As I sit in the sun on a glorious, lazy Saturday morning, working on (finally) editing my cowboy novel so I can start sending it out, I started thinking more and more about the process of sending stuff out, what that means, and what it means to get rejected.
As friends and family are urging me to get my stuff out--damn near coercing and using shrill tactics to hide their passive-aggressiveness on the topic--I continue to tell them that it's not about the destination so much as it is about the journey. I love writing and I love the prospect of coming home after a shitty day at work, open up my computer and pick any time period to write in. I become my favorite characters and live vicariously through them. Of course I want to be published someday, but I'm perfectly content to "float around aimlessly" for awhile, as I told a friend recently. Her response: "That's fine for awhile, just don't get lost." :/
Could it be my friends and family think I'm afraid of rejection? Could it be they're trying to "force" me to get my stuff out because maybe they think I won't do it on my own? Am I afraid of rejection??
While the prospect of being rejected isn't appealing, I truly find myself not really caring. Perhaps after all the rejection, I know I'll still have my writings to keep myself warm at night, even if they aren't available for other readers to do the same.
Plus, I've been rejected from so many jobs in the last four, five years that the idea of another rejection is just meh at best--I'm simply numb, and not afraid of rejection by any means.
And what I said is true: it's not merely the destination that matters, but the journey.
So as I battle time and again with my friends and family about my timeline of submittals to agents and publishers, I must keep in mind that they're doing it for my own good.
As long as they realize that I will continue on the next step when I'm good and ready.
That being said, it's time to dust off the cowboy novel I finished in 2010 NaNoWriMo. First rounds of editing have been sitting for the last year on the 10th page from the end, and that's just freehand edits--I still need to type out the corrections. DH said once again last night how I need to finish it and start sending it out..."no matter how bad it is or how much you don't like the story anymore." Got nothing to lose, right?
But in true NaNoWriMo form, a NoWriMo is reserved for writing ONLY. And while in an ideal world you should have a NoWriMo every other month, those "rest" months should be reserved for editing. That's what I gathered...Or, maybe, that's just a self-imposed plan that I have yet to follow through on. And if I follow this plan, that makes March a NoEdMo--Novel Editing Month.
My 1,724 word/day goal for February's JNoWriMo is still calling, which leaves little time extra for anything else.
Suck it up, J. Leigh. No excuses. Just shut up and do it!
And so I shall.
JLH
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
I need to focus more...
Well. I can see that JNoWriMo is continuing on with mixed success.
While I continue to stay on track with my word count (with ebbs and flows, admittedly), I'm still being naughty and writing in stories that are far, far down the road. The goal is to finish "Kray" and then "Kayt", but I'm working on the kids' kids' stories instead, like "Arick", "Dimitri", "Lyuba" and "Darwin". And while I was proactive in my post-it frenzy, and while that helps a bit with organization, it's all time spent away from one goal: completion.
This weekend will be a standard 4,000-6,000 word goal, which will make up for some bumps I had this week.
Focus, J. Leigh. Stay on track.
JLH
While I continue to stay on track with my word count (with ebbs and flows, admittedly), I'm still being naughty and writing in stories that are far, far down the road. The goal is to finish "Kray" and then "Kayt", but I'm working on the kids' kids' stories instead, like "Arick", "Dimitri", "Lyuba" and "Darwin". And while I was proactive in my post-it frenzy, and while that helps a bit with organization, it's all time spent away from one goal: completion.
This weekend will be a standard 4,000-6,000 word goal, which will make up for some bumps I had this week.
Focus, J. Leigh. Stay on track.
JLH
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
More fun with post-its.
I played with some more post-its and figured in the two brothers' stories in with the five sisters' stories:
Still don't know what to write about for the two boys, but I think I'm going to have Kane be a soldier fighting in some war on Earth. There he meets the heroine. Not sure if he's wounded and she's a nurse? Or is she just a civilian? Is she the enemy? Who knows.
Then I wrote out the list of the kids' kids in two orders: birth order and book order.
The two columns of the book order (the right side) delineate the six kids who are on the ship (left) and the kids who have their own independent stories (right). The "ship" story is sort of a series within a series, but we'll see how the other stories intertwine.
JLH
Still don't know what to write about for the two boys, but I think I'm going to have Kane be a soldier fighting in some war on Earth. There he meets the heroine. Not sure if he's wounded and she's a nurse? Or is she just a civilian? Is she the enemy? Who knows.
Then I wrote out the list of the kids' kids in two orders: birth order and book order.
The two columns of the book order (the right side) delineate the six kids who are on the ship (left) and the kids who have their own independent stories (right). The "ship" story is sort of a series within a series, but we'll see how the other stories intertwine.
JLH
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Day 2 of JNoWriMo.
February 2012's JNoWriMo started off with a bang when I exceeded my daily word goal both yesterday and today. Unfortunately, it was all for the wrong story. I want--no, I need--to finish "Kray" before I do anything else, or I'm going to wind up writing myself in circles and getting horribly frustrated in the process.
What I've been writing in these past few days is another of the kids: Kaven's son, Leviticus Vaughn. Another sweet story of a highborn prince falling for someone below his station. Very Cinderella-esque, but without all that evil stepmother and fairy godmother bullshit.
The other thing I worked on yesterday: the post-its and posterboards. The family tree is a very nicely organized series of columns of post-its, with spaces reserved for those who have no names yet (a few of the kids, and both Kaven and Kane's spouses.) We're getting there.
Here's the fantasy family tree, post-it style:
A bit harder to read, I know, but this is my bedroom door with ideas for planet names and the regions/continents/countries/kingdoms that go with each one. A serious work in progress. Thank god I don't have children yet.
JLH
What I've been writing in these past few days is another of the kids: Kaven's son, Leviticus Vaughn. Another sweet story of a highborn prince falling for someone below his station. Very Cinderella-esque, but without all that evil stepmother and fairy godmother bullshit.
The other thing I worked on yesterday: the post-its and posterboards. The family tree is a very nicely organized series of columns of post-its, with spaces reserved for those who have no names yet (a few of the kids, and both Kaven and Kane's spouses.) We're getting there.
Here's the fantasy family tree, post-it style:
A bit harder to read, I know, but this is my bedroom door with ideas for planet names and the regions/continents/countries/kingdoms that go with each one. A serious work in progress. Thank god I don't have children yet.
JLH
Thursday, January 19, 2012
An update.
I've officially given up on JMoWriMo for this month, mostly because I wanted to wind down a bit more from the holidays. This February is a shorter month, true (though, not too short with the Leap Year and all), and already promising to be a bit more low-key. I'll pick up my monthly challenge again in a couple weeks.
I haven't written in "Kray" since NaNoWriMo because I've sort of reached a wall and can't figure out the next step in the story. I don't know what I want her and Rok to find in the compound after eradicating the Ratiri, but we're damn close to climax right now.
I also wrote myself into a bit of a corner: this book not only introduces Kayt and Kailyynn--Books 2 and 4--but it also introduces the oldest of the two brothers, Kaven, whom as of yet has no timeline, no story and no heroine. I had always planned the five sisters to have two brothers, but they have never--never--played a role in the sisters' stories until now.
And now as I sneak my way into pre-planning for the series after this one, the one that focuses on all of their children, I'm pissed that I not only have the sisters' eleven children to write stories for--that's right: eleven--but what roles do brothers Kaven and Kane and their wives play in the stories and on the island? And their children?
Since I started writing tidbits of "Luciana", Sebastyan and Kailyynn's daughter's story, I've planned out a bit for a few more, including two of Rowan and Kayt's sons, Darwin Alexander and Marshall Maximillian, and Dagibyr and Karyi's second son, Arick.
(Incidentally, "Arick" shook out a few juicy scenes [and by "juicy" I don't necessarily mean sexy, although there was a scene or two of that] at the end of last week. And I became a writing fiend in the desperate need to get all the dialogue and plot points down. From Friday the 13th to Monday the 16th, I wrote over 12,000 words.)
I figured that second brother Kane and his wife would have twin daughters, and then I thought it would be cute to give them an A-name and a Z-name, so there you go--Ava and Zoë.
As the royal family tree started turning into the family Great Banyan Tree, an idea occurred...
Posterboard and post-its.
A do believe tacking a posterboard with people, plot points and planets will not only keep me sane and my thoughts on track, but it will inspire me more each day to see my ideas come to fruition. I will wake up seeing that posterboard glaring me in the face, and I will smile and think, Yes, indeed, I am quite pleased with the name "Leviticus Vaughn" and my choice for his journey towards love and passion.
Which brings me to another point: geography. I had already decided long ago that this takes place in our Universe when other livable planets have been discovered. I never had any names or descriptions of these planets until very recently. Pretty soon I fear my entire bedroom will be masked in posterboard with poorly-drawn maps of fake planets, along with the biospheres that encompass them and the groups of people who inhabit them. I'm no cartographer, geographer or sociologist, and yet this makes me giddy with anticipation.
Hold your horses there, J. Leigh. You still have a series of five (actually seven) books to finish.
And thus is my problem. I get so damn excited about future and beyond-future projects that I forget about the stuff that I'm working on currently, the stuff that has the best chance of being done because it's almost done.
JNoWriMo will be all about that: completion. Every other month will be editing, research and dabbling in other stories.
Sounds like a good plan.
JLH
I haven't written in "Kray" since NaNoWriMo because I've sort of reached a wall and can't figure out the next step in the story. I don't know what I want her and Rok to find in the compound after eradicating the Ratiri, but we're damn close to climax right now.
I also wrote myself into a bit of a corner: this book not only introduces Kayt and Kailyynn--Books 2 and 4--but it also introduces the oldest of the two brothers, Kaven, whom as of yet has no timeline, no story and no heroine. I had always planned the five sisters to have two brothers, but they have never--never--played a role in the sisters' stories until now.
And now as I sneak my way into pre-planning for the series after this one, the one that focuses on all of their children, I'm pissed that I not only have the sisters' eleven children to write stories for--that's right: eleven--but what roles do brothers Kaven and Kane and their wives play in the stories and on the island? And their children?
Since I started writing tidbits of "Luciana", Sebastyan and Kailyynn's daughter's story, I've planned out a bit for a few more, including two of Rowan and Kayt's sons, Darwin Alexander and Marshall Maximillian, and Dagibyr and Karyi's second son, Arick.
(Incidentally, "Arick" shook out a few juicy scenes [and by "juicy" I don't necessarily mean sexy, although there was a scene or two of that] at the end of last week. And I became a writing fiend in the desperate need to get all the dialogue and plot points down. From Friday the 13th to Monday the 16th, I wrote over 12,000 words.)
I figured that second brother Kane and his wife would have twin daughters, and then I thought it would be cute to give them an A-name and a Z-name, so there you go--Ava and Zoë.
As the royal family tree started turning into the family Great Banyan Tree, an idea occurred...
Posterboard and post-its.
A do believe tacking a posterboard with people, plot points and planets will not only keep me sane and my thoughts on track, but it will inspire me more each day to see my ideas come to fruition. I will wake up seeing that posterboard glaring me in the face, and I will smile and think, Yes, indeed, I am quite pleased with the name "Leviticus Vaughn" and my choice for his journey towards love and passion.
Which brings me to another point: geography. I had already decided long ago that this takes place in our Universe when other livable planets have been discovered. I never had any names or descriptions of these planets until very recently. Pretty soon I fear my entire bedroom will be masked in posterboard with poorly-drawn maps of fake planets, along with the biospheres that encompass them and the groups of people who inhabit them. I'm no cartographer, geographer or sociologist, and yet this makes me giddy with anticipation.
Hold your horses there, J. Leigh. You still have a series of five (actually seven) books to finish.
And thus is my problem. I get so damn excited about future and beyond-future projects that I forget about the stuff that I'm working on currently, the stuff that has the best chance of being done because it's almost done.
JNoWriMo will be all about that: completion. Every other month will be editing, research and dabbling in other stories.
Sounds like a good plan.
JLH
Thursday, December 29, 2011
...And what fuels me to finish my fantasy series sooner...
...Is the idea of a new series.
The other day I had the audacity to consider the end of the series when one or two of my heroines could possibly admit to being pregnant. What the hell am I doing to myself? What does this all mean??
It means that I spent a good amount of--i.e. "too much"--thought the few days following on a NEW series focusing on the offspring of the original five couples from the fantasy quinary. I drew out family trees. I contemplated villains and plot points. I settled on genders and names...names!!
And not only that, but I had already started writing a bit about one of the children, the only daughter of Sebastyan and Kailyynn--golden-haired, golden-skinned Luciana. She's tied to her Italian roots, and she just so happened to have stepped into her daddy's old role.
I'm so bad. I'm so in trouble. This world will consume me, and the only thing I can do to control it is write everything down and leave it be.
So, anyway, I look to JNoWriMo with hope that I can finish my first book and move on to the second. Slowly and surely I will find my way to the end, and then planning out the series of 10+ children would make sense.
JLH
The other day I had the audacity to consider the end of the series when one or two of my heroines could possibly admit to being pregnant. What the hell am I doing to myself? What does this all mean??
It means that I spent a good amount of--i.e. "too much"--thought the few days following on a NEW series focusing on the offspring of the original five couples from the fantasy quinary. I drew out family trees. I contemplated villains and plot points. I settled on genders and names...names!!
And not only that, but I had already started writing a bit about one of the children, the only daughter of Sebastyan and Kailyynn--golden-haired, golden-skinned Luciana. She's tied to her Italian roots, and she just so happened to have stepped into her daddy's old role.
I'm so bad. I'm so in trouble. This world will consume me, and the only thing I can do to control it is write everything down and leave it be.
So, anyway, I look to JNoWriMo with hope that I can finish my first book and move on to the second. Slowly and surely I will find my way to the end, and then planning out the series of 10+ children would make sense.
JLH
JNoWriMo coming up.
As NaNoWriMo was a success (sorry I forgot to post... At 11:59 p.m. on November 30, I succeeded in realizing the 50,000 word goal, but without actually finishing the story), JNoWriMo is set to commence at midnight on January 1st.
What could easily be considered "January" Novel Writing Month is actually "Jen's" Novel Writing Month, and my goals are the same as the standard NaNoWriMo competition--50,000 words and/or finishing a novel. Only this time I will finish my novel. And I intend to have a JNoWriMo every two or three months each year. I can afford to be antisocial for 3-6 months out of the year, can't I? If it means I can realize my dream one finished novel at a time?
Book 1 of the fantasy romance quinary I had started went very well, but I am trying hard to NOT to write in any story besides Book 1 in order to finish it and move on.
So I need to finish Book 1 and move on.
My head is swollen with new ideas for new or existing stories, and while I write them down, I can't very well expound upon them without having another finished tome under my belt. NO GODDAMN EXCUSES.
JLH
What could easily be considered "January" Novel Writing Month is actually "Jen's" Novel Writing Month, and my goals are the same as the standard NaNoWriMo competition--50,000 words and/or finishing a novel. Only this time I will finish my novel. And I intend to have a JNoWriMo every two or three months each year. I can afford to be antisocial for 3-6 months out of the year, can't I? If it means I can realize my dream one finished novel at a time?
Book 1 of the fantasy romance quinary I had started went very well, but I am trying hard to NOT to write in any story besides Book 1 in order to finish it and move on.
So I need to finish Book 1 and move on.
My head is swollen with new ideas for new or existing stories, and while I write them down, I can't very well expound upon them without having another finished tome under my belt. NO GODDAMN EXCUSES.
JLH
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