Current Project:Agent Daddy
Status: page 177
I'm still plodding (and plotting...) Note to muse: Anytime you want to show up for work, it would be appreciated, hint, hint.
I did come up with a new trick for this book that's come in pretty handy. As I name a character, I add it (and a designation: Julie, ER nurse) to the list I keep a page after the WIP. Then when the lazy deputy makes an encore appearance a hundred pages after his original walk on, I just peek ahead to remember his name. I imagine most of you are able to keep all the names clear in your head or make a note on a piece of paper that stays right where you put it, but paper tends to wander on my desk and it's not uncommon for me to find I named a minor character three different names in the course of a book. Ack.
So, where are you guys, how is it going?
18 comments:
Alice your idea sounds better than me having to open another document where I keep the names and descriptions of my characters.
Still plugging away on fine tuning. But after the meeting this week, I added a brief scene where the Madame gives my Pinkerton agent a short lesson on not getting "with child" and hands her a rubber. Then of course I had to change a love scene where they use it. Do you know how hard it is to slip something like that into a scene??? They had to rebuild the momentum up all over again-
Anyway, My goal is to send out seven queries to agents this week. I have them all written will read through them one more time and get the synopsis down to three pages and then I'm good to send them and should be ready with a full when they respond.
Hope everyone else made time to write.
Paty, way to go on implementing new knowledge! That's very cool and I bet it makes a great scene.
It never fails to amaze me how the smallest of nuances changes a scene let alone something like what you described. I bet I have rewritten the love scene in this book a hundred times depending on what I want for the take away and as the characters redefine themselves in my head.
On a personal bright note, I figured out where the heroine can find a dead body while I was brushing my teeth a few minutes ago. Happy days.
Good luck with the queries!
Don't you just love it when something comes to you out of the blue or when you're doing some mundane everyday thing? Congrats on the body! LOL
Alice, I forget my secondary characters' names all the time. Sigh. I should know to write them down, but I don't and then I forget and have to go back to search for them.
I plotted out the rest of the book the other day, so now I have sort of a map to follow. I'm using 4 POVs and jumping between scenes that happen simultaneously, so the order things happen is really important to keep straigh. The pace is rapid fire, which is working. So far. We'll see what I think while doing revisions.
Alice, aren't you coming with us on the beach retreat? I'm hoping to be at the revision stage of my WIP by then, but at the rate I'm going, I just don't know. Still on page 302.
Happy Saturday! I keep a list of characters in my stories on a separate document. Mostly because I usually have tooooo many characters and go back to combine or eliminate characters in revisions. LOL!
Paty, love that you used some of the info Delilah shared with us!
Karen, glad that the end of your story is coming together. How exciting to be at that point of the process!
Last week was very sparse for writing-related projects. Didn't work on the novella and kept dragging my feet on promo for my Feb. 27 release. Finally realized it was because of a not-great review and I was doubting my story. Ay-yi-yi! Did a review of my story to recreate my enthusiasm for it, got my Web site revised and a new contest launched last night. (After I confirmed the release date with the publisher who purchased Awe-Struck and got the final OK on the cover.) Just need to get e-mails out today to announce the contest and work on the back cover. Woo-hoo!
LOL, Karen! Naw, our all-knowing Alice has warned of this several times. It's just another reinforcement that we each must believe in our own stories, no matter what others say. What doesn't appeal to one reader or reviewer or editor or agent may resonate strongly with many others. Thanks for the support, though!
I'm with Karen, Genene, we can go kick us some bad review bootie, just tell us where and when (Karen, I'll bring the beer.)
Karen, yes, I am hoping to go to the beach but right now can't figure out if I will be done or way late and as I am not a fan of being way late, can't see going off when I should be home working. I'll know in a week or so. Thanks for asking!
Sounds like everyone's making great progress! Paty, way to go on incorporating some of Delilah's talk! And Genene, sorry to hear about the not-so-great review. But you have the best attitude. You're my hero!!! One person put up a not-so-great review of my book on Amazon, and I have to admit, it got to me for a few days. But then I looked at all the 5 star reviews in comparison, and remembered that not every person is going to like my snarky characters. Such is life...you can't please everyone all of the time. No one can.
As for me...I made progress this week. Finally! Feels like all I've been doing the last two months is promo and while it's great and fun, it's also draining. I need to learn to balance promo and writing and am just so thankful I'm not on a tight deadline right now.
This week, though, I picked up on my new adventure proposal, wrote most of chapter one and the first half of the synopsis. Then I got stuck for a day, thought long and hard about it and had an epiphany while taking a shower yesterday (gotta love the shower). And now I know where the book is going and how it will get there. Just have to finish writing the second half of the synopsis.
I also got my copy edits on STOLEN HEAT yesterday, so I have to finish those by next Friday and finish up my presentation for the WW meeting on Feb. 3rd.
Okay, I have no idea how I logged in as anything other than me. But...ya'll know that last comment was from me. ;)
I don't have too much trouble with names, but I do with eye color. I can never remember my heroine's eye color. Probably because I'm jumping between MSs. Like Paty, I keep an extra document where I list physical characteristics or habits each char might have.
This week I'm pumping up the ST in one finished MS. I'm trying to get my entries ready for the Daphne contest.
Ugh on the negative reviews. That is something that would have me under the covers for a week and avoiding my computer for a month.
Karen, your story sounds action packed!
Genene, UGH on the review. Even knowing they are one person's opinion it sucks to get them. Hang in there and do what I do, delete the bad one and read the good ones every day!
Eli- which do you prefer, the promoting or the writing? I prefer the writing and only do the promoting because I have to if I want my books seen.
Congrats on getting back to writing.
Kendra, good luck with the Daphne!
Thanks for all the support on the not-so-great review. I thought I'd shrugged it off, but it reflected the doubts I had that this poor book didn't get the care and nurturing it needed over its entire process from writing to critiquing to scheduling to promotion--which has all seemed rushed.
It is a unique book that is different than the first two that are connected, so I just needed to step back and remind myself what I loved about the book. Promotion is back on track now as well as promotion plans for all three connected books throughout most of 2009. Yes, another learning experience for me! :)
But we can all gather somewhere and have a beer to celebrate something. LOL!
Eli, so glad you've settled back into writing. Feels good, doesn't it?
And sounds like teeth brushing and showers are THE places for epiphanies!
Kendra, way to go in pulling the manuscript together for the Daphne! I noticed in the latest RWR that there are a good number of contests coming up soon for both published and unpublished authors. There are 2 or 3 that I'm going to research to see if my 2008 releases fit.
It's good to hear everyone's progress!
It feels SO good, Genene!
Kendra, good luck with the Daphne entries. My book isn't eligible in the pubbed division because it has a 2009 copywrite.
Oh, and I forgot to add I'm wading my way through my RITA entries as well. I have like 5 more full length books (one of which is super thick!) to read by March 9. Ack!
OMG, Eli, 5 books by March 9? That would be impossible for me. I'm a very slow reader.
Kendra, good luck with the Daphne. I never entered that one, but I judged the pubbed version of the KOD contest (forget what it's called). I got to read 3 really great books, too! That was so fun.
Speaking of contests, I entered LERA's Rebecca with the first 5000 words of Mystic Taxi. Though technically it's not a romance, but more of a "Moonlighting" meets "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." The romance builds slowly over the course of a few books, with lots of near misses and smoldering tension. It's more of a romantic elements series.
Karen, Good luck on the LERA's Rebecca contest and on making through Karin Tabke's first line contest. The results for the next round come out tomorrow, right?
Eli, glad you're writing again and feeling positive about it. I had intended to judge the Rita's this year and forgot about it. Man. Anyway, now I'm glad I don't have five books to read in the next few weeks as egad, when would that happen? I feel like I dodged a bullet.
Genene, glad you're back on track. The first poor review I got didn't even phase me, but the last one I got really set me back. My last two books got terrific reviews but the book that is coming out in March is probably going to tank in the review department. Mothers of multiple babies everywhere will be throwing my book from tall buildings (probably lighting it on fire first.) Sigh.
Kendra, good luck on the Daphne contest! ( And eye color is tricky for me, too.) And with Karin Tabke's first line.
curouYikes, Eli! RITAs and copy edits. It would be great to read those books--but not with the timeline rushing at you and, oh yeah, the rest of your life marching on also.
Karen, good luck with the LERA and also to you and Kendra with Karin Tabke's contest. It's getting more and more exciting!
OK, Alice, my turn to give a pep talk. Mothers of multiple babies could become rabid fans for your books. They could gather in groups and talk about how great your book is. They could beg for more and send you anecdotes from their own lives to include in a new series of multiple baby books. The babies will need their own stories when they are adults and looking for their own heroes. Reviewers wouldn't dare utter a bad word or mothers of multiples everywhere would shut down their newspapers and magazines and Web sites and blogs in outrage.
Besides, I'm really looking forward to reading this book. Four babies at once boggles the mind! :)
Alice--for every one reader who calls you on accuracy, there will be several dozen who harbor secret multiple baby fantasies. I know pre-parenthood, I LOVED twin and more stories. Reviewers can get off their high horse--that great cover with the cute babies will sell itself. Just last night I picked up a SR on a whim with a baby plot and ended up staying up way too late.
As for me, I'm plodding along. I'm using contests as deadlines right now, and I'm editing at night. In bed. Somehow that feels less like "work."
Wavy, thank you for the positive thoughts. I just looked on Amazon and they have a long excerpt up. They also have a box down below that's for using words that will tie my book into book searches. Does that make sense? You put in a word or two, I think, and it will show up when someone goes browsing for a book. Does anyone know how this is done? Do you just stick words in there and hit submit?
I hope the book is well received as I am fond of it. I used a couple off the internet who had had quads a year before as models -- you know, they kept a diary and I used it to time things and to understand what happens, etc. I thought about contacting them but what if they HATE what I did??? I'm afraid I made it all look so easy!
Having nerves about a book for the first time in years. Weird. So your support is much appreciated.
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