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? :)

When the Words Flow

Sometimes, when I sit down to write, it takes me 15 minutes to come up with one sentence. It's grueling and long and there are so many other things I could be doing with my time. And before I would have done them. This forced march, of sorts, is helping me be a more productive writer.

During the daytime hours, I write. My brain turns on and the synapses all fire correctly and the inspiration is there. Sometimes I will sit and look out the window for a second, but I'm still driven to get my 4000 words a day. I'm not a dumper. I can't just fly through a MS without thought of the words I'm putting down. I used to be able to, but I figured out I hate revision.

I mean it. I hate revision. I do them and I'll continue to do them but I hate them. It takes me a little time to find my editor voice detached from my writer voice. But when I find that bad boy, he does some amazing things. I get to the point where I can pick apart individual sentences, but it takes me a while to do this. And I need time away from a project before I can truly give it the cleansing scrub it needs.

These are things I learned by doing. I tried to dive right into Casanova's revisions and it took me a long time to get into the groove. But when it's been a while, the words seem fresher. It's easier to cut those lines that I worked so hard to find. It works for me. To that end, when I finished Fallen, I went through and applied the critiques I'd received, and then sent it out to Beta readers. I haven't looked at it since. I don't plan to. I'm fully involved in Robert's story right now. It's a different voice, a different world and when I'm done. I can head back to the dark world of Fallen and read it with different eyes. And when that one's ready to go, my editor bad boy will still be in residence, making Robert's revisions easy to tackle. This is the hope. This is the experiment.

Write 2 books, revise 2 books, write 2 books, revise 2 books. Rinse, repeat as necessary.

Waiting and Working

With the kids home for two more weeks, I'm desperately waiting for school to start. Meanwhile, I'm attempting to write/revise between requests to play on the computer, to play on the Wii, and to fix some food. While my head is in the right place for revisions, I'm trying to get as much done as possible.

It's kind of like when you are in the right mood to go through old stuff. The wrong mood is where you sit and look through the box and think I should really keep this ticket for The Bird Cage. I don't remember who I went with or why I decided to keep it, but I should keep it anyway, because it's sentimental. Hey, my old pair of earphones that only play out of one side. Maybe I can use them again.

The right mood is you pull the box over to the trash can and start pitching. That ticket to The Bird Cage, gone. Broken earphones, gone.

I've been in the wrong mood to revise for a long time. I wrote this book and though I know it needs revising, I don't even know where to begin. Now I'm in the right mood. A friend went over the first bit and pointed out, not grammar or spelling errors, but plotting errors or places where the tension was lagging. While I love when people correct my commas and my accidental word choices, I prefer the type that my friend gave me. It made me open my eyes and really look at what I'd written as a whole and not as a sentence here and there. The scene after her corrections I just finished revising. I'd had it in the heroine's POV, but it really needed to be in the hero's to show his conflict at that time. Though I loved some lines in her POV, I took them out.

Okay before I type this if you've never heard it before I'm not a sadistic person, really. But there are times when you need to Kill Your Darlings. I'm not the first to say this, nor do I expect to be the last. If it doesn't fit, if it doesn't move the story forward, if it is the most brilliant piece of tripe you've ever written, but doesn't do anything for the characters, CUT IT! Move it into a file for special circumstances, just in case you can use it, but get rid of it in this story. It's like throwing away those old earphones and that movie ticket. They are taking up space and while they may work for something else, they aren't working for you.

So while I spend the rest of the day wishing my kids were in school, I'll be killing my darlings in my MS.

Free Contests Abound

So if you've hit the internet lately you know that free contests are happening everywhere. From Miss Snark's First Victim's Secret Agent contest. (currently closed for submission but she has them every other or every month. To Chase the Dream Contest which is once a year and still open by the way, first 1000 words once a week until March. To contests if you were asleep that day you missed it from certain agents. Fortunately, I'm well networked and tend to get a heads up when something is going down. But I also like to spread the news when I find it.

So today was supposed to be about getting two beginnings ready for two different things. The first is Catch a Star for The Marlene Contest. First pages and up to a 4 page synopsis, not to exceed 35 pages. I spent all morning cutting and tweaking and this afternoon cut and tweaked some more. The Marlene is an RWA chapter contest and cost $30 to enter for nonmembers of that chapter. The main reason I wanted to enter was for the final judge, Patience Smith, an editor for Silhouette. The feedback is usually nice if I don't final too.

The second thing I was supposed to do was clean up the new beginning of Fallen and send it to the Firebrand Literary Agency Query Holiday. I decided today not to do this one. Reasons being, the critiques that came back show that it still needs a lot of work, the whole novel needs to be spit shined, and I don't even know if the agent reps Paranormal Romance. They might and when I have a clean copy of Fallen and everything in it is exactly how I envision it or at least close enough that I'm not going to play with it anymore I'll submit it via query letter. I don't mind entering contests when things aren't 100% perfect, but for an agent I want polish. I needed to face the fact that Fallen isn't polished to where it needs to be because of my reluctance to revise.

Both the contest and the query holiday end today. I'm going to sit back and relax. Finish reading my book on revision and then take out the sandpaper. I'll start going through my sci fi writing book as well and if any ideas fall into my lap for shorts I might pursue those, but no serious novel writing until Fallen and Catch a Star are revised. So there.

Wishing They Would Keep it Down in There

Whisper, whisper, whisper. The restaurant is getting quite noisy again. Part of the problem is I've turned off the writer. I'm working on revisions and getting ready for contests and submissions and am not writing new words. It's not like just one book is whispering either. Everyone in the restaurant has decided know would be a great time to whisper to me a little more about their story. So I have a new Silhouette Desire buzzing around my head. Unfortunately, Casanova won't give me his name, but doesn't seem to mind going by Casanova. Hmm, maybe for his last name..... Stop it. I haven't been sleeping well which is part of the problem. I wake up mentally before my body is truly ready to give up the bed and start moving. So I lay there and that's when they whisper. Yesterday it was a whole new idea which could go as a Novella or a Paranormal, they really haven't decided yet. This morning was an idea that's been talking to me for about a month or two. It started with the heroine and apparently the hero is starting to fill out in my mind. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't being so stubborn about not starting anything new until these two novels are revised. Don't worry about me too much, Fallen (one of the revisees) is also whispering to me. The beginning that I wasn't 100% on, filled itself in yesterday.

I love this job, I do, but some real money would be nice for all this work. With all the things I do for my writing, including putting in time on nights and weekends, I work more now than when I actually went to a job. I love it. I can't get enough of it. Even with the whispering. :) I'm grateful I have this opportunity and don't want to blow it, so it's back to the grindstone with me.

Oh, and to anyone else waiting to be served in the restaurant, I will try to get to all of you in good time. Please don't stop whispering because I do enjoy listening to you. Just make sure you wait your turn and I promise to not stop listening.

Feeling Overwhelmed

As my family continues to eat up my writing time and my continued hatred of revisions keep me from going forward. Sigh. I've been MIA due to my two youngsters feeling ill and a two week break in work and school for the whole family. I got a couple of books to go over. One on revisions, the other on writing sci fi and fantasy. I'm still working my way through On Writing by Stephen King. I've got characters brewing in my head, silently stalking me. Whispering me who they are and what they want to do and how they want to do it. But I'm not writing, I'm revising. I'm not writing, I'm revising. I'm not writing, I'm revising. Maybe if I keep writing that I'll believe it.

Finished

Finished the NaNo book. Now I'm going to set it aside and work on revisions on Fallen. Yay, my favorite part, revision, not! I don't know why but I've never liked going back over things. I really have to make myself look hard when I'm doing an edit of my own work. With other people's work it's a lot easier. The story is all in my head with my own. I'm hoping a month of not looking at it has been enough time to get it out of my head. So here we go with revisions, I'll let you know how it turns out.