I confirmed for myself that I have the "idea bank" to be a writer. I finished the last book so quickly, I began panicking that I didn't have something on deck to start writing.
Yesterday an Idea came to me (yes, the capital is intentional). Whether or not it goes anywhere remains to be seen - after all, my mystery crashed and burned - but so far I think it's pretty solid. It's a little more mature than my other books - I was going back and forth between whether or not to approach it as an adult book or a YA, and Caitie persuaded me to go with YA. It's semi-dystopian, with a definite influence from one of my favorite writers, Stephen King. I find when I go into many details early on I dilute the idea too much, so I don't want to say much more than that right now.
As for the other book - Caitie is going to look it over next week and then out it goes. Fingers crossed!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Wow
I started on 2/11/11 -- and finished tonight - 3/25/11. I wrote an entire book in 42 days (it's a Lost number and the meaning of life, coincidence?).
Let me get this straight - I didn't intend a rush job - nor do I think it is one. I didn't think, when I began, I would EVER get a book written in a little over a month. And I have to say (sort of echoing one of my characters and not without a bit of shameless self-promotion), it's pretty darn good. I'm pretty critical of myself, and I think this is some of the best stuff I've written. I know for sure it is the most FUN I've ever had writing a book.
There are authors out there, at least so I've read, who have talked about books spilling out of them - writing themselves almost. I never experienced that before - but that's kind of what happened with this one. Despite working full time teaching, I managed to average a little under 1,000 words a day - a number which is pretty good for me. I tend to write in spurts - 2,000 one day, 100 another. That's pretty normal for me. Somehow, this book just was there.
I learned something about my writing from this book. With Before White I had a vague idea of where I was going. Although that book was densely plotted, it took a lot of time outside of writing to sort through my thoughts. For something like that, it worked. Goodson took me ten years to fully develop. It's hard to measure that one. Sparks took me several months to write. I had an even vaguer idea of where that was going than Before White (I had the concept, but the actual plot was kind of made up as I went). This book, which, by the way, I'm tentatively calling Bye, Bye Connie, came to me almost fully formed. I knew the characters, I knew the basic plot, I knew what the final scene would be almost immediately. Sure, details changed, but the basic plot stayed the course. The jokes and humor came as I wrote - and not to toot my own horn, but I think the book is funny - and that was more fun than almost anything else to write.
Caitie's making me wait a week to revise. I'm so gung-ho on this book, I want to jump in and do it now, but she's right. I have been penpals with a pretty well known theater columnist for years now - even met him twice - and I asked him to read the book for me when I finished. He VERY enthusiastically agreed, so the impetus to get this out is even stronger. I know of an agent already who is looking for a book along these lines.
Maybe I'm overreaching my hopes - but unlike Han Solo, I kind of have a good feeling about this.
Let me get this straight - I didn't intend a rush job - nor do I think it is one. I didn't think, when I began, I would EVER get a book written in a little over a month. And I have to say (sort of echoing one of my characters and not without a bit of shameless self-promotion), it's pretty darn good. I'm pretty critical of myself, and I think this is some of the best stuff I've written. I know for sure it is the most FUN I've ever had writing a book.
There are authors out there, at least so I've read, who have talked about books spilling out of them - writing themselves almost. I never experienced that before - but that's kind of what happened with this one. Despite working full time teaching, I managed to average a little under 1,000 words a day - a number which is pretty good for me. I tend to write in spurts - 2,000 one day, 100 another. That's pretty normal for me. Somehow, this book just was there.
I learned something about my writing from this book. With Before White I had a vague idea of where I was going. Although that book was densely plotted, it took a lot of time outside of writing to sort through my thoughts. For something like that, it worked. Goodson took me ten years to fully develop. It's hard to measure that one. Sparks took me several months to write. I had an even vaguer idea of where that was going than Before White (I had the concept, but the actual plot was kind of made up as I went). This book, which, by the way, I'm tentatively calling Bye, Bye Connie, came to me almost fully formed. I knew the characters, I knew the basic plot, I knew what the final scene would be almost immediately. Sure, details changed, but the basic plot stayed the course. The jokes and humor came as I wrote - and not to toot my own horn, but I think the book is funny - and that was more fun than almost anything else to write.
Caitie's making me wait a week to revise. I'm so gung-ho on this book, I want to jump in and do it now, but she's right. I have been penpals with a pretty well known theater columnist for years now - even met him twice - and I asked him to read the book for me when I finished. He VERY enthusiastically agreed, so the impetus to get this out is even stronger. I know of an agent already who is looking for a book along these lines.
Maybe I'm overreaching my hopes - but unlike Han Solo, I kind of have a good feeling about this.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Writing writing writing
I've been flying through my new book. I'm closing in on 25,000 words, and my goal is to keep it at a solid middle grade level of about 30-35,000. The thing that has made me happiest with it at this point is that I've been able to keep the voice light and humorous pretty much throughout. Certain chapters are a little "heavier" I suppose, but the humor has to be forsaken for plot at some point. Even then, the story itself never gets too heavy. I just hope that as I head towards the finish line I can keep that tone up. Since a lot of the humor is reliant on allusions that come naturally in dialogue (not trying to give too much away yet), when the characters are actively involved in the plot the jokes are much harder to write naturally.
It makes me admire the likes of Christopher Moore that much more.
Anyway, this book is the reason I haven't been blogging much. Between having a ton of papers to grade lately and trying to concentrate writing time on the book, I'm afraid I've neglected the blog. Sorry :)
As a side note, I've been reading "Publish This Book" by Stephen Markley. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in publishing -it's very funny and very well written. I'll probably have more to say when I finish it...
It makes me admire the likes of Christopher Moore that much more.
Anyway, this book is the reason I haven't been blogging much. Between having a ton of papers to grade lately and trying to concentrate writing time on the book, I'm afraid I've neglected the blog. Sorry :)
As a side note, I've been reading "Publish This Book" by Stephen Markley. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in publishing -it's very funny and very well written. I'll probably have more to say when I finish it...
Monday, March 7, 2011
Writeoncon
They're gearing up again - woohoo!
Writeoncon is a free writing conference given over the summer - tons of agents and writers meet virtually to discuss and share all aspects of writing and publishing. It was a great experience last year, and I'm looking forward to this year's as well!
If you haven't already (and I know several of my followers are already from writeoncon!), check out writeoncon.com.
It's worth your time!
Writeoncon is a free writing conference given over the summer - tons of agents and writers meet virtually to discuss and share all aspects of writing and publishing. It was a great experience last year, and I'm looking forward to this year's as well!
If you haven't already (and I know several of my followers are already from writeoncon!), check out writeoncon.com.
It's worth your time!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
My new book
I'm totally geeking out on my new book. The idea of writing about musical theater kids has always been somewhere in the back of my mind, but now that it's finally taking shape I'm SO excited by it.
I'm having a great time writing this one, and Caitie has told me it's the most excited she's been reading one of my books since Before White (not that the others aren't good, but Sparks took me a long time, and Goodson has been around in some form for almost a decade already - and well, just look at previous posts to see what happened with the mystery).
This book, which I've tentatively titles "Bye Bye Connie" is coming along great. Just a week in, and I have nearly 7,500 words already. That's by FAR the fastest I've gotten to that point.
Why? I think it's because I'm having FUN. I love this idea, and I get to make clever musical theater jokes. Yeah, I know some of them are going to be a little obscure, but that might help expand my audience to theater fans who might not otherwise pick up a MG book (which this definitely is). Still, I'm keeping the majority of the jokes aimed at an audience who has a passing familiarity with musicals - especially ones my students might know (those who are into theater).
It's nice to be excited about writing again!
I'm having a great time writing this one, and Caitie has told me it's the most excited she's been reading one of my books since Before White (not that the others aren't good, but Sparks took me a long time, and Goodson has been around in some form for almost a decade already - and well, just look at previous posts to see what happened with the mystery).
This book, which I've tentatively titles "Bye Bye Connie" is coming along great. Just a week in, and I have nearly 7,500 words already. That's by FAR the fastest I've gotten to that point.
Why? I think it's because I'm having FUN. I love this idea, and I get to make clever musical theater jokes. Yeah, I know some of them are going to be a little obscure, but that might help expand my audience to theater fans who might not otherwise pick up a MG book (which this definitely is). Still, I'm keeping the majority of the jokes aimed at an audience who has a passing familiarity with musicals - especially ones my students might know (those who are into theater).
It's nice to be excited about writing again!
Monday, February 14, 2011
A new start
Well, it seems at least for now that the mystery novel was a bust. I got 140 pages or so in, and it fizzled. I just can't seem to get into it, and the story is stalling all over the place. I tried to figure out why, and there are a couple of reasons. First, I had a REALLY hard time getting the tone down. I wanted to try a witty mystery a la Veronica Mars, and it just never got there. The main character never popped for me. Two, being tethered to one character in the real world just didn't sustain my interest. I felt so tied to a "this is what he's doing, next is this, next is this" and the story didn't lend itself to that. I felt like I was cheating when I skipped sections of time, like I needed to explain what happened in the interim, even if nothing happened. Getting from event to event was torturous because the story didn't call for it.
In my second book, Sparks, I follow one character the whole way through, but the timeline is so compressed that it works. The nature of the story I was telling in this mystery simply didn't lend itself to a day to day accounting, and I couldn't figure out how to move forward in time with the voice I was using.
So, I'm putting it aside for now. Maybe someday I'll come back to it. I still think the base story is good, the mystery is good enough (I can't imagine people would figure it out, though it makes total sense), and I LOVE a couple of the scenes in it. Maybe one day I'll rescue it.
But for now, I've started on something else. I've been throwing around in my mind the idea of a novel about theater, but couldn't latch onto any idea. Caitie spoke with an agent she worked with during her internship last Thursday who loves theater. When she was telling me about the conversation with him, the idea snapped into place. In the last three days I've written twenty pages, and I pretty much know where the story is going. I have four main characters I can bounce around between, and I like these four characters. I have a mode for TELLING the story. Best of all, because it's a theater story, I can totally geek out with references and such and it's making me VERY happy to write this story!
In my second book, Sparks, I follow one character the whole way through, but the timeline is so compressed that it works. The nature of the story I was telling in this mystery simply didn't lend itself to a day to day accounting, and I couldn't figure out how to move forward in time with the voice I was using.
So, I'm putting it aside for now. Maybe someday I'll come back to it. I still think the base story is good, the mystery is good enough (I can't imagine people would figure it out, though it makes total sense), and I LOVE a couple of the scenes in it. Maybe one day I'll rescue it.
But for now, I've started on something else. I've been throwing around in my mind the idea of a novel about theater, but couldn't latch onto any idea. Caitie spoke with an agent she worked with during her internship last Thursday who loves theater. When she was telling me about the conversation with him, the idea snapped into place. In the last three days I've written twenty pages, and I pretty much know where the story is going. I have four main characters I can bounce around between, and I like these four characters. I have a mode for TELLING the story. Best of all, because it's a theater story, I can totally geek out with references and such and it's making me VERY happy to write this story!
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