Can't Get There From Here

My husband has been a painter for over forty years. Even when he still was a teacher, he painted in the summer and on the weekends. When he was younger and no one had GPS, vacationers would often stop and ask the painters how to get to Hershey Park. Though usually only a few miles from the park, my husband and friends would often joke with the lost travelers that they couldn't get there from where they were. They should go home and start over.

Sometimes I feel that way when I'm writing a first draft. Often I feel that manuscript is so terrible that it can never become a publishable novel. The characters are underdeveloped. There are holes in my plot or the science doesn't make sense. There's no tension in my romance novels. All these doubts assail me when I work on a first draft. There seems no way to fix it. It just can't get to publication from where it is and I need to start over or perhaps even forget the entire story.

That's why I always set it aside for a few weeks before I try to fix it. Once I get back into it, I find that many parts of it are not so bad after all. And the parts that aren't working can be fixed. Sometimes I need to move a part of the plot or a character's reactions in a different direction. Maybe I need to but part of it away and add something more in another section. Usually I can get it to where I want it to be.

So like those lost tourists, I can get my writing where I want it to go. I made need to change the route a little to make up for some wrong turns. I might even need to stop and ask for some advice from my critique partners to get back on track to my destination. Whenever I feel discouraged by a first draft, I remind myself of all the other times I felt the same way. I can get there from where I am.

Do you like your first drafts or do they require a lot of work? How soon do you dive into editing after you finish a first draft? Do you remember when you had to ask others for directions?

Writing Process

I'm busy on the fourth book of my epic fantasy series, The Futhark Chronicles. The Heir of Futhark will wrap up the series. Someday I might revisit the world I've created there with a series about the next generation of characters, but I have to finish this book long before that can happen. Before I talk about writing, I wanted to let you know I'll be a guest at The Writing Nut this week. So hop over there now and meet Nutschell, a very special generous person.

Writers develop their own unique ways to go about writing a book. I generally write a really rough first draft, hopefully rather quickly. Quickly for me currently is five to six months. Then I print it out and read it, making huge changes, pulling and adding scenes, writing all over it in red and blue pen until there's more colored ink than there is black. After that, I use that rough draft as an outline to write the book I intend to send to my beta readers. That's where I am right now with Heir of Futhark.

Using the outline, I can write a couple of thousand words a day. Not every sentence gets changed so some chapters go pretty quickly. When I have to add or do a lot of clean up on scenes, it slows me down. Sometimes a single sentence slows me down. I want to keep it because it says something important, but it just isn't saying it quite right.

Here's a rule I use during this rewrite. If I have to read a sentence twice to know for sure what it means, I have to change it. I don't want my reader to have to pause to understand what I meant to convey. I want the reader caught up in the story, not taken out by my confusing prose or poor sentence construction. I'm lucky in that my beta reader, Gina, is excellent at catching things that might be a bit foggy.

I'm sure that as a reader, we've all encountered a complicated part in a book that we have to slow down and reread. Perhaps a part where you're not sure which character is speaking or which head you're inside of.

Do you catch this in your own writing? Do you notice it when you're reading? Do you know Nutschell?

If You Want Easy...

If you want easy, play Wheel of Fortune. If you want challenge, play Jeopardy.  Not every night, but many evenings, three or four members of our family sit down and watch Jeopardy on TV. My daughter cleans up on the art categories thanks to her AP art history class. My husband is a retired history teacher and has an unfair advantage. Most of the family has some sports knowledge and I specialize in science and health issues. It's fun and competitive, but it's not easy. None of us would beat any of the champions on our own, but we do pretty good as a team.

The challenge of the game is what makes it fun. Having played sports through most of my youth and young adulthood, the contests I remember are the ones where we had to work for victory. Getting to the top of a mountain is more rewarding than climbing the hill in my backyard.

This is my monthly pep talk to myself.  Being a successful writer will be that much more fulfilling for the struggle I've endured to get there.  It's not easy to write a novel.  It's hard work to edit and edit and edit it.  It's time consuming to promote and build a platform.  For me, coming up with stories and plots is the only easy part of the process I find easy. The rest is work, hard work.  But hopefully the end product makes it worthwhile.

What part of the writing process is easy for you? Do enjoy the challenge of the business or does it overwhelm you at times?

Every Day Writer?

Usually when I visit the bookstore I look at the writing magazines and skim a few articles. Usually I'm looking for ideas for marketing and promotion but often I stumble on pieces that inspire ideas for my blog posts. A few days ago I read a short article with two authors debating the pros and cons of writing everyday.


Many experts recommend writing every day. They contend you must develop the habit and treat writing like a job you must work at each day. If you combine inspiration and habit together, chances are you're going to write a lot of words each day.

The other opinion in the article I read believes in taking a day off per week. Instead of setting aside some time every day for writing, set a word count goal and get it done. Taking a day off recharges the drive and enthusiasm to write.

We all develop our own writing habits including frequency and duration of time at the keyboard. Like many people I tend to fall somewhere in between the two extremes of the above options. I don't always write new stuff every day, but I almost always work on something having to do with my career. I visit blogs, edit some work and do other general promotion things. Unless it's a special day like my recent anniversary a day seldom goes by when I don't turn on my computer.

Nearly every interview I read about really successful authors quotes them as saying they write every day. They highly recommend it.

What do you do? Write every day? Set goals and then take time off when you reach the goal? Do you feel guilty if you miss days writing?

P: Plotters versus Pantsters

If you've talked to other writers you've probably heard from fans of the plotting method or creating a novel and proponents of the pantsters method. 

Plotters outline their story, chapter by chapter and scene by scene.  When they sit down to write, they have a fully designed path to follow from beginning to end.  It's not that they don't let their story meander off that pathway when it decides to take a turn but they plot for a purpose.  To get their story from point A to the predetermined point B.

Pantsters on the other hand usually have a general plan, a big picture so to speak, before they start.  Then they sit down at the keyboard and start typing away.  They fill in all those pesky details as they go.  Often people who write by the seat of their pants will use a 'go-edit, go-edit, go-edit' method where they write a bit and then go back and do some fix up before going forward.

I'm a bit of a combination, light plotting and then filling in most of it as I go.  Talk to a gathering of authors and you'll find both types of writers and receive pros and cons of each.  Many will be a bit of both like me.  How about you?  Plotter or pantsters? Why do you think one method is better than the other?

Readers Today, Writers Tomorrow

I spent a wonderful evening a few days ago with a group of high school students.  They were all members of a high school chapter of the National English Honor Society.  They invited me to speak about my writing process and the path I took to publication. I doubt any speaker ever had a more polite and attentive audience.

Every gaze was on me the entire time as if every word I said had meaning and each phrase I spoke was inspirational.  It was a real feel-good time.  They smiled and nodded in agreement when I referenced certain novels.  They laughed when I gave examples of working with different editors and my frustrations with one of them.

They raised their eyebrows in disbelief when I explained how long it might be from submission to actual acceptance and publication of a manuscript.  They shook their heads in amazement when I explained reserves against returns and the tiny amounts of money most writers manage to earn on their hours, days and years of work. 

They asked intelligent questions as did their instructors. The entire incident made me wonder if I would have started writing earlier if I had had the opportunity to meet a real author when I was young and deciding on a career choice in high school.  I read endlessly my entire life but when I was a teenager, the authors of my favorite books were distant shadows, not even real people.  Never once did I consider how much work they did for those wonderful novels to end up in my hands.  

I've already been asked by another English teacher to do a guest spot in her classroom about the editing process.  Will I inspire one or more of them to give this wonderful, roller coaster career a try?  Did speaking to them advance my career in any way? Maybe a few of them will buy my book but mostly I received only the pleasant jolt of being appreciated. 

Have you given talks about writing to young people?  Do you know if your local schools have programs like the one I mentioned?  Have you reached out to young readers and writers in some way?

My Favorite Things

Did you think I was going to break into song?  I'm not Julie Andrews.  I have a book due to come out at the beginning of the summer and my publisher sent Tiger's Mate to me for the final read through.  I love this part of the process.  It's one of my favorite parts of the writing process. 

Why? I think it's because I know it's too late to make any big changes. All the major problems have been fixed and I'm mostly looking for spelling and grammatical mistakes.  The plot holes have been filled, loose ends tied up and character missteps ironed out.

I'll probably work on this every free moment for the next seven days and send it back over the weekend.  Then I'll get back to my current WIP which happens to be the next book in this fantasy romance series.  I love creating a new book.  It's one of my favorite things in the writing process.

I also enjoy the second draft when I search out all those passive verbs, repetitive phrases and pet words which for me is usually, 'just.'  I usually have a list of things I need to fix in the plot I refer to when I work on the second draft.  It takes me about a third of the time to do a second draft compared to the first draft.  Maybe that's why it's one of my favorite parts of my writing process.

You probably figured out where this is going.  With the exception of writing a synopsis, I enjoy every part of writing a novel.  Each draft, first, second, final and even the polishing in between, have attractions.  I didn't used to like editing.  I just wanted to write new stuff all the time.  But since I published my first book, I enjoy fine-tuning a manuscript into a novel someone might want to buy and read. 

So what is your favorite part of the writing process?  Which part do you find the most challenging?  Name a few of your favorite things.

How "Drafty" Do You Write?

Usually I don't get to my blog or have a chance to visit my friends' blogs until later in the day.  But I have a weekday off from work for a change.  If you're not a Pennsylvanian you might not realize most of the state closes schools on the first day of deer season.  If we didn't we wouldn't have half our students and teachers in school.
This weekend I finally finished the short story I'm writing as promotion for the upcoming release of the second book in The Futhark Chronicles, Beyond the Gate.  Tamarin's Story will be available shortly in a number of locations but not yet. 
When I say I finished the short story I meant I completed the first draft.  Writing a first draft for me is like a train rolling downhill.  It goes really fast but it's kind of scary and out of control.  It gets to its destination quickly but it's not really graceful or pretty.  I have a friend who writes first drafts I think are nearly ready for submission they're so close to perfect. Not mine.  I write it as fast as I can knowing clean up comes later. First though I put it aside and let it simmer.  My mind may turn to it but I don't look at it for a few days.
A few days ago I posted about slashing scenes and before that I wrote about 'weak words.'  The second draft is all about that.  After letting it alone for a few days, I'll look at my short story or novel with fresh eyes.  I'll read completely through it, making notes.  I'll check for flow between scenes, repetition, POV problems, and slash some scenes.  If it's a novel I might completely remove a subplot or a secondary character to make the story flow better and keep the writing tighter. 
This is the time to read dialogue out loud.  Is it stiff? Does it even make sense? Do I need it all?  Do I need all the dialogue tags?
I'll try to do away with those adverbs and use stronger nouns.  Then I have check for my 'Pennsylvania Dutch.'  If you lived in central PA you would know what I'm talking about.  I don't speak 'Dutch' but it does sneak into my writing a little bit.  'PA Dutch' is a way of speaking that puts the words in an awkward arrangement.  Here's an example of one of my morning chores. 
"After the trash man came I brought into the garage the empty cans."
Looks really weird when you see it written.  Usually I don't write anything as blatant at the above but I still have to search for word arrangement problems. 

Hopefully during this stage I will catch inconsistencies with character appearances, timing problems, and characters speaking out of voice.  If the first draft is really rough, I entirely retype the second one. Then it's ready for submission.

Before publication, my editor will return it at least once with her comments for edits and we'll work those out with both of us compromising( usually it's me) until it's as ready as we can make it.

Galleys will come back to me a few months before the actual book is released.  Usually they have a very tight time schedule of only days.  I love reading galleys.  I found only four typos in the galleys for Beyond the Gate.  The editors and readers did a great job.

So how many drafts do you do before submission?  How many times does your editor ask for changes? If you're self-published, do you have readers who help you with edits and changes?

My Process

All writers have their own process that carries them from idea to finished manuscript. I've read many blogs and sat through conference workshops about plotting or writing on the fly(pantsters) and I think I don't fit into either category. I used to write an outline but found I seldom followed it beyond the first two or three chapters. Now I guess I'm mostly a pantster. I roll the idea for a book around in my head for a while, usually coming up with the conflict and the resolution before I even figure out my characters. Then when I have that figured out, I sit down with my book bible.
My book bible is an inexpensive journal that I buy at a discount store. I usually have a few blank ones on hand. If a book is part of a series or set in the same world as another book, it goes in the same bible as the previous book. That book will have facts about the fantasy world, things like money, climate, politics, religious beliefs and even a map. It can be very important to keep east and west straight as well as keeping perspective on distances and other geographic items.
In the bible, I'll give each of my main characters their own page and jot down physical details as well as some emotional and historical things of interest. Then I'm use another few pages for secondary characters and antagonists. If the world is magic, I might use a page to describe those elements so I don't confuse them with a previous book. The bible stays beside my keyboard whenever I'm working on that book for reference and in case I need to add something.
Now I'm ready to write. I always know where to start and I know the ending. It's a matter of filling in that middle and making sure it doesn't sag anywhere along the way.
I write that first draft as quickly as ideas and time allows, and it IS rough. Often I find I needed to add something to chapter three to set up what happens in chapter ten. Or I decide I don't want to give away a plot point in chapter five so I can create more suspense until more is revealed in chapter fifteen. I jot down notes of changes as I go. So I type the mess up and print it off. Viola, I have a very detailed outline.
My next step may sound like it takes a long time but it goes quicker than that first rough draft. Using that first mess as a guide, I completely retype the book. All the big things, plot holes, loose ends, etc, get the attention they need. It's also the time I can check for all those dang words I tend to overuse as well as find ways to vary my sentence structure. Since I already know what I want to say, I find the words to show the action instead of telling it.
All this may sound time consuming, but it works for me. I can usually do my final draft of a 100,000 word novel in about eight weeks using this method. The first draft is likely to take up to 12 weeks. With each book I polish this way I get a little faster.
The point of this blog is not to convince people to write my way. I only want to explain one way that happens to work for me. I actually started this method after reading something Judith McNaughton had written about her method. Again not comparing my work to hers, LOL. I know many of us get frustrated when doing edits or trying to polish the same book several times. My advice is to experiment with different processes and find the one that is comfortable and works for you. I know some writers who spew out a first draft that is nearly error free. I envy them but I don't try to write like them. This works for me. What works for you? And have you tried different methods?