The Never-Ending Children's Book Saga

I wasn't planning on writing a book this summer, I really wasn't. But I am. The book in question is the sequel to the first children's book I wrote, even though I haven't had that published or spoken to an agent about it.

It all started when I began editing _Faeriemerica_ for its fourth draft. Halfway through the edits, I came up with the brilliant idea to see if my professor could read it. He said he would. In one of the establishing emails, I mentioned that I'd heard agents don't like books that end on cliffhangers. He wrote back telling me that they don't mind--and they don't mind sequels, either--as long as there's a plan for the sequels.

So I started outlining the second book, and I liked the outline so much that I started writing the book. As of right now, I've finished chapter 1, and I plan on writing chapter 2 tonight.

I'm not going to put myself through a lot of stress trying to finish it before the summer is over. I'm just going to write it until I can't write it, then I'll put it down. Summer is break time, after all. See, that right there is a horrible philosophy. I should be slaving every day to try to make it the best book I can, but my laziness has been winning so far this summer.

We'll see what happens.

Poetry and Other Things

I'm in this poetry class this semester. I've never taken a poetry class before and it's pretty fun. My goal was to write one poem per day, so I'd have a wide variety to choose from when it came to submitting my pieces. I haven't been as disciplined with that one as I would like (I think I got to a month and a half before my first huge break from poems), but I'm only a couple days behind. When the semester began, I told myself that I was only going to write poetry this semester, and prose would have to wait until the summer. That didn't happen. The idea behind writing one poem per day, and only writing poetry, I guess, was to make myself better--if I couldn't be a great poet, I could at least not be a shitty poet. I know now that I'm not a shitty poet, but the question becomes, how good do I want to get?

I guess that same question could be applied to writing in general. How good do I want to get? After two years in school and a long time of knowing the basics before that, I'm fairly technically accomplished. I can get better, I know--anyone can, but I'm learning that writing isn't about technicality; it's about having something to say. If what I have to say doesn't matter, I should just write genre fiction and never worry about anything else. Except that won't satisfy me. I have an inherent need for purpose, and writing genre fiction might be fun, but it doesn't fulfill that. My writing from now on, I think, is going to have to start developing themes, and I'm going to have to start thinking deeply on subjects in a way I'm not used to.

Another question that begs to be answered is, what do I want to do with my writing? Jeez, if I knew that, I wouldn't still be in school.

Wow

Has it been this long? Almost a year, really? I guess I've been too busy or unwilling to keep up with this blog, even though I still like it. (We're still super good friends, I promise.)

So what have you been up to?

What have I been up to?

Good question, Drew. Where to begin?

In July I finished my second novel. I haven't written one since then, but I have had ideas for editing the first and making it better. After I edit the first I'll edit the second. Maybe those will take up my summer break. I don't plan on writing another novel this year; I have to make the ones I've written amazing first. There's a difference between just slopping paint around a room and actually painting the damn thing. I want to be a writer, not just someone who slaps words on a page.

In August I did nothing of note.

In September I competed in the International 3-Day Novel Contest. I did finish a book, a novella, but it didn't win. The contest was fun and nerve-wracking, though. I don't know if I'll compete in it again, but it was definitely a good experience. I think I'll come back to the novella I wrote for the contest at some point in the future--there's a good idea behind it, but it needs more polishing, maybe also more character and plot developments.

In October I wrote stories for school. I wrote two stories for my creative writing class, and they both turned out pretty good, although the one I submitted to Jenny (the new literary magazine emanating from Youngstown) wasn't accepted. I also wrote several good journal pieces for that class, which I look forward to working on again, once I get some time.

In November I kept up the class work and got ready for my brother's and my trip to Ireland.

December: Christmas Break, Ireland, amazingness.

January: Decided that I've wasted over three years in the past six, and that's unacceptable. My New Year's Resolution is to not waste my life anymore, specifically by trying to do something to further my goals every month. If I do something worthwhile every month, how can that month be wasted? So since I'm trying to be a writer and all, all of these monthly goals are writing related. In January I submitted a short story to The Three Rivers Review, and even though it was rejected, I have a lot of confidence in the story itself.

In February I submitted some of my poems to Jenny, and I haven't gotten a word back from them yet. I also took the Jeopardy test, and am hoping they will get a hold of me this year. I would love to get on Jeopardy. I would show no mercy. (Also, did I mention that this semester I'm taking a poetry class?)

In March I submitted 12 poems for contention in the Robert and Virginia Hare Awards. I just found out that I won the award for poetry! Also, although I didn't even know I was in the running, I won a scholarship for class work in English! So April is looking like two banquets and maybe buying a suit. Ha.

Hopefully things go in an upward spiral from here.

Done

The second novel is finished. Actually, I finished it last Sunday. I just haven't had the time (or the inclination) to post since then. Now I'm having it beta read by some of my buddies. AJ still has it. He's been reading it for a week and he says he's not finished. This might be a bad sign. After him comes my mom, who will read it and say she likes it even if it sucks, but she may still give me some good pointers. After her comes Kristi, who will say it's terrible even if it's amazing, and will give me tons of pointers. I'm hoping that another of my friends (Gena Rowe) will be able to read it, too. I think she'll give me some solid feedback. After the beta reading comes the query letter writing and the submitting, and that's my least favorite stage, but I have other projects before that happens.

First, I'm going to finish the outline for the book Tim Smiley and I conceived last year. With the advantage of a year in between me and the first mangled attempt, I think I have an idea of where it needs to go.

Second, I'm doing Vanheim's fifth draft--finally! I've only been sitting on the readthrough since last August. It's about damn time I got around to making it better. After my initial print-up yesterday, I'm on page 18. The book is a mess, but I wouldn't be starting a fifth draft unless I thought it was worth it.

I'm also hoping to get into a writing groove (I'm thinking fifteen minutes every night on one particular book) but that might not happen until I get settled into my sleeping habits. I've worked on the book Tim and I were doing a couple nights now, and it sucks, but that's what happens when you force yourself to write. The idea is to keep the creativity on tap. I probably won't use any of the stuff I'm writing now, but I'll be keeping in practice and will know where the book's going.

More next time, whenever that is.

Better Late Than Never

So, I'm not finished writing the second draft yet, but I'm damn close. I have two chapters to go, and the last few days I have been kicking this WIP's ass all over the place. I guess I've found the motivation again, which is great, because a couple days since I last wrote on here I didn't write anything at all, and sometimes it took me three or four days to write one chapter. Those were the low points. I even considered just taking a break from it for a few days. Then I woke up and realized I was being lazy, and I'm kicking ass again.

I know it's not June 4th, but at least I'm very close to finishing. I've been able to do a chapter a day the last three days. If that trend continues I'll be finished on Thursday. Hopefully I'll have a manuscript finished by this weekend!

Second Novel

I finished the second novel on Tuesday, as I believe I said I would. That's actually pretty good for me--it's not all the time that I actually keep my word about things. Of course, with my writing style (which I won't give up for anything, at least not at this time) that means i have three notebooks full of writing hardly intelligible to anyone except myself. I wish I could say I've been busy since Tuesday, diligently transcribing the written words to the computer screen, changing details, making the grammar flow better, but I haven't. Well, okay, I actually have, but not as much as I'd like.

I have about half of the book finished now, typed up on the computer, looking decent, sounding decent. I'm actually really proud of the prose style. The problem, of course, is that most of those chapters I had written up before. Since Tuesday, I've actually wrote about four chapters for the second draft. In other words, this thing is going to take a while. Fortunately all the mental heavy lifting has been done at this point. Now I just have to find the discipline to keep at it every day so I can get it done in a decent time. I'm capable of writing a chapter and a half every day. Realistically, that might turn into a chapter. Up until now, I've actually averaged about three-quarters of a chapter a day. But that's going to change! Maybe.

Let's set a goal, then. Let's set a goal of 12 days from now. One chapter per day, twelve more chapters to type up. That will put me at Friday, June 4th. If I blast that sucker out of the water, more power to me, but by no means will I go over that date. I still have way too many things planned for this summer, and this novel will not monopolize my time.

Seeing the Light at the End of the Tunnel

By which I mean, I'm almost finished with my second novel. Okay, so it's a children's novel. Big deal. Okay, so I'm not supposed to talk about works in progress. Big deal. I'm still proud of it. I'm proud I kept with it this long, and even though I'm not meeting my original deadline of one and a half weeks, I'm going to be finished with it in a couple days. Instead of ten days, it will end up being sixteen days, but it will still be finished. My new estimated time of completion is Tuesday, and as long as I stay focused, I should crush it. Then I'll get on with the hard work.

I love plotting. Plots are hobbies with me. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll start plotting a new book. Since I discovered a plotting style that I enjoy, I'm not afraid to start new projects, because I know that plotting will take maybe a week, and even an ADHD-er like me can handle a week. Plotting is like instant gratification for me. Some people watch movies, I plot novels. Anyway, what was the point of that little tangent? Oh yes! Although I like plotting, I've been finding out that in the course of writing, it's good not to stick too rigidly with the skeleton. The book grows, it takes on a life of its own, it becomes different than what I originally envisioned. And that's where the beauty of it all comes in.

Also, I've figured out that my favorite milieu is novels, not short stories. How long is it before most people figure that one out?

I'll get back soon, probably when I've finished the book, and I'll talk about some summer plans.