Australian Aborigines say that the big stories—the stories worth telling and retelling, the ones in which you may find the meaning of your life—are forever stalking the right teller, sniffing and tracking like predators hunting their prey in the bush. —Robert Moss, Dreamgates

I had an editor request pages from me this weekend, after a pitch.  I am very excited at the prospect of submitting and getting a response, good or bad, from a professional.

I started off pitching my current WIP, First Lady and the Dead Presidents, but that project is not in the traditional mold of romance.  It’s more chick lit/women’s fiction, which wasn’t what the editor was looking for right now.  FLatDP is a first person story, which I don’t usually even like to read, much less write myself, but I’ve got a story that my brain is convinced that I need to write so I am.  And it isn’t this editor’s thing, at least right now, but it could be LATER.

So I threw out The Drake, a wild pitch that I hoped would connect and it totally did!  She was interested in the world, the fact that Jack is a shape shifter, and that it’s written as a traditional romance (third person, balance POV with hero and heroine, etc.).

The only problem here is that I haven’t looked at The Drake in over a year.  When I left the story, it had a beginning, a middle, and an end but there were a number of story points that I wasn’t thrilled with.  I’m hoping that I can figure out how to fix those bits so that I can get out a revised synopsis and the first three chapters that were requested, in a timely manner. 

She asked to have them in July, so I think I have a good stretch of time in which to polish and correct.  And all I really need is for her to want to read the whole thing, right? 

After the OCC meeting this weekend, I am under the impression that every book that gets purchased has editing done.  Nothing goes out on the shelf without at least a little nipping and tucking (or implants) here or there.  What they’re looking for is a solid voice and a story that shines, even if it needs a little buff and polish.

That’s not to say that I’m not planning to make this the best synopsis and three pages she’s ever seen.  No, I understand that.  What I really need to remind myself of here is that there is room to maneuver and that I shouldn’t worry myself sick over the whole thing.

My plan for the next week is to re-read the entire manuscript and try to spot the weakest points.  There is a “highlight and flag” method that my girl Christy Finn has used in the past that I need to get more info on, so I can determine where I’m strong, where I’m weak and where I need to shore up the walls to survive the hurricane.

Once I’ve got that done, I’m going to pull out Carol Hughes’ “Deep Story” class notes and really dive in there.  I think that could really help me re-lay the foundation of The Drake and make sure that I have a strong enough world and characters to support the kind of story that I’m telling.

I’ve really been thinking about my plot and I think some of the problems that I was having when I left the story before have been worked out in my head.  I was playing around with the idea of my hero and heroine as soul mates tied together through time, which is something that has come out in my fan fiction in the past as well.  I think its part of my story, so I’m not surprised to see it come up here.

When I say “my story”, I’m referring to the basic story that every storyteller tells.  Steven Spielberg’s stories are about fathers and sons.  JAWS, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, Schindler’s List, even Jurassic Park- they’re all about the relationships (or lack thereof) between fathers and their sons. 

Tom Cruise, if you break down his roles to their simplest form, tells the same story from movie to movie as well.  He plays the talented man who has to prove that he deserves his place in the world.  Top Gun, Far and Away, The Firm, even Magnolia has him fighting to prove to someone other than himself that he deserves what he has.  And maybe that’s a part of it- outwardly he’s trying to prove to others that he has earned his place but really, it’s all about him proving it to himself. 

It’s something about us, as individual people that comes out in the tales that we spin and weaves its way through everything we put down on the page.  We all have something that has shaped us as people and we try to work that out in our art/craft. 

I think the idea of soul mates, of being destined to be with someone, is something that comes out in my work.  I might be wrong- I’m a notoriously bad judge of my own work- but I think that’s at least part of my story.  The rest of my story, I think that’s better saved for a different post but I can already tell that The Drake has the potential to really get all of my stories out and on the page in one text.

I’m excited to see what this editor has to say and the prospect of selling to her and her publishing house is just an amazing opportunity.  Here’s to not screwing it up.

I’m a fan of the show The Mentalist.  If you haven’t seen it, the basic premise is this: A fake psychic, whose family was brutally murdered by a serial killer, works with law enforcement to find said killer, using his skills of deduction to solve other crimes along the way.

Spoilers ahead, in case you are sensitive to that kind of thing.  But I want to talk about story and the proper set up, so I hope you’ll join me.

Continued

There has been some talk, some of which I have participated in (and am waiting on responses to determine if my corpse will be burned in effigy by certain fandom peeps), about River Song of Doctor Who fame.  She is a divisive figure, as far as I can tell, in that people either love her or they hate her with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.  Can you guess where I fall there?

The reason that I have for not liking River Song is that she is a big, fat Mary Sue.

For those of you who have not spent any time in a fandom for movies/TV/books, you may be unfamiliar with this term.

Wikipedia defines a Mary Sue as thus:

“A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. While the label “Mary Sue” itself originates from a parody of this type of character, most characters labeled “Mary Sues” by readers are not intended by authors as such. Male Mary Sues are often dubbed “Gary Stu”, “Larry Stu”, “Marty Stu”, or similar names.

While the term is generally limited to fan-created characters, and its most common usage today occurs within the fan fiction community or in reference to fan fiction, original characters in role-playing games or literary canon are also sometimes criticized as being “Mary Sues” or “canon Sues” if they dominate the spotlight or are too unrealistic or unlikely in other ways. One example of this criticism is Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Continued

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in and sadly, not much has happened for me in the writing world in terms of production.  I am horribly, horribly behind on my word count for the year.

1) Get Your Words Out/Word Count

I am current participating in a program called Get Your Words Out .  You sign up at the end of the year and you pledge a certain number of words for the year.  Every month you log your production and they keep a running tally for you.

There isn’t a prize, much like NaNoWriMo, other than the satisfaction that you have met a goal that you set for yourself.

I set a goal of 350,000 for the year.  As you can see from the wordcount bars on the left, I am not even close to hitting my goal.  I am so far behind that it almost seems crazy stupid to assume that I will ever catch up.

For the month of May, I should be hitting 145,834 words.  As you can see, I am currently at 16,810.  I need to write 129,024 words this month to get caught up. 

This is a bit… crazypants.  But I am putting that as my goal in the wordcount bar anyway.  Because why not?  Why not set a crazy goal?  WHAT HAPPENS IF I ACTUALLY HIT IT?!?!?!?!  Could you imagine how AWESOME that would be?  So, yeah, going for it.

2) 80k in 80 Days.

In related news, I’ve decided to jump in to this additional challenge.  The goal is to write 1000 words a day, for 80 days, and complete an entire novel.  It’s a little less intense than NaNoWriMo  but still accomplishes the same goal- a completed manuscript.  Check out the website- they have articles from writes, encouraging and supporting participants and you can track your word count there in the comments section.  Not as organized as NaNo but I don’t think it’s nearly (hah!) as big of an event. 

I like all the focus on writing that we’re seeing these days.  More and more people are trying to learn the craft and hone their skills.

I know that there are authors out there, esp. published ones, that don’t like all the NaNo-type stuff.  They feel that it takes something away from all the hard work that they do.  But I have to confess, I think that if you can finish a 50k novel in one month, that you’ve shown some pretty serious dedication and hard work, no matter how good or bad the resulting text actually is.

Especially in literary circles, there is this level of pretention, this air of mystery surrounding the writing of a book.  Only super, special people should be authors.  They have special abilities and a different air about them and not just ANYONE can do it.

Which is a bunch of bullshit. 

Yes, it is true.  There are some people who have serious writing skills and anything they put down on paper is pure gold.  Others have to work much hard, polishing and editing to eventually get a product that is good and solid, that people will want to buy and read.  Others are terrible and no matter how much editing they do, a turd is still a turd.  I admit to all of that.

But how does anyone know who has the talent or not, until people start writing?  And who says that only certain people should give it a try? 

And let’s be honest- even when they write shitty books, there are people out there who NEED to write to work out their issues on the page.  I know that I have worked out a lot of things by torturing or killing people on the page.  And I have felt better.  Going abck and looking at the work with years of distance, I can admit that those pages were pretty  bad but at least I was able to get through that tough time and made it to the other side.

That’s worth A LOT  and I can’t stand the idea that some asshole would try to dissuade people from writing because “that’s just not how it’s done”.

Haters to the left, y’all.  TO THE LEFT.

3) Submissions. 

I actually submitted, for the first time ever, to a publisher/magazine.  Now, if you are a long time reader you know that there was a contest that I completed where my manuscript was submitted to an editor.  Well, I have never heard ANYTHING back regarding this and, to be honest and frank, I am SO GLAD. 

My ms was kind of terrible, including the 13 PAGE sex scene that I had written.  I have NO DESIRE to hear how terrible that editor thought it was.

But I was hoping to at least receive some kind of acknowledgement from the editor so that I could officially join RWA’s PRO group.  Basically, that’s for people who have submitted a full length work, whether it was sold or not.

At this point, while I did send off that ms, I am still not PRO.  And I have stopped counting that submission as a submission because a) no response and b) I hate the story.

Now, the submissions that I made in April will not count for PRO.  Why am I mentioning them?  Because they are the first pieces that I really feel that I can stand behind and not be embarrassed that I wrote them.

They’re two short stories of mine, both less than 1000 words, both weird and kind of creepy.  Bear says that one of them is more poem than short story and that once he figured that out, it was so much easier to read.  Not sure what that meant, for sure, but I’ll take it.  He liked both stories, which was a relief.  My greatest fear is that my husband will not like my work.  Weird, huh?  But so far, so good.

I am waiting to hear back from the magazine I subbed to.  They have a turn around average of 27 days but their cut off for their next issue was May 1^st.  So, I’m hoping to hear back from them soon.  *fingers crossed*

And that’s where we stand, friends.  Expect a few posts in the near future on both avoiding Mary Sue’s in your won work and a listing of great writing podcasts that you should check out.

Until then, peace.

My biggest problem is that I can’t say no. I want to do everything. I want to say yes to everything and be involved with it all.

I want people to like me. It’s almost a compulsion, this need of mine to have people tell me that I’m great, that I did a good job. That I am fulfilling (my destiny) their expectations.

I love writing stories and posting them on my LiveJournal because I know (hope) that I will get comments on my writing. I hope that someone will love my work so much that they have to gush about my interpretation of character or my turn of phrase.

This need to be liked (loved) leads me to overfilling my dance card and leaving me little time for myself. For my own writing.

I am a very active member of the Romance Writers of America- three local chapters at the moment, all of which I volunteer with. I am a board member for one. This takes up way more time than anyone wants to admit to you when you first get involved.

They tell you that it won’t be much, just a few hours of your time but it morphs into something bigger than you every imagined and suddenly those hours that you had planned to devote to your novel are spent folding renewal forms or creating spreadsheets for online classes. And you get it all done but you look back and you wonder just where your day went and why your word count on that novel hasn’t even MOVED.

But the thing is, when you get involved, people like you. They learn your name (in their e-mail inboxes) and they learn your face (from all those meetings) and suddenly, you’re part of the group. You are included as one of the cool kids.

Which is exactly what you wanted.

So you keep saying yes.

Continued

Thank god, the writer’s block is OVER.  Man, did that suck.

I’ve been working on a novel I am currently calling “First Lady and the Dead Presidents.”  Originally, I had begun writing it in third person, mostly because I am not a fan of books in the first person.  I think first person is incredibly difficult to get right and too many authors don’t have the right grip on the voice so it sounds (at least to me) contrived and over-written.

That being said, I was stuck.  I had gotten a few pages out and had submitted them to one of my critique groups.  The consensus was that, while it had a fairly good voice and really great description, there was something missing.  The readers in the group were having a hard time connecting to McKinley, my main character, which was a major problem. 

She came off the page as bitchy and overly mean.  Her actions occurred without a lot of context, so she seemed flaky and selfish, which I guess she is in a way, but there was a lot more hurt and brokenness to her behavior that just wasn’t coming off the page in the way that I wanted or needed it to.

So I stopped writing and tried to figure out a way to make it work.

I had a fleeting thought to try first person but batted it away.  Everyone knows that I HATE first person- why would I think that I could do it better than anyone else, right?

Well, I started to get thoughts and feelings about this book that became more and more insistent.  Something was whispering in my ear that I needed to at least TRY first person and see how it went.  I was under no obligation to actually keep writing in that voice, the whisper said,  and I wouldn’t HAVE to show it to anyone, should I choose not to.  What would it hurt?

And then one morning, I woke up and there were paragraphs and dialogue just sitting in my head, waiting patiently to be pounded out onto a computer screen, all in first person, and I knew that I had to give it at least a try.

And, damn it, it worked. 

I think I’ve found McKinley.  Her voice at least, and I think I’ve found a way to make her connect with the reader, even though in the beginning she’s making choices that are all about her and her needs.  The whole point of the story is that she has to learn to let HER pain go and try to help others ease theirs.

Now, at least, I feel like the reader will see the potential in McKinley and not write her off as a selfish bitch from day one.

I have a crit group meeting this evening- the first one for a new group and I am WAY pumped, let me tell you- so I’m hoping for some constructive feedback regarding these pages.  I’m lucky that these ladies read my original submission so they will know the changes I’ve made and be able to tell me which version of the heroine they prefer.

I have to say, though, I can’t wait until I get to Carter, my hero.  I’m curious to see how he comes off on the page, now that we aren’t going to get his POV.  Maybe I’ll need to make this a dual POV story, both in first person.  Or, I could try her in first and him in third. 

I have time to experiment and if this has taught me anything, it’s that experimenting can be rewarding beyond what any of us can imagine.

It has been a while since I blogged here!  How totally lame!  Time to change that.

So, lots to talk about but there’s one thing that has been on my mind for the past few days.

The Cooks Source kerfuffle.  *sigh*  

Here’s one of the great articles on the entire situation that sums it up better than I could.  Please click over and read, then head on back.  No worries.  I’ll wait.

I guess this is less a kerfuffle and more of an EPIC FAIL.  This is a disaster for the publishers and editors of the magazine, as they apparently have been stealing articles from other sources, including Martha Stewart Living, Paula Dean and Oprah Magazine.  Silly, silly editors!  No one messes with Oprah and walks away clean.  NO ONE!

The thing to take away from all of this is that the internet in NOT public domain.  Material posted can be (and usually is) copyrighted material.  Do not use stuff that isn’t yours.  Also, the internet is not as amoral and criminal as we all thought and there are people that will fight for your rights as an artist and creator.  This is a good thing.  Judith Griggs may not think so but trust me, this is something that I think all writers wanted to believe but didn’t know for sure and now we do.

Of all the questions that have come up because of this recent volcano of FAIL, the one that really speaks to me is the idea of fair use and sharing intellectual properties via the web.  We all know that copying someone else’s work and claiming it as yours is a big, fat FAIL.  We also know that posting someone else’s work on YOUR blog without their permission, even if you leave their name attached it also FAIL.

Which leads me into a discussion about linking to other blogs in your blog.  I guess some people get finicky about that.  I have to say, I have a hard time understanding that.  You have a blog because you want people to read it.  You put text on the page because you need to get it out there and YOU WANT PEOPLE TO READ IT.  Why, then, would you get upset because someone else links to your page?

Continued

Here’s a bunch of blog posts that you should check out.  Some are writing related and some are just related to good writing.  Not always the same thing.    Anyway, check these out when you need something to pass the time, you know, when you should be writing. 

1)      FANTASTIC post by Jamie at Defying Gravity.  She hits it dead center and she’s right.  It’s up to us.  We’re teaching the next generation and if we aren’t careful, we’ll teach them the wrong stuff.  Check out her post and change your life.

2) Top 10 Motivation Boosters and Procrastination Killers 

3) The Way We Dress – A fascinating article at Dear Author that asks questions about what women wear, what make s a professional, why there is a double standard with men, etc.  A bit of a frustrating article but something that we, as women, should think about, esp. how we can change it. 

4) June and July book launches for Carina Press

5) Amazing post on the difference between reading as an adult and as a child.  If you read as a kid and fell INLOVE with the books and the worlds that you were living in, even if it was only for a few hours, then you need to read this post.  Incredible stuff. 

6) A Wish For Someone Else’s Daughter – This is just beautiful.  Words that I want to share with all of you and would  love to share with my own daughter someday in the future. 

7) Plotting Made Easy – The Complications Worksheet

8)  Plotting Along- this is a post about revising your work and how to get through that process and down to the good stuff that stays, the bad stuff that goes and the new stuff that fills in the holes.  Great post and great inspiration towards getting my own revisions going. 

9) 21 Ideas to Get your Story out of the Slush Pile 

10) Tips for Blending in Backstory

11)  Netflix Friday #8 -Zulu – I read this review of a 1964 film that has been out of print for a while but is now available to stream on Netflix.  The write-up at this blog is brilliant and made me want to get home RIGHT NOW to watch this flick.   You all should read it.  And then go and stream the damn thing on Netflix.  DO IT. 

12) Netflix Friday #7 – Invader Zim – BEST. WRITE-UP. EVER.  For serious.

A good friend of mine, Shak, from Inspire the Grind, shot me an e-mail at the beginning of the month, freaking out over a discovery that she had made.

Apparently, Quentin Tarantino wrote Reservoir Dogs in 3.5 weeks.  Which is pretty amazing and actually explains a lot about that particular story.

Another friend wrote it off as not being that big of a deal, that Tarantino had probably been working on the story for a while but hadn’t officially sat down to write it out.  Which may or may not be true.  For me, that doesn’t change the enormity of the act of completely a feature length screenplay in 3.5 weeks. 

On the one hand, if you’ve been thinking about a story for a long time and just finally get the chance to get it down on paper, then it might not take you very long.  On the other hand, getting an idea and trying to work it out on paper as you go tends to take a lot longer.

Anyway, Shak’s idea is that we should try the same thing this month, along with a third friend, Bright.  Complete a manuscript, either a screenplay or a novella, in the same amount of time.  We’ll get together and share manuscripts and have dinner at the end of the time period.  Celebrate the work that we’ve done.

I think it’s a really fun idea and I’m totally on board.  Especially if there is wine involved.  (YAY WINE!)

Here’s my issue:  what am I going to write?

I would love to finish one of my screenplays.  I only have 10 pages of the 1814/battle of New Orleans screenplay that I was really getting in to in 2006.  I have The Highwayman, which is in dire need of a re-write so I can start shopping it around.  I have a dark (and when I say dark, I mean DARK) fantasy script that would be fun to complete, as well as a screenplay version of my Oren/Calla story that I’ve been working on for 15 years.  Plus, you know, the modern version of Robin Hood. 

Tl:dr – Lots of scripts available in my queue to work on. 

But I’ve been focusing on novels/prose in an attempt to get a romance novel published.  I’ve spent a lot of time working on that end of the writing spectrum.  I started my gay farmer story (and I’ve changed Alex to Xander, which feels better on the page for me) and think that this is one that could get some attention with an e-pub sooner rather than later.

I need to work on my novel edits to try to make The Drake something that might get sold/published.  I have Moving Bodies and First Lady and the Dead Presidents.  And, you know, the werewolf story. 

A lot of novels/novellas in the queue.  (The queue is very, very long.)

Do I shift focus from novel writing back to screenwriting, especially since this is a Tarantino challenge OR do I keep rolling with a novel type deal?

A script has less pages and less words than a novel but they can be much harder to write **because** you are limited in your page and word count.  Novels can go on for hundreds of pages (see: Stephen King) with florid prose and amazing description.  Scripts don’t let you get into the internal lives of your characters- the only things you can put on that page are things that can be shown on screen.  That makes it hella tough to do.  My point here is that just because it’s shorter, doesn’t make it easier to do.

This biggest issue here is that I need to finish SOMETHING this month.  I have a hard time getting things done.  I start something and then get distracted and end up with a pile of half completed projects that aren’t going anywhere.  It’s frustrating for me as the writer but also for Bear, who just wants me to get something done so I can start submitting and hopefully get published (and paid for my work).

So, whatever I decide to go with, I HAVE to finish by June 30^th.

Here’s the question that I keep bringing up- do I go with something that I would enjoy writing more, even if my chances of selling it are next to none OR do I try to finish something that I might be able to shop around after a polish/edit in July?

Will post my decision in a few days, after I take a long, hard look at what’s in front of me.  What I do know for sure right now is that I need to get on it or I won’t be able to finish by the deadline.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated about my own writing. Needs to change, so here we go.

The editing on The Drake is not going well. I had some luck with the first chapter but I’m just not feeling it. I’m trying to determine the cause.

Is it because I know the editing process is going to be hard? I mean, really, really hard? Knock down all the walls and just leave the basic foundation kind of hard?

Is it because I’m just not feeling the story itself? I’m asking myself some serious questions about my main characters and how I feel about spending 75-100K words on them. I have to admit that I’m ambivalent.

Am I just not understanding my characters? Do I need to do more background work so I can get a better handle on who they are?

Am I trying to do too much in this story or not enough?

Continued