Category: Write Liza!

Snippets of my writing life

My Writing Groove

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make it happen!

I’m roughly a third of the way into my current work in progress, nicknamed WIP2.

I really enjoyed writing the beginning. I felt like an utter genius, writing down all the scenes that zipped inside my head. Truly, I couldn’t write fast enough, and those who paid attention to my Twitter timeline knows I barely slept throughout the month of July.

I was ok with not sleeping. I had a goal. I knew that my paythebills job would be time consuming throughout August, so I wanted to write down as much of the story as possible.

Well, here I am now, after all the Stuff from my paythebills job has gone away (for the moment), and trying to get back into my writerly groove as before.

Hate to admit it, but I’m not there anymore. Nothing seems to be grooving together. My writing is awkward and cringe-tastic. Scenes aren’t making sense. As I’m writing them, I can feel how horrible they are and know that they won’t find themselves in the story AT ALL.

And…my body is ACTUALLY making me sleep. No joke. Like last night. I sat down to write on my laptop for a bit after dinner, and I literally fell asleep right there. (And, no, it wasn’t my writing that put me to sleep. I didn’t even get a chance to open my document!) Anyway, it was all rather surprising for this write-through-the-night writer.

Oh, but I long to get back into that writerly groove again! The feeling of my fingers flying over my keyboard, of my heart pounding because, yes, this scene makes so much sense, of laughing at how ridiculous my MC can be…I want to feel that again.

So, I’m reminding myself of some of the helpful things that I’ve done previously to get me this far.

First, I promised myself that no idea is stupid. Any fleeting thought or terminology that I think could be useful, I incorporated it into my story. I free wrote a little bit to see where the idea will take me, and paused for a moment here and there to check a few facts. Then, I re-read what I wrote, and smoothed out any rough spots.

Second, I told myself that no idea is sacred. Even if that idea, item, thing had a fixed meaning in this world, in my universe, I could do whatever I wanted with that idea. That way, I didn’t feel so trapped, and enjoyed the full range of possibilities that an idea sparked in my brain. (My brain elves had absolute free reign!)

Third, I loosely plotted out what the next logical steps would be through my MC’s perspective. I thought about any potential obstacles that may come up, and what MC would do to get around the obstacle and to the goal.

And then, of course, I wrote it all out.

Writing what worked makes the process look SO easy. But the major obstacle for me at the moment is my own fear of failure, and my desire to get the story just right, right away. I hate writing scenes that I know  will never see the light of day. And, what’s especially annoying is that I know that writing them is all a part of the process.

Or, as Melissa, my wise crit partner told me today:

“Sometimes you just have to keep going and any of the rubbish that turns out lining your recycle bin will have brought you one step closer to understanding your characters, their wants, needs, etc…All you’re doing is finding the paths that don’t work. This is just as important as finding the ones that do.”

(Sigh, I LOVE my crit partner! Especially since she’d be the first to tell me what’s not working ^_^).

Melissa also referred me to Laini Taylor’s blog…I’m pretty sure she meant THIS article when she referred me to it!

Ok, enough philosophizing about writing. My personal deadline for WIP2 is September 30. I will need to write four pages a day to reach my goal. Time to make it happen.

Past or Present Tense?

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Writing

Image by J. Paxon Reyes via Flickr

After my morning writing session, I took a moment to wonder, would this story be stronger told in the past tense?

Of course, being the person that I am, that was probably the worst question to ask myself.

I don’t really dwell on little things like past or present tense as I’m writing a first draft. I usually just write the story as I see it or experience it, and then go back and make it stronger with each reading. But, considering how much work revising WIP1 was/is, I have to wonder, should I make the change now?

Only my alpha readers have gotten a glimpse of WIP2 in this drafting stage, so really, they would be the only ones who can realistically help me in my specific case. But, here are just a few things I’ve been considering since my morning writing session.

I started writing this story in the first person present because the MC experiences the most change and encounters a lot of newness as the world builds. I like the immediacy that present tense expresses when MC uncovers new things and needs to filter those discoveries against past context/teaching. The story has a lot of action sequences (at least, that’s the plan!), which, I thought, would be very effective  in the present tense because then the reader experiences whatever the MC experiences in that moment. Plus, when the idea of WIP2 first came to me in January, I hand wrote the first two chapters in a wave of inspiration, all in the present tense.

When I finally sat down to really work on WIP2 in the last few weeks of July (after months of trying to work on revising WIP1) I easily wrote and expanded on WIP2’s world, reaching sixty pages without even thinking about it.

Now, after this morning’s writing session, after two weeks of barely adding to the story and reading lots and lots of books written in the past tense, I’m questioning my previous decisions and reasons. Maybe I should revise now into the past tense. After all, the books I’ve LOVED these past two weeks were ALL written in the past tense (and were most certainly action-packed!). (Plus, I naturally write in the past tense…thanks to my alpha readers for pointing out my slips, heeehee).

Or, maybe I’m just getting in my own way, and grasping at any reason to be distracted from making more progress on WIP2.

What do you think? Should I plunge into the past tense? Forge ahead in the present? Or stop asking myself these silly questions and just write the story and worry about specifics later?

 

 

The Good Life

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On any given day, if you were to wonder where I am, I’m at my paythebills job.

However, even though I may work 7-10 day stretches before a day off, all that time barely registers a footnote in my consciousness. Because, what I choose to remember are the quiet everyday things that I have come to cherish (probably because of The Job).

For example, I feel like I just got back from my family vacation/road trip out east, even though that was over two weeks ago. I keep thinking about all the fun times we had, especially since I see my family, oh, once a year. Plus, I love road trips with the husband, and look forward to another one soon (maybe out west this time).

We didn’t even do much with my family. We had great dinners for both my brother’s birthday, and for my sister’s baby shower. We picked up food from a local farm. Watched Cowboys and Aliens (which I couldn’t help viewing from a writer’s perspective).

Even now, on my day off, I’m nearly giddy that I can pick up a book (Eona) that I requested from my local library, and I’m reveling in the mere thought of adding more words to my story. By the way, the best part is that I don’t feel the immense pressure that I Must Finish The Story Now, or else I’ll miss out on some Great Opportunity, like I felt earlier this year.

http://twitter.com/#!/SmashFit/status/100941549071900672

Not to say that I won’t work hard for my goals, because I still will. I don’t think I know how to give less than my best. I’ve just decided that my goals don’t mean anything if they are separate from my real joys in life. I don’t want to throw away the beauty, love, and joy that’s right in front of me now for a future version of the same thing (especially, if I can have both).

Anyway, the “little” things…dinner conversations, reading great books through the night, road trips, movie and/or dinner outings…are the moments that live forever in my mind. They are what I choose to recognize as My Life. I want to get to the point where I can have more of these moments, but am thankful for the moments I have now.

Stuck, Redux

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Post-it notes

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been working on my WIP2 for two weeks now, and I’m having So. Much. Fun.

I do have a confluence of inspiration and motivation helping me out, thanks to conversations with my lovely writing friends*, and to life in general (remind me to tell you all about my introduction to resin one day).

Mostly, I’ve decided to slow down and really think about what I write. I have decided to give myself a hiatus from scribbling ANYthing down, including journaling in favor of taking the time to write out a scene and flesh it out as I write out my draft. I would sketch out a scene or a few scenes, and then go back over them again and again, and see how they read with the rest of the story so far, adding, deleting, and revising lines as I go.

Before, having the sketch of a scene was good enough and enabled me to move forward in the story. But, I inevitably get confused about next steps or where to go, and just skip ahead just so I can get to the end of the story. Which was a great confidence booster for WIP1: I made it to The End. Admittedly though, most of what I’d written had no value in the long term. The Hot Mess I’m left with would basically need to be rewritten.

Now, as I’m writing WIP2, I wait, think, and consider my writing as I write it out on the computer. I know that sounds elementary, but you have to understand. I’m a consummate scribbler. I’ve been writing notes and filling out journals for as long as I remember. Sometimes, I write whole scenes, and even once, a whole chapter, on index cards and sticky notes. Writing directly on the computer (I thought) was a death knell to my creativity.

Well, as I have discovered, being stuck and writing at a slower pace (and even waiting to write) does not lessen my creativity. I don’t have to be afraid of forgetting a cool idea or a cool thought. In fact, keeping the story in my head (for now) has helped me think it through one step at a time. I’m usually dying to get on my computer to write even a few words or pages, even after a really long day at work. (Who needs sleep? I’ve basically adopted Thomas Edison’s lifestyle of catnapping my way through a creativity bout.)

Not scribbling every little idea that comes to me while I’m away from the WIP has freed me to reread what I’ve written and expand on scenes, remember buried plot points, start new scenes, move things around. Basically, has made this draft’s beginning stronger than any other first draft I’ve written (and never finished). And, I don’t get discouraged when I’m “blocked” because when I reread what I’ve written, I can always find an idea or thought that I can expand on in a new scene, which feeds other new scenes.

So, I may not be chugging along as quickly as I normally do during moments of rough draft inspiration. But, so far, I’ve written more valuable words for much longer, and that’s worth more to me than phenomenal word counts.

Once I’m halfway through the story, in other words, once the story becomes too big to see all at once (as I can right now), I can see the need to jot down scene sequences Scrivener style to help keep it all straight.

For now, I’m enjoying this story-telling experience. Honestly, I’m still in awe that I’m adding to WIP2, and that it’s growing and evolving. Fingers crossed that I will finish this draft soon, and still look at it with this same loving glow.

I’ll leave you all with this motivating quote I found from Janet Reid aka, Query Shark:

“Writing can be learned.
Syntax can be taught.
Determination is yours and yours alone.”

 

*conversations including, but not limited to, Michele, Carol, Kayla, Melissa…thank you!

Writing from a Salesperson’s Perspective

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Confession: I don’t understand why some writers are so fixated on getting an agent that they rush to query with an unfinished or sub-par manuscript. I would think that they would take the time to ensure that their manuscript is sellable from the query stage.

And no. I’m not talking about genre trends or marketability or writing a book just because you know or feel or think it’s something that can sell.

I’m going after something more basic (and honestly, common sensical, so please bear with me), namely querying agents with a great story, written with the cleanest copy possible (read: no typos or other editing errors).

I’ve worked in sales for at least ten years, and based on the amount of companies that have wanted to recruit me, hire me, and/or promote me, I think I’m a pretty good salesperson. I’m not saying I’m the best salesperson around or the hardest worker (though I am kind of a workaholic). But, I think where I excel is that when I love something I don’t need anyone to tell me to sell it. I will talk up a product because I honestly enjoy it, or it was beneficial to me in some way, and I want to share that joy and benefit with others.

Even if you’re not a sales person, you know what I mean right? It’s essentially word of mouth advertising/referrals. We all have an opinion of who makes The Best Pizza or The Best Burger, or which company has The Best Customer Service. I mean, I’ve never worked for AT&T or Apple, but I tell everyone who’ll listen to me how much I love my iPhone 4 (The Preciousss), and how it changed my life. (Caveat: I use my iPhone as a palm-sized computer, and rarely use it as a phone.) (Seriously. Life changer).

In the same way that I need to love and believe in a product in order to sell it (at least, sell it well), an agent will need that same kind of love and belief in your story.

I know that getting an agent is something that aspiring authors imagine or daydream about. I get it. It’s one step closer to being a traditionally published author.

But, why rush the process, especially if you haven’t finished your manuscript, let alone edited it till your eyes and fingers bleed, and your crit partners want to kill you? It’s still only one step. There are many, many more after that, not the least of which is SELLING YOUR STORY.

Even if you manage to land an agent with a sub-par manuscript, your agent will still need to sell the manuscript that you are querying to him or her. After all, that’s how they will get paid. So then, what help can a sub-par manuscript be at this point? You’ll still need to fix it, edit it, rewrite it before it can sell. You might as well do your best work now, before you ruin your chance of a great first impression. (I won’t bother mentioning that even if an editor is sold on your sub-par manuscript, that he or she will still need to pitch it to the purse strings of the publishing house, who will decide whether or not to proceed with an offer.)

Put in another way, if YOU were an agent, and YOU see a manuscript that still needs LOTS of work, would that be something YOU would want to work through and wait for and maybe hope to sell? Would YOU be willing to bet your source of income on it?

If I essentially worked commissioned sales, I would back the product that I could sell quickly and efficiently. If I were the agent in that scenario, I would look at the sub-par manuscript and see that it will NOT sell quickly because I would need to wait on rewrites and revisions and a possibly hostile writer who may not be open to my suggestions for edits, since the writer clearly didn’t see the need to edit in the first place, otherwise why did he or she submit a sub-par manuscript to me?

As a salesperson, I sell things that I love, that I believe in, that I’m passionate about. When you submit your work to a potential agent, you are asking them to believe in it, to love it, to be passionate about it enough to sell it.

So, please. Take this time to write the best story you can, in the cleanest copy possible. Don’t be in such a rush to query. Don’t stress out so much about finding an awesome agent. Focus on writing an awesome story that an agent would feel privileged to represent. A story that makes them feel like they are holding the book equivalent of an iPhone.

When you have that, then feel free to query your favorite agents, and be giddy over the waiting game. I’ll even supply the chocolates.

This is my strategy. What about you? What are your thoughts or perspectives on the querying process?