Writer-In-Progress

What the hell is it with my writing that happens every time I try to set good, solid, reasonable goals and something always flies in about a day later to completely screw with my plans?!

I signed up for the 70 Days of Sweat Challenge with the honest intention of writing 750 words a day–at least. Figured it’s a good time to start the novel rather than just brainstorming til I’m 80, plus with the short story due out reasonably soon (still awaiting the release date) I’d need to follow up with a second story to the editor.

Sounded great til I got a notice from a writing friend who mentioned an editor was looking for authors for work for hire. Basically, the publisher has titles they need to put out and need to hire writers to do a lot of writing in a short period of time. Before my brain could stop my fingers, I fired off a query to the editor only to have her send me the list of titles and prompt me to pick five. I did, and those had all been bid on. Picked three more, and those were gone. Picked three more on Friday and haven’t heard back from the editor, but I do admit none of those titles were really great. But the challenge of writing a 65K word book in 90 days is too great to pass up (she says stupidly).

So, anyway, in the meantime, I’m working on this challenge. I wrote three pages today, which, added to my one page from before, brings me to four. A whopping 843 words, but I’m into the second scene of the story (dialogue always comes to me first before description) and still cranking it out. And I’ll be back again at it tomorrow night unless something else comes across my email and I think I have to write it.

Why can’t I stay focused? Maybe I should work on that in my writer’s coaching course…lol.

And do these blog posts count into my 750 a day? I wish!

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Since I’ve heard that question more than once in my life (the answer is almost always yes), I figured I’d prove it:

I just signed up (on impulse, like buying that pair of purple heels I picked up on clearance last year at Macy’s and have worn only once…today…) for yet another writing challenge: 70 Days of Sweat at http://70daysofsweat.com/wordpress/archives/71

Why nuts? I just started a course on coaching writers through creative issues (12 week class), am busier in the day job than I’ve ever been before (7-5 most days) and am coming into basketball season (I keep scorebook for two, sometimes three teams a week..or twice a week). And now I’m committing to writing a minimum 750 words (3 little pages) a day. Wow. Even I think I’m nuts!

But I’m excited. While I’m enjoying the brainstorming process for the upcoming story, I also don’t want to use that as an excuse to not write (pet peeve: writers who’ve been working on the same “story” for more than two years). Might as well dive in now….

Why am I here and not writing? I have 3 pages to finish…..

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Since we didn’t get to catch up (the Serious Writer girls, see previous post) for this three-week span, Katy emailed (for sake of conversation) a question I always love asking of writers everywhere: what’s your process?

Katy asked specifically if I’m writing to get to know my characters or if I’m working on something else (nonfiction) while I work on the characters in my head. Interestingly enough, up to this point of my writing career, I’ve always gone with the latter. I always have four or five writing projects going at the same time (can’t sit still…) and find that when I get stuck on one I can flit to another and find something else to work on easily.

But this time–at least with the fiction–things are different. I don’t remember if I mentioned it but the hero of my current story (Christopher) has been telling me bits and pieces of himself at really odd times (you know that if you’re a writer you’re always thinking of your story so don’t pretend like you never “hear” things from your characters…LOL) and instead of keeping them all in my mind, I’ve been writing them down. I’ve almost filled up an entire notebook with Chris and Lily (the heroine) notes. I’m not used to this–my preferred method of writing fiction is to solidify that first all-important, crucial scene in my mind 99% then settle in and write it.

The problem has come when that first scene (often first chapter) comes out easily but I’ve written everything i know about the character to that point into that section of the story, leaving me with little to go on. I don’t always plot out all the crucial scenes (gasp…!) so I find myself lose interest in the story or it takes a wild tangent I didn’t expect, which ends up being an excuse not to finish.

So I thought…what the hell, I’ll try something different. I must admit it’s a really refreshing feeling. I don’t have that “dread” when I sit down to write that I often had in the past where I don’t know what comes next. I’m having fun writing about the characters, discovering tiny details about the character or setting I think I might have missed had I just written fast from the start.

The fun will start when i finally get the real story started but the hope is that I’ll have a wealth of info from my notes to draw upon and use as my map. I guess I won’t know til I get there but I’m having a darn fun time trying it…

back to the notebook…

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I gave a presentation earlier this week to a group of teachers and had an interesting flashback experience that shows just how my mindset toward being an author has changed since I started writing…and feel like sharing, since this is my blog…LOL

When I started grad school three years ago, first class, first day, we had to introduce ourselves and tell the class something about ourselves. As everyone shared around the class, I panicked about what to share. I finally convinced myself to share that I was a writer (yes, i said it out loud to a group of strangers…), but didn’t mention that I had only a few credits to my name. I was so worried that there was some unwritten rule that I had to have a minimum two books or x number of magazine articles published to qualify as a “writer”, but as it turned out, I wasn’t struck by lightening.

After that, sharing that I was a writer became easier each time I did it (to strangers..lol). At the presentation, the teacher of the class introduced me and gave high compliments on my writing. She said she had no idea I was a writer until she checked out my website, and how impressed she was with my writing. I was surprised (pleasantly) to say the least, but unlike the old Beth in grad school, I smiled and thanked her without hesitation. Later, as I thought about it, I realized how, had that occured three short years ago, I’d have blushed and insisted I wasn’t a real writer yet because..why? Because I hadn’t met those lofty and undefinable things that qualify people as a writer?

Lori Foster, in her infinitely wise and down-to-earth way, once said that everyone who writes is a writer. There is no checklist to complete, no hoop to jump through, no group to join, no prerequisites for publishing–the act of writing qualifies you to be a writer. The difference, she said, is that some people who are writers eventually become published authors when they sell their work. It’s an easy, simple distinction that works well with the writer’s delicate psyche, and it’s true.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have someone publicly acknowledge that for you, either…

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The Seriouswriter girls & I were supposed to meet on Thursday for our ritualistic three-week catch-up-drink-coffee-set-goals (and pay up if you missed the last one)but real-life stuff intervened and we set goals via email.

Katy qualified her goal by claiming it was lame as compared with everyone else’s goal but I think it’s the toughest at times: to work on the same writing project every day for three straight weeks.

I disagreed with her because I think that setting, establishing and keeping a true daily writing schedule (if you aren’t a fulltime writer or don’t have a day job/life to interfere with writing) is often much more difficult than setting a page requirement to complete. The way life unfolds daily is never the same as the day before, and working to carve out that uninterrupted period of time where it’s just you and the words can be damn near impossible sometimes. But even if it’s only fifteen minutes, it’s a start.

Part of the challenge of setting writing goals that will help your career as a writer is taking into account one simple thing: LIFE–and structuring your career around it so that you maximize your experience with both. And since no one else can live your life the way you want, don’t worry that someone else’s goals don’t fit your career. Your writing, your life, your goals…and your $5 if you don’t meet them…LOL

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So that last post was on the galley…this time the post is on the FINAL galley. When I send this bad boy in (ok, good boy..), my editor says I’ll get my release date. I think that means almost showtime, huh?

It’s odd to think that all this time I’ve wanted to be published in fiction has come to (almost) fruition and now I’m a little afraid. What if someone doesn’t like my story? What if only my mom buys a copy? What if it’s the worst seller in company history?

What if?
What if?
What if?

It’s enough to make a girl crazy. Guess the only place I really can go to escape is the fictional world I’ve recently created for this newest story. It’s a vicious cycle…lol.

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