Well, when I last left off, I had just finished Draft 3 sometime during August. As you can see, it's now late November, and I have spent the last couple of months decidedly NOT writing. There are a few reasons for this. I spent the first ten weeks of the school year (until the end of October) as a full-time, permanent substitute teaching eleventh grade history classes. I absolutely loved it, but goodness, it left me with no energy for writing, that's for sure! It was such an incredible experience, and it was very difficult for me to hand the classes back over to the actual teacher, even if she is incredible.
In addition, in my free time (especially since subbing is now less demanding), I have been doing what I like to call "research" about my genre. Truthfully, though, "research" is code for sitting on my butt, snuggling with my puppies, and reading 20+ books in just a couple of months, most of which I have really, really enjoyed. The Covenant Series, Under the Never Sky, The Scourge, the Mindjack Series, the Divergent Series, The Frost Chronicles, Haven... so many exceptional books. And my favorite part about them? They're stories that keep getting bigger and deeper and more dimensional. There are sequels and prequels and novellas... and they feed in to my absolute love for epic series. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Chronicles of Narnia - just the tip of the iceburg. I'd recommend any of the titles above to anyone.
But now back to the biggest reason why I haven't done much writing lately: I've been waiting on beta reader responses. Okay, so really only one or two in particular. And the verdict? It was pretty much what I expected. It wasn't terrible, but some key issues were picked up on. Things like backstory, believable teenaged dialogue, and more character depth are the biggest problems pointed out to me. I know how to fix the problems with backstory - I had initially had more in the book than I do now, but I took some of it out for fear that it would bore the reader. I just need to drop details into conversations. There's also a bit of a romance in the story that needed a little work - also doable. As for the dialogue, I can change some aspects, but due to circumstances, my characters really wouldn't know many coloquialisms. Therein lies the struggle. I'll figure it out, I'm sure.
Anyways, my goal has been and still is to have the final draft completed before Christmas which gives me one month to the day. This shouldn't be a problem depending on how nit-picky I get, and I plan on getting very nit-picky. That will give me a couple of weeks at the beginning of the year to let it sit again and then give it a final read-through to check grammar, spelling, flow, etc. I hope to have some queries sent out by February. That will be exactly one year from when I completed the first draft. I guess we'll see!
Completing the fourth draft and getting it queried is just one of a few different life-changing goals that I have planned for 2013. One of the biggest (at least to me at this point) is a potential mission trip to Cambodia. Human trafficking in that country has been weighing very heavily on my heart for the past several years, and I would like to do something about it. I know that I can't go in and physically save these girls, but I can try to share hope with them through Christ. I don't know if the trip will actually happen - it's something I'm praying over and about which I'm asking for guidance. I just can't ignore the tug on my heart anymore. I guess some might refer to this as a "calling," so I'm trying to be obedient and patient. Anyways, I'll keep you updated on any extra developments. Hopefully I should have some news on the book and on Cambodia by the next time you hear from me. :-)
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Transitions
After several late nights, early mornings, and staring off into space trying to figure out how to get my plot to work, I did it. The third draft is completed at 73,000 words, which is roughly 9,000 more than my first draft. The overall storyline has remained basically the same, but I've added a lot of elements to it. I love how it's turned out, but now comes the true test.
I've given it to my first beta reader. Beta readers are people who provide criticism for manuscripts before they're sent to agents or editors. So who did I choose to read it? One of my husband's coworkers - an English teacher and an avid reader of young adult literature who loves dystopian thrillers. I sent her an email asking if she'd be interested, and she said yes, but that she'd probably be pretty harsh. While this makes me absolutely terrified, it also makes me happy. There's something unnerving about handing your manuscript off to someone who you know as opposed to some literary agent whose address you pulled off of the internet. Your personality and thoughts are reflected through your manuscript, and to allow someone to critique it, it's pretty intimidating. I know that she'll provide an unbiased opinion on it, and that's what I'm craving at this point. So now I will wait until she sends me her critique before I look at the manuscript again. The best thing that I can do is to let it rest for a while so that I can return with an objective point of view.
Fingers crossed, here's hoping for good feedback and workable changes.
I've given it to my first beta reader. Beta readers are people who provide criticism for manuscripts before they're sent to agents or editors. So who did I choose to read it? One of my husband's coworkers - an English teacher and an avid reader of young adult literature who loves dystopian thrillers. I sent her an email asking if she'd be interested, and she said yes, but that she'd probably be pretty harsh. While this makes me absolutely terrified, it also makes me happy. There's something unnerving about handing your manuscript off to someone who you know as opposed to some literary agent whose address you pulled off of the internet. Your personality and thoughts are reflected through your manuscript, and to allow someone to critique it, it's pretty intimidating. I know that she'll provide an unbiased opinion on it, and that's what I'm craving at this point. So now I will wait until she sends me her critique before I look at the manuscript again. The best thing that I can do is to let it rest for a while so that I can return with an objective point of view.
Fingers crossed, here's hoping for good feedback and workable changes.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Reading, Writing, and the Olympics
Hello, again. Did you think I'd died after rejoining the gym? Thankfully, I didn't. Quite the opposite, rather. I've been soaking up every last bit of freedom that the summer provides for teachers such as myself.
The past two weeks have been busier than usual, not that I can or should complain. My sweet mother in law came to stay with us for a little over a week to celebrate the barage of July birthdays in our family. I enjoyed having her around, not just as a friend, but also as an artist. While here, she read the first third or so of my second draft and offered some advice and encouragement, which I really appreciated. I've been dying to get someone else's opinion, but I wanted to wait until the draft was completed before I let my husband read it. He's full of suggestions and ideas, but this time, I want him to receive it not as a participant, but as a reader. I'm nervous and excited to see what he has to say this time around.
But back to my MIL. In addition to being generally awesome company, she also volunteered to house sit Thing 1 and Thing 2 while my husband and I went to Chattanooga for a night to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was an incredible, highly-needed mini vacation, and I think I'm still working off the pounds of food that I ate while there. Seriously, I ate a lot. If you ever get a chance to go to Chattanooga, make some time to go to The Terminal Brewhouse. It's incredible.
Anyways, since we returned, I've been writing as frequently as possible, so much so that my neighbors probably think I've turned into a hermit since my car hasn't moved from the driveway in a week. That's okay, though. I'm making progress, and even stayed up till 3AM last night finishing the second-to-last chapter. I know it probably seems strange, but I'm hesitating to write the conclusion, not because I don't like it, but because I dread the next stage: Revision. Holy moly. The last time I started revising this book, I ended up completely rewriting it from a different point of view, and I changed several elements. It's taken a couple of months to do this, and I can already tell how much better it is as I reread it and skim through the beginning and the middle of the book. Here's the deal though:
It's worth the work to write the book that I picture in my heart and mind. Some decisions are hard, and I just decided to drop the prologue that I had so pain-stakingly written and revised several times. Why? Because I don't need it. I'm not big on taking every single piece of advice for writing fiction that's floating around on the internet, but I did listen to this one. There was nothing important in the prologue that I couldn't work in to the actual book, so that's what I've done. I'm also to the point where I'm trying to decide if I should delete a character. I like him, he's got a noble personality, but is he essential? I'm starting to doubt it. I also need to sift through the pages and pluck out a ridiculous number of unnecessary words, primarily adverbs. He whispered quietly? No joke. I don't want to be that person.
Another reason that I dread the revision process is because I tend to get overly optimistic about how GREAT my book is. I did this last time. I cranked out the story within a month, re-read it a few times and checked for errors, and then sent out query letters to a ridiculous amount of agents, who of course responded with a polite, but generic "no thank you." I'm pretty ashamed, actually, and I don't want to do that this time. I want to make sure that it's as tight and cohesive as possible, that the story is as irresistable to readers as it is to me. So, I'll finish my second draft tonight, hopefully, set it aside for a few days to get a fresh perspective, and then attack it with a red pen and lots of notes. Right now, it's just below 60,000 words, a little too short for my taste, but there's plenty of room to expand.
When I've finished the first round of revision, I'll hand it to my husband and maybe a few trusted friends who I know either read young adult fiction or write, and then we'll see. Until then, wish me luck and give me a kick in the pants if you see me wasting time.
The past two weeks have been busier than usual, not that I can or should complain. My sweet mother in law came to stay with us for a little over a week to celebrate the barage of July birthdays in our family. I enjoyed having her around, not just as a friend, but also as an artist. While here, she read the first third or so of my second draft and offered some advice and encouragement, which I really appreciated. I've been dying to get someone else's opinion, but I wanted to wait until the draft was completed before I let my husband read it. He's full of suggestions and ideas, but this time, I want him to receive it not as a participant, but as a reader. I'm nervous and excited to see what he has to say this time around.
But back to my MIL. In addition to being generally awesome company, she also volunteered to house sit Thing 1 and Thing 2 while my husband and I went to Chattanooga for a night to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was an incredible, highly-needed mini vacation, and I think I'm still working off the pounds of food that I ate while there. Seriously, I ate a lot. If you ever get a chance to go to Chattanooga, make some time to go to The Terminal Brewhouse. It's incredible.
Anyways, since we returned, I've been writing as frequently as possible, so much so that my neighbors probably think I've turned into a hermit since my car hasn't moved from the driveway in a week. That's okay, though. I'm making progress, and even stayed up till 3AM last night finishing the second-to-last chapter. I know it probably seems strange, but I'm hesitating to write the conclusion, not because I don't like it, but because I dread the next stage: Revision. Holy moly. The last time I started revising this book, I ended up completely rewriting it from a different point of view, and I changed several elements. It's taken a couple of months to do this, and I can already tell how much better it is as I reread it and skim through the beginning and the middle of the book. Here's the deal though:
It's worth the work to write the book that I picture in my heart and mind. Some decisions are hard, and I just decided to drop the prologue that I had so pain-stakingly written and revised several times. Why? Because I don't need it. I'm not big on taking every single piece of advice for writing fiction that's floating around on the internet, but I did listen to this one. There was nothing important in the prologue that I couldn't work in to the actual book, so that's what I've done. I'm also to the point where I'm trying to decide if I should delete a character. I like him, he's got a noble personality, but is he essential? I'm starting to doubt it. I also need to sift through the pages and pluck out a ridiculous number of unnecessary words, primarily adverbs. He whispered quietly? No joke. I don't want to be that person.
Another reason that I dread the revision process is because I tend to get overly optimistic about how GREAT my book is. I did this last time. I cranked out the story within a month, re-read it a few times and checked for errors, and then sent out query letters to a ridiculous amount of agents, who of course responded with a polite, but generic "no thank you." I'm pretty ashamed, actually, and I don't want to do that this time. I want to make sure that it's as tight and cohesive as possible, that the story is as irresistable to readers as it is to me. So, I'll finish my second draft tonight, hopefully, set it aside for a few days to get a fresh perspective, and then attack it with a red pen and lots of notes. Right now, it's just below 60,000 words, a little too short for my taste, but there's plenty of room to expand.
When I've finished the first round of revision, I'll hand it to my husband and maybe a few trusted friends who I know either read young adult fiction or write, and then we'll see. Until then, wish me luck and give me a kick in the pants if you see me wasting time.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Ore-oh, no.
Drum roll, please.
Okay, that might sound misleading since I've been talking about publishing a book.
What I meant to say was: I'm excited! And here's why. I'm finally getting back into a gym. When I was in college, I worked out somewhat regularly and maintained a pretty decent physique (not great, not good, but decent). Did you catch the use of the vague qualifiers there? Anyways, I am officially the heaviest that I've ever weighed. Ouch. It's not really that bad since it's distributed on a fairly tall 5'9" frame, but still. It's not cool. I'm not saying that I want to be super skinny or look emaciated or fit into a size 2. I'd just like to get back into my comfort range. I know you're probably glaring at me through the screen right now, but it's important to me. I'm tired of feeling self-conscious.
So what brought on this change in plan? Several things, but primarily: July. July itself isn't bad, it's what takes place in July. Cookouts, Independence Day, my grandmother's birthday, my birthday, my husband's birthday, my mother-in-law's birthday, my brother's birthday, our anniversary, etc., etc., etc.... To top it off, last night I threw my husband a surprise "Mustache Bash" birthday party. It worked, and he was definitely surprised (to the borderline of scared, actually). But the theme was... I'm a little ashamed... milk and cookies. Milk mustaches, get it? Even though a lot of people showed up, we were left with oh, only about 52lbs. of cookies. Chocolate chip cookies (soft AND chewy), caramel cookies, double stuffed oreos, coconut cake, coconut cupcakes, and one lone smores cupcake. Not to mention the gallon of chocolate milk left in our refrigerator. (cringe) For someone who LOVES sugar, this is a problem. When put in front of a pile of delicious, sugary treats, my self control runs away like my dog from, well, other dogs. She's special. But seriously, I'd have major consumer guilt if I just threw them away (not to mention my husband might freak out), so I'm choosing to find pleasure in my long lost love of working out.
Okay, okay, the word "love" might be an overestimation, but...pleasure? Enjoyment? Satisfaction. It's satisfying to exercise, so that's what I'm going to do right now. God bless the teacher discount, by the way. I do love that. So here I go, off to the YMCA in my dusty Nikes. If you don't hear from me in a few days, just assume that I've pulled my back out again or just keeled over in the middle of the gym.
As for now, enjoy a few Mustache Bash photographs.
Okay, that might sound misleading since I've been talking about publishing a book.
What I meant to say was: I'm excited! And here's why. I'm finally getting back into a gym. When I was in college, I worked out somewhat regularly and maintained a pretty decent physique (not great, not good, but decent). Did you catch the use of the vague qualifiers there? Anyways, I am officially the heaviest that I've ever weighed. Ouch. It's not really that bad since it's distributed on a fairly tall 5'9" frame, but still. It's not cool. I'm not saying that I want to be super skinny or look emaciated or fit into a size 2. I'd just like to get back into my comfort range. I know you're probably glaring at me through the screen right now, but it's important to me. I'm tired of feeling self-conscious.
So what brought on this change in plan? Several things, but primarily: July. July itself isn't bad, it's what takes place in July. Cookouts, Independence Day, my grandmother's birthday, my birthday, my husband's birthday, my mother-in-law's birthday, my brother's birthday, our anniversary, etc., etc., etc.... To top it off, last night I threw my husband a surprise "Mustache Bash" birthday party. It worked, and he was definitely surprised (to the borderline of scared, actually). But the theme was... I'm a little ashamed... milk and cookies. Milk mustaches, get it? Even though a lot of people showed up, we were left with oh, only about 52lbs. of cookies. Chocolate chip cookies (soft AND chewy), caramel cookies, double stuffed oreos, coconut cake, coconut cupcakes, and one lone smores cupcake. Not to mention the gallon of chocolate milk left in our refrigerator. (cringe) For someone who LOVES sugar, this is a problem. When put in front of a pile of delicious, sugary treats, my self control runs away like my dog from, well, other dogs. She's special. But seriously, I'd have major consumer guilt if I just threw them away (not to mention my husband might freak out), so I'm choosing to find pleasure in my long lost love of working out.
Okay, okay, the word "love" might be an overestimation, but...
As for now, enjoy a few Mustache Bash photographs.
Some of our friends. I love them.
Brie, my sister-in-law, and her fiancee Derek (along with our spazzy pups). I love them, too.
My husband and me. He's beardalicious.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The Skinny
Okay, well, as you can see, the blogging thing didn't really take off immediately as I had hoped. I've been busy in my own little world, and I've been meaning to start this thing for real, but life happened and so, yeah.
Since October, I have managed to quit the previously mentioned physical therapy aide job, start subsitute teaching again, buy a HOUSE, turn 25 years old (today, actually), and.... I wrote a book. Well, sorta... Here's the skinny. Back in November or December (not sure), I had a very vivid dream of a chase scene while asleep one night. I mean - it was awesome. High leaps, cool weapons, great characters... even the name of the man character came to me in the dream. I woke up the next morning and immediatley wrote it down, and then I left it alone for a couple of months. I knew I liked it, and I knew a plot was formulating in my head, but I didn't really know what to do with it. After the holiday rush had finished, I picked it up again and somehow managed to squeeze out an entire novel surrounding this particular scene. It's actually a rather long (and somewhat painful) story...
I had just quit my job as a therapy aide, and I had not received many requests to substitute teach yet, so I literally spent anywhere from 6-10 hours per day writing this story. It all just started falling into place in my head, so I wrote it as fast as I possibly could. Well, within two months, I had completed this novel. It was a first-person account of a science fiction mix of David and Goliath, 1984, and The Hunger Games, and I was proud of it. So what does any naive author do upon writing his or her first novel? Why, they try to sell it. After a mere 30 or so rejections (buuuurn), a few bouts of hyperventilation, and a couple of finger cramps, I decided that it was in my best interest to set it aside. I didn't even look at it for several months, which was partially because I mentally needed a break from it and partially because I got super busy with work... that is, until May 26 came around and school ended.
After staring at the notebook filled with my manuscript and a stack of rejection letters on my desk for a few days, I finally cracked it open and began reading it. I hated it. Okay, I didn't hate it, but it wasn't good. I felt pretty embarassed, actually, that I had even asked anybody to read it. Immediately, I decided that I wasn't finished with this book. I sat down with a red pen and started to make corrections. Turned out, the red pen wasn't enough, so I sat down with an open word document and started rewriting it from the beginning... even that wasn't enough. Don't get me wront - the basic storyline is good (or at least that's what I believe). But it was hollow in parts, redundent in others, and overall pretty weak. I started completely rewriting it. It's now in third person (phew - so much easier), and I've upped the stakes and am in the process of trying to turn my characters into believable human beings. And it's hard work... much harder than the first version. But it's also much better... not GREAT, but better. So that's where I am right now. I have approximatley 25,000 words completed, including a new title, new character names, new plot twists, and new overall direction. Only 50k more to go!
I'm not going to lie - I'm excited about this project. I love it, actually. I've always loved writing, even when I was a child, and I feel like it's something that I can do well. My problem (as I've realized over the past 6 months) is not that I lack passion or creativity, it's that I turn my writing into an idol. I think endlessly about it, get my heart broken by it, and find myself retreating back into my house to write when I should be enjoying the world about which I'm writing. It's an interesting conundrum, and I'm trying to juggle working on the novel with well... the rest of my life. Cheese alert: I truly feel like it has been a gift from God. Without His inspiration, I could never have thought of something like this, and I'll stand by that statement, even if it makes me look a little goofy. That's okay. It's just one more thing to add to the list of self-improvement, including not being embarassed that I write. Seems like a silly thing to be ashamed of, but I choke whenever someone asks me about it. I want to get over that. I want to finish my novel, revise it, probably throw it out and rewrite it again, and eventually get it as perfect as I can and then have the confidence to walk up to any agent in the country and explain my story without mumbling or turning red. There are worse problems to have in the world, I know... I'm actually trying to write about them. I just hope that 1) I can finish the novel and produce something that I'm proud of, and 2) that I would be happy with whatever the outcome: whether it gets published or not.
So those are my goals: finish it and be content with the outcome. I hope to share some more information about what I'm working on as time progreses. As for now, since I have only 40 minutes left of my 25th birthday, I'm going to go snuggle with my husband and my puppies. It's a hard life, I know.
Since October, I have managed to quit the previously mentioned physical therapy aide job, start subsitute teaching again, buy a HOUSE, turn 25 years old (today, actually), and.... I wrote a book. Well, sorta... Here's the skinny. Back in November or December (not sure), I had a very vivid dream of a chase scene while asleep one night. I mean - it was awesome. High leaps, cool weapons, great characters... even the name of the man character came to me in the dream. I woke up the next morning and immediatley wrote it down, and then I left it alone for a couple of months. I knew I liked it, and I knew a plot was formulating in my head, but I didn't really know what to do with it. After the holiday rush had finished, I picked it up again and somehow managed to squeeze out an entire novel surrounding this particular scene. It's actually a rather long (and somewhat painful) story...
I had just quit my job as a therapy aide, and I had not received many requests to substitute teach yet, so I literally spent anywhere from 6-10 hours per day writing this story. It all just started falling into place in my head, so I wrote it as fast as I possibly could. Well, within two months, I had completed this novel. It was a first-person account of a science fiction mix of David and Goliath, 1984, and The Hunger Games, and I was proud of it. So what does any naive author do upon writing his or her first novel? Why, they try to sell it. After a mere 30 or so rejections (buuuurn), a few bouts of hyperventilation, and a couple of finger cramps, I decided that it was in my best interest to set it aside. I didn't even look at it for several months, which was partially because I mentally needed a break from it and partially because I got super busy with work... that is, until May 26 came around and school ended.
After staring at the notebook filled with my manuscript and a stack of rejection letters on my desk for a few days, I finally cracked it open and began reading it. I hated it. Okay, I didn't hate it, but it wasn't good. I felt pretty embarassed, actually, that I had even asked anybody to read it. Immediately, I decided that I wasn't finished with this book. I sat down with a red pen and started to make corrections. Turned out, the red pen wasn't enough, so I sat down with an open word document and started rewriting it from the beginning... even that wasn't enough. Don't get me wront - the basic storyline is good (or at least that's what I believe). But it was hollow in parts, redundent in others, and overall pretty weak. I started completely rewriting it. It's now in third person (phew - so much easier), and I've upped the stakes and am in the process of trying to turn my characters into believable human beings. And it's hard work... much harder than the first version. But it's also much better... not GREAT, but better. So that's where I am right now. I have approximatley 25,000 words completed, including a new title, new character names, new plot twists, and new overall direction. Only 50k more to go!
I'm not going to lie - I'm excited about this project. I love it, actually. I've always loved writing, even when I was a child, and I feel like it's something that I can do well. My problem (as I've realized over the past 6 months) is not that I lack passion or creativity, it's that I turn my writing into an idol. I think endlessly about it, get my heart broken by it, and find myself retreating back into my house to write when I should be enjoying the world about which I'm writing. It's an interesting conundrum, and I'm trying to juggle working on the novel with well... the rest of my life. Cheese alert: I truly feel like it has been a gift from God. Without His inspiration, I could never have thought of something like this, and I'll stand by that statement, even if it makes me look a little goofy. That's okay. It's just one more thing to add to the list of self-improvement, including not being embarassed that I write. Seems like a silly thing to be ashamed of, but I choke whenever someone asks me about it. I want to get over that. I want to finish my novel, revise it, probably throw it out and rewrite it again, and eventually get it as perfect as I can and then have the confidence to walk up to any agent in the country and explain my story without mumbling or turning red. There are worse problems to have in the world, I know... I'm actually trying to write about them. I just hope that 1) I can finish the novel and produce something that I'm proud of, and 2) that I would be happy with whatever the outcome: whether it gets published or not.
So those are my goals: finish it and be content with the outcome. I hope to share some more information about what I'm working on as time progreses. As for now, since I have only 40 minutes left of my 25th birthday, I'm going to go snuggle with my husband and my puppies. It's a hard life, I know.
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