I just had a breakthrough. I realized why I’m stuck in my current WIP. I had all this research about the Tang capital of Changan, but once I left the city, the geography becomes vague. As a result, two of my books became plagued with what I’ll call “stuck in the forest” syndrome. The characters travel through nebulous trees and mountains and rivers until they emerge in the inhabited world.
I’ll blame the wuxia trope for part of it. A huge component of those stories were travel. Technically, the fictional world where all those stories take place is Jianghu which simply means “rivers and lakes”. If you think of Tolkien’s Middle Earth as the characters traipse through Hobbiton and all the surrounding lands on their way to Mordor, that’s sort of what Jianghu is. And, with all due respect, Tolkien had a bit of “stuck in the forest” syndrome too.
So early on as a writer, I was criticized for becoming bogged down in description. As a result, I started glossing over details to skip to external action. But then, I was always given a lot of positive feedback for description. I think I learned something in the course of writing the subsequent books. I learned how to move my characters through Jianghu, through places and settings that were important. But now I’m back here, back at Book #1 and I realize I’ve got to get these characters out of the forest because Jianghu has more interesting adventures to offer them.
So I’m researching, honest! And not ummm…wasting time on the Internet when I should be writing.
Here’s a quick tour through some ancient sites. It’s amazing what they do with digital animation. *sigh*
I received a very nice thank you note from a contestant I judged yesterday. I gave her a perfect score, which is actually not too rare for me even though we’ve already established that I’m the hanging judge. When a story clicks, it clicks. But this letter was really uplifting because the author had been through so many ups and downs (like all of us) and had decided this was going to be her last run for the gold after writing forever. After doing so well in this contest, she decided to enter the Golden Heart® this year and I have no doubt I’ll see her sometime, somewhere…soon.
It reminded me of my contest warpath. I always forwarded thank you notes when I could. When the contests were mostly paper based, I wrote paper notes and mailed them. I’m surprised how few thank yous I’ve received for judging. Someone had told me it was good etiquette to thank judges and that stuck with me.
Sure, sometimes I get the terse “Thank you for judging. Your comments were interesting.” But that’s fine too.
In any case, I’ve actually had past judges seek me out after Butterfly Swords finaled to ask if this was me and to congratulate me. If nothing else, it’s a way to connect. This really is such a small, small world in this business.
When you’re running a marathon, random people will cheer you on by saying things like “Looking good” and “See you at the finish line.” You know they’re just trying to be nice, but it actually helps. Whenever I got a contest entry back with all those lovely comments, whether they liked or disliked my writing, and they ended with “Hope to see this on the shelves” or “This needs work”, it really helped me. The harshest judges comments are a hundred times better than getting a form rejection. Because now you have somewhere to go.
<Cute image here> <– I tried to look through my stock images to post something, but then I realized I lost all that when my computer crashed.
Okay, so maybe I was tempting fate by planning to Fast Draft during the closing weeks of the MORWA Gateway Contest, between my sister’s second wedding and first, and while the day job does a little loop de loop rollercoaster style. (I’ve never written that before…how does one write that loopy thing?)
So instead of Fast Drafting, I seem to be Slow Drafting. I’m trying to take the computer crash in stride, but maybe I am in mourning a little. I still write everyday because it’s sort of a mantra for me. If I don’t write everyday, I don’t get to whine about writing woes.
There’s only one ray of light in this whole ordeal of rewriting Book #1. Yesterday I encountered an old bit of writing. I managed to glance over it before I deleted the whole darn block so I could pretend it never existed. You learn a lot in three years! Dialogue tags, balance of narrative and just plain old subtlety. No wonder this book never went anywhere.
I’ve decided that after this chapter, the old book is gone. There were some scenes I wanted to resurrect so I’d open the old manuscript for reference. Even copy small parts, but maybe that’s what’s slowing me down. Maybe I should burn it in effigy? Hmmm…somehow that idea appeals. That’ll have hubby calling the funny farm.
I suppose that’s how magical rituals start. We make up all this voo doo in our heads to try to shape things that seem impossible — like being able to write more pages a day.
I’m still in mourning over my laptop, but I’m writing on through the pain while the laptop is being sent to headquarters for recovery. Fingers crossed!
This is week is the final week of the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood’s Golden Heart® launch. Come by and comment this week to be entered in the daily critique and prize giveaways as well as be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing, which is a critique of the full GH entry: Partial manuscript and synopsis up to 55 pages combined! http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/rss
Also I’m blogging Monday on Unusual Historicals about Research. I chose to do mine on the research that it took to create my alternative history world. I call it “Inspired by True Events.” Come on by if you’re interested in the “East meets West” possibilities during medieval times. http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com
There’s an expression that your eyes are bigger than your stomach. I think that fits my writing goal for my current Fast Draft madness. Lesson to self – don’t start Fast Drafting when you have two chapter meetings that week. And then I’m coordinating our Gateway to the Best writing contest for my chapter and the judging deadline is this week. ergh!! argh!!
Then the day job….the cursed day job! Okay excuses, excuses. Needless to say, lots of time/pages to make up for.
The good thing is my mind is starting to churn about the book. So even if the page count isn’t where I want it, the most important part of Fast Draft is kicking in. That’s the part when you start thinking of the characters and the plot all the time so when it’s time to write, you just do it.
I read part of the opening to Across the Silk Road last night at CORE. The comments were good, the feedback was very useful. Now I have to shelve it away until I can get another 200 pages done. I hope this means that I’m on the right track, but even if it’s the wrong track, trains already left the station. Can’t get off now. Fix it in rewrites, right?
A la David Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks — I hear that a lot of writers write to thematic music to get them into the mood. I’m totally the opposite. Just like with work, I need something to disrupt my thought patterns. Back in the day, it was NIN. Nowadays it’s pop music.Totally the opposite feel of what I’m writing.
I download something that’s already being played on the radio incessantly and play it on REPEAT. That’s the only thing that seems to work. The part of my brain that wants to do or think about anything but writing gets shut off by the radio ga-ga and the addictive beat just sinks into my bones.
What’s playing on repeat now? Akon’s – Right Now (Na Na Na). I swear I’ve listened to it about 50 times.
I was going to blog a little about how writing is perhaps is supposed to be this hard (A thinly veiled rant), but instead my uncle sent me this picture from Little Sis’ wedding showing the stack of books wedding cake that Natalie made for her. Little Sis is the cutie in the Jane Austen-style wedding dress. Unfortunately, her husband is blocking the view. Oh well, she’s a little camera shy and it’s all about the cake anyway.
I’m still going to say — this writing thing is tough right now. Maybe I’m missing Little Sis. I’m not going to bug her in her early days of wedded bliss though this book needs her desperately!
But maybe it should be this tough. Maybe you should never be quite confident in the book you’re writing. I don’t know if I can write these characters. I don’t know if I’m making them more complicated than they have to be! But perhaps that’s the exact level of paranoia you need to keep writing?
I have a Write-In today and I hope to bang out another scene. Sometimes the words flow and it’s euphoric. Right now, it’s just work.
In case you’re wondering, some books in the stack:
Wonder Boys – the book that Little Sis’ hubby was reading when she first came up to speak to him
Oliver Twist – An orange-striped book in homage to Oliver (aka Ollie cat), their tabby beast
I have to find out what the other titles were. The groom’s cake was a bunch of cupcakes with pirate flags. Very cute.
I was walking from the gym yesterday and that cool, crisp wind hit me. I think of it as a Halloween wind. The hometown I came from was named “The Valley of the Winds” by its native American settlers so I remember the Halloween wind being a lot stronger growing up. I also came from a place where the leaves didn’t really change so it’s this shift in the air that signals autumn for me.
I think I get this sense of calm and new beginnings from the pattern of the school year. In college, fall meant that summer was over and I was starting a new set of classes. When I was a teacher, the fall became a huge milestone because that’s when I would have a whole new set of students. By October, I would know all their names and the ball would really start rolling.
I realize I’ve kept the same rhythm. The months from September through November are when I’ve done the bulk of my writing. The rest of the year is spent polishing and querying and contesting, but the fall will usually yield a complete rough draft. And I’ve never done NaNoWriMo either. I’m a bigger fan of the two week Fast Draft process. After a two week intensive Fast Draft, I can usually keep myself going to draft a book in two or three months.
Maybe I’ll try to Fast Draft mid-October. In the meantime, I’m just trying to find my stride again on this darn first/fourth book.
If I ever need to write two or three books a year, I have no idea what to do.
My first blog post is up today at the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood! I reveal the secret of how I finaled in the Golden Heart® and started getting noticed by agents.
Warning: I don’t know THE secret, I just know my secret.
Please come on over and comment. I’m giving away a first chapter critique to one commenter!
I was walking from the gym yesterday and that cool, crisp wind hit me. I think of it as a Halloween wind. The hometown I came from was named “The Valley of the Winds” by its native American settlers so I remember the Halloween wind being a lot stronger growing up. I also came from a place where the leaves didn’t really change so it’s this shift in the air that signals autumn for me.
