Finding Time to Write

Posted on by | Leave a comment

So I’m hit an odd sort of stumbling block when it comes to my novella.

Every day I take the train in to work and I at least try to get an hour of writing in each way. Now, I’m not saying that I’m perfect, there are days when I don’t write a word, but I try. And, for the most part, I succeed. Which is great and brilliant and means that I don’t have to try to fit writing into the other parts of my day, which are filled with my job and my child and all the perks of being a moderately popular adult.

Unfortunately, one of the trains that I take is down for some sort of maintenance and won’t be back on line for three to six months (and WTF is that about?? Three to six months??? Are you kidding me???) so I have been finding other ways in to work other than the train. That means that I’m not getting my daily two hours of writing/editing in. And that is a problem. Because I am so, so, so close to finishing the rewrites on my novella. And because I really miss writing? Writing is something I do just for the enjoyment I get out of it. And not having those few hours a day to just do what I love most is really unhappy making. In the worst sort of way.

I am not sure what I am going to do about it either, since I really can’t magic a train into working order or anything. I guess I’m just going to have to find somewhere else in my day to squeeze my writing in.

But where?

Writing Line meeting tonight, woo-who!

Posted on by | Leave a comment

I have a meeting tonight with the Writing Line and thank god for that because progress needs to be made on my novel. I love my novella and am very, very pleased to be almost done with it, but being almost done with one project means making sure I have all my ducks in a row for the next one. And, um, the next one? My novel? It’s something I’ve been wanting to write for the last three years.

So, why haven’t I been writing it, you ask? Well, to answer that you have to have a little history.

The Writing Line (which consists of myself, Megh, and B.Moore) formed way back in 2009 when we were all the victims of separate layoffs. Wasn’t The Great Recession fun? Anyway, we were all out of work (or, in B.Moore’s case, being strung along by the public school system about whether or not he would be out of work, which is just as stressful) and decided since we were doing nothing else with our free time (other than frantically fret about our futures and apply to more and more depression job “opportunities”) that we might as well write those books we always wanted to write. So we did.

While the three of us are all under the broad umbrella of Fantasy, we have vastly different styles and plot ideas, but we all are friends and are all fairly decent writers, so we thought why not? Why not form a group and force ourselves to think about something other than the bleak job market for a few hours every week. All was great and wonderful and we three were chugging along like pros, pumping out word count like nothing. But then the market started to recover and the three of us got into much better positions than we previously had and suddenly all our free time dried up. We started missing meetings and then, when we actually did get around to meeting, ended up gabbing about our lives instead of, you know, writing. And, um, that went on for about two years with none of us really doing more than occasionally poking at our novels.

Then finally Megh was all “this is ridiculous” at one of our meetings earlier this year and pointed out that we all had nearly finished novels that we should have published ages ago and that we should actually start being serious about it because other people who started writing books around the same time of us had been published by now and we had no excuse for not doing the same. So B.Moore and I hung our heads and agreed with her and decided to light a fire under our butts about it.

But when I went back to the novel I had been writing… Well.

First, my writing style has changed dramatically since then. I use to write in past tense but I have changed to present tense because of reasons. And once you make that change, it’s really hard to go back. But I didn’t want to rewrite 120k to make it all present tense. So I was trying to work in past tense again and failing pretty miserably at it and that was upsetting.

Second, my plot? Not dynamic enough. There is a very, very small conflict at the start of the story and then a few bumpy patches along the way, but nothing that really sustains the reader’s interest. And, while I loved my characters, I didn’t really love the choices my 2009 self had made with regards to their characterization.

So I might have grumped about both of those points a lot to The Writing Line and as a group they helped me realize that the story I wanted to be telling was actually the story of one of the other characters in my book, who happened to be a professional bodyguard. It had always been in my head that I was going to write two additional books about the two characters who became close friends with my main character and had mentioned on numerous occasions how much I couldn’t wait to write about Mei (the bodyguard). So when Megh and B.Moore pointed out that maybe that was the story I ought to be writing, I jumped at the idea.

And now I’m doing that. Slowly. Because I’m still devoting most of my time and energy to the novella (which I wrote the vast majority of last summer).

Wait, what was the point of this post again?

Oh yeah! To say how excited I am about my meeting tonight and how I’m going to focus more on world building and how the main conflict I have set up will be resolved.  Which I’m sure I’ll tell you all about tomorrow.  *grins*

Progress is slow but steady

Posted on by | Leave a comment

So… I haven’t done a thing on my novel all week, but I have been doing major restructuring to my novella, which I think evens things out. With the help of Becky, I have managed to iron out a much more believable character arc for the more problematic of my male leads (his previous character arc was something along the lines of “learns to use his words” which is a very good life lesson but not much of a character arc). I’m super pleased with the direction he’s going now, even if it does mean that I have to scrape/dramatically rewrite pretty much every part of his POV that I’ve written.

But that’s the fun thing about being a writer? The “oh god, that means I have to change *everything* again” bit?

Oh wait…

No, really. It’s not that bad. I mean, no one gets it right on the first go. If they did, editors would be out of a job, right? And, seeing as how at least one of my friends makes her living doing copy editing, that would be a very bad thing indeed. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I have reached the point where I have accepted the need for rewrites and have embraced the fact that I will be spending the next month or so of my life doing them. And that, once they are done, there is a very good chance that Becky (or some other poor, unsuppecting fool) will read them over, cringe a bit, and then hand them back covered in notes. Because that’s the process. That’s how things gets done.

And that’s okay because each round your writing gets a little better, a little closer to being ready for public consumption. And it’s worth a little pain and suffering on my end if it means that my future readers have something worthwhile to read.

Oh what fun it is to rewrite…

Posted on by | 2 Comments

So I’m hip deep in rewrite land right now which, for anyone who knows anything about writing, is not a fun place to be. Especially since my rewrites involve a massive restructuring of the plot. Yippie.

It’s for the best, I know it is. And I’m really excited about the new direction I’m going with. But, god, so much work. So many, many words to just delete because they don’t fit anymore. Or, if not delete, then find some way to reconfigure them so that they do fit in with all the new stuff I’m writing and blaharg. So not fun. But so essential to putting out something that people actually want to read and will get emotionally invested in and, hopefully, love enough to tell their friends about. Because that’s the end game, right? To please your readers. So it’s worth it to spends hours and hours and hours thinking about the best way to improve what you’ve written and then more hours and hours and hours actually doing that improving bit.

Thankfully, I’m lucky enough to have an amazing cheerleader on my side, my good friend Becky, who is willing to listen to me whine work things out.  She’s seriously such a life saver.  And not just because she thinks every word I write is gold.  *grins*

No really, every time I talk to her I feel my book improving.  She helps me work through what needs to happen and what babies I have to kill and isn’t afraid to give me squint eyes and redirect me when I go off into left field.  So yeah.  If you out there, person reading this, ever end up reading my novella after it’s published, you had best send a thought of thanks in Becky’s direction.  Because it would have been one big, festering pile of plot fail without her intervention.

Even if her intervention does mean even more rewrites.

First Post

Posted on by | Leave a comment

So I’m an old hand at this blogging thing. I’ve had an LJ account since 2002 and am on tumblr and everything. But I’ve never had a “just for writing” blog before. So, a little unsure what I should be saying or doing or any of that. But it’s fun to try new things and I’m sure I’ll figure out what all the cool kids are doing soon enough.

So if these first few posts are a little awkward, that’s why.

Why am I even starting a new blog, seeing as how I’m all sorts of happy and comfortable with my old ones?

Truthfully, I’m getting ready to publish my first book and I’ve been told that the thing to do these days is to be proactive and get out there and make a name for yourself and all that jazz. Which, I guess I’m good at? Sorta? A lot of people like my tumblr anyway. Does that count?

Arg. This is kind of painful. Especially since I know that there is no one on the other side listening just yet. I mean, sure, there will be. Eventually. But as of right now, there isn’t. And that makes it kind of hard for me because I’m totally use to having an audience that I’m talking to.

Anyway.

I’m Nicole. I write. A lot. I have done for years. I am currently working on two novels. Well, a novel and a novella.

The former is YA fantasy with a kick ass female lead. Literally kick ass. As in, she’s a royal bodyguard and has mad sword fighting skills. She gets to go on all sorts of epic adventures and helps to uncover a plot to destabilize the nation she’s working in. It’s awesome. It’s also a good year or so from being ready to get the “please print me” ball going.

The latter is a modern m/m romance set in L.A. because why not? It’s got a fun, hip male lead who is bitterly regretting the one-night-stand he had with his ex, as it has lead his ex to think that things are game on between them again. Which they aren’t. They really, really aren’t. For a number of very good reasons that he’ll remember later, when he’s not being romanced within an inch of his life.

The novella is nearly finished, in my second round of re-writes, and so I’m sure that’s what I’ll be babbling about the most around here. Though there is definitely going to plenty about my novel as well, seeing as how I have weekly meetings with The Writing Line (my writing group) and have set writing goals for each meeting and yeah. Totally posting about all of that here. Since that’s what a writing blog is for, right?

(Also, the girl in the pic? So not me. That’s one of my besties. But the book she’s reading? That’s mine. :D)

HT with a digital copy of Mating Habits

HT with a digital copy of Mating Habits