Things I'm Looking Forward To

I think we get down on ourselves a lot as writers. We get frustrated with something crappy we've just written. We get mad that we don't have as much time to write as we'd like. We want to throw things at our MCs because they won't just stick to the damn outline. And every once in awhile, we need to remind ourselves that there are good things to come. Good things like...

1. Going to SCBWI-LA, and meeting one of my crit-partners, multiple blogging friends, and an endless sea of Twitter-buddies in real life. Not to mention authors, agents, and editors, and learning a whole lot.
2. Applying to VCFA's MFA in writing for children and young adults. My transcripts are sent, one recommendation letter has arrived, and by the end of the weekend I will have submitted a critical essay and writing sample, too. I know you don't need an MFA to be published. But I would love to learn more about craft, and maybe even teach one day, and studying writing for two years just sounds like a whole lot of fun to me.  
3. Finishing (what will hopefully be) my last round of revisions. Before I do that, of course I need to finish the two rounds that come before that. But I know the end is coming up soon, which means that before I know it, I will be...
4. Polishing, perfecting, and sending off my query. Uhm, wow. That is in my four/five month plan. And it is terrifying. And awesome. 
5. Attending the Decatur Book Festival. OK, this one is about a million months away (read: six months). But I still can't wait. And they won't even announce all the authors until June. But I know this one is worth driving to Atlanta for.
6. Reading books by people I know. You guys, in case you forgot, people we know (through the Internet and/or in real life) are getting published. They're getting agents. Things are happening for them. And one day, we'll get to read their books, after months and years of watching their journey. This is very, very cool to me. Not only will I be squeeing through 250+ pages of prose (OMG!! I KNOW THIS AUTHOR!!!), but the whole time I'll be thinking, "This could so be me one day." And who knows? Publishing takes a long time. By the time those books are in print, maybe I'll have a deal of my own. Or maybe I'll be running a blog called IHatePublishedAuthors.Com, where I make fun of everyone who manages to get a book deal, because I don't have the talent or drive to make it. One of those two.   

Now you tell me...what are you looking forward to?

Does It Ever End???!!!

I recently finished round one of revisions.

Hooray for me!!!! Right?

Wrong. Let's not break out the dancing banana, folks. I've still got about 7,000 rounds of revisions to go. I've got a whole lot of mess in my manuscript, some problems to deal with, and then there's my crit partners...what will they think?

I'm starting to think that this whole revision process will never end. You get little milestones along the way, sure...hooray, I finished the first draft! Hooray, I reached the end of the novel! But there's always more to be done. In fact, I've created an awesome MS paint rendering of the CYCLE OF REVISION to show you how it really is never-ending:

OMG my arrows are so perfect.

Notice that revision is on there TWICE, and that's just in one round. You write the book, you read it, you see some problems, so you revise. Then you let the crit partners read it, and they see lots of problems, which require major rewrites and revisions. So you revise and write again. Then you read, and notice more problems, so you revise. But by now, your story has changed a lot, so you send it to  your crit partners, who make suggestions (maybe not as many as before, but still a lot), which require revisions and rewrites, and on and on ad infinitum. Right now I feel like I'm tumbling around in circles and will never, ever get my story finished. *sigh*

But, eventually, it will be shiny and sparkly. It will be so shiny and sparkly, in fact, that it will be ready for the next cycle: the agent/editor cycle! This cycle is way less predictable, and therefore can't actually be cyclicle:

More perfect arrows! You guise, I win the arrow-drawing competition.

 So you're querying, and you get some feedback - maybe that feedback is in the form of constant rejections, or maybe it's actual feedback. Either way, you know something isn't working. So you revise. And you keep querying. Then you get an offer. Squee!!!!!!!! And your shiny new agent has notes on 26 of your 27 chapters. So you revise again. Then you go on sub, and guess what??? A publisher loves it!!! Except for chapters 3, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 17, 22, and 27. Also, your main character should have a dog. Also, your love interest is too ugly, he needs to be cute. Also, a main character from the planet Zortab will never sell at Flourish and Blotts bookseller, because the CEO has a morbid fear of the letter "Z," so change that. 

But then, finally, after all that, your book is published. Your name is on a glossy dust jacket beside the likes of (insert your favorite author's name here...I didn't want to leave anyone out.) All of the months and years of revising and making up awesome MS paint renditions of revising maps were totally worth it because you have a writing career.

Well, sort of. At least, you'll have a writing career when you start on that next book. You just have to write it, then read it, then revise it...

Honestly, though, I do get discouraged and exhausted sometimes. But at the end of the day, that big pink PUBLICATION keeps me going. If there is even a chance that I could make my dream come true, it's totally worth it to me. I'll revise until my fingers bleed and my eyes get fuzzy from staring at my computer screen, just as long as I get the chance to make this happen. 

So, just how shiny can I make my MS? Let's find out...*dives into round two of revisions* (I fully expect to lose count of my revision rounds at some point, by the way. I've already lost count of the number of times I've revised the first 25 pages.)

Writing a Novel is Like Playing the Lotto

Hello, blog-followers!! Let me start off by apologizing for my extended absence. For the past several days, I was holed up in bed, stuck in a sweaty, fever-induced cocoon of sickness that looked something like this:

Image source. I tried to make a hilarious Paintbrush rendering of my state, complete with sweat and stinky sick breath, but apparently those renderings are really hard! I have a much greater respect for people who can master hilarious MS Paint art now. 

Anyway, now I'm fully recovered...or at least recovered enough to update my blog, which is really all you people care about anyway. 

While catching up on my emails (98 missed emails in 3 days...wow!), the hubs came over and handed me his lotto ticket. He asked if I could please check the numbers when I got a chance. 

Every time he does this, I get a little frustrated. It's not like we have a lot of money, and I always think - what else could that four dollars buy that would show measurable results rather than this gamble of a lotto ticket, which literally has a 1 in 20,358,520 chance of wining (which I know because I looked it up)? 

But as I'm waiting for the flalottery Web site to load, I still get a little squirm in my stomach...what if we win?? I could probably quit my job and write full-time, at least for a little while. Or at the very least I could pay off all my debt and not have so much pressure to work as much. I could buy as many books as I wanted, and build a giant home library. I wouldn't have to worry about how I'm going to pay for SCBWI-LA - I'll just pay for it. 

This excitement is the only thing that has kept me from telling the hubs not to waste his money on lotto tickets anymore. He doesn't buy them every week, so if he wants to pick them up once in awhile, so be it.  

Today, I couldn't help but be reminded of the publishing industry, and how writing a book is a little like playing the lotto. You dedicate months, possibly years of your time to writing. You shun parties and social events. You pay to attend conferences and get to know crit partners. You pour your heart and soul into a book...what happens if it never gets published? Does that mean it doesn't matter? Was all of this time poorly spent?

I definitely don't think so. Even if you query away and no one bites, you've still learned a lot just throughout the writing process. I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of "the more you write, the better you become," so even if your novel is never published, you've still learned plenty to get started on your next one. Plus, unlike the lotto, there are many factors in the writing process that you can control - talent and craft and industry knowledge. If your gamble isn't paying off, maybe you need to just reevaluate your hook or tweak your query. Or maybe the first half of your book is great, but something isn't clicking in the ending. The point is, though you can't change your lotto numbers, you can revise your novel every minute until it gets published (though you might want to avoid changes in the page proof stage - it tends to piss publishers off because it's so expensive...though I did learn that Dennis Lehane doesn't really care about that rule and will submit changes right up to the day the book is printed, expenses be damned.) 

Obviously, we haven't won the lotto - yet. And I haven't had my book published, either - yet. But I'll let the hubs buy his lotto tickets, and I'll keep revising and perfecting my book until I think my gamble isn't so much a gamble as it is a safe bet. 

What Evan Lysacek Taught Me About Writing

Right now is your ABSOLUTE LAST CHANCE to enter my 100 followers contest!

I hear people ask sometimes (new writers, mostly), "How can I possibly find the time to write? I'm dealing with a full-time job, family, friends, a house to clean....I just don't have the time to dedicate to working on my novel! What should I do?" I usually give a typical answer, but I saw something today that really hit this point home for me.

Today, for the first time in an embarrassingly long time, I went to the gym. I'm staying in a hotel (which I had to pay a lot of money for because my brother is getting married in Daytona Beach during Bike Week), so I felt  like I wanted to get the full hotel experience - right now I'm even sipping free coffee and using free Internet. Anyway, I read a story on the elliptical, then moved to the floor for crunches and turned on Ellen, where I was able to catch the following interview: 



What struck me the most about this interview is the sheer dedication - seven hours a day of exercise, working on his body (for writers, this would equate to writing exercises, outlining, etc.) and practicing on the ice (for writers, of course, this is the actual story writing and revising). But not only was he out there every day, all day, working his butt off, but he was glad to be doing it. You can tell because, not only does he say that nothing makes him happier, but the joy on his face is completely apparent - his eyes are lighting up, he's animated; he's happy to be talking about what he loves.


Lysacek proves in this interview what I always tell people when they ask me where I find the time - if you love something, you make it work. He said he sacrificed everything; parties, nights out, holidays, all of it, in order to reach his goal. Sure, his full-time job was training, but still; he obviously made some other changes, and even thought about his sport when he wasn't on the ice. It influenced every decision he made. He never wanted to get home and feel like he hadn't accomplished anything. He made a schedule for himself and stuck to it. And if there was something else he needed to do (like wash his car on Tuesday), he worked it in around his training (even if all he had was eight minutes). 

If you want to write, you'll find a way to make it work. You'll stay up late. You'll wake up early. You'll stop watching TV or rearrange your schedule. You'll let the dishes pile up in the sink. Writers write. It's what we do. If you can't find the time, it's not your schedule that's the problem - you just don't want it bad enough. Lysacek wanted it bad enough, so he changed his life. And now he has a gold medal. I want it bad enough, and I've changed (and continue to change) my life. It's what you do to make it work.

On a side note, I love his bit about watching the birds. Just awesome. You really can get inspiration from anywhere - even if you think it's a dumb idea at first, sometimes all it takes is exploring it from a new angle to see that it could be something truly amazing.

What about you? How have you had to change your life to make time for writing? Or is this something with which you continue to struggle?

How an Innocent Comment led to My DEAL WITH THE UNIVERSE

OK, I've done it. I've officially decided on my DEAL WITH THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!! (Imagine that in a big booming, echoy voice.)

What is a deal with the universe, you ask? It's the semi-embarrassing thing I'm going to do when my book finds a publisher. For references, see Frankie's this crazy person's deal with the universe, or Shannon's deal with the universe. (Seriously, Frankie's deal is honestly pure insanity. I mean, isn't it every writer's dream to get a three-book deal? But would you videotape yourself washing a car in a bikini, then post it on the Internet for the whole world to see if you did?? Maybe if you were built like Frankie you would, but my size 10 butt is staying in jeans, thankyouverymuch.)

I knew the day would come when I would have to make my deal. But I had NO idea what to do. I'm very good at embarrassing myself, but it usually comes about in a very natural way. So unless I kept a camera on me 24-7, I really had no clue what to do. I briefly considered turning it over to you, the readers, for suggestions, but I've seen how evil you can be, and I didn't want to take any chances. I figured it would come to me one day when I was least expecting it.

Boy was I right.

Today I was commenting on Frankie's most recent blog post (in case you couldn't tell, I love Frankie's blog), and said:

I agree with Sarah, but at the risk of involving myself in the blog wars and having to, I don't know, sing a song I wrote inspired by my WIP or something equally embarrassing, I'm not going to actually DARE you to do it, just say that I really, really, really want you to...and maybe offer a strong HINT to Shannon.

 I wrote that italicized bit (italics added here for emphasis) on a whim when I was trying to come up with something someone would dare me to do. My mind did a mental scan of my house, and I thought of the dusty old guitar that's been sitting in my closet, untouched, for a few years now. My husband plays his guitars, so I keep mine around in case his breaks (because I know we can't afford to buy another one), but I've moved on to other ventures. Every so often I'll pick up his six-string and bang out a few chords, but I always just laugh at myself and put it back down. I'm a writer, not a musician! This is ridiculous.

And then it hit me: what a perfect deal with the universe. Moderately embarrassing, so the universe will see fit to give me what I want, but still completely doable. I've written songs before (and they've all been awful and cheesy), so I know it can be done. And that settled it.

So...*ahem* (Universe, I hope you're listening!)

I, Heather, promise to write and record (possibly in a vlog, if I have that technology by then) a song inspired by my book when the Universe sees fit to give me a book deal. 

Ugh. I can feel the calluses forming on my fingers from hours of practice already.

Seriously, I know like three chords...G, Em, and D. Oh, wait, I know C, too. So that's four.

Now all I have to do is finish editing, get it out to my critique partners, edit some more, have some more people look at it, edit a little more, query, fail, query, fail, lather, rinse, and repeat, until I finally succeed. By which time hopefully you all will have forgotten about this post.

Sunday Funday! (and New Years Goals)

Happy Sunday, everyone! (And Happy 2010! Side question: Are you saying Twenty Ten or Two-thousand Ten? Some customers asked me last night, and I'm doing a little informal research to find out).

Before I post my Sunday Funday links, I want to make sure everyone's seen my entry for the no-kiss blog fest, which I wrote and posted yesterday! The event, hosted by Frankie at Frankie Writes, was a HUGE success, with 76 writers participating! My scene is funny, so I think it counts as a Sunday Funday entry. Anyway, it got some good feedback, and there are some other amazing scenes out there, so I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to the event.

And now...the links that I'm sure you all care about very, very much, and anticipate seeing all week! Here are some of the posts from around the blogosphere/Web that I found particularly entertaining this week:

Janet Reid cracks me up, but also intimidates me a little. If I was writing something I actually thought she'd be interested in (she doesn't do sci-fi YA, and my book takes place in the future, so...), I'm still not sure I'd query her, because she is so full of awesome snark that I'm terrified at the type of response I'd get. Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Speaking of Janet Reid ... After a long hiatus, Query Shark posted three new queries this week! Here is my favorite. Seriously? And on the same note...another author who doesn't know how to behave (again, from Janet Reid).

Ever wonder why characters in YA literature go right from kissing to having sex, and skip all that "stuff" in between? So did the First Novels Club, in another wonderful post in their series on YA characters and the ways they don't act like normal teens.

No amount of words can describe the sheer awesome that will be found if you click on this link of the most commonly misspelled words, so I'm providing a photo preview to entice you (trust me, you want to click on that link). Special thanks to Julie from Book Hooked (and my book club!) for the linkage!

Last week's Sunday Funday had a link to a story Shannon wrote when she was a kid, entitled Earth Had a Snack. I felt it was only fair, this week, to include the video reenactment.

And now, something I've been meaning to do for a few days but kept getting distracted, my 2010 New Years Resolutons/Goals (well, the writing ones anyway...you people probably don't care that I'd like to have a smokin' hot bod by the end of the year).

1. Save up for a new laptop (possibly/preferably a MacBook). Acquire by March.
2. Write/edit at least 1,000 words every day.
3. Attend two writing conferences. (I felt like I needed to say two, since I'm already scheduled for one.)
   
4. Finish editing The Reaper's List my current WIP completely so that it shines and sparkles. (4a. Find a good title for my WIP)
   
5. Start querying. Hopefully acquire an agent.
   
6. Begin work on first draft of next, unrelated project.

I think that's all for now. That seems like a doable list, right? I wanted to make one that was just "Acquire an agent," but I feel like that is partially out of my hands, and I hate failing. So I just gave myself a little addendum to number 5. If I think of more, I'll add them later.

Happy New Year, everyone!