When your middle name
is Love…
you should not be
caught doing this…
as you write your
romantic scenes.
If I were to be a
photographic fly on your wall,
what might I catch
you doing while in the throes of writing yours?
(or while reading for
our awesome non-writing readers?)
Robin Mermaid’s post last week (Love It or List It? Nov. 17) got me thinking. She had started with a book review, but then she mentioned an unfinished story that was haunting her. She put aside a project that was giving her trouble when another idea caught her attention. Now she’s had a chance to take another look at the unfinished manuscript and wonders if she dares to take it on again. Can she fix it? Will it change? Do they have a future?
I know that story all too well, as I’ve had more than one abandoned (relationship) manuscript in a checkered, challenged and generally lackluster (dating) writing career. There was the hero intent on restoring a vintage Tucker automobile. The other hero who rode a motorcycle. The heroine left at the altar (she kept the ring). The flirtation with inspirational fiction. The heroine escaping an abusive husband (no, not from personal experience!).
Not one of these stories saw daylight. The floppy disks and hard-drive files are long gone or reused for other projects. But they all had their moment. They all served their purpose. Only one of those ideas has hopes of being resurrected (not the abusive husband!)
In being unfinished, abandoned, left behind or dropped, they are a lot like the bad boyfriends, old lovers or ex-husbands we may have experienced. Those relationships taught me a lot (well, not the ex-husbands, since I’ve had just the One True Love). But the others let me learn – about what love is, how to maintain it, how to know when it is over, how to survive its loss. I certainly had plenty of boyfriends before meeting the OTL who can put up with just about anything. I’ve dried my share of tears. I’ve done plenty of mourning, for good relationships that faded and bad ones that cheated or lied and moved on. Even when I didn’t want them to go. And I learned.
The same ideas go with stories that start out well and then seem to just lose their zip. Or have flaws that only show up after years of struggle. Try as I might, they won’t behave and I can’t get them to change. I’ve cried over those, too, and mourned them and wished they would come back. We would make it work!
I believe now that those unfinished stories are lot like those bad boyfriends and old lovers. They taught me to let go and not believe that I’m the best match for that work. They also taught me how to write a better story. There’s a lot of satisfaction in finally getting a scene right, a plot point made and achieving crisp dialogue. I learned how to write better stories because of those pages. Would I go back to them? Not on your life. And we won’t discuss the men. For all you know, they’ll end up as characters in a future book…
Have you ever had a story that fought you, or seemed to misbehave when you thought you had it under control? Did you ever just give up and move on? What did you learn about yourself and your writing? Or, did you find a way to compromise, so the two of you could have your own authorial HEA?
I am an unapologetic HGTV-slut. I. Love. That. Channel.
It doesn’t matter what is on – I’ll watch anything – but my favorites are House Hunters and Property Virgins. But, a new program has caught my eye and I’ll definitely be tuning in when it premieres later this month – Love It or Leave It.
The premise is that when homeowners live in a house long enough and they lose the lovin’ feeling the question pops up as to whether they renovate or move. In this show, two real estate professionals take opposite viewpoints and try to convince the homeowner to either stay in their home or list it for sale. I think it looks fabulous!
It also reminds me of a recent writing dilemma I had about an old, unfinished manuscript. Now, I’m a little type A (don’t snicker, those of you who know me well) and I just can’t leave things unfinished – it drives me crazy. But, this ms started out so strong and then, like a literary barracuda, I was distracted by a bright shiny object and put it aside.
Now, here’s my confession: It was easy to put it to the side because I’d hit a snag in the ms, wasn’t feeling the love for it anymore and . . . well, the other story was SO shiny!
So, I recently pulled it out and took a look at it to see what I wanted to do with my poor little orphaned baby. It still has the problems I hated before and shockingly the little writing elf did not finish it for me as it languished on my hard drive. Sigh.
So, what do I do? I’m working on my NaNo project right now and that takes immediate priority. But November will end and I’ll finish my WIP and the orphan will still be sitting there.
I need to decide if it’s worth picking up or if I should just shelve it for a different time – which might be never. Do I love it? Do I list it?
I honestly don’t have a clue.
Do you have any advice? Have you faced the same question about one of your babies? When is it time to let a book go?
Robin
In the course of your writing lives, I’m sure you have had a critique partner or participated in a critique group. But have you ever had an accountability partner?
Before this past August, I hadn’t. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of the concept before. (Okay, so the term, “accountability partner,” I made up. If there is a more official or creative name floating around, do let me know!)
Three months ago, fellow mermaid Kerri and I fell into an accountability relationship, and it has changed the course of my writing life. Here’s how it works:
— At the beginning of each week, Kerri and I each set a goal for the week. The goals do not have to be the same, but it’s always fun when they are. They range from word count goals (such as 1.5K words a day or once, when we were feeling really motivated, 10K words for the week) to revision goals (such as 2 chapters a day or 50 pages for the week) to task-specific goals (such as writing a synopsis or a short story).
— After setting our goals, Kerri and I email each other every day to report our progress (and celebrate and commiserate and give each other pep talks). This step is vitally important. Not only does it keep you on task, but it also motivates your partner. And really, who in your non-writing life will cheer when you say you’ve written 1709 words that day? It’s these small bits of encouragement that keep me going.
— Finally, at the end of the week, after we have met our goals (which we do about half of the time), we reward ourselves lavishly. The rewards have ranged from a pedicure to a margarita to a cupcake to a mojito to popcorn and movies to dinner out to running shoes to tall black boots, depending on the size of the accomplishment. (The last two were Kerri’s and my rewards, respectively, for finishing our novels.)
In the last three months, our productivity has shot through the roof. (Well, maybe I should speak for myself. Perhaps Kerri is always this productive, super-mermaid that she is.) We have both finished our WIPs, revised (or are in the process of revising), and written query letters and synopses. To top it off, Kerri also wrote her charming garden story during this time!
Now that I’ve discovered an accountability partner (thank you, Kerri-mermaid!), I can’t imagine writing another novel without one. What about you? Have you ever had an accountability partner and how did the relationship work? Please share. I’d love to hear about your experiences!
Yes. I’ve got some pet peeves. Years ago, they may have merely been classified as annoyances, but today there are things that just bug the living hell out of me.
What have I done about my pet peeves? Well, I’ve thrown many of them into my writing! Don’t you?
Come on, admit it. Don’t you have things that you wish you could say or do, but you feel like you can’t? But, your characters can say and do anything they want! You can’t be held responsible for their actions. It’s fiction! Right?
So, if I write that one of my characters finds it annoying when someone dips their French fries in her ketchup, what’s wrong with that? Maybe those French fry dippers will stay the hell away from my ketchup and find their own…if they read my first book. 🙂
If I can rid the world of things hanging off rearview mirrors, that’s a campaign I can seriously get behind. I have a friend who admitted that she has tacky dice proudly swinging from her rearview mirror. (You know who you are, Kerri) Another friend has a dream catcher. Cute. Right? Wrong! The number one thing I hate is the crystal prism that practically blinds the people both in the front and back of that car. To all of you who feel the pressing urge to adorn your rearview mirror—Just. Say. No.
Do you secretly throw your pet peeves into books as your own personal therapy session free of charge? Do you give your hero or heroine your own annoyance of a particular pet peeve? Do you make the protagonist chew her hair or crack his knuckles? Maybe have someone say, “You know” after everything they say?
What are some of the things that drive you nuts? Do you identify with characters in your favorite book because they share the same likes or dislikes?
Fess up! What are the things you love to hate the most? I’ll go ahead and get things started. Let me know if I should include some more. Unfortunately I have tons.
I love this saying by George Carlin: “I don’t have pet peeves—I have major psychotic f***ing hatreds.”
I’m not that bad. Yet.
Kim’s Ten Top Pet Peeves
Welcome to November 1st, my watery denizens. You know what that means!
Yes, in writerly circles, November 1st marks the advent of NaNoWriMo— National Novel Writing Month. In short, those who sign up (I believe you can still sign up today) pledge to attempt to write 50,000 words in the month of November.
I’m not sure why November was chosen as opposed to say, August, when there are no Holidays and people are expected to go to parties and shop for the holiday season of their choice…but that wasn’t up to me.
My handle on NaNo (as it is affectionately called) is Princess Alethea. I will also be tweeting some of my progress and writing sprints under the #NaNoWriMo hashtag.
I have participated in NaNoWriMo every year since 2005, and I have yet to get to 50,000 words. But I still participate every year, and I am still proud when I look at my word count come December 1st.
Now, there are all sorts of theories about how NaNoWriMo should work. Like writing, THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO DO IT. Should you try to write 50,000 words this month? Absolutely. Should you commit seppuku if you do not achieve this goal? Of course not.The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to teach you to find that elusive BUTT in CHAIR state, and get used to it. In the month of November, you will feel what is like to be a full-time writer. If writing is your goal, these are good habits to have. If you are already a writer, these are good habits to remember. This is why I sign up and play the game, every single year.
A couple of things to address:
PLANNING: A lot of folks plan what they’re doing for NaNo prior to the month. They have an outline and a writing space and time in their schedule.
I hate these people.
I usually have a general idea of what project I want to work on going into November, but that’s about it. This year, I got a second dayjob as a sub at an afterschool program. It sounds crazy (and is), but it also forced a routine into my schedule. I told the bookstore that I could work 9-2 on the weekdays, and assorted weekends. The days I had off at the afterschool program, or the bookstore, would just be writing time. Hooray! My days were going to go from up in the air all the time to a set schedule. I had PLANNED TIME for writing. I told the afterschool program that I could start on November 1st. This was PERFECT.
Apparently, Murphy (my guardian angel) heard the word “perfect” and slapped me down for it. One manager at the bookstore got spirited away to help open more bookstores, and the other manager got fed up with this situation and quit. Suddenly, instead of quietly slipping into a position of less responsibility, as of Saturday I will be the only acting Manager on the premises. Yeah. Oops.
SO you haven’t planned. So you have a wrench somewhere in the works. Who cares? I have a secret: your life will never be perfect, and you’re still going to have to find a way to shove the writing in between the cracks. Make this promise to yourself, just for this month, and see what you can do. I dare you.
CHEATING: Some people say that if you 1.) continue a novel already in progress, 2.) don’t finish your novel in 50,000 words or 3.) write “shark shark shark shark turtle shark” for 24 pages, you’re CHEATING. You know what? I don’t care about this either. Princess Alethea Mermaid’s rules say that if you write 50,000 words in November, whatever those words are, you’ve “won.” Of course, Princess Alethea thinks if you only write 24,000 words in that month, you have also “won.” I mean, come on. In what other month have you written 24,000 words? (Except you horrible prolific people. Just humor me here, okay? Don’t rub it in.
Go on, jump in the deep end! The water’s fine. We’ll be swimming/flailing/treading water right alongside you. Are you with me? xox
For some fall is about buying a new backpack or lunchbox, sharpening those pencils and sending your children back to school. For others fall is symbolized with tailgating and crowding into stands to cheer on your favorite football team.
While the pools have closed, fall sports have begun and school has been back in session for a few weeks now, fall did not in fact officially begin until yesterday, September 23rd.
So what does it mean the first official day of fall? Well it’s more than the beginning of a new season. It is the autumnal equinox. Equinox derives from Latin’s aquaeus meaning equal and nox meaning night, and is appropriate since this is the time of year when night and day are almost equal in length. This happens twice a year, once in the spring (March 21-22) and again in the fall (September 22-23), when the earth’s tilt is neither toward nor away from the sun.
The autumnal equinox has always been a time to mark change as we move from summer’s bounty to the colder, darker days ahead. Throughout the world and throughout history festivals have been held to celebrate the bounty of the harvest.While many people mourn summer’s passing, I always look forward to fall. It is probably my favorite time of year. I plant pansies and chrysanthemums, put out my scarecrow and some pumpkins. My family picks apples and enjoys exploring a local farm’s wagon rides and Maize Maze. We take walks in the woods, soaking up the reds, yellows and oranges that blaze festively from every tree, and go kayaking. I love the low hanging fog over the river in my backyard, the honk of geese and nothing says fall to me like the smell of a fire.
With the cooler temperatures I also feel revitalized, ready to get back into a more regimented routine and undertake those tough projects that may have been set aside while my kids were out of school. This year I’m tackling a historical that I set aside back in May.
So what about you? Is there a special way you and your family mark the changing of the seasons? And do you find you are more productive during the cooler months or the warmer part of the year?
I’ve been hearing stories in the last year about people who “write a book” in lightning fast times. Three months. Two months. Two weeks. Ten days. Seven days. To which my reaction is always: ?!!??!!
From idea to drafting to revision(s) to completion, the time it takes me to write a book is more easily measured by a unit of years. And before I heard all these stories, I thought this was completely normal. After comparing my process to other writers’, however, I would feel badly. Like something was lacking in my ability as a writer.
My husband assures me that I’ll write faster with practice. Conventional wisdom advises me to write at my own pace. But then, I realized recently, maybe it’s not one or another. Maybe, like most things in writing, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Over Labor Day weekend, my husband took the kids to his parents’, and I wrote 25,000 words in four days. For me, this was huge. Never had I written such a large amount of words in such a short time before. In addition to a completed rough draft, this “writer’s retreat” gave me something much more valuable – an inkling of how it feels to be one of these lightning-fast writers.
I still have months of hard work remaining before I transform these words into a polished manuscript. One weekend of intense writing isn’t going to change how I write. My pace is my pace. But now, I don’t feel so badly anymore. This weekend showed me that I do have the ability to put words on a page quickly – even if they aren’t the best words in the world.
So, I think the answer is neither to stick your head in the sand, nor is it to wish you could change the way you write. But rather, embrace your own process as a writer, while using other writers’ stories as motivation.
After all, I can’t help the “slow” part of my writing, but maybe I can control the “steady” part. Right?
How fast do you write? What’s the fastest you’ve ever written a book? The slowest? Have you ever compared your process to other writers? How do you deal with feelings of not measuring up?
Why Do I love Dark? I don’t know…
I have never killed. Murdered or slayed. There are a few swatted flies that have felt the sting of my murderous wrath. But as far as I can recall, I haven’t actually killed. Nor have I had dark, murderous thoughts (about real people), or wanted to meet a real vampire, or run around naked at night with a were-creature. Nope. For the most part I gravitate toward the normal, routine everyday activities most sensible human beings partake in – well, except for my need to obsess about certain television characters (Spike, Joe Dubois, John Crichton, Alec Hardison—and BTW, the first to name the TV shows these characters appear in – will win a prize!).
But let’s get back to my premise. What attracts me to those dark characters, plots, stories? What makes my brain fall in love with a character and then what to drag him or her through the deepest, darkest hell on Earth. I’ve been thinking about that question, and believe I’ve found a partial answer.
A few years back I remember taking a course or reading a book in which the question on the table was…what do you believe in? Answer that question by listing the top 10 ‘things’ that come to mind right away, the instructor said, and you may well find the topics/subject matter that will lie at the heart of your stories…every story that you ever write…because that list reflects your fundamental beliefs.
You know we’ve all heard the line, “write what you know” but this took another spin on that statement for me with — write what you believe…
Here’s my top five from that list:
1) Ghosts
2) God
3) Friendship
4) Deceit
5) Sarcasm
I want to know your top five…
But I don’t think my list of five provides that many clues as to why I gravitate toward the dark side of reading and/or writing romance (or does it:).
I will need to explore this topic further but I wanted to get the ball rolling because I’m about to put one of my characters through the ringer (yippee!).
You know the drill. You’re having a nice conversation over dinner and your companion seems really interested that you’re a writer. He/she is even more impressed that you have finished a novel and are actively trying to publish. And then comes “the” question:
What do you write?
Romance.
The most recent time I told someone this, he literally laughed in my face. Seriously, sound came out of his mouth as he mocked me.
“Romance? Pssst.” (More laughing)
It was as if I said I take a razor blade to newborn puppies. Even though I’m really proud of what I write, I felt so embarrassed. Let’s face it, having someone laugh in your face is never a feel-good kind of moment, no matter how many glasses of wine you’ve consumed.
Leading up to this joyous encounter I had been doing pretty well with the haters. I’ve joined writing groups lately, which seems to have made a big difference in both my writing and my writing life. But my writing group wasn’t sitting at that table with me while someone laughed at my biggest dream.
And I know all the stats. I know how much money the romance industry generates each year. I know that there couldn’t seriously be anything wrong with a genre of fiction that promotes a happy ending. And I definitely know that this laughing person was a total d-bag.
Still, it hurt.
I remembered all the hours I’ve poured into sitting diligently at my computer. All the rejections letters I’ve received. All of the almost-published stories. The time, the energy, the emotions. And here is someone completely discounting all of it because they are, in essence, ignorant.
But, like so many things in life, I knew what to do. I had some more wine, brushed it off and wrote a blog post about it. 😉 Because seriously, you might want to think before you laugh at someone with the power to write.
So, I ask you fellow romance writers: How do you handle the romance haters of the world?