Not So Solitary

5k away my Slump.

2010-06-14T02:21:00.003-04:00

So, i've read (and been told) that if you can visualise something you can make it happen. As long as you can see yourself working those steps towards whatever your goal is, anything is possible, right?

With this in mind-- I've decided to train to run a 5k. Yes, I am blogging this to the world, so I have to actually do it. Slightly terrifying. I haven't yet booked a race to run-- that's a bit too scary and ambitious for me, but I have actually printed off a training schedule and set a date to get my feet out on the street-- tomorrow. To be honest, the training doesn't look as scary as I had originally envisioned. It's only three days of actual running, two days of exercise and two rest days. Looking at the training that way, its not only doable, but it seems well, a bit crazy I haven't attempted this yet. You know, besides the fact that I don't really like running. But, as much as I 'don't like running' I've found that the more I do actually run the more I enjoy it. Weird, huh?

And this got me to thinking about my goals for 2010-- and why I've hit such a slump.

I've blogged about being unaccomplished this year and floundering, but I never quite put my finger on why and now I think i know why. I've just lost focus. I'm trying to do so many things (and do them well) that I'm just scattered all over the place. So this week, I'm going to try something else. I'm going to try to set my writing goals out onto a schedule just like the 5k training spreadsheet. Will this be just another procrastination tool? I suspect that might be the case-- but I am awake early on a Monday morning writing this blog post-- one of my many goals for the week-- so that's some modicum of success already, right?

So, today's first goal is accomplished. That's something (and done before work). My second goal for today rests on me being able to finish the scene that refuses to be written. Let's hope I'm that successful.

My Three Rules of Editing

2010-06-11T18:32:00.001-04:00

I just got comments for my first book back from my two readers. I have to say, first, that I am extremely lucky to have two such talented and insightful people willing to look through the whole manuscript and give detailed comments. So: thanks, guys.

My first draft of my first book was a train wreck. I’ve already noticed a lot of problems I’m having in the first book—mainly due to poor planning—that already aren’t happening in the next one, which is about halfway done. The first book will likely need a lot more work than the second. I want it to be ready for agents by December, but if this turns out to be a problem child—and the second book is ready much sooner—I will live with it.

So here are my three rules for this round of edits. Rules I intend to live by.

No cut and paste. A character’s eyes are green in one scene, brown in the next. People are sitting in one paragraph, then standing in another, then sitting in the next. Random scene consistency issues are a problem—most memorably, a big scene where the heroine appears to be in her underwear. She’s not; I just forgot to mention she got dressed after the last scene in her bedroom. Oops!

The big reason for this is that I wrote several drafts of this book, more or less concurrently. Then I went through and consolidated the best bits of each. But I never noticed the continuity problems—largely because I was too close to the material. First rule for editing: No cut and paste.

Use it or lose it. I have a lot of characters in my book that seem like big news—as one of my readers commented—only to fade into the background early. They need to have clear motivations and a role to play throughout the book. Other objects, supernatural or otherwise, need to be put to good use or thrown out. Second rule for editing: Use it or lose it.

Define the world. If I defined how my world works more clearly—what rules I’m operating under for vampires, magic, ghosts, ESP and other things—I would have a much easier time explaining the weird things that happen. The world has to make sense, even if it’s supernatural. Before I write the outline, I’ll sit down and plot out my rules of engagement for this world.

There are plenty of other problems too—notably, my main character gets overshadowed a lot by her friends and enemies. But I already have some ideas for how to make her stronger. Hopefully the next draft will be much stronger and more consistent—and easier to edit.

Can You Revise Too Soon?

2010-06-02T12:12:00.001-04:00

I’ve been departing from my method of novel-writing lately. With my second novel, I’ve been editing the first half—even though there’s a whole second half just waiting to be written. This is completely against the method I used to finish the first book, which included powering through a messy first draft with no time to edit. The question is: am I focusing my efforts wisely? Or am I stalling myself?

The thing is, the two books are in totally different places. For the first book, I had written three different versions over three years, all of which I scrapped and started again after about 100 words or so. I was totally shaky on my feet. And when I finally, after years of delete-rewrite lunacy, I settled on ONE draft, I was mired in doubt. The only way to move forward, for me, was to completely forget about doubt, accept that this draft wasn’t perfect and never would be, and keep going anyway. I had only one rule: The delete key was entirely off limits.

This second book is different. While it’s not perfect, I pretty much have the plot established in my head—at least the first half. What I’m doing is refining it, not deleting and completely starting over again. I know I won’t achieve perfection. But I do see some problems that I’m thinking if I fix now, I’ll have less work to do on later drafts. So I’m revising—despite my instincts, which say I should just power through. I’m ignoring those this time—in the hope that I’ve learned enough to be able to revise safely and without derailing my entire process, even in the first-draft stage.

Hopefully things will go well. I’m toying with the idea of finishing the entire first half by this weekend. Not sure if I can make it, but….it’s worth a try.

Unaccomplished

2010-05-24T10:00:00.003-04:00

2009 was kind of a bumper year for me. At the very end of 2008 I switched jobs and wound up (finally) in my dream job (woot). I finished my first novel mid 2009 and successfully completely NaNoWriMo for the second year in a row. Overall, I was feeling very accomplished-- very much like everything was on track for 2010 to be the best year of all.

And then... editing struck. My first novel had some really lovely concepts and ideas-- but the book I’d written and the book I started out writing were two very different stories. Stories that would need comprehensive months of editing to merge into one readable draft. Our writing group began to set deadlines and make up schedules to swap around our stories... At the time I was completely in denial about the amount of work it would take to produce a draft I felt vaguely confident in showing to other people (even my most trusted readers). So, when the first deadline came up, I had to admit I had failed. I was unable to send out a draft-- but I still had a draft to read from my friend. So, I was now editing a rough manuscript and reading a friend’s draft. Then, the next deadline came along and I was again still working on my novel, editing my friend’s draft and then editing a second draft. Everything had snowballed quite quickly and I was buried.

For a few weeks I felt completely overwhelmed and defeated. I made no progress on any fronts-- not my own work or my friends. I hadn’t just let myself down but now I was letting down my group. I was more upset to see my group let down, if I’m honest.

Then, I began to regroup. My first novel had to be broken before I would be able to see any real progress. I had to get through they very shaky beginning (and the eight new scenes I had to write to tie the two stories together). So, I spoke to my first friend and she agreed it was more important to get my story moving. Two weeks of just concentrating on my book meant I was able to ‘break the back’ of the whole mess. I was able to set a goal for editing my novel and working on hers again. Just taking a tiny bit more time meant I was able to get everything back on track.

Here is the big lesson I’ve learned-- when you work as a group you have to do what works best for the group, but you have to remember what works best for you. I am not great with deadlines. I usually have to set one, then push it back a few times. And as I’m not a professional writer and I’m doing everything in my ‘spare’ time this is fine. If this was my ‘day job’ then I’d just have to embrace deadlines and make them happen (I do just that very successfully in my day job). I work well with small weekly goals. A tiny checklist of things I need to do to move my work forwards. A huge looming deadline doesn’t generally work for me. Maybe it’s my ADHD-- but something so big tends to boggle my brain. It makes me only see the big end result and not the small obtainable steps I need to break everything down into to get there. Now, I’ve got the quiet confidence I was lacking to admit when what I’m working on needs more time. It’s not a race, and while I’m still working on my first novel I’ve finished editing my friend’s first novel and am about two third’s of the way through my second friend’s. I am able to get their stories back to them so that I am no longer letting them down as well. Which is beyond important to me. My work can wait-- but making sure my group is getting the support they need really matters to me. I really don’t mind being behind-- because at least being ‘behind’ I’m making progress. Before, when I was in denial and trying to struggle to stay on schedule, I was just spinning my wheels.

I will never again have the freedom I did in 2008 to just write one project. Going forward I will always be writing something and editing something (maybe not at the same time-- but they will definitely overlap). So, rather than look at 2010 as a series of failures-- or missed goals, I am looking at it as a chance to learn a new skill base. A new way of working on multiple projects that ends in good results.

Not Just a Single-Genre Writer

2010-05-20T13:59:00.001-04:00

I’ve been working on my second novel lately while I wait for revisions on the first. Comparing both of these, I wonder if I’m a bit in trouble. The first is a fairly straightforward paranormal romance. The second has a bit of historical fiction, a bit of romance—but it’s not completely romantic and it’s really more fantasy than historical. It’s a bit of a genre-buster.

I’m wondering how both of these books will sell. The first has a specific audience in mind. The second…doesn’t. Am I positioning myself as well as I could be as a new author with two books in two entirely separate (and, in one case, undefined) genres?

It’s something to think about, but I also think it’s important just to write. How the book is marketed, and to whom, can be addressed later. I couldn’t change my second book to conform to a certain genre even if I wanted to—that’s just not the story I’m telling. And I suppose I could always write different books under different names—although presumably it’s a good idea to build a name in one genre first before getting on to the second.

Do you try to write in a specific genre only? How do you handle writing projects in numerous genres?

Choosing Readers Carefully

2010-05-12T12:46:00.001-04:00

I’m waiting on my last reader to get me back an edit on my first novel. It’s a nerve-wracking wait. I know my book will (hopefully) be available for anyone to read someday, but right now I limit who gets to see it to a very small, very trusted circle. It’s a first draft—and it’s a mess. And even though I’ve developed a thick skin, I also know that too-critical comments could get me down and lessen my excitement for this project. Still, I do need readers who aren’t afraid to offer constructive criticism.

So the right readers for my first draft are carefully chosen. They’re people I know will be supportive, but who will still tell me what I need to fix and won’t just shower me with praise or criticism.

They’re also people who read and write in the same genre I do—so they know how a book in this genre is supposed to go, the conventions I’m working with, and what will likely appeal to my audience. They are my audience—the type of people who would read a book like mine. So I know they won’t dislike it just because it’s romance or fantasy, and they’ll “get” what I’m doing a little more than the average reader.

After they’re done with edits and I’ve gotten a chance to rework my draft, I plan to send out my draft to a wider circle. Some are also romance and fantasy fans but not writers themselves. Some are good friends but not regular readers in those genres. Their feedback will be more useful when I know my draft is stronger, and when I want to judge how the story flows to a reader less familiar with the work—as well as whether it has crossover appeal.

Occasionally someone in my life feels bad because I don’t want to show them my first draft for some reason. Naturally I hate hurting the feelings of people I care about, and I try to explain—but it’s not always easy. Because I’d love your feedback—how do you deal with that kind of issue?

Mac Freedom Saved My Novel

2010-05-07T12:17:00.001-04:00

Sometimes when I’m really feeling like I’m just not getting anything done on my novel, I leave the house and go to a coffee shop, park or library to work. Anywhere, really, where I CAN’T get online. It’s not that easy nowadays—especially in a big city like New York, even hotel lobbies and sandwich shops have wireless access. Sometimes I run around the city to find a place with no access as desperately as I do to find it when I’m on vacation somewhere else.

Getting offline is a very important part of my writing method. Do you have any idea how much time we waste Facebookcrastinating (i.e., procrastinating on Facebook), writing long, non-urgent messages to childhood friends, poking around on other people’s blogs and incessantly checking our emails? And it’s not enough for me to just consciously forbid myself to get online. I’m compulsive. I can’t help it. When there's a problem with a plot point or a tricky character issue, I proactively avoid it by checking my email, again, because somebody might have sent me something important in the 2.5 seconds since I checked it last. Gotta stay on top of these things. So I have to find a place where I really can’t get online if I really need to be productive. And sometimes finding an Internet dead zone when you want one can be as hard as finding access when you need it.

Now I don’t have to leave the house to go somewhere there’s no Internet access. I’ve discovered Mac Freedom. It’s an extremely useful program that will block your Internet access completely for a set amount of time, up to eight hours. Mac Freedom won’t respond to pleads, bribery, or tantrums—no Internet til it says you can. One time I even got desperate and forced the program to quit, and it still wouldn’t let me get online. Now that’s resolution. And there’s a version for both Mac and PC users, so anyone can use it.

When I use this program, my productivity shoots through the roof. I get ahead on my blog posting. I finish edits and marketing projects I’ve been putting off. And I get time to work on my novel, too. It’s 100% worth the price—which is not saying much, because it’s free.

Poking a Jellyfish with a Stick... And Hoping not to Get Stung

2010-05-02T22:59:00.002-04:00

It seems I'm having a few problems this week getting the process going. I'm currently editing two stories concurrently (try saying that three times fast....), mostly because I figure that when I hit a roadblock on one, I can do something with the other.

This is, of course not always the case, but it does seem to be working for now.

The problem is that I'm finding myself leaning more towards the one that reads more easily than the other that needs more work. The one that needs more work needs almost a full re-write. The story just doesn't work as is. The characters are flat, the story comes to it's conclusion far too quickly, and like Pandora's Box, having unlocked the endgame, it's proving hard to stuff the crap back in there to make the darn thing work. The easy one, I'm finding I'm just skimming along. Occasionally, I hit some little thing, make a note about it and move on. Easy as pie. I can almost see the end from here (although I know I'll be telling myself to "work on this").

I just end up feeling guilty because, like last week, I spend the larger part of my time reading the good one -- ten, twenty pages at a time --, while I'm doing maybe a page a week for rewrites of the other. But, at the same time, it's hard for me to balance that out more. I just don't know, right now, how to fix the story that needs work.

Ugh. Well, I'll take the blessings with the burdens. Hopefully, by the time I've sorted the edits on the easier story, I can come back to the harder one with renewed purpose.

But, does anyone have any advice?

Butt-in-chair method has gotten all of the stories I've written thus far (4!) together, and while editing is always slow, I've been pretty fortunate that the one that's got me stumped has been the only one with the problems I'm having. Along with everything else -- shaky plot, faded characters, hard-to-work with character with perhaps too unique a problem for my writing ability -- I'm also having Premature Ending Syndrome. I feel like I've stumbled over this ending and found "Surprise! You've got nothing else here!"

And it's got me scratching my head, looking at a re-write. Maybe the sea monsters came in over night and stole the rest of the book. Things go missing, perhaps it was the kelpie. Who knows?

So, come on people. The floor is yours. What should I do? Keep on keeping on with the one that works and set this aside? Or should I set aside the easy path? Is there a real compromise between the two that can be had? I'd appreciate any and all feedback.

Undercover Writers

2010-04-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

Do you know any undercover writers? I'm going to bet you do. You're probably one of them yourself. Someone who, like me, not only has a day job, but a day job that has very little to do with writing or the genres they love. People who write over their lunch or late at night, people guiltily scribbling away during meetings and never taking "notes."

Have you ever noticed that when you catch some one (or are caught yourself) just how many other people out themselves around you as someone who does the same?

It's funny, really.

And encouraging.

Inspiration from Abroad

2010-04-26T19:42:00.000-04:00

I've been pretty much non-existent on this blog (and my other blog, too)--I've been out of town for the past six weeks. I've spent time in London, Paris, the Netherlands, Prague and Vienna...but my mind was never very far from my book.

I don't go on vacation specifically to get inspiration. But it tends to come where I least expect it. I found it hiding in the shadows in the catacombs beneath Paris. I found it walking next to the Seine and the Thames.

My main character sees things others can't. She can see ghosts. She can walk down a street in contemporary (well, contemporary to HER) London and suddenly be standing on a street in Roman London. When she crosses London Bridge on a clear spring day, she can smell the smoke from a bridge fire that killed 200 people, 200 years ago.

So as I walked through these haunted cities, I kept thinking of how she would see them. I thought of the ghosts that could still be floating just below the surface of these famous rivers--maybe they're rising from the shadows now, trying the light, and the only reason I can't see them myself is that I wasn't built to. I thought of the things she would see walking down a typical street in Paris. Or near Notre Dame.

One thing's for sure: she'd stay the heck away from the catacombs.

So now I'm waiting for revisions back from my first draft of the story--and I already have plenty of ideas for how to make it better. How do your travels inform your writing?

Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum

2010-04-21T08:30:00.000-04:00

On topic with a post I wrote back in February, a trip to the bookstore a few weeks ago provided me with a myriad of new reading options playing off of the world, characters, and life of Jane Austen, up to and including a book where Jane is residing in modern times -- as a vampire. We'll see how that one turns out.

I am currently about half way through the madness and mayhem of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. And I'm enjoying the trip.

I picked it up after having enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

And Zombies??? You ask. Yes, and Zombies. And Ninjas, too.

I enjoyed it so much that when Quirk Books released Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, I figured, Heck, why not.

They aren't written by the same author, but both are irreverent takes on classic books, which, in my mind really only heightens the enjoyment. I love recognizing things you liked about the original story combined with something completely different.

Makes me wish I'd thought of it first.

53 Stitches at a Time

2010-04-16T08:30:00.000-04:00

One of my (many) hobbies is knitting. Right now, it's the only one other than writing that I'm consistent about (with the possible exception of singing, although I don't think I can count "in the shower" or "with the radio" as practice, even if those are the only places I perform in these days). And that's because I can do it on my commute to my day job.

The project I'm working on right now, I'm getting in about 53 stitches at a time when I sit down. Which would be great, except that for what I'm working on each row is 103 stitches. And the pattern involves 7 repeats of 72 rows, two sets of 12 rows, and one set of 41 rows. Before placing it into this context, I thought that I was doing pretty good.

At this rate, I'll be lucky to have it done for Christmas, let alone Mother's Day (sorry, Mom!)....

I need a little more time and a few less hobbies (don't get me started about the list of "hobbies" I fuss with)... ;)

But really, it is the story of my life. In the last few years I've gotten a lot better about my writing my putting it into a "small, regular goals reap large, long-term rewards" format. But, it can be a little disheartening to see a couple hundred words, knowing that to get to a full novel you need to get near 50,000 words.

But, everyone needs to start somewhere. And every project needs to start somewhere. Who knows, I've picked up the pace writing before, maybe I'll get faster with the fine yarn and tiny needles.

I'm sure as heck not giving up yet. (This pattern is way too pretty to give up on!)

*Pattern is from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders.

Don't ask me. I'm new here...

2010-04-07T18:30:00.003-04:00

When we first started this blog, I admit, I attempted to adopt a tone that was not my own, one advised by one of my compatriots. You may have noticed that when I do post of late, it's been something completely different. The reason being: I really don't have anything I can teach or preach about. I'm still too new at this. This doesn't mean that I don't write or that I don't work on perfecting the craft every day. I do.

But, I'm not a professional writer. And, right now, I'm not likely to be one.

I write because I enjoy it. Not because it's going to make me rich or famous.

I'm not particularly literary. In fact, I've had a teacher despair that I'm “too clinical” for fiction writing, while a professor of biology claimed I was “too emotional” for science.

So why am I here?

Good question, and one I've been asking myself often of late. I've been starting blogposts that I've never published. Why?

Because, I really don't know what to say.

See, unlike writing fiction or poetry, I blog because someone else thought it was a good idea to talk about what it is we were doing.

But for me, I'm afraid it sounds more like what the bard wrote: A tale told by an idiot. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Anecdotes, random stories. Thoughts on a book I've read. Really, that's all I've got. And that's not a voice of a teacher. That's the voice of a friend, talking to you about what she's got going on. And hopefully, it's enough. Because that's what I have for you. My unprofessional, random thoughts.

I just hope you don't mind hanging around and letting me know a little about you and your random-and-professional-or-unprofessional thoughts. Talk with us. Genn and Jenny and I would be more than happy to hear from you.

When You Fall Off the Horse

2010-03-03T04:26:00.002-05:00

In our writing group, we're pretty militant about our goals. We all finished our first drafts of novels more or less together, each working toward the same date. Then we set a goal to be finished with our first round of edits on our novels by February 14th. Two of us made it. One didn't--mainly due to a promotion at work. While this is good news, it was bad news for her writing--she was stuck with more responsibility and found herself working late at the office instead of working late at home, in what I like to encourage her to think of as her "real career" of writing.

So she still has a ways to go on her editing. This kind of problem might have, once upon a time, caused me to get really frustrated with my progress and give up altogether, convinced I was a failure without the drive to make it as a "real writer." But my friend is pushing on. Here are a few things that I see helping her--and that can help you get back on the horse when you miss a writing goal.

If you miss your goal, just set a new one. You can't make every goal you set. Some are too ambitious. And life does get in the way. If you can't turn in your first draft by February 14, it's not the end of the world if you move the deadline to March 14. But make sure you're only doing it as a last resort--not because you just want to. If you're not at least a little strict about your deadlines, you'll always be moving them back and you'll impede your own progress.

Perfectionism isn't going to help you. Don't let high expectations for yourself hold you back. Yes, they hold you back--in making you hold yourself to an impossible standard and then give up when you can't achieve it. You're setting yourself up for failure.

Do one small thing every day to move yourself forward. So you can't edit a whole chapter today. So what? Edit 500 words. If that's too tall an order, do a paragraph. If you can't do that, just open the document and read a paragraph. It'll probably get you inspired to do a little editing--and even if it doesn't, it will get you back in the world of your story if only for a few minutes. Maybe you'll come up with some good ideas.

Don't quit. Changing your goals is fine. Doing small things every day is fine. Quitting isn't fine. Don't stop. Don't take a break. Even a small break can get you out of the writing mode and make your goals seem impossibly far away. Just adjust your goals, your expectations and your daily commitment to something smaller or easier than you think you can do, and plod on ahead. We all have times when we have to adjust.

What do you do when you fall off the horse?

My Not an E-book post

2010-02-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

I can’t honestly write about e-books, readers or the new technology without feeling both hesitant and excited. We are living in an age where anything is very likely to become possible. What was once science fiction is quickly becoming science fact (ok, the jury is still out on the little green men—but you get the idea). Sometimes its seems as we are producing things just because we can—with very little thought to whether we should or we need them.

Take the Kindle for example. My mom proudly told me that she will be getting one as a birthday present. I was more than a little floored as my mom is a die-hard bookstore gal. She loves to go to Borders, check out the shelves, grab a coffee in the café and just relax. It’s her routine and it makes her happy. She’s not an Amazon gal. She rarely buys anything online—instead she prefers the experience of buying something in a shop. So, why the sudden urge for a Kindle?

Two words: peer pressure. My brother, uncle and aunt all convinced her that she needed this device. That this will make her life easier, more complete, fulfilled in a way that going to a bookstore just can’t. Frankly, this is just rubbish. Kindles and Amazon are wonderful—for a certain audience/person. I have to say, the idea of never owning a physical book terrifies me. As a writer—one of the goals of writing is to one day see your work bound up in book format. The thought that one day all that might be left is a digital file on a hand held device seems awful. But, that argument is purely nostalgic—and I am going to refrain from nostalgia. Instead, let’s go back to the case study of my mom.

So, my mom is going to be getting a Kindle. When we had a more honest discussion she’s admitted she doesn’t really want a Kindle. That she doesn’t need one, but felt pressured to get one. She said that she’ll still be going to Borders to check out what’s new, but might use the Kindle just to read her book club books (as usually she doesn’t keep them).

My prediction is that my mom will never figure out how to work her Kindle. Instead, she’ll have it for a year or two before she actually understands how it works and then she’ll be ready for an iPad.

With so much new technology now on the market why would anyone tie themselves down to a Kindle or early adopter iPad. People, wait….see what’s out there first before we jump onto the e-reader bandwagon? Everything is still being refined. If e-readers are the way forward (shudder) then at least make sure you do your research and maybe wait a little while before you spend your hard earned cash on a technology that is still evolving. How many of you bought Creative MP3 players? I did. I now own an iPod. Whatever happened to Creative?

But most importantly, don’t let anyone convince you that you ‘need’ something. If you are happy with your routine of popping to the bookstore and picking up your new titles—then do it. For some people, that joy of leaving their worries outside while they step into a bookstore for a half hour (or more) is a palpable and necessary break from the real world. I know that bookstores are my happy place—whenever I feel low I visit one and just browsing the shelves makes me feel better (something I picked up from my mom). I’m not sure I could get the same joy or sense of leaving my worries behind just downloading a file from Amazon.

Reading Something Old New Again

2010-02-10T08:30:00.004-05:00

I'm going way off topic this week, but it's because of a certain call I've been answering. And I think that call has to do with all of the edits (and writing) I've been working on.

When I love a story, I always want more. I'll read and re-read the same book again and again. For example, I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen. And, while I haven't read all of her novels, the ones I have read, I read again. And again. She never wrote sequels of her most beloved books. But, other people have.

Just like Sense and Sensibility, I find myself re-reading the Pamela Aiden series Fitzwilliam Darcy, A Gentleman. But, every time I do, it brings to mind a question I've been asking myself for many years. Something of a debate I've held with myself over my guiltiest of pleasures. When is it art and homage and when is it just fan fiction?

One might offer publish-ability, or time between the artist's demise and the creation of the work. Is it some magical bridge over which the original work has crossed to become “a classic”?

The urge for a sequel or a re-imagining is an old one, I think. Listen to anyone speaking about Shakespeare and debating his originality versus older stories. You have the Iliad and the Odyssey, stories based on earlier oral tales. Apocryphal bible works elaborating on Christ's life long after anyone who knew it was dead or the lives of Adam and Eve and their children.

Is there really such thing as a new story? Or new characters?

Look at the continuing of Robert Ludlum's work since his demise. Or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Go to any fantasy shelf and see how many people jumped off Tolkien's cliff. Or, go onto Amazon and type in anything related to Jane Austin -- even the author herself has become the focus of works of fiction.

This isn't limited to written works. Look at how many books are written about Star Trek, certainly not written by Gene Roddenberry. Or Star Wars novels. Or Dr. Who.

Back in the early days of the internet, the first things out there were either academic, military, or fan fic. Particularly Trekfic. I remember being 14 and going down to the college library to borrow an internet connection faster than my AOL dial-up to read Babylon 5 fan fiction, downloading it on 3.5 inch floppies or printing it out for reading at home. I got a friends addicted to the stuff over the years. What I've read has shifted depending on what has had my attention: Gabriel Knight, X-Files, Harry Potter, and Twilight. Fringe. NCIS. Inuyasha. Sense and Sensibility. Sherlock Holmes. Too many things, really.

And yes, there is a heck of a lot of crap out there, but there are also brilliant writers out there, people who could honestly be published. If.

If what they were writing didn't have to have someone's permission (or someone's estate's permission) to publish. If they changed some names and got an editor instead of just a beta-reader.

I've read fabulous work from all walks. Some people use it as their only writing outlet. Others decide at some point that they don't get enough satisfaction working with someone else's characters on something that they could never see themselves publishing. Really, it's the reason I've tried not to try my own hand in it, only enjoying other people's efforts. (It's been an urge I've found hard to avoid. I might say that my last written novel was walking a fine line, the original idea for this story coming out of my RPG addiction.)

But sometimes, it works. Pamela Aiden's novels started out there in the ether.

And perhaps there's where the rub lies. This stuff is about love of characters and worlds and curiosity about possibilities. It isn't done for the money. Or with permission. But out of love.

And that's why I keep returning. Both to original texts and to some of the better things that have been written out there -- out of love. And, it helps us see something we love, something old, yes, but also something new again. Which is why I find myself going back.

Especially when I'm re-imagining my own characters and my own stories, trying to untangle the knots of my edits.

The Great E-book Debate

2010-02-08T12:35:00.002-05:00

A lot is being made of the Kindle--the electronic reader that has a wireless Internet connection, allows you to store hundreds of books inside and read them on the screen, as well as instantly downloading books in electronic format for $9.99 each. There are a lot of benefits being touted, such as that you don't have to carry around a lot of books to have them at your fingertips (the Kindle is narrow and lightweight).

I've seen the pro-vs.-con argument phrased as a "Usability vs. Nostalgia" conundrum, and while I agree that there are nostalgic reasons to hang on to books, this way of framing the issue sets books up to fail--who wants to let nostalgia and silly emotions get in the way of better convenience and usability? I've even seen some people start to write about actual books as "analog books" (Seriously? Analog books?). The word "analog" automatically denotes something hopelessly behind the times, in my opinion--and again weighs the outcome in the mind of the reader before they've even read the article.

So this is my response to that: Why real books are more user-friendly and convenient than e-books, in my opinion.

I can't read an eBook in the bath. I love reading books in places where you wouldn't want to take a Kindle: in the bathtub, on the beach, in an inner tube floating on a lake. You get your book so wet it can't be read, and it'll cost you a couple of bucks to replace it. You get your Kindle wet, and you're a little under $300 in the hole. Clear disadvantage to the Kindle there.

Kindles are EXPENSIVE. Speaking of how much it costs: even if you're a voracious reader, reading is an inexpensive hobby. You can go to libraries and buy your books used--and you don't have to furnish an arm and a leg to feed your reading habit. But a Kindle will cost you a lot--Amazon is selling it for $259 right now. In my opinion, it's a way of making a low-tech, inexpensive hobby more pricey and less easy to get into. If Kindles become the norm, will people stop reading as much because they can't afford one?

I look at a screen all day. I need a break. A lot of workers look at computer screens from 9-5 every day, if not more. When I read, I'm getting away from the screen. I love getting unplugged from the world and reading a book. A Kindle keeps your eyes glued to the screen--not a fun way to spend a vacation, in my opinion.

Your Kindle can run out of batteries. Kindles have a long battery life--up to seven days with the wireless turned on and two weeks without. But they still have a battery life. What if I wanted to take mine camping and there's no plug-in on the mountaintop? Or what if you just forget to plug it in? A book may be heavier in your backpack, but it won't run out of batteries.

You can't write in your Kindle. My books tend to be lived-in. I dog-ear, I write in the margins, I highlight. You can't do that with a Kindle.

You can't lend your books out. I love exchanging books with friends--and of course if I read mainly on a Kindle, I couldn't do that. I'd have to lend out my entire Kindle, and not read anything til my friend gave it back. Or *gasp* be stuck with "analog" books until then.

No sensory book experience. When talking about the things Kindle takes away from the reading experience, a lot of people bring up the sensory book-reading experience--the smell of a new book, the way the pages feel and sound as you turn them, and so on. I think this is ultimately a losing argument--it draws on emotion and nostalgia, which have a hard time standing against the next new thing in popular opinion. But I believe there's something to it--you just don't get that sensory experience with a Kindle.

Do you use a Kindle? Do you prefer it over books? And, do you feel it's better in some situations than others?

Write with the passion of a four-year-old blowing bubbles and revise with the discipline of a Yoga- master with OCD!

2010-02-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

Jenny and Angel both bring up really good points about outlines. Much like Angel, I am still not sold on the usefulness of an outline while writing a first draft.

Here's why:

First Drafts are Overwhelming
Or overwhelming enough to me without the stress of having to hit plot points and character arcs (not to mention plot twists and subplots, whew). For me, this is where my characters get to feel their oats, they get to tell me who they are. I can't tell you the amount of times that I think a character is going to be one type of person and I'm proved wrong by his/her next action. If I had to follow an outline I'm not sure I would have been able to give the characters the room they need to develop. Or, even worse I'm not sure I'd be able to get through all of the plot points needed to get to the end of the book.

That said, I never start a story that I don't know the ending to
Actually, I usually begin every story knowing the end first. I have a rough idea of the plot, what has to happen and what the characters need to do from the start to finish in their journeys. Usually I know the pivotal plot points and maybe a few other relevant details. I tend to do a lot of 'pre-outlining' before I start writing. This is all generally in my head and never makes it onto paper or screen. I am awful at beginnings though, which is maybe why I encourage myself to write without knowing the beginning first (I just start with the action). This usually means my beginnings change quite a bit between drafts.

However, that said, now that I am editing my first novel, I am completely convinced of the need for an outline for revisions. My first draft is a train wreck, mostly because about halfway through my novel I changed my initial ideas about what the focus of the novel was. Which has made the story much richer, and was something I felt able to do, because I hadn't pre-plotted out everything. Because while writing I allowed myself the flexibility to see my characters as changeable and capable of a growth I hadn't outlined or predicted.

Now, that I am actually re-writing this beast (and it is a beast!) having an outline that gives me a clear set of checkpoints to hit, makes sense of my plot and helps me to chart each of my characters growth is vital. When I began revising I read through each of the chapters made corrections and jumped in feet first. This seemed like a good idea. An idea free of procrastination and filled with actions. I am good with actions. When I have any excuse to procrastinate I will. However, I found myself becoming more and more confused by the narrative of my plot. I was overwhelmed by my story. I needed to break things down scene by scene (or chapter by chapter).

And I did.... with much procrastination (I am still awful about this!) I devised an outline that has allowed me to go back through my story and actually make sense of everything I have written. What seemed like an overwhelming wreckage of writing before is now a manageable story-- albeit a story that needs some changes. I have been using my outline now to revise my novel and I couldn't be happier. When I finish my second book-- sometime in the spring, the first thing I'll do is draw up an outline. I am not sure I could revise without an outline. I am confident that for me, having an outline while writing is prohibitive, but while revising it's a necessity.

Does this make me still on the fence about outlines? Well, probably not. I do think outlines are necessary; they are the nuts and bolts of writing. They are the compass and maps of a story (ok, or GPS/Magellan/Tom-Tom/pick your own SatNav system). You need some sort of well thought out plan to make it to the end-game, to a finished novel that you feel confident showing to other people. However, when I'm writing, I still think I just need to listen to my characters-- even if later on I wished I hadn't. All's fair in first drafts and second, no?

Outlines: Another Side of the Die

2010-02-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

Granted, outlines can be useful; I wouldn't outright say that outlines aren't useful.

And I certainly wouldn't say that whatever I have against them involves stifling my creativity.

But, I think there's a time and a place for everything under heaven. And at some point if you haven't set the thing down on paper, creating one is actually more of a procrastination tool than anything else.

That said, I've worked on my own stories both with and without it, and I think that needing one or not, and the format you use (as Mike Chen mentioned not too long ago, when talking about his story webs), depends on the narrative. For me, at least.

My first story was written the whole way through with a kind of non-traditional outline. The story is set in a specific time-frame, and I needed to keep that frame in mind. And so, I set a loose outline of that story up in a day planner. My chapters are less "chapters" and more like what happens each day for my three protagonists. The day-planner approach (I hesitate to call it an outline, but it is one. Kind of.) was really helpful for me in visualizing what was going on and the pacing of my story. But it hasn't worked in all cases, for example, my second story.

For my second story (a Nano-Novel), there was no physical outline. I thought about a day planner, but it didn't fit. I had a plan from the beginning for the over-reaching story arc and while the smaller stories with in it have been developing within that framework, there wasn't an outline set out for the first (or second, or third) of what I hope to be a series of three. I finished the story, ran through a first set of edits and then a second, marking in the text notes for what I wanted to see and when. I had a fairly good idea about the way the story flowed and the way it progressed. I've always been a bit of a patchwork writer anyway and I see the connections between pieces. It's all in my head and I'm good at visualizing where it goes and if it needs to be moved. The big picture.

It wasn't until the three of us sat down and set out a specific deadline for passing around a draft of one of our novels that someone even mentioned outlining, and while I did it to stay in tandem with both Genn and Jenny, I really felt that doing the outline was keeping me from doing what I needed to actually do on my actual story -- do something about all of those notes about "move this here," "eliminate this," or "bring this in here." The only thing the outline I completed has helped me to do is to see where I put the song lyric quotes I still am not convinced I need for most chapters. There are one or two chapters where the song quote is just too perfect to get rid of, which is why I'm still having a bit of a hink about keeping them or not. I broke up a few chapters into smaller pieces, but really, the reason I'd had them together as one before was thematic. I spent most of January working on something that the whole time I was convinced (and am still convinced) that at this point, I don't need. It was far too late for an outline on this story.

My third story, still being written, is also going right along without an outline. But, it's also a story line I've had in my head for a while, and while I've had a few fits on some specific scenes (some characters just don't want to be written out! What cheek!), it's still going right along without one. I know what I need to write next, even if it's hard. And I know what I need to do for the last chapter. I've written some of it already, thanks to another suggestion of Mike's, something I've been leery of letting myself do as it's part of my prior MO with my unfinished novels -- writing scenes out of order. I never used outlines back then, either. I don't think I'm creating an outline for this one. I feel pretty confident I know what's going on the whole story through.

My fourth story (another Nano-Novel), was actually finished before my third story, but it's the second for the series mentioned earlier. I'm still tottering on whether or not this edit is going to need an outline. If I do, should I go with an option -- like with my first novel -- that isn't conventional. The problems with the story were ones I'd realized before I'd finished, much like the earlier Nano-Novel: this one ends abruptly, there stuff missing -- like tension and a plot line. I don't want this to be filler between the first and third stories, so I have to find some way of making this story stand up on it's own, and once I've finished with this round of edits on the second story (confused yet?), I need to roll up my sleeves and figure out some way to breathe life into the inert monster that is this second-of-three-stories. Even so, not having read it over once yet, I'm fairly confident I know what's wrong and what I need to do where. No outline, but an idea of where things go in my head.

A lot of times, I think what really is my bug-a-boo about outlines is that I'm not entirely a lineal thinker. I can keep it all straight in my head, but if I were to create something to show the whole network of plot bits, I'd have to have the software used to plot epidemics (a whole web of connections) or I'd have to create an "idea mobile, with strings connecting each floating piece, or use an erector set with little tags on it for each point at my desk (hmmm... I like this idea. I haven't done that in a while.... where is that erector set...?) -- and that takes up a lot of physical space.

So, I'm still out on whether or not I think outlines are useful or just a procrastination tool. I haven't finished a story because I've had an outline. I've finished a story because I gave myself goals and deadlines and put my butt in the chair and got to work. That's just how I roll....

Although, I could have probably used an outline for this blog post.... ;)

Outlines: Why I Never Work Without One.

2010-02-01T13:55:00.002-05:00

Outlining is a bit of a contentious subject in noveling. Some people swear by their outlining process. Others believe that it’s stifling to the creative process. Personally, I can’t get through a novel without at least a basic outline—and would even go so far as to suggest that if you’ve gotten halfway through several novels before abandoning them, it’s probably because you’re an outliner trying to write like a non-outliner. Here’s why outlining is so crucial to my noveling.

Because inspiration won’t carry you forever. This happens to me every time I sit down to write a novel. For the first 100 pages or so, inspiration carries me. I know exactly where I want the novel to go—and the beautiful scenes just flow. Then around the 100-to-150-page mark, I lose my direction. I hit the point where I have to make real choices—limiting choices—about my plot and characters. Indecision can freeze me—and leave me thinking it would be better to just scrap this one and start over.

Because outlining gets me over story loathing. I get this around the same time that I lose my direction in terms of inspiration. I start to hate the story. I want to give up—and I’ve lost many novel ideas over the years this way before figuring out that this is how I work. The outline is like a lifeline, pulling me out of story loathing and back to a place where I can be excited about the book. It shows me that yes, this plot works, I have a plan—and I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Because without one, I couldn’t keep this stuff straight. I would lose my way so fast without an outline—especially after inspiring discussions with my writing group, new ideas about how the plot goes, and figuring out how to integrate all that. Without an outline, I’d lose new ideas as fast as I came up with them—or start to doubt them because I couldn’t see how they worked in the bigger picture.

Because outlines give you a sense of timing. Are you doing enough to build tension between your hero and heroine? Have you built up the suspense gradually, or is it all in one clump at the end? Timing is everything, and even in a long work like a novel it’s easy to get it wrong. The outline allows me to work out timing issues before I start writing—and my margin for mistakes is lower.

Outlining literally saved my writing career. Before, I would start novels, get them halfway done, hit a wall and then give up. I'd think the problem was what came before--and I'd erase and start over. I never got anywhere--until I started really committing to an outline. Then I finished the first novel I tried it with. If you don't outline, and you've never finished a novel--a lack of organizational structure may be at the root of why.

Revisionasaurus Rex: Tips for Taming the Beast

2010-01-25T07:26:00.000-05:00

I’ve finished my very first book—definitely a cause for celebration. When I did, I broke out the wine, called my best friends, and bought myself something nice as a reward. But as great as it is to finish your book—you know that you CAN finish a book, which is an accomplishment in itself—too much celebration is premature. You’re likely facing several waves of full-on edits before you shop it around, get an agent, and get it published. In short, your work is only barely beginning.

I’m in the editing stage now. The Revisionasaurus Rex can take over your life—editing can drag on for years, much longer than it takes to actually write a book. But if you want a writing career, you can’t afford to spend several years editing—you want to get your book market-ready as efficiently as possible, so you can get your writing career started. Here are a few tips for taming the beast.

Break it up into manageable segments. It’s empowering to watch your word or page count creep up while you’re writing your first draft. But when you’re editing, goals can be a little more ephemeral. You’re not increasing your page or word counts, as you might be deleting and rewriting large chunks as well as writing new scenes from scratch. So you can’t keep track of your progress by volume alone.

Still, it’s important to keep track of your progress. It makes you see that you’re MAKING progress—which helps to keep you motivated. You can create excel spreadsheets, graphs and charts if you’re so minded—but if you’d rather keep it simple, just keep track of the number of chapters you’ve revised. If you don’t have your draft divided up into chapters yet—mine won’t be divided into chapters until after this round of edits—count by scenes.

Work from an outline. I’m a big proponent of outlining. After I finished my first draft, I printed out the whole thing, read it, made notes of where the plot was weak—and re-outlined the whole thing. Now I have a structure to go on. I feel that outlining is even more important during the editing process than the first-draft writing process. That’s because with the first draft, you’re flying by the seat of your pants—but in the editing process you have to clean up your plot and make sure your pacing is right. Without my outline, I’d be lost.

Talk it out. By the time I finished my first draft, there were holes in my plot that I could drive a Volkswagen Beetle through. Those plot holes screwed up my editing process for months—I just couldn’t figure out how to fix them, and it made me lose enthusiasm for the story.

Then one night I sat down with a friend, who is also editing her first novel, and told her about my plot holes. We’d hashed out a solution in the space of a few hours and a few glasses of wine. Pretty soon I had a renewed interest in my book—and the editing process has been much easier since then.

Set a deadline—and stick to it. Your book will never be perfect—and you can languish in the editing process for years or decades. Don’t let yourself do that. Pick a deadline. Pick one you can stick to, but not without significant effort. Pick a few people you plan to show your book to after this round of edits. Tell them you’re planning to give the book to them on that date—and get it done.

Editing isn’t easy. Your editing process could hold up your career for a long time—but only if you let the Revisionasaurus Rex run rampant. With a little (who am I kidding: a lot) of discipline, however, you should be able to get past the edits and get your novel ready for submission—sooner rather than later.

Annoying Romance Novel Missteps

2009-12-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

I'm reading a romance novel right now. A really, really bad one. I'm not naming the author; I'm not out to make enemies or hurt anyone's feelings. But I do feel compelled to talk about some things romance writers do sometimes that immediately make me fall out of love with the characters. If you want me to toss your book against the wall and stomp away in a huff, here's what to do:

Have more than one hero in a book. It's a big trend now for heroes from an author's past books to stop by and visit the current one, or to have a secondary character in one book who's going to become a hero in the next one. I know, I know it's a way to get readers interested in more than one character. I know it's common. It's practically endemic. It has to stop.

Here's why: your hero is supposed to be the handsomest, toughest, sexiest guy on the planet. And if there's more than one handsomest, toughest, sexiest guy on the planet, well...one of them has to play second fiddle, or both of them are diminished. And second fiddle isn't sexy. As a reader, I'm not going to fall in love with two guys at the same time. That's not romantic. That's confusing. And I'm not going to buy into the second-fiddle guy in one book becoming the hero of the next book, or vice versa.

Even worse, sometimes the secondary hero seems more interesting to me than the one who's supposed to be the primary hero of the book I'm reading. Like the one right now. The real hero is kind of run-of-the-mill, but there's a secondary character that's much more intriguing. He's only in the book for a few scenes, but I'm finding myself wishing the author would just write a darned book about him. It's like real life, folks: if a secondary character is catching my interest, there isn't much spark between me (ahem: the heroine) and the primary hero.

Make hero and/or heroine unnecessarily obnoxious. I know the typical formula states that heroes and heroines have to despise each other before they get to love each other. But it's all too common for authors to make heroes and heroines overly mean in an attempt to up the chemistry, raise the stakes, and so on. Tthere has to be something to their exchanges besides a bunch of snarking--and the snarking has to be realistic. If it doesn't make sense to me why the heroine is such a bitch or why the hero is such a jerk, I'm totally going to fall out of love with them--and I'm not going to get what they see in each other at all.

Make the hero a wuss. In today's world, it's tough to come up with excuses as to why two people can't be together. It's the era of free love, and women no longer have to be virgins or marry people they don't love. Those barriers to love are needed to create tension and drama in a romance novel. Sometimes, in order to manufacture that barrier, an author will make it so that a hero doesn't want to get with the heroine because his friends wouldn't approve, or his daughter's still mourning his ex-wife, or some other dumb reason. Look: a hero is a seize-the-day kind of guy. He sees something he wants and he takes it. That's what makes him a hero. If he's the one trying to resist the heroine, it better be for a really compelling reason. Not a dumb, complicated, wussy reason that would trip up the rest of us.

Have the hero and heroine spend more time apart than together. This one romance novel I read has the hero and heroine getting together for a few months, then the heroine is kidnapped by pirates, loses her memory, gets kidnapped by a sheik and forced to live in his harem, and doesn't get back together with the hero (who is something of a milquetoast anyway) until the end of the book. Um...excuse me? Where's the romance in that?

Make the heroine or hero fall for someone else. I realize real life is complicated. And I realize you can find...ahem...carnal pleasure with lots of different people. But in the realm of romance novels, your body tells you who you love. If the heroine finds sexual satisfaction with lots of different guys, well...okay, that might be empowering or freeing or whatever. But it's not romantic. Same if either hero or heroine have romantic feelings for others in the book--in many cases, it dilutes their feelings for each other. Keep some focus, for god's sake.

Romance novels need to focus on the relationship at hand. The hero and heroine must both be larger than life, standing out from the others around them. If more than two characters are this big-as-myth stature, it dilutes everyone. It might sound overly simplistic, but that's why I love romance novels--and why a lot of others do as well.

We're all Winners (2009)

2009-11-30T15:26:00.003-05:00

We're all (collectively) catching our breaths. We have all stumbled across the NaNoWriMo finish line and completed 50,000 words in 30 days. Now that we've got our lives back (more or less) we'll be back to a more regular posting schedule. But for today-- its roll on the celebrations, 50k in 30 days! Woo hoo!!

Not So Solitary's First Teaser Tuesday

2009-11-17T15:51:00.007-05:00

Well, as a thank you to The Purple Patch for posting such a kick ass Tuesday Teaser (which completley made my day), I'm posting a small snippet of my NaNo project. This year my NaNo project is a YA novel. What follows is a bit from the prologue which takes place about 1,000 years before the story starts. It's really rough and I apologize in advance for the sloppy writing and any typos...I'm way too supersitious to have a title for this beast yet, but here you go!

When they found her in the dusk-caked ruins of the old city, their first thought was of murder. Trials were matters of expedience and urgency, but this was something different. For her crimes, she should burn. Immediately. The crowd's anger would be abated by nothing less than the total destruction of the woman. The dogs strained on their leashes, desperate to claw their way closer to the huddled mass of flesh.

Her hollow and deadened eyes stared out at the mob that surrounded her. She hissed at the crowd and flashed a set of serrated fangs. She clawed, her long taloned-fingers slashed the empty air around her. She screamed, it was a sound that broke through the chanting of the crowd and the slowly descending night. Her choked screams sounded like a murder of crows had taken flight. Then she laughed.

Her dark blue raven-wing coloured hair was thick with mats and burs. She had been hiding for too long. Her dark power weakened by the constant gnawing strength of this small village. She should have foreseen this end, her sisters would no doubt be ashamed to find out how foolishly she had behaved. How wantonly she had attempted to live amongst these worthless. These nobodies. These nothings.

She pushed herself up to her full height. She was a statuesque woman, slender and beautiful. Had her face not been mud streaked and her hair not knotted she would have been breathtakingly stunning. As it was, the crowd tumbled backwards in a dark awe. She was terrible and furious. She was the end.

A small woman broke away from the crowd and approached her. The woman's rose coloured hair flapped around her face in the breeze.

“It is time you were gone from here, demon. We have endured your torture long enough.” The woman's voice carried across the ruined buildings. She faced the demon without fear, without remorse, with a certain understanding of how this would end.

The raven-haired creature laughed. “You do not possess the power to banish me. I will call for my sisters and we will feast upon your village. We shall turn your nothing town into our immortal city of bones and ashes. We shall crave our future from your worthless mortal lives. We will drain this land of life and leave a wasteland for crows.” She licked her lips. “And I shall curse those of your descent. For a thousand years they shall no know peace, speak the truth and have others hear it as lies, they shall die in destitute madness and poverty.” She smiled. “Go on, you cheap charlatan, do your worst!” She roared.

The woman took a step closer to the creature. She felt herself waiver. She had studied these creatures for years. She had been raised to destroy such beasts, and yet, standing before it in all its unearthly glory she paled. She looked to the crowd. She raised her silver dagger above her head.

“Gentle villagers we must tie her to a stake and burn her at a cross roads. We must scatter her ashes to the winds that she may never find her way back to our village.” Her voice shook with both fear and prophecy.

The people behind her shifted and shouted. Their torches held aloft and blazing. A man pushed past her and stood between the woman and the creature.

“She lies! We must throw the monster from the cliffs and into the sea. It is the only way.” His hair and beard were streaked with a russet colour that glowed in the torch light. “Do not listen to the outsider, she speaks of madness. Everyone knows the only way to kill a succubus is to throw the beast into the waves. Bind the creature with silver ropes and chains and bring her to the cliffs.”

The crowd cheered as two strapping men pushed past the woman and seized the creature. They bound the creature's hands and ankles to a wooden stake and carried her slung between them from the city and towards the cliffs. Their progress was lighted by the flickering torches.

The woman shivered. “Jezebel,” she whispered. One of the great and last.

NANO Week 3: How Are You Fairing?

2009-11-15T21:30:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone out there. At this point, those of you who have joined us in the exciting journey through NANO land have likewise hit the midpoint. Are you hanging in there? Are you still just as excited about your story as when you started?

If not, you're not alone. This is a hard spot. At this point you've been writing for two weeks now, pumping out word counts and exploring the world you've been creating.

This is my third year doing NANO, and while my word counts are vastly improved from the first year, those struggles still haven't abated. I just reach a point when I slow down, not for lack of ideas, but because I just question everything. I just finished a scene that breaks me because I know I'm going to have to go back and get rid of it all. Almost all 2000 words.

The only thing that gets me through this is knowing that I've come so far -- too far to turn back now. That and remembering Rule Number One: Go Forward. You go back when you edit, and editing will happen when the story is done.

Of course, small sweets and other incentives are certainly helping....

How are you getting through NANO this year?

Just Be Brave

2009-11-13T08:52:00.004-05:00

For me, 2009's motto has been: Just be brave. Its simple, its three words and it makes a whole lot of sense.

See, I've spent a lot of time allowing my fear of different things to drive me to near legendary distraction. I'm an obsess-over-the-big-picture type of girl. It means I'm really great at looking at all the steps involved in starting a new venture, changing careers, or effectively manage a series of tasks or projects. However, it also means I cripple myself with doubts from the outset-- because my brain has already told me (in no uncertain terms) just how many different things could go wrong or how much work it will take to actually make something successful. It's blistering.

And along came 2009...

See, this year I've just decided to go for things. I wrote a novel, it needs work, but I did it. I successfully changed careers (ok, I left my last job in late November 08--but you get the idea). I became a permanent resident in the UK (that process was overwhelming and the idea of permanently living here still surprises me). This year, I've just been brave.

And then along came NaNo....

Up until the moment I opened my document on November 1st I had no idea what I was going to write about. I had a theme, I had a rough few thoughts that I thought I could stretch out to something interesting, but nothing concrete. After I wrote the first sentence, I realized that no matter how hard I tried, the story I was going to have to work on next was a very old one. It's a story that has had at least six false starts. And of course, my brain decided that this month, this one crazy month of writing, this was the story it was finally ready to tell.

WTF? Right?

I took a deep breath, I resigned myself to another potential false start, and now, at 20800 words in, I'm thinking I might just (finally) finish this novel. Because here's the thing. It's brave to just put the story out there and let the characters do whatever they want. They will be edited later. It's brave to chuck out all my notes and outlines (which never worked in the first place) and just let the story go where it will...I am sure I will be grumbling mightily when it comes time to edit this mess-- but here's the thing, this time I'm sure I'll get to edit this mess, because, I will finish.

So, who else is doing NaNo?

What NANO has Reminded Me: Early Morning Writing Joy

2009-11-07T07:48:00.008-05:00

In many ways, participating in NANOWRIMO teaches me things about writing and about myself. Many of those lessons are reminders. The biggest thing I've been reminded of lately is of my morning creative period.

Before joining the huddled masses in the real world, I was always an early riser. As Ginny and Jenny can both attest, for much of my time in college I was up before my roommates finishing papers and projects I hadn't finished the night before. Ten PM was my limit of lateness for work, but during the morning hours -- from six to eight (in some cases, nine, if I didn't have a class) -- I was gold. I liked working in the morning. My brain liked the morning. And I was more than willing to run with it.

Fast forward eight years. Work life and home life being what it is, my sleep clock shifted. My husband (love him dearly) has always been a night owl. He works best in the late hours and has no problems sleeping in until eleven on the weekends if there is no alarm. While I've never really been able to sleep that late, I might get up when the cat wanted a feeding, crawl back into bed and sleep until the alarm or until about nine AM without it. But I'm not going to bed until eleven PM - midnight. And, I've been getting into the habit of blaming work as much as my husband -- in getting home and needing to get so much done before bed because I was at work all day, but I'm rediscovering early mornings this NANO, thanks to the time change.

I'm rediscovering my early creative period. For the last week, I've been up every day by seven at the latest (the old eight). I pour myself a cup of tea, curl up with the cat (the only time he "cuddles"), and I get working. By the time the alarm goes off (around eight), I've got six-hundred words or so banged out. I'm awake and feeling good starting my workday. Perhaps it's a little early to say, but I think this is something I want to keep going into the rest of my writing year. Perhaps not upwards of two-thousand words a day -- although NANO has proved to me I can do it (and makes me feel more guilty about my dry spells), but maybe this is how I could keep that up post-NANO.

I do have other revelations that have come to me this and prior NANOs, not the least of which is that I'm capable of doing two-thousand words a day, but we'll save those for another post on another day.

In the meantime, I'm going to get back to my NANOing. For those who might want to track my progress, too, the NANO log-on I'm updating is MiaBrightborn.

13894 and counting!

I heart NaNo

2009-11-05T14:27:00.003-05:00

As you can see from our badge on the side, this year we're taking part in NaNo-- the whole blog!! Last year the three of us each embarked on the NaNo adventure and we now have finished drafts of novels to show from all our work. We all hit the NaNo 50k word goal within a month (astonishing) and then finished our novels in the following months. I'm still revising my novel from last NaNo, but I'm beyond excited to be working on a new project.

This year I'm writing a YA Fantasy/coming-of-age novel. It makes a change from last year's Urban Fantasy/Time Slip novel. I have to say that editing and writing at the same time seems to work best for me. It makes me feel less pressured, as if all my eggs aren't in the same basket (or something).

So, what are you all up to? Any other NaNo-ers out there? If so, feel free to friend me-- I'm imaginatively called: gennstone.

I have to cut this blog short and get in some more words before the husband comes home and we stare at some of the fireworks going off as I type this (its Bonfire Night here in the UK). But I promise more updates soon!

8877 (and counting)

You Had Me at the Headline

2009-10-22T08:26:00.001-04:00

So, I was looking at CNN recently and couldn't help but check this out.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/10/20/dcl.charlaine.harris.intv.cnn

I actually did find the interview inspiring, from the point of view of an aspiring genre writer. Over the course of it, Charlene Harris talks about her journey to her current genre, things going on in the world of Sookie Stackhouse, and genre writing, particularly the supernatural-mystery genre, and the True Blood TV series. It is, in all a very short interview, but certainly amusing.

And how can you resist this headline: "I like my guys without fangs," Author Says ?

What do you think?

My Non-existent Work/Life Balance

2009-10-16T07:17:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been struggling with my work/life balance. I've been engrossed in some very big projects at work and as a result I've been unable to actually fit in the time for my writing. I've been getting home any time between 7-9pm and just too exhausted to spend another 3 hours working on my novel. Which i know is defeatist claptrap, but it's where I've been lately. Its also why my blog posting has been sporadic and slightly shorter than usual.

With the poor economy, more lay offs and in general more work to go around its hard to treat my job as a 9.30-5.30 affair. When I was fresh out of college I really believed that work ended at X time. Especially as I didn't get paid overtime. Now, i still don't get paid overtime, but more and more frequently I'm at the office later and later. Plus, professionally I've been given a lot of projects that are testing my merit and work as an assistant and clearly designed to push me forward. So, I've found it incredibly difficult to just turn my machine off and leave work unfinished.

Normally, I'm very good at reminding myself I have two jobs, one that pays the bills the other that fulfills my days. Although, with my day job now being something that I've grown to love, its weird to find I have a passion for both professions. So, my question to all you writers out there is how do you find that balance between work and writing? I used to be able to answer this question with a simple work ends at 5.30 and writing is from 8-10 (or so). But now, I can't.

So, when all of you out there get very busy how do you juggle all your work and writing commitments? So far I've been reassessing my writing goals and making them smaller (hey, it's better to get a little bit done than nothing, right?) and trying to force myself to have at least two nights a week out the door no later than 6pm. Its been working, but its a slow process. Now, if only I could reclaim my lunch hour...

So, the floor is open for suggestions. Just how do you strike that tricksy balance?

Whose Gaze?

2009-10-14T23:19:00.000-04:00

I had a friend once in college who was an Art History major. She was continually talking about something called “the Male Gaze.” She was particularly into Renaissance art, and told me that a piece of artwork was actually a conversation between the subject of the painting—usually a beautiful female—and the person looking at the painting. Every artist had an ideal viewer in mind, and, according to my friend, Renaissance artists pictured their ideal viewer as male. So they painted a lot of beautiful women in various stages of undress, looking at the viewer provocatively. They weren’t looking at another woman that way. They were performing for the Male Gaze, not the female one.

Renaissance art may be part of history—but the Male Gaze is as contemporary as it gets. The modern media caters to it relentlessly. A really obvious example of this is the typical beer commercial—it’s rare to find one without a scantily-clad model implying that she’s available to any slob who orders this beer in a bar.

But you find it elsewhere, too. There’s no question that sex sells. But whose sex? Beautiful women shill for everything, from cell phone plans to cars to vacation cruises. This is odd, when women control at least half of all household spending money in the country. You occasionally see advertisers using these tactics on women as well—I remember reading an article from some advertising exec for Mr. Clean, suggesting that they wanted women to “fantasize” about their chrome-domed spokes-cartoon. But compare the number of beautiful women you see in ads to the amount of beautiful men, and you’ll probably see that the women are much more ubiquitous.

It’s not ads, though, where I really notice the Male Gaze. It’s movies and sitcoms. Have you noticed, in TV-land, how often beautiful women get with average—or even sub-average—guys? I think I first noticed something was up when I saw There’s Something About Mary. I just remember thinking, “Come on—Cameron Diaz chooses Ben Stiller over that football player? The guy looks like a tree stump with eyebrows!” And then there’s Cider House Rules—if Tobey Maguire wasn’t a movie star, do you really think he’d have a chance with someone who looks like Charlize Theron? Puh-leeze.

You notice it a lot in sitcoms, too. King of Queens is an obvious example. So is That 70’s Show—Donna was so out of Eric’s league. You even see it in cartoons—the fat, kinda slow guy is so often paired with the good-looking, smart wife, it’s become a cliché. These movies and shows clearly aren’t written with women’s desires in mind—they’re written by, for, and largely about guys.

Our culture worships a feminine ideal that most women can’t attain—and then pairs that ideal with male icons who couldn’t be more ordinary. It sends women a bleak message: you have to be gorgeous. And even then, you’ll probably wind up with the fat guy. Or the one with the overbite. Guys, of course, are conditioned to think it’s realistic to date women who look like models, no matter what they themselves look like. All this is bad news for normal-looking girls, who find themselves competing with Charlize Theron, as well as for beautiful women, who get pestered by potato-shaped guys in bars who think they actually have a chance.

So what can we do about it? Easy. Let’s make a bunch of movies that pair Judy Dench with Brad Pitt. Let’s have some more sitcoms about older women paired with Latino hotties ten years their junior (hey—it worked for I Love Lucy). Let’s show women that guys aren’t half as shallow as the media says they are.

And let’s think a little more about the Female Gaze in ads. There are a lot of products out there who are missing out on half their potential customer base. I’m not a big fan of Bud Light, for example. But I’d probably drink it, if I really believed it had the power to compel that hot guy by the jukebox to come over and hit on me.

Which is why I love romance novels. But that's another blog post.

Moving Forward With Small, Achievable Goals

2009-10-07T16:10:00.003-04:00

I finished my book in July and started editing in August. I was doing well for a while, then I went on a three-week trip to Ecuador. And when I got home, I found I'd lost my writing momentum. I had already partially re-outlined my plot, resolving some plot issues I'd been concerned about and making my plot more cohesive. But upon returning, I didn't remember where my outline was going--and the notes I'd left on my first draft seemed incomprehensible.

So what do you do when you've lost momentum? Make it easy to get started again. I lost momentum for over three weeks because fixing my novel seemed like such an impossible task. I had this enormous binder full of notes and a half-written outline and I had no idea what I'd been doing before I left. It all seemed like a tangled mess--and I worried about not being able to retrace my train of thought. I was overwhelmed.

I got started on my outline again by redirecting my mental attention. Instead of telling myself I had to sit down and untie the gordian knot of my novel, I told myself I'd just reread the new outline I'd written. That's all. It took thirty minutes. Just that simple re-read reminded me of my direction and got me inspired.

Now I'm finished reworking my outline and will be tackling the rewrite this month. Is it going to be easy? No. But I make sure not to let myself know that. Every day, I sit down with the idea of doing something small and achievable. Five pages here, a thousand words there--it's all coming together. It's easy to get discouraged and sidetracked when you're always looking at the big picture. But remember you don't have to rewrite the entire novel in one sitting--you just have to rework one scene at a time. With small, regular efforts toward a larger goal, you're sure to get your novel edited.

I've Been Workin' on the Railroad....

2009-10-05T08:30:00.001-04:00

Okay... perhaps it's not that bad. In fact, I am rather proud of this week's accomplishments, all things considering.

I made my writing goal last week by Thursday (This week: 3600. Onward Ho!) and decided not to push it. Not knowing how much time I would be able to devote to either endeavor over the course of the weekend, I had decided to take a little time during the long ride out to a friend's wedding (CONGRATS AGAIN, JAMES AND AMY!!!) and work on some editing. And boy did I ever. Between the car rides there and back, when I wasn't driving, I was able to finish most of chapter one. I added a little over 3000 words -- which is great because I eliminated a lot, probably about 3000 words or more (and if I continue with the edits that I've been contemplating will be just the start of an entire overhaul of the next four chapters and the elimination of most, if not all of chapter two). I was surprised at how easily it worked. Some trips I find I can't do anything at all, while others have some crazy abundance, maybe to make up for the ones where I sit for seven or more hours in the car (or bus or plane or train) and ask my SO over and over again "are we there yet?" (I fear for the day we have children. He may lose it. Seriously.)

Here is where my confidence lags, though. I honestly wonder if I'll be able to keep this level of productivity up now, and if I do, will I run out of whatever it is that's been buoying me these last few weeks during NANO? Perhaps, perhaps not.

I would feel a little better, going into NANO if I felt some things were off my plate. And if I did more research into what I'll be writing for NANO. It wasn't something I could work on this weekend, because until Sunday night, I was without internet. I suppose part of this shaky confidence is knowing that what I did (and have been doing) is frankly insane in the light of what Jenny and Ginny are doing. What do I think I am, trying to edit and write at the same time?

But, on some level I saw it as a kind of "free time." I'd already done my goals for this week.

On the other hand, if I'd used that free time to work on my current writing story, would I have gotten 3000 more words out of myself (doubling my goals and getting me that much closer to having this finished before NANO)? Or would I have had a car ride of staring at the lovely turning leaves but asking myself as my power slowly dwindled -- on so many levels -- are we there yet?

So, I suppose the ultimate question I'm posing is, is it smart of me to have taken this route this week and divided my time between two worlds, as it were, which may or may not get me closer to eliminating one of the balls in the air in my right hand? Or should I have taken a more decisive step towards finishing the story I'm still writing, thereby moving that ball from my left to my right?

What do you think?

Celebrating the Milestones... and Moving Forward From There

2009-09-26T18:43:00.007-04:00

So, I hope everyone out there had a productive week. I sure did. I feel like I might be back in the groove ::fingers crossed::. I beat my goal of 1500 words by almost double. And, I've finally crossed the big 200 page mark on the active story. It feels like I've been pulling teeth to get there this time, especially with the slow summer I've had. I had been starting to worry I'd never get there.

In addition to hitting that hurdle, I've started working on dossiers. And although I haven't done any editing work for either of my finished stories, I feel like I'm back in a fabulous place.

At the beginning of this week, I started thinking about getting ready for NANO.

Get ready for NANO! Isn't that still about a month and a half away? you ask.

No? You're asking what NANO is?

::rubs her hands together::

NANO -- short for NANOWRIMO, or National Novel Writing Month -- is one month of sheer madness. 150 pages or 50,000 words in 30 days, the whole month of November writers everywhere are called to action with the simple premise of literary abandon. It doesn't have to be good right away (that's what NANOEDMO is for a couple of months later). The idea is to get done as much as you can without holding back or going back and editing until you've pulled as many rabbits out of your hat as you can in a month. Jenny, Ginny, and I will all be discussing the finer points of it as it comes and keep you all updated as to our progress, but if you're interested in looking into it now, check it out at www.nanowrimo.org.

So, in preparation for NaNoWriMo, I've made a commitment to up my word counts by 500 words each week. My original plan was to hit 1500 this week, 2000 next week, and so on. However, in light of the successes of the last week, I'm going to go an extra mile. My plan is that if I go past my goal, my new goal for the coming week is set at 500 past wherever I ended with the week prior. So, if I do nothing else this week, my goal will be around 3100 for next week. Seems big, but I had thought 2000 would be beyond me this week and I blew it out of the water.

I'm also going to be doing research for my NANO story, the second novel in the trilogy I started writing during last year's NANO. In the coming weeks, I'll be working up dossiers on all of the characters I know will make an appearance in the second novel (mostly because they made appearances in the previous one). And hopefully, I'll be ready and able when it's time. For now, I'm not going to worry too very much about doing edits -- I'll do a little now, but I think I'll be able to put more focus into it after NANO.

Any of those of you out there with plans for (or are already planning for) NANO?

New Week, New Work

2009-09-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

So this week I'm feeling a little better about my "Actively Writing" story. On Mike's advice, I wrote an out-of-sequence scene -- an exercise I haven't done in a while. The scene I created is completely out-of-sequence and when I was done, it made me smile. It was a great moment between two of my favorite characters in this story. And it seems to have lifted some of my block. I have finally (FINALLY!!) finished Chapter 8.

Another thing I'm using to get things going and reorganize both my active story and the stories I'm editing is a character dossier. It's based in part on the character sheets of my youth (Oh, yes, I am a gamer. I know what THAC0 is.) and in part on more official information gathering paperwork. I hadn't really thought about doing these until I was re-reading my murder mystery and saw the part I'd written about the forensic report. I haven't done these in years, but I remember it did help a lot to remind myself of small details I might forget as the story grows longer. And, now that I'm more savvy with computer programs, I can create a web of connections and see where all my relationships are. So I've created a sheet to work with, and now, all I should need to do is fill in the blanks! We'll see if it works with both my writing and editing processes to get things going in the right directions.

I'll tell you how it's going next week!

Check out my guest post!

2009-09-11T14:38:00.004-04:00

Here I am being all school-marmie and chatting about hiring freelance writers.

http://catalystblogger.blogspot.com/2009/09/guest-post-want-to-work-with-me-here.html

Tomorrow I'll have a writing related blog post up here (gasp on a Saturday and all!). But for today-- here's some freelancing tips!

A Weekend Away....

2009-09-09T20:38:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone out there had a great Labor Day weekend. I have to admit, Labor Day weekend always makes me a little sad and restless. It's not that I don't like fall -- actually my two favorite seasons are fall and spring and the riot of color and comfortable weather both bring. It's just that I always feel that I should have gotten more done over the summer.

Mind you, I don't really think of myself as an overachiever. It's just there's something about the "laid back" days of summer, and my memory of vacations that makes me think: I had all this time to do something and did I?

Realistically, I'm not sure how much I can do these days: I don't have "summer vacation" in the old, school time sense. No endless, sun-drenched days of nothing much to do. I work now. Monday through Friday. 9 to 5:30. For someone else, and that certainly controls what I'm doing during those hours, when I'm not at lunch. And my vacations, out of necessity, all surround some holiday or other.

July was pretty much a bust. I reached page 170 in my current "actively writing" story over my brief Independence Day Weekend vacation and then spent the whole rest of July trying to get back to page 170 after realizing that the chapter as written really didn't do anything to move the story forward and if I went back and did it over, it would leave me in a better place to move forward. Embarrassing, as we (Jenny, Ginny, and I) have been working on just moving forward while writing and saving editing for afterward. And that last scene is the one I'm still having trouble writing.

August has been better. While I am having trouble getting that last bit of the fight scene to work, I have 184 pages on the main story and, thanks to some great advice, I'm going to bounce ahead a little bit and write an interesting scene that came to me last week before vacation. And one that should work to bring two other characters back into the story from the fringes they've been at for a bit.

And I've started looking at the second level edits of my first finished novel. And I've gotten a new prologue and a few ideas for at least the new first chapter. So, that's pretty good.

I probably should also not forget that August also saw the start of the blog.

So, all and all, summer has not been bad. It hasn't been fabulous, but it's been good enough that my dearly-beloved's moratorium on the computer this past weekend didn't leave me all panicky about getting something -anything- done. And it's really helped. I did bring a notebook for paper ideas. The one night I did any work in it, I outlined that scene for my main story. I think it's going to be pretty good. I have a lot of hope for it. But, I had a nice, quiet weekend away and didn't feel the pressure to have a ton done to show for the time off from work. I got to enjoy time with family and the lovely Maine coastline.

Did you enjoy your weekend? Was it a break? Or were you able to get work done? Do any of you feel that strange sadness to see the summer gone or am I just being strange?

Passive-Aggressive Hell

2009-09-04T14:28:00.004-04:00

My rhino of revision is really enjoying himself this week...

Ok, I should backtrack before I continue with that thought. I've sort of nicknamed my writing process. Though my actual drafting and revising process follows Jennifer's, I have affectionately given the writing and revising stages totem animals. My writing stage has a writing monkey. I think this is because when I write I like to have total abandon. I like to be able to throw all my (literary) shit (ideas) around and take chances-- because sometimes the shit will stick. My revision stage has a Revising Rhino. My rhino bounds across my novel, ruthless, getting the plot into order, fixing massive continuity gaps and in general intimidating all my bad writing while protecting the small nuggets that are worth salvaging. My rhino is fearless, but fierce-- I am slightly terrified of him.

This week I'm finishing up my first read through. My draft is very rough. I've got some really lovely scenes and a plot that crumbles in the beginning and then smashes together at the end. I'm thrilled to finally be getting to the end of what has been (for me) an intolerable step in my writing process. I hate re-reading what I've written, because that's when my passive-aggressive streak takes over. My writing doubts for this week: my main character is annoying, my plot is not as original as I thought it was, someone else has written a better book on this topic, omg--did I seriously spend eight months working on this? it's awful.

So, I've spent most of my time convincing myself all first drafts are awful and that the only way to go from here is up. I'm looking forward to this week's challenge-- re-plotting and re-writing scenes that don't work. I feel more proactive and hopefully this will keep my inner passive-aggressive streak at bay.

So, spill it, do any of your suffer a passive-aggressive streak as you revise? Are these doubts normal? Or should I seriously consider another profession?

Adventures in Editing II: Returning to the Scene of the Crime

2009-09-02T08:24:00.002-04:00

As you may have guessed, I'm a bit of a corny writer. I love puns. But as I've completed my read-through portion of my second round of editing my first novel -- my murder mystery -- I'm beginning to wonder if it might be a crime against writing.

I'm trying to figure out how, when I read through this the first time and proofread and edited and finagled, I missed just how terrible the first five chapters are. Or is this something that every writer encounters about their first book?

When I sent it out for the first round of friend-reads, I felt it was pretty solid. Now, I know why only one person sent me back a response.

But now I know what I need to do -- or at least I think I know what I need to do -- starting all the way back at the prologue. I'm plotting it out and readjusting my time line. We'll see how that goes.

What I'm Reading (Scat and The Time Traveler's Wife)

2009-08-28T11:19:00.006-04:00

I kind of like it that I'm pretty widely read. I love my trash, YA fiction, literary novels and the occasional thriller. These past two weeks haven't been an exception. So, here's what I've been reading:

Scat- Carl Hiaasen
Scat, Carl Hiaasen's latest YA novel, has the same scatterbrained and hilarious characters that freckle all of his adult crime novels. If you've never read a Carl Hiaasen novel, I highly recommend them. They're fun, engaging and always packed with a muckracking ecological message. Scat is no exception-- touching on issues like the War in the Middle East, terrifying teachers, troubled teens and endangered Florida Panthers you're soon lost in a rip-roaring plot. What Hiaasen does so well is portray real people who get caught up in truly wild adventures. This is a great end of summer read-- or a back to school essential!

The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
This book broke me. I can't remember the last time I read such a heart wrenching story. I picked up a copy because I started to see the movie adverts (oh yes, I am highly motivated by marketing). I'd been told how wonderful the book was for years-- but I'm not a big fan of love stories. Romances, sure, on occasion. But 'love stories' imply something deep and tragic and just don't interest me. However, The Time Traveler's Wife is something rare and beautiful. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Its a beautiful novel of hope, longing, and love. I wont be reading anymore 'love stories' for a while, but for the first time I can understand why people love to read these novels.

I'll update you on what I'm reading now in a few weeks! Have a wonderful weekend. If you've got any book suggestions please do leave me a comment-- I'm always looking for another good read.

Going Back, Going Forward

2009-08-24T20:51:00.004-04:00

So, in order to reorder my creativity, I've decided to make a two-fold alteration this week in my usual process: I'm going to write one of the future scenes in my active-writing story (thank you for the suggestion, Mike!) and go back to do some editing in an old one.

I like the idea of changing things up. I think a week-long trial won't kill any of my hopes to keep things moving in my main story and I'll get a little more work in on one of my finished stories.

I am a little worried about going back to editing.

I remember this amazing glow when I finished this novel. It might be akin to the feeling you get when you've given birth. (I don't know as I've only recently done the first and never the second -- well, perhaps some day, just not yet.) You've spent months putting energy, focus, and emotion into building, creating this thing piece by piece, block by block, and once you've gotten there there's relief and pride and accomplishment. I did this. I made this. Wow.

The wonderful flush has worn off – and has been for some time now – and now I'm looking back at this thing I've made and every time I look at it, I realize I'm faced with a challenge more daunting than finishing my first novel length work. Editing my first novel length work. I've had a first read through. And a first run of edits. And I've had my moments of cringing and asking myself "how am I ever going to make this work?" Well, I feel better about it than I had when I went through my first run of edits, but as I look into it again, I know I've still got a long way to go.

I've kept a running list of positives (Relatively cohesive! Interesting mythos! Fun characters!) to go along with the negatives in hopes of keeping some perspective. And maybe to give me some things to remember for the future.

Yes. I admit it. I am enamored with the comma. It is (apparently) my foremost punctuation device. It's something I'm working correcting on now: I found a paragraph editing the first round with only two sentences in it. A paragraph that lasts half a page because each sentence goes on with Lyttonesque fervor. Beautiful images, though. I have no doubt that I will find more run on sentences as I go through it another time.

My plot line is a little muddled, and even after the first round of edits, I'm still trying to work that out. But, I have a few ideas after time being away from it, and I'm hoping to see what I can do to make that work.

Well, it'll be something of an experiment, but I'm hoping it goes well. If anyone else has any other suggestions about how I might be able to get my creativity going again, drop me a line.

Here's to this week.

Keeping My Head Above Water -- Or: Surviving the Doldrums

2009-08-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

I have reached a point in my work right now that I'm just going to call the doldrums. It's an odd place: I'd been going along at a fine clip for a while and then, suddenly, it's like my sails deflated. My speed has dropped from 60 to what comparatively feels like almost zero. It's not that I don't have idea of where I'm going or even great scenes plotted out in my head. It's that I've just lost the energy. Creatively speaking.

Ginny had to remind me that these periods have to happen. That you have to slow down or burn out. And that you have to refresh your creative self. But, after nearly a year of nearly consistent production and very few fallow periods, it has been somewhat frightening. I keep asking myself if I've lost it. If some how I have completely burned out.

But, she's right. Everyone needs to take a little breather. And it's not like I've stopped altogether.

But, I'm really not sure: how can I work on refreshing my creative winds? Does anyone have any suggestions, because, I'm certainly open to them.

When to Fold....(Letting Go of a Novel)

2009-08-17T18:57:00.005-04:00

Sometimes, no matter how good your intentions are, you have to just let a project go. Last year I wrote over 50k in a novel that showed promise. It made me feel as if this could be the project I finally finished. However, I put the novel on hold last November to work on a 'bright shiny new idea' during NaNoWriMo. When I returned to my novel all I could see was the plot holes, characters who were all over the place and all the mistakes I'd made. I set the document down again, this time determined not to return to it.

My novel didn't have that lustre it had pre-Nano, and if I'm honest, this particular project never had the same pull as my Nano novel. It was a hard lesson to learn, but for me this first novel was an exercise in getting a routine started. This novel had been all about possibilities. Was it possible for me to meet a goal each week (yes)? Was it possible for me to actually sustain a plot for more than 100 pages (yes)? Was it possible for me to create engaging characters with their own stories and agendas (yes)?

If all of these possibilities existed you are probably wondering why I let my story go-- and the answer is that it needed a major structural overhaul. I would have had to edit the early draft I'd created, look carefully at the book (it was trying to be both chick lit and literary fiction-- not a line that is easily straddled) and replot major sections. I was too close to the story, too close to what I'd written (and what I wished I'd written) to actually make the changes I'd need to salvage my first attempt.

In order to move forward, I had to let my beautiful story go. The decision felt a lot like giving up, but the more I thought about it the more I knew it was the right thing to do (for me). If I didn't let that story go for a while it would be a constant battle of rewrites, doubts and ultimately four of five drafts that were each different from my original concept.

Now, almost a year since I set the novel aside I am beginning to clearly see how to shape and edit my ideas. I am finally feeling that passion for the story and characters that kept me writing about them. I'm not quite ready yet to return to that particular novel, but I know that when I do it will be with a solid map (outline) and compass. Because, I still love this story-- and it would be shame to never do justice to a wonderful cast of characters who entertained me for months.

On Sharing Your Work With Others

2009-08-14T16:23:00.003-04:00

I'm very careful about who I share my novel with. I've learned over the years that getting the wrong feedback at the wrong time can stop a writer's progress in its tracks--and even make some writers doubt whether they have any talent at all. It's crucial to share at the right time, with the right people--and the people closest to you may not be the right people to share your work with.

Your first few chapters and your first draft are a particularly tricky time to share your work. Your work is essentially still in flux before your first few editing passes, and it's your first time seeking an outside opinion on your novel. Here are a few tips for choosing those all-important first readers for your book.

Share with people who know your genre. Not everyone will get what you're trying to do--and the first draft, which is usually quite shaky even for books that become strong later, isn't the time to test your book's crossover appeal. The idea with your first critique is to share with someone who can give you technical feedback on how to make your draft better--and they'll be able to help you better if they know the conventions of your genre. In addition, if they have a subconscious dislike of your genre, you might get some critique that has to do more with your genre's conventions--which you should adhere to, in most cases--than with your writing. If you can, choose someone for your first pass who is familiar with your genre--or at least doesn't hate it.

Share with people who know writing. You're likely to get more out of your feedback if you share with other writers--at least at first. They'll be able to give you solid, constructive feedback on how you build your characters, your plot, your tension and so on. I've shared early drafts with non-writers before and sometimes gotten comments that were vague and unhelpful, but also unsettling--they didn't like certain things but didn't know why. That's not to say every non-writer will do that--but a writer is likely to have a better idea of how to critique and provide a different perspective on how to make things better.

Share with people who will give you honest feedback--in a positive way. Don't share with anyone who feels the need to mark their territory. Some readers might feel like they have to prove their own expertise by dragging you down--and these are not helpful readers for any stage of your writing or editing process. Choose people who are supportive, positive, and believe in your talent--but who will give it to you straight in a way you can take.

Don't share before you're really ready. I don't consider myself ready to share my novel until I've finished it and gone through the editing process at least twice--until I feel it's as good as I can make it on my own. Before then, any chapter could change significantly as I hone my draft. There is no way I will share opening chapters of my book before I've finished the whole thing--until I've done a read-through, I have no idea what I'll keep and what I'll wind up throwing out, and the beginning stages are when you're the most vulnerable to negative feedback.

Sharing with a close loved one? Be very careful. Sometimes I take negative feedback very personally from people very close to me--people like boyfriends and family members. Your critiquers have to keep emotion out of their feedback, but as the writer you should take emotion out of your response--and I find that to be very difficult with the people I'm closest to. I share with trusted friends, but never with boyfriends--and I wouldn't unless the guy I was dating was an outstanding writer with a thorough understanding of the critique process, an awareness of my sensitivity and a real love of the genre I was working in.

The best critique partners--particularly in the earliest stages--are close, trusted friends who are also writers and understand the type of writing you're trying to do. Be careful of those whose critique will affect you strongly on an emotional level--including significant others and people who are relentlessly negative. And take all critique with a grain of salt--don't let one negative review lead you to give up. Most important of all, don't share before you're ready--make your project as good as it can be before you let it out into the world.

My Editing Process

2009-08-12T13:33:00.003-04:00

So you finished your novel, and...now what? I know that for me, even though I've been writing since elementary school, the finished novel is uncharted territory. But I can tell you one thing: the work isn't over when you write your closing scene. Oh no: it's just beginning.

I thought revisions would take a ridiculous amount of time, but I'm finding I'm screaming through them--revising is much less arduous than writing. Here's an overview of my process--and a few tips to help you along the way.

First: take some time off. My first tip for the editing process is don't edit. At least, not for a month. A funny thing happens when you're in the end stages of writing a novel. You become myopic. You can't tell what's good, what's bad, and what's not working. Your plot has veered way off course and putting it back together seems like an insurmountable job. The reason it seems so overwhelming is that you're too close to things: you're counting individual leaves, and you need a forest's-eye view.

I took a month's break between finishing my novel and starting to edit. It made a huge difference.

Second: print and read. There's something different about printing your novel and reading it in hardcopy. It's more solid and real somehow, and details tend to stick in your mind more easily. I printed out my novel at home and put it in a large binder--no stapler or clip would hold that baby.

Your first draft, if you've done things right, is likely to be a big, tangled mess by the time you get done. On your first pass, you're looking for plot inconsistencies, areas where you need more development, and scenes that need to go in the "outtakes" folder. Read it through once, pen in hand, and make notes in the margins. Read it through again and make more notes. Get a sense of where your plot loses focus and your pacing lags.

Third: Re-outline. Once you're done, you're going to need a game plan to improve your first draft. I'm starting with a new outline--one that takes all my prior notes into account. I'm going through my rough draft, reading and digesting my notes, and organizing it all into a new outline that includes scenes that work and what needs to be added and subtracted.

Fourth: Rewrite. Once your outline is done, you're going to have some more writing on your plate--all those scenes you need to make your plot work. Luckily, you'll probably be deleting a bunch of scenes too--I'll probably delete about a third of the novel in "outtake" scenes. But it will be worth it for a streamlined plot.

Fifth: Repeat. I'm expecting to revise my draft several times, each time with a different focus. The first time, I'm focusing on plot. The second time, I'll focus on building romantic tension and suspense--make sure my pacing is on track. The third time, I'll focus on language. You may not be able to do everything you want in your first editing pass--so expect to go through it more than once.

Sixth: Send to a friend. Once you're convinced you've made your book as good as it will be, send it to a trusted friend you can count on to give you good, knowledgeable and insightful advice WITHOUT either a). tearing you down or b). giving only praise. I'm lucky in that I have several good friends I can trust with first draft revisions. The ideal first-draft reviser is knowledgeable about writing and knows their way around the genre you're working in. Ideally, you have more than one to draw on.

Seventh: Send to a less experienced friend. Once you've made revisions based on your friends' feedback, you need to see how your book will play in Peoria. Meaning: you need to show it to people who aren't experienced writers, but who might have the same opinions an outside reader would. You don't need to be as careful on this pass--your goal is to find out what people beyond your carefully chosen writing circle, people who maybe didn't even know you were writing a book, think of it. Take this advice with a grain of salt; you've gotten too far to let a negative review discourage you. But you may learn some useful things as well.

So, that's my editing process. I'm currently on Step Three. What step are you on?

What I'm Reading - Thursday Next

2009-08-10T09:14:00.000-04:00

I -- like many -- read as part of staying inspired in my writing. It is nearly as important to me as the sound tracks I write by. It refreshes me and nourishes me. It helps keep me in the mood; it helps me think about elements of the universe I'm creating by looking at what other people have done in their own.

Right now, I'm reading the first book in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series -- The Eyre Affair. And I'm loving it. I have always had a hard time with literary books -- they often take themselves too seriously. Meanwhile, the really playful books are often just fairy floss and popcorn -- fun, but not much in the way of substance. The thing I'm loving about this book is that somehow, it's both. There are tonnes of in-jokes and bad puns (really, the only kind of puns I love. Just ask my darling Other Half).

The world of Thursday Next is an alternate to our own, where England and Russia have been fighting the Crimean War for over 100 years, where Wales is an independent nation, and some people have the ability to move through time and into the worlds of books. The story is set in 1985 and there are two main powers controlling the globe: the Special Operations Network (a la 1984) and the Goliath Corporation. The main character, Thursday E. Next, a lowly LiteraTec Detective, SO-27, has a voice that brings to mind old detective stories -- and some newer ones. And there are elements of the world he created that I'm frankly jealous about -- I would love the ability to walk into the worlds created by books. And I would love to see a Richard the III performance like the one described in the book. It sounds like a cross between the Rocky Horror Picture Show viewings and the midnight show Shenandoah Shakespeare Express put on every year at my university. It sounded like so much fun it made me giddy. And don't get me started on the bookworms, fed on prepositions and expelling clouds of apostrophes and hyphens.

I love this book the way I love Harry Dresden books and Alton Brown cooking shows. I can already tell that this is going to be one of those books I end up reading again and again (a list I'll discuss some other time).

As you might be able to tell, I'd give this book five happy bookworms out of five.

What are you reading?

Jumping in With Both Feet - A Writing and Editing Lifestyle

2009-08-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

One of the things I've found in the last year and a half of working on my stories is that I can't just dip a toe in. It's all or nothing. And I can only have one major project running at a time.

The reason is that a story is a lot like a mud puddle. You have to jump in with both feet to see how deep the mud is. You have to get absolutely coated in it. And that's how you know how much of a story you have, when you've surrounded yourself in your world building, you've got your mounds of research, your plotlines and all. But, if you're jumping in with both feet into the one mud puddle, you are also only testing the mud in one place at one time. You can't physically be two places at once. And figuring out that I can't be in two metaphysical places at once has certainly taken a lot of learning.

I had, up until last year, had a few stories going all at once. It divided my time and allowed me an escape hatch if one story seemed to be having trouble. And that's great, except I wasn't finishing things. Some things would go on the side burner permanently. Others, I'd probably get a few paragraphs in at a time -- wonderfully written paragraphs, but that's all they were.

You're not really getting muddy if you have a toe here, a toe there, and fingers in two other different puddles.

So, now, I have one story that I'm writing at a time. One puddle, ankle-to-neck deep. (At least, I keep hoping I won't find that I'm in over my head... ::winks::)

But what does this mean for editing? As I've said in my profile, I'm writing one story and editing two others. And that's a lot of mud to sling.

Ginny and I were talking about the best way to approach edits and I told her, I still believe it's about jumping in with both feet. There really is no best angle to get into it from, and it's hard to see just what kind of mess you have until you're knee deep in it again: then, you'll be able to see how much needs to be changed.

Even though I'm standing knee deep in my new story, and am still working towards the goals of my new story, I'm still coated -- metaphorically-speaking -- in the mud of my last two projects. And they've had time to soak in. But, I still make sure that I work on only one of those story edits at a time.

So, for each story, I jumped in. I did a read through. I made those changes I knew I needed off the bat. I marked places that I was unsure about, then I sent it out and set it aside and let it percolate. Each one in their own turn.

They're not done, of course, and won't be until they're published, but I have those pockets of mud mapped. They're on my radar. I'm not losing them, and while more rain refreshes them, they're still mine. I've left my mark on them and they've left their mark on me.

And distance, whether it had just been put aside after the first edit or sent out to friends to read and respond to my own comments, really has helped to create some clarity in things that had been, at the time, as clear as mud.

But you can't know until you jump in.

At least, that's my take on it.

Finishing My Novel: How I Did It

2009-08-05T10:05:00.001-04:00

I finished a novel this June.

This is a huge step for anyone, but particularly for me. I've been writing novels my whole life. Invariably, I'd get to around page 100, decide I hated it, and stop. Usually I'd delete the whole thing in a fit of book loathing. Sometimes I'd come back to it in a year and realize what I was writing wasn't so bad--and wonder why I stopped. But I never felt inspired to keep going; by then I was onto some other idea, which I would eventually abandon.

Not this time.

So if you want to write a novel, here's how you do it. Or, at least, how I did it.

Set small, achievable, regular goals. When I started with this new novel, I decided I would write 2500 words a week. 2500 words is an easy goal for me. It's 500 words a day, with weekends off. Or if I don't have a lot of time during the week, I could do it in one determined sitting. I could do a lot more--and later towards the end, I found myself sometimes writing 10,000 words per week or so. But in the beginning, it was very important to me to set small goals that I could live up to.

It's key to set goals that are less than what you think you can do. That's because if you set a big goal for yourself and don't make it sometimes, you'll be setting yourself up for failure on a semi-regular basis. That gets discouraging, especially for perfectionist types. I can't count how many times I've decided I'd write an entire novel in two months and then quit after two weeks--because the goal was just too big. If I'd said I'd write a novel in a year, I might have actually gotten it done in a few months.

When you don't make your goals, don't sweat it. Okay, so this week aliens landed in your back yard, you gave birth to a litter of kittens and you had to have your toes amputated. Not the best time for writing 500 words a day, even if you get a break on weekends. Don't let it throw you off. Life happens. Just forget about it and keep moving forward next week. Don't try to write twice as much next week to make up--you can if you want, but don't try to force yourself and then freak out when you fail. It's just going to make it that much less likely you'll pick up your story again the week after. Keep the goals small. Keep them attainable.

Get some writing buddies. Writing friends are the reason I finished my story. They encouraged me when I was mired in self doubt, they told me my story was brilliant when I was sure it was a big steaming pile of monkey poo, and they made me accountable for my goals. If you're lucky enough to have someone in your life who can fill this role for you, you have much better chances of finishing.

Set inviolable rules. The one rule I couldn't break during the writing process was this one: NO going back. NO deleting. Whatever you write in the first draft stays in the first draft. I needed this rule; otherwise I'd go back and delete huge chunks and take my story in random directions. I needed to save the editing for the editing stage. Set whatever rules you need to set to make sure you finish, despite story loathing.

Don't rely on inspiration. I've heard those stories so many times, about writers who've had a compelling dream, woke up that morning, and written an entire novel in two days in a big spasm of inspiration. To which I say: GOOD LUCK. Inspiration is a funny thing. It's undependable. You never know when or where it will strike. That's great if all you want to do with your writing talent is write the occasional poem. But if you want to make a career out of this, you can't rely on inspiration.

Instead, have a plan. Sit down every day to make a certain word count. Follow an outline. Know where you're going. Don't wait for inspiration to strike before you'll sit down and write. You may find after you write a few hundred words that inspiration comes late to the party.

Writing a book is hard work. You need a plan, a schedule, and a few rules you can't break. You also need help--no writer really does it alone. But it's never too late to finish yours.

Going it (NOT) Alone

2009-08-03T18:28:00.000-04:00

I've always had mad visions of writing alone in a garret apartment. Sipping a cup of tea, as I type on my computer or revise my latest masterpiece. The solitariness of this never seemed to bother me, in fact it sort of enthralled me. That is, until I had to put all this into practice.

See, my quiet desk, my solitude, my tea all rather lost their lustre when I realized the daunting task I was undertaking (alone). I'd written loads before I left University. Mostly literary short stories and poetry-- but I'd never written a novel before. So, for about four years I faffed about starting and half finishing at least as many novels or projects.

It wasn't until 2008 that I really began to understand why I was failing constantly. See, I'd learned a lot about the craft of writing (and yet-- there's still so much to learn!) but I hadn't learned how to structure my time. I didn't have a writing habit. I didn't understand what that was, really. When I had an idea I puzzled it over in my head, I jotted some notes, and then in two sittings I wrote out the whole mess. But writing a novel, that took time. That took some sort of game plan. That overwhelmed me.

So, I asked my friends how they got through the process of writing a novel. Jenny suggested her patented 2500 words a week method. Essentially, the idea is to set a small goal, say 2500 words a week, and then consistently hit this goal. The idea is that as you keep hitting your goals and as you go along you build a novel out of small targets and then increase these targets. Towards the end of my novel I was averaging 10,000 words a week. So, I gave this a whirl last April and was shocked as over the next few months my idea grew into a 50,000 word project. I eventually decided not to continue with this project over NANOWRIMO, but the progress I made reminded me that I could do anything-- if I just put the time and effort in.

Last year Jenny, Angel (my other writing buddies) and I took up the siren song of NANOWRIMO. I'd half-heartedly attempted it back in 2007-- but had only managed a paltry 10,000 words. This year, with the successes I'd had thanks to my 2500 words a week target I felt confident that I could actually hit 50,000 words in a month (crazy as it had taken me 3 months to hit that goal before). Nonetheless, we decided to set up a private blog to measure our successes, taunt each other into writing a little bit more, and post unedited snippets. The results were astounding. Jenny, Angel and I all crossed the NANO finish line for the first time.

It was then that I realized the one lesson I could never have been taught at University. A writer needs a group of friends, a group of people who understand the process, who can give you a good kick in the ass when you need it. In short, a writer needs some sort of community. Which is how we realized that it would be good fun to go 'public' with our ideas, and see if there were other people out there looking for a community-- a group of like minded 'lone wolves'.

So, here's my question-- what's your method? Do you have a set amount of hours or blocks of time you keep to each week? Do you have a word count you strive towards? Do you have some other method that works wonders? Because frankly, I'm always interested in learning new tricks.

Genn

2009-08-03T02:53:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time, Genn had a really good idea. An idea so fun and silly that it seemed to consume her days....and then (during NANOWRIMO 2008) this really good idea went from a thought to a novel. She's always feared (fictional) alpha males and all things paranormal, so when she realized she was writing a dark horror/romance about 17th century witch finders and werewolves she rightly closed the document and went back to something far more sensible. With the constant support of her friends, she has been able to actually complete her first novel and is now deep in revisions.

Genn spends her days working for a publishing house and her nights supporting her friends in their endeavours to get their books written, revised and published. One day, she hopes to see her books in print....

Until then she flits back and forth between her dark romance and a new project she's way too excited about. She can be reached at: genn.stone@gmail.com

Angel

2009-08-02T21:58:00.001-04:00

A Little About Angel:

While Angel has been writing for some time now, she's only just learned to finish what she starts. She has two books in the editing phase and one in the middle of being written -- and none of them has the same genre. The first one was a stand-alone murder mystery. The second, her first NANOWRIMO win, is the first book in what will be a modern fairytale trilogy. And the third can best be described as a spy novel set in space. As you might be able to tell, she's still looking for her niche.

She also looking for a Nom-de-Plume: her last name is about as long and complex as you can get without silent js and zs.

But, more on that some other time.

She is looking forward to supporting Ginny and Jennifer (and the rest of our writing clan) in their endeavors in their writing and share some of her own strengths and struggles. And, at some point in all of this, get published. She can be contacted at angle.a.dawn@gmail.com

Jennifer

2009-08-02T18:51:00.000-04:00

Jennifer has always loved a good ghost story--and is coping with a lifelong addiction to fictional alpha males. Put those two qualities together, and you've got the industry's newest paranormal princess--at least she hopes so!

Jennifer is currently working as a freelance commercial copywriter and marketing consultant who blogs about freelance writing. During her workday, she always finds time to work in some novel writing. She's currently finished one book--a traditional Regency romance with a paranormal twist--and is hip-deep in the editing process.

Her goal on this blog is to share the strategies she used to get her first book finished--as well as editing and marketing expertise she learns along the way. She can be contacted at Jennifer@catalystwriters.com.

Books Read 2009

2009-08-01T17:42:00.002-04:00

Every year I keep a log of all the books I manage to read (eclectic to say the least). So, here goes:

1. Sunshine- Robin McKinley
2. Bitten- Kelley Armstrong
3. Dead Until Dark- Charlaine Harris
4. The Reader- Bernhad Schlink
5. The Forest of Hands and Teeth- Carrie Ryan
6. The Sweet Scent of Blood- Suzanne McLeod
7. The 19th Wife- David Ebershoff
8. Blood Brothers- Nora Roberts
9. The Hollow- Nora Roberts
10. The Pagan Stone- Nora Roberts
11. Graceling- Kirstin Cashore
12. Marked- P.C. and Kristin Cast
13. The Neighbour- Lisa Gardner
14. Say Goodbye- Lisa Gardner
15. Single White Vampire- Lynsay Sands
16. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian- Rick Riordan
17. The Cold Kiss of Death- Suzanne McLeod
18. Living Dead in Dallas- Charlaine Harris
19. Club Dead- Charlaine Harris
20. Dead to the World- Charlaine Harris
21. Fire- Kirstin Cashore
22. Dead as a Doornail- Charlaine Harris
23. Definitely Dead- Charlaine Harris
24. All Together Dead- Charlaine Harris
25. From Dead to Worse- Charlaine Harris
26. Dead and Gone- Charlaine Harris
27. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling
28. Faefever- Karen Marie Moning
29. Scat- Carl Hiaasen
30. The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
31. Dreamfever- Kare Marie Moning
32. This is Where I Leave You- Jonathan Tropper
33. City of Bones- Cassandra Clare
34. City of Ashes- Cassandra Clare
35. City of Glass- Cassandra Clare