A Random Assortment of Updates

*waves* Hi-hello! How goes things? Long time no see (as always, sigh). At least the New Minion is a passable excuse for not blogging, right? RIGHT? O:)

So, I have a random assortment of updates today - which, considering the title of this post, is shocking, no? Mostly, it is non-writingish. There has not been much writing in the 6 weeks since New Minion's birth, although the last week has been more productive in that regard - and I finally, FINALLY figured out where/how to start Jesscapades. Really, I feel like I ought to plow on and finish the current draft (I have 52,000 words, give or take, and it's about 2/3 done), but I can't help but think I'm writing throw-away words when I work on it... So I may decide to just go back to the beginning and start over again. We shall see.

It's funny, though. If you've been hanging around the writing world for long enough, you'll know that sooner or later every writing how-to translates to - 'but everyone does things their own way'. There's no one right way to write - and yet, much and all as I know that, I feel like going back and starting from the beginning of Jesscapades is the 'wrong' thing to do, because so many of the pros say that you should never go back, only go forward. Stupid of me to let something like that hang me up - I mean seriously, isn't it better to go back to the beginning and rewrite, even though I haven't finished the end, than to NOT WRITE ANYTHING AT ALL?? Dude. Seriously.

Unfortunately, my brain is a very all-or-nothing place, something that manifests everywhere from hobbies to housework. I hate vacuuming (which I always try to spell vaccuming or vacumming!), for example, because I have this horrible, lingering feeling that unless I've moved every single piece of furniture and vacuumed under it, the job ISN'T DONE PROPERLY. And I LOATHE not being able to do things properly. Hence, house ends up unvacuumed because the Inky, she has neither the time nor the muscles to move every bit of furniture every single time. *sigh*

I suspect this is somewhat of a serious character flaw, one which I am Working To Overcome. To that end, 2012 has been dubbed the Year of Finishing Things, in which I must finish all projects that I start, or finish old projects. None of this bad-habitty, start-a-project-all-excited, reach-critical-mass, freak-out-and-run-away business.

I have already finished one lovely shiny project early this year: The Chair. Those of you with exceptional memories may remember that I mentioned DH & I were reupholstering our old lounge. Well, we did it, and here is the shinyfish result (well, nearly; I apparently don't have a pic of it TOTALLY finished, which is sad, because OBVIOUSLY it looks better with arms and a seat cushion):



I've started another rather major undertaking: making bags. It combines too many things I love not to do: pretty fabric, textures, colours, designing stuff, useful things (BAGS, HELLO!), Etsy, and hopefully, enough extra cash to enable my return to work in July to be part time rather than full time O:) (yes, that was a slightly shameless plug...) Because I am Amy and can never have enough blogs that I rarely update, I've started another one! This time to deal with all my fabricking adventures. Do follow if you're interested in that sort of thing, and unless anyone here screams loudly to the contrary, I'll post here when I have something new over there. So head on over and find out why my shop is called Cobbett&Paws... :)

Finally, in the list of random updates, the Dog Book, she is nearly done. FINALLY. This was only supposed to be finished, you know, LAST OCTOBER. *sigh* Oh well. Better late than never.

And speaking of dogs, you totally have to watch this video I stumbled on today. CANINES FOR THE WIN. We all knew they were superheros in disguise.



What are you guys working on at the moment? Do you have something you're having trouble finishing? I know, I'll make a Finishing Club 2012 badge, and we can all pledge to finish something this year, bwa ha >:) To the year of finishing! Hurrahs!

The Power of Finishing

It's been a loooong time since I finished something. August 16, in fact, which was when I finished How Not To Take Over the World, last year's NaNoWriMo effort.

I also wrote a play earlier in the year, which I finished on March 26. And I finished Sanctuary on April 5. Include the flash fic I wrote on Jan 16 (published as Sculpting in Golden Visions Magazine), and that's the sum total of everything I'd finished this year up until last week.

Four things in ten months. Ack.

BUT. Yes, there is a but, and while it is not as huge as some butts, it is still rather large O:)

But.

On Sunday, I finished a short story I'd had sitting around on the hard drive for about two years (!). And today, I wrote a short story from scratch and finished it, all in one sitting. Know why?

NaNoWriMo.

This year, I'm not doing NaNo with the intent of working on a single novel, of writing 50 thousand words on it in a month, and finishing it not terribly long after. No.

First up, I know I can do that already: I've done it twice before. Secondly, I don't have the time to deal with the pressure of working on a single story - and I'm at the point where forcing myself through problems on a particular story isn't always productive. Remember my oft-relearned lesson to stop and let the problem simmer, rather than trying to barge on? Yeah. That.

BUT. (Oh look, there it is again)

I am doing NaNo with the intent of finishing. Finishing the 50k? No idea. But finishing something. Multiple things, for preference. I need to get back into the habit of writing again, and this year, NaNo is the motivation I need.

Because that's what NaNo was for me the very first time I did it: the impetus and excuse to push all the way through a novel to prove that I could finish something.

So, in the spirit of NaNo, here's to a month of finishing!

Kill Them All And Start Again

...This, dear friends, is what I currently wish to do. I have less than three chapters to the end, and I've even written the final chapter. But I HATE THIS NOVEL!!

*throws a temper tantrum*

*breathes*

Ahem. So. Let us now proceed to do a calm and logical analysis of last week, aka the Week of Much Writing.

The Week of Much Writing. Ha. Yeah, well. It wasn't the Week of Much Writing so much as the Week of a Fairly-Decent-Amount of Writing. Since I posted on the 3rd, I've written 5,792 words on HNOT - which is actually not bad, but is also not as much as I intended. Like I said, I still have 2.5 chapters to go.

But seriously? Urgh. I have Teh Hatez big time. I'm sick of the MC being whiney and immature; I'm sick of the plot going in circles (which I think it isn't, actually; I've just stared at these chapters so many times they feel repetitive), and I'm sick of the whole thing. It's so tempting just to write:

And Bystar stole the Key and took it to Mercury, and Mercury ran to the Eye. She used her power to sense the Mystery Man and sic'ed Bystar on him. Deviran and Chiara tried to stop Mercury until they realised she was helping them. The Flare came, Mercury knocked herself out trying to channel it, but got the Mystery Man and destroyed the demons and saved the world. Yay.

And then cut to the final chapter, which I have actually written.

Please? Can I?

No?

The main problem here is that I loathe writing the climax of any story. There's so much pressure to Get It Right; it's supposed to be the culmination of everything that's gone before, and it's usually an Action Scene, which I'm terrible at. Actions Scenes always come out mechanical and forced the first million times I write them :P So, I vote we have novels with no climax. Who's with me?

*crickets chirp*

*sigh* Right. Back to the keyboard, then. Only I'm currently at the keyboard, so it's more like stay-at-the-keyboard-and-not-get-distracted. Or something like that.

2.5 chapters. It's not really that hard, is it?

The Week of Much Writing

So, it seems that the slump might actually finally be over. I've written consistently for the last two and a half weeks, and How Not To Take Over The World (affectionately abbreviated to HNOT) is nearly done! I'm so excited :o)

Unfortunately, I haven't been around on the net a lot lately - school has been back for two weeks now, and it's been a flurry of lesson planning, extra-curricular, and a whole bunch of out-of-school stuff as well. The good news is, things are settling down :) The better news is, this semester hasnt' been anywhere near as stressful as last semester - I'm actually getting the hang of this whole teaching thing ;) :D hehe.

But the funk is well and truly gone: I'm tremendously excited about writing at the moment. Where a month ago, everything I was working on was stuck, now things are flowing and the muse is hyperactive. Edits for Jesscapades begin on Sunday (Liana and I are working through a schedule together, in an effort to keep us both on track), Marked (previously The Hunter Hunted) is nearly finished being edited (although it will be put aside to make way for Jesscapades for the next couple of months), a new story, Secret Breaker, is firing on all cylinders in my head and involves much shiny, like werewolves and secret detection and lies and betrayal and forbidden blood magic and invisible tattoos and kidnaps and and and... O:) *shines*

Yes. I'm excited to think about starting Secret Breaker.

But the best news, at the moment, is that HNOT has only four-and-a-half chapters to go. If I work really hard this week, I can get it done before I start editing Jesscapades on Sunday, and THAT would be AMAZING.

Hence, this is The Week Of Much Writing. I have 4.5 chapters to write in what is essentially now 4.5 days, and each chapter is somewhere between 2 and 3k. I haven't written in those kind of quantities since I was working on Sanctuary in March, but I wrote 2300 yesterday, which is more than I've written in a day since Easter. So it might just be possible.

Here's to trying :D

Also, I take great comfort in the fact that Liana also has to finish her current novel before edits on Sunday, and even more pressingly since she's finishing the novel she intends to edit ;) So I am not alone in my Week of Much Writing. Misery loves company, after all O:) :D

Feel free to join in with the Week of Much Writing, if you like. I'll report my progress on twitter using the hashtag #muchwriting - I'll be looking out to see if anyone else is there too :o)

Checking In: April

So, April has been and gone, and all I have to say is thank goodness, and may May pass just as quickly. May - well, I had high expectations of May, after April. I thought it might be the final calm, that it might bring the resolution to a whole bunch of exciting, on-going problems.

May is tricksy and false. :P Only three days in, it's set to be worse than April! Oh noes! *shakes head sadly*

So, may it speed by without delay, I say. Ha.

But anyway, April. The month wherein I did practically no writing :P - although my statistics do not bear this out! I actually managed 10,417 words last month, which is insane, giving as of yesterday I'd written not a word since Easter!

The majority of this was on Sanctuary, which I FINISHED, oh-my-goodness-YAY! *confetti* *streamers* *balloons*!!

I finished on April 5, Easter Monday - and then fell into a massive funk. It didn't start out as a writing funk, but writing soon joined everything else, and nothing much else happened all month.

But anyway, Sanctuary was finished. This is yayful :)

How was your April?

Look Ma, I Aten't Ded!

A thought has struck me - as thoughts are wont to do.

Motivated by said thought, I re-examined my writing stats spreadsheet; and the thought was affirmed.

It's a curious one, somewhat paradoxical. Un-intuitive. And it might not work for everyone.

But wow! It works for me, and I'm glad: it's made things much less stressful, now the pressure's off.

So what's the thought, I hear you wonder.

It's something that I was, for a long time, afraid of. You see, although I called myself a writer - I wasn't really sure. I didn't know that I could do it, not in my heart of hearts. And I wasn't sure it was what I wanted; and I couldn't be certain about why I did it.

And so, for a long, long time, I laboured under the fallacy that if I admitted that it didn't actually matter when I got published, the motivation to write would vanish - zip! - like that.

But here's the thought:

It doesn't actually matter when I get published. No one else in the world cares if I get published or not. And not being published isn't going to kill me, or make me a Bad Person, or worse, a Failure.

And here's the stunning part: I've admitted this, at long last, and I'm not actually dead. And neither is my writing. And neither is my motivation to write.

Wow.

Even more than this, I have statistics to support the conclusion that when the pressure's off - the pressure to polish, to get the novel ready to submit, to work to a deadline, to force myself to write when I don't feel like it because that's what writers do - my productivity actually goes up (an expected 30% this month over the previous two Septembers).

Who knew? :P

I've been having a tremendous amount of fun with writing lately, not forcing myself to commit to any one project, but letting the Muse wander spontaneously. I've got more ideas brewing than ever, I've worked through some major plot problems in a few stories, and I've written no less than three flash fictions in a week - when I'd written a total of one in my life before. I have - for me - a record number of things out on submission, and I'm not feeling stressed about my writing. It's fun.

I'm not feeling blocked - or when I am, there's no pressure on me to break the block and solve the problem now; I just hop over and work on something else, and every time thus far a solution has arrived of its own volition within a week. I'm not stressing, I'm not panicking, and I'm not beating myself up because I haven't met my word count goals for the day.

And, contrary to my expectations, all of this hasn't made me less determined to write: in fact, just the opposite. I'm more determined than ever that I will one day publish novels, in the plural. But I'm also more willing to wait for that time to come.

So I can't work from home next year. Big deal? I will, believe it or not, live. Things will work out; they always do. And in the meantime, so long as I keep doing something, I'll win out in the end: sometimes quantity trumps quality after all.

It's long been known that fear is a barrier both to creativity and success.

So join me in being radical: what do you fear? Why does it matter? How can you change your approach - your attitude, your practices, whatever - so relieve some of that pressure that we as writers inevitably put on ourselves?

Go on. Change something. Be daring.

You just never know what the results will be :)

Think Sideways Movie #5: Endings

Here's the next installment of the Think Sideways monthly videos, called "Endings: Something Clever Goes Here." And let me tell you, as someone who's just recently ended a novel, sometimes it is SOO tempting to write those four words and be done with the thing o.O



Incidentally, Liana posted a great article on endings and how you find the right one a while back. This is the method I use to find my endings too, and while it can be a little time-consuming, it's also fun, and yields the best results of any method I've tried so far ;) And yes, it's based on the Think Sideways course ;)

How about you, dear readers? Do you experience ending-angst? (Even when I know what's going to happen and am happy with it, I still HATE writing the actual climax) Are you usually happy with your endings? And what sort of endings do you favour?

The Late 2008 - Shine in 2009

Like my cheesy title? *grin*

So, given it's what everyone else is doing*, I thought now would be a good time for my 2008 recap.

Raw stats first.

In 2008, I:

* wrote 161,207 words of fiction.
* finished a draft of TBAEO.
* did preliminary edits and replotting of TBAEO.
* worked on The Black Gates, then retired it at about chapter 5 - the plot Needs Work.
* started Logan. Wrote 10 chapters only to realise the story started at chapter 11. Put aside, as the MC was too boring.
* learned how to write short stories - hoorah! Total of 8 in various stages.
* edited my first 'proper' play. Wrote several others, including an 8 act one to be performed in a week's time.
* began The Project. Wrote half, outlined the rest, realised I hated the MC and put it aside.
* signed up to write a self-pubbed non-fic ebook, to be completed this month.
* began several MG novels for nano, none of which behaved, so they've been temporarily put aside.
* started Jesscapades, which I adore, and which at this point I'm planning to be my debut novel.

My main goals for the year were to make 10 submissions and have 3 complete manuscripts. Sadly, the year has been fraught with false starts, so I have only one :( As for submissions, I've done 12 :) So that's a success. Granted, a lot have been resubs, and I've had no bites yet though a couple of commendations and personalised rejections, but hey - I did more than 10 subs :) Rah!

Although on the one hand I feel like the year has been a bit of a failure - I haven't completed any novels that I'm happy with - on the other hand, my total word count is up by 60% on last year's count. And more importantly, I've learned a lot. Sure, I've had a lot of false starts - but I know why they were false starts, and each time, they've been for a different reason - which means I'm learning.

And now I've hit on a novel that I like, with a reasonably strong voice, a fun plot, a great MC... Mind you, I'm not halfway yet, so I'm hoping like mad that I like the book because it really is good (this is what the beta readers are saying) and not because I just haven't hit the wall yet (what my brain is saying).

So, this is what I've learned from each of my false starts this year:

1) TBAEO - not a false start, but something that DEFINITELY needs work before it can see the light of day. From this I learned perhaps my biggest lesson of the year - that I can finish a complete novel, and that I can dissect it and replot it to make it stronger.

2) The Black Gates - this is actually my first novel. I've been working on it off and on for years - and because of this, it's fraught with beginner mistakes - not least of which was a lack of original, interesting plot. I fixed that by introducing some great twists - but I'm yet to figure out how on earth it all goes together. It's not complex enough - but it's too complex. Gack.

3) Logan - heh. From this, I relearned the importance of having not only a strong MC, but one who has enough tension and internal conflict to drive the plot. Logan, the MC, was not strong enough to be a driving force - instead, he was someone who was driven, being forced and manipulated into making his decisions instead of reacting to the situation himself - and so he was boring. It was about now that I also realised that I didn't actually want to write traditional-style fantasy after all...

4) The Project. If TBAEO could be called an exercise in character development, then TP is its opposite: an exercise in plot. I set out to write this deliberately as a pot-boiler, simply to force myself to learn how to keep up the pace and tension, how to introduce stumbling blocks and small problems - in short, how to keep the middle from sagging. I succeeded pretty well, but unfortunately in doing so sacrificed character, and the MC turned into someone whom I didn't like, couldn't identify with, and just plain didn't want to write about.

5) The Edge and Gem series - I only made a tiny start on these at the beginning of Nano, but it reinforced for me the necessity of knowing your character's voice before writing the book.

6) Jesscapades. With luck, this one won't be a false start. So far (about 1/4 of the way in) it's got a great combination of character AND plot, and I'm excited to see just how much better this is than anything I've done before.

And that, my friends, was 2008. I know, I haven't talked about my goals for 2009 yet - but to be honest, I can't really get my head around the idea of new goals until this big camp (Jan 16-24) is over, and the dog book is written. I'll think about goals, and post them either in the final week of Jan, or in early Feb.

In the meantime - what's the biggest thing you learned in 2008?


* I was going to do it anyway. It just seemed like a good excuse O:)

How To Think Sideways

Just a reminder that the How to Think Sideways course (see my review here) is on sale only through this link for this week. There's a new option, too -

You can sign up for the 6-month course, which is US$47 per month.

OR

You can now sign for the course extended over 12 months, which means you're only paying US$23.50 per month.

Obviously it's the same amount total, but as a student I can appreciate that $23.50 makes a much smaller dent in your monthly budget. And don't forget, you can drop out at any time and you will be fully refunded for any lessons in the month that you haven't received yet - meaning that it will cost you $11.75 to test out the course, download lesson one, and see you think it's for you.

Sales go live at 9am Eastern Daylight Time, through this link, and will be open for 7 days. Remember that if you buy through my link, I can offer you a %25 refund once it clears at the end of each month.

If you're wondering what the course covers, this is the curriculum:

Sideways Thinking: Ideas
Week 1: How to Break the Four "Thinking" Barriers to Your Success
Week 2: How to Discover Your Writing "Sweet Spot"
Week 3: How to Generate Ideas On a Deadline
Week 4: How to Recognize and Build On Good Ideas

Sideways Thinking: Project Planning
Week 5: How to Define Your Project's Needs
Week 6: How to Discover (or Create) Your Project's Market
Week 7: How to Develop Your Personal Project System
Week 8: How to Plan Your Project While NOT Killing Your Story

Sideways Thinking: First Chapters
Week 9: How to Write From Inside Your Story
Week 10: How to "Plan" Surprises that Surprise Even You
Week 11: How to Design Compelling Queries, Proposals, and Sample Chapters
Week 12: How to Create, Complicate, and Solve Problems

Sideways Thinking: Middles
Week 13: "Can't I Just Kill Them All?" How to Fall In Love With Your Project A Second Time
Week 14: How to Find and Use Your "Planned" Surprises
Week 15: How to "Hire" Spies, and Why Your Project Needs Them
Week 16: How to Assess Your Progress and Make Mid-Course Corrections

Sideways Thinking: Endings
Week 17: How to Work With Editors, Agents, Marketing Departments, and Artists, and Not Wreck Your Project.
Week 18: How to Find the RIGHT Ending
Week 19: How to Bend Your Plan Without Breaking It
Week 20: How to Write the Ending That Sells the Next Book

Sidways Thinking: Wrap Up/Start Again
Week 21: How to Plan Your Revision
Week 22: How to NOT Fix What Ain't Broken (While Still Fixing What Is)
Week 23v How to Deliver What You Promised and What They Want On Deadline
Week 24: How to NOT Be a One-Book Wonder---Learn to Produce Repeatable Results

How to Think Sideways: Career Survival Training for Writers.

Mourning the Loss of Another Great

I can't say I've read much of his work, and I know next to nothing about him personally, but no one who knows anything about the genre can deny that Arthur C Clarke was truly a Great.

And two days ago, he died.

I didn't even know he was still alive. And in a way, that makes me ashamed. It makes me feel like I ought to get out into the world and /learn/ more. It makes me want to know more about people, others, be more invested in their lives and the world and its affairs...

And I think, for Mr Clarke, that may be tribute enough.

CELEBRATIONS!!

Hoorah!

I've just completed my first ever novel!

*does happy dance*

And right in time... We're going out to dinner tonight, and now it can be a celebration dinner too :)

Thank you everyone for pushing me to finish :) I owe you all :)