Adventures in Writing

My Accidental Urban Fantasy

2010-10-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

I never set out to write an urban fantasy. I'd never even heard of the term when I wrote the first sentence that began The Magical Diaries of Lilith Fyerider. The novel had been in the works for a year and I was nearly finished with the first draft when I went to the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in April 2009.

That was the first writers conference I had ever attended and it was also the first time I learned how important "genre" is in the world of publishing. They drill into you over and over how you must "know your genre." Well, I didn't know my genre. So I started asking around.

The first question I would get is, "What's your book about?" So I would proceed to give them a summary and out of their mouths pops, "Urban fantasy."

Urban fantasy?

As I said, I'd never heard of it.

Well, I thought, if I'm writing in a genre I've never heard of, I had better start doing some research. So I did. Most writers conferences seem to cater more to commercial genre writers than to literary writers, so there were plenty of examples to choose from right there. I discovered that one of the authors at the conference was writing in the genre of urban fantasy, so I took a look at her books.

On the first page, the main character, a young woman, whips out a sword and starts slaying vampires.

Okay, I think, these people obviously did not understand me when I was describing my novel. It's absolutely nothing like this. It's about magic, not vampires. It's subtle. The magic creeps up on you.

So another year goes by. I finish the manuscript. I begin revising. All the while, I'm trying to figure out what the genre is. I come up with descriptions like, "magical realism where the speculative elements are woven into the real world."

I probably got closest to it with "occult fiction" or "contemporary literary fantasy." I wrote the novel after reading all of Dion Fortune's novels. She wrote occult fiction, but it certainly wasn't fantasy. The magic she wrote about was real, based on her knowledge of the occult.

Eventually, while searching for an agent, I discovered an author, Mike Shevdon (represented by an agent I'm interested in querying), who wrote a novel titled Sixty-One Nails. Its genre is Urban Fantasy.

Now I'm finally beginning to understand what Urban Fantasy really is. I realize now that those books I was examining at the conference were bottom-of-the-barrel books. They were crap pulp fiction published by a microscopically small press. They are not the standard that defines Urban Fantasy. In fact, true Urban Fantasy writers are so sick of teenage vampire slayers, they want to vomit.

Although I could still use terms like "occult fiction," "contemporary literary fantasy," or "contemporary speculative fiction," it turns out that "Urban Fantasy," nails it right on the head.

Wikipedia defines Urban Fantasy as such: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy

Fortunately the genre is still fairly new, so its traits are defined by each new novel published in that genre. Gradually, as the genre grows, it will probably split into sub-sub genres (it's already a sub-genre of fantasy). So there will be a sub-sub genre of vampire urban fantasy.... which I will stay far away from. It's already way over-done.

Now that I understand the genre of urban fantasy, it makes sense to intentionally revise the novel to make it more urban and more fantasy, in order to get it solidly in that genre.

This is starting to feel like the endlessly-revised novel. I finished the first draft over a year ago (September 4, 2009 to be exact). I've been revising since then. Fortunately I've also been writing Journey to Artemisia at the same time and it's almost finished. Journey will probably get published before The Magical Diaries of Lilith Fyerider, but that's okay. I've learned so much in the past few years. The trajectory of my learning curve has the same shape as the space shuttle launch.

Journey to Artemisia isn't urban fantasy because there are only minor urban settings. It is categorized as contemporary fantasy. I'm planning Journey as the first book in a series and will start the query process in mid-November.

I don't know yet if Magical Diaries will be a series, but there is definitely potential for it, and it seems now-a-days publishers of sci-fi & fantasy are looking to publish series because they gain a following and that increases sales.

Revising The Magical Diaries of Lilith Fyerider

2010-09-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

I love attending writers' conferences because I always have such a powerful experience and learn so much. I got a chance to discuss the changes I was planning to make to Magical Diaries with Amanda Bergeron on Saturday.

She clarified what she thought the novel needed and this time I really got it. I understand now why readers need to empathize with Lilith's attraction to Adam and feel her pain when he leaves. Amanda said that just because they're soul mates doesn't mean they have to end up together, but we have to feel their attraction and how painful the separation is.

She gave me the example of Buffy and Angel. They're soul mates, but they can't be together because Buffy is a vampire slayer and Angel is a vampire.

Plus, I reconsidered the psychological issues and realized that I had pushed it too far. I don't want Lilith to be neurotic, obsessive, and delusional. She will deal with this stuff in the latter half of the novel when she makes a foray into black magic. A little obsessiveness I could probably get away with in the beginning of the novel, but too much of it and she begins to appear delusional, which doesn't work at the beginning because she's not delusional... and Adam's not a jerk.

I think I've got it sorted out now so I can do the revision and get the characters right so I evoke the emotions I want to evoke in my readers.

Also, one of the workshops I took at the conference was called Revising Fiction, taught by Kirt Hickman. It was so good that I bought his book, Revising Fiction. I was impressed enough with it to mention it here. For writers needing guidance on the revision process, this is a good one.

Decompressing After the Conference

2010-09-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

I wish I could do a better job of adding to this blog on a regular basis, but honestly, when in the midst of writing one novel and revising another, some things must take precendence. Blogging tends to fall lower on my list of priorities.

However, I just got home from the first day of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Conference and my mind is buzzing so much, I need to write about everything that happened, and everything I learned. (It might also have something to do with the fact that I drank coffee after dinner.)

Okay, here's the first thing: I signed up for a workshop led by an agent or editor. Amanda Bergeron from Avon (HarperCollins) led the workshop I was in. I'm really glad I took it because I learned quite a bit from it. The most important thing I learned -- which I already sort of knew was a problem -- is that readers have a difficult time understanding why Lilith Fyerider (the main character in The Magical Diaries of Lilith Fyerider) is in love with Adam. They understand why she loves the Adam in her dreams (she's dreaming of their past lives together), but not why she loves him in the current lifetime. I admit, the present-day Adam is kind of a jerk.

Since I already sort of knew this was a problem (and thought I had fixed it, but obviously hadn't), I was a bit dismayed. The only positive side to that kind of response is that everyone had the same complaint. There was consensus. That's actually good news for a writer.

So, at first I thought, "I'm going to have to completely rewrite Adam's character."

In the afternoon, I went to a workshop called "Pitch 101." Writing a pitch for a novel is incredibly helpful to writers because it forces you to get focused. Here's what I came up with for The Magical Diaries of Lilith Fyerider:

Lilith Fyerider, a modern pagan mystic who is haunted by an obsessions based on dreams of a past life with her former lover, must battle her inner demons as they come to life outside of her, in order to fulfill her destiny as a High Priestess and earth healer.

There are two reasons this exercise of boiling a 94,000-word novel down to one sentence is so helpful. The first is because it allows you to "pitch" your novel to an agent or editor within a few minutes, which sometimes is all you have. The second reason is because, in all honesty, sometimes even the author doesn't really know what their own novel is about. It forces you to get clear on who and what your story is about.

The real benefit of this clarity comes either in the writing or in the revision process (depending how far along you are when you finally write the pitch). Actually KNOWING what your story is about is so incredibly helpful to writing a compelling novel.

If the author knows, it will come through to the reader, no matter how complex the story is. After all, we writers have such overactive imaginations, we absolutely love tangled webs. But we also want the reader to feel, at least on an intuitive level, like they really "got it"; they got the core essence of the character's struggle.

So as the workshops came to an end for the day, we began seating ourselves for dinner. I was on a mission to sit next to Eddie Schneider from JABerwocky Literary Agency because what I had read about him, I thought my novel would appeal to him more than anyone else at the conference, but my pitch appointment is with Amanda Bergeron.

Mission accomplished. I got the seat next to him at dinner. I told him about both of my novels. He gave me his business card and said to send a query letter and sample pages. YES!!!!

Okay... but I've got a problem with the novel, remember? So I tell him I need to fix the problem with Adam first and he says, "Maybe not. Sometimes in workshops if there's a problem in the novel, the readers try to figure out what it is and point to something that seems obvious on the surface, but that's not really it."

Hmmmm.....

After dinner, I rush home and tell my roommate, David, all about what happened. The only other person on the planet who knows the story as well as I do is David. He knew me before I wrote the first sentence that became The Magical Diaries. So he "gets it." He knows what the story is about even if I sometimes forget or get confused.

I told him about how the readers in the workshop liked the Adam in her past-life dreams, but not the Adam in her current life. They couldn't understand why Lilith, a priestess of Avalon in a past life, who is destined to become a High Priestess in this lifetime, could possibly want anything to do with "that jerk, Adam."

"So I should change Adam, right? Make him more like the Adam in her past-life dreams."

"Not so fast," he said. "I understand why Lilith is drawn to Adam the way you've written him."

We went back and forth like that, discussing the novel, until I remembered why it works better that Adam isn't perfect. So the key isn't to change Adam into a character that any woman would obviously fall in love with, but instead to find a way to communicate to the reader how it is that Lilith, a woman who was, in a past life, a priestess of Avalon, could be so broken in this lifetime that she displays neurotic, co-dependent behavior.

This is her journey in the novel. At the beginning of her journey, she is broken... and there are reasons why she is broken. She is at crossroads. Two paths lie in front of her. One is a path of compulsion. But her reasons for being drawn to Adam are not just psychological; they are also karmic. Their lives are karmically tied together, but that does not mean that they are meant to spend their entire lives together. In fact, her destiny in this lifetime is to be a High Priestess and earth healer, not to be Adam's wife.

So her "sacred contract" with Adam unfolds. He is in her life for a reason, but not the reason she thinks. Although they are soul mates, karmically bound together, the role he has agreed to play in her life before they were born was to crack her open in order to expose her wounds (the only way they can truly be healed), then reject her in order to force her out of the protective womb of a relationship and onto the path of her true destiny.

As you can see, it is a complex story, a deep exploration of the character's pysche (both her soul and her psychological makeup). The novel reveals the depths of her psyche until both the reader and Lilith finally understand the underlying truth.

The complexity makes it more profound, but also more difficult to write. Ironically, after brainstorming with David, it turns out that fixing the problem (which is that the readers said they don't understand Lilith's obsession with the present -day Adam) won't be as difficult to fix as I had originally thought.

Whew!

Okay... the clock's telling me I need to get to bed. Have to get up early tomorrow and head back to the conference. I hope this coffee buzz won't keep me up all night.... argh... I hate that. The upside is that I got the thoughts written down while they are fresh in my mind. That way, when I go back to revise, I won't have to reconstruct it all. I can just read this blog.

I love being a writer.

Tricks to get the words flowing

2010-05-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

1) just come up with a list of words, preferably concrete words and action verbs
2) do a mind map
3) write down some bits of dialogue
4) read a passage in a book, like Castaneda and jot down some ideas
5) watch a movie to get ideas
6) take an old draft and circle the words I want to keep
7) scribble out some ideas for first and last sentences
8) type it all into a document
9) write six word sentences, a What If poem, or any kind of poem
10) begin to move the pieces around into some kind of intelligible order until a story begins to emerge.
11) at that point, I can put it aside for another day.

What do they mean by "commercial and genre fiction"?

2010-05-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

A genre is a category like romance, mystery, suspense, thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, horror, paranormal. You'd be amazed if you knew how many genres and subgenres there are.

Commercial is the opposite of "literary." Commercial means it's fast paced, lots of conflict, plot-driven, lots of dialogue and action, mystery, suspense, cliff-hangers, a "page-turner". I'm still trying to figure it out myself.

I woke up this morning and I had a powerful realization about my life. Aside from the givens, such as health, happiness, and raising a healthy, well-adjusted child, what I want more than anything else is to get published by a standard publisher and become a best-selling author.

For me, it's not about money. Owning things is nice, but eventually they suffocate me and I want to shed them. I'm not motivated to build a nest, find a marriage partner, secure a steady job.

I can't even say why I want to get published so badly. People say (it always seems to be published authors saying this) that you should love writing for its own sake, and I do. But I want my writing to be validated. It's like I'm searching for an elusive key and when I find it, I'll unlock the door.

To me, writing is the most magical thing in the world because it frees my mind from the Matrix. That, in itself, is incredibly liberating and empowering. But I want to know, what makes someone want to read a piece of writing, particularly a novel or a memoir?

Why is it that some authors or books can enchant me and hold me captive, while others can't get me past the first chapter? I want to learn that magic of enchantment.

How did the books on the shelves at the bookstore get there? Why were those manuscripts chosen instead of the other 100 they were competing against? And why is it that I have no interest in reading most of those books on the shelves? Does this mean I'm supposed to write my novel like those novels, even though I don't want to read them, just because they are in the bookstores?

Most of the stuff I like is old or something new by an old author. The modern stuff does nothing for me. But on the other hand, Avatar blew my mind. How do I get Avatar magic on the page?

Well, at the moment, I seem to have lots of questions, but few answers.

Until next time, love to all~

Shifting the Energy -- What a Conference Can Do For You

2010-04-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I was exhausted from the conference, so I didn't get a whole lot done, but I still met my new goal of 1000 words per day and I made it to my Monday night writers' group where I spent the evening organizing the second half of Journey to Artemisia. At the moment, the "second half" is a conglomeration of rough draft pages and scenes that I've written here and there, but didn't yet have a place to put them.

Now they're in order. This morning I woke up, mentally revising the beginning of a friend's chapter she read to the group last night. If that doesn't make me a writer, I don't know what does.

I sent her an email, then started working on Journey to Artemisia around 9:00am. Three hours later, I had well over 1000 words and had pieced together and polished 10 single-spaced typed pages.

At this rate I'll have the first draft finished within ten days. With it that close, I can almost taste it. My energy has shifted tremendously since the conference, like exploding and breaking open a dam. I love it!

Serious Writers Write, Persevere, and Get Published

2010-04-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

362 days of the year, I surround myself with writers. I lead creative writing workshops; I take writing workshops; I hang out in cafes with writer-friends; I socialize with writers. But I always feel like I'm the most serious writer I know.

Then I go to a 3-day writers conference and I am surrounded by over four-hundred people who are serious about writing and getting published. I discover that there are lots of people out there who take it more seriously than I do. They actually write 2,500 to 5,000 words per week. That's 500 - 1000 word per day, five days per week.

That might not sound like much, but try it for a year and you'll discover how much commitment and discipline it takes to do that. These are people who write for a living and get published. These are serious writers, career writers, not hobby writers.

So if you want to be a serious writer, which means getting published and eventually earning a living from it, make a commitment, and discipline yourself to write 1000 words per day, at least 5 day a week. That's 2 single-spaced typed pages per day.

So the first lesson I learned this weekend is that serious writers write seriously.

The second lesson I learned is that in order to get published, and eventually earn a living as a freelance writer, you must persevere. During brunch today, I sat next to Kelley Armstrong and I asked her to tell me the time-line of her career. She said, "When I was 22, after graduating from college, I took writers workshops and tried to learn the craft of writing for about 3 years, then got serious about publishing. I got my first publishing contract when I was 30, then it took another year before the book came out. So, it was basically an 8-year apprenticeship, but 9 years before I made any money at it."

My path toward a writing career hasn't been quite that clear-cut. But she suggested that I balance sending out queries and submissions with writing my fourth novel, Journey to Artemisia. That way I keep something floating out there all the time, but don't get obsessed about it.

It's clear from listening to the stories of other published writers that if you write and persevere, you will eventually get published. It's like if you step out your front door and start walking toward San Francisco, you will eventually get there. You can't not get there if you keep moving in that direction.

I wish I would have taken my writing seriously a lot sooner, but it was so pounded into my head how competitive it is. Now I see that competition is not the obstacle to publication. The obstacles to publication are not writing enough and not persevering.

The way I look at it, I KNOW there is no other form of work I want to do other than writing and teaching writing. So I may as well write and persevere. The years are going to pass one way or another, and in five years from now I'll be five years older either way. How lovely it would be to find myself, five years from now, the one standing at the podium giving the keynote speech to 400 hopeful writers, the one signing books, rather than still dreaming about it.

One more lesson I learned this weekend is that commercial and genre fiction are easier to sell than literary or general fiction. Fortunately I'm now half-way through writing a fantasy novel and I think this is probably an excellent move for my career in terms of getting published. If I stick to my goal of 1,000 words per day, I could have the first draft completed in 50 days from now.

I invite you to give yourself a goal and stick with it. The simple act of disciplining yourself to meet your writing goals will make all the difference in the world.

Blessed By Jupiter

2010-04-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

Well, my luck hasn't been all good today (only got 5 hours of sleep, got stuck in a traffic jam/snow storm for an hour and a half on the highway, missed the first session of the conference, and I'm exhausted), but when it really mattered, Jupiter came through for me.

My original pitch appointment was with Gary Heidt, the one agent who would be least interested in what I've written. I was dying for Scott Hoffman of Folio Literary Management because his literary interests and what he's looking for matches The Diaries of Lilith Fyerider to a T.

The conference handout says, "Scott is looking for literary fiction, spiritual or religious-themed fiction, and fantasy that crosses over into literary fiction, and first novels." That IS The Diaries of Lilith Fyerider.

After the last session of the day, they did a pitch appointment swap. I stood at the desk for a half-hour waiting and when the moment to strike came, I went in for the kill and came out with Scott's first appointment tomorrow morning.

Thank the gods and goddesses! May they bless me tomorrow morning as well!

An Accidental Opportunity

2010-04-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

After arriving late, I discovered I missed the first session, but still had time to make my Read & Critique appointment. I read the first two pages of The Diaries of Lilith Fyerider and received some good feedback from author Bob Spiller. Then it was time for lunch.

I stood in line and waited, observing the other workshop participants to see if anyone looked familiar. A woman stood behind me in line and struck up a conversation. "Where are you from?" she asked.

"I'm from Denver. Where are you from?"

"New York."

"How was your flight?"

"It was good."

"So you're from New York? That's, like, the hot bed of publishing, why would you come to Colorado?" I asked, thinking she was a starving writer like myself.

"I'm Betsy Mitchell from Del Rey." For anyone who doesn't know, Del Rey is the fantasy imprint of Random House.

"Oh, wow, then I should definitely be talking to you!" I laughed.

So I had a captive audience while we walked into the banquet hall and sat next to each other for lunch. I told her about The Diaries of Lilith Fyerider and Journey to Artemisia.

I said, "It's so difficult to come up with something new and original in the fantasy genre."

"Well, that sounds new to me," she said about Journey to Artemisia and she clued me in to a few useful bits of information:

1) Del Rey doesn't take young adult fantasy, so if I want to submit to Del Rey, write it as adult fiction, which I think it is anyway.

2) They don't take unagented fiction unless you meet an editor (like Betsy) at a conference.

3) I can query as soon as the first draft is 95% complete. So that tells me I'd better get my butt in gear and finish Journey to Artemisia while she still remembers who I am.

It was wonderful to meet her. She's a very friendly person, which I appreciated because the whole process of meeting agents and editors can be so intimidating for first-time authors. I hope she enjoyed meeting me too. And I hope she will still remember me by the time I get the second half of the novel pounded out.

On the Road to the Conference

2010-04-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

It was a lousy beginning. I got up at 5:00am to finish packing and drive down to Colorado Springs for the conference. At 7:30am, before I got to Palmer Lake, it was snowing and the traffic came to a dead stop. I turned off the car and the traffic stood still for an hour and a half, snow continuing to pile up on the sides of the road.

I had to pee so badly I was about to wet my pants. There was no where to go. It was a four-lane highway, separated by a median. No trees, no bushes, thousands of cars lined up bumper-to-bumper for miles. I was dying for a catheter.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, so I slipped over to the passenger seat, opened both car doors on the passenger side to create some privacy, like a stall. I squatted between them and peed into the snow drift on the side of the road. It was such a relief I didn't even care who got mooned.

If you happened to be driving south on I-25 to Palmer Lake this morning and wondered who that ballsy chick was... that was me.

Now you may be asking yourself, does this really have anything to do with writing? Sure it does. Everything in life is fodder for writing. If you're parked on the highway in a snowstorm for an hour and a half, why not write?

Countdown to Pikes Peak Writers Conference

2010-04-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

The three-day conference starts on Friday, April 23rd. That's four days from now. I completed The Diaries of Lilith Fyerider so I plan to pitch it while I'm there. I may pitch Journey to Artemisia as well, though I haven't completed the first draft, but I'd like to see what kind of response I get. Pitching is also extremely helpful for getting focused on what the novel is about.

I have several goals I'd like to achieve with this conference, one of them is blogging daily and sharing the experience with my writer-friends and former students who weren't able to attend this year.

One of the things I like about going to a conference is the intensity of production it creates. For those who are interested in learning more about this conference, check out their website at http://ppwcon.org

Weeding

2010-03-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

When editing your first draft, you will always need to do some weeding.

Some of the names of the weeds growing in our gardens are:

just
really
a little
decided to
kind of
used to
even
actually
I felt
looked like
always

I suggest deleting them without even thinking about it. Every once in a while, these words serve a real purpose, but mostly they are red flags that scream "beginner" rather than "professional" and it would be a shame to have your writing ignored for something like that. You may be a good story-teller, after all.

When you're reading published authors, you may notice an occasional use of these words, but new writers always make the mistake of overusing these words, ad nauseum.

Trust that you don't need these modifiers as much as you think you do.

The problem with "decided to" is that once the character takes action, we already know what they decided to do. What if you kept saying, "she deliberated on her action"?

Once might be meaningful, but if you change "decided to" into "deliberated on," you will see how excessive it is.

Happy weeding!

Being Present

2010-03-12T14:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes life is so good, I actually start looking for something to make me miserable. After all, we think that's supposed to be our normal state -- misery -- it feels comfortable. Why else would people willingly submit to corporate slavery? Why are "I hate Mondays" and "Thank god it's Friday" such common, well-known phrases?

Writing is truly about being present. If you don't believe me read Natalie Goldberg. She often compares writing to sitting meditation. The thing about writing is that, although I'm not always writing about my experience in the literal Here & Now, in order to write well, I must be fully present.

If I'm not present -- let's say I'm worrying about the past or the future, or I'm worrying about money, or what someone else thinks of me, or whether I'm being productive enough, and all the other places my mind can wander that have nothing to do with the story I want to tell -- the writing will suffer.

Now to some degree we have to let our minds wander as writers, yet paradoxically that's not the opposite of being present. Wandering while being present is like sitting on the shore and watching the boats float by. You can get on one of those boats and have an amazing time there, but you're still present.

When I am Trinity as a little girl in a frightening situation, I am fully present. I think and feel as Trinity. I see what she sees, feel what she feels, hear what she hears, taste what she tastes, smell what she smells. I am not fragmented. I am present. And it comes through in the writing.

Being present in our writing helps us to be present in every moment of life.

Everyone is telling stories all the time. When I'm eating lunch at Souper Salad, the guy in the booth behind me is telling a story about being a cop. The funny thing is he doesn't know he's telling a story. He got on one of the boats floating by, but now he can't get off it.

Writer's Bag O' Tricks

2010-03-11T09:19:00.000-08:00

Random Words & Six-Word Stories

A blank page can stop us dead in our tracks. So I've come up with a few little tricks to prime the pump and get the words flowing onto the page.

The first trick is to brainstorm a list of random words. Well, they aren't completely random. Think of a scene you're writing. For example, in my latest novel, Journey to Artemisia, my main character suffers from apocalyptic visions, so I brainstormed a list of words appropriate to an apocalyptic vision.

The second trick is to take those words and write six-word stories as a way of organizing the words so they are no longer random. What's a six-word story? The six-word story was created when someone dared Hemingway to write a story in six-words. He came up with this: "For Sale: Baby shoes, never used."

I found these exercises so effective that I ended up rewriting the scene with the apocalyptic vision without even intending to do so. I had brainstormed a list of words on Tuesday. I don't remember how long it took, but I made it my goal to just write a word and hit return until I got to the end of the page.

Then, as I was writing this blog, I stopped to look at my list and started forming the six-word sentences. Next thing I know, I'm rewriting the scene. I took a scene that was three paragraphs and nearly tripled it in size, which was good because before it was too short to have the emotional impact I wanted it to have.

This process can be used whether you're starting from scratch or rewriting. It's like wading into the pool when you're not ready to dive in, but once you're in, it's dolphin heaven.

The First Draft

2010-03-10T11:22:00.001-08:00

In Bird by Bird, Anne LaMott calls it "the shitty first draft" to remind herself that it doesn't need to be perfect. There are stages in the writing process and if they get mixed up, it can be disasterous, leading to the dreaded Writer's Block.

The first draft is a pouring out. If you keep your hand or fingers moving as quickly as possible, the words fly past the critic and editor in your head and they let the child play. This can lead to that sublime state of consciousness known as "being in the flow." Amazing things can happen.

Other times it's like puking. Just puke it out. It's okay. Nobody ever needs to see that shitty first draft.

The reason why you have to just do it is because if you wait for perfection or divine inspiration, your novel (or other piece of writing) will never get written. It will never exist in actuality, but only in that dreamy fantasyland of the imagination. It may feel real there, but it's not really real if it's not in a form that can be shared with other people.

Writers write. (What a concept!) There's just no way of getting around it. If you want it to be in a form that others can read, you have to get the words down on paper.

It's like creating clay out of thin air. Once you see the clay in front of you, then you can begin to fashion it into something closer to that vision in your mind. And sometimes you'll create things that will blow your mind out of this galaxy.

After the first draft comes the second draft, but try to get the entire first draft down before starting the second draft, otherwise you may end up in the dreaded, never-ending cul-de-sac of the first few chapters, revising until the end of days those first few chapters that eventually die in the womb like a miscarriage.

When you finish your shitty first draft, then you know what you have. It may look hideous at first, but aren't babies slimy, bloody, and shriveled when they first come out? Then, in time, they become precious little miracles.

But they can never exist without all the stages that came before that moment of wonderment and new life.

A Great Story About Persistence

2010-03-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

Just in case you ever feel like giving up, read this:

http://stephenparrish.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-wrote-novel.html

Learning How to Write Well

2010-02-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

As I'm writing Journey to Artemisia, I feel like a beginner. This is actually my 4th novel, not including the failed ones that never amounted to anything. But the first 3 were an emotional impulse. I was emotionally compelled to write them.

This time there's no emotional impulse, other than the joy and pleasure of writing, and exploring themes that interest me. So it's a completely different experience. I keep asking myself, what about other books draws me in and holds my attention until the end?

I would say first and foremost it's theme. But theme alone can't carry a novel. Beyond that it's the writing and the characters. Plot is of minimal importance to me if I like the themes, writing, and characters. Though I do want to feel that the characters are changing. Characters who have no problems or never change are boring. If the characters are affected in some way by what's happening in the novel, then there is at least a minimal plot.

I expect the process I will go through is to write over 400 pages, then go back, cut out the boring stuff and tighten up the plot.

It's unfolding a bit haphazardly, which is fine, but I'm working on a summary now because I want to be clear about what I'm trying to accomplish in this novel.

I've decided on three books to study for the purpose of learning more about how to write well: Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood, Dune by Frank Herbert, and The Sea Priestess by Dion Fortune.

I think part of what Margaret Atwood does so well is stay in a scene for a while with lots of interesting details. She writes a whole six-page chapter describing her character waking up, not feeling well because he's got a hangover, and thinking about food. It's the concrete details she uses that draw me in. And there's conflict. He's hungover, the only human left on the planet as far as he knows, living in a tree, and he has no food. He has to learn how to hunt and gather. In those pages, she manages to weave together seamlessly the past, present, and future.

We also see what kind of person he is: he's crude, drinks too much, but he's also intelligent, loves language, used to be a writer (before the world ended), he's compassionate enough to take care of the genetically-altered humans who are very primitive and childlike but grew up in a bubble and are now out in the wild. He's a resourceful mess. He misses the woman he was in love with (but it was a strange relationship). She was a sex slave from a young age who then became his best friend's lover, and they were having an affair.

It's amazing how much Atwood manages to accomplish in 6 pages when all that's happening on the surface is the character waking up, climbing out of the tree, looking at his supply of food, deciding to go on a scavenging trip, then setting out.

I'm going to stop there before it's too much too absorb. This clearly is not something that will be resolved in one day, but I feel like I'm making some progress. In the next chapter I write, I will use the chapter in Atwood's book as a model for weaving together theme, backstory, character development, conflict, and setting, and see if I can rise to that level of storytelling.

Agent Blogs

2010-02-22T08:48:00.000-08:00

I'm back to my attempt to write this blog on a regular basis. Since I finished The Magical Diaries of Lilith Fyerider, I'm now focused on sending queries to agents. I've been reading agent blogs, so thought I would collect a few links and post them here.

http://queryshark.blogspot.com/
http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/
http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/
http://waxmanagency.wordpress.com/
http://www.therejectionist.com/
http://www.bookcannibal.blogspot.com/
http://elainepenglish.blogspot.com/

Blogging -- A Daily Practice of Writing

2009-08-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

At least that's what it's supposed to be. I admit that I often fall far short of a daily discipline. But then I get back on the horse and try again. If you've never tried blogging, I suggest that as a way to get into a daily discipline. You can come up with an idea that fascinates you and write about it every day. I now have several blogs, though some I left behind long ago, but I'm trying to keep up with a few of them on a daily or regular basis. Aside from this one, the other two I'm working on are:

http://sexypolitico.wordpress.com

and

http://www.thewarrior-goddess.blogspot.com

So, that's my suggestion for today: start a blog and try to write a post every day.

Practicing Alchemy

2007-07-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

Turning Lead into Gold

Writing can be a practice of alchemy. From my earliest days as a writer when I was fifteen years old, I wrote as a way of understand the world and my human experience. There was so much that I didn't understand. So much of my life left me feeling as if there was no ground under my feet. My writing was like a life raft that kept me from feeling completely lost or drowning.

At fifteen, I wasn't a very good writer, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that it gave me comfort when I desperately needed it. Now that I am older and have the perspective of my age, I can look back on my life and take all of the most painful experiences and turn them into gold through my writing.

In the summer of 1992, I bought a one-bedroom condo in Aurora. I assumed a mortgage for $40,000. The condo had a Jacuzzi, a private patio, a fireplace, and a second patio that opened up to an inner courtyard. It was across the street from a park. I lived there for 5 years. One of the worst decisions I ever made in my life was to sell that condo.

After living there for five years, I sold it for $50,000. Today, fifteen years after the purchase date, it would probably be paid off. I would have been able to rent it for at least $750 per month and it would probably sell today for over $100,000.

Now, with 20/20 hindsight, I can see that selling it was a huge mistake. But I can’t go back into the past and change that decision. However, I can take a penetrating look at my life and my mental state at the time when I sold the condo and do my best to understand what led me to make that decision. At least I can say that it is a fascinating story. So I will turn my lead (the painful and dark moments in my life) into gold. Maybe I will write a memoir that will become a bestseller and I’ll make back all the money I lost by selling that condo!

Take a Trip

2007-07-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

In my experience, I have found that taking a trip is often one of the best ways to get focused and stimulate your imagination and inspiration. Over the week of the July 4th holiday, I was able to take a trip to Steamboat Springs. Knowing that I would be completely removing myself from my normal, every day environment for a week, I decided to take my manuscripts with me and get some work done.

Of course, I always imagine that I can accomplish more than is actually possible, but at least I'm ambitious.

Okay... I admit it... I haven't accomplished anywhere near what I'd hoped I would accomplish, but that's okay too. I have gotten plenty of work done during my "vacation" and I've taken time to relax and vegetate as well, which I believe is equally important to the creative process.

I'm not exactly sure why, but I've come to understand that part of the creative process includes a time to completely "empty" the mind. I think it's like starting fresh on a new project. You need a blank sheet of paper, a new slab of clay, a clean white canvas, or whatever medium you work with.

The mind is also a slate for creating and needs to be "wiped clean" occasionally. I'm certainly not implying the frying of brain cells in order to do this! You'll need those brain cells. Rather I am suggesting that sometimes it's good to do absolutely nothing "productive."

Some of my time this week has been devoted to work, and some of it has been given to doing absolutely nothing productive -- without guilt! Allowing yourself down-time without guilt is essential to recreation (re-creation). Guilt consumes an enormous amount of energy and brain space, so if you're going to relax, let yourself do so guilt-free.

Lie by the pool; get a tan; sit in a hot tub; take a long, leisurely walk; visit a beautiful garden; watch television; sleep late; just do whatever you feel like doing. It'll help recharge your creative batteries.

Revising

2007-07-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

A few weeks have passed since I finished the first draft of The Bohemian Life. My post-partum blues only lasted for a few days, then I dove whole-heartedly into the task of revising. The upside of having taken so long to finish the first draft is that over the years I have done many revisions, so this time it went very quickly and smoothly. That made the experience quite pleasurable and satisfying.

Not to imply that it's always so easy, but occasionally things do go smoothly and this was one of those times. After I went through it once, making corrections, there were four chapters that still required a bit more polishing (which I hope to finish today!). Then I will be able to read through the entire manuscript quickly from beginning to end the way I would read a novel.

During the "fast read," I'll make corrections on the pages. Then I'll go back through, making corrections and printing out a fresh copy. Then I hand it over to someone else for proofreading and editing.

It's a wonderful feeling to be so close to completion, but it's also a bit nerve-wracking as I wish I were there now!

Oh well... this is the life of a writer.

Post-Partum Blues

2007-06-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

I recently finished a book-length manuscript and felt really fantastic for about 24 hours. Then I felt kind of depressed. I wondered what was wrong with me. I was searching and searching for answers. Maybe I'm not getting enough exercise? Maybe I should take supplements? Maybe I should spend more time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine. I knew all of those things would be helpful, so I did them all, but I also remembered that the last time I finished a book-length manuscript, I had the same experience of melancholy.

I didn't know what was wrong with me. Why would I feel depressed after I had just accomplished such a wonderful feat? I discussed it with a couple of people and my mom suggested that I was probably experiencing something similar to post-partum blues. I thought about it and it rang true. After all, it's a major creative investment -- an investment of one's time, energy, emotions, etc.

When you finish a major project like that, of course, you're going to feel like a million bucks for the first 24 hours, but then suddenly it's like you don't know what to do with yourself. That child you've put everything into creating is now born into the world and you are left feeling depleted and maybe even a bit lost and confused.

Having gone through this experience now several times, I wanted to share my hard-earned wisdom with others so that if you have this same reaction, you'll understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong. It is a perfectly natural response when you finish a major creative project. Just let it be part of the process.

Most women, after giving birth, need a few days of serious recovery, sometimes staying in bed for a few days afterward while they recoup their strength, then a few weeks before their bodies are able to do the things they used to do (I made the mistake of trying to walk three miles just a few weeks after giving birth, which had been no problem before, and nearly collapsed before I got back home). Then it takes a few months, sometimes years, to get the body back to pre-baby condition.

So give yourself the recovery time you need and remember that it is completely normal and natural. Stay in bed for three days and sleep, read, or watch t.v. if that's what you feel like doing. Or if you want, just take yourself out and have fun. Go to the movies, go for a hike, putter in the garden, hang out with friends, whatever gives you pleasure. Eventually you'll be ready to work again, but give yourself that down-time before you jump back into it full-swing. It's all part of the creative process.

Just Write And Don't Stop

2007-05-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Todays' Daily Writing Adventure is to intentionally write a run-on sentence.

Write for one minute in a single, long sentence on any topic. Write about something you see every day. Go!

Every day, the same thing. She wakes up to the sun illuminating her window; she smells the scent of the ocean breeze wafting in through the open shutters. The climate is such perfection on the Cote D'Azur, there is never any reason to close the window or the shutters, so it has the quality of living outdoors, then she's up, shuffling to the view, checking to see what color the ocean will be today: blue, sky blue, turquoise, green, azur, light-blue, grey-blue, saphire, what other shades of blue are there? She knows that living here, she will come to know every shade of blue that exists. Then the sundress goes over her head, arms in, slips down her firm body, sandals on, lipgloss, fluff hair, looks good, no need to brush the teeth. She'll have coffee in a few minutes.... grabbing her bag, she checks to make sure everything is there: money, gum, lipgloss, pens, journal, manuscript.... yes, it's all there. Out the door she goes, pulling it tight and checking to make sure it's locked, suddenly she smiles, knowing that she is safe there, none of the people who used to bother her have come around and she is finally free... there is even a recognition that she, once upon a time, used to create unnecessary drama in her life. Why was that? I don't know, but it's gone now and I'm happy about that. My life is nearly perfect now. If only, if only. How I miss you, my love. But she won't let that stop her. She is on a mission to be a wealthy, famous, best-selling novelist. She will not allow the pain to interfer with the plan. She must continue on... ever onward... down the stairs, out the door, into a beautiful fall day on the French Riviera, how blessed she is to have this amazing life, into the cafe and up to the counter. Bon jour! she says, smiling at the young man who always has the coffee freshly brewed and ready to go. Bon jour, Kate. He smiles. Cafe au lait? Ah oui, she says. He knows the routine and prepares her morning elixir, then she is off to her favorite computer, logging into her email account and re-reading the last email from Tom. She knows she must respond and feels that she is now up to the task. She will be brave and say all the right things. She will be a trooper, keep her head held high, then trudge on through the day, classes, research, writing, socializing, all with a smile permanently etched onto her face.

Okay, I think that was actually 15 minutes. I said to write for one minute because I knew that you would think it impossible to write one, long sentence for fifteen minutes, but you'll find once you get started, you just keep going. I also discovered that it's harder than you think to write without using a period. As you can see from my example, I couldn't help putting in periods. I did it without even thinking about it, but I didn't go back and change anything because this is just a fun, free-writing exercise. Now it's your turn. Go, go, go!

The Courage to Write

2007-05-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

I think writing makes me more sane. I'd go crazy if I couldn't write. It's a way of making sense out of life. Otherwise it would all be a jumbled up mess in my mind and I'd have to drink beer and martinis to shrink my brain, burn it out, kill it, or poison it. Like when I was a teenager and my friends and I tried to kill a spider by dousing it in Jack Daniels. It still gives me the creeps just thinking about it.

So I write instead. I actually get sane by delving into the depths of anything scary, crazy, or painful with total courage. Once I've done that, whatever it was that scared me or caused me pain loses its power over me. Though I can't say that it's easy. I actually see a lot of people in writers' workshops who desperately want to write, but are absolutely terrified to face what's lurking deep inside.

I'm starting a new email newsletter that I'll be sending out soon. If you’re reading this, you’re probably on my mailing list. If you have any ideas for things I could discuss in the newsletter, feel free to send them my way. I've also got several blogs now that I'm going to try and keep up with on a regular basis.

As far as my latest novel is concerned, all names will be changed to protect the innocent, and probably even more so, to protect the guilty. But the truth is, anyone who has lived is guilty of something. As the main character, Kate Robinson, says in the prologue:

"My latest novel, The Bohemian Life, is a story about a writer who travels to Paris to research and write about the bohemian life. I have always been fascinated by bohemians because they are so non-conformist and live such unconventional lives. They are artists, writers, musicians, performers, intellectuals, radicals, and anarchists. All of that intrigues me, but especially their interest and comfort with the darker side of the human soul....

"This novel is more than just an exploration of the bohemian life and the bohemians such as Henry Miller, Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre, Earnest Hemingway, Anais Nin, Henri Matisse, and others; it is also a confession of every single wicked, evil, dirty, nasty, naughty, vile thing I’ve ever done in my life. I feel driven to confess all of my sins to the world. It’s become an obsession for me...."

Does it make you want to read more? I hope so, 'cause that's the whole point.

Short Assignments

2007-05-20T18:19:00.001-07:00

Just one paragraph. That's all.

In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott says that one of the best pieces of advice she can give to writers is to do short assignments. I agree with this completely. It is so strange that we human beings seem to think that when we pick up pen and paper to write, or turn on the computer, we are about to create the most profound work of literature ever known to humankind and change the world forever.

No wonder we get writers' block and find any excuse under the sun to avoid going near that terrifying manuscript. It's worse than a sabor-toothed tiger hiding under the jungle ferns just waiting to rip us to shreds for dinner.

So that's why I'm telling you now: Just do one paragraph. That's all. It's enough. You'll see.

Move On

2007-05-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Can't Get Inspired No Matter How Hard You Try? Just Move On To Something Else!

A writer must learn and develop a healthy balance between discipline and inspiration. Being an artist, writer, or otherwise creative person is like doing magic. Imagine you're in the midst of a scene from a Harry Potter movie. The young wizards are in their potions class, stirring up some powerful magic potion. Envision all the details that you possibly can: you can see the room full of the young students in their long black robes, wands in their hands, stirring the potion as it steams and boils.

What are they going to do with that potion?

The potion is like the creative magic within you. You are a caldron of steaming, boiling magic potion. Your wand is your pen. Pull out your pen and get ready to do some amazing magic spells. Dip the pen ever so slightly into that caldron and see what happens. You have to know how to work with it just right. If you dip the pen into the caldron at the wrong place or at the wrong depth, at the wrong time of day, wrong setting, wrong season, or say the wrong incantation, you won't get the magic you're hoping to create.

Who knows what you'll get? Maybe something good will come from it anyway. Or maybe nothing.

Whatever you're doing, if you can't make the magic happen, then try something different. You're a writing wizard. Do what any good wizard would do. Call on your magical resources and cook up something new and different.

Know when you're stuck. Know when what you're doing isn't going to work and move onto something new and mysterious, something that gets your juices flowing again.

Just remember though, this isn't an excuse for lack of discipline or laziness. Instead, looking in a new direction is just one of the wizard's magic tricks.

(As an example, I'm currently finishing up a novel and I'm stuck on chapter 33. But nothing is coming to mind right now, so rather than doing nothing, I'm simply going to move onto chapter 34 and come back to chapter 33 later, when the moon is full, the dew is glistening on the black widow's web, and the wolves are howling....)

Create a Collage

2007-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

One of the things that writers often struggle with is coming up with ideas in order to get started writing. I'm having that problem today. I have a chapter that I need to finish and I know what needs to be covered in the chapter, but I can't figure out how to get started.

So, I came up with an idea to help out with this problem -- start a collage.

Mine is beginning to form on the wall behind my computer. I can't help but see it because it's right there on the wall as I'm typing on my computer. Basically what I've done is print out pictures of people who remind me of my characters. That way when I look at them, I think about them. I imagine what they are doing and that stimulates my imagination for writing.

You can use anything for your collage, as long as you can tape it to the wall, or you could create the collage on cardboard if you prefer. There are an infinite number of pictures on the internet. Just type in the subject you need to search and eventually you'll find what you need. You can save the images in a file on your computer, or print them out and add them to your collage so you can see them while you're writing. Then choose something from the collage and do a 15-minute timed writing. Go!

Talking Heads

2007-05-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

Things People Do While Talking (to avoid the Talking Heads in White Space Syndrome)

1) Sip a cup of tea
2) Sip a cup of coffee
3) Smoke a cigarette
4) nibble absent-mindedly at a hang-nail
5) look at their watch (if they are bored)
6) chew on a straw
7) eat dinner (or other meal)
8) butter some bread
9) cook dinner (or other meal)
10) serve drinks
11) twirl strand of hair
12) pick at teeth with a toothpick
13) drink a soda