A Bittersweet End

I finished my rough draft titled "The Ghosts Between Us" on this past Wednesday. 

This was met with a curious feeling. I was glad to be finished, but I didn't have that elated this-is-the-greatest-book-EVAR feeling either. It was more like, "Well, that's done for now."

I didn't get on the Internets to Tweet and blog about how I finished. I actually waited a little while before I mentioned it on Twitter, and even when I did I felt a little guilty. Because I knew I wasn't done-done. I mean, yes, the rough draft was done, but that was just one step in a long journey.

Having been through two grueling revisions, I knew in no uncertain terms what lay ahead of me. Revision. Both fun and nightmarish. So while I was happy to be done, I knew it was definitely "for now." Major emphasis on the "for now" part.

At first I worried there was something wrong with me, or worse, the book. Maybe my lack of jubilation was because I broke the book and my subconscious knew it. But after speaking to Liz, she reassured me that it's totally normally. As she put it, "you're stopping for a glass of water while climbing up a mountain." 

Yeah, that's exactly what it feels like. I am taking a break from "The Ghosts Between Us" to revise the rough draft I finished a few months ago, "The Heart's Remains."

Then it's back to "The Ghosts Between Us", and like the ghosts in the book (see what I did there?) the mistakes and plot holes I created will come back to haunt me. But that's okay. The really awesome thing about revision is it's your do-over button. You constantly get to say "re-do" until you get it right.

Which might be the greatest thing about writing. 

What about you? Do you always feel excited when you finish a rough draft? Or have you always felt somewhat deflated?

Crimes of Passion: Larceny

Wikicommons

So maybe you've managed to get half way through your first draft without any problems. Or maybe you tried to bribe yourself, and you ran out of stuff (not that I would have any experience with that). Or maybe you just like the idea of stealing. Who knows. Point is, we're all here now, and writing a first draft can be soul sucking.

Writers must resort to some tactics that aren't always pretty. But we do what we must to get that draft done. Sometimes, in order to jump start a stalled draft we have beg, borrow, and steal.

No, I am not advocating you steal from other people. But you can steal from yourself.

You know that stack of unfinished stories you have laying around? All those stories you started and never finished (not like you're going to do here, no, because you're going to finish this book if it kills you)?

You can mine those stories for good bits. I have a whole document folder dedicated to pieces and ideas and concepts that I don't have a home for. This can be anything from a cool secondary character to a plot twist to a neat setting. You would be surprised how many of your failed novels hold ideas that are pure gold. A great way to open up a new dimension to your failing work in progress is to re-purpose old ideas and use them.


You're stealing from yourself, but that's okay. You'll never notice.

Crimes of Passion: Bribery

Money courtesy of Wikicommons. Too bad isn't not real.

 I know the title is cheesy. Don't you just love it?


Sometimes to get through a difficult patch in your novel you have to bribe yourself. It's nothing to be ashamed of.


Maybe the scene isn't coming out the way you wanted, or perhaps you're just not "feeling" it. Perhaps you've had a shiny new idea demand attention and you'd rather play with that. 


You cannot stop working on your book. Don't believe your subconscious when it stays, "Let's take a break for a day. Just a day. We'll get right back to the book, after we jot some ideas for this new book down." If you take a break from the book without a time frame or consequence you might not ever pick it back up again. Your subconscious is trying to trick you. 


So you trick it back. You make deals with yourself. You find some appropriate reward, like chocolate, a new book, night out on the town, or a new pet cheetah (hey, I won't judge) and you bribe yourself.


"Okay, I will write this scene and then I get to surf the Internet for 15 minutes."


Or: "I write 2 thousand words and then I get to read a chapter of my book."


What if there's a shiny new idea pestering you? Same rule applies. "I will reach my daily word count goal, and then I get to stop and brainstorm for the Shiny New Idea."


Notice a few things about the bribery. It's specific. You don't say, "Okay I will stop writing the WIP and work on something else." You have to make each part of the bribe specific. You wouldn't want to bribe a mobster "a lot of money" if he "offs your coworker" because he might decide "a lot of money" is a billion trillion dollars. 


It's also quick, instant gratification stuff. Now is not the time to buy yourself a new toy every time you write a scene (unless you're rich and have money to burn). Give yourself small goals and small rewards. Things you can do right now. Like taking a break to read a chapter, or brainstorming for another idea.


I know this sounds sort of cheesy, but it can work like a charm. I can be very contrary. The minute I feel like I *have* to do something I loose all interest. I know it's very third grade of me, but I can't seem to help it. So I work around my subconscious's weird mannerisms with bribery. I tell myself to write a scene, and then I can read a chapter of the book, and suddenly, writing is fun. I am not chained to my computer, but doing it out of desire again. 


Recently I had the strong desire to write the scenes leading up to the climax in my book, even though it's out of order. I normally write in order and knew it would mess up the plot if I totally skipped the middle and went straight towards the end. So again, I bribed myself. I could write whatever scene I wanted, but then I had to go back and write one in order. I managed to not only write one scene in order, but I picked up a new thread and wrote several in order.


By bribing yourself you're creating a small system of goals and rewards. Each time you reach a small goal you feel good about yourself and your book. You're eating that elephant baby, one bite at a time.

Writing is Hard, Let's Resort to a Life of Crime

Writing is hard. We've all heard it. We've probably said it ourselves. 

Let's step away from the landmine of trying to get the book published, and focus on the writing of the book. Writing is still hard. If you've ever written a book from start to finish you know what I am talking about. If you're still working your way through your first draft, be forewarned. I don't mean this in a doom and gloom and we should all hide under our desks sort of way.

I am thinking about this more like it's a simple truth. Writing is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be published (and chocolate would rain from the sky, and be the anchor food for diets). When you're riding the high of having a brand new idea, you forget this. But during the first draft of every single book I have ever written I've come against a wall. I know what happens next. The plot points are still engaging and exciting. Yet I am bored out of my skull.

I remember when I reached a rough patch in my first novel. I thought it was me. I thought it was my lack of experience. I thought experience would get rid of that pesky time during the first draft where every word feels like a battle. When every word felt old and stale and I thought squirrels dancing upon my keyboard to a jaunty tune would have better luck coming up with an interesting scene than I did.

Then I wrote a second book. The same problem, right after the middle of the book. Same with the third. I realized that it wasn't just me, that other writers hit difficult parts in their books as well. You consider ditching your book, even though you're half way through (or a two-thirds like I am). You think about writing something else.


But like a shady past, that rough patch will always find you. You might have a book or two come out without pain, but in my experience this is the exception that proves the rule. In order to finish my rough draft I have been employing some tricks. This week, I am going to talk about these tricks at length. Things like bribery and larceny. 


If you have any methods to get yourself through a first draft, feel free to mention it in the comments section, or email me and we can hook you up with a guest post.


Because we are writers and we will finish the book we started. We can't edit an unfinished draft. We will persevere. 


Even if we have to resort to a life of crime to do it.

Easter Zombie! Peep Wars!

Lots of fun stuff today!

Janice Hardy has a special Easter zombie in her lawn. 

 
And the peeps are getting ready to go to war:

Happy Easter everyone! I am going to go eat my metric weight in candy and pester my friends and family. 

Good times.

POV Workshop

So a little over a week ago I went to a workshop with Janice Hardy on the power of point of view. And it changed my life.

"But Elizabeth," you ask me. "Why has it taken you so long to write about this workshop if it was over a week ago?"

To which I shush you and bribe you with candy. I've been deep in the writing trenches, not to mention some stress from the daily life, and my brain can be likened to tapioca pudding. A day old. Left in the sun.

Janice's workshop was positively amazing. I have to admit, I was really nervous meeting her. I've read The Shifter and Blue Fire, and really enjoyed both books. They are fun to read with an excellent plot, but she doesn't skimp on the characterization. 

I was more than ecstatic when I meet her and discovered she's a great person. Smart, funny, excellent teacher, and very...approachable. Somehow I am making her sound like a car, but you get what I mean. She's one of those people you feel like you can talk to for hours and forget what time it was.

During the workshop she talked about how point of view can change your writing. Janice said a lot of common problems--pacing, telling versus showing, info dumping, etc--can be fixed if you're in better control of the point of view of the character. It makes sense to me. If you're inside the character's head, you're going to notice only what's in that person's character.

She also talked about telling versus showing. It seems I have more telling in my writing that I knew about. Conveniently, Janice has a post about that very thing today! So you should pop over and check out her post.

The best thing about this workshop is I was able to really see where my weaknesses are. This is invaluable knowledge. Maybe get a critique, or just take a hard look at your writing, but figuring out where you can improve is the first step to...you guessed it, improving.

So take a gander at Janice's blog post and tighten up any telling you might be doing by accident. 

And then stop by and let me know how you figure out what areas you need to improve in! Hypothetically of course, since we're all perfect, right? Right.

What Doesn't Happen

Yesterday I had fun brainstorming with my friend Liz for a new idea. No I am not ditching my current WIP, the word count is rising accordingly. I just wanted to take some time to write out the thoughts on a shiny new idea so I wouldn't forget.

Also, I've noticed that my ideas ferment better if I can develop them a little bit, and then let them go. You can't make wine if the grapes aren't smashed and bottled, you know?

So I smashed some grapes yesterday. Liz had a brilliant new game that I thought I would share.

Usually when brainstorming I play "What if?" as in "What if the main character was actually an alien?" 

But Liz suggested I do "What doesn't happen?" You list all of the things the plot event/character/idea is not. For example we were working on the job of the main character. She worked at an agency as a translator, but I didn't know what the agency did. It was easy to say what I didn't want it to be, because I'd thought about it:

*It was not the sort of agency that took on major crimes. I didn't want to write a paranormal police procedural, and if you have your characters solving murders, then that's what the book is about. You kill someone, the reader expects there to be justice and suspects. 

*It was the sort of agency that expected a small amount of trouble, but not so much that it happened every day. So, working at a museum you don't expect to get into trouble. Working in a police station, it's a part of daily life. I need somewhere in between.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. 

Next time you're stumped, go ahead and list all the things the plot element is not. It's a great way to narrow down your focus and hopefully, find out what the element is. 

By the way, I still don't have my answer, but that's okay. It's still a fledgling idea, and needs time to fester--I mean grow.

What about you? What do you do to nurture new ideas?