Current Project: HIS BABY
Status: Proposal sent
Hey everyone, it's Saturday again and I can't wait to see how you guys are coming along.
My proposal left the house Thursday. Since it's been gone, I've been trying to think in terms of a thriller and have decided to plot the sequel book with this in mind. I believe the plot lends itself well to that format.
So, that's where I am, out of work, still, hopeful things move along at a good pace and that my head isn't empty and there's another plot in there somewhere. I did the math yesterday and realized in the last twelve months I've completely plotted seven books, written detailed proposals for four of them, and completed two of them. It's been a productive year and yet frustrating, too, but that's writing for you.
I hope each of you had a fulfilling, satisfying week.
16 comments:
"I did the math yesterday and realized in the last twelve months I've completely plotted seven books, written detailed proposals for four of them, and completed two of them."
OMG, Alice! That's amazing! Good luck on the response to your synopsis. I love your new title: His Baby.
Nothing new on Letters to My Younger Self this week. I appreciate your suggestion about extracting an article (or series of articles?) from it and Bethany's encouragement to consider it as belonging to the Wisdom sub-genre of nonfiction. (Wisdom, me?) Both suggest interesting paths for developing what I have into something publishable. Thanks!
I hope the rest of you are out enjoying the sunshine or going to Salem Fest 2009 movies as I will be soon.
Wow, Alice! You have indeed had a productive year! CONGRATULATIONS!!
I spent most of the day at the Portland RWA chapter's Readers' Luncheon. Always a wonderful event! Good food, seeing friends I haven't seen for awhile, making new friends, and hopefully selling a few books!
Barbara, I think the suggestions of writing a series of articles from "My Younger Self" or targeting the Wisdom sub-genre (I didn't even know there was such a thing!) are great ideas!
I'm still plugging away on edits for the novella. Someday they will be finished!
Hi Alice!
Is it you or Danita that lives somewhere in the vicinity of the Brownsville area? DH, Tavy, and I ended up in Brownsville by accident today, which is another way of saying, "No Writing Today," but what a charming little town.
My goals this were 1) to send off the MS to the editor FINALLY. Packet arrived. Changes made. Sending tomorrow.
2) To complete character studies--done BUT, I'm just not feeling enough . . . passion??? Something??? For this book. I am glad you posted b/c this will be 6th book that I have plotted w/o finishing a MS. I have six first chapters rattling around on my hard drive and it drives me slightly batty. However, I think maybe it's just part of the process? I'm trying to decide whether to abandon ship on this one completely or try to get a bit further.
My goals for this week:
1)Send MS tomorrow
2)Get Contest Entry for Rebecca Ready to go.
3) Choose SOMETHING to be the WIP. Perhaps I should play spin the bottle???
Alice, you said:
"I've been trying to think in terms of a thriller and have decided to plot the sequel book with this in mind. I believe the plot lends itself well to that format."
If you don't have a blog topic for this week, could you expand on this? I understand the difference between thriller/mystery/romantic suspense as a reader, but I'm curious about how you approach it from a plotting perspective. What are the hallmarks of a thriller? What mindset do you need? Is it all in the pacing? I'd love to see your take on this!
Let's see, last week I said I'd work on characters & plot and write at least 2500 words of the story. I've been working so much on the characters I'm starting to dream about them. Not sure if that's a good thing or not--suppose it depends on what they're doing in the dreams. LOL
I didn't quite meet my word count goal, but I did write 1100 words. Not sure if I'll keep them, though.
Goal for this week: 2500 words.
Genene, so glad you enjoyed the Reader's Luncheon.
Isn't it amazing how long edits can seem to last? Sometimes I think it would be easier to start something new than redo something old -- I assume the novella is the edit you're talking about?
Thanks for checking in!
Barbara -- Hope you enjoyed the Salem Fest movies!
Sounds like you have a lot to consider when it comes to marketing your Letters to My Younger Self.
Ah, Wavy, it's me who lives in Brownsville, right above the park. It is a charming town.
Spin the Bottle, huh? LOL.
I do think beginnings without ends are part of the process. I have some of those, too. Some ideas just never seem to come together. Have you tried sketching out a general outline of where your current WIP would go if you were to continue? Sometimes I've found that sparks the passion you're missing as you get to launch into story telling mode as you write it and discover the tension you need to build, for instance, that will move chapter one into chapter two and onward. Did that make sense?
I'll see if I can expand on the thriller thing as I work on the book today. Thanks for you interest!
Debbie -- I think dreaming about your characters is very good news! How alive they must be if your subconscious can't even leave them alone. You must be doing something right and I can't wait to read this book!
As far as word counts -- they are important, but volume of words does not a book make so don't despair if they have to be trashed, you learned something from writing them and perhaps ruled out a dead end direction.
Good going.
Wavy, two things...
I forgot to remind you how inspirational you are. You set your goals and you meet them or redefine them. That's admirable.
The second thing concerns all the starts you have rattling around in your computer (and head.) This suggestion may or may not pertain to you, but I've found if I can't move forward with what seems to me a good plot, it's usually because I dropped the tension. I know this isn't startling news you don't know, but it can be in a small way. A spat too easily forgiven, for instance, thus giving no opportunity for growth.
The other thing I've found that can cause a dwindling interest in a project is trying to figure out a transition scene. This can happen in a synopsis as well as a book and what I have taught myself to do is skip forward (I can't write scenes out of sequence like Debbie can.) I just go to what I know is going to happen next. And almost always, as I write that scene I realize what I needed to implement into the scene (or paragraph or end of last chapter, etc...) to set me up for where I needed to go.
Hope some of that made sense and is useful.
That helped alot Alice. I think I'm struggling with it being "too easy." I know that sounds ridiculous, but I've got it plotted (pretty much--working on some story magic/plot stuff from the workshop this fall) and for the first time I actually have a genuine conflict instead of "can't be together" angst, and I'm not really battling the characters--it feels like I'm not working hard enough. I'm not sure if that makes a lick of sense, but maybe what I'm getting at is that this WIP isn't pushing me to dig deeper, which I'm not sure is a problem.
Wavy -- Is it possible that having plotted the book makes writing it less of a challenge and hence not as much fun? Perhaps you're a panster who just needs a general and not blow by blow direction.
Or maybe you think you did the hard work in your synopsis and are discounting the inevitable roadblocks, switcheroos and tangents that always seem to arise during the actual writing process (and are thus looming ahead, (evil snort..)
Alice you are an inspiration!
Barbara- your project sounds great!
Genene, wasn't it fun to see so many MWV members at the luncheon? Keep working on that novella. And Rosemary looked awesome!! It was good to visit with her.
Wavy- way to get things moving and shaking in the writing department! I agree with Alice, there has to be a reason you aren't feeling the motivation to keep writing a story. I can't help you with what it is, but try some of the things Alice suggested.
Debbie anything but a blank screen is a step in the right direction. You'll slowly start adding more words every day. I find when I work on something the beginning is slower because you are learning more about the characters and how the story is going to evolve. Once I hit the half way point it seems to flow faster and fall into place easier.
As you can see from my post to Genene, I was at the Readers luncheon yesterday, got home at 6pm and then my dh put me to work sorting cattle and vaccinating. We finished around 9pm and then we were up this morning finishing the vaccinating and hauling them to some pasture we rent during the summer.
I had a good writing week. I've hit the halfway point and things flow faster when I get there. I have a busy week this week. I hope I can keep the momentum going. From Monday to Thursday I wrote 24 pages, but I had to rewrite two chapters to add more tension which changed the direction I was headed at the beginning of the week.
When I check in next weekend in will be from Princeton as I start my first irrigation rotation on Friday after the meeting.
Thanks Alice -- what a nice thing to say! I hope the end result of all this turmoil turns out to be something worth reading! :-)
And, in the ongoing melodrama that is my day job, I may have a lot more time to write soon. It was announced this morning that Oracle is buying my company, Sun Microsystems. It'll probably take 1-3 months before everything shakes out in regards to my job (and I figure a flip of the coin is as good as any decision making tool when it comes to whether I'll continue to be employed or not). I'll keep you posted...
Debbie, I will keep you (and your job!) in my thoughts!
Thanks Wavy! Always appreciated!
Post a Comment