Blog

A very smart man, my husband, reminded me that if I’m not having fun, I shouldn’t be writing. After all, my life and livelihood do not depend on it.

This wasn’t an invitation to quite writing. Rather, it was an invitation to write something that I enjoy.

I was heading that way. I don’t plan to abandon the faerie project, but I do wonder if I need to take a stab at it in a different place in its history. Since I have no obligation to write anything, that it what I will begin next week.

Meanwhile, I remain on my week long sabbatical, and actually get to be at home, not out for the college or Bryon’s school, this evening. Yay.

Catherine

Reading between the lines of well-couched and friendly critique, I find that even though my readers are being polite, I have clear messages about WIP from 3 readers:

1. The braid isn’t working. It’s choppy and hard to follow. You only put up with it if you’re vested in the story.

Solution: Time to ditch the braid. Artistically noble, indeed, but probably not what a non-published novelist should try to do with the first book of a series.

2. We like Janetta so much, we don’t understand why it’s a bad thing that Pettigrew is out. Now there’s a problem I didn’t see coming, but should have!

Solution: Someone suggested we see Pettigrew and Hero before they’re out. Actually, Hero *isn’t* as nice as Janetta. This one requires some thought.

3. The description is lean. Everyone keeps saying this isn’t a problem, but everyone keeps mentioning it, which makes me think that it is an issue.

Solution: Ponder, read, see if it is an issue. I’m pretty sure it is.

4. We like Grant and Janetta, we don’t know the Sudanese as well.

Solution: Get crackin’ on the characterization!

***

Overall, it looks like I have the problem many of my students have–I can see what’s in my head, but my readers can’t, and I need to get more of that onto the page than I currently have.

New strategy: write one story at a time, see what you get. See if it’s appropriate to mix things up or not. After you’ve written the stories, see if it’s appropriate to put them together or not right away.

Re-envision what you’re doing. After you’ve laid the pipe of the rough draft, beef up that imagery. You can do that, especially if you go in purposefully to do it.

***

*sigh* I was rather hoping for some positive reinforcement to keep me going right now, but instead, I got the usual writer problem-solving stuff. It is *just* like writing your thesis after all.

Okay. Time for a little writing vakay. About a week. Do some sewing, girl. That always gets your subconscious moving in the right direction.

Also, get that academic paper done for Mr. Iwahara while you’re on vacation.

Foo. Today, I get to be the mopey writer. We shall soon recover, once we’ve got a solution.

Catherine

Hoohah! Off it goes.

The remaining part is academic. I write an application to my professional development committee to apply for the funds, just in case, with the caveat that I turn the money back if I don’t need it.

So, that’s done.

Good-bye, little application! Gain me an opportunity to get more education and visit a New England island!

Catherine

This week’sBlood is Thicker than Water post!

Catherine

I’ve been wondering. What is your writing dream?

Let’s take a couple of them out of the equation. Fledgling writers, I *know* that you want an agent, and you want to be published. Let’s take that as a given. Let’s assume, for purposes of this exercise, that you have an agent, and you are publishing. From there on ,what’s that brass ring you want from your writing career? Money? Fame? Recognition? Your book taught in a lit course? What is it?

For me, the answer is this: I want to write one character that people know, even if they don’t know me. I want a Sherlock Holmes, or a Mr. Darcy. A Miss Marple, or a Mary Poppins. I am not so important. They don’t have to know me at all. They may have to track me down on the Internet to find out who wrote the books about my famous character. They may confuse me with other authors.

However, like Dr. Frankenstein, apparently I want to create life, and let some character out into the mortal world who exists outside of myself.

And you?

Catherine

There. That’s everything in the VP ap and edited for content.

Tomorrow, we do the whole format thing. Yeah, formatting. I should also send off my revised cover letter and ap fee tomorrow.

And then, I can stop talking about this, and get on with something else. Like this idea I’ve had to ask you about your writing dream.

Catherine

All right. It’s time for an analogy.

As a writer, have you ever been down a dead end? I’ve been hitting my head against the wall of the maze, and I can smell cheese on the other side, but I think the way to get the cheese is to go around, because going through isn’t working. The cheese is still there, and I’m still here.

In short, the reason I’m having trouble articulating the essence of Gossamer and Veridian is because I don’t know it yet. So, I keep filling synopses with what happens in the plot, or overall themes and conflicts. This will never work, because that is not what a synopsis is.

When I write a book, I write the book, then think about what I have written, then write some more and see what I get, then plan, and then write some more, and by the end of it, I do know what the main thrust of a story is, and it’s all worked out.

I’ve been trying to put the cart before the horse because I wanted to use Gossamer for my Viable Paradise application. I wanted to work with something new that I’m excited about, but I’m clear now that I’m not at that stage with this story. That’s why I’ve been doing everything except plotting it. I mean, I’ve formatted the first chapter correctly, for crying out loud!

I need to sit down and write and enjoy the writing, and see what the import (if any) of the faerie soap opera is, without trying to impose expectation upon the beast because I want to use it for a hoitsy and/or toitsy purpose.

What I need for Viable Paradise, on the other hand, is material that I have revised a lot, I feel is pretty good, already has the support of enthusiastic readers, and has been looked at by lots of eyes, but still hasn’t made it. A fresh look could give it that je ne sais quois that all of us have been missing so far.

Substance of Shadows it is, then. I have a synopsis, an outline, and well-polished chapters. No one has taken it on yet, and no major publishers are considering it. If I become agented, and the book undergoes scrutiny, we’ll see what happens next, but I’ll go with what I know right now, rather than what might be.

I owe Bryon. I was discussing my frustration with my application, and he said that if they wanted to see what you’d done best, you should send something you’re confident about.

So, yeah. Duh.

That means my application can go out as soon as I double check the synopsis and the outline. And I can go back to working on Gossamer and Veridian in a way that’s more fun for me.

***

Moral of the story: It’s good to try new things, but know thy creative process.

This synopsis is more character-driven, which the last one probably should have been. Would this make you want to read the book?

Nasma has found a man in the desert, now treasure of the Storm Sisters. What she doesn’t know is the man has lost a king, fragmented in the mists, one part of the king’s soul with trolls who are searching for the rest. She doesn’t know that the man has left a mistress, the new queen of the Sidhe, who loves him and hates him. She doesn’t know that the mistress’s husband will journey through her desert, to cement an alliance with the dark forces that border her land. Nasma, knowing none of these things, has decided she loves the man, and will protect her treasure with all of the force the Storm Sisters can gather. The treasure, Rohren the Avenger, has other ideas.

I’d like a good site for information about writing outlines for books, if those of you who send off proposals know of one. Of course, I’ll be investigating things myself.

Catherine

After an afternoon of scooping snow, because that’s the Iowa way, I settled in to some writing. I have written a synopsis and outlined everything I had so far, and added another scene to the actual manuscript.

Which makes our word count meter look like this:

17,441 / 90,000 (19.4%)

***

It looks like I will be able to send the first chapter for my application. I will be editing the treatment to be as svelte as possible. It may be to my advantage to include a synopsis to explain the general thrust of the plot.

Here’s that synopsis so far! Would you read this book? I think the last line is a little cheesy, so I’m still working on it.

Continue reading “Progress-a-mundo”

No longer feeling like a non-writing lump, she was pleased that she had drafted a cover letter for her Viable Paradise application.

Tomorrow she begins playing with her outline/synopsis.

She really has to stop measuring her worth by accomplishment.

Yeah, that’s going to happen.

Catherine