Hangers!

And now here's the second part of the Hookers & Hangers Blogfest. Turns out I'm significantly better at Hangers than Hookers, because it was a lot harder to choose, and that was even after leaving out a few that included spoilers. Thanks to everyone at Falling for Fiction for hosting this (and generally being awesome)! (For my Hookers, click here.)

Capitoline Hill

1. I nodded, feeling his dark expression in my gut. “Yes sir.”
2. “The only way we can truly know,” Donovan said, very seriously, “when the other person is dead.”
3. Which leaves us with two choices: kill them or let them join us.”

Other Books

1. She watched all these people laughing and having fun and wondered, just for a minute, what was wrong with her that she didn’t enjoy this too. - Defenders
2. You’re under arrest for murder. - Defenders
3. That’s how they know what I am. - Angels
4. I turned my back on him and stormed off. - Angels
5. "Well," I said when everyone was seated as comfortably as they were going to get, "what do we do now?" - Angels

I really enjoyed reading everyone's Hookers, and I'm looking forward to the Hangers too!

Also, if you're interested in something that sounds really cool, check out DL Hammons' WRiTE CLUB. Click on the picture for more details.

Hookers!

It's time for the first part of the Hookers & Hangers Blogfest, hosted by the awesome ladies at Falling for Fiction. Because I couldn't decide, I'm going to give you three from Capitoline Hill, then a few from my other WIPs. Enjoy!

Capitoline Hill

1. The first thing I wanted to say when Geoffrey ushered us into his office was, “It was Lucy’s fault.”
2. He was a human again, he was pretty sure.
3. We woke in a naked pile of human bodies.

Other Books

1. It was official: Shawn sucked at physical training. - Defenders
2. When Laurie regained consciousness, she was outside the burning house again, flat on her back and staring at the black sky with the swirling grey plumes of smoke dancing patterns before her eyes. - Defenders
3. Can I tell you a secret? - Angels
4. My blood ran cold, and Calli whirled on Levi, slashing her sword so fast I barely saw it and stopping just inches from his throat. - Angels
5. The gun vibrated in her left hand as it recharged, and Bex Addison idly wondered why the magical gun couldn’t reload as quickly as the Beretta in her right. - Bex Addison
6. Once upon a time, there were three little kids and a big, bad wolf. Capitoline Hill, book 2

That was fun, and I think the Hangers part might be even better. I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's!

May Wrap Up

Hear that explosion sound? That's my goal for the month of May.

I had a very, very unproductive month, at least when it came to writing. I wish I could say I had more important things to do, but the truth is I got discouraged early on by some things in my personal life, then K.S. Lewis was visiting (you just knew I was going to find a way to blame you for this ;-) ), and work was particularly crazy for a week or so. And I just sort of... stopped.

And, guys, I came up with yet another new plot for Defenders. I had this big revelation at the beginning of the month, and about the only thing I did right in May was edit the first 13 chapters to line up with it. And last night I decided to (possibly) change it all.

I should explain. I've always felt that Defenders was a romance, even though it doesn't appear so at first. So when I revised it the first time, I brought the romantic aspects out earlier. Which led to... a love triangle. I hate love triangles. I mean, it's not a make-or-break thing when I'm reading a book, but it's usually something I groan about. Because I never agree with the main character's choice. NEVER. I like to root for the underdog, and it's always so obvious which guy the MC is going to choose that I find myself rooting for the other guy (who's always popular, cute and sweet, but she goes for the bad boy with the troubled past). And sometimes it's done well, and I don't mind as much. But sometimes it's done badly, and I find myself resenting the book because of it.

So, long story made not much shorter, I have a mental block against writing a love triangle, especially when it will be obvious fairly early which guy she's going to wind up with. So I thought, "Well, what if she's just with the one guy?" But the result was that the book lost a lot of its key tension (not the romantic tension, but the plot was tied in with Guy #2). So then I started tweaking the plot to make it fit. And now... there's a new plot.

I haven't decided whether I'm definitely going to go in this direction yet, but it doesn't seem like, "Because it will be a pain," is a good reason not to do it. Needless to say, this is part of the reason I didn't write so much this month.

So if there's anyone still reading this, let's do the monthly breakdown anyway. My May goals were:

• Write 23,000 words, keeping on track with 1000 words/weekday. Um. No. I wrote 8700. That's like 23,000, but... not.
• Have a polished MS for CH, along with a complete query letter and synopsis. Um. No. I have a partial query letter and feedback from three of my beta readers (and I'm waiting on feedback from two or three more). I have no synopsis. In fact, my Writer-brain cries when I even type the word "synopsis."
• Get 100 followers on Twitter (at which point I might have a giveaway) and 65 followers on my blog. YES! I have 108 followers on Twitter and 67 on my blog. And in light of that ('cause y'all are awesome), I'm going to have a giveaway next week. Stay tuned for more details.
• Submit at least one short story to a magazine or contest. Continue writing flash fiction every week. Um. No. I submitted... nothing. And I wrote maybe two flash fictions.
• Enter at least two bloghops. I actually entered three: the Dust It Off Bloghop, the First Loves Blogfest, and the Flash Fiction Blogfest. So, yay.

But it's okay. Everyone has a bad month sometimes. The important thing is to keep moving forward and not get discouraged. I can do that. So here are June's goals:

• Write 10,5000 words. I'm halving my writing goal this month because I really want to focus on editing CH and prepping it for querying, and I'm starting to realize I can't do that and write 1000 words/day. I have to choose.
• Have a polished MS for CH, along with a complete query letter and synopsis. For real this time. I've pushed back my goal to start submitting it to agents until later in the summer, but I really want to have something to show by the end of the month.
• Get 125 followers on Twitter and 75 followers on my blog.
• Enter at least two bloghops. Right now, I'm planning on doing the First Fight, First Kiss Blogfest and the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Bloghop.

And if you made it all the way to the end of this post, you're awesome. Here, have a cookie:

OK, seriously? How much do you want a chocolate chip cookie right now?

First Loves Blogfest... and an update

I know it's only just barely still May 14, but today is Alex J. Cavanaugh's First Loves Blogfest. I've been slacking on reading blogs for the past week, but I'm looking forward to checking out everyone else's first loves. Here are mine:

• First movie: A League of Their Own.
  
  
  
  Still is, actually. I played softball until high school, and my mom and I used to watch this movie every year at the start of the season. I still can't turn it off when I catch it on TV. I own two copies of it (the regular and the anniversary edition with the special features). It solidified Tom Hanks' status as my favorite actor of all-time.
• First song/band: Ah, this one is a bit more embarrassing. I've always been surrounded by music, and I have a diverse and eclectic taste, but I have to admit that my first music love was Dream Street.
  
  
  
  I was in middle school when I first heard about this band where the singers were all my age or a few years older. This was before the Disney Channel kids really came out in full force, back when there were just a handful of "kid" singers. I thought this was the coolest thing. I listened to the CD so much I think my parents still know all the words, and I actually cried when they broke up. The biggest regret I had as a kid was that I never got to see them in concert.
• First book: I'm assuming a book series counts, so probably The Babysitters Club.
  
  
  
  Even when I was little I loved to read, but this is the first time I can remember being consumed by a book. I devoured these. And they were like a gateway drug to the world of book series. To this day, I prefer a series to a standalone (both in reading and writing) because I love growing attached to characters and watching them develop over time. Who among those of us who read the BSC books doesn't remember when Stacey was "too cool" for the others and how heart-breaking it was to watch her walk away from them? And how exhilarating it was when she came back? Or when Kristy met a boy who actually made her want to act a little bit like a girl? Fond memories. Hmm, I think I still have one or two of them stashed away somewhere...
• First person: Is it a cop out if I say I've never been in love? I mean, I've had crushes (lots of crushes), but not love. Unless you count one of the Dream Street boys (Matt... it was all about Matt for me). Then I'm totally there. ;-) Or, you know, my parents, since love doesn't have to be romantic. Sure, let's go with that.

And now for a quick update. Sorry I've been so lame about reading blogs and keeping up with Twitter. It was a crazy week, and it doesn't seem like it's going to get less crazy until after Memorial Day. It's mostly good stuff, but just a lot of it. Which means, in part, that I haven't written in four days, and I've taken up playing computer games again (not good for someone with my level of addiction). I'm still mulling ideas around for Defenders, and I think the ending is starting to take shape (which would be a lot better if I'd finished chapter 11). I'm also, to a lesser extent, plotting Bex.

As for reading, I finished Insurgent a week or so ago, and it was awesome. And as is my MO after reading an awesome book, I couldn't just jump into another, so I'm rereading some books that have sequels being released this month. First was Rachel Vincent's Blood Bound. Now I'm doing Jennifer Lynn Barnes' Raised by Wolves series.

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there. We had a great one. My brother and I started it by making my mom breakfast. No kidding, watching my brother cook bacon is one of the highlights of my year. He only does it for special occasions, and it's usually accompanied by screaming and dancing to avoid spatter. And we set the smoke detectors off. Every year. Afterwards, we all just hung out in the backyard for the rest of the day. Simple and low-key, but full of togetherness and love. I hope everyone's day was as peaceful and warm.

Also, I completely forgot about Flash Fiction Friday last week. But I have a good excuse. I was watching my little brother graduate from college (ah! I'm so old!). I'm so proud of him.

And that's pretty much it for me. Like I said, I'll be in and out for the next few weeks. Hopefully at some point I'll get some time to catch up before I completely drown. And if someone could just kind of shove me if I'm missing something important, that'd be great too. Hope everyone's doing well!

Dust It Off Bloghop - Day 3 (and a writing update)

I'm a little sad for the end of this bloghop. It was nice revisiting old memories (and hearing all your kind words about them!). I'm sorry I've been such a slacker about visiting others and commenting. I'm hoping to spend some time catching up this week.

Thanks again to the bloghop hosts, Cortney Pearson and Theresa Paolo. You can see Day 1 and Day 2 at these links.

The Dust It Off Bloghop will be three days, May 3rd, 5th and 7th.

We've all had those manuscripts that we poured our heart into, fell in love with the characters and still think of them at random, but unfortunately had to shelf. Now it's time for a little spring cleaning. Take out those manuscripts and Dust It Off!

The first day, May 3rd: We want you to post a 1-2 sentence pitch (Great way to practice pitches) about the shelved WIP.

The second day, May 5th: Post your favorite excerpt (300-350 words)

The third day, May 7th: Post what you learned from this WIP. You become a stronger, more rounded writer which each manuscript and we want to know what this particular work taught you.

So what did I learn from Three Left? In short, everything. This was the first long project I ever wrote, the first time I put my mind to a big task and completed it. It took years (I don't remember how many), and I think it was the first time I ever showed a commitment like that. I learned about focus and about finishing what you start. I learned how to take a critique, and that most critics are not out to make you cry; they just want to help your story be better.

I also learned so much about the technical aspects of writing. Hell, I learned a lot about Microsoft Word (I'm pretty sure we'd just gotten the first version of Office when I was writing this). I learned about characters' voices and the importance of names and how to make accent marks using keyboard shortcuts. I learned about weaving a plot through the story and how to make bad things happen just to see what the consequences will be. I learned that the insert key lets you put facts back into the story, instead of just sticking them in whenever you think of them.

And I learned about what I couldn't do. When I started the very first paragraph of Three Left--even when I came up with the title--I expected that not all four of my MCs would make it to the end. Ultimately, I decided I couldn't kill off a main character, not one I'd spent so much time getting attached to. So I altered the meaning of the title to avoid that possibility. I'm not saying I'll never kill a main character, but I know it's something that's particularly difficult for me to carry out, even though I think about it at least once with every book I write.

Most importantly, I learned that I could write, and it might even be coherent. I had a lot of problems when I was a kid because my brain worked more quickly than my fingers did. Once I learned to type properly on the computer, that helped a lot. I could finally make sense of all the words constantly careening around my head (seriously, I wish you all could see it in here. It's like a Moon Bounce). I could edit things so other people would understand them too.

I'll probably never do anything with this book, but it's always going to hold a special place in my heart as my first. And the lessons I took from it are invaluable.

Also, quick writing update: When we last left our writer, she was sitting by the broken mess that was Defenders crying and cursing, vowing to only work on Bex until she finished it. Well... um... things have changed. Midway through telling my most awesome CP/friend K.S. Lewis that I was putting Defenders on hiatus, I had an epiphany (seriously, I think I was mid-sentence). What if it's not a five-book series like I'd planned? What if it's just one book? One dramatic, action-packed book, instead of five drawn-out, slow-building books? It was like the brightest, shiniest lightbulb went off. Of course it's only one book. I never had enough material for five. No wonder the first book seemed painfully slow and plotless.

So that was on Thursday. On Friday, I started editing/rewriting the 12 chapters I'd finished so far. I'm up to chapter 10 now, and I haven't hated myself or my writing in days. I actually have things about the future planned. It's amazing how one little (okay, kind of big) change can make all the difference.

So Defenders isn't on hiatus. But I am still working on Bex (and Angels) at the same time. I'd really like to finish the 1st draft of one of them before NaNoWriMo, but we'll see how that goes.

Anyone else have any exciting news to share (about writing or anything else)?

April Wrap Up

Happy "It's Not A-Z" Day, everyone! No, in all seriousness, I had a great time doing A-Z, but I'm ready for a more relaxing May. I'll still be around, but I definitely need to devote some more time to my personal writing. Over half my total words for April were blog posts. I'd like that to be a little smaller of a percentage for this month.

Looking at my April goals:

• Continue writing 1000 words/day, half of them for Defenders. I did write over 21,000 words (1000 words/weekday), which was good, but I only wrote 6235 of them for Defenders. This probably would have been higher if I hadn't just stopped writing Defenders with a week left to the month.
• Send a mostly edited draft of CH to my beta readers and finish rough draft of query letter and synopsis. Again, I did a little over half of this. I sent my edited draft to my beta readers (and got a shiny reward and my first feedback from one of them. And I have a (very) rough draft of my query letter (which I wrote today), but not my synopsis.
• Get 75 followers on Twitter and 60 followers on my blog. Right now I have 83 followers on Twitter (*happy squeal*) and 54 followers on my blog.
• Submit at least two short stories to magazines and/or contests. Continue writing flash fiction every week. No. Well, I wrote the flash fiction.
• Complete A-Z Blogging Challenge. Yes.

And now I need some new goals for May:

• Write 23,000 words. Keeping on track with 1000 words/weekday. I think I'm going to take a temporary hiatus with Defenders and focus my attention on Bex's novel because, frankly, it's a lot more fun. It'd be nice to write something that doesn't make me feel like I'm clawing my way through quicksand for a change.
• Have a polished MS for CH, along with a complete query letter and synopsis. I will be (read: want to be) querying agents for CH in June, so I need to finish all the prep work by the end of the month. Perhaps I'll even come up with a title for the first book at some point.
• Get 100 followers on Twitter (at which point I might have a giveaway) and 65 followers on my blog.
• Submit at least one short story to a magazine or contest. Continue writing flash fiction every week. I'm lowering my expectations for this one. If push comes to shove, I'd rather fall short of this goal than my daily writing or my goals for CH.
• Enter at least two bloghops. Right now I'm planning to do the Dust It Off Bloghop and the First Loves Blogfest.

I've been more productive in four months of this year than in 20+ years before this, so I'm trying to stay optimistic about keeping it up.

Anybody got any goals they're trying to stick with? Good luck with all of them!

D is for Defenders

Oh, Defenders. The bane of my existence. (I say this affectionately on the heels of one of the best days of writing I've had in awhile.)

Defenders is a project I've been rolling around in my head for a long time. Well, okay, really more like a year, but that's a long time for me to sit on an idea without writing it or discarding it. It's about a city called Rafcate, which was attacked and nearly wiped out 150 years ago. To prevent this from ever happening again, they imposed a mandatory military service for every witch, mage, werewolf, demon, berserker and fairy over the age of sixteen in the city.

The story follows a team of girls who are in their first year of service: Laurie, Shawn, Kali, ZJ, Alexi and Meg. Not long into their training, a dead body shows up on their doorstep with a message. This is just the cap to the pretty weird things that are happening all around. Laurie and the team are determined to figure out what's going on, no matter what the cost.

I'm roughly 1/4 of the way through the first draft, and I have to say, it feels like I'm pulling teeth. Slowly. Without Novocaine. I don't know if it's just a weak plot, or if I'm really not cut out for complex world-building like this, but whatever it is, I'd love to fix it. And I feel like I spend a lot of time whining about how difficult writing this is for me.

But I'm not ready to abandon it yet. First of all, I love the concept, maybe more than I ever have with one of my ideas before. Secondly, I know bits and pieces of book 5 (the final book in the series), and I know that if I can get there, it will be awesome. Once I realized this was Laurie's story instead of the team's as a whole, pieces of the end fell into place for me. So maybe, if I can ever get there, that part might be easier to write.

The other thing is that I've already invested a lot of time in this. I actually did world-building! I never do world-building. I'm much more likely to wing it and hope everything falls into place eventually. And every time I think about that, my resolve to finish this book grows. I love my characters. I want to tell their stories.

And I want to prove to myself that I don't give up just because it gets a little difficult to write. I've already done that, many times, to the point where I thought I'd never finish anything again. For four years after the collapse of my third novel attempt I started and abandoned projects on a regular basis. I'm afraid that if I fall back into old habits, I won't be able to pull myself back out.

So my question is: what do you do when you just can't seem to get anything write for a story? At what point are you willing to put it down? Are you the kind of writer who just keeps pushing until you finally break the wall, or does putting the story down help you refocus on it? And when is it okay to admit that a project just isn't working?

A is for Accepting Challenges

Happy A-Z Challenge, everyone! I've been really enjoying some of the other posts.

I don't have a theme for my posts, but today's is about Accepting Challenges, a.k.a. setting goals and reaching them. This is the first year I've ever set writing goals for myself, the first year I've ever taken myself seriously enough as a writer to attempt it. At the end of February, I did a wrap up to see how I did with my goals, and I'm going to do that again for March. My February goals were:

• Continue writing 1000 words/day. I didn't actually hit my 22,000 word goal, but I was on track to when I decided I was going to take the last week of March off of writing and focus solely on editing Capitoline Hill. So while this goal wasn't completed, I still consider it a success.
• Edit 50 pages of Rosetta (now Capitoline Hill) per week. Well... I didn't do that. But I did edit over 250 pages during the month of March, completely my second draft/rewrite. So... I think that counts as a success too.
• Get 50 followers on my blog and Twitter. So close. I currently have 63 followers on Twitter and 46 followers on my blog. Just a few more to go!
• Continue to submit short stories and flash fiction. I didn't submit any short stories this month, but I have been writing flash fiction every week. I could have done better with this one, but I could have done worse.

And now, new goals for April:

• Continue writing 1000 words/day, half of them for Defenders. I'm not going to lie, Defenders is being difficult. So was CH when I started it, but somehow it feels worse this time. If I don't force myself to write it, I'll never get through the tough patch. So I have a monthly goal of 21,000 words, and I want at least 10,000 of them to be for Defenders.
• Send a mostly edited draft of CH to my beta readers and finish rough draft of query letter and synopsis. I'd really like to start querying CH in June, so I want to keep making forward progress on this.
• Get 75 followers on Twitter and 60 followers on my blog.
• Submit at least two short stories to magazines and/or contests. Continue writing flash fiction every week.
• Complete A-Z Blogging Challenge.

I don't think any of these are out of the realm of possibility, though doing the A-Z Challenge and writing 10,000 words for Defenders may wind up being a bit challenging.

What are your goals for April?

Flash Fiction Friday - 3/23/12

Sorry, guys, I haven't been the best blogger this week. I had a lot to do at work, and I've been feeling a little creatively tapped. I'm hoping that spending this weekend really plotting out some of Defenders (and maybe even editing Rosetta) will help get me back on track. It feels pretty messy and disjointed, and it's making it hard for me to write it when I don't know what's going to happen next. I didn't even take a swing at hitting my word count yesterday, so I've got almost 1600 more words to write before Monday to keep me on goal.

But anyway, this is Flash Fiction Friday, not Tobi Whines Friday. And this flash fiction is a possible future scene from Defenders (depending on how the story goes). Hope you enjoy.

He knew he was in trouble. His chest ached where the sword had pierced it, and no amount of fairy magic could heal a gash like this.

Yeah, black magic was a bitch like that.

Still, he forced himself to his feet and summoned the remainder of his strength. He might be dying, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.

She was only about a hundred feet away—though it may as well have been a hundred miles to his battered body—and he staggered to her just as she threw a Trip Spell at her opponent. He fell back, head smashing against a rock, and didn’t rise again.

“You’re getting better,” he grunted, and she whirled to look at him, face falling when she saw his bloody shirt.

“You’re hurt,” she said.

“You always did have a way of pointing out the obvious.”

She glared at him, fierce. He liked her fire, even if it would get her killed someday. “I’ll be fine,” he lied, and she didn’t believe him.

She let it go anyway. “They have us surrounded,” she said. “And there are a hell of a lot of them.”

“Where’s your backup?” he asked, looking for her teammates.

“They’re here. Not far. They’re waiting for my signal, but I don’t… I…” She hesitated, then pushed on even though the words seemed painful. “I don’t have a strategy for this.”

He nodded. “You’re in luck. I do.”

She looked heartbreakingly hopeful, and he had a moment to remember that she was really a kid still. “You think we can take them all?”

“No,” he said. His realism made her face fall, though she hid it behind determination.

“Of course we can,” she argued, and it was a struggle not to laugh, even though that would have hurt his wound.

“The best you can hope for is to delay them until more backup arrives. But that,” he continued before she could interrupt, “we can do.”

He watched the conflict flicker across her face before she nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Where do we start?”

WIP: The Movie

I'm so excited for Kyra and Rachel's blogfest. I mean, I have a tendency to cast actors for my books anyway, but now I get to share them with lots of other people.

A few basics about Defenders, which is the WIP I'm using. The story centers around a team of six girls, all 16 years old. They're one of many teams of all of different supernatural species who are tasked with defending their city from external attack. For a longer plot description, check out the page.

And here's the cast:

1. 

   Laurie Casek - Saoirse Ronan

   Laurie is the main character/narrator of book 1. She's a witch with a strict adherence to the rules and a head for strategy. She's been dreaming about being a Defender since she was a little girl.

2. 

   Shawn Doyle - Mia Wasikowska

   Shawn is the secondary narrator for book 1. She's an electric mage, who's perky and perpetually happy, though she sometimes comes across as ditzy.

3. 

   ZJ Khayri - Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar

   ZJ is a demon. She's an only child and spoiled, with a dark sense of humor and a cocky attitude.

4. 

   Kali Conway - Melanie Tonello

   Kali is a werewolf, with a strong mothering instinct. She's reasonable, and she tries to keep the peace.

5. 

   Alexi Markum - Melanie Abramoff

   Alexi is a fairly small, unimposing berserker. She's far stronger than she looks, both physically and emotionally.

6. 

   Meg Prescott - Molly C. Quinn

   Meg is the fairy. She's a bit of a dreamer, who loves music and is everyone's little sister.

And the soundtrack. This part was a lot harder for me. This story exists in a world where the concept of love--romantic, familial, etc.--doesn't exist. The word love doesn't even exist.

And do you have any idea how many love songs there are?

But I finally got the idea to look up songs about soldiers, and eventually settled on "Citizen/Soldier" by 3 Doors Down. It looks like it was a promotional piece for the National Guard, which is oddly appropriate, since the Defenders are kind of like a mandatory National Guard for their world.

And last, but definitely not least, check me out as a guest blogger on Rebecca's blog next week. The topic is plotting vs. plodding. I'm really excited about it, so I hope you all enjoy. Also, go on over and check out yesterday's really informative guest post about querying by Lynn Wiese Sneyd.

What am I doing?

Deep down, every author wants to write that epic book or series, the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings that moves a generation, becomes a major motion picture, and makes you so successful that you never need to work a day job again. It may not be an all-consuming thought, and that certainly doesn't mean you're not going to write and even publish other things, but I firmly believe somewhere in the back of every writer's mind is that desire to write an epic story.

For me, Defenders is that story. It's a five-book series, and by the end of book five, I truly expect it to change lives. It's got romance, action, philosophy and politics all rolled into one, like The Giver meets The Hunger Games but with werewolves (and a host of other supernatural creatures). I have big dreams for this series.

So why am I writing Angels instead?

Unless you follow me on Twitter, I know I haven't talked much about Angels. It sort of came out of nowhere. I wrote half the first chapter during NaNoWriMo last year, then stuffed it in a metaphorical drawer in lieu of finishing Rosetta, starting Defenders and writing some short stories. It was really just a silly little writing exercise when I had writer's block one day.

Which is what happened again a few weeks ago. I had writer's block on Defenders, so I looked through some old projects to get my mind off it for a little while. Angels popped up, and I wrote a little more. Then a little more the next day. And again, and again, until I'm now 3,000 words into it, and it's starting to develop a plot.

Perhaps the scariest thing about it is that it's middle grade fiction. I've written MG fiction before, mostly when I was in the middle grades. The only MG thing I've written since graduating middle school, however, is The-Novel-We-Speak-Not-Of.

For those of you who haven't been following my blog since last November (so... everyone), I consider my third novel (and 2009 NaNo submission) to be the lowest point of my writing career so far, made all the worse by the fact that I had been sitting on the plot for several years before getting up the nerve to write it. Badly.

(Kim says it isn't as bad as I think it is. I agree. It can't possibly be. The Hindenburg wasn't as bad as I think this novel is.)

Needless to say, I have some concerns. I don't speak like a normal person to begin with. I like vocabulary, and I like using words to their fullest extent. I like grammar, and I like using it properly. 13-year-old girls do not do this, or at least not often. Not the ones in my story. And the 13-year-old girls I used to talk to are now in high school (I have a lot of younger neighbors). So what makes me think I can write this character and her friends convincingly?

I'm also afraid that the minute I put any pressure on this (i.e. call it an actual WIP), it'll crack. It feels so very fragile right now. I guess all books do when I first start out, but I think my insecurities are making this one worse.

The flip side of this is that 1) the words seem to be really flowing with this one, and 2) I'm having a ton of fun writing it. Which is a really nice change, considering how difficult Defenders is being. I guess I'm just confused because I've seen myself as an adult author, and I've seen myself as a YA author, but I'd never even considered the possibility I might also be a MG author.

Of course, I'm only 3,000 words in. Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself.

Has your writing ever taken you by surprise? Every gotten really into writing a book you never expected? Or ever written something you didn't think you knew how to write? Or should I just shut up and be glad the words are coming?

February Wrap Up

I figure the end of the month is a good time to take a look at how I'm doing towards my writing resolutions and see what I can do to improve, both as a writer and as a chronic procrastinator.

Just as a note: according to Blogger I had 400 page views for the month of February. From when this blog began in October 2011 through January 2012, I had 114. I also went from having only one follower (thank you, Kim!) to have over 30. So thank you to everyone who's been following my blog and tweets! I really appreciate each and every one of you.

Goals:

1. Write 1000 words per day, Monday through Friday. As of this morning, I had 970 words left to hit my monthly goal of 21,000 words (which is akin to that 1000 words/day goal). Barring some unforeseen circumstance, I expect to write that by tonight, thus accomplishing this goal. (Hey, it's nice to start on a high note.)
2. Begin Defenders. Yesterday I hit the 10,000 word mark for Defenders, so I'm well into it now. I also started/continued a story I'd originally intended to use for NaNoWriMo called Angels, but I'm only about two chapters into that and seem to be using it more for when I get writer's block, so we'll see what happens with that.
3. Finishing editing Rosetta. The wheels fall off the wagon here. Not only have I not finished my edits, but I've barely worked on them all month. I started out with about 70 pages edited, and now I'm up to about 90. Not good enough.
4. Submit short stories. This morning I submitted a short story to Penumbra eZine. I've also been submitting flash fiction stories to blog contests (and I must admit I'm getting kind of addicted to them). This is a fun way to hit my word count without agonizing over one novel the whole time, especially when that novel is as ornery as Defenders.

Three out of four isn't too bad, though I definitely wish I'd done better with Rosetta. If I ever want to start querying, I need to be, you know, complete. SO, with that in mind, here are my goals for March (I really like lists).

• Continue writing 1000 words/day. This seems to be a pretty good amount, enough that I don't feel like I'm not doing anything, but not so much that I can't handle that with my day job. This makes my March word count goal 22,000 words.
• Edit 50 pages of Rosetta per week. I honestly have no idea if this is feasible, but I need a stricter deadline for myself than, "Be done by the end of the month." I'm rewriting substantial parts of the book, but I'm still using quite a bit of the first draft, so hopefully this won't be completely unattainable.
• Get 50 followers on my blog and Twitter. I'm at about 30 for both, so I don't think this is out of reach.
• Continue to submit short stories and flash fiction.

I've discovered that I truly work better (read: I only work) when I have hard deadlines for myself with as little wiggle room as possible. If I can possibly find a way to put off doing the work, I will, even if I regret it later. I'm never going to be the kind of writer who only writes when they're inspired because I'll have nothing but a drawer of half-started manuscripts to show for it.

What about you guys? Does this kind of scheduling work for you, or do you work better with more flexibility?

A Rose By Any Other Name

Kim and I were having a conversation about character names, when I had the thought that this might be an interesting blog post. Which I told Kim. And for some reason she's still willing to have conversations with me.

I love coming up with names for my characters. In fact, it may be my favorite part of writing. I really enjoy the way the right name combination feels when you say it out loud. I like that click you get when you have the perfect first and last name combination, like Harry Potter or Nicholas Nickleby or Ramona Quimby. Sometimes I agonize over the perfect name for a character, going to baby name generators to get just the right meaning, playing with the sound of it until I'm positive--positive--it's the right one.

And sometimes I wing it.

I changed Quinn's name three times when I was starting Rosetta. In fact, for half the first chapter she was Bailey, and in the plot summary, she's still Becky. I then had to consciously stop myself from changing it again (this time to Dakota) when I was a few chapters in. I don't know why I had so much trouble, but nothing ever felt right. I'd been reading all these urban fantasy series where the main characters had really excellent names (Rachel Vincent's Faythe and Liv, Patricia Briggs' Mercy, Carrie Vaughn's Kitty), and I kept feeling like my MC couldn't live up to it. Eventually she settled into the name Quinn, and I grew to like it, but it was a rough road there.

Sometimes a name just comes naturally. In my first novel, three of the four characters' names flew from my mind to the page with no effort. I thought them, and they were perfect. I find this happens a lot more often with minor characters though, whose names matter a little less.

And sometimes a character will develop around a name. In Rosetta, one of Quinn's friends is a guy named Trick. With a name like that, how the character be anything but a bit of a joker? Sure, he can get serious when he needs to, but he's mostly just a light-hearted, fun guy.

I'm thinking about this a lot now, since I'm just beginning Defenders. The naming process has been slightly more difficult for this book because, for some reason, I have a lot more trouble with girls' names than boys'. In Rosetta, Quinn's world is split fairly evenly between males and females, maybe a little heavier on the male side. If that's so, it's because I love coming up with names for boys. But Defenders follows a group of six girls, who interact primarily with other girls, at least until book 3. Sure, there are some scattered guys there, but not enough to use up the well of names I have stored.

And now that I've basically turned this into an ode to names, I turn it over to you. Have you ever heard a name that's really stood out to you (something you've written or someone else has)? Are there names you absolutely can't stand? Do your feelings about a name influence the character you create? Personally, I don't like the name John, so any Johns in my story are usually boring guys. And once I found out Donovan meant Dark One (or something like that), it became my fall-back name for every bad guy I wrote. Do you have names like that?

I Love the Smell of a New Month in the Morning

So today begins a new month in what I'm affectionately calling "The Year of Get Off Your Butt and Do More Than Talk About Writing" (or TYOGOYBADMTTAW, for short). With this new month begins a new project, a new goal, and a new deadline. February's goals are as follows:

• Write 1000 words per day, Monday through Friday. This adds up to a monthly goal of 21,000 words.
• Begin Defenders. This is my paranormal YA project, the first book in a five-book series. It centers on a city called Rafcate, which was attacked and nearly destroyed 150 years ago. To make sure that never happens again, every citizen is drafted into military service at the age of sixteen. The main character is a 16-year-old girl named Laurie, who is looking forward to serving, until the body of a teenage girl shows up on her doorstep with a message about treason and revolution.
• Finishing editing Rosetta. I'm about 70 pages into my edits, and I'm rewriting significant portions of the first draft, but my hope is that I can finish the first round of edits by the end of the month, after which I'll finally be able to allow other people to read it and offer critiques.
• Submit short stories. I'm also looking to write and submit some short stories to magazines and contests. I'm on Duotrope, but if anyone knows of any other websites like it, please let me know.

My writing goals for the year are fairly ambitious, but I'm slowly starting to learn that big goals and hard deadlines will keep me writing and moving forward better than anything else. How do you keep yourself motivated to write and edit?

Random Thoughts on Editing

• Editing is a much different process than I expected it to be. I guess I thought I'd just be able to jump to the sections that contained notes, do a few quick spruces and suddenly have a beautiful, perfect book that every agent and editor would be waiting to receive. But it turns out...
• I have a lot more insecurities than even I realized. I can't just be happy with the fact that I wrote a book for a few days. Instead, I dove into editing right away and was suddenly plagued by doubts. Is my book really good enough to compete with every other urban fantasy book out there? Do the characters and the plot develop in an organic way? Is it bad that nothing ever seems to happen directly to my main character? In case you were wondering, I'm pretty sure the answer to the last question is yes, which means that...
• "Rewrite" is not a dirty word. While I'm not rewriting the entire book per se, I am writing significant portions of it, far more than I expected. My first draft is, at this point, acting like the patches that will eventually be sewn into a quilt. I'll write a new scene, then find some old scenes that fit, but I'll rearrange them from the order in which they were initially written. All in all, the job is way more time-consuming than I expected it to be, so...
• My goal of having my initial edits done by 1/31 is a pipe dream. I have to let it go now, and set the slightly more realistic goal of having the first round of edits done by 2/29, so I can start sending the drafts to the friends and family members who so wonderfully offered to read and critique it. I don't think this will cause a change in the rest of my timeline, but I'm trying to learn to be more flexible.

This doesn't change the fact that I plan on starting Defenders on 2/1, as well as some short story projects and contest submissions. I want to get back to writing 1000 words/day, whether that be Defenders, submissions for magazines, short stories, blog posts, television reviews, or whatever.

What's your favorite/least favorite thing about editing?

Light at the End

If any of you follow my word count meter (on the right), you might have been surprised to see it jump up dramatically, starting Monday. At some point over the weekend, I realized that I could see the end of Rosetta. Now, yes, in fairness, the end was still a long way off, but it was visible for the first time in the entire writing process. Not only that, but I'd finally gotten to several scenes that were already planned out (one was even already written).

There's nothing like knowing you're almost done to motivate you. In the past four days, I've written almost 7000 words, including today. I'm not even sure how many chapters that was, but at least five. I made it through the first of two critical scenes that will lead to the end of the book (and the entire plot of book 2), and yesterday I wrote the climax of the book.

I then reduced myself to tears in the middle of the office.

My goal is to have the first draft done no later than Sunday. There's one more pivotal scene, then a few lighter, though no less important, scenes. I can't imagine I have more than 5000 words left, but I thought I wouldn't have 10,000 more at the beginning of the month, and I've write over 13,000 so far, so clearly my judgment cannot be trusted.

After I finish, I want to dive right into edits, because I know there are notes all over the later chapters of things to fix in the beginning. There are major inconsistencies that I've been going back and forth on as I try to tailor the werewolf myths to suit my needs. I'd like to get most of those out of the way, along with my character inconsistencies, while it's still fresh in my head, before I let anyone else read it or take any time off.

Come February 1, I want to start working on another book, (very) tentatively titled Defenders, which I'm sure I'll post more about before then. I contemplated just diving into book 2 of Rosetta, but I'd like to have another independently marketable book by the end of the year. Plus, I've been stewing over Defenders for awhile now, and I'd like to see if I can't capitalize on my relatively new motivation to get some of it down on paper.

Then there's the fun process of querying agents. If anybody has some suggestions they'd like to offer up before I get started, I'd appreciate it. I'll probably look to start querying by June or July at the latest.