled commenting on the blog so I couldn't say a proper thank-you for all she's done for the world of wannabe writers. I'm not yet at the query stage, though I'm about to start revisions on my first project, but I've learned an immeasurable amount about the publishing industry, the query process, etc. that I will undoubtedly carry with me as I draft my first query letters.

She's done a great service to a huge number of people. She's given a generation's worth of author-hopefuls the tools we need to stand out from the crowd of nitwits around us. I'm sure she'll never read this but it's my thank-you to her for the time she invested in helping out the little people ;) Tis sad, but I wish her well.

Happy Mother's Day from the U.S. Army

2007-05-15T07:43:00.000-04:00

My 20-year-old brother is a corporal with the U.S. Army based in Georgia. We've known for a while that he was going to ship out to Iraq sometime in May (for his second tour); they just didn't tell anyone exactly what date it was going to be.

Well, my mother and stepmother got a great Mother's Day gift. Saturday night my brother made the rounds via telephone to tell us all that he was shipping out on Sunday.

Yes, that's right. Mother's Day.

The Army felt the need to ship out troops on Mother's Day.

Now, maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion but I don't really think so. This is hard enough on families as it is, having our sons/daughters/brothers/sisters shipped overseas and wondering if we're ever going to see them again. They have to send them out on Mother's Day?

That's like a slap in the face to all the mothers watching their children go overseas. There are mothers whose kids left on Mother's Day who will not see them again; it's inevitable. We all pray that it won't be our loved ones but there will be kids who shipped out on Sunday who don't make it home. And that is what those mothers will have as their Mother's Day gift.

This isn't to say that those whose family members shipped out on any other day don't have it just as hard ... it's just the symbolism of the thing.

They had to ship them out on Mother's Day?

Crafting a character, part 2

2007-05-14T12:27:00.000-04:00

So, going back to Friday's (I know I said I'd post this on Saturday... whoops) post for a second, the way I described those characters is what I meant by the narrative approach. It's the only way I can get anywhere with my characters, get an understanding of who they are and what's up with them, before I start writing the story. Those were lists in and of themselves, of course, but they were lists of the characters' experiences, the biggest events of their lives that made them who they came to be.

It's all well and good to say someone is quiet and reserved, or angry at the world, or very shy and jumps at his own shadow. To me, that's what that second method I mentioned, the sort of outline thing that I talked about, does. It lists attributes but it doesn't get into why they're like that. You certainly can take that approach with the list but it doesn't lend itself to it. You know?

Until we know why a character is quiet or angry or shy or easily frightened, we don't really know much about that character, do we? Maybe the quiet character was one of ten kids and just craved quiet as a child. Maybe she was yelled at every time she opened her mouth. Maybe the angry one lost both parents as a teenager. Maybe he poured everything he had into a business that just collapsed. Maybe the shy one was an acne-prone dork as a high-schooler. Maybe she... I dunno, but you get the picture. Writing a character description in terms of the character's life experiences is a great jump start, in my opinion, to get you thinking about the person your character has come to be.

I think character flaws are more likely to come out that way, too. We can see the places they haven't necessarily dealt with the events of their lives, the problems they've faced. We can see how they might have chosen to deal with those events in less than productive ways. What if Wedge, from my example the other day, had chosen to join his parents and put himself out of his misery? What if he'd chosen to drink away his problems? He'd be a very different character and the events that occurred surrounding him in Star Wars would have been very different as well. If they happened at all.

I really struggle with creating flaws for my characters but I've managed to come up with some very quickly for the book I'm plotting out right now (different than the one I've been writing for a few weeks) using this approach. Creating backgrounds for my characters amuses me and is, for me at least, a great tool. It doesn't mean I know everything there is to know about my characters before I type "-1-" at the top of my first chapter. But it gets me going, gets me thinking and gives me a direction to go.

What approach do the rest of you take? Has anyone else used the way I use?

Crafting a character, part 1

2007-05-11T12:36:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've broken this up into two pieces because it was getting quite long.

There are a lot of different approaches to creating characters. There's the figure it out as you go along method, by which you more or less just write and the character unfolds and flourishes along with the story. There are the character sheets I've seen (in several different incarnations) with which you go through and give your character eye color, hair color, complexion, favorite book, most prized possession, education, profession, etc. Then there's a narrative approach, whereby you write as if doing a short bio of your character and see what you come up with. I'm sure there are more that I haven't heard of, other ways people use or combinations of the above. But for argument's sake ...

I've tried all three. I, personally, hate the first one because I like to have an understanding of my character before I jump in and this doesn't give me one. I feel lost, like I'm not developing my characters enough. Granted, by the time revision rolls around, I'm much more familiar and able to work in characterization better on the second time through. But still... it makes me feel lost.

The second one bores me. It's a good idea, in a way, because it gets you picturing your character, trying to come up with things about them to help you answer those questions. But usually when I'm doing that I don't have a clue what Mary's favorite book might be or what Chris's hobby is. And so I get bored and it's a sort of "green eyes--check. high cheekbones--check. skip that, skip that, I dunno, skip that too" list and then I give up and resume the seat-of-my-pants approach, so I'm back to step one.

I like the narrative bit. If you point to my favorite characters in a TV show or movie or book series, chances are that it won't take me long to tell you why I like them and chances are that it has to do with the fact that they are incredibly damaged. For instance:

Trent Malloy from Sons of Thunder and Walker, Texas Ranger. He's an ex-Army Special Forces hand-to-hand instructor. Dropped out of seminary to join the Army, fought with his father, never made up with his dad before his dad died, and then has to apply for a hardship discharge to help his mother pay the bills. Not only that, but when he was a kid, he was holding the gun that accidentally killed his younger brother/buddy (not quite clear). As a result, he refuses to touch a gun again, despite the fact that there's not a whole lot other than law enforcement that he's qualified to do. Becomes a PI but still will not arm himself and almost dies because of it.

Very interesting, very damaged, very lovable boy. And cute, too! Fangirlish moments aside... you can see throughout the series the ways in which is problems with his father impact him. And the unwillingness to carry a gun and all that goes along with that -- stubbornness, an almost death-wish mentality at times -- is ever-present and is just a huge part of the character.

Here's another.

Wedge Antilles from Star Wars. He was a family kid, really, helped his parents in their family-owned business. That was all he ever dreamed of. And then they were killed by space pirates. And this kid, this 15-year-old (I think he was 15; age escapes me at the moment), went off after the pirates and killed them. Cold-blooded revenge. And I wouldn't blame him a bit. He went on to become a galaxy-renowned hero but still a relatively simple man who wanted nothing more than to fly his fighter. He didn't want glory and recognition and public appearances. He wanted to make things right in the universe and if he stepped on a few toes on the way, so what. All owing to his roots.

Same thing. Wedge's case is particularly interesting to me because we have two very explicit characteristics almost juxtaposed against each other. Here is a man who will go out of his way, sacrifice everything he has to do the right thing. And yet he's a cold-blooded murderer. And you can see that his willingness to sacrifice everything comes from what he's experienced. He has a need for justice that drives him to the ends of the galaxy. It dictates everything he does and it paints his actions, for the reader (this is all explored more in the Star Wars books than in the movie) in a very different light. And it makes him a very, very 3-dimensional character.

Tomorrow's post will tell y'all where I was going with this...

The Giver

2007-05-10T13:47:00.000-04:00

I just read that Lois Lowry has sold film rights to The Giver. This was pretty much my favorite book when I was a kid and I think it will make a fantastic movie. IMDB has it as in-production and slated for 2007, but no cast list or anything. So cool.

The value of an agent

2007-05-10T12:32:00.000-04:00

The Rejecter responded to a question from someone looking for a way to publish without having an agent, and the comments sparked a couple remarks about the value of agents and why (and whether) they're worth their 15%. Yeah, I suppose it kind of sucks sometimes to think that if you're going to get $10,000 for your book, you're only going to see $8,500 of that--not counting taxes. But I have to say, even as an unpublished author, I think it's more than worth it.

I wouldn't want to try to get published on my own. I don't like the idea of trying to find my way around the industry alone. I wouldn't want to try to decipher a contract or look at a royalty statement or plan my career without the help of someone who actually knows what they're talking about. I want someone there who can answer my questions, give me feedback on an idea before I write the book, give me advice from the perspective of someone in the industry. I want someone there whose job it is to guide me through, to know what has to be done and to do it, because they know how to.

I want someone who's going to help me out. Who knows what to look for in a contract and knows the ways publishing companies try to gear the contracts toward their own interests more than the writers' interests. Because, let's face it, this is a business and people are in it to make the most for themselves--even those legit publishers, the big guys, want to get the best bang for their buck and that's not always in the writer's best interest. An agent knows that.

An agent has the contacts. Knows what the book might be worth. Knows how to play the game. And, though this is coming from someone who hasn't even dealt with an agent, I'd much prefer to have someone who knows who to talk to and how to get things done in my corner, even if it means paying 15%. Gladly.

Reading as a writer

2007-05-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

I used to love to read. When I was in middle school I would take books out of the library in stacks of ten or fifteen. (I lived in a small town and our library had no limits on borrowing, not like some of the bigger ones in other places I've lived.) I read constantly. I made friends at my earliest jobs because I was always sitting in the breakroom or office with a book. I spent lunch, breaks between classes, all my free time at home reading. Then I kind of overdosed on all the assigned reading, books that didn't interest me, in high school and college and lost touch with why I loved to read to begin with. And it's only recently that I've rediscovered it.

Part of why I got back into reading was because I told myself that if I want to write, I need to read. Especially once I started writing young adult and realized I was completely out of touch with what was being published in young adult fiction. And lately I'm just craving a book to read. I've read four books in the last month -- which, given that I have a full-time day job and spend a lot of my time researching, reading blogs, looking at agents, and writing -- is an accomplishment for me.

I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone a couple weeks ago. I've seen a couple of the movies but until I rediscovered why I love to read I had no interest in reading the books. Just didn't, for whatever reason. And it's not that I'm not into fantasy because I am. I grew up on Star Wars (call it what you want but I consider it a mix of sci fi and fantasy with a little bit of every other genre thrown in). I adore The Lord of the Rings films (though I have not yet read the books) and I love the thought of magic and witches and wizards and all that stuff. One of my dreams is to write an epic fantasy and I have all these ideas dancing in my head, though I don't feel I'm accomplished enough as a writer in general (and by accomplished I don't mean published; I just mean experienced enough with creating scenes and situations and characters of my own) to attempt it.

Okay, that was a massive tangent. The point I was heading towards was that, as I read the first few chapters of Sorcerer's Stone, I couldn't help but zone in on all the instances of passive voice, the list-like descriptions of characters, etc., in the book. Writing my own work has affected how I read. And even though, as a writer now, I feel like I'm much more forgiving of typos and little errors here and there (even though I'm still in the writing phase I feel like I have a fair grasp of what actually goes into getting a book on the shelves), I notice all these things more.

Not to say Rowling's writing is bad or anything. Her ability to tell a story, to create this world, astounds me. But the things that we, as novice writers, are told to avoid just jump off the page at me now. It makes me wonder what I'm going to notice when I sit down to edit my first draft. (Yikes!)

Enthusiasm

2007-05-07T13:07:00.000-04:00

I was feeling kind of listless this weekend. I've missed three writing days this week, mainly due to the fact that I've been dragging myself out of bed at 5:20 a couple mornings (read: inhumanly early) to workout and promptly pass out on the couch by about 9 p.m. before I get my writing time in. I wasn't that inspired by my book for some reason and last night really struggled to make my daily goal. I'm still ahead of where I'd planned to be by this time but not by as much as I'd like to be. (Yes, currently, I measure my writing success by how far ahead of my goal I am. Writing to my goal? Bah. I may as well just extend my goal. But I don't. Why, I don't know.)

But this morning, for some reason, my enthusiasm has returned. Couldn't tell you why. Don't have a clue. But now I'm raring to go, just waiting to put my protagonist into deadly peril. Because it's fun to endanger fictional characters and see what they come up with to get themselves out of tough situations.

I wonder if all authors have those times where they don't feel like so much as looking at their text, never mind writing it, and then others where they can't get the story out of their head and just want to write, write, write. I bet they do.

Really, this is just a rambling post without much point to it, but it was just reassuring to me to see my enthusiasm for the story come back on its own. Had me a little worried there for a while ...

Also, random thought of the day: it's very cool to see animals with their natural maternal instinct. I got to see the kittens at my mom's place this weekend. Two weeks old. Momma cat watched us very closely to ensure we didn't hurt her babies. So cute!

Plotting

2007-05-04T12:46:00.000-04:00

There seems to be an everlasting ... discourse on how people approach writing. Some fly completely by the seat of their pants with only the barest sketch of where the book is going to go -- or nothing but an idea. Some spend weeks writing a complete, detailed outline to guide them through the writing process. Some write linearly, everything in order, and some write whichever scenes their muses take them to in whichever order they happen to pop up.

I wonder if the people who swear by one particular approach have been doing it that way from day 1 or if they've grown into it over time. Because I don't have a particular method yet. Everything I write, I approach differently and my method is usually some mish-mash of everything.

There are times I start out with an outline. Then I get bored after I've reached chapter 4 (and mind you, my outline is the barest of bare: "opening scene is Sue being stalked through the cave by the mystery man. second scene is Greg in class.") and just start writing. With the book I just finished the rough draft of, I had no idea who the killer was or what their motivation might be until I was halfway through. And even once I had a killer, I changed it twice in the span of a week.

For my current book, though -- the one that was teasing me oh so much -- I had a pretty good idea of what was going on before I got started. I felt like I have an adequate grasp of the main character, at least. I knew the impetus for the novel and the underlying plot; I know what the protag is going to discover when she starts digging. I know who the supporting characters are -- bare-bones, at least -- and the basic roles they're going to play. I don't know the exact ending but I know where it's supposed to go. This is new for me.

I wonder if this will be my approach from now on. Perhaps limiting myself to planning a new book while I'm still writing a previous one will be good for my plotting and help me grasp my stories better before I start writing them.

So far, I'm sticking to the plan. But I'm only a couple chapters in and throwing all my plotting out the nearest window is definitely not outside the realm of possibility.

I'll keep you posted.

The new age of banned books

2007-05-02T07:44:00.000-04:00

Maureen Johnson, a popular young adult author who I haven't read but now certainly will, has gone and gotten one of her books banned from a high school library. The book in question, The Bermudez Triangle, is an examination of how friendships change when friends begin to date. The apparently problem with the book is that the couple in question is a lesbian couple -- which, according to Maureen, is really not the focus of the book.

Don't people realize that banning a book, in any form, just drives interest in the book? God forbid we let kids think for themselves and learn to formulate their own opinions.

Maureen's blog post includes the comments made by a parent that got the book banned and how she plans to respond. I applaud her.

A blank slate

2007-05-01T18:08:00.000-04:00

My blog name was stolen from the Hemingway quote I have at the top of the page. And I've adopted that quote because I think, ultimately, it's true for most writers. It's much easier, I think, to write when there's already something started on the page in front of you.

I forced myself to take a couple days off from writing after I wrapped up the Twins draft. But the whole time I just wanted to sit down and start writing this story that's been in my head for the last few weeks, beating me with whatever blunt objects it could get its little hands on.

I'm a few thousand words in but it's still, really, a new story. A blank slate, so to speak, even though it's got a few things scribbled on it. I'm getting to play with new friends, get a feel for who they are; only one of my major characters has been introduced so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to bring the next one center stage.

I haven't written myself into any corners yet; everything is going as planned (which, you know, means it's only a matter of time before something blows up in a big way). But I don't have a lot to work with anymore. Writing is about creating, that's true, but there's a big difference between being halfway through a story, having the characters and the groundwork and all that laid out before you, and being close to the beginning with everything still to unfold. It's intimidating, to start over with the new and unfamiliar.

But it's so much fun.

What if...

2007-04-29T21:34:00.000-04:00

On the heels of my discovery post, it's interesting how thoroughly one small (in a manner of speaking) fact can significantly change/add to/recreate a story. I originally wasn't going to have my protagonist in my new book have children. But she insisted so I gave in. And within a day, that simple little decision had created a new subplot. It took a scene I already had in my head and turned it in a slightly different direction. With the same scene, it beefed up a conversation, added to characterization ....

Melissa Marr has talked quite a bit lately on her blog about extras to put on her site and such, and one of the things she was considering were alternates -- directions she opted not to go. Coming from fan fiction, I've seen firsthand how a little change can make a world of difference in a story. It can change how a character develops, who lives and who dies, whether someone spends his life an optimist or bitter at the world. We're well aware, I think, of the big differences -- i.e., what if Luke Skywalker had killed Vader at the end of Empire Strikes Back? But do we ignore the smaller differences? What if Han Solo hadn't been in that particular cantina? What if the Falcon had been caught by the Death Star a day later?

Even the smallest changes can make a huge differences. I know I, as I'm writing, don't give nearly enough thought to the directions I take. Maybe I need to start asking myself "What if..." a little more often.

Discovery

2007-04-27T00:47:00.000-04:00

It's always interesting to see what you discover as you write a book. For instance, in starting my new novel I've learned that my protagonist has multiple children (exactly how many has yet to be determined, though I suspect there are two), has an aunt she isn't particularly fond of, and keeps a jar in her kitchen into which anyone who swears must put a nickel. I've also learned that her brother was older, she didn't do so hot in high school English, and she was relatively young when her father died.

I like her already.

The next book as inspiration

2007-04-25T23:40:00.000-04:00

As I posted a couple weeks ago, I have some lovely new ideas that were just haunting my brain despite the fact that I was hard at work on my other book. I made a promise to myself not to write on them because I didn't want to distract myself from the work I was trying to finish the first draft of.

What I was, however, doing was using the idea as inspiration to get me through the other work. I wanted so badly to start writing it (and, I confess, I'd done some planning of it before I wrapped up the first Taggert Twins draft) that I was making myself focus harder on getting my current one done. And it worked. I wrote about 10,000 words a week the last couple weeks (and that's ignoring that 10k+ words in a single day on Monday). I was writing faster, spending more time at it, and writing more consistently. (Out of the last three weeks there have been three days I didn't write, and only one day when I wrote and didn't make my quota.) And I don't think the writing suffered with the pace.

Part of this is due, no doubt, to the fact that things had really started happening in the book -- the mystery had reached the point where the characters had real suspects and were searching for the evidence and a way to prove it. So I wasn't setting up the story anymore; it's was unfolding. And that was the fun part. It really was. Because when things get going it's so much easier for me to really get pulled into the book. My brain works faster; I type faster. I just get really drawn into the story and it's wonderful.

But the idea hanging over my head for the next book -- an adult mystery -- was definitely encouraging me to focus on the twins. And now that I'm done, I can write it, dammit. Go me!

Visual DNA

2007-04-25T12:49:00.001-04:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

EDIT: It is telling to note that I assumed that the drink I selected was a strawberry daquiri. However, it appears from the summary that it is a smoothie. Damn.

Goal: Attained

2007-04-24T22:14:00.000-04:00

My goal number of words for this book started out at 50,000 words, went to 60,000, and then dropped back down to 55,000. When I completed it today it clocked in at approximately 53,000 words.

Granted, this is a rough draft and God and le Muse only know what it will look like when complete. But I am quite pleased at having completed the draft. I'm happy with 53k, 208 manuscript pages at Times New Roman 12 pt font.

And . . . and . . . and it's completed 42 days ahead of schedule. 42!!! (Isn't that supposed to be the answer to the universe or something?)

My first original book has, in its roughest form, been completed. What a glorious day.

Now, if only I can make good on that whole "shove it in a drawer and not think about it for a month" thing.

The end is in sight

2007-04-23T23:46:00.000-04:00

I have less than 3,000 words to go to hit my goal. Now, I realize that this goal is pretty arbitrary. (1) This is a rough draft and (2) The story will not necessarily end end at the 55,000 word goal that I've set for myself. It could end sooner; probably will. But it is a way of measuring my progress and I need that to keep myself going.

Just like at the gym. I track how many reps, how many sets, what weight I'm using. It keeps me motivated to see my progress, especially during those times when it doesn't feel like I'm actually getting anywhere.

Anyway, I'm 95% of the way to my goal and I wrote over 10,000 words just yesterday. (That, my friends, is a personal best which I may never manage to repeat.) I could have this draft finished in as little as a week. As little as a few days if I really work at it.

This is a huge deal for me because I've never really, really finished a work. I've technically got three long fanfics I've finished, at least one of which was longer than this book. But they were parts of series and I didn't wrap up the loose ends because there was another part yet to be written (that, incidentally, I haven't gotten to). Plus, they were just ... bad.

But this ... this is entirely my own work and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not to say that writing this has been some dark tunnel with no end in sight but ... you know what I mean.

Books have minds of their own

2007-04-23T07:34:00.000-04:00

Writers often talk about their characters taking over, telling the story the way they want it to be told, resisting when the author tries to make them do things that they don't want to do. But, for me at least, it's not just the characters that do that. It's the book as a whole.

I've got a lot of false starts -- as, I think, most writers do. One I simply wrote myself into a corner on. There wasn't enough going on with the main plot to carry the book and I didn't know how to fix it. But the rest ... they just wouldn't come. And with writing the one I've been working on for the last couple months, I've realized why.

It's all well and good to have great ideas, full of conflict and intrigue, but sometimes they just won't work. You can't force a book. If it's resisting, there's a reason and it's up to you as a writer to figure out why. Sometimes it takes a little while to plot things out, depending especially on the type of novel you're writing. But if it just won't come, maybe there's something wrong with what you're trying to make it do.

I've come to believe that the book is going to be your first critic. If what you're doing isn't working, it's going to tell you even when you're writing it. You just have to listen.

"There are no good writers, just good re-writers."

2007-04-22T15:27:00.000-04:00

I've noticed that as I've come to accept that my first draft is going to be lousy (this realization solidified by reading author blogs in which the author talks about the first draft being not right or, in some cases, just not good), my writing goes much quicker. I've taken the pressure off myself to get it right the first time and my ability to get the words out has benefited.

I think this is important to remember, especially in dealing with new characters. I'm hoping that most of what I write will be series/trilogies -- that's the way my current works are designed. But that first book may as well be a standalone for all the background you have with the characters.

At the beginning of the book I don't know my characters. I might "know" their backgrounds and identities -- age, gender, physical appearance, a few key characteristics, what high school and college they went to -- but I don't know who they are, their personalities, how they'll really react to something. (And, of course, even things as fundamental as gender can change ten pages in!) That comes with the writing. Maybe halfway through I'll have a better grasp; maybe it'll take until the end of the first draft. And that way, once I really know the people I'm writing about, I can go back and revise the book to include and reflect my newfound understanding.

There's also a problem I would run into when I wrote fanfiction. One of the hazards of posting something online as you go along is that you can realize halfway through that a particular plot line isn't working, or that you've written yourself into a corner, or that you simply can't figure out a realistic reason for something happening. I think this is inevitable, especially if you don't outline. (I can't outline very well because the events of the book are shaped by what I write. Even if I know where I want to go, I don't generally have a clue how I'm going to get there. And sometimes I don't actually know where I want to go.) Knowing that I'm going to revise takes off the pressure to make everything work the first time.

For instance, just last night I realized that I'm probably going to write out a character who's played a minor but still significant role in what I've written so far. And for the last few weeks I've been struggling with the fact that I have a whole subplot I'm not doing much with and how to work it in. But I'll figure all those things out in the revision stage. In the meantime I'm just going to write.

New Englanders

2007-04-19T15:38:00.000-04:00

You know you're a New Englander when...

Forget Rednecks ... here's what Jeff Foxworthy has to say on New Englanders:

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping it will swim by, you might live in New England.

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Mt. Washington is the coldest spot in the nation, and Boston gets more snow than any other major city in the US, you live in New
England.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you live in New England.

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year, you live in New England.

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance, and they don't work there, you live in New England.

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in New England.

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in New England.

You know you're a new Englander when . . .

"Vacation" means going anywhere south of New York City for the weekend.

You measure distance in hours.

You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

You have switched from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day, and back again.

You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching.

You install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked.

You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend/wife knows how to use them.

You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.

Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

"Down South" to you means Philadelphia.

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new shed.

Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

You find 10 degrees "a little chilly."

filched from here

The online community

2007-04-18T07:38:00.000-04:00

I didn't know anyone at Virginia Tech. I haven't lost anyone close to me. But by virtue of being a part of the online community, I'm affected by it more than I would otherwise have been.

I'm sure by now most people have heard that Jamie Bishop, the son of author Mike Bishop, was among those killed in the shootings. I have no connection to the family but people in publishing, people's whose blogs I read, etc. do and as such I feel it a little more deeply, having a name and an identity to go along with the news headlines.

I've heard friends I've never met in real life, people who live hundreds of miles from me, talk about having close friends or family they couldn't get in touch with in the minutes or hours after the shooting started. People on message boards and livejournal who I've never met, maybe never spoken to, talk about their reactions and their friends and family and I feel far more connected to it than I otherwise would.

Does anyone else feel a stronger connection to events just by being part of this online community we all share, through blogs and LJ and message boards?

Public Service Message

2007-04-13T20:28:00.000-04:00

I feel a need to say this. You may ignore at your leisure.

Not all accountants do taxes.

I know, you're shocked.

But it's true.

I'm an accountant. I detest taxes. I don't even want to think about them. They nearly give me anxiety attacks just thinking about them. My job does not involve me doing taxes. Thank God, or I would need anti-psychotic meds.

Yes, I'm doing my taxes right now. And give me credit, I have four days left. After today. Last year I did them the day before. I'm ahead of the game. Go me.

Taxes suck. Take it from an accountant.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Don't let me do it!

2007-04-11T22:09:00.000-04:00

With two books currently in progress, I just got another idea. Another young adult, this time suspense. I think. It's sketching itself out in my brain and slowly ... taking ... hold.

I absolutely cannot start writing it right now. I have to finish the ones I have. Have to. So, my friends, if I mention that I started anything else, you are to please beat me over the head with the manuscript to my current works. I will supply said manuscripts. (No, planning doesn't count because I have no control over when lovely ideas hit me. So there. :-P )

As Ally Carter said in a blog entry a while ago, if it's truly a good idea it'll still be with me when I reach the point when I can actually write it.

(But, oh, it's such a lovely idea... just sitting there... waiting)

FYI

2007-04-06T10:54:00.000-04:00

Just an FYI for anyone interested, my Web site now includes summaries and excerpts from both my current works. And I've officially run out of things to put on it so if anyone has any suggestions/things they'd like to see, either drop me a line or comment :)

Woohoo!

2007-04-05T08:11:00.000-04:00

My domain is working now. The OfficeLive instructions neglected to mention a couple steps. *mutters*

Anyway, HeatherJanes.com is officially open for business!

That is all.

Barnes & Noble on Young Adult fiction

2007-04-04T21:09:00.000-04:00

Kristin Nelson posted today on hearing from an editor that BN will not be expanding their shelf space devoted to young adult fiction, despite the continued growth in the category.

This is depressing. Not just because I'm writing YA, which I am, but in general.

My ambitions of selling YA fiction aside, I think it's depressing to see how little shelf space there actually is for YA books. Don't we WANT kids reading? There is, in my opinion, a disproportionate amount of shelf space for adult fiction. Most nonfiction is geared toward adults as well. Young adult, when I've walked into BN and Borders, has a restricted amount of shelf space and little attention paid to it by the booksellers.

If they're worried about shelf space, maybe they should look at shrinking down their music and movie sections. We have stores for those products and they're usually cheaper elsewhere too.

When in doubt, cause trouble

2007-04-03T20:46:00.000-04:00

Donald Maass's book Writing the Breakout Novel, talks a ton about increasing conflict. Specifically, he tells his readers to find scenes and ask themselves what's the worst that can happen. It truly makes things more interesting.

I mean, really, what's more interesting to you as a reader? A kid's birthday party or a kid finding out that his father is breaking his promise to be at his birthday party? A woman finding her dream guy or finding out that her dream guy is SO not what he seems? A man who finds out that his wife is going to have a baby or a man finding out that his high school sweetheart, who is NOT his wife, HAS a baby--and it's his?

Also, from a writing perspective, writing comes a lot easier to me when I'm causing trouble with my characters. Their thoughts, reactions, the reactions of those around them, etc. SO fun.

Switching between first and third

2007-04-01T12:56:00.000-04:00

I've never really written from first person POV before; I almost always use third, except for a couple vignettes. But I've really come to enjoy writing from first person. Much more space for character exploration -- of the MC at least -- and it's interesting to have the reader only see every other character, every situation through one person's eyes. A lot of opportunity to skew something and (maybe) catch the reader off-guard a little later. Keep them interested, keep them wondering.

But I'm working on two stories right now. One is first person and the other is third. And damn is it hard to switch between the two. I thought that keeping track of which character I was writing from was hard enough but trying to remember that, no, I'm not actually inside Jace Taggert's mind is even harder.

We get to kill people

2007-03-30T11:29:00.000-04:00

Quick post.

There's something very cool about being a murder mystery writer. Murder mystery writers are the only people who can say "I would kill for... X" and can actually do it. (There have definitely been times I would have happily found a way to work in the death of a main character if I could just have a slice of Boston Cream Cheesecake.)

We're also the only people who can take out our frustrations by killing people and not, you know, get life without parole for it.

Also, if anyone's tried to access my site, I've changed the host and the domain and host are still trying to communicate with each other (or whatever the technical language is) so the site comes up cannot be displayed. Hopefully it will be back online soon, should be sometime over the weekend.

Once in a while I feel like I can write

2007-03-22T08:41:00.000-04:00

There are all these quotes, if you look at all for writing quotes, about how everyone has trouble writing and how first drafts are terrible and its only after revision that most people's writing looks like it might actually be publishable. That's generally how I feel as I go about my first draft and I don't worry too much about it because I know that by the time I'm ready to revise I'll have a much better grasp on where the story is going and who these characters are that like to yank me in whatever direction they fancy.

But occasionally I write a line or a snippet of dialogue that I really like that makes me feel like someday I could actually be published. That happened last night. I was kind of blocked on something and writing just to write, just to try to jump start my brain. So most of what I wrote will probably be worked over quite a bit in revision but there are one or two lines that I sort of impressed myself with.

Once in a while I do that. There's one line, which I wrote for a western fanfic, that actually has stuck in my head ever since I wrote it, quite a long time ago. A character, college-educated, was talking about being locked in an iron box in a prison in the South during the Civil War and said "It was like they were paying us back in kind for the burning of Atlanta." I think it's pretty good; you don't have to agree. But writing a line you really like is a real self-esteem booster.

Notes and tongue rings

2007-03-20T23:37:00.000-04:00

Also known as characters who decide that they're going to do their own thing and you'd better just be happy with it.

Laura Bradford at Good Girls Kill for Money made a rather timely post on the subject of characters that just pop out of the woodwork and wave and say "hey, here I am, whether you like it or not." I say timely because I had that exact thing happen to me this weekend with my young adult. This girl just decided to grace me with her presence. She decided she knows what's going on and that she's going to have a little fun with me and the rest of my cast, by way of a totally cryptic note that wrote all on her own.

And now one of my MCs, who had been behaving herself quite nicely up to now (well, as nicely as can be expected of a college freshman), decides she's going to have a tongue ring. I wonder what it looks like... I'm thinking a little silver ball but Krista doesn't seem quite that traditional... probably something neon colored to match her outfits.

You know you're a writer when

2007-03-20T17:27:00.000-04:00

... you spend a disproportionate amount of time at work editing technical memos for passive voice.

*head hits desk ... hard*

Also:

... you interrupt your own internal thought processes to rephrase things that are never going to leave your head

... you read signs and think to yourself 'now I would have said it this way

... you get excited to have access to all the deals on Publishers Marketplace because you finally caved and bought a membership despite being four months from the query stage

I'm sure there are more if I think hard enough but I need my brainpower for writing so I don't want to hurt myself.

And this has nothing to do with writing whatsoever but WHY is House not on this week?? Stupid American Idol (I know, I know. Blasphemy. But the show just doesn't do it for me.)

So, I have a dilemma...

2007-03-19T16:30:00.000-04:00

In my YA work my two POV characters have various magical abilities. Now, they know why they have them and what they can do. So do the other main characters (and the MCs don't want anyone else to know). And I know why they have them and what they can do. But whoever reads the story doesn't unless the summary of the story tells them that these characters are (fill in the blank because I don't feel like telling you. Ha!).

So, the question is do I (1) just gradually let people figure out what these characters are or (2) use some sort of exposition to tell readers what the characters are?

What would you prefer as a reader? And I know I'm being totally vague here so here's an example:

Watching Star Wars, would you rather see Obi-wan moving objects and messing with people's minds without the movie telling you until a good distance in that he's a Jedi or do you want to know up front?

Melissa Marr actually was the impetus for this question. She's got a couple entries on these lines.

Top 10 Publishers in the US of A

2007-03-19T11:37:00.000-04:00

Michael S. Hyatt, President & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, posted graphs showing the Top 10 Trade Publishers and Top 10 Christian Publishers in the US. See here if you're interested (come on, you know you are!)

Wow

2007-03-16T10:37:00.000-04:00

Wow. Just, wow.

Scammers

2007-03-15T19:35:00.000-04:00

I've spent some time sifting through Absolute Write's Bewares and Background Check forum. I'm still far from the query stage but it's good to keep informed.

I can't stress enough how important it is that anyone querying be sure to research the agents they're considering. There are a million and one resources out there. Remember the warning signs: no sales; relationships with editing companies; upfront fees including reading fees, critique fees, editing fees; unsolicited referrals to editing companies and unsolicited offers of reputation are the big ones but I'm sure there are others.

Check out
Miss Snark
Writer Beware Blogs
20 Worst Agents
Association of Authors Representatives (AAR)
Preditors and Editors (P&E)
Writer Beware

Domain

2007-03-15T10:38:00.000-04:00

When I joined myspace yesterday, I couldn't make my page myspace.com/heatherjanes because someone else already had it, so I put my middle initial in instead and that's what I ended up with. But that got me thinking about the possibility that someone could take my name as a domain name. When I (note the optimism of not using 'If') finally get published, I plan to use just my first and last names, not my middle initial (blame Miss Snark for that), so I want my eventual author Web site to be just my first and last names.

Ooookay, the point of that diatribe is to say that I bought a domain name. HeatherJanes.com is now my domain, not that I have a real Web site for it. It currently redirects here, though I might redirect it to my bravehost site, which has a link to the blog anyway.

Does anyone know of good hosting programs? I don't know HTML beyond simplistic tags.

Also, does anyone have suggestions for what types of stuff I could put on my Web site when, eventually, I put a real one together (meaning, not a free bravehost site), and before I have, y'know, actual books to advertise on it?

Randomness

2007-03-14T21:06:00.000-04:00

I finally joined MySpace, so you can go see my pretty page here. Essentially, I've found another way to waste time and distract myself from my writing ;) Willpower. I need willpower!

I picked up Laura Durham's (one of the Cozy Chicks) book Better Off Wed and a couple books by Joan Lowery Nixon. Now I have to find the time to read them. Along with Stephen King's On Writing and the other writing books my aunt gave me for Christmas that I haven't read yet. And the Clancy and Ludlum books I bought last summer and haven't read yet.

I've also added several more agent and author blogs to my links here. I haven't updated my site yet, mostly because I haven't gotten around to it.

What I really need to do is disconnect myself from the Net for awhile... I'm way too big a procrastinator.

First Lines

2007-03-14T15:31:00.000-04:00

I was looking for some great first lines of novels, hoping to find some inspiration, and I came across this list of the American Book Review's 100 Best First Lines From Novels. And on it was this quote:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

There is just something about those few lines...

And the original dark and stormy night:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. —Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Someday I hope to write something half as incredible as these...

"Golden Age of Young Adult Literature"

2007-03-13T18:27:00.000-04:00

From MediaBistro to Kelly Parra, Laurie McLean, and Nathan Bransford, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports Teens buying books at fastest rate in decades. I can only hope that this holds true for a good, LONG while... while I finish my book, find an agent, find a publisher, go through revision, and get the book on shelves.

This being, of course, contingent on my (1) finishing my book, (2) finding an agent, and (3) finding a publisher...

Inevitable

2007-03-11T22:30:00.000-04:00

It's inevitable; I get going on writing something and then start second-guessing and saying "well, I think I might be able to write this other story better than the one I'm working on now" or "I really think this other idea might sell better than the one I'm working on now."

And this time it's not even that what I'm writing isn't cooperating; it is. I wrote over 6,000 words in two days and, granted, I've since slowed down, but it's still coming. So it's not frustration. I think it's just self-doubt. And it's totally annoying.

But the only way I'm going to get past it is if I stick to what I'm doing and just git 'er done, right? So I'm going to be optimistic and say that I'm going to write this and the first agent I send it to is going to fall in love with it and it'll sell for six figures at auction.

Not that I actually believe all that (I really, really try not to delude myself) but if I'm going to think positive, I may as well go all the way, right?

Of names and Google

2007-03-09T21:11:00.000-05:00

Ever since I started this blog, I've googled myself, I admit. I choose to ignore the fact that no one knows my name enough that they'd actually want to google me though eventually, like when I start querying, someone might actually look me up. I've read, I think on Miss Snark's blog, people talking about their concerns over what comes up when their name is googled. I'm not concerned; I figure agents are smart enough to realize that the Web is full of all sorts of wild and crazy things -- and, y'know, people.

I'm not concerned; I'm just amused.

If I google my name, in quotes, this blog is the 7th result and my user profile on blogger is the 8th. The amusing part is the 10th result, which is apparently a porn story. It would seem that some writer managed to give my exact first and last name to a character in a porn story they wrote. Heh. Like I said, amusing.

But that brings me to another, only slightly related topic. When I name characters I go to great lengths to avoid using names of people I know. Or, if I use the first names of people I know (I mean, come on, there are some names that it's just damn hard to avoid using), then I try to make them minor characters. Does anyone else ever wonder if they've given their characters names of real people?

I should google some of my characters, see what pops up.

Y'know, if I ever googled myself and came up with a book that had my name for a character, I might read it. So long as it wasn't porn. That would freak me out.

Fickle

2007-03-08T12:19:00.000-05:00

I might be the most fickle author ever. I've changed the story I'm writing yet again. Started over, fresh, anew, again.

I've decided to view this as finding myself as a writer. I've been trying too hard, I think, to write what I hope will sell rather than writing what I will truly enjoy writing.

I think - maybe, hope? - I've got something going now that will go somewhere. So far, it is. It's working; the characters are creating themselves as much as I'm creating them. The plot just came to me - well, as much of it as I have at the moment.

I'm not forcing it, and I think that's key.

There's a blog post here at "Good Girls Kill for Money" that talks a little about forcing it and listening to your gut when something just isn't right, isn't working.

On a total other note, does anyone else tend to type "write" when they mean "right"? I do it constantly...

College-age detectives?

2007-03-06T09:41:00.000-05:00

Can anyone think of any detective series with college-age students as the protagonists? Other than the old Nancy Drew on Campus series?

Agents who don't rep suspense

2007-02-23T22:17:00.000-05:00

Why is it that the agents I just love - Nadia Cornier, Rachel Vater, Kristin Nelson, Jenny Rappaport, Lori Perkins - don't rep my chosen genre, suspense? I'm trying to figure out if suspense is just not as popular a genre among agents or if agents who rep suspense just don't blog as much. I mean, there are a few - the gals at BookEnds, the Knight Agency - who do suspense, and I like them. But it's disappointing to see that so many of the agents I feel familiar with don't rep my genre.

And then there's Miss Snark, who seems like she would and who I feel like I'd love to have as my agent, but the whole not knowing who she really is thing makes it kind of difficult.

And, yeah, I just totally felt like whining.

And, an update on my post from a few hours ago. I put my political fiction on hold. I really think that, career-wise, starting out in the genre I ultimately want to end up in.

Genre troubles

2007-02-23T14:24:00.000-05:00

Lori Perkins blogged recently about how your second novel should be published in the same genre as your first. The book I'm currently writing is political fiction. But I know that my second novel will most likely be a thriller. A political thriller, yes, but definitely not within the same genre lines as the one I'm writing now.

I'm considering... not necessarily putting it on hold, but putting it on the back burner, so to speak, to write something more in the genre I'd really like to write in and maybe write that in whatever free time I might ever have.

Holly Lisle, a fantasy writer, mentioned having another novel, outside her chosen genre, that she worked on once a week or so.

But I desperately don't want to set aside a second book in the matter of only a few months.

In case anyone's ACTUALLY interested...

2007-02-22T17:19:00.000-05:00

I've started a dumb little web site here, just to say I have one. It's quite boring and very free, and I have next to know web design ability, which is why it's quite boring and free.

Anyway, there it is.

Warning: character coming through

2007-02-21T15:13:00.000-05:00

So, just by virtue of considering changing the POV in which my novel, it's taken off in a completely new direction. One particular character just took over the whole damn thing. The perspective has changed, the main character has changed, characterization of at least a couple people has changed, and parts of the plot have changed.

Huh.

Who woulda thought?

Focus

2007-02-19T14:39:00.000-05:00

Why is it that I'm incapable of focusing on one project at a time? I have the book I'm working on -- that is going fairly well, mind you, save for the characters still being sorta flat (but I figure I can fix that on revision, once I know them better) -- but I've got a great idea for another book, that I've written half a synopsis for. (I'm sure the synopsis will change as I write but I figure this might give me some guidance for when I actually start writing.)

It's like I get bored with what I'm working on and want to move on to something else, but that isn't very conducive to actually completing a book and trying to get it published now is it?

Characters

2007-02-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

I've realized that the part of my original writing I struggle with the most is the characterization. My originals seem stiff because I don't really know the characters.

The fanfic I've written in the past has been great for stuff like building a storyline, developing a plot, and expanding characterization. But by the time I'd decide to write fan fiction about a book/movie/tv show, I knew the characters I was playing with -- who they liked and disliked, what they did for a living and why, what their relationships were like.

Not so with originals.

I can't get myself engaged with my characters, because I don't know enough about them. I'm trying to write histories of the major ones but I stall out.

Why can't characters cooperate?

Been a while

2007-02-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a while since I posted here, a combination of (1) frustration at abandoning my first work, (working title was Summit) because I had to face facts and accept that there was just not enough going on to carry the story, (2) crazy hours at work and (3) a resumption of fanfic writing to regain my confidence and work a little more on truly developing a story.

But I'm back, and with a new idea in hand. This is a political fiction, about a campaign for the Presidency (with a twist, of course, because otherwise who would care?) But I'm a little concerned because I'm just not sure it's the type of book that would sell, no matter how well written. It doesn't have a specific genre, other than (maybe) mainstream fiction.

And then there was this little article, Why Americans Can't Write Political Fiction," a long essay-sort of piece on the faults with every political fiction work of the 20th century, which even assails Joe Klein's famed Primary Colors, which doesn't give me tons and tons of confidence.

At any rate, the piece I'm writing now is something that I can care about, with characters who are already taking on their own souls, so to speak, so I'm going to run with it. You're supposed to write what you know, and write for yourself rather than just what you think will sell, right?
But the gist I get is that political fiction doesn't tend to leave room for character development, and I write character-driven work first and foremost, so maybe... you never know, I guess.

Of... The Day Job

2006-11-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

Michael Bourret at Dystel and Goderich wrote a recent post suggesting that authors keeping their day jobs. He's definitely not the first; I'm pretty sure I've seen such comments on every agent blog I've read. Don't go into writing for the money; you won't make any. Don't quit your day job until you make enough money writing to cover what you make from your day job. Holly Lisle has a series of small articles on the subject too. I suggest anyone looking to quit their job and live off his or her writing read them first.

The problem with keeping the day job, especially where I am now (which is to say, working on the first, probably not publishable, novel) is that the paying day job has to come first. And right now (I wrote "write" instead of "right" there... I do that a lot) I'm out of my house from 7 am until after 8 pm. And taking a class. And then there's the whole matter of having to eat and, y'know, sleep once in a while. It doesn't leave much time for writing.

Most of the stuff I've read about writing professionally says that unless you can force yourself to come home after a long day of work and write, you'll struggle to force yourself to write if that becomes your only job. (Am I making sense here?) And there are the references to people staying up all hours of the night, or getting up early in the morning to write.

And it makes me question myself, because that isn't me. I just can't function on less than, say, 5 hours of sleep (usually need at least six if I've been missing sleep, which is often). I'll stay up til four in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights, but that's because I can sleep in on Saturday and Sunday mornings. But beyond that, I just can't write for more than an hour a day right now, and it leaves me asking myself if I "have what it takes." Y'know?

I know that some of y'all reading this are fan fiction writers. If you're diligently working on a story, how do you go about finding the time to write. Do you take your current project(s) seriously and force yourself to find the time, or do you write when you get the chance and whatever?

Un-published writer wannabes, you too. When do you write? How do you find the time?

Published authors (if any read this, those with and without day jobs), do you stay up all hours, get up a few hours before work all the time? Just with deadlines looming? What's your style?

On prologues and the beginnings of books...

2006-11-26T17:05:00.000-05:00

Back in the swing of writing after the holiday, and hopefully back to blogging more regularly, as I promised what, a week ago?

I'm almost 40% through my book and keeping a constant eye toward revision. To that end I was wondering something.

Do y'all ever read prologues in fiction novels, or do you bypass them completely?

The agents whose blogs I read view prologues with, for the most part, utter and complete disdain. They're poorly written, useless, meaningless, waste of time, don't make sense except in the context of the entire book.

So, what do you non-agent readers think of them? Worth having? Or should I consider scrapping it in my rewrite?

More regular blogging coming soon...

2006-11-21T09:48:00.000-05:00

The job I'm on is drawing to a close, and I'll have at least a few days of more regular blogging and writing time before the next one picks up, even with the holidays coming.

But I wanted to post the following for anyone who hasn't seen it yet:

OJ Simpson Book Cancelled

About time.

I confess...

2006-11-16T16:20:00.000-05:00

I have not written much lately; I've been working some later hours and it's been one of those weeks where I lie down for a few minutes at night and just don't get up. (No lie, I lay down last night for a quick fifteen minute nap, and woke up at 5 am. FIVE am. I should have just stayed up and written for a few hours.)

And tonight I'll have homework to do, but I'm writing tonight if it kills me. I should be refreshed, raring to go, full of ideas.

Right?

(I'll let you know how that goes.)

I've also made the decision to start reading more, too. Because, how can I write when I don't read?? I'm starting with a Catherine Coulter novel my mom loaned me (the title escapes me now) and then I'll move on to the Clancy and Ludlum books I bought a while ago but never got around to reading. I'll let you know how this goes, too.

I also might pick up Ally Carter's I'd Tell You I Love You but then I'd Have to Kill You for some lighter reading. It's supposed to be very good. Young adult, but nonetheless...

30,000

2006-11-13T11:59:00.000-05:00

Broke 30,000 words on Sunday. (Yay!) And got feedback from family on my my Summit Prologue and my romantic suspense summary.

I also came to the conclusion that I won't be writing romantic suspense, per se, but rather a suspense novel with a heavy romantic theme. I have nothing against category romance -- for one, they're huge sellers. And whatever people choose to write or read is their own choice, and its all about what serves our needs as readers and writers (making us think, educating us, escapism, whatever). But I just can't envision myself writing category romance. I don't think I could write a 60,000-word novel. (Props to those who can, though.)

So now I think I'll be making my second book "chick lit suspense" rather than romantic suspense... maybe. Something like that.

And does anyone know what liquor stores are called in various European nations?

Not a bad day...

2006-11-10T01:16:00.000-05:00

Got a fair amount of work done today; a fair amount of writing done as well. As I write this, though, I'm not convinced it's falling firmly into the thriller genre; I just don't think my writing is tight enough, fast-paced enough. I don't see a sense of urgency in the writing yet.

I think part of the problem is that it's building up to things; things are happening, but nothing big and important that demands the quick pace and the can't-wait-to-turn-the-page type of reading. I'm hoping a couple things: 1) it feels more drawn out than it is because I'm writing it a couple thousand words at a time, 2) I can tighten it up when I go through revision.

Otherwise... hmm.

I'll just make a couple friends read it when I'm done and see what they think from a reader perspective.

Of politics, writing, and Bobby

2006-11-09T00:55:00.000-05:00

Holy cow. After watching the ad for Bobby and seeing who I thought was Anthony Hopkins, I checked the cast listing. Sure enough, Anthony Hopkins. Also about a thousand other big name actors. This movie is going to be fabulous. I absolutely cannot wait!

This election day needs to, y'know, end. AP calls Virginia, Webb is claiming he's won, but CNN won't call it and Allen hasn't conceded. So, yeah. The fate of the Senate is in limbo. Over Virginia. This is almost as bad as waiting on Ohio in 2004.

And, on the subject of CNN, when they've been announcing about AP calling the race for the last three hours, I don't know that it qualifies as breaking news anymore.

And on writing, since it's in my post title... I'm making myself go to bed early tonight, though I am hoping to at least manage 1000 words. Tomorrow's got to be a big day, work-wise,
and I'm already exhausted.

Tell me what you think...

2006-11-08T16:45:00.000-05:00

This is an idea I just sketched -- I'm forever trying to think of more book ideas, because if I don't, I know that by the time I finish my first book I'll end up staring at a blank page with absolutely no idea what to write about.

Please, please, please tell me what you think (i.e., would you read it, or is it utter drivel?)

I promise there's action. Maybe even death.

[Character 1] has a life anyone would love to have: shootouts at 10,000 feet, explosions that light up the southern sky, and drug lords stalking her through the streets of Miami are just a part of her normal day -- though the explosions get a little monotonous after a while. As a change of pace, the Bureau sends her back home in pursuit of one [Character 2]. He's sexy, smooth, suave -- and a contract killer. Sparks fly, and it isn't long before [Character 1] is reminding herself that the attraction is all part of the job.

But [Character 2] has his own agenda, and [Character 1] fits perfectly. But, "the best laid plans...often go awry" and soon [Character 1] and [Character 2] are running from the mob, and forced to rely on each other just to stay alive. Of course, it's all moot if they kill each other first.

James Carville is God

2006-11-07T20:51:00.001-05:00

The man is just a trip. Listen to him sometime. And check out his site.

Quite pleased to see the Democrats take back the House (finally!!), and biting my nails over the Senate results. Way too close for comfort! Absolutely amazing that, so far at least, no Democratic incumbents lost. Fabulous, especially considering 2004. (painful still)

I've lost all respect for Lieberman in this campaign, because for all his campaign claimed Lamont ran negative ads, he was even worse. This campaign season here in Connecticut was just atrocious overall though. It's sad.) Funny, though, that they're still counting Lieberman as a Democratic regarding control of the Senate. Doesn't make sense to me, but, hey, I'll take it.

And, congrats to Nancy Pelosi. Let's hear it for the first woman Speaker. Third in line for the Presidency. This is ENORMOUS! She is a fabulous public speaker, too. Impressive. *applauds*

Pelosi for President, anyone?

And on the subject of President.... I absolutely cannot wait until Bobby hits the theaters. I will go and see it alone if I have to. Je t'adore Kennedys!

And on the writing front, I'm not matching my numbers from last night (not by a long shot) but I think that the whole election night thing is a valid reason. Plus, i spent almost an hour reading Skillman's book. And I've still written over 1700 words today. Am happy.

Writing the Thriller

2006-11-07T19:53:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh. So excited I can barely stand it. (And, no, this is not about the possibility of the Democrats taking back one or both houses of Congress. Though that would be fabulous, I'm not holding my breath.) I found an affordable (read: less than $100) copy of Trish Skillman's Writing the Thriller on Amazon.com last week. It was actually only like $15 or $20, which was awesome. But anyway, I got it today and I can hardly wait to read it.

The only problem being that if I read it, and watch "House" (I must watch "House") and watch the election returns come in (how the heck am I gonna do that if I'm watching "House"?), that doesn't bode well for getting much writing done...

Writing the Thriller, "House," and fudge (did I forget to mention fudge?). All is well.

Back later, either to cry or brag over the election results. We shall see.

E-day!

2006-11-07T18:02:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving soon to go and vote. Though this is not the first time I've been in a polling place (the first time I was a poll runner for the 2004 NH Primary), it's my first time voting in a polling place. (Up til now, I was always away at school and so I voted absentee. Not that 45 minutes or so is a long drive, but there's no guarantee between classes and work that I'd have been able to make it home.)

Anyway, please please please go and vote if you're registered. And if you aren't... why??? You'd better have a good excuse. Miss Snark, though, says it better than me, as does Jenny Rappaport but then, that's not surprising.

And does anyone know how to make the body of these blogs a little wider? I used to know...

Heather

I've decided that I like middles

2006-11-07T01:30:00.000-05:00

I adore Holly Lisle, because she has done just so much with her site (click here) to try to help and educate hopeful writers. I can't say how much I learned about writing and about the business from reading that site. I highly recommend it to everyone, regardless of your preferred genre. And this paragraph, from her article on "Middles," makes me laugh every time I think of it.

So here I am, right at the end of the middle, finally remembering all the things I intended to do at the beginning (but didn't do), with a bunch of tap-dancing clowns singing the Star-Spangled Banner and a dancing bear who refuses to eat the clowns (though I wish he would), and my fireworks are exploding in the wrong places and at the wrong times, and I'm on that tightrope that now consists almost entirely of Celtic and Gordian knots, but they're tied around my ankles so that if I cut them I fall and if I don't cut them I'm stuck.

Boy, do I hate middles.

I used to feel that way myself; I could get started, and wrap things up relatively well, but in the middle I'd lose direction and work in all sorts of things that I didn't need, that really didn't work with the plot, etc. (No dancing bears yet, though.) But with this current book, I have decided that I much prefer middles. I have struggled so much to get this damn thing going, but tonight I wrote over 3,300 words. Only twice since I started writing this have I met my goal of 2,200 words per night, and tonight was the second time. It just flows so much better for me when things start happening. All the introduction, set-up, etc. just kills me.

So I hate beginnings and Holly hates middles (*makes mental note to read one of Holly's books - they are fantasy and look quite intriguing*).

I am now feeling much better about my book than I have of late, despite being very far behind where I'd like to be.

I've decided that I'm going to print a couple copies of whatever I have written by the time Thanksgiving comes around and bring them with me to my father's and my mother's and see if I can't convince (read: coerce, threaten or blackmail) people into giving some sort of (even broad) feedback.

Now if only I could visit Germany and actually see the places I'm writing about.

Ha, right. Maybe with my first movie advance.

Hallo

2006-11-06T13:57:00.000-05:00

(In the spirit of my book, set in Germany and all that)

I do have a livejournal account, but I really prefer the look of blogspot so I'm going to make most of my writing-related posts over here.

Below (and this may look familiar, as I've posted it on my LJ account as well) is the query-letter-version of my synopsis for my as-yet-untitled manuscript, which is a murder mystery/political thriller. If you happen to find it interesting/intriguing/annoying/utter blather, please let me know. And if it raises any questions in your mind, by all means post them. I may not answer them here, but I will attempt to answer them in my book. ;-)

German detective Josef Brandt responds to the murder of American diplomat Russell Fisk at the very hotel where the G8 Summit is scheduled to open in just two days, certain that the motive is obvious: someone has taken politics a little too far. CIA Agent Chelsea LaBrecque is anything but pleased when she is assigned to baby-sit Brandt's investigation, but she isn't about to fight the Director.

Chelsea and Josef discover that Fisk's murder is just a small part of an attempt to keep a long-held secret. As they track a killer connected to one of the most powerful men in the world, they must consider which is more important: that the truth be exposed or that foreign relations between the world's greatest nations not be jeopardized.