30
Jul
My "Writing Room" is the second bedroom, which I’ve converted into a study. (Believe me, my significant other laments the day.) That’s where the novels come to life, where I hide out to plot and do nasty things to my characters, where my books reside and where I spend most of my time.
It is dominated by my desk. It’s big. It’s oak. It used to belong to the Mother Superior of a nearby convent, therefore it is also holy. (Anyone want a massive holy oak desk???)
I’ll probably have to take a chainsaw to it, if I ever want to get it out of this room again. I’m serious. It takes up a quarter of the room, not counting the big leather back director’s chair.
At least I can get all the reference books stacked onto it, that’s a plus side. I cleaned all those up the other day. You couldn’t even find the desk under all the clutter.
Behind me is a built in, floor to ceiling, book shelf. It’s full. Next to that is a small fireplace (all our rooms have fireplaces, it’s an old building.) and above that is… more shelving. Taken up, of course, by books. To the left of that is another floor to ceiling bookshelf. Also full, bar one shelf. I cleared out some books. Whee!
Next to the big oak desk is a small wooden table unit which has the HiFi and a second monitor on it.
Paul commandeered the corner of my big desk for his laptop. I’ll let him have that, but it irks me. LOL.
Although there are two windows in the room, it is very dark. It’s right by the main staircase, which blocks out all the light, so I end up having to have the lights on in here during the day. I’d love to have a nice, light and airy room, but alas… unless I kick us out of the bedroom, that’s so not going to happen.
So that’s where I write. We live in a very quiet area, so there is practically no noise (not counting the guys downstairs, who occasionally make our floor vibrate with the bass of their HiFi…).
And to top it off…
There you have it.
Where do you write?
If you take a photo, I’d love to see it. Blog about it, and reply with the link. 
29
Jul
sag (s?g)
v. sagged, sag·ging, sags
- To sink, droop, or settle from pressure or weight.
- To lose vigor, firmness, or resilience: My spirits sagged after I had been rejected for the job.
- To decline, as in value or price: Stock prices sagged after a short rally.
I have to deal with my sagging middle.
No, I don’t mean go on a diet, and exercise. (Though I ought to!)
I mean that tripe I managed to put in my book.
It sags. It’s overweight and it is out of shape.
I’ve hated it even while I wrote it. It has to go.
But how do you give your story a lean, toned six-pack?
Perform surgery. Not the plastic kind, either.
First you open the belly. Then you rip the guts out, tie a knot in them and cut off unnecessary parts.
Be brutal.
Go to the point where the story still moves forward and put a marker there.
Go to the point where the story continues to the end and put a marker there.
Rip out everything in between, lay it out and examine it.
Does it have conflict?
Does it move the plot (not the story, but the plot) forward?
Does it offer new insights into the characters?
Are the conflicts something the characters need to deal with?
Do things get worse when they do? (And create more conflicts.)
Middles are hard for me.
Difficult and tricky.
I tend to fail at being mean to my characters at the point where it sags.
So I’ve concluded to send my inner nice person for a week on the beach, so it won’t bother me while I’m mean to the people in the book.
Then I’ll start in the middle with some “What If’s” and see where it takes me.
I’ll send those guys up a tree and throw rocks at them. Big ones. Stuff they can’t dodge.
Things they have to deal with, or things get worse. Of course, they will get worse no matter what they do. They need to fail a few times and find another way.
And when they think they made it across the bridge, I’ll show them a frazzled rope to make them hurry up before it rips and drops them into the abyss, or some broken slats they need to get over. (I’ll cut the rope afterwards, so they can’t get back that way, either…)
Doing all this should tighten that flabby belly.
Now if only this would work for the other saggy middle of mine, too!
29
Jul
Here is the link, for those who have not registered yet:
MUSE ONLINE CONFERENCE 2009
Last Registration Day: 01 August 2009
I would suggest to register before then. The conference is FREE and there is a ton going on.
Check it out here: 2009 Workshops
28
Jul
Well.
Word documents.
I’ve added two "Writing Aids" to the pages. One is a list of old fashioned names, the other a list of Adverbs and Adjectives.
Hope they are of use!
27
Jul
Thanks to my fellow critters, I found out about the Taglines, Title, Ten Lines (TTT) Contest Dawn Halliday is having.
I didn’t think I could write taglines, but apparently I’m wrong.
My tag made it into the first semifinal yesterday.
(When all hell breaks loose, you want the devil on your team.)
It got me to thinking… how important is a tagline?
I’m guessing it’s more important than I thought. So what makes a good tag?
Well, for starters, it needs to make the reader curious.
It needs to convey the story in one line.
That’s the hard part. How do you cram all those words into one line?
I find it near impossible, and yet… sometimes it just clicks.
What are your taglines? Do you struggle, or do you find them easy to write?
22
Jul
It's difficult, loving a story and it being rejected.
I feel like I'm missing the boat, which is probably not the case.
I feel like my writing sucks, which is perhaps not the case either.
Will it ever happen for me? Who knows. It might.
The fact is, if I don't keep sending out queries, it will definitely not happen. That's the only constant of the process.
Of course I get jealous of others selling their books. It's natural to be envious, when it is something you want yourself.
Are they better writers than I? No. They are different writers.
They have different stories to tell.
Alas, we continue.
Oh, I haven't heard back from the two contests yet.
Fingers crossed.
14
Jul
I have to bitch a little, on behalf of my significant other.
He stubbornly insists I should open a library, because everywhere he goes, there are books.
He’s right, you know.
However, I have my own pet peeve.
The publishers of reference books for writers are missing a trick.
I would probably buy far more of them… if they were in digital format. Searchable.
You know what I mean. It’s all very well to have a huge list of something in a book — if you end up sitting there, flicking through pages, looking for something specific.
One of my all time favorites is the Reverse Dictionary. It’s great. I recommend getting one. (Random House, Word Menu)
BUT!
It would be even greater if I could type in a keyword and it flags up everything with that keyword.
The same goes for writing books. I would prefer those in digital format.
Writer’s Yearbook? Give it to me as an ebook, seriously.
Name books? Same thing.
I bet I’m not alone with this, either.
Aside from not having 20 different reference works sitting on my desk, I could have them on the computer, I could take them with me on a laptop. I could cut down the time I take looking something up to almost negligible. Time I could spend writing.
So here is the thing:
Offer an electronic edition. Please.
12
Jul
Or get challenged by a friend.
It doesn’t matter what form the challenge takes. It could be wordcount. It could be a scene. It could be dialogue. It could be character description.
You name it, you can make a contest out of it.
I’m doing the "Write A Book With Me" over at Holly Lisle’s Pocket Ful Of Words, right now.
It’s nice to see progress, it’s nice to compare progress.
It’s not a race of who does the fastest, greatest, most, or best. For me, I just like to keep up. Get a pat on the back sometimes. Pat others on the back.
If you are in a critique group, or write with a partner, why not set yourself a challenge (or a goal) every month?
How about posting a scenario, and everyone writes their version of a scene?
How about posting a keyword, and have everyone write an argument revolving around the key word?
How about posting six character flaws, and have everyone make them part of the hero, somehow? (Showing, not telling, and picking a specific flaw rather than all six.)
How about posting a specific location, and have everyone describe it?
Or you could just go and post your daily wordcount and share the ups and downs. (That’s what we’re doing at Passionate Critters at the moment.)
Go for it. Practice makes perfect.
6
Jul
I’m working on the next novel, while I peddle the completed one.
No matter how disheartening the rejections are, it will not deter me from putting fingers to keyboard.
I write in my head all the time. There isn’t a time when I don’t hatch a story, dabble with scenarios, dialogue or scenery. I can’t not write. Even if no paper is to hand, my mind works in overdrive.
I recently met Katherine Howe, and she referred to it as "Telling myself a story."
I think that’s a good way of putting it. It’s what I do. It’s what a lot of writers do. (By no means all, but probably most.)
After that, you just put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, whichever you chose.) and write it down.
Easy!
What could possibly stop you?
Life. People. Everything.
Everything can get in the way of penning that great story you’ve been telling yourself.
So what can you do?
You can set yourself low goals, achievable goals.
Holly Lisle (http://www.hollylisle.com) has a little challenge going at the moment. You set your own goal, you get AFK days… stuff like that.
There used to be "Sven" (70 Days of Sweat) but I have no idea what happened with that. It’s kinda dead, over there.
If that kind of thing gets you plugging away — go for it.
Do what you can.
50, 100 or 1000 words a day – whatever you can add, it all makes that wordcount grow. Don’t beat yourself up over writing slowly. Not everyone has the time (or the willpower!) to write 5000 words a day.
So the moral of the story is…
Keep at it, and you’ll get there.
3
Jul
I am not giving up.
I take it one at a time though, although I should perhaps query multiple agents. I just don’t like blanketing inboxes with queries.
As far as I know, the agents don’t like it either, but I could be wrong.
Still, the next query is out, and hopefully with every query I send, there will be a little feedback.
Hopefully.
Would be nice to know if it’s my mini synopsis, my query, or just me, who is failing to reach out and grab.