Inspiration

Poking my head up briefly from the forced march to "The End." (So far so good, btw.)

I was working with my trainer on Wednesday, complaining how I felt draggy--had had to be out in the heat selling programs for a swim league meet the night before. I had a headache, but I had to get my 5 pages written before I went to bed. (I was trying for 7 pages because I'd had to quit early to go work the swim meet, so had only gotten 3 written the day before.) She commented how hard it must be to be inspired to write under those circumstances.

Here's a news flash--inspiration isn't really part of my work plan, or at least not the fairy-like gal that floats by and hits you with the magic story idea wand. No, if there is inspiration, it's more like the mud wrestling. (Not that I've ever mud wrestled.) I sit down at the computer and I bang my head against the keyboard (not literally, though some days it feels like it). I push the words and the characters around. I get up to have a cup of tea. I wish I was still doing something easy like writing regulations. I fret about how I have to get 5 pages done someway. I fuss with the characters some more. And eventually something will click and I'll get them to do something so I can write my darn 5 pages and maybe, if I've got them talking, a few extra.

Every day, it's the same struggle. Finally I reach "The End"--alleluia! And then I wrestle again--a little differently--when I go over the story and revise.

For me at least, writing feels like hard, dirty work. Not very inspiring. And then I'm amazed when I happen to read a bit of one of my books and see that it's not so bad. Frankly I wonder who wrote it. My name's on the cover, but I'm really not sure how the book happened.

Which may be why I feel the same panic every time I start a new book.

In hiding

You probably won't see much of me around here for the foreseeable future. I'm deep in what we authors like to call "deadline hell," though I foresee this as more of an extended stay than just a dash to a due date. With travel and promotion, I'm not where I want to be on the current book...so I'm off to my writerly cave, laptop chained to my fingers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States.

If things have gone according to plan--and I sure hope they have--I have the copy edits for The Naked King in my possession, so I probably won't be posting anything here for a while. When I'm not working, I should probably spend some time with my family, don't you think?

I hope you all have family and friends around you--even if you aren't celebrating Thanksgiving!

Revising--Letting Things Cook

Is that a good title for the day before Thanksgiving?

I finished the first draft of the novella...well, sort of. I doesn't really have an ending yet, and I know I'm going to be mad at myself when I go to revise it and get to the end to find a mess, but it's done for now. Thanksgiving and copy edits for The Naked King are coming. Time to put the novella aside.

This is actually the way I like to work. I try to finish a project with enough time before the due date to get some distance from it and then revise and polish. The thought of typing "The End" and hitting the send button in virtually one motion gives me hives. There are some writers who can do that, but I'm not one of them. Even when I think something is in pretty good shape, I realize I'm wrong about that when I go back in and start the polishing process. And having the copy edits for the King will be perfect to "clean my palette." (I haven't seen the King since January, but these are copy edits and it looks like I won't have a lot of time with them, so I will have to restrain myself and try not rewrite the book. I could probably revise until my editor yanked the manuscript from my grasping hands.)

The novella isn't due until January, but I have these copy edits, and my publisher has gotten very efficient at turning those into page proofs and zapping them back at me, and then there's the small matter of Christmas and family, so while I feel as if I'm in good shape, I don't feel like I have a lot of time to spare.

Discussing projects

Some authors love to talk about their books, both published and in progress. I don't. I sometimes wish I did--it might make writing synopses easier. But, eh, I'm just not that good at it. At book signings I often hand folks the book so they can read the back cover copy rather than try to tell them about it.

I recently had someone ask me about the new trilogy I've just agreed to do. Now that I'd accepted the contract, would I tell her about it? Er, no.

I'm not being coy. I guess the plot--what happens in the book--is not so interesting to me as how it happens and the relationships between characters while it's happening and the funny things that happen along the way. And until I start writing the books, I don't know how all that will play out.

Deciding on a Agent

I've been thinking about choosing agents recently--talking about it on an authors' loop and with a friend who's in the agent-choosing process. Many of my thoughts are in a post I wrote for my agent's blog here.

There are a lot of things to think about and options to weigh, but I think my most important advice to someone facing the agent decision is: Know Thyself. Know what you want. Do you want an agent to hold your hand or one to just sell your work? Do you want one who edits or one who doesn't even read your material?

There are no right or wrong answers. Different writers want or need different things. And an agent that can be perfect for your best friend may be terrible for you.

Novel versus novella

I once heard a non-writer ask why an author would write a novella rather than a novel. My short, non-sexy answer is because the author has a contract for a novella rather than a novel.

My novellas--I'm working on my third now--have all been contracted at 25,000 to 30,000 words. That's roughly a quarter of one of my novels. (My novel contracts have been for 95,000 words--give or take, you understand.) So in writing a novella, I have to limit things: limit the time over which the story takes place, limit the number of characters, and limit the focus to pretty much the hero and heroine.

Progress

Today I start writing the last chapter of the first draft of the new novella. I think I know what the scene will be, but I never know how things will really go until I put the characters together on the page.

NaNoWriMo

I didn't know what NaNoWriMo was when I first saw it popping up in people's posts. It stands for National Novel Writing Month--there's a web site that will probably tell you all you want to know about it here.

I've never done NaNoWriMo. The concept seems a little weird to me frankly, but then I'm sort of a solitary beast. I don't work with a critique group or even a critique partner. The reason I'm mentioning it is that November is NaNoWriMo, so the activity starts in just a few days.

Some writers say they are always running into people who tell them they want to write a novel. I don't have that happen to me (maybe because I am a solitary beast?), but I think I've encountered two such folks in the last few weeks. I told them what I tell everyone--with apologies to Nike--"just do it." Just sit down and start the book and keep at it until it's done.

And then revise, revise, revise, of course, but we don't need to go there yet. The first step is to get something out there. Which I guess NaNoWriMo can help with, if the thing appeals to you.

The other myth that I like to dispel is that writing is fun. It may be for some folks, I suppose. I personally find writing hard work. Torture sometimes. Thinking about writing a book can be terrifying. I face doubt and despair each time I start a new project--which is where I am at the moment, except I do now have a first chapter, thank God.

Writing a novel is not a sprint, it's a marathon, long and grueling. And you'll probably hit many walls along the way. But, like running, it feels great to have done it--until you need to do it again, of course.