The Truth

I've decided to shelve the manuscript I've worked on for over a year.

Any of you who have followed this blog for a while know that this has been a hard year for me. I've tried to be upbeat about it, but the pregnancy, the months of sickness and sleep deprivation, and the stress of having a sick premie took their toll on me and by extension the story I was writing.

I'm proud of the first 50 pages--the part I wrote last November before I was pregnant. The rest just isn't right. It's never been right. I can't put my finger on exactly why it doesn't work, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I've lost passion for the story.

I wanted to finish it. I wanted to have a brilliant little novel come out of my tough year. But I didn't feel it. The story was meant to be funny and light, but I wasn't in a funny light place. I felt tired and sick and worried and it's hard to hide that from the reader.

As a result the novel needs to be completly rewritten. I don't have the energy to do that right now, so I'm putting it away for a while.

The good news is, I finally feel free to work on one of the projects I'm actually excited about. Writing is FUN again. I started a new manuscript and in just three weeks I've written almost 15,000 words. It's a first draft of course (which means it will need to be rewritten a couple hundred times), but it's a good, usable first draft, with characters that I love and a story that I'm into.

November was good to me. I think I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My baby is doing much better, I'm feeling creative again, and I'm excited about my life moving forward.

Have you ever lost your passion for a story or shelved a project you'd worked on for a long time?

How did November treat you?

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?

Super Awesome NaNo Contest

I know it's shocking. Two posts in one week. But I had to come out of my writing cave to tell you that one of my agent buddies, the lovely and talented Ashley March, is having a contest.

Our agent, Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency, is offering to read a partial for one very lucky NaNoWriMo participant.

This is cool because:

-You don't have to write a query letter

-She'll read the NaNo novel you are working on RIGHT NOW

-All you have to do to enter is comment on Ashley's post before November 30

-When I posted this there were only 5 comments

Yeah, you might want to check that out.

My New Writing Buddy

I wrote 7000 new words last week, making it my most productive writing week in over a year. I think all the productivity had something to do with my new favorite writing buddy.

Life just doesn't get better than this.

How is NaNoWriMo treating you?

How To Read If You Have No Time

Many of you know that I'm trying to read 100 books this year.

I often see bloggers complain that they don't have time to read as much as they would like. I will admit that with 3 small children and one extremely needy baby I don't have enough time to read either.

So, I don't read.

I listen.

Audiobooks folks. I have two or three hours most days when I can't read, but I can listen. Whether I'm walking around trying to soothe the baby (who has colic in a major way right now), doing dishes, or driving the kids from place to place, I almost always have an audiobook on.

I recently discovered LibriVox, a website where you can download free audio versions of books in the public domain. If you love the classics and you like audiobooks you need to check it out.

So yeah, maybe I'm not actually "reading" 100 books this year. When I'm done I imagine I will have read about half of the books and listened to the rest. But I say it counts. :)

So if you're too busy to read, why not try listening?

Are you an audiobook reader?

And two of my agentmates, Miranda Kennealy and Jennifer Wolf sold their debut novels last week! They are very awesome girls and you should get to know them. If you have a second stop by their blogs to say congratulations.

NaNo Sidelines

I am not going to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Writing Month) this year because:

-Last year I tried and failed miserably, writing about 12,000 words that almost all had to be deleted.

-I'm kind of busy this month what with

--my baby who is still way too tiny to sleep more than 3 hours at a time (which means I never sleep more than 3 hours at a time)

--Laundry

--Thanksgiving with 20+ family members at my house

-I'm finally ALMOST done with the manuscript I've been working on for a year and if I just buckle down I might be able to finish it in November.

Still NaNo is tempting because:

-I have a new idea that is WAY different from the project I'm working on and it sounds like more fun.

-Revising my current project is hard work

-I like to make my life as crazy as possible

But don't worry. I'm not going to give in. Maybe I'll try NaNo again next year. This year I'll be doing NaNoReviseMo and *hopefully* finishing this sucker.

Are you doing NaNo this year?

Revising: The Chain Reaction

Right now I'm knee deep in revisions. I'm adding scenes, fleshing out characters, and trying to decide if the ending is awesome or really crappy. Good times.

One of the problems I run into every time I revise a manuscript is the chain reaction.

The chain reaction occurs when I decide that the choice the main character made on page 5 really isn't consistent with his character the rest of the story. He must make a different choice. That different choice snowballs into changes on pages 6, 8, and 10 and those changes cause problems with pages 12, 16, and 20. Pretty soon I'm rewriting almost the entire book.

This makes me crazy.

I try to come up with some way I could just not change the thing on page 5, but I'm pretty sure the book will stink if I leave it as it is. I try to patch up pages 6 and 8 so they won't cause problems later. Some of the patches work. Most don't. The chain reaction has taken hold of the manuscript and it won't let go until I rewrite every single thing in it's path.

The interesting thing is, though I hate chain reactions while I'm revising, I love chain reaction revisions once I'm done. They fill in the gaps and make the characters believable.

Do you run into chain reactions when you revise? Is this a problem plotters run into too, or does it only happen to those of us who write without outlines?