Plowing through everything

Saturday morning, and I am wondering what to do with my time. My husband is going to work, and I am done with the following: work for my class in improving my online class; the manuscript in both paperback and kindle; the cover to my book; several advertisements for the book; revamping my new blog; fixing some errors in the new blog ...

Oh, yes, I remember now. I need to start plotting Kringle in the Night. Even though it's still September and NaNo is a month and a half away.

Times like this I wonder if I'm on a hypomania binge because I'm SO productive. I still seem to be sleeping; in fact I slept in this morning.

If this is normal, I'll take it.

The Author Jitters

I've been focusing too much on the novel. Ok, maybe not too much. I have the cover properly sized and titled and the like, I have copies both for hardback and e-book, I have formatted and proofread (again!) and I'm still worried about whether it's good enough.

I'm dropping the novel November 1 (not November 15 as I said before). I am way ahead. Once I get my favorite beta reader's notes in, I could finish the submission. All is good, but I'm still panicking.

I have other things to focus on (besides work, of course). I could start plotting for NaNo in November. I will be writing the sequel to The Kringle Conspiracy, known as Kringle in the Dark. NaNo has a prepping self-guided class that will get me into November in good shape. I just need to focus on them.

I have to be a bit less antsy with this writing thing. 

Meh.

I took a break from the blog yesterday because I've been working on my online presence for spring classes (all done; assignments are where they should be with due dates as they should be) and working on Whose Hearts are Mountains (which isn't a total mess, but a frustrating problem with how to make more tension in the first half.)

I'm at 67k (67 hours) for NaNo, at least 50 of that going to the big edit of Gaia's Hands. I've almost quit posting time because I'm so far over my time.

Today I am going to spend as much time as I can stand on Whose Hearts are Mountains, but I don't know how much that will be because I'm feeling a bit underwhelmed. Not upset, not depressed, just underwhelmed with my writing. Meh.

Not doing that again.

I'm still done with NaNo. And my brain is fried. 

Five hours a day editing seemed really rational while I was doing it, but I feel like half the month has passed without me really noticing.  (It's only one third of the month.) I've managed to get all my "work-work" done during that time period, strangely enough.

I've promised to continue doing NaNo, but only two hours a day. Maybe. If I can manage it. 

Now back to final read of Gaia's Hands, which has turned out to be far, far better than it was on first writing.

50K!

I just made my 50k words for NaNoWriMo (actually 50 hours, as I was rebelling this year by editing) in 10 days. That's 5 hours a day, which means I wasn't doing much of anything else but writing in my spare time. 

It was insane. On the other hand, I think I have Gaia's Hands to the point where, after a friend reads it, I could publish it. I think I learned a lot about editing. And focus. And feeling braindead at the end of a day.

I will finish a read-through on it, and then, I will probably start on Whose Hearts are Mountains. Only 2 hours a day, though. And it's going to take a lot more work, because it has structural problems in the first third. 

Time to pass out now.

NaNo day 5

25 hours (25K words) on NaNo. I'm very lucky I have the time to do this (aided greatly by the fact that I don't watch tv and I have an excellent attention span.) I wish I could find those excellent graphics that NaNo offered us!

The hard part comes ahead -- so far the path to revision (including adding material) has been easy, with some of my best writing happening. Now I know things that are going to happen but not quite what to do there. Wish me luck!

Day 4 NaNo

20.000 words. I'm really pushing myself on this because I want to be done (which means still working on the project but done with NaNo hours) before Thanksgiving. Phew!

It's November First?!?

I'm sorry for not writing yesterday -- I was pretty sick.

I've been fighting a cold or something over the past two weeks, but yesterday morning it went supernova -- I ached so badly I couldn't move, I coughed constantly, had a sore throat -- so I stayed home and slept for 20 hours. 

Only to wake up on November 1st and realize -- OMG, it's NANO TIME!

So today, as promised, I have to spend at least two hours today editing*, something I have been avoiding up till now. Two hours. When am I going to do this? When?

Deep breath. I have time after 2 PM today, being that it's a Friday and all and there won't be any meetings today. And I have a place -- the Board Game Cafe.

All I need now is the initiative.

Oh, by the way, I had a poem make Submittable's Rejection Horror Stories 2019. (Mine is the poem).


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* I'm a rebel this year, doing some much needed editing instead of writing something new. On NaNoWriMo, I'm lleachie.

Rebel Rebel

I've decided to be a rebel for NaNoWriMo.

What that means is that the participant does anything but write a novel in those 30 days*. I have two books I'm editing, the problem child Gaia's Hands (which may be a novella by the time I'm done with it) and Whose Hearts are Mountains when I get it back from my dev editor. 

It feels odd not writing a new novel, but it's not the best use of my time. I need to get this backlog dealt with and ready for possibilities. When these are done, I will have five completed novels (or four and a novella): Whose Hearts are Mountains, Apocalypse, Voyageurs, Prodigies, Gaia's Hands. (There's one more novel, Reclaiming the Balance, but I despair over that particular one, and there's Gods' Seeds, the one I'm not finishing for NaNo.

It's time for me to edit. It's time for me to write shorter items and try to get those published (I have one short story and one flash item published so far, Flourish and Becky Home-Ecky.) It's time for me to try something else for NaNo.

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* The way one counts progress when editing in NaNo is 1 hour = 1000 words. Which is about right, except when I get really stuck.

The best use of my time

I have decided to quit NaNo this year. Not because I can't finish it, but because I don't need to finish it. I have serious editing to do on everything I write because a bad habit of mine has been pointed out to me (telling rather than showing). My past dev editor didn't pick these problems up, but the current publishing editor (who missed the problems in my query materials) did. Go figure.

I need to learn to deal with these myself because I don't know if I can afford another dev edit on the same document. I need to get better, and someday I might be good enough to publish.

I'm scared I'll never be good enough to publish, but if I can't find the problems in my writing, I know I'll never be good enough to. Becoming Kringle can wait -- the best use of my time right now is re-editing.

One week down on NaNo ...

At the end of the first week of NaNo, I've written 16,000 words or an average of 2000 words a day, split halfway between Becoming Kringle and Whose Hearts are Mountains. I'll be honest -- writing lately has been challenging, with a lot of self-doubt after working with one of the publishing editors I tried. This week has been vindicating.

(A hint from case management class to editors of various types: You have to talk about the strengths as well as the failures of a client's work, not for flattery or reassurance, but to remind the client that the manuscript is worth the work being put into it.)

I've finished Whose Hearts are Mountains -- by "finished", I mean "written a very rough draft that has plot holes you could probably drive a truck through, and desperately needs an edit or two." I remember when I arrogantly thought my drafts weren't rough and so I sent them out. Writing has been a humbling exercise.

From here on out, all of my words are going to Becoming Kringle. I think this will be more of a challenge, in fact a huge challenge, because I have the barest of outlines to go by.  On the other hand, with yesterday's snow, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Day 7 NaNo -- one week of writing

I've finished 14,000 words so far (2000 words average; I like to round things up) and I'm still going. If I have any NaNo readers out there, how are you doing? Post in comments.

I'm nearing the finish line with Whose Hearts are Mountains, which as you recall is a book I started 30 years ago while sleeping through a kidney infection. The thought that it might be done (not done-done, because it needs a fierce edit or two) floors me.

Then it will be back to Becoming Kringle for the rest of my words. I am going to try to stick to the NaNo credo: Write first edit later.

Day 6 NaNo -- still chugging

I can't wait to write again today.

This is what NaNo does to people, I hear -- somehow writing without self-censoring (which is necessary to get 1,667 words a day in) -- makes your connection to your words and your characters and your plots flow. 

By the end of this, I should have Whose Hearts are Mountains' rough draft finished, and probably 30,000 words on Becoming Kringle, which I will finish in December as the bells jingle along. 

Off to write. Sorry this is so short, but maybe I'll drop an excerpt of Whose Hearts are Mountains tomorrow.

Oh, yes -- up to 12,000 words as of this morning. 

The Beauty of NaNo

Last night, I hit the 10,000 words mark -- twenty percent of the novel is done! No, not really -- first of all, there's the fact that I'm writing between two novels. Second, 50,000 words is not the optimal length of a novel.

But it's a big, round number, and that's the idea. Not even NaNo pretends that you'll have a publishable final product at the end of November. But you'll have something to start with, or something that you keep to yourself and say, "I wrote this!"

Progress as it stands -- I can see the finish line of Whose Hearts are Mountains, knowing that I have a lot of work to do afterward. Richard has restored some of the stuff I took out in the edit of Gaia's Hands and emphasized things I need to emphasize. He has lots of work to go. It's nice to think that that novel can be salvaged.

I'm still waiting for the other publishing editor to come up with edits of the first 50 pages of Prodigies. I am beginning to wonder about her -- she couldn't find anything wrong with my query letter, whereas the other publishing editor helped me improve my query letter in ways even I could see. I would work with one of these people again -- not so the other one.

I'm beginning to feel like a writer again. That's what NaNo does for me.

Day 5 NaNo -- and a big surprise

Something strange happened on the way to my NaNo count yesterday. I started becoming interested in writing on Whose Hearts are Mountains again. I don't know how it happened, but I looked at it yesterday after getting my word count yesterday, and I started writing.

NaNo is surprisingly lenient about this -- they say you have to write 50,000 words, and they count writing exercises (word sprints) toward this. I suspect I'm legal writing on two books during this time, and if not, I'll just have to shrug and say "I'd rather ride this wave of success".

I'm discovering that Whose Hearts are Mountains is going to be shorter than I'd thought at probably 75,000 words. That's 4500 words more. It's probably long enough, and it will get a little longer when I come back and add in some descriptive stuff and other editing. But I'm writing more than 20 words a day on it. Yay NaNo!

I'm still writing on Becoming Kringle, and I will probably work more on it as we approach the
In other developments, Richard is editing my problem child (now our problem child), Gaia's Hands.
The Gaia stories overlap with Apocalypse and Reclaiming the Balance, but deal more with humans. So we're co-authoring, and wondering if we should have both our names (I vote yes) or the combined pseudonym Lauren Richards (his vote yes).

So I'm re-energized for writing, and anticipate that December is going to be an editing, rather than a writing month.

Day 1 Summary NaNoWriMo: Time for Pantsing

I wrote my first 2000 words yesterday, flying my way through the first chapter. The good news is that the writing was easy. The bad news is that, if i go through my outline at this rate, I will be done in 16,000 words, which is 34,000 words short of a win.

It might be time to start pantsing.

To explain (and review for my longer-time readers), there are three modes of writing:

• Planning, which means writing with a meticulous outline; 
• Pantsing, which means flying by the seat of your pants;
• Plantsing, which is somewhere in-between.

I think I've said in these pages before that I'm a plantser, which for me means having an outline with enough leeway to fill in the blanks. But it's not working this time -- perhaps I didn't put in enough of an outline, or I wasn't as sure about the action. So I will be pantsing a bit.

What encourages me is that the more I write, the more the layers of the characters reveal themselves to me. These characters need to be complex, because the story will demand that my characters grow and develop -- and become the spirit of Christmas.

First 100 words of Becoming Kringle

Sunshine Walton wondered what kind of mess she’d gotten herself into.

She sat in a dimly lit, sparsely furnished office. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the flash of red neon against the dark outside through broken shutters. And Santa Claus sat across from her, behind a battered desk.

“My name is Jack Moore,” the avuncular man said, shaking her hand with a twinkle in his eye. “But folks call me Santa Jack.”

“Really,” Sunshine murmured, kicking herself mentally at the veiled sarcasm of her words. Not appropriate for a job interview.

Santa Jack, her prospective employer, merely raised his eyebrows and chuckled.

Tomorrow is NaNo

Tomorrow, I commit myself to writing 2000 words a day for the next month, I'll be honest; I'm not as motivated for this as I'd like.

I have a lot of documents to edit (now that my developmental editor lets me know what's not working). I have a novel that needs 25,000 more words.

On the other hand, there's feeling a part of something bigger than me. NaNo is huge. NaNo is worldwide. NaNo comes with its own motivation.

Oh, this is such a hard decision! I'll keep you posted.

Plantsing

It's less than two weeks till NaNoWriMo, and I'm working on motivating myself for another year. I don't have any new ideas for books, but I'm writing a book I tried to write for NaNo in 2016. It's light and fluffy -- it's a romantic mystery that involves Santas, and I'm going to have to find time to outline it before I start.

There are, according to NaNos, pantsers and planners. Pantsers are those who write freestyle, by the seat of their pants. Planners are those who come in with a complete outline and follow it carefully.

I'm a plantser. Plantsers have a bare sketch of topics and fill them in freeform, and later edit for sense. We have not so much an outline as a list of chapter headings and a bare idea of what those prompts mean.

It's a fun way to write for someone who trusts their imagination and trusts they can pick up all the plot holes in the edit.

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For all my Maryville MO readers, NaNoWriMo starts November 1st. You can sign up -- you know you want to write a novel! -- at nanowrimo.org And if you decide to write a novel, please come drop in to the Board Game Cafe Thursday nights in November (November 1st, 8th, 15th, 29th) from 6-10 PM for a writing space with other writers! 

what I needed to believe

So I thought I was going to quit writing for a little while. Too many rejections. Too much hard work with no payoff. Too much frustration about the process.

But yesterday in class, I was teaching my students a technique of getting clients to set goals. The method uses a simple question: "Tell me what  you want your life to be like five years from now." I had the students try the question on themselves.

So, naturally, I turned the question on myself. And do you know what?

I still want to become a published author, even though I have been working on that goal for five years and it hasn't happened yet.

I also finally figured out what I'm writing for NaNo.

A romance novel featuring the Secret Society of Santas. Novel #2 in that series. (Novel 1 needs a dev edit, but it's somewhere down the line).

I'm not giving up yet.