Living the Fictional Dream

The December table of contents for Every Day Fiction is out, and it looks to be a great December for fiction. Go check it out.

And, on the day after Christmas, you’ll be able to read my story, “Fortune Cookies.” This is actually the fifth story EDF accepted from me, but the fourth one that will be published. I like the placement, though. I can see how it has a good vibe for approaching the new year.

Also, congrats to Gay and the others that EDF is nominating for the Pushcart Prize. How awesome!

In other news, I did succeed in finishing my NaNo novel in time to be considered a 2008 winner. I have my winner’s icon and everything. Whew! Today was crazy, but I’m glad it’s finished.

Sadly, by the end, I realized that I had too much story and not enough wordage left. Of course, I know I could have gone on beyond 50K if I wanted to — and I’ll have to later — but I had to write nearly 7K today to finish and I just couldn’t fathom an additional 3K or more to finish it up. So… I summarized at the end. Some parts I wrote, but the big battle is currently merely a paragraph. Definitely something to flesh out in the eventual revisions. First, though, I’ve got to put this thing down for a while and write something else. Preferably something shorter!

Flash is looking really good right about now.

I found this blog entry by Enchantment Inc. author Shanna Swendson very interesting. It’s all about how readers have the opportunity to get their favorite mid-list novels noticed — more so than, say, a struggling TV show. I’d never really thought about it this way before, so I thought I’d share it with all of you kind folks.

In other news, I finally broke 30K on my NaNo novel (did I already mention that here? I forget). Anyway, the month is ticking away quickly now, and I have 20K to write in about 5 days, but… you know… it’s vacation. I think I can do it!

We’ll be spending Thanksgiving at my parents’ cabin (a.k.a., the land of no Internet), so my only distractions will actually be seeing the family and going to dinner at my aunt’s house and such. There should be plenty of time for writing.

In case I don’t get a chance to post again before we leave, I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving! (And if you’re not in the U.S., I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.)

I have two write-ins today — only three more write-in double-headers before Thanksgiving — and I’m going to kick this novel back into high gear. I have one short scene to write in the current chapter, and then I will start the next chapter in the next exciting phase of plot and move on from there. I have a plan, dagnabbit!

I was scrolling through my submission list the other day, and I realized how few stories I have out right now. I’ve received responses on quite a few in the last couple of months, both acceptances and rejections, but I haven’t been getting new ones out there. Too much NaNo and NaNo prep, I suppose, taking me away from the short fiction.

That will have to be my short-term December goal — write some short fiction and send it out! It will be perfect while I let my novel breathe for a few weeks. Then I can be refreshed and get back to revising it (assuming that I actually finish — that the 20Ks don’t chew up the novel and spit it out a mangled mess!).

I know everyone says that short fiction isn’t where it’s at, and it’s true that you can’t make a living from it. But I still like writing short fiction, dang it. And I think it has it’s uses. I know every time I have a story up on EDF or certain other markets that post links, my blog readership spikes. That’s gotta count for something. Plus, I mean… it’s having something published. I don’t care what or where, that is always awesome!

This weekend has not be productive for writing. Around the end of last Tuesday’s write-in, I got to this scene that was, well, boring, and it just drug on and on. I guess I should have just quit that scene and moved on, but it was the basis for a plot point later. Anyway, I got stuck in it, and when I hit my usual lag points (Wed. and Fri.) I never made up for it. We had a write-in yesterday, but I got a paltry 800 words. That is my lowest write-in score to date!

Blah… the evil 20K bug has hit. I’m at about 23K now, and well mired in it. I should be nearly at 30 by the end of this weekend, but it’s not going to happen.

However, I shall keep going. I know what happens next in the plot. I just need to get past this boring part and get to the good stuff I know is coming.

(I sure hope there’s good stuff coming!)

The NaNoing is still going well. I’ve actually been on quota or ahead for most of this week. It’s been a new and crazy feeling for me. I’m usually behind all month, and then pull it out with 7K weekends/holidays at the end of the month. It’s been fairly exciting to be ahead of the game. It sure would be nice to win one of those gift cards my writing group is awarding to the first two members to 25K.

Today I am slightly behind quota again. Wednesdays just are not conducive to writing time, what with watching kids in the church nursery. I don’t get home until way after 9 p.m. most Wednesdays, and I’m way too tired to do much more than watch TV or read. However, with today’s double-header write-ins (lunch and dinner), I think I’ll have no trouble catching back up, or at least getting close.

I’m still liking where my novel is going, but I’ve hit another rough patch. There are plot elements that I know need to happen, but we need some character development between here and there. For some reason, that has been difficult to push through. I’m not sure my characters are ringing quite true enough… But that’s what revisions are for! It’s weird, though — usually I’m all about character development and not about plot. This is a switch.

I’m also coming to terms with the fact that I don’t really write polished first drafts. I wish I did. Some people really do, which makes me jealous. I’ve critted a lot of first drafts that, while still needing a light polish, are really well put together. I have to get the whole glut of words down on the page, work the story down that way. When I’m in the midst of the flush of muse, I can’t stop to worry about if I used the word “looked” when I could have used something more interesting like “glared” or “glanced,” if I told instead of showed, etc. If I stop to do all that, I’ll never finish the story. The stories I send to my writing group are usually at least the second draft, if not the third.

But, all writers are different, and I do like my finished product — it’s starting to make sense to me why I’ve not yet completed a novel revision, though. With such a lengthy revision process, it’s so much more satisfying to stick to the short stories. I can actually get them finished in a timely fashion.

My hope is, though, that this novel won’t require a total rewrite like my other two do. If the plot works and all it needs is good smoothing out, maybe actually finishing novel revisions is something I can do this time!

While at the cabin this weekend, I typed my fingers to the bone and ended up on quota for NaNo for the first time this month. This is a first, actually — I’m the queen of dragging behind all month and then pulling off a miracle on Thanksgiving weekend. However, I have a feeling I’m going to lose that status today unless I force myself to sit down and write another 1200 words. I wrote some in the car on the way back, but I hit one of those moments where I’m not sure what should happen next, and it caused a bit of a lag.

I’m not worried, though. NaNo is what it is — it’s all about the end of the month, not the daily word count (in regards to winning). In the end, though, it’s the finished product that counts the most.

Checked my email when we got back this afternoon and found two more rejection letters. I don’t think I’m ever going to make it onto one of those fiction podcasts. I’ve been sending them reprints, but none have stuck so far. However, you never know, so I will keep trying.

Now, I have to run. My dog is waiting for me to pick her up from her hair cut. I can’t wait to see her with those little bows in her ears. She always gets them out right away, but they are so cute while they are there. Sometimes, when she has them on, she gives me this expression that says, “Must you?” It’s the same expression she gives me when I make her wear a Christmas hat for our annual Christmas card photo.

After the write-in tonight (where I finally broke 8,000 words, yeah!), I opened up my email account to find an acceptance letter. What a nice thing to hear in the midst of all this NaNo-ing. I’m at that point in my novel where I hate it, so a validation of my writing skills is very refreshing.

Every Day Fiction is going to publish my story, “The Care and Feeding of Your Sleeping Knight.” Of course, y’all will be the first ones to know when the publication date is set. I wonder if it will appear in December, or if I will have to wait until 2009.

Hmm… I only have one story left in the EDF submission queue. I might have to remedy that. Though… I don’t know when I’ll have the time with all this novelling. Writing for length is such a different mindset than writing for writing flash.

And, speaking of NaNo (as always these days), I’d better go… I might be able to get a few hundred more words before bedtime!

Sorry if I’ve been neglecting the blog lately — one of the hazards of NaNo, I fear. My novel is progressing OK so far… I’m in that early stage of semi-hating it, but that’s not the story’s fault. The plot hasn’t actually fallen apart or anything, so I think we’re still good. I’m just about about 6K, so under quota, but I have two write-ins today, and I’m looking forward to a day off tomorrow and then a weekend at the cabin (no Internet!), so much progress should be made. (And, if the plot is going to fall apart, well, I should know by the end of the weekend!)

Work is gearing up again. Only two projects left for the year, both that should be more update than writing new stuff. But we’ll see. With the holidays coming, I have to get into high gear on those or they won’t be out by year-end.

I proofed the .pdf pages for my story in the EDF anthology today. I always love doing that — there is something about looking over proof pages that makes a publication so real!

EDF sister site, Every Day Poets, has been interesting since it’s 11/1 launch. I’ve been checking in on the poems fairly regularly. Some I’ve really liked (”School Uniform”!), and some, not as much. But that’s true of any publication. Poetry is always a little harder for me to wrap my prose-bound mind around, but sometimes a poem will just click.

All right… enough babbling for today. I have work to do, and then a write-in to prep for.

Happy writing, everyone!

It’s the second day of NaNo, and I’m moving forward slowly but surely. I’m just shy of 3,000 words right now, but I’m not worried. I always end up a little behind schedule at the beginning, but pick it up by the end. (In the years that I actually finished, anyway.) It’s easier to write at that frantic pace the closer I get to the end of the plot.

I have the basic idea of my novel’s plot in mind, but while writing I still have to fill in the small stuff. I could also really use a subplot. Right now, the main plot is about my heroine, but I’m thinking that I need at least a subplot for the male lead, too. Preferably something that would tie into her plot, at least thematically. And I need to figure out the specific ins and outs of the main plot — whodunnit and that sort of thing. Hopefully, it will all come together.

The thing about NaNo is that it’s quantity over quality. You rush to get the words on the page and the plot out there, without worrying as much about word choice, pretty sentences, and showing/not telling. It helps you to get around the internal editor (who can be stifling at times) and get to writing.

The problem is, it needs so much revision when you’re done. My goal this time is that I don’t want to have to rewrite the novel when I’m done. Revise, yes… but I’d like it to be plotted out enough that it doesn’t have to be a full-on rewrite to have it in a finished state. I think that’s been my downfall on my other two novels-in-progress.

The first one, I wrote when I was in high school. I still love it, and I’ve actually got all sorts of grand plans and schemes and dreams about how to fix it. My style has improved so much from those high school days. Back then, I was way too easy on my characters and didn’t understand craft like I do now. I’m sure in 10 years, I’ll think the same thing about what I’m writing today, but there you have it. Novel 1 (well, really it was novel 2, but the first one… no saving that sucker… it was just practice, notable only in that I actually wrote the whole thing) needs a total rewrite to fix the plot problems (which were extensive) and to improve the writing.

Novel 2 (my 2006 NaNo novel — the 2005 one was the one I never actually finished, even though I hit the 50,000 words) is the one that I realized halfway through should have been written in the first person. It was too late the change during NaNo, so that one requires a total rewrite, as well. Somehow, that one I’m just not as excited about. I like the concept, but getting back into it has proven difficult.

So, with this NaNo novel (assuming I finish it) I want to not need that total rewrite. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it, but maybe, if I can, I’ll have some revisions that are less mind-blowing than the ones for my previous novels. Perhaps, then, I would be more apt to actually get the novel through the revision process, which is where my previous novels have all bogged down.

November is here, and with it, National Novel Writing Month. I started my NaNo novel yesterday, and wrote 1,900 words. Just a bit ahead of quota. Of course, I have to write another 1,667 every day if I’m going to stay on quota. Just 29 days to go.

Good luck all you other WriMos out there!