Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here!

So I've been editing. I really don't like editing. But I know I need to do it, and I'm really tightening things up. I consider myself a pretty tight writer. I'm not overly flowery, I don't waste time on unnecessary description. (At least I hope not.) But every now and then I hit a section that is chock full of adverbs. Like I had an adverb attack that day while I was writing. The thing about it is this is not my first round of edits, and I have slashed mercilessly at those adverbs each edit. And. They. Are. Still. There.

When it gets particularly bad, I start singing "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly . . ." I must be driving my husband crazy. He doesn't say anything unless he's editing (film not writing) and then he shushes me because I'm messing with the quiet he needs. I've got the whole song memorized in fact I have the entire Grammar Rock collection on video somewhere. I loved to use it when I taught grammar--parts of speech to my students. But every time I slash an adverb I wonder why they were invented, identified and used.

On another note--I've not written in a few weeks, because I've just been frustrated by my editing process. Shudder. The thing thing is that I'm just plain frustrated. I don't want to write whiney post after whiney post. I know you don't want to hear it.

I've revised my query again:

Seventeen-year-old Isis’ life changes the day she uses magic to save herself from an exploding car. It wasn’t like she had a choice in the matter—instinct kicked in—and she did it without thinking. The only problem was that in the process she saved Dane—her stupid class project partner. The bomb was meant for him, but did he say thanks? Nope, instead he kidnaps her because of her powers and pulls her into a world of magic where two societies are warring for control.

Isis discovers she is the dreamer. That means her gift is stronger than most and she can do things other people can’t –like walk around the world of dreams. It allows her to take control of people’s minds and tell them what to do and how to act through their dreams. Not to mention all the magic she can do in the real world. Both societies want her and her choice could end the fighting, but Isis doesn’t know whom to trust.

Afraid of her family’s rejection Isis is afraid to join either group, but Dane insists on training her, and she begins to fall for him as they spend more and more time together. Still Isis didn’t ask to be thrown into this world, but when she learns about a planned assassination attempt on the president and she discovers the wrong side is winning, she can’t just walk away.


But I still don't have a title. I so need a good title--where can I find a title muse?

Finally all of the published authors, editors, and agents blogs I read have been talking about BEA. It seems like everyone is there and having fun. It sounds fun--maybe someday I can go too.

Happy writing!

Revisions

Okay so here is the truth-at least the way that I see it. Revising is the hardest part of writing. For me, it is just so hard to go back again, and again.

I know that it makes my writing stronger.

I know that my story isn't perfect the first time through.

I know that the difference between getting published and not getting published is in the editing--most especially when it is your first novel, your first shot at getting an agent and getting published.

Things I've realized about my story this week--my first door (as referred to in Plot and Structure) is weak (well I've known this). The first door is an event or thing that propels your character forward. And this weak, I figured out three things I can do to make it stronger. I can move up my first door in my plot a bit, add a little bit of mystery throughout the book, and raise the stakes--make it much more compelling.

But now I find that I'm avoiding the writing time I have set aside, because I don't want to do the revisions I know that I need to do. Uggh!

Good writing!

All About Accountability

So last week I had some really lofty goals. The biggest reason I started writing the blog is that I needed accountability so I am reporting on my progress. I am being completely honest too--

Get another draft of my query ready

Yes I did. I posted it at AW and got feedback. And I also tried a worksheet that I found at Beth Revis's blog about creating a pitch. She adapted it from a post by edittorent. This actually was very helpful. I may post it later this week. I want to sit on it and think about it for awhile.

Work on my draft of my synopsis

I looked at this. Read it once, and left it completely alone. My biggest thing is I don't want to change some names that I know I need to change. The good guy society is Damia, and the bad guy society is Ares. My problem is that my two protagonists names are Dane and Isis. Much too similar Damia/Dane, and Ares/Isis. And I like the names too much to change the character names, but my societies have those names! Agh! I know I need to change it, but it is so hard.

Write a detailed synopsis for my trilogy

I totally did this and loved it. It is only a rough draft, but it got me completely excited about my series again. The characters still have so much opportunity to grow. The next two books are going to rock, but I'm not going to write them until I sell the first. Partly because I'm still super excited about twenty years later.

Design and order business cards for the Writer's Conference

So this didn't even happen. Not at all.

Keep working on 20 Years Later (which will soon have a new title, since I have to slightly change one premise of the book--thanks to feedback from writers group)

Well I did add a 1000 words, but I didn't go back and fix what I needed to fix. And I only worked on it one day--shame, shame on me.

Do Third draft of First Novel and Name it

I got some great ideas, and started my read through. But I didn't make significant changes yet. Not that I'm not going to. I got some great advice from the AW forum, and it's going to make me look at this draft a lot more closely.

Start blogging more regularly (This may or may not happen)

Obviously this did not happen. But it shall. In my defense I did get a lot of work done this week.

So I've been thinking a lot about balance this week. Finding the balance between being a mom, working from home and writing a novel. And I've decided I don't get as much done as I could, because I'm out of balance. I need to assign specific tasks to specific times and stick to them.

Goals for this week:

Reestablish a working writing versus novel writing schedule.

Another Draft of My Query

Third Revision of My Novel

Give My Novel a Real Title

Order the business cards (I'm running out of time on these)

Add 3000 words to Twenty Years later. That should be another chapter.


So how do you find the balance in your writing vs your normal life?

I'm Back!

So last weekend I went on vacation. I was silent for two weeks because I was getting ready for the vacation and then I was on the vacation. I told my husband I wouldn't work/write while on vacation this time. And so I didn't. I didn't get on and surf the Internet, or anything. I had over 500 blogs posts to read and catch up on, but I did it today. Finally! As an aside it was a great trip to Florida to see family and spend a day at Disneyworld. My three kiddos loved it.

Honestly I haven't worked on anything since then. But I'm ready to go.

My writer's group gave positive feedback to my first chapter of my new book. I'm super excited about it. It's got so much potential. I just hope that I can carry the story through. The tension level is going to be high, high, high through most of the novel. I like it so much that I almost want to sell this before my other novel, but it's not done yet.

However, I still like my first novel, and don't want to abandon it or the series. I got the best phone call today. I sent out my second draft to a few readers, and I hadn't heard anything back from them yet. I sat next to one today at church, and almost asked, and then didn't. I decided that she didn't like it, and so I didn't want to make her uncomfortable about it--even though I don't mind a negative reaction (well not much), since I need feedback.

Then I got a phone call. She called just to let me know she was half way through and didn't want to put it down to go make dinner for her family! She wanted to finish it. Well that totally made my day!

So goals this week:

Get another draft of my query ready

Work on my draft of my synopsis

Write a detailed synopsis for my trilogy

Design and order business cards for the Writer's Conference

Keep working on 20 Years Later (which will soon have a new title, since I have to slightly change one premise of the book--thanks to feedback from writers group)

Do Third draft of First Novel and Name it

Start blogging more regularly (This may or may not happen)

Well I think that's all pretty ambitious. We'll see what happens!

A New Novel

So last week I finished up my second draft, and sent it off to a new batch of beta readers. And I've temporarily decided to abandon my WS manuscript. Something just wasn't flowing. It may be because I'm not in the mood to write my romance novel. I will one day though.

Instead, I'm very excited and pleased to announce that I began a new novel. This ideas has been simmering in the back of my head since December. Funnily enough it started as a dream. One of those really vivid dreams. And I wrote down the impressions--the scene I had was awesome, but and this was a big but. I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't know where it took place or what would happen as a result.

Until I was editing the first draft of the current novel, and watching a documentary on aliens with my father-in-law. Now I can tell you with unwavering certainty that my novel does not involve aliens. But something in the documentary triggered a whole bunch of what if questions, which I promptly wrote down. And bam it hit me that the two scenarios match up perfectly.

I've got another pretty cool science fiction idea boiling in the background as well. Totally cool, and possibly creepy--which is weird to me since I don't do creepy. This was also a dream, but I woke up with a lot of questions about why, how and the results.

I don't want to go into too much detail since I love these ideas so very, very much. But I just wanted to share that I'm super excited about where this novel is going to go.

And my husband read my first little bit and told me that my beginning is better than my first novel. So I know I need to still work on that, but we'll get there.

See ya!

Querying

My husband had commented to me that my blogs were full of typos. And I looked back over them this weekend, and he was right! So I spent some time fixing them. I don't know if I caught all of them, but I hope I did find the most glaring ones.

This week just sped by. I decided it was time to start working on my query letter. And so I posted it on a forum, and got it critiqued. The consensus was that I wasn't being specific enough, which funnily enough is what Rob told me. He always tells me that. I guess I am a generalist or something. So I worked on it, and posted another one--still not specific enough. Third attempt had a huge info dump--which you don't want in the query.

So here is my fourth attempt. A query is supposed to be about 250 words long. It should really get into the meat of the story, and it should suck the agent in enough that he/she will request pages. So please feel free to give me your opinion of my current query attempt. I will try to incorporate your suggestions.

Here it is:

Isis is a senior in high school focused on keeping her carefully controlled world from falling out of balance. She doesn’t know why strange things happen around her, just that they are unacceptable to her mother. She doesn’t realize that two magical societies are racing to find her. Ares has nearly achieved its goal of world domination by using both its magical powers and political connections. Damia exists to stop Ares from destroying the world.

When Isis uses her gift to save her life she is drawn into the world of Damia. Dane, her classmate, is one of Damia’s strongest members and is being trained for a leadership position. He guides her as she learns there is a purpose for her powers. Soon Ares discovers Isis and tries to convince her to join them. The fight intensifies as both groups realize that Isis is a dreamer and the most gifted mage of her generation. This gift allows her to manipulate others’ subconscious as well as work powerful magic in the Hall of Dreams. Her choice will tip the balance of power between the two groups allowing one to annihilate the other.

Isis is torn between embracing her true identity as a mage by joining one of the groups and the rejection of her family who has shunned every sign that Isis may possess the gift of magic. Through her dreams Isis learns of the plot of a future bombing followed by the assassination of the current president. As Isis and Dane race to stop the bombing, she learns that it is a trap and is kidnapped. Isis realizes that she must risk everything to save her life and the world that she knows.

THE GUARDIANS is a 57,000-word Young Adult contemporary fantasy novel.


Also I don't like the title. It is a work in progress--so any cool words that you know that have to do with protection or something would be great.

Thanks! Have a great week!

Books That Are Helping Me

This week I've managed to fit in two very important scenes that will help to build the tension in my book. It doesn't sound like a lot, but this conflict is central to the story, and I didn't figure that out until I was three quarters of the way through the first draft. That is what editing for, but the one thing I know I have going for the book is my pacing. And so when I change things, add scenes, and move things around, I naturally worry about my pacing. I think these changes are going to work though.

This week I've started reading two books, (nonfiction) and read a fiction book. They have all helped me a lot. When I read nonfiction I tend to read several at a time. I'm not all that into nonfiction books, but I go through phases--I'm actually reading three at the moment, but one has nothing to do with writing.

My fiction book that I read was The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. She's been one of my favorite writers (top ten) since I was in middle school. I love her strong women characters, and the fantasy worlds she creates. As I read this book again for the bazillionth time (I'm a rereader), I noticed that she has a pattern to her stories. She starts out with a woman who is living a fairly normal existence. Then something happens that throws her out of that normal world. She may suddenly be in a new country, be hurt by someone or have responsibility thrown on her. The middle of the book focuses with her dealing with the adjustments of her new world, and learning to control the new powers she has discovered as a result. Finally she goes on a journey or fights something virtually alone. With her special magical powers there is a massive magic scene in which the forces of opposition are overthrown.

She uses this basic plot in Beauty, The Blue Sword, Deerskin, Hero and the Crown, The Chalice, and Sunshine.

And yet I love everyone of these books, and they are all very, very different. She is masterful at building the different worlds that allow these very different characters to exist and have their problems. Every book is unique, and you care about each character. The obstacles they face are different, but they all follow the same pattern.

This may have come to my focus because I'm in the middle of reading a great book: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. This book is just what I needed to help me really focus on fixing the right things in the editing process. It is a good book, full of examples, but the thing I like the best about it are all of the questions he keeps asking about the characters. It is helping me make my conflict more focused, and hopefully my book more enjoyable.

The other book I just started is Hooked by Les Edgerton. Honestly I'm only a few pages into this, but it seems like a solid read, full of good advice, and similar questions to Plot and Structure. I'm also planning on reading The First Five Pages in the next few weeks.

My husband, who is very supportive of my writing, bought me these books for my birthday. He really knew how stuck I was in the editing process, but these books are helping me look at what needs to be fixed, and giving me suggestions (in the form of questions) on what to do in order to fix them.

How did your writing week go?