Happy Solstipocalypse!

Catoon by Grant Snider

Happy Solstipocalypse!

Dropping a line here since I haven't updated in over a month. I'm working on my short story for The Ministry of Peculiar Occurances, Tales from the Archives, and hope to have it done by the end of the year. That is, assuming the zombies don't eat me by midnight (though it's past midnight in Japan and I have friends uploading pics to Facebook, so I figure we're in the clear).

I've also got about seven scenes of my new novel written. The name has changed from The Beggar's Twin to Song of the Heretic Cycle. It will be two books: Heretic's Resonance and Heretic's Dissonance. The first book is outlined, and I've left the scenes a bit short in the hopes that I will not run too long with it. I need to flesh out the ending, but that will come.

Oh, and if you want to hear me brainstorming that book with +Dave Robison, +Justin Macumber, and +Alethea Kontis on The Roundtable Podcast, my episode drops on Christmas Day! Please ignore my initial resistance to change. I didn't want to be THAT person, and I totally was (oops).

NaNoPanic - How to Move On

This picture is from my junior year of HS. I'm rowing Stroke (the front rower). NaNo is sort of like a regatta, except if you stop rowing in a regatta, your team-mates kill you.

I'm about 12k behind on NaNoWriMo. Luckily, I have tomorrow off work (it's my birthday!) and am spending the entire weekend in the mountains with friends catching up on my word-count. Sarah is even bringing Recees to pedal out each time one of us hits 1k.

I had a moment where I knew a scene had gone wrong because I realized that my outline had my heroine getting caught by the "cops" of that world THREE times in a single day, and twice for the same offense. Um. TSTL* much?

Now, this all made sense in my outline, and the first time she got caught made total sense and worked very well. The second time, though, was the problem. I was going to have her encounter one of the other main characters, who is an officer, to show he's not always a douche-nozzle (though he usually is). However, I realized that it made her seem unspeakably stupid to get caught out after curfew twice in a row. Also, it made the douche-nozzle character too nice, too fast.

So instead, I introduced another character--a contact my main character could have in the city that gives her life a sense of history. I love it when problems can be solved with new characters, because I get to populate my world and my character's history with interesting people. They don't seem like they stepped straight out of space and time and onto the page, timelord style.

This particular character's name is Rat, and he's sort of a common-tier foil for the officer character, who is a noble. He's that hot-but-frustratingly-arrogant thief-type I love so much, but pushing a bit farther down the path of coward than I usually make these sorts of characters.

He's not in my outline, but I can just feel that I'm going to be using him again later.

Of course, I didn't delete all the words I wrote permanently, and I'm still counting them towards NaNoWriMo. I just back-tracked and fixed something that had me stuck pretty bad.

NaNoWriMo Update

You guys, I am so far behind on my NaNoWriMo word-count. Like, 6000 words behind.

HOWEVER, I did start something on Google + called WORD WAR I, which is a set of team-based word-sprint battles every half hour during Saturday nights in November. It was awesome! I met some great folks and ended up adding 3k to me word count!

If you're interested, find me on G+ and let me know. I'll add you to the invite for WORD WAR II, which is this Saturday night, 7pm-12am ET.

NaNoWriMo Eureka!

So Much This.

Not a whole lot of time right now, because NaNoWriMo is eating my soul, but I had a wonderful time brainstorming my NaNovel on The Roundtable Podcast with my podio-bro Dave Robeson, podio-papa Justin Macumber, and the glorious Alethea Kontis. Look for that episode to drop on Christmas Day!

That said, I just had a moment of synthesis I completely didn't expect at the end of the second scene, which I'm almost finished with. It's one of those moments where you're like, "Crap, I've written myself into a corner", but then you think of something that lets you drag in another bit of the story you'd already planned and seed it for the next scene, and you feel like a complete genius, even though no one will probably ever know. Which is good. Because then they'll think you're a genius too and not realize it was basically a secret, unplanned escape route that just happened to work.

Bwahahahaha.

What were some surprising moments of genius you've had writing? Have you had that on your NaNoWriMo project this year? How's it going?

5 Tips for Your NaNoWriMo Outline

305/365 - NaNoWriMo! by haley-elise

Does your NaNoWriMo outline need a little spit shine? Like your basic story but don't know if it's any good?

Piggy-backing off last year's NaNoWriMo outlining workshop, I've got a few more techniques I've accumulated to help hammer your outline into shape and give it a bit of a spit-shine.

The following tips will help you identify your main conflict, work tension and conflict into each scene, make sure your scenes flow logically toward the ending, and move your story from hook to resolution.

If you haven't taken a look at my NaNoWriMo Outlining Workshop, it might be a useful reference for the application of these techniques.

Part I - Part II - Part III

1. WRITE A 35 WORD PITCH

The third, and Adryn's favorite (and by favorite, I mean she hates me for making her do this), is to boil the conflict down to 35 words. You might remember when I described how I wrote a 35-word pitch for The Mark of Flight, which has really helped me in my quest toward publication. (More on pitches)

A pitch this short will force you to think critically about the central conflict. You can use the pitch to keep your plot from sprawling in unnecessary directions (if you tend to sprawl, like I do) and to identify whether your story has core plot-issues. Can't pitch it? That's an indication that the story's basic framework might need more work.

If, like Adryn, you have no idea where to begin boiling down the conflict, start by summarizing who your protagonist is and what they want in 35 words. Then summarize who your antagonist is and what they want in 35 words (hint: it better be something that chucks a horny, sparkly vampire in the Bed, Bath & Beyond display room of your protagonist's goal.)

Now take your protagonist and describe what she wants and how the antagonist is preventing her achieving that (of course, in 35 words).

Yeah, this is time-consuming, but it will likely save you a ton of time in revisions and give you a great framework for your query pitches!

Yes? No! image by Laura Appleyard

2. YES, BUT... / NO, AND...

Conflict in your scene uninteresting? On a recent episode of the Writing Excuses Podcast, Mary Robinette Kowal described a technique for making sure your scenes are exciting. It was intended for pantsers rather than plotters, but I think the technique is a fantastic way to make sure you're giving your scene enough conflict and tension.

Simply, get your characters into a pickle. Then ask the question, do they succeed in getting out of the situation?

If you answer YES, you must then come up with a complication.
YES, Bilbo rescues the dwarves from the Mirkwood prisons, BUT they nearly drown in the barrels.

If you answer NO, you toss in a little extra complication to really put pressure on your characters.
NO, Katniss's friends and family are not spared at reaping day AND it's her little sister who's been chosen to fight (and probably die) in The Hunger Games.

3. BUT / THEREFORE

You've note-carded and chased every plot-bunny down their respective rabbit holes, but do your scenes flow one-to-the-next in a logical, domino-effect that leads you from inciting action to inevitable conclusion?

Carrie Ryan, Magical Words blogger and author of the creeptastically beautiful Forest of Hands and Teeth, describes a technique she learned from an editor.

"If you line up every scene or plot beat in your book, and the only words that connect them are “and then,” you have a problem; instead, each scene needs to be connected with either ”therefore” or “but.”

 I'm doing this with my outline for Beggar's Twin, and it's really coming in handy. It's a bit complicated with multiple perspectives, but I'm literally setting up my notecards into the different perspectives and making sure they flow both along their individual storylines and toward the conclusion. I've found it super-helpful in identifying scenes that aren't working.


4. SEVEN-POINT STORY STRUCTURE

The fourth is the 7-Point Story Structure from Dan Wells--seven points that help you move your story from hook to resolution, which you can watch in five parts on YouTube:



According to the Writing Excuses show notes, the seven points are:

• Hook
• Plot Turn I
• Pinch I
• Midpoint
• Plot Turn II
• Pinch II
• Resolution

If you don't want to take the time to watch the YouTube video, you can also hear the cast of Writing Excuses discuss these seven points HERE.

Similar to this: The Hollywood Formula; The Three-Act Structure; The Secrets of Story Structure

5. TORTURE YOUR FRIENDS

Put down the scalpel.

Once you're finished making sure your conflict is solid, your scenes have tension, your plot chugs nicely toward the resolution, and you're hitting all the points of basic story structure, it's time to type it all up and present the outline to a friend, preferably another artistic type.

Generally, I find other writers or artists understand how to look at an embryonic story idea and help it grow. You don't want someone to give you unnecessary criticism and kill the excitement.

Don't know any other writers IRL? A great resource for other writers is the NaNoWriMo forums! Find someone to swap outlines with. And hey, if you're noticing some familiar problems, point them in the direction of whichever resource was most helpful. I don't mean my blog, though that would be awesome; I mean the primary source. If you think they'd benefit from But / Therefore, send them to Carrie's post on Magical Words.

Happy writing, and remember to eat occasionally!

Three Months to New Creativity: The Artist's Way

When I was 21, I lived alone for the first time. I was overweight, depressed, and coming out of a stale relationship that left me emotionally and creatively drained. I headed into my final year with an advanced case of Senioritis and a death grip on the goals that have always been my lifeline.

Suddenly it was just me in a refinished basement with cinderblock walls and not enough windows, and I had to face the truth: I'd forgotten how to be alone. I'd sacrificed so much of my energy and time in that relationship, tamped myself down for so long, I didn't know how to use time I wasn't stealing between classes. I couldn't write. I couldn't sing. I couldn't draw. I had no "self" anymore.

A sphere expanded around me, a protective bubble so much like the shield my character Alukale casts when the pressures of the world become too much. It didn't feel safe to let anyone in, because what had happened hurt so deeply it felt like someone had uprooted my heart and ripped out the veins. Cold, empty spaces tunneled inside me and I didn't even want to fill them.

I went to the local second-hand bookstore to sell some of my books (to get extra cash for coffee; if that sounds glamorously bohemian, it really wasn't) and I got store credit instead of cash for a few things. I went looking for books and a familiar cover caught my eye: The Artist's Way.

It went something like this:

The Artist's Way

That suave, simple, unequivocally-directed-at-me "Hello" from the universe. (And, I mean, who wouldn't take that home?)

I knew The Artist's Way. It changed my mother's life and set her on the path to a career she loves. When I was 17, she had this plan that involved a total lifestyle overhaul for her, my dad, and me: The Artist's Way, a diet, and a Pilates. Simultaneously. It was too much too fast, and we juggled those three balls for about a month before the inevitable burn-out.

This time, however, it was just me. And I had nothing at all left to lose. No novel. No energy. No plan.

Over the next three months, I went through the Artist's Way and it was the equivalent of cleaning out my spiritual/creative gutters. Finally, i had the tools to clear away years of accumulated negativity, and rediscover some beautiful moments of encouragement. I was able to address and let go of many of my core negative beliefs. Yeah, some of the terminology and ideas are a little hokey (Artist Child? Positive Affirmations? The Great Creator? I'll start practicing kumbaya on my mandolin; I'll even try not to talk about Gullah socio-linguistics.) but it worked anyway.

It helps that the author, Julia Cameron, is up front: "You don't have to believe it. Do the work, and the results will follow." I had nothing to lose at that point, so I did the work. Results followed.

It's been a little over five years, and I'm in an entirely new situation. I'm supporting myself now, in an economy that sucks and a job that, at worst, makes the insomnia and anxiety and fatigue come back, and which I'm not even close to enthusiastic about. I've made a lot of headway on my career path of being a writer, but still haven't quite "made it" yet.

Last week, a friend in my writing/arts club was having a really crappy week. Her uncertain situation and difficulty with her art and transition left her blocked and frustrated. I recognized the words coming out of her mouth--the unspoken need to break out of the self-imposed cages of fear, expectation, and uncertainty.

The Artist's Way was on the shelf right behind her.

I shoved it into her hands and started babbling at my group in a way that probably would have accorded a few discreet phone calls in any normal circle. I badgered and cajoled and convinced them all to start it with me. I bought the last three copies at B&N and chucked it at their heads. So we got copies, purchased pens and notebooks, and started the basic tools: morning pages and the Artist Date.

One of the reasons I wanted my group to do AW was that I desperately need to do it myself. I've been improving my craft an my business sense, my networking and my platform, but I've been feeling unfulfilled and trapped in my own life for a while now, despite huge leaps in podcasting and writing. I think the self-discovery tools of AW will help me yet again to recover what I've cut myself off from.

Already, I've been struck by synchronicity. I was just complaining in my morning pages that I have no credentials to back up my experience in podcasting and social media beyond the Parsec Finalist (which is awesome, but admittedly a niche award). And then my friend and fellow podcaster, Abbie Hilton, sent me an email inviting me and a few others to join her as a speaker/panelist at the 2013 New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

！(◎_◎;)

Same day turnaround. Okay then. If I was having doubts about whether it would work for me this time--and I was--I'm feeling a bit more reassured now.

So. Leap and the net will appear.

Let's go.

Reading More than One Book at a Time

I can never read just one book at a time. I might pick up a book and finish it before I pick up another one, but I've always got a number of them going at any given time. At the moment, I've got the following books that I have either started or am part way through:

Name of the Wind
This is THE fantasy book of right now. Patrick Rothfuss's name is now spoken in the same reverent tones as George R. R. Martin or Brandon Sanderson. I'm about a quarter of the way through the audio book and liking it, though I suppose I have yet to get to the stuff that will make me really lose my mind over the book. Looking forward to it, but I'm having to break this book  up into several meals, so it might be a while.

I will say that, as someone whose nickname is "Scribe", I have a soft spot for Chronicler.

Code Name Verity
OMFG. I went through the first half of this book in two days. I hit the second viewpoint character and slowed down, but kept going because of how invested I was in the story. Then...then...well, if you've read it, you know. Let's just say that something happened that made me simultaneously want to rip the book in half and jump up and down.

Rip the book in half, because that's what it did to my HEART.

Jump up and down because, in my experience, when that sort of major craziness actually makes it to publication, it's because the ending will justify the heck out of it.

That said, I did have to pause the book because of a sudden need to reread The Hobbit.

The Hobbit
I first read the hobbit when I was about nine. I remember my brother had to read it for school and I picked it up and blazed through it when he was done. I didn't remember anything beyond the eagles. Then the second trailer was released (leaked - bwahahahaah!) and I suddenly had the need to reread it with Dr. Watson Martin Freeman running around as Bilbo in my imagination. Also, I couldn't remember what had actually...happened.

So yes. Took a break from the emotional TRAUMA of Code Name Verity to reread in preparation for December.


Sabriel
Still working through this. I really, really want to figure out why I'm not grabbed by this as much as both Raven and Skrybbi were convinced I would be. It may be because I've been doing most of my "reading" through audio recently, and the amount of time I devote to actually sitting down with a book is so scant that I have trouble devoting myself to a book that hasn't 100% grabbed me, like Verity.

I may call it a lost cause and get on with A Confusion of Princes, which I grabbed because the premise was...well...awesome.

Good Omens
Listening to this on audio as well, and because of someone on tumblr, I'm totally imagining Loki Tom Hiddleston as Crowley and Sherlock Holmes Benedict Cumberbatch as Axiraphael. I picked this up on Audible because I went to see Neil Gaiman at the Unchained Tour last night, and was listening in preparation. I'm really enjoying it, but can only take so much silliness at a time (I don't tend to read fiction that's so overtly comical...probably because there's so little tension it doesn't hold me).

Raven Boys
The new Maggie Steifvater book - I grabbed the Audible version of this, but I'm not really liking the reader. The main character is fun, but thus far it's hasn't grabbed me by the throat and shook me into the same kind of nostalgic love that Scorpio Races did. Still, not far in yet, so I'm going to brave the reader a bit more: I love the premise.

Note: I don't tend to have problems when books with female MCs are narrated by men, but this person's voice doesn't seem to fit the narration to me. Not just yet, anyway. It might end up being more apt later on.

The Privilege of the Sword
I waited for the sequel to Swordspoint to come out on Audible. Ellen Kushner even favorited my tweet and tweeted me back about it! Neil Gaiman was involved in putting together the audio for the first one, so I knew he would be involved in this one as well, but the surprise was Felicia Day, who is going to be doing the voice of the main character in the chapters that are "illuminated" with full-cast.

Do you read more than one book at a time? What are you reading right now? What made you pick it up or put it down?

Longhand vs. Typing

Feather Pen by free graphics art

This past weekend I set aside the word-processor, picked up a pen and notebook, and words came out like I hadn't forced them to in weeks.

Since finishing the first draft of BULL-RUSHING THE GHOST, I haven't done a lot of writing. It's all been editing, revising, and reworking middle places. Apart from burning out at work and going nuts preparing for (and recovering from) Dragon*Con, I was exhausted. I started rebelling against the works I needed to edit, but it left me feeling a wee bit guilty about starting anything new because, well, I have to edit all the things (all the things?) and really shouldn't add more onto that pile.

Top of the list was a rewrite of the first chapter of one of my novel-length works. Last Friday night, I went to a local coffee shop and purposefully left my computer at home. I took only a notebook, a pen, and enough cash for an Irish coffee (or two).

With a clear outline of what I needed to write, I put pen to paper. The words staggered out at first, blinking at the starkness of the paper, growling and flailing at each other before grudgingly acquiescing to the flow of the scene. The process was halting at first, but soon enough the familiar energy spurred me on. My own "floating world", as the Japanese call it, is that transcendent state of writing where I'm no longer seeing the page in front of me, but seem to be a part of the world I'm writing about.

Ten pages later, I came up for air and sat back, immensely relieved.

Because sometimes you forget what it's like. Sometimes, it's good to know that you're still capable of getting lost in your own world. Pen and paper does this for me in a way that a word processor can't. I may be able to write much faster on a word processor, but I never manage to sink into that madness of the written word as easily.

I went looking for some articles on longhand versus type-writing, and I've found a couple good ones:

Why Creative Writing is Better With a Pen - from the Guardian.co.uk

Typing vs. Longhand - Does it Affect Your Writing? - From Livia Blackburne's blog

I found both of these articles very interesting. Have more? Leave them in the comments!

Do you notice a difference in your writing when you write longhand versus when you write shorthand? Which do you prefer? Why?

Plan B....irthday?

I just found this picture on my friend Rachel's blog. It's from my 25th Birthday when I was in Japan. I know I had issues while I was there, but I find myself nostalgic for this time. It was a struggle to make ends meet, but I always had a ton of fun and there was plenty of time to do things like writing.

I'm stressed out these days. Mostly because of work, and because I have no energy by the time I get home. Before, I used to have enough energy to write no matter what. But I've been running on fumes for so long, I can't make myself do it often, so my productivity has dropped to a level I'm not happy with.

Plan B isn't working out. I've abandoned my diet, my workout routine, and everything that doesn't have to do with work or sleeping, and that's not the way I want to live for the next few years. It's not inspiring and it's not helping.

I've got a few leads right now, and I'm going to make an effort to change things, so my 28th birthday will be just as happy as my 25th, which was probably the best birthday of my life.

So that's my new goal. By my birthday, I'm going to make a change. I don't want to keep running on fumes, missing all the scenery.

Live Like a Kid

Someone at work brought in Little Debbie snack cakes, and while I'm normally good a ignoring the sweets my coworkers bring, Swiss Cake rolls are one of my weaknesses.

They're too sweet, and I actually found that I don't like them anymore. Then I realized I'd just chomped the first one, and the taste is never what made me love Swiss Cake Rolls. It was HOW I ate them.

Step 1 was to break off the ridge of chocolate along the bottom where the coating had cooled, giving it a little slope of icing. That gave me access to the flat sheet of chocolate coating, which I used to take great pains to peel away in a single sheet, much like I spiral-peel my tangerines these days.

Step two didn't go as well--the icing flaked and stuck in some places, and didn't come off in one single sheet. I remember that part being easy. I guess the process or formula must have changed.

Step three was to unroll the cake, which usually broke into three pieces. I always ended up licking the filling off the two big pieces, then eating the cake part. That left me with a little trough of cake-and-filling.

My final victim.

It's funny, because just doing that one little thing I did as a kid, slowing down an letting myself be fascinated with something simple, to appreciate it for more than just its intended function, reminded me to slow down, to look around me with an eye for possibility and wonder and creativity.

I need to remind myself to look at things like a kid more often. It would be awesome to reclaim some of that wonder.