*****

When Glenna and I set up parameters for the Plot and Paper Project, we had some very simple guidelines:

1. Write our books longhand.
2. Fill our 180-page notebooks by the end of the year.
3. Work together to keep motivated (and to have fun).

Easy enough, right?

But what if you aren’t working on a novel right now? Or you just need to hammer out your plot but want to write the actual prose on the computer? What if songs and poetry are more your style? How about a screenplay? I say do it!

The Plot and Paper Project is not meant to restrict you or convince you to do exactly what we are doing; it is meant to give you the opportunity to explore your writing without the distractions of the internet right at your fingertips. It is a way to get back down to the roots of your passion and craft – in whatever form it takes – without the “rules” coming at you from all angles like they do online.

So, make the Plot and Paper Project whatever you want it to be. Set your own parameters. Do things your own way.

And, yanno, if you want -let me know how you are making Plot & Paper work for you!

Now, I have only been doing the writing by hand thing for two days now (I almost always outline by hand, so that doesn’t really count in my mind), but I have already discovered so many benefits. Such as:

1. It really is less distracting. Something about sitting down with a notebook and pen instead of with my computer puts me in the right mindset. Maybe it’s the fact that my normal distractions are not just a click away anymore. It is a lot easier to stay focused when I would have to open the computer and get online to check my Twitter feed (or whatever) as opposed to just having it an instant mouse-click away.
2. I type really fast. Writing by hand? Not so much. While I have found in the past that sometimes I find my slow handwriting to be a hindrance, this time around it is a blessing. I know what I want this book to be, but I don’t know the best way to write it – I am figuring that out as I write. By writing longhand, I am forcing myself to slow down and really think about what I am putting on the paper.
3. Word-count obsession goes away. Sure, there are rudimentary formulas to estimate how many words are written, but when there isn’t a computer program telling me how many have been written, it turns out I don’t even think about it. I just write. It feels great to have that one little worry lifted.
4. I have a solid, concrete goal. I always have a goal when going into a book – I know about how long I think it will be and how long I want to spend first-drafting it. But with my notebook, I can see how far I am in regards to how much paper I am planning to use. Sure, I might need more paper than my notebook has to finish the book (or, who knows, I might finish with paper to spare, but I doubt that), but this still gives me a nice visual guideline to help see if my major events are placed about where I want them to be in the narrative.
5. My eyes love me! It is so great to not be straining my eyes with the artificial computer screen light all day long. When I write in my notebook, I do it by natural lighting (until it gets dark enough to turn on lights in the house). I never noticed any sort of eye strain from being on the computer all day, but now that I am only on it for short periods of time, I am noticing the difference. I have bad eyesight already; I am sure my eyes are thanking me for the break. (Also, yesterday, when I was sick and had a headache, there was no way I could stare at a computer screen…but writing in my notebook didn’t bother me.)
6. The nostalgia. There is just something nice about writing with a pen and paper. That is how I wrote my first book 19 years ago…

Simply put: I am loving the longhand. I am so happy Glenna came up with the Plot & Paper Project to get me going on it.

If you write longhand, what is your favorite part of the process??

Since he knew Bubba and I would not be in town for the party, Papa Jule called me last last week and asked if I could send a card for him to have Gramma Shirley open. Absolutely! I love making cards and I love my grandparents, so of course I would make them an anniversary card.

So Saturday morning rolled around and I set to work on my card. Here’s the thing about when I make cards: I usually can’t just sit and make cards for the hell of it. I have to have a person and a reason for the card in mind before I can visualize what I want to do. So it makes my process a wee bit more difficult than if I were to just sit down and whip out a generic anniversary card.

I browsed through some magazines for layout ideas, and found three different layouts that I would really like to work with on this card. But I didn’t know which I wanted, so I asked Bubba to pick for me. He picked the very first one I found. From the first magazine I looked at. I could have saved quite a bit of time by just going with that gut instinct when I saw the layout.

Next I moved on to finding the perfect quote to put on the card. I had found one I liked before I even looked for a good layout, but I wasn’t positive it was the one to use. So I searched and searched and searched some more. Finally I found another that I really liked. I read it off to Bubba. His response? “I liked that first one more. You should use it.” Ugh. Again, had I just gone with my original instinct, I would have saved myself a lot of time and energy. In the end, the card (with the first layout and the first quote), turned out wonderfully.

After I finished making the card, I found myself thinking about my last trip to Billings. Bubba and I and some friends were in the car, looking for a specific restaurant. Rather than taking things into our own hands (and getting lost), I called a buddy of mine from Billings and asked directions.

“Keep going straight,” he said, “then take a right on 32nd and a left on King and you can’t miss it.”

Easy-peasy.

We kept going straight. And going, and going, and going. After a few miles, I said to everyone in the car “Man, we should have just gone down the Zimmerman Trail and hit King from there.” But, we were looking for 32nd, so we kept going. And going, and going, and going.

Turns out, you never cross 32nd on the road we were driving on. We looped around the whole city, weaving in and out of roads (curse you railroad tracks that ruin the whole grid system!), trying to find our way back to something familiar. Finally, we came across 32nd. Hurray! We followed it for a while, and after about a quarter mile, we noticed that 32nd turns into Zimmerman Trail. So, yeah…had I followed that bit of instinct, we would have saved a lot of time, gas, and nerves (um, yeah, we were all STARVING and about at the end of our ropes).

I’ve spent some time in the last few days and really thinking about how this applies to writing. It is so easy to second-guess everything we write, to worry about whether it is really the best thing for the book and the characters. Maybe what we all need to do is to sit back and let our instincts guide us when we are writing. I for one, think things would greatly improve if I were to allow myself to intuitively write, instead of letting my own brain get in the way of what comes naturally to me.

Will there be times where what I wrote while trying to rely on instinct just doesn’t work? Of course. But that’s what edits are for: finding all the bits that don’t work and fixing them so they do. No first draft is going to be perfect, but I am willing to bet mine could be a lot closer if I just let go and let my intuition guide my writing.

If you have been reading my blog from the beginning (a year ago tomorrow, so it seems), you will remember that I tried writing Jack the Reaper longhand and failed. The words were just coming to me faster than my poor little hand could write them and I had to turn back to the computer so I could get them out as fast as I thought of them. Even though I eventually gave up the notebook and pen that go around, there has always been something about writing longhand that just appeals to me.

So when Glenna announced the Plot and Paper Project, I thought to myself maybe I should try that with Incubus. I have already been doing my outline longhand, and have been loving it. So Tuesday, I said:

Well, between when I said that Tuesday evening and this morning, I have been to the store to buy a shiny new notebook (yes, I have notebooks all over this house, but a new book needs a new notebook to be written in), and have officially joined Glenna in the Plot and Paper Project. It is pretty simple, the goals are:

• Write the book wholly by hand. Even though longhand moves slower than typing, I have found that it is easier to stay focused on, and therefore ultimately more productive. I guess I just let the great distraction of the interwebs get to me too easily. So, by hand it it.
• Fill the big notebook by New Year’s Eve. My notebook (and Glenna’s as well) is 180 pages. That is totally doable by New Year. Especially since I am lucky and get to stay home to work on it every day.
• Yep, that’s pretty much it. Though, like Glenna, I might have to invest in a new wrist brace. I am (luckily) Carpal Tunnel Syndrome free, but I do have a tendency toward tendonitis, which is no fun!

I am finally just about at the end of this outline, so I can begin the real writing any day now. Books 2 and 3 are not outlined as intensely as book 1, but I have the framework there, which is all I really needed to get book 1 hashed out all the way. I am thrilled to get to it!

Mostly, I have nothing real to say, but for some reason still want to write a blog post, so I am writing a blog post about blog reading.

A while back I mentioned that I let what I was reading and learning on industry blogs get in the way of writing Incubus. I would let all those words of advice get into my head and then I would spend way too much time and energy trying to write the book to the blog standards, not to my own.

Well, it turns out I am doing that again (at least I caught it early on), so I made some pretty drastic changes to my Google Reader. As of last Friday, I am no longer following any agent or editor blogs. None. Nada. I don’t need them right now, and they will still be there waiting for me when I do.

Now I am diving back into my outline with a clear mind (and much more time, since I cut my morning reading time WAY down). Wish me luck!

The problem that I was having with Incubus is not that I was over-complicating it; not that I was starting too many rewrites without first finishing a draft; not that I changed POV and narrative style (way too much); not any of these things on their own. The problem was that I was trying to make the book something it is not.

Wow. I could have saved a lot of time and heartache with this book if I would have figured that out a long time ago. Of course, would I have ever been able to realize this if I didn’t make all the mistakes I did? Life is weird that way.

So, my bit of advice for the day: if you are really, seriously struggling with something you are writing, take a minute to sit back and evaluate the project. Are you writing the book that you are meant to write? Don’t think about readers, agents, editors, or anyone else at this point. Just focus on you and your book.

Are you writing the book you are meant to write?

When I first starting writing Incubus, it was a fairly simple story. I knew what all the elements were, but they were not complicated. The more I wrote, the more I worried that I needed more for the story. I came up with more characters, more back-story, more twists. They all fit in with the book, but no matter how excited I got about each development, I realized eventually that the complication did not make the story better by any means.

In talking with other aspiring authors, I find this to be quite common. We have this idea that if we construct this complex world with a twisted plot playing out in it, we will somehow be more literary, more advanced than someone who writes the simple story. But, really, there is beauty in simplicity.

A simple story is in no ways a lesser story. In fact, in many ways, I think a simple story is a better story than a complex one. All those side characters, plot twists, and world quirks can actually detract from the story. Sure, there are a lot of superb books out there that are complex enough to need flowcharts to understand, but think that is more the exception than the rule. I tend to notice a story getting bogged down in its complexity quite quickly. It seems to me, often times, that complexity takes away from the heart of the story.

I think a lot of authors have this false notion that if their book is not complex, then there is less to it. Not. True. I look at Sarah Dessen as a great example of this. Her plots, on their own, are fairly simple. Not a lot of twists and turns. But that does not mean there is no depth to her stories or her characters. Quite the opposite, actually. Without being overwhelmed by the plot line, it is much easier to see these characters as complete human beings, with palpable emotions and full lives.

As I am setting out (again) on Incubus, I am trying to keep this in mind. Sure, some things from my over-complication streak are staying (hello, I am NOT getting rid of Miles), but I am letting go off adding things just for the sake of having them there. I will keep this story just as simple as it wants to be.

In a search of the interwebs, one will quickly find approximately 6.5 billion different methods of outlining. And while all are a great starting place, what one must really do is find what works best for the individual situation.

For some people, the Snowflake Method is the cat’s meow. I have tried the Snowflake. I liked it, but found it way too intense for what I wanted. Others like to put individual scenes on color-coded index cards (colored for different subplots), lay them out in order and work from there. I know this method works wonders for some people, but I don’t find it appealing at all, so I won’t try it (at least not now…maybe someday I will change my mind).

I have tried a few different methods for outlining a novel, and finally I think I have found what works best for me. It is none of the models I tried, but rather a rough hybrid of many of them. I suggest everyone find what works best for them, without trying to fit their personality into anyone else’s mold. Even so, I find it helpful to see what others are doing in order to jump-start one’s own process.

My Process goes something like THIS:

First, I free write. I open up a word document and write out everything I know about the story and the characters off the top of my head. I don’t do this in a narrative form at all – none of this will transfer to the actual book. I am just taking time to get what is in my head onto the computer so I have something to sift through. From there, I think up a quick blurb for the book. This is not as fleshed out (nor nearly as well written) as one I would use for, say, a query letter, but the general idea is the same. I spend a little while just writing the basics of what the book is about, making sure I am clear about what the conflict is. In the blurb, I touch on the main characters of the novel, but don’t mention any side characters.

Second, I write down how the book will end. I need to know where I am going (even when I write without an outline, I always have an idea of how the book ends as I am writing).

The initial conflict (from the blurb) and the ending are the real starting point for my outline. Now that I have these two things down, I get to filling in the rest. I pretty much just do this in list form, writing down any major events that need to happen between the beginning and the ending of the book. I usually only write down 5-8 things at this point.

Now that I know the major plot points, I fill in the in-between stuff. How do we get from Major Point A to Major Point B? These points are a little more detailed than what I wrote down already. And, in the grand scheme of the novel, they might not seem incredibly important, but as far as moving the plot along from Point A to Point B, they are absolutely crucial. It is at this stage where I first start to see some of the secondary characters emerging in the outline.

I pretty much repeat this process until I feel comfortable with my outline. Sometimes, I only put in the major plot points and a few minor connecting ones. Sometimes I continue to break it down until I know pretty much everything that happens in the book. Each outline, like each novel, is different.

When I feel like I have the outline where I want it, I look back over it. The whole time I have been writing this outline, I have not been paying attention to rising action, where the climax falls, how long the denouement is, or any other pacing things. But those things are all important, so why wasn’t I looking for them already?

As I first write an outline, I like to just get the story out as I envision it at the time. There is always room for improvement from the first vision, but I can’t see that until I get it out there. Which is why I am hoping this outline will help me so much. This way I can take care of pacing issues in the outline stage, not in the already-have-75K-words-written stage.

So now I look through the outline and tweak it until I feel like the pacing is where it needs to be. Maybe I need to rearrange some things. Maybe some things need to be cut or combined. Maybe I will see a part that is moving way too fast and find a way to calm it down a bit. I will spend quite a bit of time in the outline stage playing with the pacing. Does this mean I won’t have to work on pacing again after the first draft is written? Of course not, but hopefully this will help me solve any major problems I have from the start.

Finally, I take my outline and break it into rough chapters. My chapter breaks will not be permanent, since I never know exactly where the best break point is until I have actual narrative written, but this gives me a general idea of how the book will be broken down, and lets me know what I am working to accomplish in each chapter.

And, finally, finally I declare my outline complete and get to writing. No doubt, once I start writing, the outline will need to be changed and tweaked some more. That is the beauty of outlines: no matter how detailed, they are never set in stone. They are flexible, and need to be bent if that is where the book is going.

Now, you tell me? Are you an outliner or a “pantser”. If you outline, what does your method look like?

A little background on Incubus:

I started writing this book nearly two years ago (sometime in August 2008). I had always loved writing, but this was what re-sparked my passion for being a writer. This book is the one that made me see how badly I really want to be published and have a career in writing.

I didn’t finish it.

At first, I just wrote and wrote and wrote. The story came to me and I put it on paper screen as fast as I could. I got about a third of the way into the story and hit a wall. It wasn’t a bad block, but instead of just patiently working my way through it, I turned to the internet. In times that I was having difficulty writing, I read agent, editor, and author blogs. I read articles on the mechanics of writing, the importance of characterization, and – most dangerous of all – the trends in the market.

Don’t get me wrong: industry blogs are wonderful. They are full of useful information. But I wasn’t just getting information (and even if I was, it was premature). I was letting these blogs seep into my mind; the more I thought about them, the more I thought Incubus was not enough. So I rewrote what I had done in a different POV. I changed some of the back-story. I tinkered and fiddled and messed with the story, trying to make it better.

But it wasn’t better. Sure, my writing got stronger and stronger, but what I had written was a product of all those blogs I let infiltrate my thinking, not a product of the story I set out to tell. I finally finished a working draft, and while the basis of my story is still there, it is buried under all the things I had learned and tried too hard to apply. It is going to take some serious excavation to get Incubus back out again.

Plan of Attack:

I am starting with an OUTLINE. Gasp! Okay, I have outlined before, and enjoyed it, but I still consider myself a more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type writer. I love just sitting down and seeing what comes out. And sometimes that works great. For instance, I will not outline So97. I just won’t. It is my fall-back, write-just-for-fun book, so I want to just see what comes out. So97 is that manuscript I open to work on when I get too bogged down with something else. As of now, I have no plans to ever seek publication with it (that might change after I finish it, but who knows), so it is completely for fun. So97 gives me that chance to be completely free to discover the story as I write. And if I meander off course a little? Oh well…

I learned time and time again, however, that seat-of-pants writing will not work with Incubus. I need to be able to wrangle myself in when I write this book, so I will need an outline. And not just for one book.

When I first envisioned Incubus, it was as the first of a trilogy. I know the basic plots of all three books, but have only written (no matter how poorly) the first. In my plotting, I think it will be helpful to see where I am trying to go through the full trilogy, so I can keep early events in line with those that need to happen later. So, my outline will be a three-book outline. Books 2 & 3 will likely not be outlined in as great detail as book 1 at this point, but they will be outlined.

Wow…that sounds like a lot of outline work. I better get to it.

yeah, this has nothing to do with my post. I just think it's cute. Also, my Sophie-cat eats paper, so if I don't watch out, this could happen to my outline.

It’s fun to imagine what it will be like being a full-time writer. I see myself writing away, quill pen flying across the paper, lit only by the flame of an oil lamp. Beautiful pieces of prose flowing from mind to paper with ease.

Yeah, right. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Really, the only thing that will be different now is that I will have more time to write. It will still be hard work and I will still struggle with the same things I always have. Only now I get to work hard and struggle all day! (Yes, I am incredibly thrilled about this.)

In fact, now that I am home full-time, writing might even be more difficult than in the past. Up until now, I have always had to squeeze my writing in around work, church, husband, and occasional social events. With the limited time I had, I was forced to focus and write as much as I could in one short sitting. Now, with hours upon hours stretched out for writing every day, I am afraid I will let myself get distracted enough that I will be less productive than I have been in the past.

In order to combat all the little distractions, I am taking time to set up a plan of attack. I am usually pretty good about staying focused if I’ve written down things I need to accomplish. So, while if my only agenda is write, I might let myself slack off just as long as some writing gets done. However, if I break down how much I want to write, or what plot points I need to cover in a day, I am way more likely to keep myself on track until I cover all those points.

Also, if the distraction gets in my way too much, Bubba can set our router to block the internet from my computer during certain times of the day. He is way more computer savvy than I (which is good, considering he is a computer programmer), so I won’t be able to override what he does. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but who knows?

I am kind of rambling here, but I have a lot on my mind about this change, so I will keep on rambling.

Since I am now home during the days, it falls on me to keep our house clean and in order (yeah, I have been totally spoiled in the past, and Bubba has been cleaning after work so I can have time to write). My first project is tackling the guest room. Otherwise known as The Pit. Come across something and don’t know where it should go? Eh, throw it in The Pit. After 2+ years of doing this, it is probably needless to say that The Pit is pretty bad. Nobody really sees it, so we usually just ignore it unless we need to go retrieve something from its depths. But, we have a problem now. For the rest of the summer, I will probably be writing outside as much as possible, but after that, The Pit is going to be my office. Which means I need to be able to walk through it. Which means I have a lot of work cut out for me. Starting today.

/ramble

I admit it: I love this movie. I just adore Sandra.

First…it is a kind of bittersweet day for me. Today is the day I give my two weeks notice at work. (Really, three week…but one of those weeks I am on vacation, so it can’t really count, can it?) I am excited to be able to stay home and write and thrilled that it is possible, but I really do love my job. I was lucky to have found it in the first place. My coworkers are great, the work is fun (most of the time), and I enjoy talking to our clients and the film companies. Pretty much it is the perfect job for me.

I know a lot of my friends (and probably my mom–Hi, Mom!) will think I am crazy for giving this job up. And you all are right–I am a little bit crazy for letting it go. It is a GREAT job. The work is interesting–I get to learn fun stuff about movies and watch trailers and stuff before anyone else! The pay is good, and the perks are wonderful. Really, if things were different, I could see myself working my way up and making a career as a film buyer.

But, things are not different. As much as I love this job, there is something missing, because what I really want to be doing is writing. Yes, I know. whine, whine, whine. People write and sell books all the time while still having a day job. I know that. But here’s the thing–I also like to spend as much time with Bubba as humanly possible after work. Which takes a big chunk of writing time away. Maybe it is because we have only been married a couple years, but we are one of those couples who just spends almost all of our time together. I feel bad going home from work and then hopping right on the computer for the night.

We are in a place now where I can really take the time to pursue my dream and put a full-time effort into my writing, so why wouldn’t I, regardless of how great my job is? So, even though I will be sad to leave it behind, I really think it is the best thing to do. Who knows, maybe I will regret this in the future. I doubt it though.

Secondly…this is kinda a rant, so if you want to skip it…go right ahead!

The internet is a big place. It is easy to get lost browsing around. But the blogosphere–especially the author/aspiring author blogosphere–is pretty small and tight-knit. So if you do something like, say, close your Twitter account and delete your blog and tell a friend you did it because you “just wanted to get away from a few things”, but really you just transferred your blog to a different domain and got a new Twitter account, you probably should know that the lie is not going to hold up.

Just sayin’.

But…so far there is no beachiness in So97. So I sat down this morning and took about 15 minutes to pound out a scene specifically for this. It uses the characters from So97 and at some point might make it into the actual manuscript (I am sure some seriously edited variation of it will), but for now it is just a free-standing scene.

Enjoy!

“We’re almost there.” Weston looked over his shoulder at me, his grin like a little kid’s. I had never seen him like this before; normally he was all business and propriety.

I stepped over another log – probably the 5th in as many minutes – and checked my watch: 11:15. “Um, where is there exactly? We have a ride in half an hour and we still need to saddle up.”

Weston laughed. Really? Mister We-have-to-make-this-place-more-professional laughed at me wanting to be on time? I will never understand some people. He hopped onto another log, nestled between two bushes, and turned to face me.

“Relax, Sam. The Worthingtons cancelled. We are free for the afternoon. Thus,” he held his hand out to me, “a picnic. I found this little place when I was surveying the grounds last week and thought it would be perfect.”

I took his hand and followed him over the log. Past the bushes, it was like entering a different world; in one stride, we put the forest behind us.

The sun glinted off the water, making each ripple glitter. The beach itself was only about twenty feet wide and completely surrounded by bushes, but the sand was pure and golden, like it had been untouched. I looked around, but from the beach I see no boats, no cabins, nobody. It’s like we’re completely alone in the world.

My gaze followed Weston as he crossed the beach and sat on a sun-bleached log. Wait. I recognized that log. I looked around again, and it slowly came back to me.

“Dead-Fish Beach.”

“What?” I looked at Weston, who was looking at me like I was crazy.

“Dead-Fish Beach,” I repeated, more loudly. “When we were little, we would all have competitions to see who could find the most fresh-water clams. One year, Rory and I sneaked off into the woods and found this place. We totally won – there were so many clams out there.”

Weston looked a little crestfallen. Was he trying to show me something new here? I realized then that it must be hard for him trying to fit in with a group of people who practically grew up here. It probably didn’t help that Rory and Karissa treated him like a total outsider. And, okay, so did I.

He cleared his throat. “So, um, why Dead-Fish Beach?” His smile looked forced. Did it really upset him that I had been here before?

“When we first found this place, there was a dead fish on it.”

“Creative.”

“Whatever. We were eight.”

He laughed, and suddenly he was back to normal. Maybe I had been imagining that he was upset. We sat together on the log and ate the lunch he brought – egg-salad sandwiches, chips, watermelon, and (I couldn’t help but notice) two fruit roll-ups for me.

When we finished, Weston gestured toward the water. “I’ve decided we can’t go back until you find me ten clams.”

“What?” He couldn’t be serious.

“Hey, you are the one who was bragging about how many clams are out there. Prove it.” His smile held a hint of a challenge.

“Okay, fine.” I kicked my shoes off and rolled my pant legs up to my knees. I loved wading in the water; if we didn’t have to work, this was a pretty good way to spend my time.

Seven clams later, the wind picked up. My hair blew around my face – why did I grow it long, again? – and stuck to my lip gloss. Seriously, I am talking half a head of hair stuck to my mouth here. And my hands totally covered with mud. After a few attempts of brushing the hair away with my shoulders, I admitted defeat and turned to Weston.

“A little help here?”

He was already taking his shoes off.

He waded out to me, and stood a little closer than necessary. Not that I minded. He swept my hair out of my face, but didn’t take his hand back. He locked eyes with me, that look of hunger I am so familiar with on his face, as he cupped my neck in his hand. His warmth radiated around me, and the old tingling sensation began in the pit of my stomach. I forgot how much I loved that feeling.

I took a step closer to him, letting our bodies touch just barely. The tingling left my stomach and traveled through my whole body; my skin buzzed with goose-bumps. Did he feel it too?

Weston lowered his head to mine. We stood there, forehead-to-forehead, for almost longer than I could stand. Each breath he took caressed my skin, and my body screamed for him. I lifted my head to finally take the kiss I needed so badly.

Our lips brushed slightly, and then it was over. Weston’s hand was no longer on my neck, I couldn’t feel him near me at all. I opened my eyes to see him backing away from me.

“Rory,” is all he said. He was stopping because of Rory? Sure, maybe there was something between Rory and I, but we definitely weren’t together. I was free to kiss anyone I wanted. I opened my mouth to tell West this – to tell him that I wanted to kiss him, but he motioned with his head to a spot behind me.

I turned around to see Rory coming around the bend in a canoe.

Now go read everyone else’s scenes! I am going to work on editing this beast.

What photos inspire your books?

Alright! These are in no particular order, and I am not sharing which book each on is an inspiration from. Pretty much, you just get to look at fun, pretty pictures. Some of these you have seen before….

At least, it used to not be uncommon. I got so used to writing fast and getting so many words out so quickly that I let myself believe that is the way it has to be. When I have an off day where the words come at more of a trickle than a rush, I  get increasingly frustrated. Oftentimes, I stop writing, figuring I will make up the measly bit of lost words in one great rush later on.

Lately, however, life has gotten busier and busier (I love the things that are making my busier–mostly cake making , but they do take away from writing time), and so I can’t sit down for long periods of time often. This means those amazing 3,000 word rushes are becoming fewer and further between. It is still great to make that much progress in one go, but I just can’t depend on that. Not if I actually want to get novels written, I can’t.

I spent the last couple days re-evaluating my writing habits, and I have come to a conclusion: I need to get this ideal of writing eleventy-billion words at a time out of my head. I can write a novel a couple hundred words at a time just as well as I can a few thousand words at a time (actually, probably better since I am generally a better writer when I write slower).

So, starting today I am going to embrace whatever writing time I can get and appreciate the words I get out, no matter how few they are. I am done stressing if I only get a few hundred words done in session. I am done getting grumpy if writing doesn’t come as quickly as it used to. I am going back to enjoying every minute of it!

Because, really, why am I doing this if not to enjoy it?

EDITED TO ADD:

I have been planning this post for a couple days now, which is why I found it really awesome that Weronika posted on the same thing this morning! She said a lot of the same things I did, just, yanno, more intelligently (and with actual numbers for back-up). And then–and here’s where it gets fun!–she posted a challenge.

Weronika’s challenge is to have a goal of writing one page a day–no more. None of this 1,000 words a day or 1,500 words or 2,000 words a day goal-age (all of which I have done in the past). Just one page. Sure, there will be many days when I write more than that, but having a one page goal will help me to not beat myself up if I only get 300 words written that day (300 words is slightly more than your average page ).

The challenge officially runs May 15th-June 15th, but I am going to start early. Starting next Monday, I am committing myself to writing at least one page a day. I am also committing myself to no self-deprecation and no grumpiness if I only get one page a day. I don’t need to do more than that–after all, slow and steady wins the race.

Yeah, I *love* Eddie K. LOVE!

Ahem. Now that that’s out of the way, what was I talking about? Oh, right…what are we blogging for?

I have seen a lot of posts over the last few weeks about how to best blog. How do we build audience and how do we give that audience what they want? How do we get our blogs out there in the world so we have like sixteen gazillion followers? Because we all know that followers is what this whole blogging thing is about, right?

Um, wrong.* While a blog is a great way to built an online platform, I personally think that is not the way we should be looking at our blogs. We should be blogging because we love to blog, not because someone somewhere said it helps to have one. We should write what we want and what we love and what interests us without trying to tailor our posts to the people reading the blog. I mean, I am flattered that y’all are following me on this journey and reading my blog (also, kudos to every one of you for actually putting up with my rambling), but if I were to try to write every post with my readers in mind, I would freeze up, go crazy, and stop blogging altogether.

Like everything else we do on our journey, if it is not fun it is not worth spending time on.** So have fun with your blogs! Take all those blogging rules that are floating around the interwebs and throw them out the window. Blog for you because you love it.

After all, what are we blogging for?

*Unless, of course, you are a paid blogger. In which case, yeah, finding followers (and more importantly, finding followers who will use the advertisements) is kinda a big deal.

**Okay, okay…there are things in life that are unpleasant but we have to do them anyway. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about things we choose to do. Don’t choose to do something you don’t enjoy just because it is seen as cool or glamorous, or because everyone else is doing it, or for any other reason.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Write.

Yep, that’s it. One word can sum up the very best advice I have ever received about writing.

But, of course, I am not a woman of so few words, so I will expand the best bit of advice I’ve ever been given with the best bit of advice I have to give (aside from passing on the whole *write* bit, of course). Are you ready for me to be all profound-like? Here goes:

Have fun.

It is easy to stress out about writing: will people like this? Is it good enough? Is this going to be the book that will finally land me an agent? A book deal?

But you know what? Stressing is no fun. And one of the biggest joys of being an unagented, unpublished author is the ultimate freedom it gives. When else can we write anything and everything without responsibility? When else can be experiment so freely without having an audience to keep in mind?

So have fun with your writing now, before you have to worry about deadlines and brands and images. Try a little bit of everything that interests you without concern of how it turns out. Because at this point, who are you trying to impress?

Just have fun!

Seriously, thanks so much for all the help yesterday. I appreciate all the comments and bits of advice I got, both on this blog and elsewhere. After a lot of talking/reading comments and emails, I have my ducks in a row concerning Incubus. So, in true Two For Tuesday style, I have a quick two-part follow-up to yesterday’s post.

1. Everyone I talked to agreed that it is probably best for me to put aside Incubus for a while. I am not getting anywhere with it, and the truth is that at this point I am probably doing more harm than good. The best comment I got was from my mom, who is like HolyCrapBusyAccountant and doesn’t have time to link out of her email to comment on the blog. (Though, she would probably just email me instead of commenting even if it wasn’t tax season, but I digress.)

Mom told me that Stephen King first tried to write Under The Dome twenty-five years ago, but wasn’t ready yet to tell the story. Now, I really really hope that it won’t take me twenty-five years (I mean, that is how old I am now…it better not take half my life to get this story out), but taking some time until I am ready to really write this book will not kill me (or the book, thankfully).

If it works for Uncle Stevie, it will work for me. Right? Right??

2. After deciding to let Incubus…er, incubate…I sat down last night and started work on something new. It’s been quite a while since I wrote blind, without any sort of outline, and I had a blast. I called it a night at 2,000 words–something I haven’t been able to do on Incubus in the last two weeks! (And not just no 2,000 word nights–I haven’t been able to put 2,000 total on Incubus in two weeks.) Needless to say, I am thrilled.

I don’t know where this new little project is heading, so I can’t tell you much about it yet. But here is what I do know:

• It is a summer book
• For now, I am calling it So97. No, I won’t tell you why…only Lilah knows.
• It has an awesome playlist!

I listen to music a lot when I write, but I have never created playlists for any of my previous books. This one is a bit different though. While it is in no way autobiographical, the places, emotions, and many of the characters are all influenced by a very specific time of my life. So, I created a playlist of songs that would take me back to that particular time.

Yes, these songs are really quite random, but they do their job well. Listening to this music takes me back to where I want to be in order to write this book. I remember the sights, the sounds, the smells–everything about one particular summer. The funny thing is: I am sure some of these songs were actually released after that summer, but they still remind me of it. Memory is a strange beast in that regard.

I guess it’s just like Wireman says: When it comes to memory, we all stack the deck.

While I have wanted to be a writer since I was really young, that goal got sidelined for some time while I was busy trying other things in life. Then, just over a year and a half ago, I had a dream. When I woke up, I just knew I needed to start writing again.

I spent the next days coming up with a plot based on said dream (by the time I was done, I actually had plots for three novels). Then I sat down and tried to write the thing. But nothing came out. I struggled and fought and couldn’t get any words out. Eventually I figured out that I had gotten into my own head and psyched myself out. I had thought so much about the story and was trying so hard to get it out, that I didn’t realize that it was not the story I really needed to tell.

A few days later, I sat down and started free writing. It wasn’t until I was nearly four chapters into my new story that I realized–holy crap!–I was writing Incubus. It wasn’t at all the story I had plotted out, but the more I wrote, the more it morphed into a better version of that story. I kept on writing until I hit a wall.

Then, I completely rewrote what I had so far from a different POV and with quite a few tweaks. Incubus is the only book I have stopped and rewritten before I finished the first draft, and I did it more times with this book than I care to admit.

Finally, I turned out a really crappy first draft. Come to think of it, really crappy doesn’t quite do justice to just how bad this draft was. It was so abysmal it probably shouldn’t even be considered a real draft. It was so bad, that no amount of edits would save it; Incubus was going to need another rewrite.

I sat down before I started writing again and figured out what it was that was not working. I tweaked the plot and added some depth to the back story. After quite some time working out all the kinks, I was finally completely satisfied with what I had outlined. I mean, I am really really happy about where this book is going (finally). It just feels right, and I know this is the story I am meant to write.

But, there is still a problem. See, no matter how pleased I am with the story and how confident I am that I finally got it right, I can’t get the words on the paper. I know that writing is often hard, and I am prepared to do the work, but there is something different about what is happening here.

After a lot of fretting about this and a lot of talking to Bubba and Lilah, I decided that maybe I am just not ready to write Incubus yet. No matter how badly I want it, maybe it is not what I should be focusing on right now. Maybe, just maybe, I should let Kyle and Jayne simmer on the back burner for a while while I write something else*. In the end, wouldn’t the story be better served if I waited until I was ready to tell it?

So readers, question for you:

In my situation, what do you do? Do you keep plodding through and finish what you started, or do you push it aside and write something else for the time being?

*Yeah, this is gonna be really hard for me to do–I am incredibly stubborn–but it might be the best thing for the book.

All the cussing probably bothers some people when they watch the show, but it doesn’t really phase me. But, at the same time, excessive cursing in some other shows, movies, or books really gets to me. Why? I guess you could chalk it up to my deep and faithful love of DEXTER (and not just the show, y’all, the character too–I don’t care that he’s a serial killer; I love him), but I think it is more than just my own bias.

In DEXTER, Deb’s cursing feels completely natural. It is something she just does. It is not added in to make the show more edgy (what does that even mean anymore?), and it is not there for shock value. Deb’s dirty mouth is just part of her character, and she is pretty endearing for it.

Jennifer Carpenter** (the actress behind Deb), however, does not have a potty mouth. In fact, she finds it really unattractive and spends her hiatus between filming trying to clean up her language, because she finds herself slipping after playing Deb for so long.

See how that works? An actress who does not cuss playing a character who is well acquainted with every four-letter word known to man (and a few originals, too). Jennifer Carpenter is not her character.

Nor am I.

You see, while I don’t cuss (okay, I try not to cuss), my characters might. I am not going to censor out something that feels and sounds natural because I personally wouldn’t say it. If I feel that is how a character really talks and thinks, that is how I am going to write their dialogue and narration. Now, this doesn’t mean that if a character has a penchant for the F-bomb, I am going to pepper my manuscript with that word. Like any other word (and probably more so), overuse is bad. Not only does it get annoying to the reader, but if it is used too much, then when it is used to actually convey something–to make an impact–the effect is completely lost.

I realize that I will get some backlash for this attitude. I write YA. Which means that, when I am published, there will be bad reviews on Amazon who were shocked and appalled to find a curse word in the book. “Sure,” they will say, “other people might talk like that, but not my kid. How dare you expose my darling child to such terrible things?” I expect I will get letters about how the whole value of the book was lost because my character dropped a four letter word on page 271.

I also expect to get some backlash because of my religion.*** I imagine I will see some people gasping that I–a Mormon–wrote a dirty word in a book. Surely I can’t possibly be a good member of the church if I put such fowl things in my books. Yeah, I totally expect these kind of reactions, so I already have a response to them:

Let me say it again…

I am not my characters.

*What? You have never seen DEXTER?! I suggest you repent.

**This is totally unrelated to the meat of this post, but how freakin’ adorable are Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall??

***Not from the church itself, but from people, both members of my church and non.