NaNoWrimo is on its Way!

I know that we're only a week into October, but don't forget, NaNoWrimo is right around the corner. Despite not taking part in it this year, YAedge is always a huge supporter. I've done five out of the last six, and each year that I don't, it makes me a little sad.

To me, NaNoWrimo is more than 1,667 words a day or 50,000 in a month. It's a lesson that every word doesn't need to be right, the first draft doesn't need to be perfect. It's a community of writers, online and in my hometown that I may not have met otherwise. It's motivation to prove to myself that I can work every day, and still have time for other things in my life that I love to do.

This next month, I won't be focusing on a new story, but continuing my work on Parlor, my NaNoWrimo book from last year. As I did the last 1k-a-day, I will be focusing on editing. This time, I'm not going to give myself a daily word or edit count, but a challenge to myself to work hard each day. It's easy to get distracted, even when I have the whole day to write, by other things.

For those of you participating in NaNoWrimo this year, be sure to start thinking about your story, plotting it out and developing your characters. I usually fly by the seat of my pants to some extent during NaNo, but you will thank yourself for any pre-NaNo work you can get done. On the days where you don't have much time, or are having a tough writing day, having a plan and really knowing your characters will take you far.

I'd love to hear how many of you plan to participate this November, and what you've done so far to prepare.

On an off topic note, for those of you keeping track, I've started reading Frankenstein for my One Classic a Month Challenge. So far, it's not what I was expecting, but I'm enjoying it. I plan to continue to read modern YA while enjoying the classics, so it will be a little slower than my normal pace. As long as I finish in October, I'll be set!

Did anyone decide to join us in reading a classic a month?

Editing for a Reason

I know the title of this post is obvious. OF COURSE you edit for a reason, but let me elaborate. Before submitting my query to agents, I made several passes of Lost and Found. My two crit partners went through the whole thing, including a few chapters more than once. When all was said and done, the whole thing had been read and edited five + times and the beginning probably close to ten.

Since the first edits, I’ve queried many agents, getting a few requests for partials and fulls. One agent last week asked for a two-page synopsis and the first 30 pages of the manuscript (as I blogged about last week). Luckily, she got back to me right away since I was on pins and needles. She loved the premise, thought the writing was good, but said that the pacing was too slow. If I would cut the book (which was 83,400 words) “a lot” she would love for me to re-query.

Considering her letter, I had to agree. Despite going over the beginning several times, I could cut it down and get to the point. The pacing wasn’t fast and I didn’t get to my conflict soon enough. It’s funny how you can view something so different when someone points out the obvious.

Now I’m working on trimming it down to around 65,000 words (which would be around 18,000 shorter). The task is tough, yet in the end, even if the agent who made the suggestion doesn’t want to take myself and the book on as a client, I know that I will end up with a better book.

Remember when editing, get to the conflict as fast as possible. Grab the reader from the start and don’t let go. Read the first 30 pages over several times. Are there plot points that you never integrate into the rest of the book? If there is, cut it and get to the point. Readers want to be pulled in from the first word, not the fiftieth page.

Hurricane Higgins vs. Marley and Me

Every pet owner has stories. Get them in a room together and you soon have a you-think-that’s-bad-my-dog/cat/etc-did-this conversation on the go. And it takes a while to shut them up. If you don’t like pets, you might want to stop reading about now.

One of the most popular pet stories today is John Grogan’s, Marley and Me. I loved that book. I laughed, I cried, and that was just the preface. As a dog owner, a lab owner, I found much to identify with in Grogan’s portrayal of a crazy, but loveable hound, and his people trying to figure him out.

But I found myself wanting to have a conversation with Grogan (and I’m sure other lab owners did as well) to let him know…Marley had competition. You see, my husband and I have a problem child of our own, a chocolate lab named, Higgins.

Who very quickly earned the nickname, Hurricane Higgins.

In the four years we’ve had Higgins he’s: shredded a braided rug, peed on a friend’s cat when they were puppy sitting him, destroyed four TV remotes, dragged my mother-in-law across a busy street – to get to the other side, has eaten numerous pens and stained his teeth blue, has had shoulder surgery and recovered in his crate for two months, but his most dangerous habit….

Shelf surfing.

Higgins is a large lab, 95 pounds – he’s tall and lanky. His nose comes up to our kitchen countertop and often stays there as I prepare supper, nudging my hip to throw off my balance so I’ll drop some tender morsel.

We had one scare with Higgins, two years ago, when he ate a wire bristled BBQ brush which we placed on that countertop. That’s right. He ATE it. We rushed him to the vet who fed Higgins a bag of cotton balls soaked in chicken broth, hoping the cotton would wrap around the bristles and protect his innards as they passed through his system.

The poop watch lasted for days, but finally every last bristle made a showing, as did the BBQ brush handle – in two pieces.

We thought this was the last of Higgins’s shelf surfing days. Surely he had learned his lesson, and WE had learned our lesson, and we’d all never have to go through this again.

We were wrong.

A few days ago we were preparing to BBQ chicken kabobs (are you seeing a trend here? Higgie does like BBQ.)….so, those are chunks of chicken on foot long wooden skewers. I was in a hurry to get supper going due to edits I’m currently working on – with a tight deadline and all I wanted to do was hide in my office and write. My husband and I were motoring around the kitchen, we put the plate of skewers on the countertop and went to turn on the BBQ. When we came back, there were five kabobs instead of six and Higgins was wagging his tail and licking his chops. We didn’t believe our eyes and actually went looking through the house for the missing kabob.

He couldn’t have, we thought. Not a foot long skewer! Higgins followed us around, looking far too satisfied. That lasted about five minutes. Then he was gagging and coughing up blood.

Long story short – emergency surgery. The skewer was removed from his stomach INTACT… with two chunks of chicken still on it if we really wanted to BBQ them. Ick.

I’m happy to announce Higgins is recovering well and should be his old self in a few weeks. My edits are almost finished and I'm typing with "cone-head" Higgins lying at my feet. Although he has already tried to sneak outside to play with his fur sister, Willow (our yellow lab who is, thankfully, the opposite of Higgins – she’s our gift for sticking with our choco nutbar).

From now on Hurricane Higgins will watch supper preparations from afar…like from the depths of his crate and come out only when those countertop landmines have been disarmed, and shrink-wrapped, and are safely in the fridge.

So here’s to our pets and their quirks - may they all live as long, as crazily, as Marley and Higgins.

The Plot is Always Greener

Time: 2:22am (I know - I'm insane, but I also have a cold and can't sleep - it's so early this post says "Sunday" but I consider it "Monday", so there)
Breakfast: maple and brown sugar oatmeal and a few chocolate chip cookies (it's never too early for breakfast - or breakfast dessert)
Tonight’s exciting moment: hunter’s moon shining over the trees in the backyard.

_____

A few months back I sold my first manuscript to a small New York epublisher, The Wild Rose Press, under my pen name, Judith Graves. At TWRP, all titles of a certain word count are also published in print (that'd be my book, too.) I was leery of going the epub route, but a vamp / werewolf tale is a hard sell to bigger publishers – the market is saturated with the little beasties. Also, I think I lucked out. TWRP is extremely professional.

TWRP is keen to develop their YA line, Climbing Rose. Climbing Rose is a relatively new venture for TWRP and they are in the process of generating more teen-friendly marketing – there’s talk of an author blog and other fun stuff – and they are actively seeking submissions. If you write YA or adult romance, check them out: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/

My editor, Susan Yates, is fantastic. I’m hoping to interview her for YAedge about this exciting time at TWRP. She's supportive and yet tough enough to have me sweating silver bullets over edits.

Which brings me to my actual topic for today’s post.

Edits. The word deserves to be blood red.

Edits are freaking brutal. You see your writing without soft lights and the blissful haze of someone-wants-to-buy-my-book afterglow. It isn’t pretty. It is, however, an invaluable learning experience.

"Under My Skin" is in the first round of edits with Susan and the result is a clearer story, richer imagery, deeper POVs and an overflowing paper recycle box under my desk. I changed the plot – tweaking each chapter just enough to cause a ripple effect – in both directions. Basically this edit is another draft of the story.

And I’m still not sure the plot has enough meat to keep the reader satisfied but wanting more (there are two other books in the series).

Sigh.

The point of today’s rant? The plot is always greener on the other side of the delete key.

---end of rant---

ASIDE: The sheep photo was a dream shot, an actual cliché come to life. My husband and I were visiting the Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia where history, farm animals and fog abound. http://fortress.uccb.ns.ca/homeeng/