Month: June 2010

BI3M – Day 31

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I am more than halfway through the story. And I am finding myself getting a bit, frustrated by it. I think the frustration is that it’s not going as fast as I had hoped in some scenes and chapters.

But still I am loving the story. And I am loving the challenge. This week I am challenging myself by writing 3 stories at 1 time. This one, a spy story for my other writing persona and a single title women’s fiction light paranormal. So instead of my daily 2k it’s 4K. 2K for True Darkness and 1K each for the other 2 stories.

Once the editing starts, there will be some scenes that need to be rewritten. For example, the “insert killer scene here” or “insert trip to hell scene and figure out how they get there here” or the (and my fave) “some cool happens here” scene comments.

Part of me is looking at this BI3M as a pseudo fast draft. It is helping keep me focused. And I can see the progress I’m making on the story.

So here is the word count update:

True Darkness 49000/80,000 words

61.25% done

Coming Out As A Writer

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Does your family know that you’re a writer?

Do they know what genre’s you write?

Do you use a pen name?

Why am I asking? I’m thinking of coming out to my family. All of them. Most of my immediate family know I write. But they don’t know my pen names or the genres. And definitely not the adult, erotic stuff.

So how did you tell your family about your writing and career aspirations as a writer?

Plus I took a poll for RWA today about career-oriented and it got me to thinking. Sometimes that’s a good and a bad thing.

So I’m interested in hearing your stories.

As for BI3M – Plus 2K added on. Next week I’m dropping down to 1K.

Tools of the Trade

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This is gonna be a quickie post.

I’m starting a new series for the blog. Probably once a week. I’m going to discuss some writing tools I’ve used and may try to get some guest bloggers in talking about the tools they use. I’ll probably even share a few spreadsheets and templates and trackers I’ve come up with. Or discuss a class or workshop I’ve taken that was extremely helpful.

What prompted this? Seeing various websites with “writing tools” or something similar on them.

First up, next week, will be my love for “write or die”.

Perfection

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I have a problem. And it’s nothing big but I have an issue with perfection. I have a few manuscripts on my hard drive that are near finished or finished and probably ready for submission.

The problem – They’re not perfect.

And I know that’s an impossibility. There is no such thing as perfection. But even knowing that, there are still countless of manuscripts & stories half-finished, backburned or with only a few words or pages because of my perfection problem.

And I don’t know if it’s necessarily perfection. Because I try to make each manuscript before submission as close to perfection as possible. I think it could be I am a bit too hard on myself.

It’s okay to write a crappy draft because it can be fixed in editing.

It’s also that, writing, being a published author, New York Times best selling author, has been a dream/goal of mine as long as I can remember. I even have proof. I found an old journal with my goals, dreams and aspirations from elementary school and #1 on the list was be a published author. And yes it said New York Times Best Selling author. Even at the age of 8 I was specific.

I have tried to stop writing, taken breaks but I always come back to writing. So how have I helped my perfection issues, beside being in a great goals group. Write or Die. It helps me write and push away the evil editor and NDD (negative doubt demons).

So how do you handle the doubts, urge for perfection? What tools do you use?

And BI3M Update (I almost forgot): As of right now, 10PM EST on Monday June 28th, I have written

True Darkness 44157/80,000 words

55% done

So obviously I’m not on pace to where I had hoped I’d be. Last week’s un-goals threw me off. I guess I’m the type of person who needs lists and goals to check off. But it’s not a bad thing. I did do some crafting and I am still at a good place. Actually I am thinking of lowering my word count to 1K a day.

Truth or Dare – Part III

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I hope you enjoy part III of Truth or Dare. In case you missed it, Part I|Part II. Please let me know what you think should happen next. How should Indigo start off her summer of fun, frivolity and being a “normal” teen.

Truth or Dare – Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance

When the diner crowd started to dwindle, Indigo left again. Right after telling Yvette she would take her up on her offer of having the summer off. It almost made her laugh to see the look on her bosses face.

Sitting in her car, she took out her cell phone and called her best friend, Carmen Rodriguez.

“Can I stay there tonight?”

“What happened to hello? How are you? Other forms of greeting?” Carmen laughed.

Indigo groaned, “Carm. Please?”

“Fine.” Carmen sighed, “No. And that’s just because you asked.” She paused, “Do you have to ask?”

“Thanks.”

“What’s going on?”

Indigo paused, “I’ll explain when I get there.”

“Where are you?”

“Work. I stayed to help Yvette.”

“Wait a minute. I thought you had a date with Gregg.”

“I’ll explain when I get there.” Hanging up, she started the car, turned on the radio and pulled out of the parking lot into traffic. It took her half an hour to drive downtown to Carmen’s parents’ house.

Carmen opened the door and came out onto the porch as soon as she pulled up in front of the house, parked and got out the car.

“Well?”

“Can I get in the house first?” Indigo laughed.

“Fine.” Carmen closed and locked the front door and then led Indigo upstairs to her room. “What happened?”

“It was all a big joke. On me.” She flopped back onto the bed. “Apparently it was an elaborate game of Truth or Dare.”

“What?”

“And that’s not even the most interesting part.”

“It gets better?”

“Or worse? Depending on how you look at it.” Indigo sat up, hugged her knees to her chest.

“What happened?”

“I kissed Morgan. Well, he kissed me.” She paused, “And I kinda liked it.”

“Links to other Excerpt Monday writers”

Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

So, to kick it off, your hosts:

As always, your hostesses Bria Quinlan (PG13), , Alexia Reed (R), Rachel Jameson (PG13) and Kendal Corbitt (R) thank you for stopping by!

Joining us this week:

Leslie Dicken, Historical (PG 13)
Babette James, Contemporary Romance (PG 13)
Jeannie Lin, Historical Paranormal (PG 13)
Kaige, Historical Romance (PG 13)
Shawntelle Madison, Paranormal Romance (PG 13)
Debbie Mumford, Fantasy (PG 13)
Ryan, Mystery (PG13)
Madison Woods, Fantasy (PG 13)
Stephanie Draven, Dark Fantasy (PG 13)

Kendal Corbitt , Contemporary YA (R)
Ali Katz, Historical (R)
Vivien Jackson, Paranormal erotic romance (R)
Rhiannon Leith, Fantasy (R)
Alexia Reed, Urban fantasy (R)

Elizabeth Black, gay m/m erotica (NC 17)
Sara Brookes, Urban Fantasy (NC 17)
Angeleque Ford, Contemporary erotic romance (NC17)
Lisa Fox, Paranormal erotic romance (NC 17)
Christa Paige, Regency romance (NC 17)
Gail Roarke, Paranormal erotic romance (NC 17)

Challenges

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I’m always up for a good challenge. And who can resist a Double Dog Dare?

In other words, I’m taking the lovely Bria up on her Double Dog Dare You – Writing Goals Challenge this week. I haven’t decided how I’m going to track everything but I see a spreadsheet in my future (like anyone didn’t see that one coming.

The Challenge is this (should you or anyone else decide to play along): We’ve been dared to NOT to make goals this week.

It’s not what you think.

The nitty gritty details:

It’s a dare of recording, tracking, record keeping, time management keeping, time keeping… or however you wish to phrase things.

The Double Dog Dare You – Writing Goals challenge in Bria’s own words:

Everyday, for the week (feel free to include a ”free day”) write down EVERYTHING (yes, every little thing) you do that feeds into your writing: writing, editing, revising, plotting, reading your work, notes, research, etc. –> Don’t forget to record the amount of time or pages!

If you’re really up for a challenge, divide tracking page in half and write down every time you procrastinate or do something that takes away from your writing practice. (Hey, when did that research switch to surfing the web?)

If you’re in comment on Bria’s page or here and I’ll be sure to let Bria know.

And BI3M Update (I almost forgot): As of right now, 4PM EST on Sunday June 20th, I am 1/2way through my goal of 2K so 1K done and another 1K to go.

BI3M – Day ???

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I’m still doing BI3M but instead of doing daily posts, I think I may do posts Monday through Friday and do a weekend update on Sunday night or Monday morning, so that may be, essentially 2 posts on a Monday.

I haven’t made any final plans, just a thought.

Did 2500 words today so the manuscript is coming together. I’ll post a more in-depth update on Sunday.

Balance – Making Time

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Today was the last day of school. I took my final and I think I did okay. I now have a three week break until  Summer Quarter starts.

So what do I plan on doing since school work, homework isn’t in my schedule?

1. Taking time for myself

2. Doing some crafting

3. Writing, of course

4. Updating my serial read

5. Work on a free read (a sort of prequel to Tansy’s story.)

6. Sleeping

7. Whatever comes to mind and is reasonable and relatively inexpensive

BI3M Update as of tonight –

True Darkness 33527/80,000 words

42% done

Balancing Acts

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Coexisting.

That’s what’s it all about. (Sorry had a hokey pokey flashback there for a moment).

Um. Coexisting. There’s my writing life, real life responsibilities and school.

I have been managing, I think, successfully. Nothing has really suffered, except for maybe my personal life. But that’s another story altogether.

School – practicing recipes, studying, reading chapters, doing homework, researching papers (yes there are even papers in culinary school), doing vocabulary, drive time, tests & quizzes

Real life – well that’s a bit difficult to pin down because of a variety of factors but the main things in this area are me and momma. Making sure momma is okay, has her medicine, takes her medicine, goes to doctor’s appointments, eats, etc. Me is taking care of momma and myself. Being available to other family members. Having a personal life? That’s a bit more complicated.

Writing – That’s the easy part. Sitting down at the computer, opening a WIP or two and writing. Meeting with the AC group, going on RD, being on twitter. Time to sit down and write is balanced with school cause real life responsibilities and the situations that come up can’t be scheduled. So I get up early, go to bed later, carry a notebook with me to jot down scenes.

How do you balance it all? Do you schedule time to write?

BI3M Update as of last night –

True Darkness 29000/80,000 words

36.25% done

I stopped early on the word count because I made dinner for the family and wanted to study some last night.

From Around the Web

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Rachelle Gardner: Literary Agent – Write from the Heart? Or Follow Trends? – And asks: “Q4U: How do you balance “follow your heart” with “follow the market”?”

Nathan Bransford: Literary Agent – Agents Are Not Just Gatekeepers – One line worth noting: “We’re not middle-men, we’re on the author’s side.”

From The Bradford Bunch by Jenn Bennett – Plotting an Evangelical Lesson –  Lines worth noting: “As someone who started out pantsing and switched to plotting, I’m here to tell you that plotting has saved my life. The peace of mind it’s provided is…priceless”

From The Graveyard Shift – Tips for the Heroes in Your Books – “8. Always call for back up if there’s a weapon involved. Being a dead hero isn’t a good thing.”

From Querytracker.net (from Mary Lindsey) – Manuscript Length – Opening Line: “How long should a novel manuscript be?” – This is one of those oft asked questions worth checking out.

From Genreality (Bob Mayer) – Creativity – “We have blocks to creativity and then ways around those blocks.”

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BI3M Update as of last night –

True Darkness 27000/80,000 words

33.75% done

I’m going to try to get 3K today so I’ll be at an even 30K