Back in the Swing

I made it home from a fun but exhausting road trip last week and the first thing I did after stepping off the airplane? We went to Apple and bought MacBook Pros. We'd hoped to do this before I left so I wouldn't have had so many problems while I was gone (and neither would my biz partner, who was left to run the companies with failing computers), but patience became a virtue. They say that happens. So although we had our computers picked out weeks ago, by waiting, we were able to get a better deal.

This weekend, I migrated most of my files (still having issues with Outlook - if anyone knows anything, please help! I'd love you forever!) and starting yesterday, I've been doing revisions on the Mac. It was the first time I'd been excited to do revisions in a long time. LOL It wasn't really any different - Word is still basically the same (though not exactly) - but it felt different. And fun.

But the best part was being productive again. I finished an entire chapter in GENESIS yesterday morning. In just a few hours. So much better! I just might make this deadline after all. Whew.

It's nice to be back in the swing of things. With all the excitement of real life behind me, including the fourth season of True Blood (awesome finale by the way!), I feel like I can see some kind of normalcy on the horizon. I don't know. We'll see. I just got my Pottermore access email yesterday, so... 

How are you doing? With summer and back-to-school behind us, are you settling into a routine? Or are you still reeling from it all? How do you ground yourself when chaos hits?

Novella Done! And Now for My Next Trick...

Finally! The novella is done!

It took a lot longer to finish this novella than expected. I mean, it's barely 60,000 words. It took me longer to write it than it did to write the 124,000 +/- words of the first draft of Promise & Purpose. But it's done. (Did you feel that breeze Wednesday afternoon? That was me letting out a major sigh of relief.) And hopefully it won't need nearly as much work as Promise and Purpose did.

Because, of course, it's the best thing I've ever written. I'm allowed to think that for now. I get a few days to bask in that glory. But that's it.

Then it's time to move on to the next trick. Well, actually, to go back to the previous one. Back to Book 3 for rewrites and revisions. Since it's had to sit and stew for much longer than expected, my brain should be good and ready to work on it. After the brain gets acclimated.

I had fun meeting new characters and learning about them and their world, but it'll be nice to get back to the "known" - Alexis, Tristan and all the other characters I know so well. Also the "known" as in today's world. The novella takes place over 2,000 years ago. So now I have to fast-forward to...now. Get re-oriented with the modern world. Remind myself that they have cell phones and running water and don't eat with their fingers. Well, most of them don't. Some just eat with their fangs. Haha!

Anyway, I expect it might be a bit of a challenge. I've never done such an about face. And it's been a long time since I've started revisions from the first draft. Since I shared all my woes and joys of new writing methods with these two stories, I imagine next I'll be sharing what I learn with new revising methods.

So...here I go! Wish me luck. And speed. I need speed. Definitely getting behind on deadlines.

How do you handle switching between such different projects? Do you enjoy the change-up? Or does it take time to get back into each world? Or do you stay with the same story from beginning to end and avoid the confusion altogether?

The Plot Thickens...Into a Big Mess

Or you could call this when a pantser tries to plot. I used to be a pantser, or, really, a hybrid. With Promise and Purpose, I let the characters tell me the story, but I had an idea of where it was going and some of the major plot twists. I kept a notebook with scribbles so I wouldn't forget my ideas when the time came.

With the third book of the series, and probably the rest, however, I had to plot. Switching teams was a big step for me because it terrified me, but it turned out well. I finished the book, which I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do if I knew everything that was going to happen. (I've learned that the author, at least this one, never knows everything.)

I'm currently working on a novella and for a long time it had really been beating me down. I've known the story since I got a few chapters into Promise, so I wasn't worried about plotting or pantsing. I could tell you what happened in about five pages. But actually creating a story out of it has made me feel like I've done a round in the boxing ring. I tried to let the characters tell me, but with alternating POVs, I realized I needed a chapter outline. Then that wasn't even working. I still kept getting tied up. Then I did this:

I had to blur it up so you didn't see any spoilers. Also, note my reward for figuring this out. It's gone now. It tasted yummy.

This is the second half of the book. It looks like a huge mess, I know. But you know what? That's exactly what I needed. Although what's on this page is basically spread out on three pages elsewhere in nice, linear format and narration, I guess I had to see the pieces all together and how they fed each other.

This mess is kind of a mash-up of earlier note-scribbling-pantsing days and my more recent foray into outlining. I don't know. It works. And that's what we writers have to do with every single story we sit down to write. As I've learned, a successful method for one book might not be the right one for the next.

Have you ever had to turn your ways upside-down and inside-out? Or have you been able to find a single tried-and-true method that works for you? Do you ever get pages of notes that look like mine? Or worse? I do have worse. Maybe we can have a blog fest for messiest notes and outlines.

MarNo - March Novel Writing Month

So Dawn Embers twisted my arm and promised me cupcakes if I did the March Novel Writing Challenge (aka MarNo), so I thought very hard about it, chewed my fingernails off as I worried about the consequences of failure and spent many sleepless nights debating whether or not to participate. Okay, that's all a lie.

Actually, she just happened to mention it on Twitter last night (because like a bad follower - who's been on deadline, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it - I didn't catch it on her blog). And I said, cool, that's actually something I can do.

My plan was to write a novella this month anyway. Even after finishing the first draft of Book 3, I'm still in the zone. That ever-elusive creative place that I don't want to waste just because I finished a WIP. And this novella was next in line anyway and I figured while I write it, Book 3 can "rest" before I go back for revisions. The characters are starting to speak loudly in my head, so I'm ripe for this project.

I've never been able to do NaNoWriMo because November is just a horrible month for such insanity and last year it was right before Purpose's release. All my free time was spent on the business and marketing side of being an author. So I'm excited to participate in my first major group write-a-thon.

My goal: Finish the novella or, if it turns into a novel (because the ideas have been flowing so heavily, it just might), at least 40K. I'd go more, but I do have to do some editing on Book 3 by the end of the month.

Want to join us? Dawn has a sign-up here. You don't have to write. You can revise instead. And your goal can be whatever you want it to be. Just have one and share it so you have something to work toward.

If you sign up, I'd love to see your goals in the comments!