Wow! December 1st. I'm inching my way toward Christmas and getting through my 2nd novel.

I finished up the last edit of Collected. It only took 3-1/2 months for the full edit. I love chapter 1 now, which had been the sticking point for me and my beta readers. Two of them now have the latest edition and we'll see if any of them finally bleed red all over it. Or love chapter 1. I'm thinking about sending it out for queries after the first of the year, depending on the feedback.

My second children's story took 2nd place in the contest I entered it into. That makes two years in a row my works have taken 2nd place in their contest. I sent out 6 queries on it. I've gotten one "no" and all the others are "you'll hear from us if we're interested" which means you probably won't hear from them. It's hard to find agents to look at picture books but I'm not in any rush, and at this point I'm use to hearing "no".

It took me about a week to get Anne out of my head and put Angela back in. It was nice to have the break from her. Last year, finding out who she is was causing me the most difficulty in writing the story - I knew what she did; I just didn't know why. I've got a much better sense of her since the break. I've been writing about 3 times a week (my schedule is just crazy lately) and getting in my usual 3 pages per day. Yesterday, I blocked out a preliminary timeline/calendar of when major events happen so I can see what else I need to include to carry the story along. It worked well with Collected. Cleveland is more tricky as Anne and Alastair had higher stakes. At this stage of the game, Angela and Dave don't need to be together though they want to be - as friends.

My sister gave me two books for my birthday that sat in the gift bag for days before I pulled them out, read the back, and left them on my floor for days. Then the power went out 9 days ago and I had nothing to do but read by candle light. The first one was very good and I'm glad to find out it's the first of a series. The second one was wonderful! It took me a little to get into it (it starts out somewhat dystopian and I don't like depressing stories) but Lamentation truly earns the glowing recomendation from Orson Scott Card. A wonderful fantasy story written from from the various viewpoints of its characters - clean, compelling, and just the right amount of detail. And the inspiration for my next novel/series - a twist on characters that have been bouncing around in my brain since I was 14. I can hardly wait to tell Evaine's story. I just need to wait until I've finished Cleveland.

Has it already been a month? I'm working my way through yet another edit of Collected, this time using the suggestions in the "Sophistication" section. I've highlighted every "as" and "ing" word. Apparently, not only are they passive and tell your reader the actions aren't that important but you have to make sure that two things that couldn't happen together aren't. The show for this section is all sentences that start with "as" and an "ing" word. I've got a few of those. I initially freaked out when every single page disappeared under yellow highlighter and I thought I'd have to rewrite the whole thing. I took the rest of the day off and felt much better the next day after I got through a couple of pages.

This time the editing is going much slower as I have to stop and analyse every sentence to make sure there isn't a better way to say it, a way to write it so the "as" and "ing" go away. There have been a lot of those that did and there have been a few that come at the start of sentences that I've purposely left in because they set up the action so well, make you focus on what comes after the phrase. And did you notice I used "because" in that last sentence instead of "as". Yes, "as" can mean that two things happen at the same time or it can mean "because" or "for". I use it a lot. Hence, the amount of yellow on the page.

I'm working today, the second time this school year. For the first time ever, I'd much rather be home writing or editing than in the classroom. I still enjoy teaching and, at this point, it does pay better at this point than my writing efforts. So off to throw myself together. Maybe I'll squeeze in some time tonight.

Oh, the editing I've done. I've spent the last year struggling to write a few words and now I can't seem to stop. Halfway through my major post-PNWA of Collected, I checked out the website of a 15 year old mystery writer I sat next to at dinner. On his resources for writers page, he suggested Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

Truly an amazing book! Everyone talks about needing to "show" rather than "tell" in your writing but then they tell instead of showing you how to do it. Chapter 1 is all about "Show and Tell". They take a scene from The Great Gatsby and show you how most writers would write it - as a narrative summary. That's how I was trained to write as a journalist. I can write like that, blindfolded and spun around, until the cows come home. Writing the "show" is completely different.

Reading through that chapter reminded me of the trouble I had when I first started shooting stories with the video camera at j-school. I took great still photos. But when I got the film back to the station, what I THOUGHT I'd captured didn't show up on film. I had to retrain my eye to see as the video camera sees. I know how to write great narrative summary but now I need to truly make my scenes SCENES - show events as they unfold, SHOW why they feel things, resist the urge to explain to the reader what a character is feeling, what is going on that would cause the characters to have those emotions. Tells can heighten engagement but make sure the scene is taking them on an emotional journey. Readers remember more how you made them feel than what you said. I've heard said of a couple of multi-million in print authors that their writing wasn't very good. That is entirely possible. But why then did I hear from readers that "the books were like crack", they couldn't put them down, they could hardly wait to read some more and get another fix. They were written so that you FELT what was going on and you desperately wanted to hang onto that FEELING. Make the reader feel, not think.

How do you do that? Ever writer, including #1 NYT best selling authors have said, they don't really know. It's kind of a mystery that happens with any of the arts. What you can learn are elements that show up in the things that work and practice it so it becomes easier.

As for me, I'm on page 254 of my 30th or so edit of Collected. There's so much still there for me to take a second look at, especially the stuff I did on the previous pages. I've 9 chapters still to read in Self-Editing and my critique partner has not yet returned his edit of my March edition. What it is today is so much better than what I gave him 5 months ago but I still want his input. I remember thinking that reading through all 350 pages was an enormous task. And it is. But if two hugely successful writers I respect edit their work 35-40 times and they know more about this stuff I'm just learning, then the number of edits I will need to go through before my work truly shines should be even greater. Janet Wong told us at the Bond Children's Literature Conference a few years ago that she tweaked the 29 WORDS in her poem Noodles around 100 times.

I remember sitting there thinking, "Oh, my God! That's nuts! Shouldn't it have been just fine after 20 or so edits. It's only 29 words." Today, I don't think she's so crazy. What would be crazy would be to edit my work without a specific goal in mind. Even though I've got real tools in my hands now, tools that SHOW me how something can be improved, I can't catch it all at once and my skills are not yet what they could be. Good writers are good readers, too. I need to pull down some of the books I love and find some of the books fellow writers rave about as being a good read so that I can look at how those writers made it work. I want to be able to hum the song without even thinking about it for I've picked up the patterns from repeated exposure.

So enough for today. I need to squeeze in some editing. I've got some errands to run. And then I need to work on making my house presentable for company - a huge project as we haven't had guests over in over a year and you know how things slide when you don't need to try.

Until next time.

Wow! My last post was in March? Where has the time gone?

Cleveland is still trickling along. I think I'm close to 70 pages now. I got some amazing ideas at the Whidbey Island conference but most of my time has been spent thinking about the story. I figured out at the PNWA conference a couple of weeks ago that I know my story arcs (There are 3 of them that you need to include. Did you know that?), I haven't necessarily kept them in mind while writing my scenes, hence my struggle. I figured out that I need to be asking more questions - Why is this scene important in the story? How does it fit into the intentional and emotional arcs? Yep, stuff that requires more - wait for it - thinking!

And just when I found myself ready to dive in and answer some of those questions, I took some classes that gave me concrete ways to improve my writing. I could hardly wait to get home and plug them into Collected.

Which I did, though I had to wait a day. I got home Sunday morning and completed the rough draft of the picture book I've talked about writing for years - one about the adventures my father had growing up on the farm. He got into lots of, well, trouble. I use to tease him that he was going to end up in a book some day. Which I'm finally writing. Three years after his death.

So I did my SFD (shitty first draft) and put it away the next day to work on the Collected edits. I've been working on those 6-12 hours a day since. I did talk to my mom and niece about my dad's exploits as I needed 2 more to finish out the page count and want to sit down and finish that book in time to enter it into the Whidbey Island contest this year.

I also found myself a critique partner, someone who is willing to bleed all over the page. He's moving slow but has already provided me with some great feedback that's already worked its way into my edits. My story hasn't changed, just the way I'm telling it.

And I do have to say, it was immensely freeing to hear at PNWA that your first draft is crap, that it is just meant to be the vehicle through which you find out what happens in the story, and that your true writing comes through the editing process. 35 - 40 edits. Looking for different things each time. No wonder so many writers never go back and read their own books. I'm still in love with mine at this point.

So, I've updated my blog. I've a ton of writing/editing I need to do. And I still need to follow up with the agents and editors I met with at PNWA. Yep, super busy but leaving on vacation tomorrow. For which I haven't packed. Or done laundry. Hmm. Guess I'd better sign off for now.

Whoo hoo! I'm up to ten written notebook pages on my current WIP. Yes, it's only been 9 months since I started on the idea but stuff's actually getting written now. I'd been getting frustrated with the lack of speed but when I was cleaning off my desk this week (I only use it for computer stuff. I actually write in a notebook while curled up on my bed), I came across Five Rules for writing that I'd printed off from an Author Magazine article back in October. Rule #2 was to be patient. "Stories take time, characters take time, even sentences can take time ... There is a profound difference between procrastination and patience: one is avoiding, the other is waiting."

I've had three little voices talking to me about this story the last nine months. (You know you're a writer when you want to hear voices). One has been telling me, "You stupid fool! You know what you want to write about. Just sit down and write it!" Another has been a collage of the voices of the characters as they do stuff in the story. Their thoughts and conversations bounce around in my head much like popcorn but I'm only peering in, watching, not writing. The last voice grew out of a warning/criticism that my sister gave me about my main character early on. I wanted her to be sympathetic (something not all main characters are) and there were a number of potential land mines that crept in during my early plotting. This voice told me that it was okay to take my time, that I'd spent 6 years thinking about each of the two stories I've finished (Really? This could take SIX YEARS?). Neither of those would be what they are if I'd just forced myself to write. Struggling to be patient and taking my time with this one is paying off. It's allowed me to find both the character AND story arcs as well as the time to get to know my character much better. Last fall, I was commiserating with my sister that I new my supporting characters and motivations much better than my main. To which my sister replied, "You do? Shouldn't you know your main character the best?" Yes! And thus began the waiting game. While I've only written four pages this week (on my last novel I averaged 2-3 pages a day) I've slipped into the groove and have also been doing huge amounts of plotting. I know where these people are going and why and how they're going to get there. I don't have all the details but I now have the basic road map. All I need to do now is to crawl in bed and drive ... and continue to be patient.

Dear Alice,

Today is my first day off since my last post. Yes, after having worked a top 3 days in one month I have now worked 6 in a row plus one the week before and have another scheduled for next week. I have turned down two jobs today, only because getting my hair cut and colored at this time is more important to me than another $140. Which I really need at this point. After having congratulated myself over the weekend for having kept the Visa bill under $200 the last 30 days, I ended up needing to run our kitten up to the emergency vet. $800 later, they still don't know what caused her dangerous fever of unknown origins. So basically, every penny I earned this month is going to pay the vet bill. Sigh. At least my 10-year-old doesn't have to deal with the loss of another pet. He fell into depression after he lost his cat last June and "vet bill" was the one he got to be his new best friend. I cried the whole 40 minute drive up to the vet in fear that I'd have to come home without her and sat in shocked silence at the price tag the whole drive back. My husband and I decided that adding this loss to his counseling sessions would probably cost as much as the vet bill so it was money well spent.

What all this has meant to my writing is that I've a) not been home to write and b) been exhausted when I have been home. I've been lucky to get laundry done. Today I'm actually wearing yesterday's underwear inside-out as I was too brain-fogged to check my underwear drawer yesterday when I got home and no one else did a load. I'm currently listening to a load swish through machine right now and am hugely grateful that you are my only follower as I've now put out into cyberspace (forever) the current state of my underwear.

I have been plotting and blocking in my head, so I'm making progress in that area, but getting it down on paper has been impossible lately. I'm really excited with the direction the book's been taking and am glad that I've taken my time. Now I just need to be able to carve out time to get it on paper. I'll give you my progress on my next post.

Dear Alice,

Still moving slowly on the WIP but at least I'm moving. The dastardly Epic Mickey sucked me in again most of last week as it developed a glitch on my last play through and then I (GASP! SOB!) had to delete the file and start over from the very beginning. (sigh) Even so, I have managed to get several pages written and have mostly figured out my character arc which has been more difficult than the story arc. I knew what would happen, I just didn't know why it would happen. There are a bunch of transitions I'm not thrilled with but at least I learned with my last novel that areas I currently think suck can be dealt with in the editing process and truly shine.

So far I've written about 2,000 words. Only another 78,000 to go!

Dear Alice,

Last night was the final author reading from the writing contest. I'm happy to say that I was not the youngest person there. And not by a long shot! The winner in the children's literature division was a 13-year-old girl! Her story was fabulous! There were also two other women who were younger than me - one in her late 20s and one in her mid to late 30s. The tone of the evening was much more positive than the last reading. Maybe it was the younger blood in the room. The depressing whale watching piece led off the readings as it had last time but was followed by the first and second place winners in the children's division. Following that was the sad story about the boy who was bitten by a dog but it fit in with the flow and wasn't overly depressing. The readings ended with the funny true story about the girl who cheated in the Easter egg hunt during the depression. The night was a balance of the sad and the humorous.

Six or seven of us had met for dinner before the reading and that was an enjoyable experience. It was really interesting to chat with the other writers. It turned out that the couple I sat across from new some friends of mine from church. I turned out to be one of those coincidental "You don't happen to know the one person I know from (fill in the blank) ?" and I did. I would have loved to stay to chat after the reading but it was 8:30p, and I had the ferry ride and hour drive back so I said a few goodbyes and made my way back to the ferry. It was a quick drive and I figured I wouldn't have to wait long. I was wrong. I'd arrived at the magic time when the ferry switched from the every-other-half-hour sailing schedule to the once an hour. I ended up sitting in my cold car until 9:30pm, no coffee machine available in the walk-on waiting room.

I did find one onboard the ferry and ran into two people from the reading. They'd enjoyed my story and were amazed at all the rhymes I'd come up with, figuring that I'd had to google search to make my connections. There were blow away when I told them the rhymes had just come to me.

I made it home in good time, what with the late hour keeping traffic off the freeway and having been one of the first people on, and therefore off, the ferry. This morning I was surprised to find that the end of the experience has lifted the barrier I've felt toward working on my current WIP. Just as with my first novel, I found myself pulling my notebook into bed with me and working on it before I got dressed or had coffee or anything else. It's a good sign.

Dear Alice,

So I did a reading with the other winners from the writing contest I finaled in. I was the youngest person there by a good 15 years. Other than the poetry everyone else read MUCH too long. We were suppose to keep it to no more than 8 minutes but I'm sure some were closer to 15 as I zoned out on most of them. I am amazed I even placed in this contest as so much of what won was terrible. I have no idea what they were looking for but apparently it was heavy, depressing stuff. The memoirs weren't bad but the essays and fiction were awful. On the other hand, I see this stuff populating the bookstore and library which may be why I've been sticking with Janet Evanovich lately. Even the other children's story was a global warming rip-off of The Night Before Christmas. I read half of mine and left them wanting more. I thought that not only would I keep them from being bored but maybe sell a few of the anthologies as well. Turns out, those have already sold out. I suppose that's a good thing, but I wish there were more floating around out there in the hopes than an agent or someone would have a good chance of stumbling across it and look me up. Sigh. I've still got one more reading scheduled but at least I know what to expect and can zone out from the beginning.

On the writing front, I've still been procrastinating my current WIP. I've got a few more scenes blocked out. I figured out Angela's playlist and have been listening to it which has helped tons. I'd probably be writing more if I didn't have Epic Mickey to distract me. And my thriller class 3rd project that keeps creeping into my thoughts when I'm doing things like taking a shower. I seem to do a lot of blocking in there for some reason. Then I have to jump out and write down what I'm thinking about before it slips away. I've decided that procrastination isn't all that bad as it took me years to write my first two completed works. But I'd feel guilty spending all that money on New York and then not have anything to show my husband for it.

I'm going to continue to procrastinate tonight, even though I'm the only one home, and do something more constructive - like finally watch Vanity Fair (I bought it about nine months ago and it still has the wrapper on it). Nah. I'm off to fight Splatters on Skull Island. What can I say? I'm addicted.

Dear Alice,

New year, new stuff.

My trip to New York was good. My three days there flew by quickly. We had heavy snow on Friday which made our lunch at the Boathouse very beautiful. Can't beat watching it snow in Central Park while eating great food and drinking fabulous wine! Saturday we met up with a friend of my niece at a diner near NYU and then spent the rest of the day wandering the Chelsea neighborhood. I got a good feeling of the neighborhood but now am wishing I'd spent a week puttering around there and now just the small amount of time I did. Sunday we slept in and then went to a matinee of The Addams Family. Times Square was amazing and we wandered into a French restaurant for dinner.

I haven't written much since I got home, just about a page. I had surgery the day after I got back from NY and have been pretty tired. On the other hand, I've gotten a lot of good thinking done and the story should start to take off once I actually sit down and get into it. Tomorrow I have the first of the two readings I'm doing with the winners of the writing contest. I've never done anything like this before so it should be interesting.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've looked back and compared where I was professionally last year compared with now. Last year, I had a nearly completed first manuscript and was excited about where that was going. I'd begun plotting the sequel and had started thinking about finding an agent. This year, I've edited that manuscript more times than I can count and am STILL waiting for my beta readers to provide me with feedback on my heavily revised Chapter 1. Maybe I need to find an actual editing group. I completed my children's story after having worked on it off and on for the last 5 years and it won a prize in a writing contest. I took 3 classes on how to write a query letter and two on how to write a synopsis. I queried more than 50 agents on my first manuscript and around 20 on my children's story. I joined two writer's associations, attended their conventions, and have taken classes. I did an online convention and took a writing class from the guy I sat next to at the June convention (who gave me the idea for my current WIP). Because of him, I now have a stash of story ideas where last year I had only the sequel and my two children's books. (One got written last year, one I'm still blocking.)

I'm feeling more like a writer this year but in some ways I'm more discouraged as every career I pick ends up getting rid of people just as I am ready to walk through the door. I know amazing writers out there that just can't seem to get either a) an agent or b) an agent that's made a sale. My goal this year is to accept that I may just be stuck (yes, stuck) being a housewife who dabbles in teaching and writing but has no true place she belongs (I kind of suck at being a housewife). My epitaph would read something like, "She had good intentions but never excelled." Sad.