More Boring talk about my process

I haven’t had a project update in a while.

I spent the first few weeks of revision sort of pretending like maybe I wouldn’t have to actually revise. As in, if I could find enough people who liked my manuscript then I wouldn’t need to fix anything. This is not a productive mindset, in case you were wondering.

What it needed was a rewrite of the first few chapters. So I rewrote them, one sentence at a time. I agonized over the tone and the voice and whether anyone would ever want to read about a frumpy woman who stumbles across something extraordinary. For those of you not familiar with the ordinary character gets sucked into extraordinary circumstances, this is called a portal fantasy. It’s basically the kiss of death. There are numerous agents who say they’ll consider anything except portal fantasy. And worse, it’s actually spec fic. Portal fantasy spec fic.

Sigh. The reason portal stories (a character goes from their everyday normal life through a portal to another world) are the kiss of death is because they are, well, to say the least, boring. They start with an average joe who finds the special book/ring of power/realizes they’re the son of zeus and then the adventure begins.

What’s hard about the portal story is that you have to know a little bit about the character before their choices make sense. Oh, and they’re usually pretty boring because we want them to seem like an everyday sort of person. So imagine trying to pitch a book where the first part is about Joe Nobody who gets lucky enough to find the portal to another dimension/power ring of awesome/suddenly can cast lightning from his nostrils. It’s like trying to sell ice to the Inuits, agents don’t want it, don’t need it, and they have it coming out their ears.  

A lot rides on the first couple of chapters. That means pressure. Pressure means I write like zoo dirt (it’s nasty stuff), and I know it. I hemmed and hawed over my first three chapters. I rewrote them. I rewrote them again. For fun, I gave it one more stab. That’s the hard part of revision, knowing where the most scrutiny will be, and floundering through a revision because of it.

But now I’m in the part of the revision that’s all butterflies and rainbows. It’s the part that I love (I love writing action and anything that should be accompanied by the Bhum Bom Baaah! sound effect).

How about you, are you a portal story fan, or does the stink coming off portal stories make your nose hairs curl? (Don’t worry, I won’t tell the literary luminaries if you like portal stories, and I won’t blame you if you hate them—I’ve read some stinkers in my day too)

Awards are fun!

The lovely Tara Tyler gave me the Liebster Award. Yay! Here’s the rules:

• paste the award badge to your blog, 
• give us 11 random facts about yourself, 
• answer the 11 questions, 
• and choose your nominees

But you know I’m a rule breaker.

1. What made you want to be a writer?

This is such an odd one for me because I never actually made the conscious choice to be a writer. I’ve always been a writer. I wrote my first book because I’d caught up to the end of a series and I had the whole summer and needed my fix (yes, I guess I started with a Mary-Sue FanFic). But I’d written other stories before. It was always in the back of my head that I was a writer biding my time. Everyone said I needed life experience before being a writers, so I poured myself into science in the mean time. But then I had a story I just had to tell, so I started and finished my second novel while in grad school.

2. Where do you find the inspiration for your writing?

I don’t find inspiration, it finds me. It tends to grab me by the neck and shake me like a dog with a ragdoll.

3. What are your goals for 2013?

I’d like to get published in 2013 (or get a contract), but so much of that is timing and luck that I don’t feel like I should list it as a goal. A goal should be something I can really control the outcome for. So for my goals: I’m going to finish revising DEAD STAR and query it; I’m going to write my super sekrit project, STONE DEAF; then I’ll revise PRINCESS SINGULARITY. If I’m really, really, really diligent, I’ll be able to start on the first draft of my super sekrit project #2 which doesn’t really have a good title yet (it’s so secret, even I don’t know the title!).

4. What’s your favorite quote?

“Shoot for the moon. At least you won’t shoot your foot off.” –Ellie Quinn from Lois Bujold’s Vorkosigan series.

5. Where in the world would you most like to visit?

There’s a series of druid structures that are aligned so they receive light in the temple proper only on the days right around the winter solstice. I WANT to go to one of these, but it’s pretty unlikely to get a ticket. We sign up every year, but they have a lottery system, and, well, we haven’t been lucky yet. I think it’s very egalitarian, so I’m not against the lottery system. These temples (for lack of a better word) are located in both Ireland and in Scotland. So yeah, that’s where I’d like to go. Following that, I’d like to see the Great wall of China and maybe even the cliff dwellings along the Yangtze river that haven’t all been flooded out.

6. What five things would you take to a desert island

It’s cheating, but I’d bring a five star resort with me. That way I wouldn’t have to do all the survival bologna, and my family would have a nice place to stay while I did the survivor thing, because I’m bringing them into exile with me. I’d also need my computer, a way to charge it (probably at the resort), and internet access.

7. What is your biggest strength and your biggest weakness?

My biggest strength? That depends on the situation. I’ll go with my amazing unbiased skillz. I can really look at the facts and put aside the emotional aspect of problems, so long as it’s not one of my problems. My biggest weakness? Definitely my self doubt.

8. If you could meet one author, who would you choose?

Lois McMaster Bujold, but I have a horrible confession. I’ve met a number of stars and people I really looked up to, and they weren’t very much fun to met. One of my idols turned out to be an autograph signing robot, so I was very sad. It’s made me very leery of meeting people who are famous. I guess it makes sense. In a strange way, we have relationships with these people that are completely one-sided. When we meet them, they have no idea who we are, or what we do, and we’re so nervous as to be stupid about it.

9. What’s your favorite film?

I only get one? How about a top 5? Incredibles, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Harry Potter Series, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings. And even that’s not covering the bases…

10. If you went into The Hunger Games, what would be your most useful skill?

I did a lot of fencing, so strange as it sounds, probably sword fighting.

11. Which fictional male would you most like to marry?

I’m already married, but I’d love to spend some time with Mal Reynolds.

My questions for my nominees are:

a.        What naive misconception did you have about writing books when you started?

b.      What is your favorite part of writing?

c.       What is the one thing you would change about publishing and why?

d.      Do you have an inspiration list? Can you give us a sample?

e.       If you were a super villain, what would be your fatal flaw?

f.       If you were a super hero, what would be your super power?

g.      If you could go on a trip to a tropical island but you didn’t get to pack anything before you left, would you go?

My five nominees: The Lizzes  (Poole, Seckman, LizWritesBooks), Rachel, and Annalisa

I hope everyone is having a great week. I'm slogging along in revision land, but I feel like there's a light at the end of the revision. I'm just worried the light is another revision (it is, who am I kidding).

Insecure? If it were just that...

It’s time once again to send our fears and insecurities out into the world. If you haven’t yet, be sure to visit the Ninja Captain and join up on the linky.

I know this is about insecurities, but I wanted to talk about the opposite effect today: delusions of adequacy. Recently, I did something that has made me really annoyed with myself.

So, I paid someone for a critique. I knew that the work wasn’t really at the point where a critique would do it much good. I knew that what it needed more than anything else was for those early chapters to be rewritten. I knew this. And yet, I ponyed up my money and paid someone to read chapters that needed to be rewritten from scratch.

And you know what the editor said?

The editor said that the chapters needed an absolute overhaul, maybe even a rewrite.

Even knowing beyond a doubt that it needed work, I thought that somehow I could bamboozle this editor into liking my stuff. Nope. In fact, pretty much every comment was “This could be good, but currently, it—ah, how do I say this nicely?—isn’t good at all. Great voice though. And the humor is fantastic, but the XY and Z are just killing me.”

And I knew about the XY and Z. Like it was the one thing everyone has already commented on. I knew about it, and yet I sort of thought this editor would just gloss right over that, or maybe say “Oh my goethite*! This is a revolutionary way of writing! I wonder why no one has ever written like this before!” (hint: they have, it just sucked for them too!). I sent off some flawed chapters, and I expected to be told they were awesome. At least adequate.

There’s a saying where I grew up that sort of applies here: You plant peas; you get peas.

It means don’t go rootin’ around the asparagus patch looking for some bell peppers. That’s not where you planted them (you did get them out of the package, right?). In my home town that saying is meant to basically call someone an idiot for not thinking.

I got some really great feedback, and for the record, I’d utilize this particular editor again in a heartbeat. Mostly, I’m just annoyed at myself for thinking the bad parts would just go away while I worked on other stuff. I mean really, did I think faeries would just fly in and make everything better while I wasn’t looking?

Anyone else with this particular problem, or am I the only one wearing the dunce’s cap in the corner?

P.S. The editor kindly offered rereads for half the cost. Like I said, editor=awesome.

*goethite is pronounced grrrrrrrr-tight, it’s a mineral of some economic importance.

Cat and the Dreamer

And today, I'm turning over my blog to Annalisa Crawford for her Cat and the Dreamer Blog Tour! Take it away Annalisa:


It's been a year since my novella Cat and The Dreamer was published! There have been lots of changes in my own life in that time, and I started to wonder what else had changed...

Thank you Rena for inviting me over today!

Today's topic: Felix Baumgartner!

In February 2012, no one had jumped from the edge of space, and now they have. That's a pretty big change in the world, don't you think? And I'm still trying to get my head around why someone would think it was a good idea.

To be honest, I came to the party late - I only realised he was jumping when the first jump was delayed. The day he jumped, I was sitting with my kids and they were just as fascinated.

The ascent in itself was impressive - two and a half hours watching the balloon gradually getting higher and higher, listening to all the technical info, that none of us really understood, being bandied about between Baumgartner and his ground crew. In fact as someone who's scared of heights, I'd have been happy if he just went up and didn't jump, but...

• Felix jumped from 128,100 feet above ground
• He spent 260 seconds free-falling before deploying his parachute, a total of 119,846 feet!
• He span uncontrollably for 10 - 20 seconds - and I held my breath for all of them
• He hit a world record speed of 833.9 mph
• It took 5 years and 300 people to plan and carry out the jump
• 8 million people world-wide watched, on 40 different TV stations
• It took 10 minutes for Felix to reach the ground, landing - amazingly - on his feet!
• 
  

Did you watch it? Were you glued, open-mouthed to the footage like I was?

About Cat and The Dreamer
As a teenager, Julia survived a suicide pact, while her best friend Rachel died. Julia’s only escape from her guilt, and her mother’s over-protection, is her imagination. When Adam arrives in the office, Julia’s world takes a startling turn as she realises reality can be much more fun than fantasy. Finally she has someone who can help her make the most of her life. But can she allow herself to be truly happy?

Cat and The Dreamer is available on Kindle UK, Kindle US, Kobo, Nook, iTunes/iBooks, and via Vagabondage Press.

Annalisa Crawford lives and writes in Cornwall with a good supply of beaches and moorland to keep her inspired. She finds endless possibilities in the relationships between people. Several new projects are on the cards for 2013.
Find her on her blog, Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.

SPOILER ALERT: DOWNTON ABBEY

Right, so for some reason, when you buy Downton Abbey Season 3 on itunes, you get all the episodes that would have dribbled out through February all at once. Which means, I’ve seen all of Season 3 without having to go to the trouble of bribing my friends in the UK for bootleg copies.

And all I have to say is this:

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT

NO REALLY STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON:T WANT TO KNOW

Why oh WHY does Mr. Fellowes think it’s necessary to kill my very favorite characters?

It’s not like this is the Song of Ice and Fire, and Mr. Martin can just go traipsing about, murdering my favorite people. And seriously, those of you who have seen season three know EXACTLY who I’m talking about.

I am absolutely, positively, smurfing mad at the last scenes in Season three’s A Journey Into the Highlands. ERRG. I mean really? REALLY? WHY? I thought he’d get it in WWI. But now? Like that? And so close to Cybil. Oh, the whole thing breaks my heart.

I think I might have had a crush.

Now I’m crushed.

And I’m sitting here wondering: Why do I love these characters so very much? It’s not like this is a genre I even care about with dopy Mr. Mosely, and delicately beautiful Anna and Mr. Bates. The whole thing should be boring me to tears, and yet I’m completely hooked.

Anyone else in the throes of Downton Abbey waiting for season 4 already?