Shame - The Great Motivator & Contest Link

I was catching up via email with a friend yesterday and had to confess that I'd slacked on my writing. Just admitting it made me feel like a loser, so in an effort to prove to myself that I was working towards my dream and not just lazing around dreaming about it, I actually *gasp* edited some of my novel last night.

Now, the editing probably wasn't very good, because that's one of my weak points, but I sat down and did it. A whole 13 pages. Yippee. One more chapter down - 33 to go. Oh, heavens, kill me now. Does that seem like a mountain to anyone else? An eternity? An endless road? If not, could you do it for me? ;)

As for the contest, a debut novel hit the shelves yesterday and I've had my eye on it. It's Red Hot Fury by Kasey Mackenzie and a copy is being given away over on OddShots. Read the interview with her and you'll be hooked. This is also your chance to name your come-to-life-to-protect-you-tattoos. This one's for you, Bex! It's an urban fantasy, but the heroine isn't a vampire or a werewolf. *alarm! alarm!* She's a Fury, ala Greek Mythology, and I think that's a totally cool idea. I so wish I'd come up with it myself.

Writerly Links

I haven't been snooping at all my usual publishing industry blogs in a couple of weeks, so today I spent some time hitting the intarwebs and have some links for the rest of you who also haven't had the time.

• Lit Agent Nathan Bransford had a whole slew of links on Friday's post, so I'm just copying and pasting here on a few that might help aspiring writers.

In agent advice news, Janet Reid has an awesome checklist of things you need before you query, divided between fiction/memoir/nonfiction, Jessica Faust at BookEnds writes that unless each book can really truly stand alone, it's probably not a good idea to write a sequel to an unpublihsed first book in a trilogy, and Rachelle Gardner surveys ten query mistakes.

• Kristin Nelson had lots of good advice as usual, but this one about prologues was a great breakdown and one topic that I haven't seen discussed to bits already.
• This is one by Paperback Writer that's from the end of Jan, but I've thought back on it almost daily since I read it a couple of weeks ago - it's about coining new words for your fictional worlds and how you might go about doing that.
• Also from Paperback Writer, some submission opportunities.

As a side note, I'm really glad I decided to catch up today, because I saw that the February Secret Agent contest was getting ready to start over at Miss Snark's First Victim and one of my genres was being represented. The contest opened at noon, I hit Send on my submission at 12:03 and I was one of the last entrants to sneak through before she hit the 50 entrants mark. Yippee! I'm looking forward to the input. The last time I entered a writing contest at MSFV, the feedback was painful but helpful. Here's hoping for less pain and more "you're on the right track" this time. :)

Head Cold + Writing = Not Much Progress

Yeah, so I didn't quite make my November goal, as you can see from the sidebar. I got bogged down towards the end by holiday prep and illness. But it was a super experience anyways. I'm honestly amazed that I did as well as I did.

End result? I've almost finished my SF novel! I wrote about a quarter of it in one month, and that's super-speedy for me! If I'd met my writing goals, I probably would have finished it. I'm on "The Throwdown" as I like to call it, right now - the big event to end the story. I've also already written some of the wrap-up to happen after The Throwdown, so really, all I have to do is finish what I'm writing and do a little more wrap-up as appropriate. And then I can put "End." on it!!! Yippee!!

Of course, then I'll need to edit it. Just like I need to edit my UF novel before shopping it around some more. After I finish this SF novel I think I'll be devoting most of my time to editing as opposed to writing new stuff. Otherwise, I'll have all this stuff written and sitting on a shelf because it still won't be in shape to send to an agent.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving if you're in the States.

Amelie: The Good, The Bad, and the Pitiful

Okay, so I said I'd talk about the writing things I'm good at and the things I suck greatly at doing. So here goes:

Good

• Dialog: Me, I like my dialog. Oftentimes the dialog is the first thing that pops into my head when coming up with a new scene. Now, someone who's read my dialog needs to weigh in here and tell me if I'm way off-base with my evaluation of my own dialog brilliance. :)
• Plot: I think I do a fair job with plotting and making sure things flow logically. Bus-sized plot holes still occur, but they're usually infrequent and my critique partners point them out with glowy pens and markers for me. ;)

Bad

• Scene Description: I wish I could describe scenes better. I'm worse at that than my kids are at listening (and that's pretty stinking bad, just ask my husband). In an effort to improve that - the description, not the listening because that's a hopeless cause - setting is something that I'm concentrating on for the dark fantasy that I've started plotting out. I've browsed the net for pics that show my world (concentrating mostly on just a city right now because most everything is happening there) in the hopes that when I'm doing a scene, I can do a better job of describing it if I have something to look at that resembles it somewhat. I've also spent time coming up with particular places so my folks won't be in a random tavern, but a place with a name, history, a particular clientele, ambiance and structure. What helps you guys with your settings?
• Not So Likable Characters - I love reading characters who are not all "good" or "bad" but I'm not so good at writing them. I tend to give my chars small flaws that are too easily overcome or overlooked, and that's just not how real life is. So that's something I need to work on.
• Full Book Plan: This is the biggie that I'm working to resolve. I want to be able to tell where I'm going from page one so I have a road map to get there. It's fine if I take an unplanned turn along the way and get the Garmin's testy voice in my head saying, "Recalculating..." because I will still have a destination to drive towards. I want to get away from just having a starting point and letting the story meander and frolic along on the way to somewhere. It's worked so far but....

Hit and Miss

• Emotions: Sometimes they're on the money and sometimes they seem too overwrought. I think this is something that I'll get better at with time and practice. I hope. Oh, I soooo desperately pray this is so! See what I mean?

There we go. I'm sure there are more that I'll think up later. But for now, back to our regularly scheduled life. Have a great Wednesday!

Plotting or Pantsing?

First of all, I completely slacked on my writing goal on Tuesday. If you're unaware of what goal I'm referring to, check out my November Writing Plan blog post. That explains it. 300 of my 1000 words - that was all I did, and I almost gave in and did the same yesterday but I pushed through and actually managed 1025. Luckily I was a good bit ahead overall, but Tuesday used up most of my lead. Now I can't get sloppy again. Honestly though, I'm simply happy that I've persevered this long, even in the face of many distractions. Yay me!

Now onto the topic that I've been considering while writing today: pantsing or plotting when writing. I've mentioned that I'm a pantser right now. I plot maybe a day ahead of where I'm writing for the most part. I might have ideas for the end of the story or certain events later, but the meat of the story just comes to life in my head a few hours prior to its arrival on the keyboard. This has worked for me so far, but I want a system to make the math/science/logic/engineer part of my brain happy.

Today while writing, I moved past what I'd plotted out in my head the night before and just started writing on the fly, and I was amazed at how much that bothered me. I felt like I was typing around pits of quicksand, and any moment I was going to take a misstep. It really messed with me. And it made me start analyzing what I do and don't like about pantsing and plotting respectively.

Where do you guys stand? What are your writing habits and what do you like about what you do? What do you wish you could do differently or more consistently?

I'll evaluate my own techniques some more in the next couple of days after you guys get a chance to tell your story here. Maybe we can help each other out by letting others know what works for us.

This Writing Gig? It's Tough. Bonus Family Funny.

Five days I've kept to my goals now, and it's killing me. I'm completely in awe of full-time writers. The amount that I'm writing per day isn't even close to their output, yet from the amount of mental whining I'm engaging in, you'd think I was single-handedly creating the Holy Grail.

I thought I had decent discipline before and good, consistent writing habits. Yeah, not so much. The writing almost everyday thing was an important mental step in my quest for publishing when I decided to do it. And I'm getting the feeling that this is another. It's a different mindset when you have a deadline, even just one set on a whim, which this completely is for me.

And I think that reporting to you all on my progress is helping me to toe the line. So thanks to those of you who are following my efforts. It makes a difference, knowing that you're there, even when you don't comment. Again, thanks.

Now, for a quick family funny. The setting: Dinner table. The feast: Mac & Cheese (shells). The lead actor: E3.almost7.

E3.almost7: "More mac & cheese, mommy."

Me: "Excuse me?"

E3.almost7: "I said, More mac & cheese, mommy."

Me: "Yeah, I heard that. What do you say?" (I'm angling for 'please' here, in case you're not catching on)

E3.almost7: "Put it in the bowl." *husband coughs to cover his grin*

Me: *just staring at her*

E3.almost7: "Right here." *helpfully, she points at the bowl she's shoved under my nose already* *husband starts choking, and not on food*

Me: *trying for one eyebrow raise, but can't really, so probably one up, one at half-mast and looking goofy.* "What. Do. You. Say?"

E3.almost7: *big grin* "Thank you." *husband has to leave the table*

Me: "Gah! What about please!?!?!?!"

E3.almost7: *nods and gives a sweet smile* "Please. Now."

*head-table-head-table*

November Writing Plan

Okay, although I'm not doing NaNoWriMo, I did decide to try to increase my productivity for the month, mostly just to see if I can. :)

I mentioned last week that usually I get about 700 words per day written, weekdays only. Here's the plan for November:

• 1000 words/day during the week
• 500 words/day on weekend days.

I figure I should make it through oh, Tuesday. Kidding. Hopefully I'll do better than that. Ironically, today should be a very telling day. It's going to be tough to get the word count in, so I might not even make it through Monday. Luckily, I got off to a good start yesterday, weighing in at 1000 words even though my goal was only 500. *fist pump* So I guess I have a little leeway, although I'm going to try not to use it up on the second day.

I'll find some kind of word count widget to put up on the blog here to keep track of my progress. Feel free to heckle or cheer me on, depending on your mood. Just be aware that when I get stressed and frustrated, I might write you into a story and abuse your character... or I might use your name for the planet that I take my characters to be killed off on - oops, already did that, huh, Mike? Hahaha!

Have a great week, everyone and happy November!