July 22, 2008

Stick-with-it-ness

As an aspiring writer, I wanted to give up on my dream of being published about a hundred times. People close to me even encouraged me to give up. But each time I was really serious about calling it quits, something would happen to encourage me. I’d final in a contest or get a note of encouragement from an agent or hear something really motivational in a workshop.

I stuck with it for four years and realized my dream.

Of course, I didn’t know that I’d realize my dream in four years. I can’t see the future any more than any of you, and for all I knew, four years could have been ten or fifteen or never.

But I would have never known that I could realize my dream if I hadn’t stuck with it.

If any of you are feeling like giving up, let me give you some stick-with-it-ness tips:

1) Set achievable goals. Plan to write 3 days a week or 5 pages a day. Maybe you want to find a critique partner or submit to 2 agents a month. When you achieve your goals, you’ll feel like you’re making progress.

2) Celebrate small victories. If you write 5 pages a day for a week, treat yourself to a movie or your favorite snack or a day off.

3) Focus on what you can and are doing, not what you can’t control. You cannot control whether your dream agent takes you on as a client. You cannot control whether your book finals in a contest or whether you sell by the end of the year. You can control your book, your characters, and your writing schedule. Feel good about that.

4) Keep moving forward. If you get a rejection or you realize that a book you’ve spent 6 months on just is not salvageable (happened to me and not very long ago), don’t give up. Write another book. Query another agent. Published writers are persistent.

5) Get some support. I’m lucky to have a husband who really takes an interest in my career. He cares about how many pages I write a day and whether or not I need a sub-plot. Maybe your DH isn’t as supportive. Maybe no one in your family gets why your dream is so important to you. Find a writing group and friends who do. When you don’t have to rely solely on family for support, you take the pressure off them and you.

Good luck!

July 8, 2008

Writing and the Unconscious

I’m doing something different with the new book I’m writing. Usually I’m a nose to the grindstone kind of writer. I start writing and do my 10 pages a day without coming up for air. This time I made a conscious decision to come up for air.

And not just to breathe but also to evaluate.

I don’t really like to think about something when I’m in the middle of it. I just want to get it done. I want to try my idea out and see if it works. I guess this is why I’m a pantser. I don’t think about how this plot element will work or if the conflict is strong enough. I write it it. I’ll make it work when I have something to work with.

That’s my process. I know it’s not the way everyone works. It’s not the way everyone should work.

But I decided to make a change to my process this time around. I’m about 150 pages into my new book, and I decided now was as good a time as any to evaluate where I am. I printed everything out and started reading and revising. The thing I’m finding so helpful in doing this is that by about page 75 or 80, I’ve forgotten a lot of the groundwork I laid in the first 20-30 pages. The plot starts to take over, and the characterization and internal conflict gets put aside.

But as I re-read the first few chapters of the book, I saw that I gave myself a lot to work with character and internal plot-wise. One example is that I have my heroine wearing spectacles. Later in the book she has to take them off to disguise herself. I never came back and made any issue about those spectacles. Can she see without them? Is this a problem for her? What an opportunity for a conflict or a funny scene, and I wasn’t making use of it because I’d forgotten she wore spectacles at the beginning of the book!

I’ve got to pay more attention to those interesting characterization tidbits my unconscious gives me. A good writer works all of that in seamlessly.

So back to the revising—for one more day at least. I can’t let that grindstone get too much rest.

July 4, 2008

Happy Independence Day!

The Fourth of July always makes me think about family, pool parties, and baseball. Today USF and I are going to a birthday party for his second cousin, who’s turning 2. I suppose a birthday party is as fun a way as any to spend the holiday—as long as we can be inside.

I remember as a kid sitting out at night in a field in Michigan, watching the fireworks. It was so much fun, and I loved the warm weather. In Houston the weather is just plain hot and sticky. The city probably has 4 fireworks’ shows, and I don’t want to be outside for any of them. Too hot!

We’re not allowed to have fireworks in the city limits, so doing our own show is out as well.

But I guess the point of the 4th is not fireworks, but to celebrate our independence. We Americans sure do love independence. We don’t want to be dependent on anyone or anything.

As a writer, I have a healthy appreciation for independence. I like the freedom of working independently, coming up with my own ideas, own words, setting my own schedule (most of the time).

Freedom is another thing to celebrate on Independence Day.

So what are you doing this holiday? Anything fun? Going to see fireworks?

June 27, 2008

Made to Order

USF took me to a sandwich shop today called Which Wich? Maybe you’ve been there? It’s new to Houston, so this was our first trip.

The concept behind Which Wich? is that you design your own sandwich. You choose a bag based on the filling you want (meat, vegetarian) and then check off the other ingredients: type of bread, condiments, veggies, cheeses, etc. Then the cooks prepare your sandwich.

It’s not that different from Subway, but it feels like you have more choices because you can ponder all the selections on that bag and create something unique. Something your own. I bet there’s like a million different kinds of sandwiches you can create at Which Wich?

Coincidentally, yesterday we also attended a show about building and remodeling homes. USF loves to look at home plans. He can bring up any number of sites and go through a checklist to design a dream home: numbers of bathrooms, bedrooms, type of exterior, detached or attached garage, and more.

With the way everything is so custom designed nowadays, I started wondering if that would be a good way to choose a novel to read. Like what if you could go to Borders or Barnes & Noble or wherever and go down a checklist, hand it to the clerk, and get a book in return.

You could choose genre:
romance, horror, mystery, science fiction, literary, poetry

You could choose characters:
doctor hero, lawyer hero, sports hero, millionaire hero

You could choose setting:
Illinois, Paris, NY, London

There would be an overwhelming number of choices, but you get the idea, right? So what do you think? Would you like to custom order books or is it more fun to see what the author’s chosen for you?

June 16, 2008

So Sad

I’m really sad today. My little sister leaves (okay, not that little, early 30s) for Africa tomorrow. She’s going to work for the United Nations helping resettle refugees. I have to take her to the airport.

The whole idea is so strange to me. She quit her job, moved out of her apartment, put everything she couldn’t sell or give away in storage, and packed two suitcases. Could you do that?

I’d be freaking out, but she seems excited about going to live in a part of the world where indoor plumbing is a luxury. Plus, working with refugees has to be kind of depressing.

She’s only supposed to be gone until October, but it might be longer. Ideally, she’d like to do a 9 to 11-month stint.

My sister and I don’t have the same friends or many of the same interests, so we don’t see each other very often. But she lives about 10 minutes away, and it was nice to know she was close by. It was comforting to call her up when I needed something and vice-versa. There’s no one—not a mom, not a husband, not a best friend—like a sister. Now I feel like I’m being orphaned.

Tomorrow is going to be a really sad day.

June 12, 2008

History Alive

I just got back from a trip to see my grandparents in Michigan. They’re almost 90, and they live in a retirement home. It’s not a place I would mind living. They’ve got a computer lab, exercise classes, a pool, a store, a beauty salon—pretty nice place to hang your hat (or bonnet).

The thing I love about seeing my grandparents is all the stories that they tell. My grandmother tells story after story about what life was like when she was a girl. For a history lover like me, it can’t get any better.

My grandparents didn’t grow up during the Regency period, my favorite time to write about, but I think what we forget nowadays is how slowly things changed fifty, sixty, and seventy years ago. Life in the early twentieth century wasn’t so different from life in the early nineteenth century.

Take eating. My grandparents eat breakfast, dinner, and supper—just like they did in the Regency period. There wasn’t really anything called lunch in the early 1800s. People might have a small bite midday, but luncheon/nuncheon wasn’t a formal meal. Most people probably weren’t even hungry come noon as they didn’t eat breakfast until about 10.

Ever wonder why old people want to eat so early? It’s historical. In the Regency period, dinner was served between 3 and 5 p.m. in the country, between 6-7 if the family were keeping town hours (then nuncheon would have been more necessary). Dinner is the big meal of the day. It’s when you pull out all the stops. My grandparents eat a big dinner early and then have a light supper later. Supper, just like in Regency times, is relatively light.

Needless to say, Ultimate Sportsfan and I were a little thrown off by this schedule. We were also thrown off by how long dinner could last. My grandparents would spend an hour or more eating. When USF and I eat a midday meal, we pretty much scarf it down. I have 25 minutes for lunch. He has longer, but he likes to use that time to make phone calls or read the paper online. Who has time to linger over a meal?

But in the Regency, dinners could last for hours and hours and have dozens of courses. Obviously, there wasn’t the sense of hurry we have now.

And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s educational to slow down once in a while, get the feel for what life was really like years ago. It’s an experience no book alone can give you.

So what about you? Have you learned anything from your grandparenst?

P.S. I have a contest on my website right now. Enter to win a copy of the Rita nominated BLACKTHRONE’S BRIDE.

May 27, 2008

Some of My Favorite Things

I thought today I would share some of my favorite websites with you. I don’t have a lot of time to surf, but these are sites I visit almost every day. Maybe you’ll find a few new faves and share some of yours with us.

1) The Jaunty Quills—oh, but you already knew about that one, right!

2) Free Rice —This website is run by Poverty.com, and it allows you to practice vocabulary. For each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program. The words are hard! Try it. You’ll learn a new word (and help feed the hungry).

3) The Animal Rescue Site –This is one of those sites where you click and the sponsors donate money to help pay for food and care for animals. It also links to similar sites for the rainforest, literacy, hunger, breast cancer, and child health.

4) Vegan.com–I realize most of you aren’t vegetarians, much less vegans, but I thought since Oprah was doing that 21-day vegan challenge, some of you might be trying it too. I’m going to go vegan this summer (again), and I just love this site and the podcast. I can’t wait to try the top 10 recipes.

5) Kids-in-Mind–I think every parent should be familiar with this site. I’m a teacher, and it helps me choose which movies are appropriate to show my students. Check it out. It’s really objective.

So those are some of my favorites. What about you?

May 20, 2008

Email

I remember the first time I ever used email. I thought it was cool but really cumbersome. This was when the Internet was still in its infancy, and I had to type in code in order to send a message to a friend who also had an account at the college we attended. There was no Hotmail, no Yahoo, no Gmail. It was just a blue computer screen and some nonsense code and my message.

It seemed easier to talk just using my new mobile phone (which, by the way, weighed about 8 pounds and got no reception).

Things have certainly changed, and while I cannot imagine life without email, there are things that bug me about it.

When people don’t email me back.
Hey, I understand that people are busy. If they’re anything like me, they get like 500 emails a day—mostly SPAM, but some that require an action or reply. I don’t expect an instant reply, but within 48 hours would be nice. Recently, I was organizing an event at work and needed to know how many would attend. After weeks of sending emails and asking who would attend, half a dozen people still had not responded. In desperation, I finally emailed them this: “I don’t care it you come or not. I just need a count. Email back YES or NO.”

Still nothing!

So I figure they’re not coming. Of course, at this point I could have actually walked down the hall and asked them if they were coming, but what’s the point of email then? Plus, if I ask them about it personally, there’ll be that awkward sorry-I-didn’t-respond-to-your-email apology. Then I have to say that it’s okay, but really it’s not because it if were okay, I wouldn’t have had to email them 8 times and then walk over there!

So anyway, where was I? Oh, right. So I figured they wouldn’t show. And then, of course, they did.

The useless Reply All
Sometimes, in the spirit of efficiency, people send an email to several recipients. I’m all for this. Recently, a friend of mine sent a mass email to let everyone know that her dog had emergency surgery and might not make it through. The email must have gone to 60 people. I emailed her back privately, but some people hit Reply All. Those emails just clogged my Inbox. They were sweet but not meant for me. I didn’t even know most of the people.

Failure to Trim
I completely understand, in a business situation, keeping the original emails at the bottom of the page. One or more of the parties involved in the decision may need to refer back to something mentioned in an earlier email. The Jaunty Quills do this all the time when we’re making decisions about this blog. Sometimes we ever chime in using different colors to differentiate our responses.

But when I send someone a personal email, why keep my letter in the reply? If I send a letter via snail mail, no one would return it with their letter. I think not trimming personal emails is kind of weird for some reason.

So am I alone? Do any of these things bug you? What bugs you about email?

May 13, 2008

I Miss Reading

My life is definitely too busy. I have 7 books checked out from the library, and I’ve only started 3 of them. Plus, I have another I’m halfway through, but it’s not from the library. I should probably put it at the bottom of the stack, but it’s so good!

We’re supposed to go to a party tonight, but I told my husband that if I had my choice I would stay home and write and read. Do you ever want to skip social events and just read? Does that make me anti-social?

I have enough time to write—not as much as I’d like, but enough. But something has to go when I’m writing a book, and since it can’t be my day job and I already only get like 6 hours of sleep, I guess it’s been my reading time.

Do you have enough time to read? What do you do to make more time for reading?

May 6, 2008

The Thing About Cleaning (and writing too)

Ultimate Sportsfan and I had friends coming over for brunch on Sunday, which meant we had to get ready for our guests on Saturday. And of course, that meant cleaning. Lots of cleaning.

I hope I can feel at home confiding to all of you that I don’t clean much. My house isn’t a pigsty or anything. I wipe off the counters, do laundry, run the dishwasher…but the heavy stuff like mopping and dusting and polishing the silver only get done when we have people coming over or I just can’t take it anymore. I’d like to do more cleaning, but the bottom line is that I can either clean or write, and I choose to write.

But Saturday I had no choice but to clean, and I started thinking that, in some ways, cleaning is a lot like writing. See, the thing about cleaning is that the more I clean, the more I see that needs to be cleaned. For example, if I clean the counters and the sink in the kitchen, then the stove looks dirty. Then the refrigerator doesn’t look spiffy. And what about the inside of the refrigerator? And if I’m cleaning in there, I’d better do the inside of the microwave too. And how long has it been since those windows were washed…

I think in the cleaning world this is called the dustball effect.

In the writing world, it’s called overwriting.

Right now I’m on page 354 of a book that really shouldn’t go over 375 pages. I’m generally a pantser, but at the end of a book I try to map everything out clearly to ensure I don’t forget anything and the pacing stays tight.

So after cleaning all day, I sit down to write. I know exactly what scenes I need to write, their purposes, the point of view, everything. And yet, as I write I can’t resist putting little extras in there.

Why not give this character a few lines? Why not throw in another kiss? Why not have the hero talk to his best friend one more time? Pretty soon what should have been 5 pages turns into 12. If I allow myself to do this unchecked, I’ll get 550-page books. I’ve done it in the past. But since I’ve been published and realized that no one is going to buy 550-page books, I’ve tried to save myself the anguish of cutting huge sections and written to publisher guidelines.

And so just like when I’m cleaning, and I think, “Why not pull out all the refrigerator shelves and wash them?”, when I’m writing I have to say, “No, best friend, you can’t have a part in this scene. Or a subplot. Or a love interest.”

Save that for the next book. Or the next Spring cleaning.