Work In Progress Wednesday!

Okay, okay. You got me. It's Thursday :).

I got distracted yesterday by my shiny award and had to share the love, but now it's back to work!

I'm excited to say that I've made progress this past week (yaaay!) and not only edited about 200 pages of my 323 page novel, but actually wrote 700 new words to beef up my Big Ending Conflict! It is going to rock about five times as hard now, at least in theory. This excites me!

One of the issues I've been overcoming in my writing is that I have a gift for understatement. Well, newsflash, Me: It's actually a curse! I used to underact in high school play auditions, and now I actually give my reader too little to go on in places where they could really use some assistance.

(More? You want mooore? None for you, Oliver Twist! Oh... wait...yeah, you're right. Thanks, Oliver... Dammit.)

That's what I've been battling during this last final major edit/rewrite. I need more Oomph Factor in my climax, and to flesh out a couple of my Important Subplots. It's all coming together nicely now. I have hope.

Thank you to all of the wonderful people who read my book and helped me come to these conclusions :D. Abby, Tere, Steph, John, Husband, Mom--I love you guys!

How have your weeks been, my friends? Any good news to report?

Anything you need some support with?

I'd love to hear how you're doing!

Work In Progess Wednesday: Blog Party!

Yep, you heard right. We're having a party on my blog today, so virtual beers are on me!

My in-laws have been staying at my house for a few days, so I have no new progress to report and need to get my booty to work tonight. Because of this, I want to hear what YOU are working on and get to know you all a little better.

Now is your chance to sidle up, grab a cold one and a lounge chair, and get to know the other people following this blog.

What do you love to read/write?

What is your current project?

Give us your best pitch ;)!

Do you blog?

What is your favorite way to deal with rejection?

Enjoy the party, and try not to break anything while I'm gone, you crazy kids!

Work In Progress Wednesday!

As promised, I have made progress this week! (*trumpets and choirs of angels*) Woooo hoooo!

Legacy of the Empress and I have been on a break and seeing other people, but on Monday we reunited. It was beautiful. And kind of brutal. We needed to change some things. A lot of things.

Thanks to my fabulous crit-er (Abby!), I realized that I have

a) a ton of words/imagery that I just love and can't seem to use enough, and

b) a lot of passive language that needs to get off it's bum and become active.

So, I put on my rubber gloves and dug in.

I managed to hack and slash all of the useless "thinking" tags off my inner monologue. After all, do you really need to say "she thought" after you've just put something in italics? I think we all get what I did there. Duh.

I went from using the word "clutching" 500 times to only using it 2-3 times in the novel (yay!), and am slowly phasing out "she realized."

I stopped using "hands/fingers" imagery for everything scary and am mixing it up.

"She saw" is now being removed. My main character has come to grips with the fact that she doesn't have to see or realize things for them to just happen around her. It's much more exciting that way.

All in all, there was much work done, and I feel good. It's always a tiny bit depressing when you realize that there are a ton of little things that could be stronger in your manuscript, but I know that I'm polishing it up into something wonderful.

When I'm done with it, it's going to be shinier than a new penny :).

Thanks for the support and accountability! You guys rock!

How are your weeks going so far? Any progress to report?

WIP Wednesday: Neverending Story

Seriously.

Does revising ever really end?

Even though I love Atreyu, I don't really want my story to be neverending.



I think the phrase "a book is never really finished, only abandoned" becomes more and more real for me every week as I continue to revise ;). there's always another phrase that I use too often. Another scene that needs some polish. Another anachronism that only my magically delicious husband can catch.

It's not a bad thing, it's just a long thing. And I really think it's teaching me to be patient.

After all, isn't patience what separates the successful from those who quit? Also known as quitters?

I'm still in Final Revising Mode, which is exciting, but I can't wait to start querying again, and start working on my new novel.

I think I'm finally honing in on a title for it, too, which is exciting. Titles take me forever.

How is everyone else doing? Goals going well? Story limping off into the sunset after thousands of visions?

I'd love to hear how you guys are doing! God speed, and happy writing to all :).

Work In Progress Wednesday!

This week my goal was to finish my rewrites on Legacy of the Empress, and I'm happy to say I DID IT. Booyah!

Tonight I fixed the last bit of my ending, and did the dreaded Ctrl + F to fix all the times I wrote "seemed to" in my novel. Passive voice--prepare to die!

I feel very good about where I am right now, which is very exciting. I'm sending it out to a couple more beta readers, and then after some more polish, it's Query Time.

Although it was rough realizing that my whole ending needed to be revamped, I feel like this process has only made me stronger as a writer. Plus, hearing "yeah, your plot needs work" from your husband and your mom does a lot to thicken the old skin ;), which is never a bad thing in this industry.

So, how are you guys doing? I'd love to hear what you're working on, how you're doing, and if you need any encouragement.

We writers have to stick together, after all.

As Albert Camus said, "The purpose of a writer is to keep civilizaton from destroying itself."

So, you know... no pressure.

Progress Update!

I'm happy to say that I've written over 4000 words and deleted many as well this week (yay!). It's been crazy, but since it's mostly re-writing and editing, I feel pretty dang good about it.

SHOUT OUT to Elana J and Christine F for their awesome Weeks-In-Writing! :D You guys make me look like a slacker! Good on ya!

Here are some of my favorite writer quotes to aid us in the upcoming week's work:

"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma. In the afternoon, I put it back in." --Oscar Wilde (My week in a nutshell!)

"The business of the poet and novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things."--Thomas Hardy

"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public."--Winston Churchill

And lastly, because I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new book this week:

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."--C S Lewis

Happy Wednesday!

Just Do It

As I was in the gym today, laboring under a squat bar and trying to figure out what was wrong with my "squattin' form," I had an epiphany. What I've been doing wrong for about two weeks is trying to control my squat, and by being a control freak, had not been letting my body drop low enough to do the exercise correctly.

I finally put the heavy metal stuff down and decided to just see if I needed to stretch to do it right, and BAM! The second I just decided to let go and see how far down I could really go... I did it. My ass hit grass, and I realized I went down lower than I ever thought possible in that moment.

(Here's a link to some awesome "how to squat" videos that led to my revelation: http://www.stumptuous.com/lurn-to-squat-good-e-zy)

This got me to thinking--this is a lot like some of the breakthroughs I've had in my writing. I can be such a control freak that I have a hard time letting go and letting myself go ass-to-grass with my story.

My husband is amazing at getting me to let go my white-knuckled grip on "propriety," and helps me get down to the dark places where I need to go for my novel. For example, I was having a hard time writing a fairly violent scene and kept thinking "my grandma is going to read this, my mom is going to read this, the church will hear about this..." and couldn't just let go and write already.

My man sat me down with a notebook and threw down this challenge: Write down the most visceral, awful thing you can think of. No inhibitions. No worries. No grandmas watching.

What I wrote in those few minutes (the words have a tendency to flow when you let up a little), turned out to be awful and yes, totally awesome. I actually have incorporated that exercise as a pivotal part in my novel. It's weird, but in that uninhibited space I did some of my best writing.

So here is my question for you guys:

Do you have any moments where you found yourself truly going Ass-To-Grass in your writing? How did it pay off?

If you haven't, I challenge you here and now. Throw down your hang ups, and GO FOR IT. Whatever you wanted to write but never could, the secret is, you CAN.

The only one stopping you is you.

Progress Update!

Hi, All,

I hope this evening finds you well! Yes, it's that time again--time for an update so I can show you that I'm not just a slacker, blogging away all of my writing time ;).

This week I've been going nuts on my revisions (in a good way), and feel like I've been accomplishing a lot. Have any of you ever noticed that when you add a new scene to beef up your story that it comes out about 10 times stronger than your "first draft" writing? What's up with that? I think it must have something to do with the fact that I know how the story goes, unlike when I was writing the rest. I know how it starts, ends, everyone's motivations, and most importantly exactly what I want to add to that part of the story.

I once read somewhere someone saying "I'm not a good writer, but I'm a great re-writer." I really feel that way this week, and it's encouraging. Also, it's encouraging that no one has to get it right the first time.

Here are some other great quotes to sum up my week:

"The waste basket is the writer's best friend." --Isaac Bashevis Singer

"The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal." --Elia Kazan

"Even the best writer has to erase." --Spanish proverb

"The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say." --Anais Nin

Hooray for the DELETE key, that keeps us all grounded! Isn't it nice to know that all writers both strive for the same outcome that we do, and struggle along the way?

I've also been blessed with the challenge of critiquing other people's manuscripts, which is just a lot of fun, and a great way to procrastinate. All in all, I've been a busy gal, and loving every minute of it.

I'd love to hear from you guys what you're up to with any works in progress!

Happy Wednesday!

Celebrating Critical Mothers

I did the unthinkable recently and gave my mother a copy of my manuscript (LEGACY OF THE EMPRESS) and asked her to read it and tell me what she thought. There is a running gag out there among literary agents and writers alike that it doesn't count if your mother or spouse love your book, because they are going to love it no matter what.

However, I know better. Maybe I'm an exception, maybe I've been cursed/blessed, but for whatever reason, my mother has always been honest with me about my writing.

So I handed it over, all 308 pages of it in a big, black binder and waited in white-knucked anticipation.

All I could think for weeks was whether or not she'd gotten to the part with the cannibalism. Or the part with the sexy nakedness. Or the part where... well, you get the picture.

Isn't it funny how we write this stuff, hoping to have it published and shown to thousands and thousands of people, and yet we get extra nervous about our family seeing it?

The verdict finally came in this weekend.

Instead of saying she loved it and she wanted my autograph, Mom told me she had "opinions," and then let me have it. Luckily, "it" was a slew of very helpful suggestions and a list of the parts that just weren't working for her. No, the end didn't explain everything satisfactorily, and no, she wasn't sad when the supposed-to-be-sad bit occured. No, she didn't like how fill-in-the-blank went down. And here are ways I can make it better.

Needless to say, although I was a tiny bit disappointed that I hadn't written a perfect book despite my best efforts, I was THRILLED that she would be so honest with me and give me the tough feedback I needed.

Thanks to my mom and my awesome husband, I am having Re-Write Week and feeling very encouraged and excited about my new-and-improved novel. I feel so blessed that I have a mom who trusts me enough to know I won't go crazy on her if she tells me the truth.

Critical moms truly are gangsta as hell.