My Magical Musings

You made it in the gates of Revisionland! Congratulations. Now get to work.

Since revising styles vary, the order in which you’ll ride and even the choice of rides will vary too. Let’s take a look at a few of those available.

THE ROLLERCOASTER/KIDDIE COASTER

This ride is a wonder right out of a Harry Potter movie because it’s constantly changing (like those Hogwarts staircases). Each person will experience something different on this ride, though it takes everyone up and down and around and has some twists and turns along the way.

Your ticket for the rollercoaster is a manuscript that needs anything from major overhauling to changing little things . . . and let’s face it, we will all ride this one at some point.

If your manuscript changes are minor, your rollercoaster ride will resemble the kiddie coasters in a regular amusement park. If, however, your manuscript needs some major changes, your ride will be a bit more frightening. The more you need to change, the higher up the tracks will take you. When you plunge, screaming, down the long drop on the other side hold on tight and don’t jump out. Let the safety bar of determination and love of writing keep you in your seat.

THE GRAVITRON/TEACUP RIDE

These ride spins you around and around, looping over and over and over. The ticket for this is a beginning or other section of the MS you can’t seem to get right. Jump aboard this ride and send yourself (and your mind) spinning.

If it’s major problems you’ll have to hop on the Gravitron. Smaller issues get you a ticket on the Teacups which still spin you about, but aren’t as gut wrenching.

You may have to ride several times before you’re ready to move on. Eventually, you’ll emerge with a revision you like, but don’t be too excited. You aren’t through yet.

THE DROP TOWER/THE SLOWER DROP TOWER

Happy with your work, you send chapters or maybe the whole MS to your trusted critiquers (or agent or editor) and climb aboard this ride. It takes you up, up, up. You’re feeling nervous and excited. Once at the top, you look down and wave to everyone below. You’re sure the critiques will come back glowing, telling you all is ready for submission. You’ve worked hard and have done wonderful work, after all. And then it happens . . . the critiques come in and the ride plunges you back to earth.

If you are among the lucky whose critique does come back with only minor changes needed, the ride will drop slower and you won’t have the fast plunge the major changes will bring. But no matter how you get there, you’re brought down to earth. You aren’t even close to done. Choose your next ride and keep going.

These are only a few of the rides you’ll experience in Revisionland. You may enjoy the rides or you might get sick (or burned out or whatever). You may even spend a long time riding (or writing) in Revisionland. Other writers might take a few spins on the rides before leaving the park for the bus terminal at Submission Central . . . which is another adventure all together.

Write on.

The world didn’t end, but on Thursday afternoon, my round of rewriting/revising did. I finished my book, then went back and restructured the beginning. After that, I went through and corrected some errors.

I sent it off to an agent who has been waiting for over a year . . . and then I noticed a random word at the beginning that had been left over from some changes. Oops. Oh well. I’m human. Hopefully it won’t be held against me, but I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before I sent it off. Oh well. That’s the way it goes and I’m not going to let it eat me up inside.

I’m just happy this part is over.

I got some bookmark making supplies in the mail today so I’ll be working on some bookmarks for some very patient people who have been waiting (If you’re reading this . . . sorry it’s taking so long).

After the bookmarks are finished I’ll work on a query and synopsis. When I need a break from that, I’ll be starting on something new. Hooray!

I’ll also finish up the blog post about revision that I’ve been working on . . . hopefully by Wednesday.

And that’s where things stand with me . . .

Hope all has been going well for you!

Write on!

I’ve been a bad blogger and have neglected posting. In my defense, I’ve been doing lots of revising. I’m so close to the end I can taste it . . . and it tastes like chocolate.

I do intend to make a proper blog post with lots of good writing advice and all that fun stuff sometime in the near future (after I finish my revising . . . which I hope to finish in the next couple of days).

For today, I’m popping in to share the trailer for FOREVER by Maggie Stiefvater.

I hope you enjoyed it!

See you on the other side of revisions.

Write on.

I had hoped to get around to posting something over the weekend, but it didn’t happen.

The Thursday field trip was lots of fun, even though I was sure I’d die once I reached the ruins. The hike is only 1/2 a mile, but it’s all uphill!! Yeah, our legs were sore for days!

My brother-in-law and his kids came to visit from Idaho. It was great to see them again (we see them about once a year). He came to our house on Saturday and then we all went up to the in-laws in Flagstaff. It was fun to spend time with them. We had hoped to make it to Walnut Canyon, but time got away from us. We’ll have to go another time (we promised J since she had to miss her fieldtrip there last year). I admit I was kind of glad since I wasn’t really looking forward to another hike.

So, it’s Monday and I’m diving back into revisions. I’m at the end of chapter fifteen (only a page and a half to go). I’m hoping to finish through sixteen today. *crossing fingers*

Tomorrow is the last day to bid on my custom bookmarks in the Kidlit for Japan auction. There will be two winners. There are lots of other things available too. Even if you don’t want a custom bookmark from me, go on over and bid on something to help a great cause.

And now I’m going to grab something to eat and get busy writing.

How is your Monday going?

Write on!

I spent the weekend working on the beginning of my revision. I now have what I hope is a strong opening. Here’s the first paragraph:

I’m not supposed to be here. The smell of fresh cut trees teases my senses like a fly caught in a spider’s web. Like the spider, I can’t ignore temptation. If I’m caught, I’ll be scolded and sent home. Unless I’m caught after I steal, then I’ll lose my hand.

It’s still a WIP, but getting something down makes me happy . . . sort of. It’s a blessing and a curse. The blessing is, of course, having it written. The curse is it’s in present tense and the rest of the novel is past tense. I tried changing the beginning to past, but it doesn’t work as well. I guess my character decided that along with her new name (I changed it before I finished my rewrite), she had a new voice.

So . . . now I get to change the rest of the novel to present tense. I’m okay with this since I’m doing a line by line revision anyway.

Chapter one is finished and part of chapter two. I plan to work more today, but right now I’m blogging, eating lunch and running through a few emails (I’m such the  multi-tasker).

One of my emails contained this fantastic news! This makes me crazy happy.

Still another shouted the great news that Write On Con 2011 has official dates! August 16-17th! If you go to the Write On Con site, you can learn how to win critiques (more prizes to come) for helping spread the word. Write On Con was amazing last year and I’m so excited to attend again this year!

Also, Authoress is having contests on Twitter today. You can read more about it on her blog, Miss Snark’s First Victim. There are some amazing critiques and books being offered as prizes.

There are probably many other contests and things going on in the blogosphere as well, but I’m out of time (lunch is gone) and have to get back to my revising.

Hope you all have a great day!

Write on.

Occasionally I think we all need a kick to get us up and moving. Today, mine came in the form of Dawn Metcalf’s post. Because of this, I’m all kinds of inspired to finish my rewrite. After being sick all weekend, I’m also trying to catch up on housework, but I WILL get some writing done today, and I WILL finish my rewrite by the end of this week.

You heard me!

No more excuses, no more allowing life to get in my way. I know I haven’t been as determined as I should have been. I’ve allowed life and struggles with K to get me down and used it as an excuse to put off my writing. Not that I didn’t need to spend time caring for my family, I did and do, but I could have done more with my writing between caring for the family.

From now on, I WILL.

I won’t let my piles of laundry, dishes, and floors needing mopped keep me from writing. I will write while the washer and dryer are running. I will write while the dishwasher is running. I will mop one floor and leave the other for tomorrow. I’m getting back on track, and I won’t allow myself to make excuses not to write.

This is what I want. This is what I need. I WILL do it.

As Dawn so eloquently put it, “Go! Write! FTW!”

In the face of life’s challenges, what inspires you and keeps you writing?

Write on!

Authors talk about the Internal Editor all the time, but they don’t often talk about their Subconscious Author. This post by Lisa Schroeder got me thinking . . . does every writer have a Subconscious Author? I would think we all do, but I’m not sure.

I guess it would help to define what I mean by Subconscious Author (SA). This is the force that makes you add a plot point, or detail without knowing why. In Lisa’s post, she mentioned making a conscious choice to include a certain element into her story. She wasn’t sure how it would work, but knew she wanted it in there. I’ve done that too, and then figured out a way to make it work, but I consider this to be my Conscious Author (CA). The SA makes you put things into your story without any clue why or how it will work out or if it will work out (though it usually does). If someone were to ask you why the element/plot point/detail was there, you couldn’t give an answer other than, “I think it’s cool” or “I want it there” or “It just is” or some other lame reason.

For example, in my current WIP, I assigned eye colors to my characters. I didn’t know why, but they had to be certain colors . . . not just the main characters, but the minor ones too. While my CA didn’t worry about it, my SA mulled it over, worked it out, and determined the reason. During the rewrite, I discovered this reason. Sometimes I think my SA does more work on my novel than my CA does.

There are other examples as well . . . little plot elements that didn’t make sense, but had to be there . . . but if I share them, it will give things away. I’m always so excited when I discover why the element/detail had to be there and how it all comes together to make the book stronger, or add a twist. I wonder if this is how other authors work . . . especially when planning a series. Maybe a little detail the author threw into the first book because the SA author said to ended up being important and came to play a larger role in a sequel . . . even though the author didn’t plan it that way.

I’m a plot driven author, and I get a plot idea before I get my character idea. But I know there are character driven authors out there too, and I wonder if their SA works differently than my own.

What about you? Do you have a SA inserting little things into your WIP for your CA to discover later?

Write on (no matter how you do it . . . just do it).

The kids are off to school where they’ll hand out the Valentines they’ve been bugging me about for a week. I was going to bake a treat for them to take (all the classes are having “parties”), but I spent the weekend sewing a dress for K, and I ran out of time.

She wore the dress to church yesterday and is wearing it to school today so she’s happy. This makes the backache and sleepless Saturday night worth it! This coming weekend, I get to make a dress for J. Thank goodness for my Pfaff coverlock machine! It’s sew much faster.  

Honestly, the worst parts about sewing (IMO) are folding the pattern to the proper size, pinning it to the fabric, and cutting it out. Otherwise, it’s a breeze . . . I don’t even mind doing buttonholes or zippers!

Last night, I made a charm bracelet, necklace, and bookmark for E to give his girlfriend for Valentine’s Day.  It’s so weird he has a girlfriend. This time last year, he showed no interest in dating. *sigh* I miss those days.

Hubby and I decided not to get Valentine’s gifts this year, and I’m happy not to have the pressure of trying to find something. We have each other and, with all the recent stress, that’s enough.

I spent my Monday morning preparing a casserole for dinner tonight (it’s ready to bake and is waiting patiently in the fridge), doing dishes, and washing laundry. Now I’m hungry and am going to find something for lunch. After lunch, I hope to get some writing done.

Write on.

Last Friday I posted about making sure we use analogies appropriate for our characters. Today I’m discussing an often forgotten character. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy. You haven’t forgotten any of your characters. You’ve devoted hours (or days or weeks or months) developing them. You know who they are, what they want, how they’ll grow throughout the story, etc. Each character’s received the attention and development time they deserve.

You may be right. Perhaps I’m the only one out here with a forgotten character, but you might want to read on to be sure.

After months of revising and rewriting, I realized why my novel isn’t quite working for me. I’m missing a character.

The setting.

Yes, it’s a character, or it should be.

I’m not saying I don’t have some setting details scattered throughout my MS, I’ve several of them. The problem is, I haven’t spent time developing my setting like I have my characters and plot. I know where the story takes place, the time period, the world, the situation, but I haven’t conveyed it properly into the MS. A few details here and there aren’t enough.

But I already know where, when, what . . . there’s nothing left. Is there?

Yeah, there is.

Why?

No, really, “why” is it.

Before we get into a “Who’s on first” situation, let me explain. Your characters have a purpose, a why, and your setting needs one too. Ask yourself this:

Why is the setting I’ve chosen the perfect place to tell the story? Why will it work better than any other setting?

Don’t give me any of that “because I said so” or “it just is” nonsense either. Really take a minute to think about it. I’ll wait.

Back? Good. Hopefully you’ve gotten a firm idea of why your setting is THE setting for your story.

Now I want to experiment. Think about your favorite books (I know I’m making you think too much, but bear with me). You’ll likely think of the main character first, next, maybe the plot, but I bet you also think of the setting.

Examples:

Harry Potter and the (anything)  by J.K. Rowling: I think of Harry. Voldemort. Hogwarts! Wizarding world. (setting, people!) What kind of a story would the HP series have been without the setting/world?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan: I think of Mary. The village surrounded by fences. The eerie forest full of zombies waiting outside the fences. Setting plays a HUGE role in these books.

The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little: I think of Livvie, her family. The Gator (Baby). The Louisiana Bayou. I’ve never been to Louisiana, but I felt like I was there while reading this book.

Shiver series by Maggie Stiefvater: I think of Grace, Sam, Cole, Isabel. Werewolves. Snow. Lots of snow. Cold. So much hinges on the setting (especially the climate) in Maggie’s Shiver series.

Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary, Dystopian, Steampunk, etc. no matter the genre, setting plays an important role in ALL of my favorites. I couldn’t think of one single book I LOVED that didn’t have a strong setting. Can you?

Just as your characters interact with other characters in the novel, they need to interact and react with/to the setting. We experience the world around us on a daily basis. If we’ve spent hours fixing our hair and step outside into a windy day, we’re upset. If we planned an outing and it’s raining like mad, we have to adjust. If we’re melting from heat, we’d sell our mothers on the street for a fan (you know you would). We need this same interaction/reaction between our characters and their setting.

Let’s say your character needs to climb a up a mountain (or down a cliff) and rescue his/her best friend. If it’s a clear day and your character is afraid of heights, that’s tension with some setting details. It’s okay, but if you changed that clear day into one with pouring rain or snow, the tension is heightened (pun intended). Now you have a setting as a character forcing your main character to interact/react.

Let me explain it in another way:

Think about portraits . . . like the school photos you got when you were a kid. You sat on a little stool with a colored (or maybe gray) backdrop behind you. It was staged, lifeless. Now think about a picture (no, they’re not the same thing). Pictures are taken on impulse. They aren’t staged. They’re natural. Trees are in the background, snow is falling, people are laughing, throwing things, smiling, but not in a staged kind of way. They have life. They are interacting/reacting to/with the world around them.

Have you ever heard anyone say writers paint a portrait with words? NO! They say writers paint a picture with words. We don’t want our setting to be a backdrop for a portrait, we want it to be a part of a picture; a strong setting full of life that lives and breathes with our characters. It enhances them, challenges them, changes them.

If our setting isn’t a character, our story is without a place, and it probably won’t earn a place in readers’ hearts either.

Write on.

Even though I should have been working on my rewrite/revision, inspiration struck elsewhere.

I blame it on this blog post by Janni Lee Simner.

The contest inspired me to write a poem (which I won’t post here, but did post there). After I finished the poem (and wasn’t happy with it since I’m not the best poet), this line kept running through my head, “Within each snowflake lives the promise of spring.”

I decided to get out my pencils and drawing pad to illustrate that line.

Within each snowflake lives the promise of spring.

Now that my creative juices are flowing, it’s time to find something for youngest son to eat for lunch. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some word on my rewrite/revision done after we eat. =)

What are you doing to tap into your creativity today?

Create on!