11.14.13

Felled. I've been fighting off a cold, which finally caught up to me. I tried to write, I really did, but between sneezing and coughing and kitty wrangling, it was sheer crap, so I gave up and read. I finished ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth, a super cool and clearly inevitable end to her hugely popular Divergent trilogy.

I had some problems getting into it; I was so wrapped up in the first two and there was a style issue I struggled with (I'm not a fan of dual first person POVs unless the two voices are hugely distinct, so I will blame my difficulty keeping track of whose POV I was in today on foggy brain.)

It's interesting, almost every trilogy I've read bumps into the same thing, a little lag at the beginning of the third book. Hunger Games had it too - and it's a hero problem. It's an intrinsic part of the hero's journey, this apathy toward the reality of their path, gearing up for the final fight. The feeling that they've done enough, they shouldn't be asked to give any more, to continue being heroic. They're tired, and worn out, and the last challenge has taken so much out of them, they don't have any more to give. Or so they think.

In other words, they become human.

It's hard for the writer to breathe life into this part of story, I'm always fascinated to see how people handle it. I think JK Rowling is the only one I can definitely say didn't fall into this. I haven't tried to tackle this kind of hero's journey yet, and I'm anxious to try, especially keeping this phenomenon in mind. How to keep the hero heroic when they, quite rightly, need to step down and let someone else lead for a while.

Heroes are heroes because they somehow find the internal strength to move past this apathy and sacrifice themselves, again, for the greater good, even knowing there's a damn good chance they won't make it. And when they step back up, engage, the books take off and I'm breathless to the end.

Finishing ALLEGIANCE, I spent the last forty pages in tears. I have to applaud Roth, she's crafted a hugely fascinating series that asks all the right questions, and gives heartbreaking answers. She doesn't waver on her path, and I'm sure she was encouraged toward a different outcome. But she did what was right for the story, and that makes her a hero in my mind. Buy them, you'll love them.

Sweet dreams!

11.13.13

Okay, back on track. 1300 today, two chapters totally revised, with a great bit of insight into my villain. It's hard when they don't want to reveal themselves, but I've got it now! 

I'm embarrassingly far behind on my NaNo count, but with the stuff I've ironed out over the past few days, that should rapidly improve. Going for another 10K day on Friday, so hopefully I can catch up. 

Tomorrow was supposed to be all but lost, with three different appointments, but I think there's time enough between the first and second to sit down at Panera and knock out a 1000 or so.  Also, so please THE FINAL CUT was nominated for an RT Reviewer's Choice Award. What a huge honor.

Have discovered the kittens' weakness - music. They were absolute banshees this afternoon, climbing all over me, the computer, the chair, playing with the multiple mice that litter the living room floor. Jameson has eyes like a hawk, and goes bonkers for my curser, hell, anything that moves on the computer screen. I pulled up a squirrel video on YouTube and they both sat on the keyboard and watched, enraptured. Then I put on some Dvoräk, and bam - they curled up and went to sleep like Fluffy and his magic harp. They're still out, two hours later. And now I know.

Off for tacos and margaritas with some dear friends. Part of the all work and no play makes JT a dull girl initiative. Pray the minions don't tear the house apart whilst I'm gone.

Sweet dreams!

11.12.13

An auspicious date on the calendar, and a decent writing day for me. I had to flip my day, do business in the morning and write this afternoon, so I'm not done, ergo, no word count just yet. But I wanted to direct you to this blog by Kris Rush on NaNoWriMo. She makes a lot of excellent points about the month-long novel extravaganza.

Professional writers view NaNo with a healthy dose of skepticism. Mainly because we do this every month, so there's this rather snobbish view toward a bunch of writers suddenly dedicated themselves to the craft for a single month and calling themselves authors. I don't buy into that crap, by the way. Yes, I do write at least 25K a month, more like 40-50K, but that doesn't make me more of a writer than the NaNo folk. It just means I've been blessed enough to do this full time. Sometimes, established authors forget how things were in the beginning.

Also, there are a wad of submissions that go out on December 1. Yes, there have been books written during NaNo that get published - 14 was my first, I can testify that it does happen. But more often than not, they don't, for several reasons:

1. 50,000 words does not a novel make. (I made this mistake, remember, before I knew anything about the industry, so don't think I'm picking on you.) Most commercial novels are between 70-100,000 words, and at least 400-500 manuscript pages in 12 point font. So by "winning" NaNo, you've only laid down half to three-quarters of what you need to be on par with the rest of the industry.

2. Writing is only half of the game. REVISING is where the real writing is done. Shooting off a manic manuscript that you haven't taken several weeks to edit, edit, edit some more, get reads from friends, revise again, is foolhardy. You only get one chance to make a first impression.

3. A million submissions on December 1 overload the agents, their readers, and their assistants, so a lot of good work can fall through the cracks.

4. We now have the very simple, expediant method to get our work into the hands of readers, self-pubbing. Please, don't do it right away. Give yourself the time to revise and get some good solid editing from a great editor before you put your masterpiece up for sale.

So. With all that in mind, when you finish, and accept your congratulations and adulations, take a day, celebrate, then get your butt back in the chair and make a real novel out of your story.

Sweet dreams!

11.11.13

1500 today, dragging each word kicking and screaming from the mental rock as if they were diamonds. The story is starting to take on a life of its own, which can be frightening and liberating. Not sure which, yet.

This morning, I read an essay by Dani Shapiro called Habit. I felt a number of mental tumblers click into place for me. At its most basic, here's the takeaway: writing is your job and you need to treat it as such. You show up even when you don't feel like it because it pays the mortgage.

But her essay was more than that for me. 

I'm often asked how I write, how I can do it day after day, how this whole creativity thing works. Well, it has definite similarities to any job: you get up, you check your to do list, you do your work, take a lunch, work some more. Except writers do this in their pajamas, get paid for staring into space for hours on end, and can never turn the office off, since it resides in our brain.

Still, it's good for writers to think of their art in terms of an actual job. If you go to an office, you wouldn't take time off during the day to vacuum, do laundry, make extended phone calls to besties, text, read, watch TV, etc. So why are you doing that to your writer day?

I'm as guilty of this as anyone, trust me. Add in Facebook, and Twitter (today I couldn't seem to get off of it, which, to be honest, was rather a fun change of pace) and all the other distractions (minion necklace, anyone?) and I see how sometimes, some days, I don't treat my job with the care and respect it deserves.

I'm going to start looking at modified bankers hours for writing, and work from that perspective for a while. I've been approaching my day for a very long time as -- so long as I get X (1000) words done a day, I'm fine. I'm wondering if perhaps I should try a more disciplined path -- work from x - x o'clock and see what happens. I started this earlier in the month, planning to knock off at 3:30 in order to handle other things. It's going well, but I'm ready to take it a step further. We'll see how that goes. 

Happy Veteran's Day to all those amazing men and women who sacrifice themselves to keep us safe and free!

Sweet dreams! 

11.8.13

Well. After yesterday's day of brilliance, today was the day of diddly-squat. I tried to work but nothing would come, tried to read but couldn't stay focused, and ended up watching Vampire Diaries and playing with the bouncy mouse and saying prayers to the muse to not forsake me. 

Yeah. It goes like this sometimes, especially in the beginning, even more especially when you're about to hit a milestone. The slightest thing can derail the soap bubble thoughts that make up the nascent work. All you can do is take notes, let your mind go where it may, meditate and have faith that tomorrow, things will be better.

The kittens have colds, which concerned me enough to take them to see the vet, so that burned a few hours. Sick kittens are, I assume, similar to sick kids -- in turns snuggly, bored and intensely playful. These two being the snuggle bunnies that they are, there was quite a few sweet kitten achoos in my neck.  But the vet said they look good, prescribed some lysine to help bolster their immune systems, and we're back home, preparing for our first bath tomorrow. Egads!

Sweet dreams, and may tomorrow be more productive than today!