Can you believe it's almost December?

Woah. I can barely grasp the concept that it's fall, much less that tomorrow will be December. This year has flown by. I have a few things to chat about today:

First, it's the last day of NaNoWriMo - how did everyone do? I just finished my 50,000 with just a few hours to spare. I'd like to blame getting sick in the last couple of days for being so right up against the deadline, but really, I didn't get too far from the daily word count to ever really pull ahead of the game this year. Anyone else power through it and come out a winner? If not, don't worry too much. There's always next November. Or April, if you want to do a screenplay!

Second, were you aware of the fact that our very own Gothic Goddess, Dina James, is turning 35 this weekend? I already sent her a present, but if you want to get in on the fun, go to her online birthday party. Skyla's bringing cute boys. Okay, just one, but that's enough, right?  For details, go here:  #evilcake35

Third, I'm sick. I think I mentioned that already, but with my brain slowly dribbling out my nose, it's hard to be sure what's' real and what's a weird fever dream. I always have the weirdest dreams when I'm sick. I'd like to think illness could be excellent fodder for my writing, but in reality, I often dream about work stuff and wake up stressed out that the family trust is going to accidentally disinherit a child and oh my god... Yeah, my brain sucks. Give it some free time and instead of brainstorming, it makes me dream horrible dreams about my lawyer job. BORING!

Fourth, it's almost December!  I know I said I can't believe it's almost here, but it's true. I can't. That doesn't mean I'm not excited! This year was kind of crappy (remember my whole husband-has-cancer thing? yeah, that blew. but he's better now!) and I'm ready for a fresh start. Also, I love cold weather and theoretically, winter is the time to bring that. Unfortunately, I live in the central coast of California, so winter here often looks like mid-70s weather. Bring on the snow!

And finally, fifth. Something about writing. Oh yes, I remember. Now that you've plunked down your 50,000 hard-won words for NaNoWriMo, please, please, PLEASE, do not start submitting those words willy-nilly to editors and agents. Make December National Novel Editing Month and they'll love you that much more. Editors and agents really don't want your semi-coherent, very short novel in their inboxes started December 1. Trust me.

So take your time, read through your new novel. Get someone else to read it. Edit it. Read it again. Edit it again. And then, only then, should you consider submitting it.

Congratulations to all those who won NaNoWriMo and congratulations to all those who tried and didn't make it. For the rest of you, congratulations on making it to December!

Relationships: Don't be an ass

Let me start this post with a disclaimer. I have been incredibly fortunate in my publishing journey. I have had a truly fantastic experience with my editors, publishers, and authors I’ve encountered. Even my critique partners take my comments without throwing on some war paint and screaming for my blood. I’m like a goddamn unicorn.

Okay, now that the disclaimer is aside, let’s get this shit started.

We’ve all heard that writing (and publishing) is a business. We’ve hopefully all figured that out and aren’t currently acting like Speshul Snowflake asshats.

What we don’t often talk about is that publishing your writing is like a goddamn relationship. Yep, you heard right. A relationship. Guess what, darlings? Relationships take a whole lot of work. And you know what else? It takes two (or more, you freaky-freak, you!).

We’ve all heard the horror stories. Publishers who treat their authors like shit and then wonder why said authors go elsewhere. Editors who don’t respond to email after email. The list goes on and on. But it’s not just those big bad publishing houses who drop the ball.

Quite frankly, you don’t have a damn bit of control if they do or not. It’s like the cute boy who you think is so damn awesome and gives you butterflies at first, and then…suddenly you realize you really hate the way he disappears for days on end and leaves his dirty socks in the living room.

Now, in the face of this, it’d be easy to wail and gnash your teeth and basically just throw up your hands in despair.

I call bullshit. That work that goes into relationships? It goes both ways. There are countless authors who habitually miss deadlines. Authors who half ass it on their edits. Authors who say, “That’s good enough.”

You can’t expect your editor/publisher/etc. to bust ass for you if you’re not going to put in the work on your side of things. That’s the equivalent of saying, “Woman, you’re hot. You don’t have to be on time to your dates, or be polite, or considerate, and basically you can act like an asshole… but it’s okay, because you’re PRETTY.”

Well, darlings. Pretty is as pretty does, and there’s no excuse to act like a Speshul Snowflake inside ANY relationship. Be considerate. Bust your ass. You’ll benefit from it in the long (and short) run.

NaNo Then Versus Now

by: Seleste deLaney

I did my first NaNoWriMo in 2007 (aka--very pre-published). I started with a bang, finished with a whimper, then took the next 10+ months to finish the draft. NaNo 2008 (still pre-published) was more of a slow and steady thing. Finished, won, completed the draft in December (I did eventually sell this one as well, under my other pen-name). NaNo 2009 (still pre-published) was like chewing off body parts to finish. I loved the idea, hated the manuscript, but I won anyway. Shelved the manuscript for a few months, then completely re-wrote it and sold it in early 2010. (It was Badlands, for those who care about such things.)

I went into NaNo 2010 as a published author, but at the time I only had one short story (Of Course I Try) out. I had a couple other holidays shorts coming in December and Badlands in February, but I wasn't on deadlines and didn't have a ton of things going. (Badlands was done on my end, and the others were short enough that edits weren't killer.) This year, my NaNoNovel soared and finished up pretty quickly. Granted, I took a year to tweak it and sub it, but that's when Kiss of Death happened.

By NaNo 2011, I had a backlist, I'd won a couple little awards. I was starting to think I was a big deal. So I took that year to write a book that I loved but I knew might be unpublishable because of the plot. (I've let it sit for a year, but I do plan to go back to it and look again.) But once again, I wasn't on deadlines. Everything was easy.

Now, in 2012, I feel like I'm finally doing NaNo as a published author. The lead up to November involved releases in August and September. I have another holiday short coming out in December. And I had a submission due in the middle of November... that I didn't have drafted until the end of October. Uh... this is when the panic-heavy music should be cued. Because of all that, I barely had an outline for Kiss of Life when November 1 hit.

I do not advise doing NaNo this way (published or not)--especially when dealing with a sequel. However, I digress...

I wrote on Kiss of Life for the first week of November and really floundered. I mean hard-core, thought I was going to drown in the suckitude. Then the second week, I took the book I finished in October and spent a week revising it. Once it was subbed, I looked at Kiss of Life and actually groaned. I'd had such a hard time staying on target the first week, the I couldn't fathom how I was possibly going to catch up from missing a week.

Then I remembered how last year Skyla abandoned her first NaNo project half-way through the month and started another one...and finished it. And it hit me--that's how a real author behaves. Writing is our passion, but it's also our job. We get up, dust off our whiny pants, and do the job. So, I sucked in a deep breath, choked on my fear, and remembered that I love these characters and their story. As of 8pm on Tuesday, I have just over 9,000 words left to write to win NaNo. I'll get at least 2,000 of those before I go to bed, hopefully more. That means unless something horrible happens, I'll win NaNo. By the skin of my teeth, but I still did it (or will).

It's weird how I have a bunch of contracts for books sitting in the filing cabinet next to me, but this makes me feel like a real author. The pressure, the deadlines, more than one of them... and busting ass to make sure they happen.

Am I certain this version of Kiss of Life is worth the time I put in? Nope. But that's what I have my awesome beta reader, Janelle, for. She's volunteered to look at the early draft and kick me if I'm way off-base. That means come December 1, I'm sending her what I have and taking a much-needed (and recently ordered) break. Said break doesn't mean I won't be writing, but I'm going to write something for me for a week or so while I wait on Janelle's feedback. Because that's the other thing this year's NaNoWriMo has taught me--that sometimes an author has to write what they want rather than what they should.

Because that, my friends, is what makes it fun and magical and keeps me coming back for more. It's time to re-discover the magic, if only for a little while.

Then it's back to work, because I have the best damn job in the whole world. <3

Editing 101 with Mama Bitchstress: Punctuation and Dialogue

So the last post was theory, and what you should be keeping in mind when revising and editing. This one is practical and it's more of a baby writer lesson.

When I worked slush, it was one of those basic, writing 101 one things that would make me close the doc immediately as it screamed "newbie": incorrect punctuation used within dialogue.

Right: "I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die," she said.

Wrong: "I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." She said.

If you're following up dialogue with a speech tag, you end with a comma, close quote, and not with a period; your tag then is a continuation of the sentence and doesn't start with a capital.

Note I said speech tag and not body language. Speech tags include: said, asked, replied, told, screamed, whispered, etc.

Generally speaking, it's not a particularly good idea to use superfluous tags--anything beyond "said" or "asked"--but that's a post for another day.

This is different from body language.

Right: "I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." She grinned.

Wrong: "I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die," she grinned.

You don't grin words, folks, you say them. On occasion I see laughed and sighed used in this way; if you chose to, at most it should be a one word kind of thing as it's very difficult to sigh or laugh an entire line of dialogue; I personally always treat those as body language and not a speech tag for the sake of clarity.

You can, however, interrupt dialogue with body language, and in that case you treat it as once sentence.

Right: "I once shot a man in Reno," she gazed at the gun, "just to watch him die."

Wrong: "I once shot a man in Reno," she gazed at the gun. "Just to watch him die."

What about other punctuation?

Question marks and exclamation points are treated thusly...

Right: "Have you ever shot a man in Reno just to watch him die?" he asked.

Right: "Have you ever shot a man in Reno just to watch him die?" He eyed the gun.

Same rule with exclamation marks, but for now, take them out of your book--you have too many, I promise. You don't need them. I'm not giving them back to you until later. We'll discuss it after supper.

If you want to go further, in most instances you can get rid of your speech tags all together; body language will suffice.  But we can talk about that in detail another time.

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photo credit: Alex Abian (Also on flickr.com/alexabian) via photopin cc

Baby Evil Writers 101: Character Sheets

Baby Evil Writers 101: Character Sheets
Julie Butcher

One of the biggest mistakes new writers make is to dive into a manuscript without planning the characters. Names aren’t enough. What do they look like? What’s their favorite food? How old are they and when is their birthday? What’s their favorite curse when they’re angry?

Having a hazy idea of what your character looks like shows in your writing. I’ve found that having a character sheet on hand (I pin them on the wall in my writer clubhouse) makes my descriptions crisp and rounds the character into a real person.

Gregor (Poppi) Romanoff

Age: 62

Height: 6’

Nationality: Gipsy

Accent: Russian

Married to: Maria (Baba) Romanoff for 40 years

Voice sounds like a gravel road

Plays the Violin for gipsy dancers

Lives in an Airstream trailer

Phrases: Devochka as an endearment

Favorite thing: To find news under the message stone

When you have an actual picture, it is easier to describe the flow of their hair and the way their ears stick out—just a little. You need a character sheet for each person you put in your book. You can use live people, but chances are that if you would use someone in your own house, someone you know well, by the time you’d need to write a sequel, they would be several years older than when you began their story. Then what would you do?

This is the start of a character sheet. Next time we’ll add tags and traits.

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

 

KISS--sucktastic band, and also my favourite idiom. Why? Because it works in so many situations. Take this one for example:

 

When I was a kid, I was super duper skinny. So skinny people thought I had an eating disorder. I could eat absolutely anything I wanted. And I did. Which meant I had piss poor eating habits and when my family's chub genetics kicked in while I was in my twenties, I ballooned. Now, I'm having to learn how to eat properly and even more important, exercise. Ick. Blech. Ew.

 

In my weaker moments, I troll the internet for get slim quick tricks. And guess what? There are millions of them. Do they work? Hell no. Don't waste money on fad diets and skinny scams. Keep it simple, stupid. Healthy eating and exercise is the only proven method of getting into shape.

 

Same goes for writing. Don't waste time looking for the trick that will make writing a novel a breeze. The only way to write...is to write. And it's damned hard work. You need to exercise your brain the same way you exercise your other muscles. Get a routine that works for you, and stick to it best you can. Sure, you'll have days when you slack off, and that's okay. As long as you keep trying.

 

Eventually, writing becomes a habit. You won't even have to think about it anymore. It'll just be a part of your day. It will be simple. You write. The end.  

No plot? Kind of a problem

Uh, these words count for NaNoWriMo, yes?  Thought so.

So the theory behind NaNoWriMo is that it's a motivation to get you writing. There's even a book called "No Plot? No Problem!" But I have been working away on my novel and I don't really  have a plot. And it's kind of starting to be a problem.

I should probably disclose at this point in time that I've never actually read the "No Plot? No Problem!" book and therefore have no idea whether or not this relates to my post.  :) I've never let a little thing like lack of knowledge stand in my way of talking about something.

I've reached the midway point for NaNoWriMo, so I am actually on track to finish, which is good. But I'm struggling more and more everyday because I'm just not sure what the book is about. I've got a couple characters and a great setup for a situation, but once I put them in the situation I'm struggling with where to go from here. I mean, I can resolve the situation, but then the book would be over and I'd have to write The End about 12,000 times to finish NaNoWriMo.

I hope it won't come down to that, but at this point my brilliant idea is seeming more like a brilliant novella idea than a full blown novel.

So that's what I'm struggling with. How's it going for you guys?  We're supposed to be about halfway through now... are you keeping up?

I was actually ahead for a bit, which was tremendously exciting, so I promptly got sick to celebrate and wasted my lead. I should really re-think that approach.

Happy Friday, everyone!
Skye

Kill it with fire!

There’s one thing that about being a writer that really sucks sometimes.

That delightful little bitch of an internal editor? You can’t make her shut up. She’s always in your head—even when you’re reading OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK. Which, quite frankly, blows.

Books that you loved reading over and over again growing up are now the same books you can barely get through because OMG THE HEAD HOPPING!!!! [I’m looking at you, WAYFARER REDEMPTION] It doesn’t mean the book is bad, or anything less than it was back when it made you stay up all night reading, but suddenly there are things that offend your OCD on an almost-personal level. Yes, I’m neurotic. I’m totally okay with this.

Will the mean you’ll never enjoy reading a book again?

Not in the least. What it means is that when you find those precious unicorn books that suck you in and keep you there until the last page, you’ll appreciate it for the gem it is. You hold it close and re-read it and cuddle it because it’s the greatest thing in the world.

And, if you’re like me, you’ll be on twitter fangirling all over the place and embarrassing yourself.

Or you could...you know, just kill your internal editor with fire. She totally deserves it. Just saying.