Thank You To The Suits

As those that follow me on Twitter know, I'm in the Mire of Edits right now. Irritatingly, I've come to a point on all four of my current potential wips where I am stuck, for some reason or another. The only one for which I can see a clear way ahead is Hunter Hunted, the tiger novella, on which I am doing Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel course.

Although I've made many attempts before, if I finish it, this will be the first time I've edited something longer than a short story; cheer-worthy, certainly, especially because I can see already how much better this story will be because of the edits - but also terrifying. Because the step after editing is submitting. Because actually editing something indicates that you plan to Do Something With It, whatever that something might be. It means you're serious.

Why is that scary? Because only serious people get rejected. If you're not serious, you can also fall back on that as the excuse for the rejection; Oh well, I didn't really try anyway. But of course, you can't succeed if you're not serious. You have to try if you want to win.

Thankfully, writing is very different in our day and age to what it once was; writing groups abound both online and in Real Life, making it easy to connect to other people that share your dreams, your fears, and your woes. Misery loves company, after all ;)

Nothing beats having a friend who's also a writer, who's at the same place you are, and who is determined to drag you on during your bad times, and who you drag one during their bad times. In an article I wrote for EdNoWriMo this year, I called these friends your Train-Proof Suits; the ones who protect you from the fear induced by the light at the end of the tunnel - because from this distance, trains and angels (or whatever the light is supposed to be) look identical.

This is part of what I sent to my Train-Proof Suit, Liana Brooks, yesterday:

It's just like all of a sudden I'm on the brink of being in a really new place with writing, one big step closer to professional - and I'm scared. I mean, this is what I want, it really is - but rejection is scary. Not doing means I can always sit here and think, 'Yes, I could have done that!' Doing means risking the chance that I'll die from rejection overload, and that I'll fail with a finality that can't be denied, and, and, and...

*sigh*

Nothing will solve this except me doing. So, I just need to do. One step at a time. And forget the scary eventual end of editing this novella, which is submitting for publication.

And this is her fantastic response:

It's going to be fine. We're going to get these stories sorted, polished, and sent off. The first one is the hardest, because you don't know what it will be like... Kinda like being pregnant I guess. Once you've started, you know it has to end. But the possibility of pain is scary and terrible and you wish you could stay pregnant forever. Until week 32 when you're ready to risk a preemie just to be done with the pregnancy. Going early is just as fatal with books as it is with children. And no one can stay pregnant forever.

*deep breath* *squeezes your hand* I'm right there with you. We'll do it. Together. It's going to be fine. Big smiles.

Big smiles indeed :) That is why you need your Suit, someone who's in it with you to the bitter end.

So to everyone out there who acts as a Suit for someone else: Thank you. You mean more than you'll ever know to the person you're Suiting for; they couldn't do it without you. Thank you.

The Origins of InkfeverPLUS

So, because even after I promised I'd get back on track with posting yesterday I still missed yesterday's post, today you get a double episode :o) There's this post, and a book review below :)

By now, a lot of you know that I have a sister-site to this one: InkfeverPLUS, a website devoted to my novels where you can find character profiles and pictures, novel blurbs, maps, photos, drawings, and a whole assortment of novel-related Stuff which I am slowly in the process of adding to the site.

Thanks hugely to all those of you who have already joined up. For those of you that want to, but haven't, leave a comment with your email address, or email me and I'll send you an invite. Yes, I'm keeping it invite-only for now to ensure that I'm on the 'better safe than sorry' side of the copyright fence ;)

However, what a lot of you won't know - and apparently, what some of you would like to know - is where I got the idea for the site :)

In a way, this connects with How I Really Got Serious About Writing. In February of 2007, I can't recall how, but I found both Holly Lisle's website, and Critique Circle. Both of these sites have quite literally changed my world: Holly for the fantastic articles, clinics, and courses that you can find on her site, and Critique Circle both for the skills I have learned from critiquing, and the life-long friends I have made *waves to them all* :)

In terms of the InkfeverPLUS site, though, it was Holly Lisle's site that was most influential. She has so much information on there especially for writers, and she talks a lot about the concept of 'paying forward': you'll never be able to adequately thank those who help you on your way in your writing career - and sometimes you won't be able to thank them at all - but you can make a difference and show your gratitude by passing it on, by helping others who come after you.

This is a principle that really resonated with me, and it's something I definitely plan to do. Whether or not I'm successful - whether what I have to share is actually helpful or not :D - is another matter O:)

So. That's part one of why I designed the InkfeverPLUS site: at the moment it only houses novel-related things, geared more towards readers than writers, but one day, everything will merge into a lovely big connected website for readers and writers alike :) Hoorah!

Part two relates to the design of the site, for the inspiration for which I must thank the lovely Michelle, better known to me as Glam :) If you click her name, it will take you to her blog - and halfway down the sidebar you'll see a link to her other blog, one for her novel Breakaway. Now, this blog is actually in the process of coming down, so don't go flooding her with requests to join it :D but it's where I got the inspiration for the site design from. Glam set up the blog with the novel chapters all listed in the sidebar, a stable front page post, links to extras for the novel, and all sorts of goodies.

I fell in love.

Between the two of us, we nutted out some tricky features of site design (if you're interested in knowing how to do it, I've actually typed it all up in a word document with screen shots and everything O:) *is clearly not a perfectionist*) and voila! I now have a shiny, lovely InkfeverPLUS.

There's not as much on there as there could be quite yet - none of the maps have made it up, for example - but I plan to devote a good chunk of time in January and February to adding things and bringing it all as uptodate as I can. If you'd like an invite, just let me know ;)

So that, dear lovelies, is how I came to develop the InkfeverPLUS site. I hope that sates your curiousity :)