Tuesday, May 29, 2012

May Write Motivation - Wrap Up

Well, it's the last week of May and I have to say I pretty much accomplished everything I wanted to do this month. My goals were to finish the WIP I started, do revisions on a previous novel, and continue querying. I think I knocked goals one and two out of the park. I finished my WIP and got a couple rounds of edits in, and of course there was the intense manuscript overhaul I talked about in my previous post. Because of goals one and two I didn't really do any querying, but I am planning to get to that this week. I also managed to write a synopsis for my re-hauled manuscript, and that certainly is an accomplishment because I despite writing synopses.

So being that I was going so intensely at the beginning of the month I've been taking it easy the past couple weeks and doing non writing related things. I've picked up a paintbrush for the first time in a long, long time and am working on three different paintings. Art and writing have always been a switch off for me, I never really do them both at the same time because of how focused I have to be on them, so I guess I'm slipping into art mode now. But I can't leave the writing totally behind, no matter how much work I do, whenever I'm not doing something writing related I don't feel productive. But I think going into June I'll be going at an easier pace.

Speaking of June, next week is BEA and I'm super excited because I'll be going for the first time! Totally looking forward to it, and I'll definitely re-cap my experience on the blog.

Hope everyone had a great write motivation month!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Write Motivation - Week 3 check in

I feel like I've finally come up for air! Last week I was submerged in intense book editing, and I'll be honest, it drove me nuts. You always love your book and your characters, but after reading your novel back to back about four times in a row, you're bound to get a little sick of it right? But I'm happy with the end product because I think I made the novel a lot better. Even though by the end of the week my eyes had glazed over and I now feel like I can recite the novel by heart.

Whenever I finish a novel I always do a few rounds of edits and polish it up real nice, then I leave it alone so I can clear my head from it, then come back and edit some more. And I did all that and felt pretty confident about it, I had even moved on and written another book, then I won an agent judged contest and the prize was a full manuscript request. Of course I was happy, I've had partial requests before but never a full, and this was the first time I've won a contest...but then the panic set in. No matter how much I edit a novel, every time I get a request from an agent I always do another read through, at least of the amount of pages the agent wants, just to make sure everything looks good. So I did that, but now I felt a lot more pressure than I felt before. All of a sudden I started doubting the book, thinking it wasn't *enough* in this way and that way, and it was just self doubt all over the place. What proceeded was a total manuscript re-haul. I edited out a lot of things, added two scenes, and of course when scenes are added you have to make sure the rest of the story is in shape to accept the added scenes. I was up most nights until 3 or 4 working on it, and towards the end of the week I thought I was almost done...then I noticed a plot hole.

I literally sat back and started at the document and wondered HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS? It wasn't a minor plot hole either, it was something that directly affected the main plot of the novel in a huge way, and I suddenly realized that it made no sense whatsoever and nothing I did would make it make sense. After freaking out about it for about five minutes, I started to think about how to fix it, and eventually realized that an entire scene of over 2000 words would have to be erased, and the novel restructured to forget it existed. What's interesting is in the back of my mind I had kind of wanted to get rid of that scene so other scenes could transition quicker, so I wasn't sad to see it go, but I was still pretty surprised that I'd missed the big issue it caused. But the novel lost nothing from losing the scene and ended up being better, which meant it never had to be there in the first place.

So after that was taken care of and more read throughs and edits were done, I finally felt like the novel was in tip top shape. Even if nothing comes of this full request I'm happy that I was able to feel the pressure enough to make the novel so much better. And now I have another book to get back to editing. Thought I'd want to take a break after last week, but I guess not!

I know I've dropped the ball on cheering on my write motivation peeps, so *cheers* to everyone hitting their goals!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Blog Me MAYbe - May I share something funny?


So on Fridays for Sara McClung's Blog Me MAYbe blogfest, we're supposed to share something funny, so here's what I've got today. I was given a lovely magnetic haiku set by my cousin some time ago, and below are examples of some of the poems my friends have put together as they've come and gone. Needless to say, none of my friends should quit their day jobs to write poetry, but I do find these quite amusing, which I know was the point of their nonsensical endeavors. Enjoy =)


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Write Motivation - Week 1 Check In

(If you're looking for my Writers's Voice Entry, its here.)

So one of my writing goals for this month was to finish the rough draft of my WIP, which I started on April 29th, so I started just in time to hop on board for write motivation for May. Last night I finished the first draft, and although I love being deep in the writing process, I also love when it's finished and I know I have something from start to end. Being a fast drafter is great, but my brain is of course going "lol look at this mess you have to fix." Ah editing. I think for now I'll just do a first read through, which is actually my favorite part of the editing process since it's the first time I'm reading the novel from start to finish and I don't do more than light editing. After that I'll put it aside so I can concentrate on my other write motivation goals this month, which includes sending out more queries for the novel I currently have on submission, and doing more editing on other projects. In total I have four novels on my hands to work with, one that's on submission and three in the editing phase, so I have my hands full. I actually didn't want to write another book until I had worked through the three I had, but you can't exactly tell your brain 'no' when it's trying to get a story outta you. At least I'll be busy, and hopefully I'll stay motivated. There are some days when you just don't want to touch the keyboard you know?

So that's about where I'm at this first week into write motivation for May. I've been enjoying all the cheers and encouragement from everyone else; it's great to be part of a supportive writing community. Hope you all are hitting your goals!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Writer's Voice Contest Entry

Title: Black Widow Witch
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
88,000 words

Query:

Malachi Erami is a witch who has befallen a Black Widow curse; to savagely butcher any man she falls in love with. All because she had a steamy affair with the witch queen's favorite lover, Knave. Now living among humans in exile from the witches' realm, Malachi runs a bar making magic enhanced drinks, but since her curse labels her as high risk, she's also closely monitored. Julian Vira is her latest babysitter, but he's also the first man since Knave that Malachi feels attracted to. Good looking and non-judgmental of the horrible curse she carries? Yeah, he's hard to resist.

While trying to suppress her feelings for Julian, Malachi notices her friends, fellow cursed witches, are getting arrested for murder. The punishment is execution by the queen, since the queen forbids killing humans. Convinced her friends are being framed, Malachi works with Julian to figure things out, which draws them closer together and threatens to activate Malachi's curse.

When the murder set ups reveal a plot to assassinate the queen, which would free every cursed witch, the queen recruits Malachi to stop it, promising to lift her curse and reunite her with Knave in return. Fail and Knave is dead. With her feelings endangering Julian's life, and no guarantee the assassination attempt would succeed, Malachi's only choice could be helping a viciously sadistic queen who might not even keep her promise to break Malachi's curse.

First 250:

Today was the anniversary of the worst day of my life, and I was trying to forget about it by drinking vast amounts of alcohol, as one was supposed to do. The fact that I owned a bar greatly helped with that endeavor. I was deliciously buzzed, and that was an accomplishment since witches weren't easily susceptible to alcohol. Even so, the significance of this day still gnawed at me.

Currently I was behind the bar making a show of mixing drinks by enhancing each one with magic depending on what the customer asked for. Wanted extra stamina to take home to your girlfriend? Sure! Wanted something a little hallucinogenic and trippy?  No problem! Somewhere in the room I could hear riotous laughter, and above that the voice eliciting that laughter. Xiune was having a good night for a change and wasn't holed up in my office. Though considering she was just a head inside an acrylic box, it was understandable that sometimes all she wanted to do was hide.

"Malachi, darling!" Xiune called. "Seven brave and handsome young men have requested the Challenge!"

"They may be handsome, but are they really brave?" I said, smiling slyly. I loved administering the Challenge.

"It's time for the Seven Deadly Sins Challenge!" I announced, filling up seven shot glasses. "Which sin will it be and what will its victim do?" People shouted all manner of crude guesses while I sent tendrils of purple magic, the same color as my eyes, into the shot glasses.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Blog Me Maybe Tuesday - About Me

I signed up for Sara McClung's Blog me Maybe blogfest where the point is to motivate us to blog and share more about ourselves and our writing. Tuesdays are for sharing about yourself, and I decided to be a copy cat and use an A to Z survey E.L.Schneider used since it seems like a cool and easy way to talk about myself.

A is for age: 25
B is for breakfast today: My usual breakfast: yogurt w/granola
C is for currently craving: Breakfast! Since I haven't had it yet
D is for dinner tonight: I cooked baked chicken, rice, red beans, roasted potatoes, and baked pasta so dinner will be yum.
E is for favorite type of exercise: I like step aerobics and kickboxing but also resistance training
F is for an irrational fear:Things coming at my eye (an episode of Buffy did this to me)
G is for gross food: Pumpkin, spinach, eggplant....dislike 'em all
H is for hometown: Trinidad & Tobago (specifically Trinidad)
I is for something important: Being happy
J is for current favorite jam: Guava
K is for kids: Someday
L is for current location: NYC
M is for the most recent way you spent money: On snacks for the movies last night
N is for something you need: To become a published author =)
O is for occupation: Currently in between jobs so I'm gonna say full time writer
P is for pet peeve: When people walk around my house with their shoes on, especially if I've just mopped, but I don't like it in general. I have a shoes at the door kinda policy.
Q is for a quote: The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. –Robert Cushing
R is for random fact about you: I don't like it when the house is dead quiet, when I come home I usually put the tv or a fan to have some noise around.
S is for favorite healthy snack: Fruits
T is for favorite treat:  My enormous sweet tooth will say....anything in the realm of cake, pastries, and desserts in general.
U is for something that makes you unique: The fact that I'm me? Lol okay that's a cop out answer...um...I can speak Japanese conversationally, which a lot of people can do yes, but I'll narrow it down and say I'm the only one in my family who can, so I'm unique with it there lol
V is for favorite vegetable: I eat veggies but I don't love them enough to have a favorite
W is for today’s workout:Most likely kickboxing
X is for X-rays you’ve had: My spine, my teeth
Y is for yesterday’s highlight: Going to the movies
Z is for your time zone: Eastern