My Writing Life, Simplified

I realized yesterday that I started writing almost exactly 4 years ago.

I thought about those years and decided it might be fun to break them down.

So here's my life (in mostly chronological order):

Year One:

-Wrote really crappy stuff

-Let family and friends read some of it (much to my embarrassment)

-Learned a lot

Year Two:

-Finished first book

-Sent 2 queries

-Realized it was awful and put it away

(hopefully forever--no one should ever have to read that book!)

-Finished second book

-Queried agents

-Had some requests and a few invitations to rewrite

-Met writing group

-Revised

Year Three:

-Signed with lovely agent

-Began blogging

-Revised more

-Started several new books

-Started tweeting

-Went to my first writing conference with my writing group girls

-Met many writers online and in real life

Year Four:

-Had horrific pregnancy

-Had sick baby

-Finished first draft of third book

-Shelved third book

-Wrote first draft of fourth book

-Went to second writing conference and met my agent

(who is even more lovely in person)

-Let fourth book simmer while working on fifth book

-Made plans to finish fourth and/or fifth book before 2012

And that's where I'm at.

I think if someone told me when I started writing my first book that I'd have to write at least four more before I saw one published I would have been discouraged.

But, looking back, I'm not discouraged at all. It's been a wonderful four years. I've learned a lot and plan to learn a lot more over the next four. And, you know, hopefully sell something someday.

How long have you been writing? How have those years shaped your perception of writing and publishing?

The Writing Community

I've been thinking a lot about social networking lately, and particularly about writers supporting writers through blogging, twitter and Facebook.

My husband started an experiment in January. He's an entrepreneur, so he thought it would be fun to blog business ideas. He'd never blogged before but, not one to do things half way, he decided to post every single day of 2011.

I told him how to make friends through blogging, (visit other similar blogs, follow, comment, start a conversation, etc.), but he hasn't had a lot of success. After 200 posts (more than I've written in the 2 years I've blogged), he still has less than 10 followers and rarely gets a comment.

I tell you this not because I want you to pity my hubby and follow his blog, (though you can if you want, it's here), but because I think his experience has shown me what a unique and supportive community we writers have.

It's easy to make friends in writer-land. I'm grateful for that.

Have you felt welcomed by the blogging writer community?

Have you left a comment on my Karen Book Deal Celebration post yet? I'll choose the winner of ENTWINED by Heather Dixon next Monday.

Liar Society Blog Tour

Today I have the privilege of welcoming Lisa and Laura Roecker, the authors of THE LIAR SOCIETY, as part of their Blog Tour of Awesome.

Lisa and Laura are two of my favorite, favorite bloggers. They are hilarious and super sweet and inclusive. When they sent me an ARC for their debut novel THE LIAR SOCIETY, I knew I was in for a treat.

I was not disappointed. THE LIAR SOCIETY was a very fun read. One of the things I appreciated most was the well thought out mystery. They kept me guessing right up to the end. I asked them to share a bit about how they managed to keep the mystery fresh and exciting.

KEEPING A MYSTERY MYSTERIOUS


A big part of our process when we're writing a mystery is outlining. We would be completely lost if we didn't have some kind of road map while we're drafting. For us, outlining and mysteries go hand in hand. We need to at least have a rough idea of where the story is going. For us that translates into a loose outline of the entire book and then a more detailed chapter outline for Act 1. After we wrote the first act we created an outline for Act 2. This worked really well for us because we had both structure and flexibility as we drafted.


Revising was an entirely different beast. After editing The Liar Society for the nine millionth time, we began to really, truly, whole-heartedly regret our choice to write mysteries in the first place. Keeping track of which clues went where and who we were supposed to suspect and when is enough to make our collective heads explode. Our number one goal while writing was obviously to keep the mystery fresh, but not completely out of left field.


At the end of the day, for us, the most important thing was to have fun with the book. Our hope is always that if we have fun writing, our readers will have fun reading. Hopefully our theory holds up!

If you want to enter The Liar Society Blog Tour of Awesome contest, and really, who wouldn't want to enter!?! There's a $100 Amazon gift card up for grabs! Just click here and enter the super secret password, BFFS, for an entry. Remember you can enter one time for each stop on our blog tour, so be sure to click here and see where else we're visiting this month to maximize your chances of winning.

Audi, Vide, Tace,

L&L

Thank you Lisa and Laura!

A healthy dose of PERSPECTIVE

I'm very sick right now. Three of my kids are sick too, including the baby. My family hasn't all been healthy at once since January, and because of that I haven't written anything all month. I'm snuggled up in bed right now with baby, trying to keep warm despite a wicked case of the chills. I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself for the past couple of days.

And then I read about the earthquake in New Zealand. I realized that Chistchurch is where my dear friend Wen Baragrey lives. Any of you that follow Wen know that she and her family have had a very trying couple of months. Her premature grandson was born in November and seemed to have complication after complication before he finally came home in January only to head back to the hospital last week.

Thankfully he and all of the rest of Wen's family made it out of the city okay, but it was a scary time for everyone. Wen detailed the experiences of her family here.

It's so easy for me to get caught up in mylife and my worries and not realize that other people are suffering far greater challenges. But today my thoughts and prayers are with Wen and the people of Christchurch, NZ.

I'm Thankful for Writers

I love Thanksgiving. It's one of my very favorite holidays.

This is mostly because of all the amazing food. I LOVE turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie, and sweet potatoes. LOVE. But this year I'm on a diet. The my-baby-is-allergic-to-milk-and-soy-and-I-don't-want-to-give-up-nursing-yet-diet. This means I cannot eat BUTTER which is the base of every good Thanksgiving dish.

So this year Thanksgiving is not about the food. This year I'm going to be focusing on the long, long list of things I'm grateful for while I watch my family enjoying all the lovely food and I eat my mashed potatoes made with rice milk and margerine.

It'll be great.

Near the top of my long, long list of things I'm grateful for are WRITERS. I'm thankful for the worlds they create and the stories they tell. I'm grateful for all the writers I'm privilaged to know through blogging and twitter and in real life and I'm grateful for the writers who inspire me through the books they write. You make my life richer. Thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate this time of year!

What are you grateful for?

See You Later

Well, the time has come. My doctor informed me today that we've reached the point where the baby needs to come out, so I'm going in for a c-section in an hour.

The good news is I've made it to almost 36 weeks. Unfortunately the baby's lungs still aren't looking good, so there's a chance he'll spend a few weeks in the NICU. I'm a little stressed about this, of course, but I feel like everything will be okay.

Thank you so much for all of your support over the past few months. I've really appreciated the well wishes, thoughts, and prayers. They've made a difference. I look forward to getting back to normal life again soon, and using this blog to write about WRITING, instead of awful pregnancy.

I probably won't be blogging for the next few weeks, but I will try to post a few updates on Twitter. I hope you all have a great September and I'll look forward to seeing all of your agent and book deal announcements when I get back!

The Referral: A Success Story

By now I'm guessing that a lot of you have seen Roni (the Fiction Groupie's) big news, but if not go take a look. Don't worry, I'll wait.

Done? So now you know that Roni signed with my wonderful agent, Sara Megibow, earlier this week. Pretty darn awesome right?

What makes it even more cool is that I had a tiny hand in matchmaking Roni and Sara. Roni gives a pretty detailed description here, but the short version is that I knew Sara wanted more romance writers and I knew Roni wrote romance. I'd read a few excerpts of Roni's work on her blog, and I knew she could write well.

I wrote a few emails, and then I got to giggle and squee when Sara wrote me to tell me she loved Roni's work and do it again when Roni wrote to say she liked Sara's notes. It was fun, and it was a great diversion during my summer of very little productivity and lots of not fun things. I'm so happy for both of them and I'm hoping they'll have a quick sale once revisions are done.

I've been thinking about why Roni came to mind when Sara asked if I knew any talented romance writers, and these are my thoughts:

1. Roni has a GREAT blog. Really. It's one of the first blogs I started following and I think it appeals to writers of all genres. Her posts are helpful, well written and informative and the look of her blog is very professional.

2. She posts occasional excerpts. This is something I've haven't done much because to be honest, when I see long excerpts (and sometimes short ones too) on a blog I usually skip it, especially if the blogger posts excerpts daily or weekly. BUT, I'll read excerpts if they are part of a blogfest I'm participating in, or if I feel like the blogger is a friend.

3. And that brings me to my last thought: Roni isn't just a blogger, she's a blog participant. She reads other people's posts and comments, she gives back with contests and critiques, and she's approachable. She's the kind of blogger that makes everyone feel like a friend.

I have no doubt that Roni would have found an agent regardless of my referral, but I hope it made the process a little quicker (and the WAIT is the worst, right?)

Have any of you agented writers given your agents a successful referral? Are those of you who are not yet agented making the most of your blog presence?

You Gotta Have Friends

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the sweet comments and well wishes and emails and everything this week. You're all wonderful.

It's been kind of a stinky time, I'm not going to lie, but the baby and I are doing okay and I'll be 30 weeks along on Sunday, which is good.

I managed to get some writing done this week! It feels so great to accomplish something again. I am inching along on this manuscript, but I really love what I've got so far, so that's encouraging.

And I made a surprise appearance at RWA on Thursday to hang out with two of my favorite people, Sara Megibow and Karen Hooper!

My trip was made possible by the photoshopping skills of the talented Megan Rebekah (I love that she added a pregnant belly!), and the photography skills of the lovely Tiffany Reisz. You girls are awesome. :)

I've been following all the RWA tweets and blogs all week and that has been ALMOST as fun as being there. It sounds amazing. I will make it there someday! Karen has had a bunch of great updates on her blog, so if you want the inside scoop you should check it out.

I looked at my summer word count yesterday and it's shockingly low. I've only written about 5000 words since June 1. Granted, it's been a crazy summer. I'm just hoping the quality is a little better than usual and that's why it's taking forever.

How has summer been for your writing? Are you more productive, less productive, or about the same during summer months?

Meeting Writer Friends in Person

I had the opportunity to meet a writing friend over the weekend and it was so fun. Sarah Skilton was in town and we got to have dinner together and chat about writing, reading, and the road to publication.

I live in a place where there are not a lot of writers (or at least not any writers I know). I'm so jealous of some of you with great local writing communities. It must be amazing to get together and talk about writing on a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, I have GREAT writing friends. They just all happen to live on the other side of the country, so we basically only communicate through email.

I think there's something to be said for being able to meet and talk to other writers face to face. In an hour Sarah and I were able to cover every topic from recent reads to submission experiences. It was wonderful to chat with someone who is doing the same things I'm doing. I came away feeling energized and excited about writing.

This is the main reason I think every writer should consider going to a conference. I don't know about you, but I tend to get lost in my little bubble. I get busy with the kids, cleaning, running errands, blogging and writing and I lose sight of the big picture. I forget that behind those blogs there are REAL people--people who love writing and books as much as I do. Meeting other writers in person brings it all home. We are not alone in this. We may type away on our computers all by ourselves everyday, but there are thousands of other people who know what it's like. They "get" us in ways our friends and family probably don't.

Have any of you met writer friends in person? What have you gained from those experiences?

Make Friends with a New Blogger!

I've received a few blog awards lately and I just wanted to say THANK YOU! My mommy memory is almost non-existent so I can't remember who gave me awards or what they were (and since my organizational skills are nearly as bad as my memory, I didn't write them down like I should have). But just know that if you gave me an award, it made my day. Thank you.

I want to pass along some of the kindness so I thought I'd tell you about a few writers I've discovered who are new (or at least a little newer than me) to the blogging world:

Mary at Writers Butt Does Not Apply To Me

Mary's blog has made me laugh and cry. That's about the highest praise I can give.

Cammie at My Mental Marathon

Cammie's attempting to revise her first novel in less than a year. Her insight into the writing and revision process is unique and interesting.

The Girl with One Eye at A Squirrel Amongst Lions

This funny and sometimes random new blog is well worth a visit.

All of them are fun reads. Go check them out and make a new blogger friend.

And thanks to all who read and comment here. I appreciate all of you more than I can express!

Question for today: Have you ever met one of your blogger friends in person?

(I haven't, but I plan to when my critique group girls, Megan, Marie and Karen, and I go to SCBWI in NY in January! Will any of you be there?)