Well now that I am a PRO I am learning all about the industry. First big lesson: if no one wants your book after you query them… then shelve it and move on to the next book and query it.
Hmmmm
But I think I also need to query the other books again because I am not a great query writer.
Hmmmm
This industry is soooooooooo subjective that I thin the key is to query query query them all and then the key is to KEEP MOVING FORWARD and KEEP WRITING THEM THAR BOOKS….
And now back to playing….
I’m already eager to read through my critique partner’s comments for the third book. I can’t wait to chomp into the book again and polish it.
Do I have any high hopes for finaling in the Golden Heart. Nope. Not after the crap contest results I got about one scene in the beginning. Sure, the writing was solid, craft was solid, and the pacing was solid, but the guy comes off like a “rutting deer” to quote one judge.
I’d struggled with that first encounter. It actually was much spicier and I took out all of the racier elements, leaving a kiss only. But apparently, that came across as “sleazy.” DARN IT.
If it weren’t for that, I think I might have finaled.
Oh well. But on the off the chance that my GH judges can look past that issue, I must polish the MSS for the GH before March 31’s deadline.
But that happens next week. This week I play.
I am taking a week off of writing to play tourist in my own city with my friend. We’re heading out for a walk, going to see the sights and traveling to other cities near by to explore them.
It’s a well-earned reward and I am truly looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, the book is percolating.
And I am looking forward to revising it!!
This morning I drive to Nashville to pick up a friend and have her come spend the week with us. I’m looking forward to the break from intensive writing and from my brain constantly mulling over the story.
Because now my inner editor is screaming to get out and fix the story. And of course, she’s found pleny of holes to plug, dilemmas to solve and issues to iron out.
And she hasn’t even read it! Well, but then the inner critic’s voice has been silenced with duct tape and she’s been pushed into a closet all week. Now she is out and she wants to be heard.
And that is a good thing. Sort of. For now I have removed the bindings and I am listening to her suggestions and her ideas and jotting them down in my story notebook.
It’s a relief to know I don’t have to fix it yet. And the third book needs a go around. A more serious polishing before March 31.
These damn books are never finished. They’re ongoing adventures.
And it suddenly dawned on me this morning that if I plunge back into the first book, ever, it can’t be about a developer for a construction company.
Bloody economy tanking has flushed that idea down the toilet. So seriously back to the drawing board for that first POS.
Oh, the joys of writing. Really.
I’m already chomping at the bit to revise this book, but I am not starting till after I tinker with the third one. Instead, any ideas that float to me, I am writing down in my notebook, or putting on post-its and transferring over to the notebook when I have time.
I must get my third book tighter, fix some trouble spots, and march it out the door in queries to agents and publishers.
I am targeting BLAZE/HQN, and Ellora’s Cave, Red Sage, and Avon Red to start. And I need to find some more publisers that will accept unagented submissions and queries. It’s so hard. I tried to find out who the editor was for Avon Red, but can’t find a portal into that mysterious knowledge. Argh.
It’s the business side of writing that drives me crazy. I think I was almost grateful for an excuse not to query as it meant I couldn’t be rejected at all last year. I could just write to my heart’s content.
Well, head up out of the sand, quick gander around, and back to the dreaded business of trying to get someone with the power to sell my books to actually READ ONE!! Argh. And that means coming up with a witty query, an eye catching letter that stands out from the slush pile, and a good enough synopsis to get someone to say, oh yes, by all means send the first three chapters! Argh again.
I had entered a lot of contests last year in the hopes that if I finaled I would get an editor to read my work. I managed to get one editor in my Touch of Magic contest final, but it was not to be… boo hoo.
This year I am entering contests because they force me to tighten my writing, and to write the dreaded synopsis — it is like a CURSE for me to compress all my words into 3-5 pages, double spaced. But I will do it.
And I have to wrap my head around all of that in a week.
But for now, I still get to play a bit.
I am still flying high about the book being finished. I can’t wait to revise it (after I go back into the third one and tinker with it a bit more and query it). Best of all, I feel very strongly about the main characters. They are good people and I believe my readers will, if given a chance to read about them, connect with the story. I know my personal theme, the thread running throughout all my stories.
Home, love, finding that soft place to fall. I believe in it in a fairy tale way, and I know it can continue to happen in a real way if two people are willing to work very hard at their relationship.
After I finished the 4th book, I found myself imagining these two wonderful people AFTER the happily ever after and I smiled.
They’ll make it to the end of days because they have learned to love what’s inside a person’s outer shell.
Isn’t that what we all want? Acceptance?
And my darling husband. My first hero, who is by far quite worn around the edges after 23 years of marriage but on the inside he’s my Hugh Jackman, celebrated with me last night. He supported me all week with my endeavor. This crazy idea I had that I’d finish a first draft in a week. And that’s when one knows one has a great guy or gal. That’s the person who slogs along with you when you are in the trenches, and then celebrates with you at the local watering hole when you are victorious.
And we drank champagne, ate lovely appetizers, and I got another idea for a new book.
Life is good.
I finished. I wrote over 3,000 words, shifted scenes, and got to the end. And she made me cry. she is a great heroine. And he’s great, too. And I have 60,839 words to play with and revise. As I was showering today, I got more ideas for the ending, but I resisted. I will play with them over the weekend and get stuff jotted down.
BUT I AM DONE!!!
Happy Dance!!!!
And I learned a very important thing: NEVER give your first draft up to anyone till it IS WRITTEN AND COMPLETED, HOWEVER SHITTY IT IS. NEVER!!
I didn’t have the teary moment when I finished number 3… I lost control over the CORE of the story before I finished it.
NEVER AGAIN!!
Any other time, yeah, read on. Critique on. Tell me how to improve it… bring it on during the revisions…
And now I am having my glass of wine and celebrating!!
Well I managed to write 7396 words today and I am very pleased with the direction the story is going. It’s traveling in a slightly new direction,but I kept plowing forward and was determined to worry about fixing it later. Now my last third of the book has a lot of highlighted passages, scenes that will need to get shuffled around (notes in the comments section and in all bold all over the place), certain bits are already cut and pasted into the comments section.
I knew I had to stop writing when I neared theclimax/I’ve got the romantic black moments written down/fragmented at times,but I know where I am going with them/and I have a good feeling about theending. Part of the reason I stopped was that I felt myself rushing. I tend to dothat with my books. I RACE to the end and I don’t give my muse time to mullthings over. I need mull time, so I am giving it to myself.I have discovered that my stories are revealed to me in vignettes andcharacter thoughts/motives. It’s figuring out where they all fit that Ibelieve is my challenge. I plotted out the story, based on my scene cards,but a lot of new scenes have popped out and inserted themselves into thestory and I know I will be shifting things around. I tend to write dialogue, I like writing a scene by starting withtransitions into it (yeah, I know those will be tightened LOL), a lot of thoughts in the characters’ head, and certain scenes have more description than others. I guess I am a smorgasbord writer. Or I write, like I cook. Ihave a recipe, I know the ingredients, I know what the end will taste like, and if I ‘m missing something, I improvise with the spices. Now I know I have to go in and change my hero’s job, but that’s okay.
It makes the story so much better.
I reached the mid-week hurdle and the worst part was my poor, sore derriere.I had to take my laptop into the living room and sit on the love seat tomake headway. Man, does my tush hurt! Wii balance at mid point today helped(hello? I am the champion of snow boarding now!)I forged ahead and made it through a few sex scenes (usually I write: insert sex scene here and fill in later but hand wave in front of face, why not layer now??), and then I was just so flippin’ tired.
But that niggling issue re: my hero’s role in the book bugged me to death.So I hopped into the shower, washed my hair with lavender mint shampoo, and voila, the solution arrived. I went to my chair and churned out another2-3000 random words-noted the change for revisions, and voila, I added a total of 6,633 words!
Now, I still think someone should invent waterproof index cards and pens.seriously.
Some of it is not lovely, but it is making me smile. I have a lot of wordsto fix!! And I like that!!
Today’s totals:
*8023 words
*on scene 29
*know I must write in their heads first
*comments section very handy
*very very tired
*final total count over 40,000 words
The beat goes on… and to top it all off, I promised my kid that if I sold three books before her jr. year in HS, I’d send her to England for a leadership program… VERY LONG ODDS!
christineglover 