So What Changes When You are Published...

So before I entered the world of the published, I could write whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Granted that concept didn't always work, but it was fun. I could dabble in this and try out that. Now that I've sold, I'm trying to sell the same style over again. I went out on a limb with my option book and it unfortunately fell to the ground quivering in a heap. But the voice is still there. So I proposed a different type of book, a little more down to earth and a lot less Hollywood. I sent off the synopsis and waited and waited and wrote the book while I waited and waited some more.

Then I made all these grand schemes of how I was going to write more in 2011. I was going to conquer a first draft every month starting in January. Okay, well maybe not January, I want to try to revise my Hollywood story for single title, so I'll work on that and revise my poor Fallen, who has been neglected. And then I'll have the distance to revise the SSE I had completed. Yay! A plan.

In January I heard back on my synopsis and we talked about how to make it a stronger story. So Hollywood is off the plate and Fallen slips further off the dessert plate. I embrace this new concept for the completed story with the gusto of Eeyore. But when I finally get the right spin on it, I am once again Pooh (okay seriously how many metaphors can I throw in this, it's become a bit of a challenge at this point, bear with me). Ready to take off into the 1000 acre woods and find adventure.

So instead of tackling something new or making something old pretty, I'm working on (man, I wish I could use borrowed or blue here) revamping the NaNo book and giving it new life. So I'm postponing writing something new and revising the single titles to get the book that has the attention pretty as a posey again.

(I swear I won't try to stuff metaphors down your throat anymore. But heck it was fun trying) :)

What I'm trying to say is priorities change after you've become published and you have to be flexible enough to cope with different schedules and perhaps changing something you loved to make it a better story. And even if something wasn't good for Publisher A, maybe Publisher B will enjoy it. Oh, wait I've got it. When life gives you lemons, throw them at the person who gave them to you, because seriously without sugar lemonade isn't that good.

Did I mention the kids are home on snow day? :)

Changing My Tune

It's done, it's done, it's done. But of course, I'm not sure the ending is that great. First endings are never the best, usually takes me 3 or 4 tries to get the ending right. Beginnings for me are golden, middles not so back, endings....hell, brimstone and fire hell. I hem and haw over it for hours. But eventually my crit partners make me find the right one. :) *waves at crit partners* (They really rock!)

So to keep up the insanity, I'm putting Fallen on the backburner and taking up Alex's story. I have the first 3 chapters done, so during Nora time today I'll be going through my critique notes for those chapters and polishing them up. Why? So I can send them to my agent who can have them ready if my editor buys Casanova. Meanwhile, I'll keep plugging away at Alex's story.

For every story of mine, there is a soundtrack that I listen to to get into the mood. Fallen is very dark. A lot of metal and heavy music from bands like Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Smashing Pumpkins. The darkness and perpetual rhythm underlying Tool songs really perfected the mood of Fallen for this revision.

But now it's time for some lighter fare. Alex and Paige are a love story with just as much emotional depth as Fallen. Both have internal conflicts they must get over before they can be together and there are going to be scenes that feel just as dark as Fallen, but with a different edge. Songs in the playlist include Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper, I Can't Make You Love Me by Bonnie Rait, and Make You Feel My Love by Adele. I have an emotional response to all my songs in my playlists and some of them bring out different emotions that I've felt in the past. Sometimes I just need a light tune to come up every now and then to remind me that my Silhouettes aren't all hardcore emotion rollercoasters. To that end, I usually put recently downloaded songs like Cooler Than Me by Mike Posner and Your Love is My Drug by Ke$ha.

These songs help me find the tone and voice of my story because they mean something to me. They make me feel a certain way and that frees me to write the story of my heart.

Holy Wordcount, Batman - Thanks Goodness for Plotting

Yes, I use that joke a lot and no, I'm not tired of it yet. So today I'm going to talk about the importance of planning. :) I'm a plotter. I've always been a plotter, even if a pants a little in between. When I first started out writing, I tried every way of plotting. I storyboarded, I used notecards, I tried an outline, I studied everyone who had something to say on plotting. The point is I tried that stuff. However none of it really worked for me. I never got past 75,000 words no matter how much plot I tried to do or how many cards I tried to write.

Granted, I'm a fuller writer now. I don't write the bare minimum on first drafts. Each scene is complete with description, action, dialogue, senses, internal thought, feelings. So that probably doesn't hurt my word count, but even revised I couldn't pull more than 78,000 words. I'm currently at 95,000 on Fallen and it's not done. It's close to done, but it's not. Holy Wordcount, Batman!

What was different? My plotting technique changed quite a bit from those earlier versions. Instead of an outline detailing every scene, I wrote a synopsis. I know, the evil S word. I can't for the life of me write one of these when I'm done, but I found if I use it to plot....100K book, people.

I learned how to write a synopsis from a class taught by Katherine Garbera for Writing the Selling Silhouette Desire. During that class I plotted and created the synopsis for Catch a Star, which is now L.A. CINDERELLA. From that synopsis I wrote the story. Did the story change? Heck, yeah. But did the roadmap help? Heck, yeah.

For Fallen, I replotted again (cries softly inside), but this time I used the synopsis format.

First Paragraph - heroine, backstory and GMC (goals, motivation, conflict - what does she want, why does she want and what is keeping her from getting it)

Second paragraph - hero, backstory and GMC

If you have a villian you can do another paragraph on him.

What else do I need?

Beginning - how does it start? When does the hero and heroine first meet?

Plot points for the external conflict (making sure that the internal conflict also gets in there) and romance plot points.

• External conflict plot points - plot points are your major events, generally there are three with the third being the black moment. With external plot points, think major setbacks or major victories that carry the story forward, but change the course.

• Romance conflict points - first kiss, first sex (if it's in the book or even off screen), first realization of love by both hero and heroine and first declaration of love by hero and heroine

In between you have the filler. :) How do they get from Plot Point 1 to Plot Point 2, how do their feelings change, what has to happen before they can make it to that plot point and what decisions need to be made. This is the vague stuff in the synopsis, but sometimes clearer in my plotting synopsis.

Last but certainly not least is the ending. You need a direction to head so you aren't swimming in circles. Choose a course and aim for it, but realize that if another island with Scots in kilts show up along the path, that it's okay to head for that island instead. :) The main thing is that when you are finished, you can go back to the synopsis you formed in the beginning and tweak it to reflect what really happened in the book and then your synopsis is ready to go too. One less thing to worry about.

Maybe it's not the most elegant plotting device and my instructions may be confusing, but what can I say, I wrote over 4,000 words today and my brain is fried.

What Isn't Working For Me

Project Nora is going well. When the kids get back into school, I'm going to do two 2-hour blocks. I find I can't blindly forge ahead in my manuscript. Today I had to stop and research shotgun and if I would call the shells, shells or bullets, but in doing so I realized she wouldn't use a shotgun. As impressive as they sound, they are not that impressive or accurate in shooting big bads. So I looked around and found a better option.

I also got stuck. Which meant I needed to do a little brainstorming on the spot. This also takes away from writing time, but this is how I function as a writer (your mileage may vary). I did jump on Romance Divas and do a few sprints tonight which brought my count up to 2,001 for the day. Which is good for a day I had PT and read and critiqued for a writing buddy. If I could keep up this pace, I could finish in 5-10 days.

Conference is in 4 days, which means I will not likely get Fallen's first draft finished before Nationals. But it does mean I will push to finish it before taking on Alex's story again. Those first 3 chapters need some work, I'm still blabbing too much about the previous books characters and while Mark and Kate are really nice people, they aren't the focus of this book. Okay off to bed with me. I need to write a post about musical inspiration and why I need music to write and silence to edit. :) Later.

Cheating, Yup I'm Doing It

You know it's bad when you type in a title and the autofill pulls up the same one. Whoopsie. So I made it longer. So, Project Nora is going well, we are still meeting at the appointed time, but like a diet, there is this guilty satisfaction in cheating. Between not feeling well, having a child sick on the couch and the other one watching a movie in the same room (Mommy's roller desk is in the family room and she still can't handle a laptop on her lap), I didn't focus my time solely on writing.

However, I did make up for it and still clocked in over 2000 words today. How else am I cheating? Well... I'm working on my paranormal romance instead of working on a SSE. I do have the first 3 chapters done on the next one, including 3 more synopsiseseseses (seriously, how do you spell that?) for a little series. So I don't feel too bad, considering I have another book completed and in to my editor.

I really want to get this done and yes, it's got a new title, and no, I'm not going to blab it here considering all the people who ripped off the first title. :) No matter, it's going well. I've found the voice again and man are these people noisy. I'm ready to have them out of my head and onto the page. Currently sitting at 66K, we have a high speed chase and fight for Jude, a fight and black moment for the both of them (sick and twisted author rubs her hands together mwahaha), a trial... incarceration... escape. Wait am I still talking about the same book? Guess we won't know until it ends for the third time. Overall it's a much better book, I think. And more urban fantasy romance than paranormal romance, but I likes it. :)

Project Nora

Yes, I'm still plugging away. 2 hours a day of devoted time. I sent off Casanova at the beginning of this week and have been working on the proposal for the follow up story. Today I finished the 3 chapters for the proposal and a little extra. I'm putting it to the side, to simmer :) And have started the read through of Fallen to get back into the voice and story. I've made it to Ch 2 today and will continue to read through all the chapters until I get to where I was when I got revisions from Casanova (eons ago). I'm currently a little over 60K, so need another 30K to finish it off.

I'm pleased with this project so far. I generally do more than 2 hours during the day, but those 2 hours are devoted time where I don't feel bad about telling the kids to do something else. It's a manageable amount for right now, but I'm hoping when school starts back up to have two 2 hour slots devoted to writing. :) I need to work my way up to the 8 hours.

Revisions, Releases and Rewrites: Not exactly in that order

For two weeks in April, I made a mad dash to finish the rewrite of Fallen. On Friday I was up to 61K words, so progress happened and then I got my box of books. Oh, the shiny new books of L.A. Cinderella are so pretty that I just had to tell everyone I knew that I'd received them, including my agent and my editor. Which led to my agent poking my editor about Casanova and my editor poking back at me with revisions. So I now have a rising to the climax partially completed paranormal romance which is being shoved to the side while I tackle the revisions on my Hollywood sweetheart Casanova.

Oh and L.A. Cinderella will hit bookshelves at the end of May and I've commited to writing at least 5 or 6 blog posts and did I mention we are heading to England for 2 weeks in 2 weeks. Hold on because my head is spinning. But that's okay, this industry moves slow, but as soon as you get used to the pace, they start in on you fast :). With Casanova back on my plate, I'm the one in control of how fast I can get a clean copy back to my editor so she can submit it to the senior editor for consideration. So I might be MIA for a little bit, but I'll be popping up on some other blogs and will make sure to do the linky linky thing here.

Bad Blogger

I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but I'm trying to be better (at least in my head). Things that have been keeping me busy besides Plants vs. Zombies? Working on setting up Promo stuff for L.A. Cinderella. 2 more months to release. Crap, the time goes by fast. Ordered bookmarks and am trying to do ribbon bookmarks too. I'll try to post a pic when I receive my bookmarks in the mail. Writing or procrastinating writing on Fallen. I'm almost to the midpoint and the rest should all be downhill, right? Right? Please tell me I'm right? *cries softly*

Still waiting to hear Casanova Exposed's fate. It's been 4 weeks and a day. :) Not that I'm counting or anything. And letting the followup story stew in the back of my brain. I tried once to write my completely different genre and tone books at the same time. Once. It doesn't work for me. I'm a one story at a time type gal. At least for now, maybe once I get a few extra things off my plate, it will work great.

The one thing I think that's holding me back from writing the scene I'm on in Fallen is that it's a fight scene and unlike the previous ones, this one needs both POVs. As a newbie, you have it drilled into your head that you don't head hop unless you do a scene break. Well, see I've already broken this rule for love scenes. I tried to break during a love scene, but when I took out the breaks it flowed a whole heck of a lot better and didn't get any mention from my editor in L.A. Cinderella. I know not to bounce back and forth like a ping pong ball, but I'm afraid the only way to do this fight scene is to POV shift multiple times.

The problem: I have two people fighting for their lives. While they will both be focused on their own battles, they will be dimly aware of what is going on around them. One will get severely injured during the scene. So maybe I should think of it like a screen play (not omniscient). The camera will zoom back and then come in to tight focus on one of them then zoom back or pan to the other. To get this thing out I think I'm going to have to write it as it comes and then go back and fix it.

So what do you think? As a writer or as a reader, do shifts in POVs jar you too much to the point where you want to throw the book against the wall? Or do you enjoy getting a sense of what's going on from both sides of the story even during the same scene?

Cheating

So I've given myself a little leeway while waiting for my Beta readers to get back to me on Exposed. I started the followup to Exposed and then got stalled on the heroine's career. So I turned to FALLEN. Yes, I enjoy beating a dead horse. Actually I'm enjoying it a lot more the third time around. I cut it back to around 3000 words. I've always loved the opening, but the book didn't keep the promise of the opening. This time it will. I sure hope at least. Why cheating then? Well, as soon as I ship off Exposed to my agent, it's back to Charm. I need to finish my proposal for a three books series and I need to develop the series overview for FALLEN, which will be changing names after the pleathora of FALLENs that have been flooding the market. *sigh* That would be my fault for having to rewrite it over and over again.

This Year is Amazing

FALLEN is a finalist in the Finally a Bride contest sponsored by Oklahoma RWA and I'm seriously bouncing for joy. I scored my first ever perfect score. Anonymous judge, I think I love you. I'm working on getting the final packet ready to go off to the final editors...that's right, editors. Two to be precise. Yay!

I am working on finishing up my next potential SSE(Silhouette Special Edition) and have started NaNo. For NaNo, I've decided to do FORSAKEN. The beginning needed a rewrite, but I'm finding it very difficult to get into the story with the SSE rattling around in my brain. So to focus I'm going to finish the SSE as quickly as possible and hopefully still manage to write the 50K needed on FORSAKEN for NaNo.

I'm going to be missing my writing partner, Kristi, for NaNo this year. I completely understand her position and should have probably skipped it this year as well. She was my main driving force the past two NaNos since she has younger children than me and a full time job. If she could do it, damn it, so could I. :) Not that there aren't others out there to motivate me and Kristi probably wasn't even aware how competitive I'd become with her :).

My agent (woohoo!), Becca Stumpf from The Prospect Agency, is looking over FALLEN and supporting me as L.A. Cinderella makes its way through the jungle of publishing. Together we'll whip FALLEN into something fabulous.

Okay, gymnastics is about over. Hey, a busy mom has to find time somewhere and thank goodness for my new Mini. Dear Mini, I think I'm in love. Happy writing and if you see me online, ping me I'm always up for a sprint or two. :)

Words Are Creeping Up

Yes, I'm adding scenes to Fallen and making it a longer book. Finally! So I'm plugging away at getting the important bits down and then will go through and make a pass through to make sure I'm not repeating myself later and there are a few scenes at the end that I know could use a little more beef. Then back to Beta Readers.

I also want to complete Forsaken this month. Meaning 50K in a month. I do it in November all the time. Except in Nov I have a bunch of folks plugging away beside me. So if anyone is left following this blog (Hi!) and wants to play too, let me know. We'll commisserate.

Forgive Me

Hmmm. Maybe that will be Fallen's new title if I need one. I got Fallen back from a Beta reader (someone who reads your book like a reader not a critiquer) and she made some suggestions I'm going to try. It means revamping the beginning, but it's adding the word count I need and adding depth to the characters. I wrote 2000 words on it today, so I'm slowly but surely raising the word count. I received my scores from the Enchanted Words contest from the final judge and her words were encouraging. So I'll keep pushing forward. Knight Agency is having a contest to pitch your story in 3 sentences so I'll need to work on that at some point as well. Keep writing.

Whisper, Whisper

Fine, I hear your whispering. I acknowledge that you have a story to tell. I also acknowledge that I hate revisions. So your whispering is more than I can take.

Forsaken has finally risen up in me again wanting to be spewed out. (Unnecessary visual, ew) Regardless, I've tried to commit myself to revisions, but I just don't get it. I know I have to go back over and find the problems but if I didn't notice them when I was writing it, how am I supposed to find them now? Besides I haven't finished telling Caleb's, Eli's and Kaitlin's story. I want to tell their story. Get it down on paper and out of my head. But I also want Fallen to be in publish form, which means revisions. Ugh, dilemnas.

So how bout a compromise? If I read through x number of pages of Fallen, I'm allowed to write x number of words on Forsaken. Seems like an easy goal to set. Hmmm, if I want to finish by the end of February. That's 33 days. Page 47 to Page 186 need to be read (It's a screwy format to print on less paper), so 139 pages plus time to go over revisions on the computer and do hunt and kill exercises. 28 chapters. So if I do 20 pages a day, that's 7 days of reading and then 2 chapters a day for revisions would be 14 days, leaving my weekends free still. Okay, so then on Forsaken, I have about 25K written and 90K target, so 65K with technically 24 days of writing (not including weekends) ....about 3000 words a day.

So the goal starting tomorrow is read 20 pages on Fallen and write 3000 words on Forsaken. As a caveat, I am starting a part time job tomorrow for Tuesdays and Thursdays while the kids are in school. But let's give it a shot. Anyone else want a kick in the pants.

Contest Final

I finaled in the OVRW Enchanted Words contest. Woohoo!!! This was with FALLEN. The query, synopsis and first five pages. Now it gets judged by an editor. An actual real live editor. I'm psyched.

Oh, and I'm registered for RWA National Conference too. It's been a great week.

Playing Along (Sort of)

I've been tagged by bloggingexperiments. So the deal is to list 7 random things about myself. I thought, where's the fun in that? Since I'm working on revisions, I'll give you 7 random things about Breann, which will make me work harder.

1. Loved to wear pink underwear when she was a teenager.
2. Now, wears plain cotton bikini briefs under her leather pants.
3. Doesn't have time for pets, especially when she has to go out and capture daemons all night.
4. Her comfort food is pizza, sausage and mushroom.
5. Got her bachelor's in fine art with an emphasis in photography.
6. Keeps a pair of fuzzy slippers under her bed.
7. Loved the movie Some Kind of Wonderful and had a crush on Eric Stolz. (You know you all did, too)

My job here is done. If you feel like playing along, leave a comment and I'll tag you and link to your blog. You can do either 7 random things about yourself or one of your characters.

Am I Going to Enter the Golden Heart?

The answer is no. The reason? Well, first off I've entered 4 contests this year, taken a half dozen classes, and made no income from my writing. I'll be saving my $50 entry fee, the additional postage and printing costs. I know it's like winning the lottery, but unless you win, the prize isn't all that good. Sure you get 55 pages worth of writing evaluated, but you don't get any comments back. And judging on a scale of 1-9, leaves a lot to be desired. The contests I've entered have given me good feedback. If I'm no where near publishing next year come this time, I will definitely consider entering it. Also, I can't find the list of final judges, which probably isn't a big deal, but it's usually one of the reasons I enter contests.

So for now, I'm done entering contests. I'm working on revisions, query letters, new ms, and that's keeping me pretty preoccupied. I've achieved PRO status in RWA by having my query letter rejected. I'm good. I'm happy with where I'm headed and where I've been. I don't feel the need to go down the Golden Heart road this year. I do think it is a very good opportunity and if you have the money to spare, it may be worth it if you final. But I'm thinking for our family my $100 is better spent elsewhere.

Progress Progress Progress

Fallen

New words: 3,034
Total words: 41,734
Breann: Determined
Jude: Determined
Things that got beat up today: A couple are still beat up from yesterday
Random sampling of text:
She spun back around. “I never asked to be saved. I made my choice years ago. A very hard choice, but its mine and I live with it. What makes you believe that you can save me?” She stared at his passive face wishing he’d get upset and yell at her. She turned on her heel and started to walk away.

“Love,” his quiet voice stopped her mid-step.

Fallen

Fallen

New words: 4,856 (yeah, baby)
Total words: 38,700
Breann: Hanging in there
Jude: Trying to right a wrong
Things that got beat up today: Breann, Jude and about 4 or 5 others
Random sampling of text: “You’ll pay for that, kitten,” his breath hot against her ear.
She laughed. “I’ve already paid the piper. It’s your turn.”

Word Sprints Are Cool

I just made 2466 words in a little over 1-1/2 hours thanks to word sprints. Now, I'm a planner too, so individual results may vary. One of my many yahoo groups is Endurancewriting. It's a great place to find someone to sprint with you. Someone sets a timer and you both (or more) write until the timer goes off without checking your e-mail or online stuff. I got through 2-1/2 scenes. As soon as the timer goes off you take a break for a while. It really is fun. I'm going to have to find a permanent word sprint partner when the kids go to school in the fall.

I do get burned out easily. If you've ever done NaNo and won you understand burn out. Or maybe you don't. But I'm over 33k words now and I'll keep pushing. I thought I'd have to trash some of my writing from the day before last but it slid in nicely. I'm feeling more confident about my word count as well. I'm still a few scenes from the reversal (middle scene) and there are plenty of scenes to follow that as well.

I thought about waiting until I get my feedback to see what direction they think the story may go, but I'm not going to wait. This is my story and I'm going to tell it the way I want to. I'll wait until it's completely done then release it to my crit partners to destroy. :) I mean tell me I'm doing a fantastic job and that nothing needs to be changed. Of course, if they say that, then it's time for new crit partners. :) Or I just rock. One or the other.

Fallen

I placed 3rd in the Fire & Ice Contest. I'll get back the scoresheets and judge's comments soon hopefully. I'll let you know if the final judge wrote comments or not. I'm just excited that it placed with meant an agent read my piece. So now for the work. I did work on Fallen yesterday and some already today. I'm going to try to slam through as much of the second first draft this week and into the next. I have 1-1/2 hours before bedtime. So I'm going to cut this one short.

Edited: The coordinator made a mistake in the first message. No worries though. I'm still excited about getting the feedback.