Linkage
As you may have noticed, this blog is now landing at http://kaitnolan.com. If you are one of the kind souls who links to this blog, I humbly beg you to update your blogroll. While you're there (or if you're adding a new link), it's probably best if you list me simply as Kait Nolan instead of the blog title (as I have amply proved my fickle nature on that point). Thanks! You're made of awesome!I’ve been on the warpath in one of my classes this morning. One of my students called my call FIVE TIMES this morning while I was trying to get ready for work. Did not bother leaving a voicemail to say what the problem was. I didn’t call back. I scrolled back to the first one to see when he or she call the first time and it was AFTER 11 PM LAST NIGHT! Seriously? Did you really think that I was going to be awake and inclined to deal with whatever you deemed an emergency after 11 PM on a Sunday night when I had to be at work this morning?
What happened to phone etiquette? I think it disappeared with the birth of cell phones. Suddenly you can call anybody, anywhere, at any time. They are suddenly supposed to be available to you no matter what. And evidently we are all supposed to be paranoid enough to call back any unrecognized number so there’s no reason to leave a message. I’ve got news for you buddy. I have my cell phone for MY convenience, not yours. If I don’t have the time to answer right that second, I’m not going to. And if you don’t leave me a message indicating you have actual business with me, then I assume you are a wrong number.
I also woke up to an inbox full of emails from students. A few were legitimate issues with quizzes locking up. Fine, clear them out, give a 24 hour extension, be done with it. One student emailed me last week to request an extension on a couple of different quizzes because she evidently didn’t grasp the concept of going to the NEXT PAGE of assessments. She emailed me last night to say they weren’t there. Well no shit, sherlock. You had a 24 hour extension from the time I emailed you back. If you don’t bother checking your email until the weekend and miss your window, that is not my problem and sure as hell isn’t grounds for a second extension.
The Sunday before last, I had it brought to my attention that my big Unit 2 Exam (at a whopping 110 questions) had a 60 minute time limit on it. It wasn’t supposed to have one at all. So given that it was my screw up, I gave students the opportunity to retake it by last night if they emailed me that they were dissatisfied with their grade so that I could clear their attempt. One student didn’t make her first attempt until AFTER the first deadline and then emailed me last night saying she’d be ready to take it again this week. Um, no. That’s not how this works.
Seriously people, I consider myself a reasonable woman. I conduct hard classes on purpose. I expect you to work. If something happens, I’m willing to work with you on it. But your being lazy or stupid or thinking you’re going to take advantage of me is just not going to put you on my good side.
I really don’t understand where this expectation that things should be handed over and easy comes from. Life is not like that. You have to be responsible for yourself, for doing what is expected of you. And if you don’t, you have to accept the consequences. And what is up with this striving for nothing more than mediocrity? Does no one have pride in a job well done? A good grade earned? This is why that movie Idiocracy scares the crap out of me. I see so clearly how we could end up there.
I hope I’m dead first.
It’s Sunday morning and I’m back from garage sale madness. I left Thursday night for my mom’s and spent Friday and through noon Saturday trying to sell a bunch of stuff I no longer needed or wanted. I’m pretty pleased. I made $158.50, got rid of several things, and took the rest to the Salvation Army. It’s liberating to get rid of stuff that’s cluttering up your life. Of course naturally, I brought back nearly as much as I got rid off. I sold our old coffee table and picked up the new one my mom had upholstered for us as an early Christmas present (it’s beautiful, thanks). I brought back all my size 8 and 10 dress clothes that have been living in my clost at Mom’s since I finished graduate school. I’ve not quite shrunk back into all of them, but they are inspiration to try to be good during the holiday season. And really, I’m nearly 30, I should keep all of the clothes that I own at MY HOUSE. I brought back the handful of kitchen items I snagged from the garage sale: a new cookie sheet, a food chopper, new 1 cup liquid measuring cup, and those bottle pourer things you can put in olive oils (or dish soap or whatever).
A part of me felt like I should do something responsible with the proceeds, but really, there is very little in life that you do so much work for and make so little money. So I decided to spend it on myself, picking some things off my list that I’m pretty sure no one will get me for Christmas.
I ordered 2 sets of new dishes. On sale even, so I took that as a sign. 
I ordered Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, which I’ve been wanting for quite some time, and which I intend to use when baking Christmas gifts for others this season. I even got about a dozen disposable mini loaf pans from Mom that she’d had hiding in a cabinet for who knows how long.
To go along with the bread, and because we make a fair amount of pizza in our house, I ordered a pizza peel. 
And then I picked up a couple of YA books that I’ve really been wanting to read. Simon Holt’s The Devouring, and Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, both of which look awesome! I don’t actually anticipate that I will have time to read either of them until December when NaNo is over and my semesters are drawing to a close.
In any event, I am ecstatic to be home and enjoying a lovely cup of tea. I forgot to pack all my tea stuff, which was a minor tragedy as I do not cope well with morning to begin with, and I certainly don’t cope well with my mother (the morning person) sans sleep AND caffeine. For some reason, despite nearly 30 years of evidence to the fact, Mom just doesn’t understand that I am not a morning person. Ergo, I do not function in the morning. Period. I do not talk. I can barely shuffle. I’m not sure I qualify as human until I have had caffeine and been up for at least an hour. She seemed rather alarmed at the massive headache I had when she woke me up at DAWN on Saturday. This was, in part, probably due to the second day without caffeine and the fact that it’s just plain WRONG to wake up at dawn on Saturday. Of course my grand intentions to sleep in this morning were foiled because I woke up to answer nature and couldn’t tune out my husband’s snoring to go back to sleep again. So up at 7:45. Oh well, I have laundry going and will be working on a grocery list here shortly.
I managed to write Thursday and Friday night, but I just couldn’t do it last night. A grand total of 4 words. My brain was just too tired. I really look like I haven’t written all week because my total novella word count hasn’t changed by much. I’ve been rewriting some scenes that weren’t working. I’m happier with them now, so this coming week will be all about new material. Now I just need to find a little over 600 words for today so that I make my goal for the week on the novella. Anybody have any idea what a secret military base under a Montana mountain would look like from the outside? Yeah, me neither.
This is my 1,000th post at Shadow and Fang. I would like to say that I have some brilliant insight to share that everyone will want to retweet, but to be perfectly honest, I’m having one of my rare “I hate writing. Why am I doing this to myself?” days.
I don’t really hate writing. I’m just frustrated. It’s a lot of stuff boiling down to things not going as smoothly as I want them to because real life prevents me from having enough time or attention to devote to the work (GO AWAY ALREADY!), so I inevitably miss stuff and have to start over with another draft or another outline. Just ONCE, I would like to be able to take a story (whatever length) and just write it, one draft, clean it up. Turn it in. Like I always do term papers. I was totally that kid who wrote the term paper and went in reverse and deliberately messed stuff up because they insisted we have a “rough draft”. But that’s one of the things that I’ve learned over the last three years. Writing fiction is NOT like writing a term paper. It’s a whole lot harder. And no amount of my God-given book smarts is going to speed up the process. And that is the end of my whining. Thanks for listening.
Despite not being where I want to be, I’ve accomplished and learned a lot over the last three years.
I finished the first draft of HOC. It was an opus 9 years in the making that will probably never see the light of day. But it was the first book I finished as an adult, which was a significant step as it totally suffered from multi-draft-itis. I made significant strides in the rewrite before hitting a massive procedural snag and abandoned it for other things.
I made the somewhat painful transition from pantser to plotter. Anybody who’s been around since this past summer read my Pantser to Plotter series, so you already know most of my thoughts on that. I’m still trying to refine the process to work for me.
I’ve read a lot of craft books and learned how much I don’t know. This was both illuminating and depressing. I had the same feeling when I got out of grad school. I’ve learned so much and it’s just a drop in the bucket. But it’s really opened my eyes to how much room there is for improvement and whet my desire to learn more about my craft. It’s opened my mind and, as a result, I think the work has improved.
I have started three other books and abandoned them because something was missing. That might not seem like an accomplishment to you, but I consider it one that I recognized something was missing and didn’t continue to waste my time on them.
I finished the first draft of HiS. Despite my general funk about this, it was still a significant accomplishment. The first book that I have plotted out and written from beginning to end with very little revision along the way.
I learned about story structure and embraced it. This was my big lightbulb for the year. It was all the things that I wasn’t understanding, that wasn’t working right in terms of plotting. I cannot say enough positive things about this series over at Storyfix.com.
I’ve learned about and struggled with character arc. This continues to be a weak spot for me. I had the perhaps obvious thought that what I need to remember is that these characters when the story begins are NOT CAPABLE of doing what needs to be done. And therein lies the point of the character arc. It’s the thing they need to learn, how they need to change to BE the person who can do what needs to be done. Which I get from an academic standpoint, but I still am not great at executing.
And perhaps the biggest lesson of all, over the last three years, I have learned to listen to the work. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on writer’s block–whether it exists or not, what it means. What it has almost invariably meant for me is that I’ve done something wrong. I’ve stopped listening to the work. It’s meant that I’ve done something like forget a character arc, mucked up the story structure (this would be why I am cranky this morning–I realized this about the novella last night), not been authentic to a character’s voice or motivation, or I’m just flat going in the wrong direction. 99% of the time, writer’s block, for me, is a sign that I need to stop and re-evaluate either the scene or the story as a whole. The other 1% is life interfering and taking up all my brain space.
So if I can offer once piece of advice, apart from the usual practice, practice and read a lot, it would be to listen to the work. If you’ve stagnated, chances are it’s your gut telling you you’ve done something wrong.
Thanks for sticking with me, folks.
Over at All The Worlds Our Page, Kristen is talking about how love scenes (or at the very least kissing scenes–depending on your genre) are a really great way to get to know your characters on the front end of a book. And she’s right–there is very little that’s more illustrutive about the personality of a person and their relationship ship with someone else than when they are exposed, emotionally, physically, and spiritually (yeah, I said it) during the act of love making. It even says a lot if it’s NOT lovemaking and is more a quick and dirty [insert that word I probably shouldn't say on the internet]. All of it tells you something about your characters. The post is a good read, so take a minute and go check it out.
Back? Okay, great. So Kristen, as well as Jen Hendren, are both friends of mine from Mission:Accountability. And they are both self-proclaimed chunksters. As opposed to the eternal Pantser vs. Plotter debate, this is an issue of Linear vs. Writing in chunks in no particular order. Being a staunchly linear writer myself even during my pantsing days, the whole idea of writing an entire novel in chunks that are not in chronological order seems like utter lunacy. Totally does not compute. If a scene for later in the story occurs to me, I’ll usually take notes so I don’t forget it, and come back to it later when it’s “time”. But clearly this is a viable method of writing for some people. Having read full length works from both Kristen and Jen, it definitely works for them.
In any event, Kristen’s post this morning set off a little lightbulb about, maybe, why or how this chunkster thing works.
Let’s take a moment to talk about logic. There are, in general, two types of logic: inductive vs. deductive.
Inductive reasoning is what is sometimes referred to as “bottom up” logic. As you can see from the illustration over here, with inductive reasoning you begin with specific observations of facts, examples, and so forth, and as you think your way through the problem or whatever, you narrow those facts into the Main Points. From those main points you draw a conclusion. Think of it as narrowing focus. Going from specific observation to general theories
This is the method often used to develop scientific theories.
Deductive reasoning works the other way, going from the more general to the more specific. This is sometimes called the “top down” approach. From a science standpoint, you begin with a theory about something, which you then focus on more specific hypotheses that can be tested. Then that’s narrowed down even more when you collect observations or data that will allow us to either confirm or disprove our original theory.
So how does this apply to the Linear/Chunkster issue?
I think it’s a good analogy for how each of us approaches plotting. Linear plotters start at the beginning, where they have general knowledge of characters that gradually moves toward more specific and intimate detail as the story progresses. They often get to know characters in the same way the reader does–as the story unfolds. So it might be suggested that linear writers are Deductive Plotters.
Chunksters work the other way. The particular scenes that they hop around writing tend to be pivotal. They are the specifics, the details that really illustrate something about their characters. And they progress from these pivotal scenes toward a broader overall plot. So I’d say that they practice Inductive Plotting. That actually makes some sense to me–particularly for character driven plots (at which both Jen and Kristen excel).
So inquiring minds want to know. Are you a linear writer or a chunkster? Do you use inductive or deductive plotting?
And if you haven’t already, please hop over to Pots and Plots and check out the AMAZING new design layout created for me by Christine of CHYAssociates.
I conceived of this novella sometime during the summer when I was in the thick of writing HiS. I made my notes, plotted it out, and let it sit. I actually started working on it maybe a month ago, and I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made. I even came up with a blurb for it:
When her father is captured by military scientists, firecaster Embry Hollister will do anything, break any rule to free him. Unable to complete her mission alone, she turns to the only Shadow Walker who can help her—her father’s protégé and foster son, Gage Dempsey, whose memory was wiped years ago. Embry and Gage must fight the clock—and their undeniable attraction—praying that his skills return in time to infiltrate a secret military base and rescue the man they both call father.
So now, I need a title. Since my skills in this area generally reek of suckitude, I’m calling for your help! Possible titles that occurred to me are Shadows of the Past and Fire and Shadows. Seriously, what is it about me and ____ & _____ names for stuff? Shadow and Fang. Pots and Plots. Anyway, neither of these options particularly thrill me. Have you got something better?
Central concepts: fire, shadow, memory, being caught between two worlds
A few notes: Shadow Walkers are essentially the Special Ops group of my paranormal world. Embry is an agent for the Investigative and Enforcement Division (the FBI type group of the paranormal world). She’s going rogue to rescue her dad.
If you happen to offer up something I love, you will receive my undying gratitude, mention in the acknowledgements, and the book of your choice from Amazon (up to $10). Yes, the book offer is totally a bribe. But seriously! I used up my one good title for the decade on the YA I haven’t even written yet.
So roll in those suggestions!
I’m really late posting today. I’ve been running around taking my car to the dealership, finding out I have a bent rim (thank you crappy Mississippi roads), having the nice and totally awesome guys at Nissan beat the thing back into shape so that I don’t have to shell out $286 just yet (though it will still have to be replaced), and frantically trying to work on lectures. I got one finished before I left for the dealership, and though I took all my gear and computer and stuff to do another one there, I wound up getting drawn into a conversation about the psychology of Batman with another patron waiting. I never know WHAT people will bring up when they find out I’m in psychology. But anyway, none of that is what I wanted to talk about today.
Tyranny of the Shoulds: What is it?
Last week I finished a lecture on Karen Horney, brilliant female psychoanalyst with unfortunate married name (actually pronounced HORN-eye). One of the things she talks about in her theory is the “tyranny of the shoulds”. This is a concept that arises as a result of the divide between our actual selves (who we truly are) vs. our ideal selves. We each have these sets of things we think we “should” do. I should be a conscientious instructor and always provide feedback to students. I should always drive the speed limit (yeah, right). I should strive to have more patience with others.
I think I made a post sometime past about the Shoulds that we are ruled by as writers. Okay, I went back and looked and it wasn’t what I thought, so I’ll share those thoughts too.
Tyranny of the Shoulds for Author Self-Promotion
As writers, we are bombarded by all these things we Should do. We should develop a platform. We should have a website. We should throw ourselves into social networking on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and the 800 Web 2.0 services out there. We should join organizations. We should go to conferences. We should enter contests. Not to mention all the shoulds related to knowledge of craft. I was thinking about this this morning as I was zipping through my Bloglines and came across a couple of different posts. The first was over at Romance University about How Unpublished Authors Can Build Name Recognition.
- Enter RWA chapter contests.
- Network with established members of the genre community.
- Attend conferences and introduce yourselves to our editors.
- Create a website and use it to showcase your voice, your bio, projects you’re working on, and your contact information.
- Get involved.
This is all good advice (and please see the post itself for more details description of each) but it still has me thinking about the Shoulds. Particularly numbers 1 and 3–they both cost money in the form membership fees and entrance fees. If you ARE an unpublished author, you don’t usually have the funds to do such things and many newbie or aspiring authors are breaking the bank to do them. I know I sure can’t afford it.
As if reading my mind, Carrie Vaughn addresses exactly that in her Genreality post today. Carrie talks about the shoulds of author promotion that she stressed and worried over and shares the best advice she ever got: “Write the next book. Make it the best you can.” There’s much more to the post and it’s well worth reading, so do take some time to visit. I have to say I always appreciate when someone like Carrie or Lynn Viehl manage to counteract all the Shoulds out there. Because when you are a struggling, aspiring author, 99.9% of the time you are working AT LEAST a day job, if not more. You don’t have the time or money for all the promotional stuff that “everyone” says that you SHOULD do. And each of them is proof that you don’t necessarily have to. This is the thing that saves my sanity.
Tyranny of the Shoulds for Characters
Since I’ve been talking about various psychological concepts as pertains to writing and characters lately, I didn’t want to over look this one either.
It says a LOT about a character (or person for that matter) if you look at what their Shoulds are. It’s an insignt into their personality and values. For example–give them the $100 bill test. Say your character finds a $100 bill in the grocery store parking lot. Does this character think that she should report it to the manager’s desk because someone obviously lost their grocery money? Does she think she should count her blessings and use it to pay off part of her credit card? Does she think she should donate it to charity? Does she think she should blow it all because, hey, free cash? Each of these is a different SHOULD response. It’s also an interesting and illustrative question to look at their Should vs. what they actually Do. Incidentally, this totally happened to me when I was about 10. Mom and I reported it to the manager’s desk, but no one ever claimed it, so I got to keep it. Don’t remember what I spent it on.
There are an endless variety of Shoulds that could give you insight into your character. Does he think he should respect his parents as his elders? Or does he think he should preserve personal boundaries at all costs? All these shoulds influence your character’s behavior, and clearly you will get quite different shoulds for a hero and a villain (or perhaps they have something in common–how will you know if you don’t ask?). The point is to think about what these shoulds are for your character and how far their actual self is from who they aspire to be. It just might add another interesting layer you hadn’t thought of before.
Well October’s Novel Push Initiative has officially CLOSED. The numbers were truly impressive with a total collective word count of 177,266! That’s two full length novels in 30 days! I think we all did a good job establishing better, more consistent writing habits over the course of October. Of the lot of us, the only one definitely ready for the insanity of NaNo is Julie K., who came in with a daily average of 1710 words! Consistency Awards for writing every day, no matter what, go to New2writgingirl and Alecia Burke who never failed to turn in a word count. Shawn Hansen actually hit The End on her WIP. You go ladies! Now let’s look at individual breakdowns.
Me: I was shooting for 500 words a day at the beginning of the challenge and midway through dropped that number to 350 words.
Final total for October: 13,691
That works out to a daily average of 442 words for the total month, but if I look only at the days that I wrote (27 out of 32), I actually have a daily average of 507 words, so I really feel like I met my personal goal. 500 words a day is really my managable, comfortable production level given everything I have going on. I’ll be pushing the envelope for NaNo during November. I have about 17,500 words remaining on my novella and 8 lectures left to write for my Theories of Personality class. Between the two, I should manage 50,000 words. We shall see.
Merrilee Faber: NPI veteran, she was shooting for 350 words a day. She dropped out halfway through with a desperate need for plotting, but she still came in with a Total Word Count of 9320. She had a daily average of 666 words. Goal met!
Jeanette Dalgliesh: Shooting for 250 words a day, Jeanette had really consistent production, though she missed a few days (as we all do) due to life stuff. Her Total Word Count for October was 8959, which works out to a daily average of 289 words. Goal met!
Francesca Amendolia: Shooting for 350 words a day, Francesca wound up being knocked out by illness. Her Total Word Count was 10249. This works out for a daily total of 331 words, 603 words for the days she actually wrote (before she got sick). I say Goal met!
Rachel Blackbirdsong: Shooting for 250 words a day, Rachel suffered the loss of a close friend and had to leave us. But before she did, she attained a total word count of 8089 words! This works out to a daily total of 261 for the month, 506 words a day for her days spent writing. Goal Met on both fronts!
Julie K: An NPI novice, Julie was shooting for 250 words a day. But truly, she kicked NPI butt. Though she bowed out also in need of plotting halfway through, she achieved a Total Word Count of 23,933 words, our highest for the month! This works out to a daily word count (for days writing) of 1710 words a day. She is absolutely ready for the challenges of NaNo!
LeaAnn S.: LeaAnn was shooting for 350 words a day. Despite being felled by the flu, she turned in a total of 14880 words, which works out to 480 words a day. Goal met!
Stace: Shooting for 250 words a day, Stace bowed out halfway through. But she still turned in a total of 7523 words! That’s a daily total of 502 words (for days written). Goal met!
Magda Ess: Shooting for 250 words a day, Magda turned in a total of 8005 words! That works out to a total of 258 words a day! Goal met!
Deniz Bevan: A pal of mine from Mission:Accountability, Deniz was shooting for 250 words a day. She had a little difficulty with the daily writing thing, but she still turned in a total of 6979 words! That works out to a daily total of 225 words a day. Goal not quite met, but she still wrote, so go Deniz!
Alecia Burke: Shooting for 250 words a day, Alecia was a trooper, writing every single day, no matter what. She turned in a total of 12791 words, which works out to a daily total of 413 words. Goal met!
Daniele: Shooting for 250 words a day, Daniele turned in a total of 10672 words, which works out to a daily total of 344 words. Goal met!
Shawn Hansen: Shooting for 250 words a day, Shawn turned in a total of 18914 words and hit The End on her WIP! Congratulations Shawn! Her daily word count (for days before The End) worked out to 757 words. Well done! Goal met!
Naomi: NPI newb, Naomi was shooting for 250 words a day. She bowed out with illness, but before she did, she turned in a total of 4550 words, which works out to a daily total of 268 words (before she got sick). Goal met!
Rene: Shooting for 250 words a day, Rene had a bit of trouble getting going but once she did, she turned in a total of 14734 words! That works out to a fabulous total of 475 words a day! Goal met!
Emma D: Shooting for 250 words a day, Emma disappeared about a week ago (not sure why). But she turned in a total of 5855 words, which works out to a daily total of 189 words (266 words for days reported). Goal met!
Keri Ford: Shooting for 250 words a day, Keri turned in 10580 words for a daily total of 341 words! Goal met!
New2writinggirl: Shooting for 250 words a day, N2WG turned in 24786! Amazing! That comes out to a daily total of 800 words a day!
I am so proud of all my NPI participants for pushing through when life got them down and getting in those words! Writing is not easy to juggle with everyday demands and these women totally pulled it off! Now, on to the NaNoWriMo challenge!
It’s Halloween. I’m up way early because I kept worrying about my students’ term papers. My general psych class (taught at a community college and not a full university where my other classes are) is on a standardized curriculum, meaning that I’m really not a teacher in there, I’m a trained monkey grader because I am allowed virtually no control over any of the details of the class. God forbid they just fire the teachers who weren’t doing their jobs. They have to put us ALL on the same, poorly thought out, not edited for typos or grammar, curriculum. As a part of this class, our students are required to complete a “writing assignment”. I use the term loosely because, well, the assignment is lame.
Don’t get me wrong. Students need to learn how to write. They need to know how to communicate clearly. So do the lead instructors who design the class. Because their instructions and setup are not remotely clear and having just finished grading all of the papers last night, nearly 2/3rds of the class failed the assignment. And not even because of my grammar nazi tendencies. Simply because they either didn’t follow instructions or because the format in which the department insists they turned the papers in ate all their formatting and made it appear as if the students wrote only ONE paragraph (instead of four) for each essay question. I am so not okay with that. I’m having them all send the papers in AGAIN in a Word document that will preserve formatting so I can reassess their grades.
I’ve just spent the last hour writing up new instructions for a similar assignment that are, I hope, considerably clearer in terms of expectations of the student (as well as change the format in which they turn the paper in so that we can use nifty features like Turnitin or SafeAssign to automatically check for plagiarism, which makes a teacher’s life SO MUCH EASIER). I pray to God that the lead instructor takes my suggestions.
In happier news, again, IT’S HALLOWEEN! I’m trying to get excited about it. My in laws are having a big party tonight (it’s becoming an annual thing) for which hubby’s band Don’t Tell Joe is playing. It’s going to be outside, there will be bonfire and hotdogs and s’mores (the things of happiness). My costume is kind of lame. Since it is outside and it’s supposed to be in the 40s, I’m going as a ski bunny. Just a big ski sweater and ski pants and if I can find them, goggles. Or maybe bunny ears if I can find any left at Walmart when I go later this morning. There are obviously cooler costumes available, but I just hate to spend much money on something I’m going to wear for only a few hours. I maxed out my desire to do that with the $700 wedding dress (It was a SERIOUSLY great dress–originally $3k Maggie Sottero, but it was previous season, so on sale).
Today is the FINAL DAY of the October Novel Push Initiative. Last night did not get me anywhere. 540 words, most of which got rejected. I’m going to try to knock out some more words this morning before my spouse arises and does a zombie impression while begging for coffee. After that, we still have 3 pumpkins to carve! I’ll post pictures of those later. Time to get some breakfast!
November 1st is on the horizon. I have my plan. The ultimate goal for this coming month that will help to save my sanity over Christmas break and the following the semester. I’m going to finish those lectures and the novella. And maybe do some work on the Draft 2 outline for HiS. I’m not going to give in to the whisper of any Sexy Other Projects.
Nope. Not gonna do it. That project is not on deck at any point in the next year. I’m not sure when it would be on deck. It’s this crazy story about the apocalypse and and angel who has to convince an athiest that she’s a prophet who can stop the end of the world. Talk about your ultimate impossible relationship. It’s an idea that’s reared up and taken me by the throat two or three times this year, long enough to make copious notes on the characters (which is about all that I have). It’s on my mind again since I just finished Covet and have been thinking about angels and the End of Days. The apocalypse actually features into the meta plot of my Mirus series, so maybe eventually I’ll figure out how to work around to making it a part of the series.
Or who knows, possibly the series won’t make it, and I’ll make it its own standalone thing. Obviously, not hoping for that one.
Either way, I’m definitely hearing the siren song of literary abandon that is NaNo and wanting to drop everything to write like a maniac for 30 days.
Not. Gonna. Do. It.
I must be grown up and responsible or my life this spring will be hell because I procrastinated. Procrastination is a BAD THING. Every time in my life I have ever done it, I’ve lived to seriously regret it. Well, except for the 8th grade Invention Convention when I won 3rd place with my left handed pot drainer that I didn’t think up until the night before. But the balance still weighs heavily on the Don’t Procrastinate side of the scale. I simply can’t juggle things well if I procrastinate. I have to spread stuff out and do it at a steady pace or I’ll go nuts.
That’s another reason I keep trying to fine tune my plotting method. I pretty well decided after HiS that since I’d plotted the whole thing first I wouldn’t have as much work to do second time around. WRONG. So I’m thinking that I need to hit the high points. Figure out the major plot points as outlined in Larry Brooks’ story architectures posts at Storyfix.com and then just plot the specifics from one major plot point to the next, write them, then do another round of plotting. One of these days I’ll hit on the right mix for me.
Anyway, the October Novel Push Initiative is just about over! So participants be sure to report any words you haven’t already by NOVEMBER 1st! I’m skipping the week 4 update since we only have 2 more days before the end, when I’ll be reporting everybody’s total word counts and daily averages.
I’m supposed to go back to work and be a productive member of society today. I’m feeling much better, thanks. After five days of fabulous sleep, 6:30 royally sucked this morning, but no matter. It’s only 2 days until the weekend. It is, of course, raining buckets this morning, with lots of grumbly thunder that’s prompted Daisy to curl up at my feet in a “Save me, mom” posture. Callie is sacked out on two full couch cushions without a care in the world. I can’t bring myself to rush in, so I’m taking my time with tea and waiting for a lull so I can get into my car without drowning.
I had a marvelously productive writing day yesterday. In a two hour span, I churned out 1475 words on a new scene in the novella. The first hundred were an addition to the original scene before I decided to scrap it and rewrite it from the heroine’s perspective. I am continually amazed how that simple change can invigorate an otherwise meh scene. I had a new character introduced who I don’t think is going to be content to appear in just that scene, so I need to do some rewriting of a couple of other scenes to incorporate him. Which isn’t a bad thing, as I can use him as a vehicle to explain a few things without coming across as an As You Know Bob. And I think Mick (that would be Micajah Guidry, the Cajun Wylk bartender who showed up to be Gage’s best friend) is going to have to have his own story at some point. He’ll have to be patient though. I’ve got a lot of other stuff in the pipeline ahead of him.
I read an interesting post over at Deadline Dames by Rachel Vincent this morning in response to someone asking
When you all write your series, do you only continue to write them under contract? Or do you plot out an entire say 6-book series regardless of whether it sells? I’m working on a series myself, but I just wonder if I should attempt to sell the first novel first before I complete the rest of the (7!) novels.
Rachel offers up some great advice that sums up to, no, don’t write all seven books before you start querying because what if they don’t sell? Makes sense. It’s kind of why I have multiple projects on the brain–since I DON’T have any idea what story I will manage to sell first or at all. The novella and HiS are both in the same universe. I’m making Totem, the YA trilogy a part of it as well, but not in a series kind of way. And I’ve still got the Mississippi based romantic suspense floating around in my head at some point. And the culinary paranormals–which are, by the way, the only classic style series featuring the same character as heroine through multiple books. My paranormal romance stuff all fits in the same universe, but each is a stand alone book that can be read out of order without too much damage. There’s some metaplot that flows through all of them (or will be), but if a different book than HiS is what sells, I won’t have lost too much. Not that I don’t want HiS to sell since it looks very much like I’ll have two years invested in it (minimum), but I feel like I’ve learned a great deal from this book, so it wasn’t an execise in futility.
Okay, I can no longer hear the rain beating on the roof. I should finish getting ready for work and scoot before it comes back.
Everybody’s talking about NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month to any of you uninitiated. The month of November is when thousands of lunatics hopeful writers set out to write 50,000 words in a month. Thirty short days. I myself have participated in the insanity four times, and “won” twice. I can’t say that I’ve managed to do it since I got out of graduate school because, let’s face it, my multitude of jobs doesn’t leave a lot of extra time for anything like writing 1667 words a day (the minimum you have to churn out in order to make it) or getting, you know, reasonable sleep. So I have no illusions that I will get 50,000 words this month. For one, I only have about 20,000 words remaining in my novella. I’m not yet ready to start on Draft 2 of HiS. And I’m in the middle of prepping a class on Theories of Personality for next semester.
So why in the heck did I sign up? I am, big shock, kaitnolan over at NaNo if you want to buddy me. And that would be reason number one. I am always game to make new writer pals. And since there are regional boards on there, I’m hoping to find a few closer to me than the next state over. I also plan to use it in a very unconventional manner–to track my progress on BOTH my novella and my lectures. I have eight or nine lectures still to write, and I would love to knock out the last 20k of the novella by the end. Which, actually, between all of it, probably IS about 50,000 words as I’m writing scripts for each of these lectures (I’ve not been lecturing long enough to be able to just go on the fly). I’m not really concerned about getting the “winner” icon at the end, but if I can use the motivation and momentum of NaNo insanity to propel me through the not fun part of writing these lectures and get me through the first draft of this novella by the end of November, then I’ll be in a better position to enjoy my December (which I would really like to spend finalizing the outline for Draft 2 so that I can start it after Christmas). Of course, I’m cheating and not waiting until November 1st to start all of this. I’ll be working steadily this week as my boss is out of town on getting lectures written (hoping to knock out two) and moving forward on the novella. I promise not to count words already written when I make my daily update.
How about the rest of you? Are you doing NaNo? If so, what are you working on?
I’m home for my second sick day today. Hubby is home as well, so we’re doing the fuzzy headed, TV marathon thing. The good news is that we don’t have the flu. We’d have had fever spikes and aches by now. We’ve been running low grade fevers and generally feeling exhausted. I did take advantage of some quiet time yesterday to start filling in the changes to the novella. If I can kick my brain into gear later today, I’ll make some more.
I managed to burn the split pea soup I was trying to make yesterday, so today I’m determined I’m going to eat well for a sick person. I put on a chicken to roast when I woke up after a twelve hour sleep this morning and I’m going to make up a fresh batch of chicken stock, and either some chicken noodle soup or some 44 clove garlic soup, which I might as well add some chicken to. It’s like the ultimae sick food. Garlic is a natural antibiotic and there’s something in chicken noodle soup that’s good for colds, so between the two it ought to knock out whatever the heck I’ve got.
I’m going back to being a couch jockey.
I’ve been on a kick researching e-readers for the last week or so. I had the rather brilliant, if I do say so myself, epiphany that an e-reader (the kind that allows you to highlight and make notes on files) would be ideal for my boss, as 95% of the articles she reads are in PDF anyway and it would keep her from losing things, as well as help tame the massive pile of paper in her office. She was jazzed about the prospect, so I set off on research.
I didn’t know a whole lot about them on the front end other than the smattering I periodically hear on Twitter or what Pot mentions about her Sony. I’ve been really reluctant to hop on the ebook train because, well, I like my dead tree books. But I have to admit that a few weeks ago when I ran out of shelf space for said dead tree books, I was thinking that being able to store a lot of them all on one slim device would be kind of handy. And as I’ve been researching more about them, I suspect I’m going to succumb. There are plenty of positives aside from physical storage space. The ability to take multiple books with you anywhere without needing a huge bag. Being able to check books out from the library and not waste any gas having to go there to pick them up and return them. The ability to turn the page with one finger (which I am finding more and more appealing as it frees up the other hand for other things like puppy cuddling). Pot said she wished she’d had one of these when she was nursing for that reason.
I had a chat with a friend last week who has a Kindle 2 and she sang its praises. She said she reads so much more now because she can take it anywhere, as well as sync it up with her iPhone (hello…wouldn’t it be nice to be entertained while stuck in line at Walmart?). I knew there were reader capabilities on the iPhone, and I’ve already made the decision to succumb to that when my contract comes up for renewal in February. Then we’ll see.
Of all the readers I looked at, the Nook appeals to me most. It’s more reasonably priced and views multiple formats. Of course I have yet to find a definitive YES answer to whether or not the Nook will read ebooks from the library. They keep saying “it will read the specified formats”, and the library does check out books in those formats, but really, I don’t want to spend $259 plus the cost of a case on something that I don’t know FOR SURE will read the library’s books from Overdrive. If you happen to know, do let me know. More than likely I’ll put a reader on my Christmas list for 2010. This year I’m far more interested in getting new cookware.
I’m late posting this, but I was chasing after word counts and got busy I’m going to give abbreviated reports of totals as I burned the crap out of my hand yesterday and it isn’t too easy to type just now. For the period of October 21st through 27th, our high day goes to Keri Ford with 2600 words! Our high week total goes to Shawn Hansen with 6775 words! Good job y’all! This was one of those weeks where folks were dropping like flies. We had illnesses, a death, and general whoop ass by life.
I came in with one knockout and six sessions for a total of 2536.
Merrilee stepped out, in need of some massive plotting.
Jeanette had one knockout and six updates, total of 1700.
Francesca is sick, but still came in with three updates worth 1298.
Rachel had a death of a near friend, but still came in with one update worth 424.
Despite the flu, LeaAnn came in with four updates worth 1894.
Stace reported one update for 400 words.
Magda reported 4 updates worth 1691.
Deniz reported three knockouts and four updates worth 1354.
Alecia came in with six updates and one session for 2906.
Daniele came in with one knockout, five sessions, and one tougher than Nano for a total of 3869.
Newtowritinggirl reported six updates and one session for 3710.
Shawn reported five updates one session, and one tougher than NaNo for a total of 6775.
Naomi reported one update for 250 words.
Rene reported three knockouts, two updates, one session, and one tougher than Nano for 4397.
Emma reported seven updates for 1804.
Keri reported one update, three knockouts, two sessions, and one tougher than Nano for 5010.
Oh and Selestial also dropped out to do some major plotting.
Cumulative for the week we had 40,018 words.
As a general rule, I hate forwards. They clutter up my inbox and generally waste my time. I have a handful of people who email me forwards because, I suppose, they can’t think of any legitimate conversation through which to interact with me. So, yeah, they annoy me on a lot of levels. But once in a while a good one comes through. One that makes me laugh or go AAAAAWWW at the cuteness (I’m a sucker for puppy and kitty pictures–which feeds into my occasional sporadic addiction to ihasahotdog.com and icanhascheeseburger.com). Or one that contains an unexpected nugget of wisdom that applies to writing.
It’s not like this happens often.
But this week it did.
For kicks and giggles, I’ll give you the whole forward to see if you can see which one I zeroed in on.
Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
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I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
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There is a great need for sarcasm font.
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Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.
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How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
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I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
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I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
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The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
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Was learning to write in cursive really necessary?
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I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
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How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?
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I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front.. Stay strong, brothers & sisters !
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MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
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Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
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Bad decisions make good stories.
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You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
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Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.
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I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
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I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?
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I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
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It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
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I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
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I think that if, years down the road when I’m trying to have a kid, I find out that I’m sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.
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Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…
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It really ticks me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
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I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay..
SMILE —- it makes people wonder…….
While, yes, I absolutely believe there is a great need for a sarcasm font, the one that rang a bell was “Bad decisions make good stories.”
We love our characters. We bond with them. They are, in many ways, our children and hence we share a lot of the same sort of parenting instincts. We never want our kids to make bad decisions (even though they inevitably will). Same goes for our heroes and heroines. But here’s the deal–nobody is perfect. If your hero or heroine never makes a bad decision, not only will readers be unutterably bored, but you won’t have much of a story. If everything that goes wrong for them in the story is a product of outside influence (yes, Pot, I know this is when I’m showing my Kettle moment), you’ll have a story, but it won’t be as deep or interesting to the reader as if your very flawed and human (or humanoid) character makes a lousy decision. One that has consequences that blow up in his or her face. One that makes it harder on them. One that generates conflict, which is, after all, what good fiction is all about.
So the next time you’re puzzling over “what would my hero do here?” think about what he could do that wouldn’t be the best decision. This is particularly germane when you’re looking at stuff that happens BEFORE the midpoint on your hero’s journey, when he’s still reluctant to do what he has to do and follow the call to adventure. If he makes a bad or half-assed decision, the consequences of which should knock him on his ass and lead to something that makes him take the Call more seriously. And your story will wind up more interesting for it.
