Getting To Know All About You

Earlier in the year, a writing buddy and I planned to Fast Draft (FD) in the summer.  My plan was to FD the women’s fiction wip I’d been working on since fall 2008.   Finish it up finally.   Well, a month or so before the scheduled FD, I got an idea for an urban fantasy.  One of those ideas that stalks you during your waking hours and also  disturbs your sleep time.  I couldn’t wait to start writing it.

When the FD start date came, I was ready.  I’d done a quite a bit of research and had started doing a little world building.  I had my heroine’s name and I knew what her did for a ‘living’.  I also had a vague idea of how the story would to go and list of things I wanted to happen (I’m a pantster with a weakness for plotting).  But most important,  I had a song to keep my inspiration level at maximum.  I was set to crank out this story.

Fast forward to today.  The UF is sitting at 25,000 words.  And I won’t be touching it again until next summer.

So what happened?

I didn’t know my heroine as well as I thought.  Knowing her current and previous job was fine and dandy, but did little to help me discover the whys and whats of her life.  Like why is being honorable so important to her?  Or why she wanted to be a warrior?  Or what is she trying to prove through her current job?  If I had known the answers to these questions and a few others, I would have a rough draft of the story now.

Since putting the story aside, I have spent time getting to know my heroine.   For me, that’s opening a blank document and free writing  the answers to my why and what questions.   When I finish, I have a good idea of  the character and what motivates her.

So how do you get to know your characters?

NaNoWriMo: Day 25

I’m not even going to pretend I’m still thinking NaNoWriMo. Not even on the behalf of folks who are participating. In a way I’m glad I decided at the last minute to forego this year because I’ve had some unexpected medical issues (not major) crop up along with some different writing opportunities that I’m glad I’m able to take advantage of.

I’m currently pursuing audiobook editions of a few of my old titles (exciting!) and have revisions on my plate for one publisher while writing a freebie short for another publisher and Elise Logan and I are working on a holiday free read – things I might not’ve been able to get into if I’d obligated myself otherwise.

Opportunities are important to me. I like knowing I have the freedom to pursue them if I decide I want to pursue them. If you’ve ever heard someone say “I’m not interested in NY publishing,” you might be hearing it from the mouth of a person who’s flighty and interested in last-minute opportunities – like me. To this day the idea of a contracted deadline sets me on edge. I’m afraid I won’t be able to meet it, I’m afraid meeting it will make me miserable, I’m afraid I’ll hate what I’m writing if I have to write it with that sort of pressure. Plus, there’s that opportunities thing.

So my long rambling goal is to get to a point where I can ask  you: what have you been doing in November if you haven’t been writing like the mad for NaNoWriMo? Have you had any opportunities you were able to take advantage of?

And let’s not forget: Happy Thanksgiving.

How to Handle It When Your Crit Partner Misplaces Her Mind and You Must Talk Her Down From the High, High Ledge

I’d like to start by saying how sorry I am for not answering comments on last week’s post in a more timely fashion. I have no excuse. I’m a loser. Ask anybody.

Actually, what I am is a creature of habit, and I haven’t yet incorporated the habit of checking Tales for comments after I post.

But I promise to try to do better from now on.

ANYway. Both of the following email exchanges have been cleansed of bad language and iffy grammar, and made more generally palatable for public consumption. Rest assured the spirit of both conversations remains true.

***

Me: So… it’s been over a week. I’m dying out here with nothing to read. Wordage?

Her (otherwise known as the brilliant and fabulously stylish Barbara Caridad Ferrer): Shut up.

Me: But–

Her: I wrote a scene. It sucks. The dialogue is wrong. There’s too much introspection and info dump. Nothing happens. It’s all worthless. What am I doing? I can’t write this book. Why did I ever think I could write this book??

Me: Because you’ve written and sold three other books, one of which won the RITA and several other important awards? You know… just off the top of my head.

Her: That was then. This is different.

Me: I’m sure it’s fine. But I can’t tell for certain until I read it.

Her: You’ll just lie to me.

Me: That’s true. I’m universally known for my utter inability to give an honest critique. It’s my greatest failing. But send the file anyway. You know you want to.

Her: You’re mocking me, aren’t you?

Me: A little bit, yeah.

Her: *grumbles, sends file*

*** the following day ***

Her: Okay, your turn.

Me: Huh?

Her: You haven’t sent me anything in literally weeks. You’re not writing?

Me: A little. But it’s bad. It’s not ready. It needs… more. Or less. Plus, I think it’s in the wrong POV.

Her: Send it.

Me: Maybe later.

Her: SEND. IT.

Me: Make me.

Her: You think I won’t? You think I won’t fly up there and thwack you senseless? Bertha (her infamous baseball bat o’ doom) fits in an overhead compartment, you know.

Me: Yeah, I’m trembling in fear over here.

Her: You should be. Send the damned file.

Me: *grumbles, sends file*

***

Why do we do this to each other? More to the point, why do we do it to ourselves? It’s a ritual we’ve perfected over our several years’ worth of friendship and crit partnership. Almost a full decade, in fact. Barbara critiqued my Buffy/Spike fanfiction, for Joss’s sake.

We attended our first Romantic Times convention together. We joined RWA together. I held her hand through her first agent search, and she held mine as I explored this new “epublishing” thing.

We’ve only laid eyes on each other once, back in 2003, but ask me about her children — go ahead, ask me. Or let me tell you about her childhood as the daughter of Cuban immigrants. Or I could give you a few pages on her experiences as a competitive ice skater, a musician, and a teacher.

My point? We KNOW each other.  We know each other in a way that allows affectionate abuse and brutal honesty — sometimes in the same sentence. I trust her to tell me when my character’s behavior makes no ever-lovin’ sense in the context of a scene, and I know she trusts me to let her know when she’s over-thinking that five lines of dialogue from two chapters ago. AGAIN. Some MORE, even.

As we prepare to give thanks, my wish for all writers everywhere is the gift of such a partnership. It’s been invaluable to me. I have no doubt that without it, I’d have thrown in the towel years ago.

I’m very, very grateful.

And now I need to brine the turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!  

Read a Book – Emily

Einmal nach a Modresnach by Emily Ryan-Davis

Sophie Anderson’s ladies-only holiday vacation in Germany yields unexpected gifts when her grandmother’s German nurse, David, shares his belief in the goddess Freya. Can a future dreamt once upon a modranicht come true?

And other winter holiday tales by various authors.

Are You A Chicken Or An Owl?

This year, all of my kids are in school, which means I have about six hours to myself.  My plan was to write during the day while I was home alone and then be available to my family for stalking in the evenings.   The day writing has sucked for me big time.  I’ve tried setting daily word goals, BICHOK for a certain amount of time everyday and varying the time of day I write.  I even started working on  another wip.  None of these things helped increase my word production.   I was becoming discouraged.

Then I was out buying feed for our chickens earlier this week and I had an Aha! moment– I’m an owl trying to be chicken.

Before this school year, I did most of my writing at night.  After the kids were in bed.  Some nights I’d be up until 2 am writing even though my alarm would be going off in a few hours.  A few nights I’d pull an allnighter.  I’d be a zombie when the sun was out, but lots of words were added to my wip.

The first time I sat down to write at night, I added over 800 words to a scene I’d been stuck on for a week.   I am a night owl hear me hoot!

So are you a chicken or owl?  Or when do you do write?

NaNoWriMo: Day 18

I have no idea what your word count should be. Honestly, despite the recent weeks’ posts? I decided not to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. Instead, my focus has been on working on the insane number of projects I have in progress. If you’re still going at NaNoWriMo, terrific for you – I’m really proud and happy for you. If you’re not…well, just know you’re not some sort of writing pariah.

Instead of word count, I have a little other success to brag about -

1, my critique partner didn’t totally hate my full-length. She did give the crit from hell, though, brutally honest and a little sharp (while also being generous with the praise). The lack of hate? That’s success for me.

2, a couple weeks ago I submitted a story that’s been rejected a few times and today received word that the editor’s interested provided I can work in some revisions. They’re not “change your whole story to be a different story” revisions, so – success!

But the real goal is not yet guaranteed, so I have to actually perform those revisions. And hope my critique partner is feeling a little less snarky when I send the revision her way.

Back to the NaNoWriMo participants: have faith and keep up the numbers. In 15 days, it’ll be your turn to start soliciting critiques.

The Juggler’s Lament

Remember in my introductory post last week I mentioned that I write the occasional ménage? That was a bit of an overstatement. In fact, I’ve written one novella that includes a single ménage scene (SEVEN YEAR ACHE) and one novella that includes two ménage scenes, though it’s part of a series based on threesomes that involve a common character (HARD HARVEST). (I’ve got a third, unfinished novella on my hard drive that’s “all ménage, all the time,” but I’ve yet to decide if that one will ever see the light of day.)

For me, the hardest thing about writing love scenes that involve three people is not so much where to put all the various body parts, but more how to manage the dynamics. For example, in HARD HARVEST (which comes out January 1 from Red Sage as part of the “Three Kinds of Wicked” series) the premise of the series dictates that Trey – a supernatural “time-strider” and the character common to all novellas in the series – shows up at a certain moment in time to help a specific couple get their freak on… ahem… unite in a physical manifestation of their spiritual destiny so the natural order of the universe is preserved and chaos does not reign. (It makes sense in context. Trust me.)

Therefore, Trey is a but catalyst for the HEA (happily-ever-after) of the main couple in each story, but he’s also a uniquely intense character in his own right, which means each author in the series had to find a way to keep the dynamics balanced. If Trey is allowed to seem stronger – smarter, sexier, more capable – than the male half of the couple in question, then that couple’s HEA will always be in question. Readers will be left wondering if the heroine ended up with the lesser of the two men, and that’s definitely not a satisfying finish.

One of the ways the series’ authors decided to combat this possibility was to stay out of Trey’s head. Up until the final scene in each novella, in which Trey acknowledges the end of that particular part of his mission, the reader sees everything from the points of view of the hero and heroine. By keeping out of Trey’s POV, we gave him less “weight” in the story arc and fixed the importance on the interaction between the hero and heroine.

Another way we avoided making Trey the romantic focus was to remind the reader frequently that he was “just passing through” each tale on his way to his ultimate destination, which he will find in Liane Gentry Skye’s final installment of the series, WICKED REDEMPTION.

Despite my best efforts to set Trey up as merely a catalyst for the more important relationship between David and Hannah, my hero and heroine, I found writing the love scenes in HARD HARVEST quite challenging. I felt like an amateur juggler thrust into the center ring before I was ready, struggling to keep all those balls in the air… so to speak. (Oh, come on, you knew I had to say it eventually.)

In the end, I think I was successful in balancing the dynamics in a way that allows my hero and heroine to watch Trey ride off into the sunset with perhaps some nostalgia regarding his role in bringing them together, but no real regrets. Now I can only wait and see if my readers agree.

***

Next week, I’ll write about the unique joys and responsibilities of a nearly-decade-long-and-still-going-strong critique partnership, otherwise known as “How to Handle It When Your Crit Partner Misplaces Her Mind and You Must Talk Her Down From the High, High Ledge.” (Hint: A soothing tone of voice only goes so far.)

Until then… 

Read a Book – AJ

For Katherine Stapleton (aka Kitty), being a shape-shifter isn’t nearly as glamorous as the novels and movies make it out to be. It isn’t all raw, animalistic sex and superhuman physical prowess. There’s also the hairballs.

Kitty has spent her entire life being a less-than-perfect were-cat. She can’t control her animal changes, so she decide to excel at matters human. After a decade of worldly successes, she’s back home for her ten-year high school reunion. Yet, she feels just as insignificant as she did back in school–except with Sam Philmore, a fellow D.C. lawyer and past classmate. And her former secret crush. In just three days Kitty gets the bad memories, the good times, the bitter truth, and a mouthful of one very sexy man who just happens to be a mouse sometimes…

Give It Up

Last week, I was sick with the flu.  I spent a lot time watching tv because I didn’t have the energy to do anything else.  I don’t normally veg out in front of the tv.  If I am watching tv, I’m doing something else at the same time.  Ironing.  Cleaning up the kitchen.  Cutting out pattern pieces for a sewing project. Sometimes I’ll write and watch tv too (this is usually when my family guilts me into watching something with them). I cut back on my tv time so I’d have more time write.

What have you given up or cut back on so you’ll have more time to focus on your writing?

Thursday 13: Things to look forward to by NYE

The end of the year is fast approaching and time has sped up, or at least it feels like it to me. What is it about Daylight savings time that sucks the minutes off the clock faster? I have so much to do and yet, no matter how long or hard I work, my goal seems just out of reach. So to gain some perspective, I made a list of 13 things I want to have done before the end of the year.

1- I am looking forward to the end of my freebie series with Jace and Dayna, the Beauty and the Badge. I actually have all of them written and 7 of 10 posted. For a series that I never expected to write, I love those characters and will hate to leave them. But you never know who I have waiting in the wings.

2- Bryton’s story, the sequel to Myla by Moonlight. Tentatively titled SALOME AT SUNRISE is half done, 40+ out of 80 thousand and I want him submitted by the end of the year. He is flowing well though so I forsee no trouble there.

3- laundry – grrrrrrr I swear, I have no idea whether we are the dirtiest family around or the cleanest but i never ever seem to get this done. I get close and think Yeahm here we go and boom, three loads appear over night.

4- Speaking of Laundry… I have an antho project I am subbing by the end of the year, hopefully in the next two weeks. The laundry part of that is connected so it all works in my head, trust me.

5- Christmas. I love it, I enjoy almost everything about it and have pared down to a do-able amount that my kids still enjoy. I still don’t wanna put that damn tree up though.

6- I made roast turkey yesterday. We don’t do a traditional thanksgiving dinner. This year, we are doing sandwiches. My husband and I are having Reubens and the kids want BLTs. It works and I am glad.

7- My YA project. I am behind on, way behind on, I had planned on doing it in November but then Bryton piped up. grrr, so I hope to whip the YA but in December, Luckily that story flows well when I get my mind into it. Hope for rough done by NYE.

8- I may end up going back to work. Gotta love this economy that everyone swears is getting betters. Couldn’t prove it by me. I will know if I have another job by NYE, I hope.

9- Shovel out Spawnetta’s room. Have shovel and trashbags ready, looking for gas mask now.

10- I would love for one day to have a perfectly clean house. Completely. Everything. I am trying so keep your fingers crossed.

11- Website. Yeah, I am upgrading, smoothing, have a second one up but not public yet for my other pen name (the New York bound one) I want to get that ready to go. Must. Do. That.

12- Promo JINXED for the holidays. It is set in winter, at Christmas time so I hope I can get some good output there. Wanna link? Go buy it if you haven’t be ahead of the Christmas rush!

13- Survive with a tiny iota of brainpower left. As long as I have two brain cells that still function and communicate, I can rest in January and plow through the massive TO DO list I have for 2010…right?