Writers Conference: Pitching the Book

I was going to post this before the conference, but the hotel didn’t have free wireless, so I am posting it now with a few notes on the success of each goal.

• Probably the most important… have fun. - I had a great time.
• Meet people, make connections, and network. - Also a success. I met some great people, made new friends and new industry connections.
• Give as many people as I can my new, fabulous business cards. - I could have given out more, but many people do have this card now.

 

   

• Line up a few agents and editors to send the book to if the agent who currently has the manuscript decides not to represent it. - Very successful. I only pitched to the people I had appointments with because volunteering, pitching, and attending sessions made it hard to catch people in the halls, but I have two agent requests for the first 50 pages, an editor request for the first 20 pages, and an editor request for the full manuscript.
• Oh, and have fun! - Yes!

And, while it is much too late to implement feedback for the conference, here is my pitch:

London is a city of progress. Gleaming buildings rise above a foundation of human suffering so the wealthy can avoid the filth and camaraderie of the lower classes. Graceful airships glide overhead through a soup of smog and waste while steam-powered coaches share the streets below with their horse drawn predecessors. For a street rat like Maeko, all this progress simply means that she has to be smarter and faster to evade patrol officers on their new steamcycles. Picking the pockets of the well-to-do to keep from going hungry is riskier and more exciting than ever.

Then she finds Macak, a cat with a clockwork leg. Her interest in the unusual feline leads her to the discovery of a dead mother and child and to a family torn apart by the accusation of their murder. Macak’s owner, the only man who can prove their innocence, has gone into hiding in fear for his life. Maeko will discover just how much a London street rat can accomplish when she decides to protect the cat and prove the wrongly accused family innocent by pursuing the murder investigation through the squalid streets of the city.

Comments are welcome.

After the conference, we unwound with the final Harry Potter movie. A great finish to the movies!

Happy writing all!

Writer’s Block: On the Value of Manure

Yes, manure. I’m not being funny. (Well, maybe a little.)

Before I go into that, however, a quick update on my status. My YA steampunk novel, The Girl and the Clockwork Cat, is back to the agent, so I am trying to focus on other projects (like brainstorming through some of the plot details for the series and editing my urban fantasy). This week it will be easy as I am attending the PNWA writers conference. My focus is on perfecting my pitch, which I will then change seven or eight times before I actually get to my agent and editor pitch appointments. I am pitching the YA steampunk. In case the current agent decides not to take it, I hope to have a few more agents interested by the end of this week.

Anyway, back to the manure.

Many things can cause that irritating phenomenon we call writer’s block -- when you just can’t seem to make any forward progress on your writing. I’ll list just a few here.

1.       You’re ready to start a new project and haven’t figured out what you want to do.

2.       You’re not clear how to progress from one scene to the next or how you want the current scene, chapter, subplot, overall plot, etc. to work out.

3.       Lack of confidence in your own ability.

4.       External influences (relationship problems, etc.).

One of the best things you can do when you hit a block, in my experience, is just sit down somewhere and start writing. It doesn’t matter what you write, just do it. Let your subconscious have the wheel and run with it. But that solution doesn’t always work. Sometimes you need something more. Sometimes your subconscious unwilling to step in while your conscious mind is blathering on about it’s many woes. That is where the manure comes in.

I have horses.

I love my horses, but they are a lot of work and they make a lot of manure. It turns out, however, that during the tedious process of shoveling manure each day is when I do some of my best brainstorming. Cleaning a horse stall doesn’t require deep thought. When I go out to clean stalls, my conscious mind goes into autopilot, scooping along to the music I put on the stereo. Scoop, dump, scoop, dump, and so on. Whatever I was working on before I went out ruminates in my subconscious without the hindrance of my conscious. Then… revelation! At some point during the process of picking little balls of compacted, chewed up grass out of the bedding, I get bombarded with ideas from the backseat driver. My conscious mind wakes up and the two parts of me bounce ideas around. Before I know it, I’m eager to get back to my desk and return to work.

What if you don’t have horses?

Not a problem. Find something else you do or can do that turns off that pesky conscious, because that is what usually permeates a block and escalates it. Find some process that puts your body to work and your conscious to sleep. I do think putting your body to work is important to the process. There is a lot of energy in your physical self that needs an output and letting it become too pent up can lead to distraction, making it harder and harder for your subconscious to get through, especially when it is already fighting your conscious.

A few ideas for those not fortunate enough to have manure flinging in their daily schedule:

·         Take a walk or bike ride

·         Exercise on a treadmill or similar workout equipment

·         Garden

·         Dig a moat around the house (Who doesn’t want a moat?)

Do whatever works for you. I have found certain things don’t work well for me, such as kayaking, horseback riding, and caving. All of these activities are great for later inspiration, but while I am doing them, my subconscious and conscious mind are busy keeping track of my environment because of the risks involved in those sports. When writer’s block is the issue, it is better to do something that isn’t going to draw on all your resources.

Next time writer’s block has you in a stranglehold, think about manure. Try something that doesn’t require deep thought, but that does get you moving. Go into it when you have your work in mind, then forget about it and see what happens.

Ganbattene!

Happy writing!

Writing Better: On Soliciting Professional Feedback

I’ve had a lot of thoughts for blog posts lately, but my time has been sucked up trying to take my book from good to sellable (per the feedback of an agent who would like to see it again). Since it is my goal not to let an agent down if at all humanely possible, I’ve been focusing on that task. As I am through the second round of changes and some of my beta readers are hacking up the text for me, I can take a breather, which really means I can work on another novel and finally get a blog post out.

Ahh. Just got my first cup of tea, things should become more coherent from here on in.

I’ve been thinking about what has helped me improve my work and gotten me to the point where I have an agent interested in one of my books. It has taken many things, including the support of some wonderful people, but there is much that you must bring to the process before you can rise up on that foundation.

One of the single most important things I learned was to treat it like a job. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy writing. Enjoy the hell out of it. Just remember, if you want to be a published author, you also have to take it seriously and be willing to put in the hours to make your work worthy of the time readers will put into it and to market it to those readers.

Learning to write well requires effort. Write a lot. Read a lot. Study the work of those you admire. Read books and articles on writing. Read the blogs of agents, they have vast knowledge about trends and about what sells. Above all, when you feel you are ready, put your work in front of people.

Who do I give my work to?

Friends and relatives are always an easy place to start and you can gradually figure out who is interested and will make a good long term beta reader. Then you can start educating them on the kind of feedback that is most valuable to you.

Critique groups are another good source, so long as you learn to sleuth through the feedback and find the wisdom. Remember, people in such groups have different agendas, styles and skill levels.

Professionals in the industry. It is easier than I would have believed to get your work in front of agents and editors.  Obviously, you can submit work to magazines, agents and book publishers in the usual ways and I’ve gotten some valuable feedback this way as well as a few less valuable form rejections, but that is hardly the end of it.

Conferences are great for getting feedback on pitches, queries and synopsis, and for soliciting interest from agents and editors. See how they react to your idea and to how you presented it. Find out what worked for them or turned them off. I met the agent interested in my current book this way and got an opportunity to get detailed feedback from another agent on the first three chapters of that book.

Contests are another great medium. There are many short story contests, including Writer’s of the Future where I got feedback that opened my eyes to a plot problem in a short story that made the semifinalists. Large writing groups can put on some great contests and keep you apprised of other such opportunities in your area. You can also find contests all over the web these days. Watch blogs from agents, editors, publishers, and published authors for contests in which feedback on some portion of your book or your submission packet (query, synopsis, etc.) will be professionally critiqued as part of the prize or as a reward for participation.

Webinars are another resource for professional feedback, such as those put on by Writer’s Digest. These give you a chance to build your writing skills and, in some cases, a critique of some kind comes with the price of admission. I recently attended one where the presenting agent gave a pitch critique as part of the admission.

What do I do with all this feedback?

Trying to find the key to succeeding as a writer can sometimes feel like shooting mosquitoes in the dark with a long bow. It doesn't have to be that way. When you've accumulated feedback from a variety of sources, then you can start mining for gold.

This can be tricky. I entered a contest with two different novels this year and received feedback from two category judges on each. The feedback was… fascinating.

One novel scored higher than I expected and the judges both praised similar things, world building, premise, dialogue, etc. They both had a problem with a few things including the viewpoint in the first chapter and a stiff tone in some of the text, which gave me some great ideas on what I needed to do to improve the work.

The second novel was the real puzzler. The two judges in that category were widely at odds in their opinions. One gave it a near perfect score, commenting on the great pacing and great characters. The other gave it a good score, but cited problems with the pacing and the characters.

Hmmm. Well, people are diverse, that’s why you have to learn to sift out the gold.

Look for common complaints in feedback from different sources. These are the things you really need to work on and getting feedback from unrelated sources will show you what the most glaring issues are. It will also show you what you do best and can build upon.

Every bit of personal response you get from anyone should go into a common pool, even feedback for different projects. Your weaknesses and strengths will come through in all your work and finding these things will help you focus your efforts.

It took me over half my life to believe that I could make my writing into more than a hobby. Since I finally committed myself to it, I have discovered a whole world of resources that can help me make it happen. Don’t be afraid to dive in at the deep end.

Happy writing!

Another Writers Conference and a Few Thoughts on Self-publishing

I went to the Whidbey Island Writers Association (WIWA) conference over the first weekend in April. Like the PNWA conference last year, it turned out to be a great experience, made a little less intimidating by the smaller number of attendees and the fact that it wasn't my first conference.

The sessions were quite fun and helpful. My favorite was actually a session I took on The Virtuoso Sentence by Priscilla Long. A very useful session for someone who tends to run stiff with her writing due to so much time spent following rigid rules as a technical writer. The session looked at sentences from well know authors and showed various ways in which they play with the rules of syntax to create brilliant, compelling writing. It also gave us tools for developing that kind of writing in our own work.

One of the highlights of the session, of course, was my first pitch. The agent responded to my book with considerable enthusiasm and requested a submission. That will be going out at the end of April (and I should be working on it right now). Fingers crossed, pat the lucky rock, etc.  J

I had a critique session to go over the first 20 pages, which I submitted prior to the conference. I found that experience very educational and encouraging in the fact that all the critiques were on craft issues not story/plot/character issues. These are little things I can easily fix and that will help me continue to improve my writing.

Lastly, I pitched to an editor who I knew was kind of a long shot. She admitted that they weren’t interested in what I was pitching, but gave me some wonderful tips on improving the pitch and told me it sounded like a great story. A win as far as I am concerned since that pitch will be the heart of my query and synopsis.

The next highlight takes a short back-story. Some time ago, my mom gave me a pile of books to read. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein nestled among them. I’ve read many books about animals and one thing tends to ring true through all of them, they end sad. I wasn’t going to read it for that reason.

Through my life, I have been fortunate to share my home with many animals. I love them dearly and miss them horribly when they pass, which they always do. Despite the pain of that loss, I keep on bringing another one home and going through it all again. So, I finally read the book. I was bringing another one home in a sense.

I’m glad I did, and not only because it was a remarkable, beautifully written book (though it did make me cry more than once). At the writer’s conference, Garth Stein was a keynote speaker and instructor. He came across as a very approachable, down to earth person. One of the things about his speech that really struck me was his emphasis on the relationship between the author and their readers and the promise we make as authors to give our readers an experience worth the time they invest. An experience that will move them and perhaps change them.

This leads me to something that bothers me about the current state of publishing. I think it is wonderful that more people have the opportunity to realize their dreams through the growth of self-publishing. I think there is a great deal of opportunity there and hope to see it flourish. However, I believe very strongly in that promise we make to a reader when we put our words down on the page. I think the current self-publishing industry encourages certain laziness in regards to that promise. Some great work comes out through self-publishing. So does some work that is poorly written, poorly edited, and simply a mockery of that sacred promise. That kind of work stains the rest, making it hard for self-published authors without an established audience to gain any respect.

This is one reason I am trying to go the traditional route. I don’t know that I have the knowledge to ensure that my work is the best it can be before I put it out there. I’m looking for the experience an agent and editor can bring to the table. I also like the idea of the relationship that one must build with their agent. For all that I am a reclusive introverted writer, I am also, oddly, a serious people person. I blame this contradiction on the voices in my head. J

Happy writing!

Trying not to be an Author

Although I seem to be good at figuring other people out, it’s a little crazy how many times in my life I have been wrong about myself.

I once thought this was a hobby. Silly me. I tried to make it into one so many times. I tried for years to get a ‘real’ job and build a ‘real’ career. I found things that I am good at and that I can make a lot of money doing. Doing them is how I discovered that it isn’t about the money. It is about the need, the passion, and the love.

I once thought I was a loner, or should I simply say alone. I was wrong. So many people have stepped in, encouraged me, and helped me along my way. By comparison, very few have tried to knock me down or deride what I chose to do, what I have to do. I have been one of those few more times than I can count.

I once thought I hated people. I came to realize that I love them as individuals with all their differences, bad and good. They give me so much to write and so much to discover. Endless pools of fascinating material.

I used to wonder if I would ever stop and, even in moments of great frustration, I never have. I don’t wonder anymore. Rejections build up alongside the rare and treasured acceptance. I see in those rejections a trend of growing encouragement and helpful feedback. It fans the flames of what was always a bonfire.

Will I ever succeed as an author? I don’t know. Looking back on my life so far, it feels like I already have.

No matter where you are in your own journey as a writer, you are never alone. There are so many others just like you. Always remember, it is about the need, the passion, and the love.

Oh! And the cats. Never forget the cats. J

Happy writing!

Agent Request: Surviving Another Edit

I seem to be suffering inexplicable insomnia of late. I could blame it on the stress of trying to find that last little bit of something needed to push my novel over the top, but I doubt that’s it, or all of it anyway.

I was due to get back to a particular agent at the end of January if I hadn’t placed my novel to see if she had time and interest in looking at it. Well, I certainly hadn’t placed it because I stopped trying and started a new edit after receiving feedback from an editor and that edit wasn’t going well. I knew in a broad sense what needed to happen, I just couldn’t quite figure out how to translate the knowledge onto my written pages. By the end of the day on January 27^th, I was still only 6 chapters into an edit attempt that finally seemed to be working. Fabulous! Only 33 chapters to go.

I couldn’t possibly delay getting back to the agent. That’s a poor way to deal with someone I hoped to build a lasting relationship with, but the manuscript wasn’t ready to go if she wanted it. Being an optimist, I sent her a note to let her know that I had begun another edit based on some helpful feedback and could have it done no later than the end of the following week (because doing a complex edit on 33 chapters in a week should be no problem, especially if I edited over the weekend).

The response came back that she was catching up on many things and would get back to me sometime in the next week. Excellent! A busy agent certainly wouldn’t get back to me before the end of the following week, by which time I would at least be mostly done with the edit (33 chapters, 1 week, no problem).

With plenty of distraction (mostly trying to work out finances to see if we could afford to replace my husband’s car with its rapidly reducing reliability) and already deeply in the throes of an insomnia induced struggle with productivity, I got through one more chapter in the next three days. Now I faced the prospect of 32 chapters in 5 days (yeah, I can do that, maybe).

Then it happened. Early Monday morning, January 31^st, I got the response I didn’t expect until much later in the week. That wonderful agent got back to me. While my husband had been chauffeuring my barely coherent, sleep-deprived body around in his new car, she had been working through the weekend to catch up. Now she wanted the manuscript and the sooner I could get it to her, the better.

Glorious news! Excitement bubbled through me… and crashed violently into a wave of suffocating dread. I opened the manuscript file on my computer and stared forlornly at the 32 chapters still in need of the latest touchup treatment. The answer was clear. I could do nothing except edit until the manuscript was done. Laundry, dishes, stall cleaning, house cleaning, cooking, taking down the everlasting Christmas tree, it all had to wait.

Fortunately, for all of us, my husband stepped in to pick up some of the slack and see that the essentials happened and no one starved. I, still suffering variable insomnia, started editing from early morning until after dark every day, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at my computer many of those days.

The critters also stepped in to help. My young cat, Neko, maintained his usual care procedures, interrupting me at regular intervals to insist that I scratch the kitty back, thereby ensuring some movement in my stiffening arms. He also took an opportunity to try to catch my beta, just to keep me conscious of the real world. Shai, our grumpy old female cat, kept reality quite starkly real by selflessly peeing on several pairs of my shoes.

The horses, determined to get me out for a little sunshine, made it absolutely clear that the last bale of hay I hoped to stretch out for a few more days proved unpalatable and they would be on starvation strike until I remedied the situation. A trip to the feed store became inevitable.

The true champion in this marathon editing had to be my 14-year-old ailing dog, Akila. Despite monumental efforts, the editing continued into the following weekend and Saturday, February 5^th, I spent the day finishing off the last six chapters and preparing it to be mailed first thing Monday morning. In the midst of that process, while I floated on a rather rare and wondrous editing high, the sound of retching behind my chair hammered me harshly back to reality. Poor Akila heaved his stomach contents, in all their pungent glory, on the floor behind me. After the splendid disgorging, he curled in a shuddering, miserable ball in the bedroom and I suffered from the gut-wrenching certainty that he would die while I finished the novel.

Monday, February 7^th. My darling husband mailed the manuscript this morning on his way to work. Though mailed later than I would have liked, it is better than ever and another 3,000 words shorter. Akila lives, having rallied after a few days of staggering dramatically close to deaths door, a door his sanity has long since passed through. The horses are enjoying their new batch of hay. My beta hasn’t become an afternoon snack for Neko, yet, and I haven’t smothered Shai with a pillow, yet. Christmas is down and I am ready to catch up on household chores before I start a second edit on my new steampunk novel.

I’ve knocked on wood and crossed my fingers, but if anything makes this agent want to represent the book, I’m confident that it will be the effort put into making it shine (thanks to the extraordinary man who allowed me to pour every minute into it over the last week). Perhaps now I can spend a little effort learning how to sleep again.

Oh, and just so he doesn’t feel left out, throughout this process my old male cat, Thomas, remained his sweet and saintly undemanding self. Thanks Tom.

Never-ending Revision and the Curse of Word Count Watching

The biggest question: Do I work on my book or do I take down the Christmas tree?  Well, since the Halloween party decorations are still up, I guess Christmas can stick around for a bit.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently got feedback from an editor on my fantasy novel (in my world, anything under six months ago counts as recently).  After a brief discussion, it seems that, while he liked many things about the book, including the premise and the setup with the main character, the writing was coming across a little stiff.  It wasn’t a problem with the description exactly, but more the things I choose to describe and the way I draw the character’s eye (and therefore, the reader’s eye) through a scene.  The conversation was full of encouragement and positives, but I was a little frustrated knowing this meant yet another pass on this novel.  I very briefly toyed with giving up on it, but I had several of the people who have read it (a few who have read the whole trilogy) say they thought that would be a mistake.  So, here we go again.

I think one of the challenges I face with this novel is the scope of the world.  It is the first book in a written fantasy trilogy.  When you create the world in which the story takes place, you must know that world.  You must know what to describe and how to describe it in order to make that place real for your readers while not spending a ton of time on drawn out explanations or descriptions that don’t move the story.  Not an easy task.

Also, in this novel, I have three viewpoints, allowing me to track events going on in both of the relevant countries as well as giving insight into the different cultures and major characters involved.  Figuring out how to bring such a world to life and keep momentum across three viewpoints is a considerable challenge, but it is part of the craft and I believe I am getting the hang of it.

The biggest challenge I face in this edit pass, however, is the word count.  I put months of effort into reducing the overall word count and now the process of bringing the world to life threatens to raise that count again.  So far, I’ve had three failed starts.

The first effort, I was so busy watching word count that every time I added a word I found myself looking for one to remove.  I got through almost five chapters before admitting that I was doing more harm than good.

On the second try, I forced myself to stop recording the word count, though I still kept watching the numbers at the bottom of the page and holding back in my efforts.  This went on for almost three chapters.

I started over again.  This time, I struggled through the first two chapters and realized that I wasn’t sure I was doing what needed to be done.  I was making a few changes to the MC that I was happy with, changes that strengthened her as a character in the beginning and clarified her motivation for the decisions she makes later on.  These were good changes, but did not address the heart of the problem.

Time for research.  I spent hours skimming through novels I loved and looking at how they brought their world to life.  Then I spent several more hours reading from online articles and books on writing.  While this gave me a great many ideas, I still felt like I was grasping at something just beyond my reach.  When you’re as short as I am, you know exactly how annoying it is to need something just beyond your reach.

It was about this time that a newsletter article from Holly Lisle showed up in my e-mail talking about bringing the WHERE of your story to life.  That article and The Description Workshop it linked managed to click everything together for me.  Something I read there filled in the last piece of the puzzle and freed me to give another shot at making this novel everything it can be.

I learned some critical lessons on world creation, but I also learned that you must create a story, not a word count.  If you spend too much time worrying about word count, you can kill the creativity.  Write or edit the story, not the word count.  Length can always be worked out later.

Happy Writing!

Writing into the New Year: Know Your World

No, I don’t mean the world your writing about.  I mean the one you live in.

I intend to be brief, partly because my eloquence is restricted by lack of sleep after ringing in the new year with some of my favorite people and partly because you have a world full of experiences to discover and now is as good a time to start as any.

Writing can be a thankless pursuit, especially if you don’t love writing for the sake of writing (in which case you might consider spending your time another way).  No one will ever thank you for all the time you spend researching, learning to write well, learning to edit, and simply developing your craft.  No one will reassure you that all those thousands of pages you’ve written and rewritten in an effort to create a work truly worthy of sharing with the world were worth your time.  You have to know that for yourself.

However, the process of improving doesn’t have to all be hard work and long hours of nitpicking away at every little imperfection in your art.

If writing is an inescapable part of who you are, one of the many things you can do to make your worlds and stories ring true is to get to know the world you live in.  Learn a language, learn other cultures, and discover people in all their facets as groups and as individuals.  Take the time to learn something new.  Go places you’ve never been.  Try things you haven’t done before that your characters might do.  Try skydiving, kayaking, or horseback riding.  Open new doors in your world and in your mind and those experiences will give your writing a sincerity that will resonate with your readers.

Charge into the new year and seize every opportunity to experience your world.  Most importantly, have fun with it and know that it will make your writing shine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

November Silence: Head Down in the Steampunk Novel

Well, things are really busy this time of year, and I am doing NaNoWriMo again, albeit without the intention to win because I don't need 50,000 words to finish this project. I'm finishing book three of the Clockwork Cat trilogy (book one of which got me my agent and is making rounds with publishers now). In celebration of that book, which was also a NaNo novel, and because I haven't had time to write something new, I am reposting the November blog from the year I wrote the first Clockwork Cat novel. I've also added a few updates and photos at the end just for fun. Enjoy!

As I mentioned in a prior post, I tried a new approach for NaNoWriMo this year.  I actually started with a full plot already worked out. I am happy to say that it worked out beautifully. Not only did I finish the 50,000 words in 22 days, I came out with a finished first draft of a novel that I am very happy with.  However, I cannot claim all the credit. A lot of it goes to my protagonist and her fabulous crew of support characters.

The idea for this novel was triggered by a few events. When I attended the PNWA writers conference this year, there was a lot of talk about steampunk as a new rising genre. Interestingly, I had been to a steampunk festival only a few weekends prior to this event. On my long drive down to the conference on the second day, I sat in my truck pondering how one would go about writing a steampunk novel. This wasn’t with the intent to write one. I had a ton of ideas waiting on the shelf already and had no desire to add to the backlog. It was just genuine curiosity. Having purchased the music from a great local steampunk band I discovered at the festival (Abney Park if you’re interested), I set that to playing and this is what happened.

While the autopilot (the very primitive portion of my brain that wants me to survive my morning drive because it is easier to type without rigor mortis) took the wheel I went on a walk through the corridors of my mind to see what might be lurking within. I wandered down those hallways deftly avoiding the eyes of all the characters waiting there. If you meet their eyes, they will tell you their stories, whether or not you are ready to hear them. When I turned one corner, I saw a youth standing there in tattered boys pants and dirty boys shirt with one sleeve torn partly off at the shoulder. Intrigued, I raised my eyes. The moment they met hers, I was doomed. She charged in and started to tell me all the gritty details of her steampunk London life.

I will admit, I resisted at first, feeling the deep resentment of the hundreds of characters who have eagerly been awaiting their turn. Then I mentioned the idea to some of my most avid fans and they were deeply enthusiastic in such a way that I found the mood infectious. I started to try writing her story, but found that the temper of my long-suffering other characters kept getting in the way.

Frustration forced me to come up with a new plan. I would indulge another character and run with their story while learning what I could about this new steampunk character and her story with the intent of doing that novel as my NaNoWriMo project. To set me off on the right foot, we even had a steampunk Halloween party and left the decorations up. By the time November arrived, this young woman was ready to run. She seized me by the throat and I wrote the fastest novel I have ever written. The great part is, it looks good and I am eagerly diving into the editing process.

The true master of ceremonies at the steampunk Halloween party.

My novel Torment (need to rename it – that is on my to do list – item 675 I think) recently got a very encouraging rejection from a big name publishing house. I plan to take another look at it and see if I can fix the issue they pointed out after the steampunk novel is through its edit and in the hands of my beta readers. Before long, I hope to have the steampunk novel out making the rounds as well. If nothing else, I will try to drown the writing world with my productivity and someone might take notice.

UPDATES:

As I mentioned, The Girl and the Clockwork Cat got me my agent and is searching for a publisher now. Book two is in editing and book three is being finished for NaNoWriMo. I just finished an edit on Torment, now called Dissidents, based on feedback from my agent and am hoping to have it making rounds to publishers before too long. And, lastly, the Steampunk Halloween Party has become something of a tradition since this first year. I've included a few pictures of our costumes from this year's Steampunk Burlesque below.

Happy Writing!!

My NaNoWriMo Tips and Lessons Learned

NOTE: If your looking for my entry in Brenda Drake's Cliffhanger Blogfest, click here.

About NaNoWriMo:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an event put on every year by The Office of Letters and Light and is, as defined on the webpage: A fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

I’ve done NaNoWriMo the last four years in a row and, while I have met the goal every year, it has often been with little time to spare.  Here are some of the things I’ve learned and a few other tips for your NaNo experience.

NaNo and Vacations:

Don’t go on a cruise.  Believe me when I say that spending the last day of November sitting in your state room trying to crank out the last several thousand words before midnight while anchored outside of Kona is not really that fun.  It is also quite expensive to upload your word count using a computer in the ships internet café.  I repeat – Do NOT go on a cruise.

On the other hand, I can honestly say that sitting on a lanai outside of your rental house in Kauai in the early morning while listening to the ocean is truly inspiring.  Renting a house on a tropical island is certainly a NaNo win in my book.

Selecting your NaNo project:

Don’t select a genre or subject that you won’t enjoy writing.  Probably my hardest year (coinciding with the cruise) was the year I decided to write a true to life story.  I actually hate writing true to life.  My biggest problem is that I have already been there and I feel like I’m rehashing old news when I could be creating new worlds.  This is a personal hang up for me and therefore a bad choice of subjects when I’m trying to crank out words at a high rate of speed.

Don’t jump into it with nothing but a cool character (cool location, cool premise, etc.).  Sure, you can get through, but if you have only one element of your story, odds are, the result will be a rambling mess.  I found myself becoming stuck a lot and struggling with the desire to go back and rewrite sections so that I could get out of the corners I was writing myself into.  Very frustrating process saved only by that lovely lanai in Kauai.

Do work on a sequel.  I know they say you shouldn’t waste time writing a sequel unless you have interest in the first book, but this worked beautifully for me.  I already knew the characters very well and was excited about taking them further.  I knew what they wanted, what they had working against them, and how to get them to their resolutions.  This was the easiest NaNo for me so far.

Do pre-plot your novel.  To be honest, I am guessing on this one.  This year I have been detailing out the book I intend to write and doing research on it for several months.  I now know the main conflict, the major characters, and a lot about the genre I’m writing in.  I know how it starts and ends and what happens to get it from one to the other as well as a number of ideas for interesting sub-plots.  I don’t know how well this approach will work yet, but I am feeling pretty relaxed going into this year’s NaNo.  That alone is worth it.

A note on Thanksgiving:

This inconvenient holiday falls in the late part of November, about the time that you are either into smooth sailing or complete panic.  If you have a family that insists on gathering in this sensitive time, your best bet is to encourage heavy eating by everyone else in the hopes that they will fall into a post-meal stupor.  The key to this method is ensuring that you don’t overindulge and are alert enough to crank out a few thousand words while everyone else is on the couch with full bellies and glazed eyes.  Alternatively, you can spike their drinks, but this only works with adult crowds and can lead to strange plot twists if you spike the wrong drink.

Have fun:

The most important thing to remember about NaNo is that it should be fun.  It will be challenging, but that is what makes it fun.  You are there to challenge yourself and, above all, to write.  It isn’t intended to frazzle your nerves, bake your brain, and send you to years of rehab.  Just write, and enjoy the adventure.

Happy writing!!