This past year, my family made a book about my grandfather, who died two years ago. Since then, I have received not one, but two opportunities to write books! Both are due in September. This may lead to a post about meeting one's deadlines and where to find a good oxygen mask at a knocked down price.
-Mel
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Friday, January 11, 2008
How to Know a Book was Written by Me
Lyda posted this on her website, and I thought it was cool. You're supposed to post ten things that show a book was written by you.
1. The main character is female.
2. The main character is generally not well-integrated into the world they're forced to live in for some reason, be it a physical or character trait.
3. The main character is sarcastic.
4. We end up in a Spanish-speaking country, or if in a high fantasy setting, the countries are multilingual and every person generally knows at least two languages.
5. The main character is resourceful and independent, and works for the greater good, but is never necessarily happy on a personal level.
6. Our main love interest is a good person, but the relationship is fatally flawed and doomed to failure, generally because one cannot live in the other's world. This is generally left unresolved or leads to a parting of the ways, rather than an unrealistic happily-ever-after. At times, there will be a second love interest that is more suitable to the character who appears after the first relationship has ended, and the main character will decide to build a life with them. But it will not hold the same whirlwind passion of the first.
7. Parents and family, and sometimes even friends, are scarce or non-existent (missing or dead), or not very supportive or helpful, giving the main character a sort of isolated, lone wolf quality.
8. Somewhere within the novel, a character or several characters will be reading.
9. Worldbuilding will be reminiscent of Spain, rather than Britain.
10. Someone will lose consciousness at some point.
-Mel
1. The main character is female.
2. The main character is generally not well-integrated into the world they're forced to live in for some reason, be it a physical or character trait.
3. The main character is sarcastic.
4. We end up in a Spanish-speaking country, or if in a high fantasy setting, the countries are multilingual and every person generally knows at least two languages.
5. The main character is resourceful and independent, and works for the greater good, but is never necessarily happy on a personal level.
6. Our main love interest is a good person, but the relationship is fatally flawed and doomed to failure, generally because one cannot live in the other's world. This is generally left unresolved or leads to a parting of the ways, rather than an unrealistic happily-ever-after. At times, there will be a second love interest that is more suitable to the character who appears after the first relationship has ended, and the main character will decide to build a life with them. But it will not hold the same whirlwind passion of the first.
7. Parents and family, and sometimes even friends, are scarce or non-existent (missing or dead), or not very supportive or helpful, giving the main character a sort of isolated, lone wolf quality.
8. Somewhere within the novel, a character or several characters will be reading.
9. Worldbuilding will be reminiscent of Spain, rather than Britain.
10. Someone will lose consciousness at some point.
-Mel
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Editing the Beast: The Hellacious Process Begins
Thieves (still hate the title) is seven years old. I began it when I was seventeen, the summer after my junior year of high school. I began it after setting aside a four-year project of mine that I finally decided was too complicated for me to tackle at my age and writing level. Thieves started out as what I thought was going to be a short story, or at least short-ish novella, called Shadownight. I wrote the first chapter, involving a thief in a faraway land trying to steal something, nearly getting caught, and ultimately plunging into a rock-ridden river, which should have effectively ended her thieving career. She, however, had the audacity to live.
A few months later, in winter, I was struck with another idea. I saw a girl who was being forced to be a thief who really didn't want to be a thief. But she didn't have much of a choice. She looked like her mother, almost a copy, and her mother was infamous. The Queen of Thieves. The daughter was therefore derisively referred to as the Princess of Thieves, and so her story was named.
It seems painfully obvious now, but at the time, beyond the two girls being thieves, I didn't think the stories were related. Then I went to Canada and had a revelation. These two girls were living in the same land. At the same time.
And I suddenly had a problem. I'd dropped my previous project, which also, ironically, still only has a working title (Bonded by Blood. Don't ask) and also, even more unbelievably, was crafted from three disparate plots I hadn't envisioned intertwining and suddenly did. And wouldn't you know, Thieves picked up a third plotline as well, one of my one-page wonders that I started and let go by the wayside. But I'd dropped BBB because it was so complex, and was showing signs of sequels. Lots of them. Wheel of Time (otherwise known as Waste of Time) sequel potential. I wanted to tackle something mangeable, in my humble opinion, for a seventeen-year-old soon-to-be college-bound not-going-to-have-a-lot-of-time-on-our-hands sort of person. And damned if I didn't stumble myself into another epic, at the worst possible time of my life. I didn't have the discipline. I didn't have the time. Most importantly, as the novel kept expanding in bits and pieces, years were passing, and I was getting older, and so was my writing. My life was changing a lot, my writing got terrifyingly worse, then better, and finally hit polished, though I'm still hoping to improve a lot before I cock up my heels and die. And this all happened in this one book. By rights, this should be my "transition novel" and I should put it in a drawer somewhere and never look at it again.
But you see, people like it. That's the trouble. Despite its rampant misuse of adjectives, its inconsistant magic system, it's over- and under-dramitization of events, its white-space action and overboard descriptions, unclear political structure, over-telling, and completely unbelievable sex scenes, I get asked more often about the status of Thieves than about anything else I've ever done. Plus the characters stubbornly refuse to go quietly into the night, and vampire lit. suddenly isn't sellable, according to several agents.
So, I've begun work, serious work, on Thieves again. I haven't edited it this seriously since my senior year of high school. And I have to give silent thanks for the intervening years, because I've finally become capable of editing, even my own work, to some degree. But this is going to be a long haul. I only hope on the other side, it will be worth it, and that this book isn't lying again (or rather the character union isn't lying again) and there really is just the one sequel and then there will be blessed peace. And who knows? Maybe it'll sell!
-Mel
A few months later, in winter, I was struck with another idea. I saw a girl who was being forced to be a thief who really didn't want to be a thief. But she didn't have much of a choice. She looked like her mother, almost a copy, and her mother was infamous. The Queen of Thieves. The daughter was therefore derisively referred to as the Princess of Thieves, and so her story was named.
It seems painfully obvious now, but at the time, beyond the two girls being thieves, I didn't think the stories were related. Then I went to Canada and had a revelation. These two girls were living in the same land. At the same time.
And I suddenly had a problem. I'd dropped my previous project, which also, ironically, still only has a working title (Bonded by Blood. Don't ask) and also, even more unbelievably, was crafted from three disparate plots I hadn't envisioned intertwining and suddenly did. And wouldn't you know, Thieves picked up a third plotline as well, one of my one-page wonders that I started and let go by the wayside. But I'd dropped BBB because it was so complex, and was showing signs of sequels. Lots of them. Wheel of Time (otherwise known as Waste of Time) sequel potential. I wanted to tackle something mangeable, in my humble opinion, for a seventeen-year-old soon-to-be college-bound not-going-to-have-a-lot-of-time-on-our-hands sort of person. And damned if I didn't stumble myself into another epic, at the worst possible time of my life. I didn't have the discipline. I didn't have the time. Most importantly, as the novel kept expanding in bits and pieces, years were passing, and I was getting older, and so was my writing. My life was changing a lot, my writing got terrifyingly worse, then better, and finally hit polished, though I'm still hoping to improve a lot before I cock up my heels and die. And this all happened in this one book. By rights, this should be my "transition novel" and I should put it in a drawer somewhere and never look at it again.
But you see, people like it. That's the trouble. Despite its rampant misuse of adjectives, its inconsistant magic system, it's over- and under-dramitization of events, its white-space action and overboard descriptions, unclear political structure, over-telling, and completely unbelievable sex scenes, I get asked more often about the status of Thieves than about anything else I've ever done. Plus the characters stubbornly refuse to go quietly into the night, and vampire lit. suddenly isn't sellable, according to several agents.
So, I've begun work, serious work, on Thieves again. I haven't edited it this seriously since my senior year of high school. And I have to give silent thanks for the intervening years, because I've finally become capable of editing, even my own work, to some degree. But this is going to be a long haul. I only hope on the other side, it will be worth it, and that this book isn't lying again (or rather the character union isn't lying again) and there really is just the one sequel and then there will be blessed peace. And who knows? Maybe it'll sell!
-Mel
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Shamelessly Stolen from Tate Hallaway's Blog
What do you find _______ about writing?
Hardest? Editing stuff that spans a seven-year period in my life. OMG. What insanity. The most depressing part is that for the most part, it isn't the earliest writing that sucks the worst.....
Easiest? Dialogue. As long as one character is working off the other, it just keeps on flowing. My favorites are arguments.
Most fun? Hearing little snippets of conversation in my head all the time.
Most Tedious? Trying discipline myself to ACTUALLY FIND A REGULAR TIME to sit down and write.
Coolest? Having people tell me they remember certain scenes I wrote, vividly. Even things of mine they read ten years ago.
Least cool? Knowing there's a book out there with my name on it that I don't like very much. *sigh*
Best? When you feel like you could go on and on and the words come easily.
Worst? When you can't even force a coherent sentence. For a good three months.
-Mel
Hardest? Editing stuff that spans a seven-year period in my life. OMG. What insanity. The most depressing part is that for the most part, it isn't the earliest writing that sucks the worst.....
Easiest? Dialogue. As long as one character is working off the other, it just keeps on flowing. My favorites are arguments.
Most fun? Hearing little snippets of conversation in my head all the time.
Most Tedious? Trying discipline myself to ACTUALLY FIND A REGULAR TIME to sit down and write.
Coolest? Having people tell me they remember certain scenes I wrote, vividly. Even things of mine they read ten years ago.
Least cool? Knowing there's a book out there with my name on it that I don't like very much. *sigh*
Best? When you feel like you could go on and on and the words come easily.
Worst? When you can't even force a coherent sentence. For a good three months.
-Mel
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Inundation
It seems my best option is to keep shopping Once Bitten while getting the dreaded holy mess Thieves fit for shopping as well. I'll just have to swamp them all with books and books and books out of my arsenal. Now, if I only had books and books and books fit to print. I'm only 25. I didn't hit my stride until last year. I was still hung up in the whole "but I just don't feel like writing" trap. This is total boloney. Professional writing Step 1: Take that whiney little child who doesn't FEEL like writing out back and beat the snot out of him. This is a job like any other. I don't FEEL like teaching sometimes either. But I do it. And eventually, your imagination gets the memo that we aren't just writing when we feel like it anymore, and you write better, faster. My God, if I still waited until I FELT like writing...
Speaking of whiney children, I also have to kick Anxiety's butt up and down the emotional plane, because I really have a lot of trepidation about trying to edit Thieves. And that's not going to help the process.
-Mel
Speaking of whiney children, I also have to kick Anxiety's butt up and down the emotional plane, because I really have a lot of trepidation about trying to edit Thieves. And that's not going to help the process.
-Mel
Friday, August 17, 2007
Rejection Six
Well, that's the first time I got rejected on a pre-query. Lois Winston at Ashley Grayson says I missed the boat on vampire lit, that chick lit itself is a hard sell right now, and that I should either shelve Once Bitten and wait a while, work on something else, or I'd need to turn my vampires into shapeshifters or witches.
My vampires are, I guess, in the technical sense, witches. But they're still vampires, so I think that would just be arguing semantics.
It's a good book. It's a really good book. I don't want it to die in a drawer.
-Mel
My vampires are, I guess, in the technical sense, witches. But they're still vampires, so I think that would just be arguing semantics.
It's a good book. It's a really good book. I don't want it to die in a drawer.
-Mel
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Written Into a Corner
Long time, no write, I know. And that's been precisely the problem. I haven't worked on Two Evils in two months. I haven't worked on anything in two months. I figured out the historical fiction thing I was working on was SOOOO not me, and that Thieves was still, indeed, to clusterfucked up beyond repair.
So, I went back to Two Evils, because when I was reading it, I remembered the true enjoyment I get from writing about Evie, and how much I like her wit and sarcasm. I was trying to think of exactly why I stopped. Part of it is that I still haven't sold Once Bitten, not to an agent, not to a publisher, nada. So I decided to try and think of something that might be more marketable, and as Lyda always said, writing for the market instead of writing for enjoyment is the KISS OF DEATH.
I think the biggest problem, however, is that I HAVE WRITTEN MYSELF INTO A CORNER. I don't know how to move forward from where I am, honestly. Oh, I have a pretty good idea of what comes next, but I have literally created an impossible situation impeding the journey from here to there. It's frustrating as all hell.
Maybe I'll whine at my writing pals and ask for advice. I've been thinking on it for two months now and STILL don't know how to move on.
Despite this, I have written a new section for the book that I think rehashes two arguments that have already happened in the book, but hey, I worked on the thing and you edit when you're done. Forward motion is key. Kicking the inner critic's ass, however, has proven challenging.
Bad inner critic, no soup for you!
-Mel
So, I went back to Two Evils, because when I was reading it, I remembered the true enjoyment I get from writing about Evie, and how much I like her wit and sarcasm. I was trying to think of exactly why I stopped. Part of it is that I still haven't sold Once Bitten, not to an agent, not to a publisher, nada. So I decided to try and think of something that might be more marketable, and as Lyda always said, writing for the market instead of writing for enjoyment is the KISS OF DEATH.
I think the biggest problem, however, is that I HAVE WRITTEN MYSELF INTO A CORNER. I don't know how to move forward from where I am, honestly. Oh, I have a pretty good idea of what comes next, but I have literally created an impossible situation impeding the journey from here to there. It's frustrating as all hell.
Maybe I'll whine at my writing pals and ask for advice. I've been thinking on it for two months now and STILL don't know how to move on.
Despite this, I have written a new section for the book that I think rehashes two arguments that have already happened in the book, but hey, I worked on the thing and you edit when you're done. Forward motion is key. Kicking the inner critic's ass, however, has proven challenging.
Bad inner critic, no soup for you!
-Mel
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