Writing with Zette

I have a bit of a fever and a sore throat today, so everything seems slightly off. I'm getting things done, but it's like I'm half asleep as I do it. Not a good combination.

I am so grateful for outlines on a day like this. They allow me to do something I really enjoy -- writing -- without having to tax my poor quivering brain too much.    I've been working on a couple fun scenes, and that helps too. I am going for a couple thousand more and then, with any kind of luck, I'll fall into a nice warm bed and sleep for a few hours.   Last night, already starting to feel awful, was not so good.

I hope all the NaNo people are doing well!

And that's it for me for this week! I must get other things done and then rest!

Oh yes, the insanity is well and truly going now. I've written over 17k spread over three different novels. It's a new approach for me. Normally I would start one and go to the end, then do another... but this time I couldn't decide what I wanted to start with. So I decided to do a little on each one until I could see which one called to me the most. So far, all three of them call to me. One is over 6k and the other two soon will be.

It's been fun and odd. I have outlines. I write one section from each outline (about 350 words each) on a story, and then go on to the next one. Two of the outlines are somewhat short -- about 185 entries -- and they'll probably come in around 60k. The other is 250 entries, so it's going to go on even when I finish the others.

Russ left early yesterday morning. He's now in New York again. We talked a little bit on Skype and now we're both back to work.

So, that's my news for the day. I need to get back to work so I can get to 20k by the end of the day. I don't know how long I'll be able to average 10k a day, but it makes a nice start.

Back to the fun....

Russ is home for the week, but he's VERY busy. Right now, he's over in the other house working on his project. I am here working on mine. We use Skype to talk, just like when he's on the road. My life is odd.

I'm trying to get things done in time for NaNo and November in general. I don't think I'm going to make it. At this rate, I might not even survive to make it that far. I feel like everything is piling up here and I'm having a horrible time trying to get caught up. I also have a final outline that is moving ... but not moving particularly well. There are some fun bits in it, and I think I finally see the ending, but I'm not particularly certain how to get there.

But anyway, this is short because I want to spend time with Russ!

Next week, I'll be in the depths of NaNo Madness!

EEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

Hello!

I was away last week. It was the first time I left home for more than a few hours in the last few years and was a much needed respite from work. Not from writing -- I refuse to allow writing to become just another job -- but from some of the other stuff. Now, of course, I'm behind on everything. It was worth it, though!

Here is a link to some pictures from the trip:

http://www.zettesworld.com/minnesotatrip.htm

I spent a good amount of the time in a self-imposed writer's retreat. Nice hotel room, pleasant view (I loved the red tree), and VERY quiet. I worked on outlines for NaNo, and I now have two completed plus part of another one. There is an older outline I still have sitting around that I can throw into the group, too. That means I have several too choose from at the last moment. Always fun!

My goal for NaNo is, as always, to write a completed first draft novel. I usually do more than one, but that is not my goal. That's just additional fun if I get a chance at it. It's hard to say how well I'll do. The work for DAZ takes longer these days, and since that is a weekly newsletter, it does cut into my time. On the other hand, I've written more this year than I have in the last couple years. So who knows?

The problems with my sight have not completely cleared up, but I am more able to deal with it now. I've gotten back to reading a bit more as well. I've upped the viewing size in IE so that all of you who insist on writing in the smallest print possible are no longer going to blind me. Come on people -- larger print. It's not going to cost you anything. And even those without site problems get tired trying to read tiny little words. I use small print for links on FM -- it does save space in cases like that -- but there's no real reason to use it for pages of blog and LJ entries. Yeah, I've done it myself by accident, but I don't try to purposely blind all of you!

Ah, and back again. I've been jumping in and out of this all day. That would explain why the subject is bouncing all over the place, too!

I'm having fun working up the material for NaNo. One outline is giving me fits, though. I'm not certain what the problem might be. I think I haven't defined the opposition well enough yet to make the tension high enough in the story. Once I get that worked out, the rest of the outline should go together without much trouble. I just hope that it happens before November.   Well, if not, I have plenty of other stories to choose from. And I will need things for 2010. Oh yes, the new year is coming very quickly, isn't it? Time to start thinking about what new things to do and how to expand into new areas. I see so many writers stuck in the same routine, the same stories -- I like to expand at least a little when I can. It doesn't always work, but it's at least fun to try!

And now it's time that I really get to work.  It looks as though I might have a bit more to do than I thought.  Eeek!

I have finished The Servant Girl!

Yes, I'm happy to have it completed. After some writing, erasing, and rewriting, I even came up with an ending that I like. That's often a difficult part for me. I can often 'see' the end, but getting that last page or so right often takes me several tries. My first version last night had the focus in the entirely wrong place. I felt like something was missing.  Then I realized that while the scene performed and important function, showing an essential change in the story world after the climatic battle, it did not show my MC as anything more than an observer. Bad way to end. I reworked it so she has an action at the end that shows her own, personal changes as well. Much better.

The novel now goes into the 'sit for a few weeks' pile. Then I'll do the final read-through and line edits. I really don't expect the final step to be too difficult. In fact, I am so convinced of it that I will likely start working up the query letter and synopsis so that they can be ready to go out soon, too.

After I finished the novel I wrote a short story. I hadn't done a 'one sitting' short story in quite a while, and I really enjoyed it. The setting intrigues me. I may do more set there. Sometimes that is my way of testing a new 'world' to see if I want to devote more time to it. This is a near future setting, which I don't do very often. Testing the now-world against some slight changes for the then-world is an interesting game. It's far harder to imagine a world that is so close to what we have now, and yet has to be slightly different. Most of the near-future stories I've done have been after a catastrophe; far easier to imagine total destruction than to manipulate what we have and change it a little.

Well, at least for me.

So that's my big news for the week. I'm really happy with the novel.    It's good to have it finished though. NaNo is coming and now I have to get to work on my outlines!

We have a frost alert for tonight. Sure glad I figured out what was wrong with the house furnace since the space heater died. Eek. Winter is coming!

So is the end of the month. It's not a Vision month, so I'm okay with it. I won't have The Servant Girl done unless I make a big push. It's possible. The problem is that I am still considering how to do the ending. At the very ending, there are at least two possibilities for how the story could go, and I can't decide quite what I want. This is incredibly unusual for me. I almost always have a clear vision of what I want from the end of the story. I think I need to make a list of possibilities and then see what I think works best, rather than bouncing them around in my head without any real focus. I'm close to the finish, and as soon as my characters cross the next border in the book, I will need to focus on how the story ends.

I intend to use October to work on outlines, queries and submissions -- oh, and a short story. I've done at least one a month through the year. Then November is NaNo. That's always fun. December is my 'clean everything off the plate' month. January is start new. Hard to believe that we're so close to the end of the year that I can already start thinking about January and what I want to do next year. I hope to write enough outlines that I'll have something to start January 1, in fact. I have four good, solid ideas so that shouldn't be too hard to do. Lots of research still, though. But I have October for that!

So my focus is on finishing The Servant Girl and getting it edited. I don't think the editing will be bad. Finding the right market -- that might be more difficult. It's long. But we'll see. I have faith in the novel.

Let's see. Problems with my DAZ mailbox, so I'm having trouble getting that work done. It's bound to cause me real problems later.   I am trying to arrange to have a week off, and that's not working out well, either. Ugh! Work!

But in the world of writing, everything is going along very well. I have two short stories and one novel going. The outlines aren't moving along very fast, but I suspect I won't have trouble with them once I'm done with the novel. I have created an Access Database to track things related to my writing. I started it thinking I was just going to list characters so that I could track names. I tend to like the same sorts of names, and with so many manuscripts, I found I was reusing ones I didn't want to use again, especially in cases where they are in the same story universe. It grew. I now have forms for place names, miscellaneous items and a story description section as well. Two reports, two queries, a few pop-up forms....

Yes, it is growing. And it's great fun, too!

I'm going to get back to The Servant Girl in a couple minutes. I'm about half way through the book. I think I have an idea for a spectacular new ending, too. I'm starting to take notes and get ideas on how to handle it.

Oh, and I put together a list of critique-related articles from Vision. Here they are, if anyone is interested:

Anatomy of a Critique (This one is just fun!)

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue18/advanatomycrit.htm

But I Don't Know How to Critique!

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%205/butidon.htm

Confessions of a Blunt Critiquer

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue9/Blunt.htm

A Confidence of Vision:

Criticism and the Writer's Response

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision44/ConfidenceofVision.htm

Workshop: Creating the Useful Critique

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision22/workshop.htm

Critique:

Pitfalls, Spikes and Ropes (Part 1)

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision49/Critiquepart1.htm

Critique:

Pitfalls, Spikes and Ropes (Part 2)

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision50/CritiquePitfalls.htm

Critique:

Pitfalls, Spikes and Ropes (Part 3)

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision51/critpitfalls.htm

Dealing with Criticism

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision22/themedealing.htm

Developing a Thick Skin:

How to Accept Criticism

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision24/developingthickskin.htm

Do You Know What You Want From a Critique?

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue36/doyou.htm

Dragons, Sorcerers, and Mis-Capitalized Words:

How to Properly Critique a Work of Fantasy

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision22/themedragons.htm

Giving and Receiving Critiques:

An Exercise in Objectivity

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue9/giveand.htm

Handling Criticism Gracefully

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%205/handling.htm

The Importance of Self-Critique

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision22/themeselfcrit.htm

In Praise of Praise--

A Second Look at Critiquing

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%201/Critzette.htm

The Other Voice:

Learning How to Give (and Handle!) Critiques

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision22/themeothervoice.htm

Workshop:

Set up an On-Line Critique Group for 2008 (or any other year!)

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision42/Workshop.htm

What are Crit Circles?

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue%201/critjim.htm

Workshopping and Critique

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue30/workandcrit.htm

I have a number of projects going right now. Some of them are rather odd projects (is anyone surprised?) and others are preparation for NaNo projects. The main work is The Servant Girl, though. I'm about half way through the book and the new additions and changes have worked out wonderfully. This is a great story. Very different for me. It even includes a romance! EEEK! (grin)

The biggest problem I see is that I don't think the ending works and I'm not entirely certain what I want to change about it. I think, though, that the ending I have doesn't work because it doesn't settle the final problem. I had thought I would write more in the series ... but I'm not so certain about that now. I'll just have to look at it when I get there. 

I am also working on a Twitter story. I've been adding to this a little at a time to see if I think it would work. It's now up to about 1200 words in 54 lines and it's been interesting, looking at how to say what I want in such a limited space. I suspect it's going to help me cut down on 'useless' words if I keep at it. 

I think I might post ten entries a day with an 'end' tag first, and then work up to the top one for the day, and then a 'start' tag. Then I would take the work for the day and put it on a 'The story so far' page on my site, making it easier to read or catch up. I'd likely put it into actual paragraphs and such there, too.

I am not going to post anything until I'm farther into it. Several hundred entries? He entire story? I don't know. I don't quite see the end to it yet, though I know some of the spots along the way. Hmmm -- I think I see a pattern here with ending problems lately! 

Which brings me to the other projects. I am working on NaNo outlines. I have two that are going along quite nicely and two that require a lot of research and I probably won't really get to this year. I love doing the outlines and background work for the books. Everything seems to lead to a new idea.

My last fun project is an Access database for names -- character names and place names so far, but I think I'll add in a miscellaneous section. Eventually, I'll be able to pull up reports on various things, like a list of all the characters in a book (great for sequels!), location names, etc. This is not a particularly fancy database, but I think it will help me track things a bit better. I can also continue to add in new tables and make new connections as I see a need for them.

Oh, and I ordered in a lot of tea for the winter. I can't wait for it to arrive -- several flavors, types, etc. I'm really looking forward to it. I've cleared a little cabinet to set up for nothing but teas. 

And that's my week. I have outlines enough to keep me happy for quite a while, a novel that is going along wonderfully, another story that is a wonderful experiment, and tea on the way. I guess I'm about set!

This is a busy day. Far too many things are due in the next few hours as September looms far too large on the horizon. Eeek!

Once I'm done with the work, though, things will be much better for a while. I'll be able to turn almost all my attention to the new projects I want to work up and to writing The Servant Girl. That one is going very, very well. As long as it keeps moving like this, I'm going to be a very happy person.

New stories are pouring in on me at every turn and I'm starting to work up material for one or two. That's been fun and unexpected. I have two projects that require massive amounts of research and note taking, and two that are going to be relatively easy to work up without much background research.

Oddly, I miss my 500 words on Draw the Line for each morning, so I'm going to come up with something to fill that spot. It might be research and outlining in general. That would be very helpful, actually. I might try that in September. (Which, I remind myself yet again, is only a few hours away.)

Must get back to work!

This was the experiment book. I started it on January 1 with the intention of writing about 500 words (never as much as 600) a day. I did about 2400 on the last day because I just couldn't quit that close to the end.

Some of you will probably remember how annoyed and frustrated I was with the book, probably somewhere back around 50k. I swore it was the way I was writing it -- the 500 words a day. I'm not so sure that was the problem, now that I'm at the end. I think the trouble came from my general mood. Once I started feeling better, the book went better. Amazing how that works.

It will sit for a while and then I'll read it. No editing yet, though. I need to let it clear out of my head, then read it and get the feel for what I want to change. Do a few notes. Then put it away again and get to it when I think the time is right for an edit.

I don't rush it. I know that the longer it sits, the less I'll remember of it as a story, and the more I'll see it as what it really is, flaws and all. The longer it sits, the more apt I am to see the real problems.

It's good to have the first draft done, though. I don't want to think about leaping into more work with it just yet!

Instead, I'm working on The Servant Girl, which was one of my 2006 NaNo books. The story was a fantasy novel without magic (make believe country, that kind of thing). This time, I'm working a bit of magic into it. Not anything overt, but it is enough to not only change some very basic plots, but also some aspects of the culture. So it's an interesting rewrite with a lot of change right from the start.

I'm also wrestling with details, which I really have to watch and be aware of in my writing. It's remembering to be more than just looking through the character's eyes and living in his or her head. We walk through the world and rarely make note of as much as our characters need to see. Finding the right balance so that the character isn't walking through a gray, but not so much that the reader gets bored, isn't easy of course. 

But if it was easy, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

And now it's time for me to get back to work. Or maybe have a little ice cream in celebration of finishing the book!

Russ was home for two days. We went down to De Soto Wildlife Refuge -- twice -- and generally just had a good time talking. We even have an idea about a possible new on-line store with perhaps an invitation only publishing company to go with it. That's a long ways off, even if we do decide to do it. I think the fun was just in discussing what we would and wouldn't do in a 'what if' situation. It sounds intriguing, though.

We always did come up with fun stuff to discuss and do. You never know when you might just hit on the perfect idea -- or, if not perfect, at least something fun!

Speaking of fun -- despite the problem with the eye and the fact that the regular doctor put me on a second medication -- the writing is going very well. Oh! The good part of going to the doctor was learning I've lost 14 pounds. Eating better and even limited exercise is paying off! (Why am I nibbling on cheese and crackers?) (I put them away. I can always nibble more later!)

I am nearly done with Draw the Line and I might finish Rat Pirates tonight. Yay! I am going to do some worldbuilding and research for a while, I think. I have two big ideas brewing, and both require a lot of background work. Unfortunately, with the eye problem, I fear that it will take me a long time to even read the stuff that I want to get through. I think I can have at least one of them ready to go for NaNo, though. And maybe the second will make a good January 2010 story. I always start something new on January 1 -- a way to start the year out right.  Back a couple months ago, I was having trouble with Draw the Line and the 500 words a day experiment. Now I'm not sure if that was a real problem or a general attitude problem I was having with everything. I'll be able to tell more when I'm done with the book and go back to read it. I will not read until I've completed it, though. 

This year has been exceptional for writing, but mostly because I've done a number of rewrites from very old novels. It's amazing how much fun that can be. I still like the stories, but the writing skills were lacking twenty years ago. Using the originals as sort of fancy outlines allows me to keep the lines that I do like and fix the rest of it. It's also turned into a great learning experience because I've started seeing some of my weak spots a bit more clearly. It's always good to at least try to learn from past mistakes. I see a lot of people who say that once they finish the story, that's it -- and if the story isn't right, it's never going to get any better. I have an entirely different approach. I want to learn from my mistakes and see if I can make the story better -- that particular story, as well as new stories in the future. If I wrote something at all, it was because I liked it and wanted to tell the story. Why not try to make it better after I've learned a way to improve my writing?

I've written 12 new short stories so far this year.  I am so glad to get back into the habit of doing those.

And that's it. Time to get back to work on other things again!

I love writing.