Busy and Productive

This week has been a little insane. Kind of like last week! I think I was kind of nuts to think May would be LESS busy than June. My girls are finishing school and with that comes school programs, field trips, art projects, and assignments. And right now we're gearing up for a huge family reunion this weekend. It's going to be awesome, but people are staying at my house which means it has to be clean...

Anyway, despite the crazy week I've been able to get a lot done on my WIP.

Have you ever heard the saying that if you want something done you should ask the busiest person? The idea behind it is that busy people know how to manage their time.

I think there might be something to this. I know when I don't have much going on in my life I don't manage my time very well. I spend a lot of time online and waste time doing stuff I really don't need to do. But when life gets really crazy I HAVE TO figure out how to fit everything in and as a result I usually get more writing done and have a cleaner house, despite the added workload elsewhere. It's kind of cool actually. I do get overwhelmed by busy weeks sometimes (like last week!), but most of the time I'm pretty productive.

Have you noticed that you're more productive when you're busy? Or does too much to do overwhelm you?

The First Draft

It is a miracle, but I think I am going to beat my deadline by a week and get this first draft done by Friday.

Yep, that's right. It only took me 7 MONTHS to finish it. I know, I'm speedy.

I've realized some things about my first drafts that I thought I'd share.

1. The beginnings are always way better than the endings. This is because I am a compulsive revisor, so while the end is a true first draft the parts before have all been tinkered with and the beginning has been revised a lot.

2. My first drafts are always short. This one will only be about 30,000 words. This isn't too horrible because I write middle grade, but I know that the revision process will bump it up to about 40,000. I tend to write my stories with sparse detail and fill in the blanks later.

3. When I finish a first draft my first instinct is to trash the whole thing and start over. The idea of revising and rewriting is really overwhelming. A part of me (well most of me actually) just wants to start something new and never look at that mess again. Right now I have a shiny new idea that I can't wait to start on, so that doesn't help.

But I will get this one done! I plan to get the revision finished by the end of the summer (and get a good chunk of the shiny new story written too.) I don't know if this goal is reasonable with the kids being home all day, but I'm going to try.

What do your first drafts look like? Are they long or short? Messy or clean? Are you excited or terrified to dig into revisions?

Work in Progress

When we bought our house a couple years ago we liked the house, but what really sold us on the deal was the HUGE garden area hidden behind a hedge in the back yard. My husband and I imagined what we could do with the space and we dreamed BIG. We'd transform the dirt patch into a garden worthy of the Martha Stewart catalogue-- raised beds, stone walkways filled in with Irish moss, mini fruit trees in giant pots, and a fountain to add ambiance. It was going to be awesome.

Two years later it is not awesome... yet. We've started the raised beds. My husband spent half the summer carting giant stones for the walkway and only finished about a third of it. The moss doesn't really like growing between the stones, but weeds LOVE it.

So now mostly we have a giant weed patch with some pretty rectangular structures filled with vegetables in the middle. I know it's a work in progress and it's better than what we started with, but most days all I can see are the weeds.

This is kind of how I feel about my manuscript right now. I haven't even finished the first draft yet, but all the imperfections are driving me crazy. I just have to remind myself that my last one felt like this too. Writing, like creating the perfect garden, just takes time. I need to finish it before I move on to massive revisions.

Maybe in a year I'll have another finished book AND a garden that would make Martha Stewart proud. Or maybe just another finished book.

Do the weeds slow down your writing process or are you able to forget about them until after the first draft is done?

My Workspace

Well, I'm still a little sick and this has been kind of a crazy day, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and post pictures of my workspace. I didn't even clean it up before I took these pictures, so you can see it in all it's messy glory.

My workspace is located in a little extra bedroom, just down the hall from the room where my kids play. The walls are light green, the air circulation is good, and there's a window with a pretty decent view of the best yard in the neighborhood (it belongs to the house across the street).

This is where the magic happens:

Fancy right? I especially like the large winged horse and the fact that more than half of the screen is taken up with Dora the Explorer on Netflix. When my son is awake, I usually have to share the screen, which is why I try not to write while he's awake.

I know you are coveting my awesome flower lamp, my puppy dog mousepad, and my ghetto high school pottery too. There's nothing like looking at crappy pottery to get those creative juices flowing.

It's not exactly glamorous, or clean, but it's where I write.

Where do you write?

My Story Won't Behave

I'm still working on the first draft of the story I started during NaNoWriMo. I know, it's shameful. I wish I were a faster writer, but speed writing isn't my gift.

Back in October, before I wrote anything down, I decided I would try to outline. On November 2 I strayed so far from the outline that it became useless.

So I just wrote.

In December, I started getting a sense of what should happen later in the book. I wrote down a few of these ideas and tried, once again, to stick with the plan.

Then this Monday, I wrote 2000 words in one sitting. Those 2000 words took my story to an entirely new place, a place where many of my December ideas won't work.

The moral of this story: some people are plotters, unfortunately I'm not one of them.

Are you a plotter? If so, are you ever tempted to leave your outline behind?

What are Your Character's Faults?

One of the things I've thought a lot about since returning from SCBWI last weekend, is creating interesting characters.

In Libba Bray's keynote speech she told us to be careful of writing shallow characters. Imperfections are what make people interesting. Several of the other speakers touched on this too, and I think it's very applicable to my writing (and hopefully yours too).

I try not to write characters that are too good. They don't always obey their parents or do their homework or treat each other with respect. But I struggle with it sometimes. I have to avoid the temptation to let the good people always do good things and the bad people always do bad things, because in real life people aren't good or bad, they're just people.

My favorite books include villains who could almost be heroes or heroes that are just a few steps away from being villains. I like reading about people who are flawed. Sydney Carton (from Dickens', A Tale Of Two Cities) and Emma Woodhouse (From Jane Austen's, Emma) are two of my favorite characters ever, probably because both of them are far from perfect.

Do your heroes have defects? Do your villains have redemptive qualities? Or are they too good or too bad?

Deep Down I'm a Hopeless Romantic

I can't write a story without a little romance. There I said it. Even though I write for the middle grade, every single one of my novels has some sort of love story.

My main characters are eleven-years-old, so their romances are pretty tame (hands brushing, eye-contact, TALKING to each other--that sort of stuff). But when the project is all done that's the stuff I like best.

When I was a kid I only liked to read books that had some romantic element, although I hated, and still dislike, stories that took the romance to gag-inducing levels (i.e. "I love you so much I'd die without you" sort of stuff).

In high school and college I suppressed my romantic inclinations. I'd never been "in love" so I kind of doubted that the whole "in love" thing existed. I figured if I ever got married I'd just marry someone who was a good friend and we'd be happy enough.

Then, my junior year in college, I met my husband. We were good friends for a few months. Then one night he invited me to go to an Italian poetry reading. I agreed, because hey, who doesn't like Italian poetry? Plus there would be food (free food is always a good thing in college).

I couldn't understand very much Italian--I'd only taken one semester. My husband spoke fluently (he'd lived in Italy for a few years). Most of the participants read poems from books, but he'd written his own.

He looked right at me as he recited it. After a few lines people looked over their shoulders at me and chuckled. I had no idea what he was saying. The only things I'd gleaned from my semester of Italian were food and clothing vocabulary and easy verbs, but I knew it was about me. When he was done he blushed and that was one of the many moments that made me think I could fall in love with him.

He didn't tell me what it said in English until we officially started dating a few weeks later. It was a love poem, and though he's no writer, it was very sweet.

Today is his 29th birthday and I have to say I am even more in love with him today than I was when I married him seven years ago.

So now that you've had a look at my sappy, sappy self, tell me this: Is there a love story in your novel? Can any book be complete without a little romance?

Greetings from the NaNo Trenches

I really shouldn't be blogging today, but I've made a few discoveries during my first few days of NaNoWriMo that I wanted to share with you.

1. First drafts are not good.

You probably all realize this, but it's been a while since I've written more than a few chapters of a first draft (and those few chapters I've edited to death so they aren't as stinky as a real first draft).

2. This first draft (though terrible) is better than my previous first drafts.

I've actually learned some things in the last year. YAY! I'm using more active verbs and fewer dialogue tags, the dialogue is better, and even the voice feels stronger and fresher.

3. It hasn't been that hard to meet my writing goals everyday.

Granted we're only on the third day (and I'm only writing on weekdays--2500 words a day--so it's technically only day 2 for me) but I'm starting to think that my "I don't have enough time to write" complaint doesn't hold much water. I may not have enough time to blog, read blogs, AND write everyday, but I definitely have time to write ten pages and read a few blogs (and mow the lawn, do laundry, feed and clothe my children, run to the library, wash dishes, clean the kitchen, and read 80 pages of Scott Westerfeld's LEVIATHAN--which is so good by the way). I don't know where all this time was before, but I'm glad it showed up for November.

It's been an interesting couple of days. I just hope I can keep this pace up throughout the month.

Have you discovered anything interesting about your writing lately?

NaNo Progress: 5112 words

Things I Learned From My Kids: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Did you know it was Benjamin Franklin who coined that phrase? He was a smart man.

Thank you Google.

So let me ask, what do you get when you mix an unsupervised 2-year-old with a tub of blueberry yogurt?

The answer:

It happened this morning and the picture shows only a small portion of the carnage. There were probably 20 dollops about that size covering our living room floor. And do you know what makes it so much worse? We JUST had the carpets cleaned (less than two weeks ago)!

Two hours of scrubbing and a half gallon of carpet cleaner later the floor is still covered in purple spots. I hate yogurt.

Yeah. This is the reason that I don't blog or write while my two-year-old is awake. He must be watched at all times or something like this happens. While he was painting carpet with yogurt I was reading blogs, so this was TOTALLY my fault-- bad mommy!

This last week I've been gearing up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). You all know about it now--right? Right. I've had all this prep time so I've done a few things I've never tried before-- outlining and character sketching.

I'm liking it.

It's quite a bit more preparation than I usually do, (because usually I don't prepare at all, I just jump into writing) but I'm hoping it will save me some time in the revision process, because usually I go into a project with no idea how the story will end, and end up rewriting a hundred times until I get something I'm happy with.

I haven't written anything on this manuscript yet (November 1st here I come!), so my outline may not be all that useful when it comes right down to it, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Have any of you ever tried to use an outline? (I know some of you use one on every project!) Do you think it makes the writing process easier? Do you stick with it or just use it as a general guide?

Things I Learned From My Kids: How to Build

We had some interesting responses yesterday. I asked that question

(What are you doing to make your story salable?) and then realized I have no idea how I would answer it! There are a few practical answers like I don't write 300,000 word manuscripts, and I don't use adverbs with reckless abandon. But mostly I think I, like you, just try to write a story I love and hope that other people will like it too.

Anyway, thanks for your responses--you are smart people.

Now for today...

Every so often my whole family plays blocks on Sunday afternoons.

When we first got our blocks and started building stuff together I often wanted to make something functional (like a house for my girls' dolls or a stable for their horses), but functionality was not my girls' main concern. They wanted to make tall, beautiful towers and didn't care if their creation was useful.

When I write I often fight a tendency to just tell the story and be done (This is probably why my manuscripts tend to be short). Sometimes I don't pause to flesh out the characters or let my main characters have fun together. My beta reader Marie was wonderful about pointing out places where she wanted to see more interaction between my main characters.

I am learning that building a story is more than just getting it told. It's the little moments that make books worth reading. And, like building with blocks, sometimes I need to enjoy the towers and not focus so much on making something practical.

Does that make sense? I just made Halloween cookies with ten 8-year-old girls and my brain is a little fried.

Do you struggle to include the little stuff that makes stories great? Or do you have to cut because you have too much little stuff?

Imaginary Places

Yesterday I was kind of amazed at how many of you have set stories in real places, and even built stories around settings. I'm impressed.

Okay, so I'm going to be very honest here. Setting a story in a real place scares me. I mean, what if I get it wrong? What if people from the place I've written about catch all of my mistakes and tell me my description sucks? What if I can't bend my story to fit around a place that's real? These are probably irrational fears (or maybe not), but they are real fears for me at least.

The setting for Underground came entirely from my imagination. It's set in a small, fictional town in the U.S. with cookie cutter neighborhoods, an abandoned steel mill, and a very small police force. I tried briefly to find an actual city that would meet the needs of the story, but I couldn't find anything that would work just right (and I was afraid of all the things I listed above).

Do any of you non-fantasy/sci-fi writers make up settings? And do those of you who write about real places let the setting dictate what can and can't be done in your story? I am so curious.

Setting the Story

I missed you all over the weekend. I need to catch up on a lot of blogs this week!

We spent the long weekend in Leavenworth, Washington and while we were there I started thinking a lot about settings.

See, Leavenworth is a Bavarian village nestled in the mountains of central Washington. Its downtown is full of little German shops and restaurants and minutes away are miles of apple orchards and untouched forest. It is a gorgeous and diverse setting and the whole time we were there I kept thinking, "I should totally write a story set in Leavenworth." Unfortunately I haven't thought of one-- yet.

So check it out. (Sorry, my cheap digital camera and lack of photography skills don't really do it justice).

Yes, those are my kid's (and husband's) backsides. Aren't they cute?

Okay, so what I'm wondering is this: do you ever write stories BASED on the setting? I've never tried it before. For me the plot always comes first and the characters and setting fall into place later, but I know it can be done.

If you haven't ever tried to write a story starting with a setting, have you considered it? Is there any place you'd love to write about?

Revising: Why Does It Have To Be So Hard?

A couple notes first. My awesome friend totally pimped my blog tonight, (I have absolutely no blog pimping talent of my own), so thanks Jay.

Second, I got ANOTHER call yesterday. It was awesome to talk to another agent who loved Underground, but when I hung up my stomach clenched, and I realized I was going to have to make a choice. I spent all afternoon and most of the evening weighing the pros and, well, mostly just the pros of each agent and trying to decide who would be the best for me, my book, and my career as an author (wow, it feels weird to type that). Let me say, it was a really tough choice. Both of them are very nice people, both were super enthusiastic about my manuscript, and both are with very respected agencies. I knew I couldn't go wrong either way so in the end I just went with my heart. I'll sign the agency agreement next week, and after that I'll let you all know who I chose :)

Okay, back to today's topic, Revising.

Honestly, revising is the only reason I don't love writing all the time. Revising is difficult, it's messy, and it takes so much time!

Here's a story for you. I promise it has a point.

Last weekend my in-laws were in town. The last time they visited I mentioned to my mother-in-law that my girls blankies were getting kind of ratty (My mother in law is an incredible quilter-- this was a hint). So during this visit she got out the squares that she's been working on for their blankies. Incredible. They were butterflies made of like 20 little pieces of different colored fabric. She said that she wasn't quite sure about a few of the fabrics and she wondered if she should just discard those squares and start over again. Discard them! After hours of work! The suggestion made me absolutely sick until I reminded myself that quilting is her art and she wants the finished product to be as perfect as it can be.

Of course, this reminded me of revising. I revised for several months before I queried the first time. Then, based on the suggestions of an incredible agent, I revised again.

Some of it was painful. I had to throw out some perfectly good scenes just because they weren't perfect for the book. I would change one little thing that resulted in a domino effect of deletions and additions throughout the whole manuscript. There were a few parts I enjoyed, like writing new chapters and talking over new ideas with my husband as he tried to go to sleep. Most of it was hard. But, even though I didn't enjoy the process as much as I did writing the first draft, I could tell that the revisions made the book stronger.

I'm headed into a few weeks of agent revisions now. I know they are going to be tough but I'm also excited to see how they improve the story.

So you tell me, what is the worst part of the revisions process for you and how do you press forward when it gets tough?

On Writing

When I first decided to write a novel I went to the Library and checked out Stephen King's On Writing. I got so much out of it! I took in his rants about the overuse of of adverbs and non-said dialogue tags. I got a sense for how competitive the world of publishing is (and resigned myself to write for fun and not try to get published). And I realized that the only way to get better at writing is to write. I read the whole book before I ever put a word on the page and I'm sure his advice helped my future bad writing to be a little less bad.

After I finished reading On Writing, I wrote. And wrote. And wrote. Then I read what I wrote six months before... and cringed. But at least I could see that my writing was getting better.

I don't have a writing process. I just write and revise over and over again until I feel pretty good about what I've written. I am am not an expert on grammar, punctuation, or non-was verb usage, but I have beta readers who are (thanks girls :). I am, without a doubt, not a brilliant writer. But I can write a good story, and I can do it with a convincing voice and I think that's the most important thing.

So how did you learn to write? (Really, I want to know. I could use some pointers :)

The Idea

I often wonder how authors came up with great ideas. I mean, how did JK Rowling imagine the magical world of Harry Potter and how did Suzanne Collins come up with the concept for The Hunger Games? (If you haven't read it you are missing out--get to the bookstore!) When I read a un-put-downable new book my first thought is always, "How did they come up with that idea."

When I first started writing I didn't have very good ideas.

Then one day, during a very bad windstorm last winter, our lamppost blew over. My husband was anxious to fix it, so he went off to Home Depot, bought a new post, came home, and started digging out the old one. He dug a very deep hole in order to remove the old post. It was dark outside by the time he finished it.

I looked out the window at my husband digging in the dirt and I remembered that my dad used to tell me stories about digging tunnels in a vacant lot near his house when he was a kid.

A light bulb flipped on in my brain and I got the basic idea for Underground.

I started writing that night and had the first draft done two months later.

It seems like most of my ideas come out of the blue (when I'm not thinking about trying to come up with ideas :).

How do you come up with story ideas? Can you sit down and brainstorm and or do they come when you least expect it?