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stephaniecain
stephaniecain
15 May 2010 @ 03:47 pm
Projects, Projects Everywhere, and Not a Page to Submit  
My best friend in high school always told me I had too many dreams. I wanted to fly helos for the Air Force. I wanted to be an archaeologist. I wanted to be an FBI agent. I wanted to write novels. I wanted to act. I wanted to sing. I wanted to be a cowgirl. My mother, of course, told me that it was good to have that many dreams. Problem was, I ended up majoring in history & creative writing, learning a virtually unemployable skill set. Maybe my best friend was closer to being correct than my mom was. Or maybe it wasn’t that I had too many dreams, but that I couldn’t pick one of those dreams to focus on first.

Something I’ve seen as I read blogs about the publishing world is that a writer should focus on one particular area of writing to make her name. (Never mind that Isaac Asimov published fiction and nonfiction in every single category of the Dewey Decimal system, apparently this isn’t as doable in the 21st Century as it was in the 1950s.) Since I have written epic fantasy, urban fantasy, romance, and crime fiction…this is a problem.

My current dilemma is that my urban fantasy is closest to being ready for publication, plus having three sequels/companion novels written/drafted so I need to revise that one. But I am way more in the mood to work on the epic fantasy, which needs to be completely overhauled and re-WRITTEN from the ground up. A huge project, but especially since I started using Patricia C. Wrede’s world-building questions to inspect and tweak my fantasy world, it’s one I look forward to.

I’ve tried using a bribe to move forward. I’ve told myself to revise the first 50 pages of the urban fantasy, just so I have a good submission packet to query with. Then I can turn my attention to the epic fantasy and make a few submission rounds with the urban fantasy to see if I get any interest. If I get any interest and they want a full manuscript, then I make a really fast revision of the other 100 pages.

We’ll see if this works…
 
 
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[identity profile] jomk.livejournal.com on May 15th, 2010 09:35 pm (UTC)
Here's the horrible truth about being published. You spend a whole hell of a lot of time writing stuff you don't want to be writing. I wish it were different, trust me, but that's the bottom line. I'm doing revisions now on something I'd pay good money to never have to look at again. And the bald fact is, I'm having to write more and more books that aren't from the heart because I need to keep getting paid.

The unvarnished truth is that writing is all about discipline. More about discipline than any other single thing. Writing when you don't want to, when you're sick, when the spark has left the story. Of all the things I wished I had known before I sold, this is the most important. I still would have written, but I'd have gotten into the mindset of a writer a lot earlier.

Here's another unpleasant but true fact. The gig does not get easier. Trust me. Your dilemma now will be your dilemma after you've published, only then, you'll have a deadline screaming in your ear.

My advice? Work on the stuff you can send out soonest. Jot down notes about your other stories when they hit, but just notes. Not pages of them. Then get back to the book that is in front of you.

It's hard to complete the books that you think are almost ready, because there's risk involved in sending them out. But with each fully completed book, you'll have added another layer to your foundation of knowledge and more importantly your foundation of discipline.

It sounds like a great idea to just get your partial ready, but I don't advise this. Finish the book. Polish it. Make sure you know who your sending it to, and that you've met the word count requirements. Agents and editors want the best you can give them, and to rush through the ending isn't going to give you your best chance.

I really believe you have the talent to publish. Seriously. You're good. Now you have to be tough.
[identity profile] slightlyjillian.livejournal.com on May 16th, 2010 12:05 am (UTC)
jumping in
Work on the stuff you can send out soonest. Jot down notes about your other stories when they hit, but just notes. Not pages of them. Then get back to the book that is in front of you.

May I ask about deadlines and work days? Of course with that end date in mind, days probably get as long as they need to be. But do you have a method to how you balance/separate full-time hours of writing vs hours of life?

Thanks!
[identity profile] jomk.livejournal.com on May 16th, 2010 01:05 am (UTC)
Re: jumping in
Jillian, the short answer to that is no. Not a method. I don't know any two writers who write in the same way. It all depends on the project.

Revisions, if they're due back quickly, then it can be 12-14 hour days, or until my back and eyes can't take it. Deadlines can be that way, too.

When I start a book, I write about 5 - 7 pages per day, 7 days a week. After the midpoint, I'm usually at 10ppd, and in the race to the finish it's 15-20. Mostly, I take no days off while I'm in a book. But some days I don't write at all. Usually when I realize I've made a wrong turn in my plotting. I then have to do other things so my subconscious can work out where I screwed up and how to fix it.

It's an imperfect system that tends to be the same for me now that I've written for so many years. But I write genre fiction, my books are about 250 ms pages. I need to write 4 to 5 books per year. It's my only income, so there's not a lot of wiggle room.

It also took me a long time to come to this "system" and it's changed a lot over the years. It's unique, as every writer's methods is unique. I had to try a lot of stuff that didn't work to get here.

As far as having a life, I don't have a huge one. I play with the dogs, talk to my LJ friends, my housemate, twitter every day. But I don't see many movies or go many places. When I'm not writing, I do whatever I can to have fun, but it's not a balanced life. For me, it works, and it's comfortable. I know people who write full time and really do have full lives. With husbands/kids whatever. I have no idea how they do that. Although come to think of it, most of them have a second income in their family.

[identity profile] slightlyjillian.livejournal.com on May 16th, 2010 02:04 am (UTC)
Re: jumping in
hey, thank you for taking the time to describe this for me. I've done my fair share of hit & miss (mostly miss) experimentation so having your insight gives a pretty good picture of where I still fall short. *chuckles*

I took about 8 months away from working in insurance to see what I could learn on my own. Well, I learned a lot--enough to know I don't have all the pieces to make it work let alone 'comfortable.' Nonetheless I'm going to keep building on what I've gained and see what happens.

My biggest problems were that I increased my volunteer hours (which I don't consider wasted--but definitely caused me to drift from the complete 'work day' of writing) and spacing out when I didn't have an immediate deadline to work toward. I knew those choices weren't adding up to 'professional author'... all that to say, living on savings at least taught me how to wear a tight belt and socializing took a nose dive.

I'd love to ask you more sometime!

(sorry for hijacking your journal, Steph! Good conversation starter. *grin*)
[identity profile] stephaniecain.livejournal.com on May 17th, 2010 03:11 am (UTC)
Re: jumping in
LOL I'm all for journal-hijacking if it's going to result in this! :)
[identity profile] stephaniecain.livejournal.com on May 17th, 2010 03:11 am (UTC)
Re: jumping in
I'm working on this scheduling thing right now with the novel that [livejournal.com profile] jl_decker and I are co-writing (yes, Jolie, that's my partner in crime - haha - from the fandom I don't mention here). We're starting to be more structured on the time we spend writing original fiction, though of course our fanfic output has also gone way downhill. But I'm working on teaching her how to be strict. *G* "Your husband doesn't get to talk to you for this hour, this is WRITING HOUR. Tell him to come back later. I don't care if he's hungry. You have peanut butter."

*cough*
[identity profile] jomk.livejournal.com on May 17th, 2010 06:44 pm (UTC)
Re: jumping in
Excellent about you and jl_decker! You guys write so well together. And yes, structured time is your friend. :)
[identity profile] stephaniecain.livejournal.com on May 17th, 2010 02:58 am (UTC)
You spend a whole hell of a lot of time writing stuff you don't want to be writing.

Ew. *sigh* I suspected that was true, but darn.

Shaper (which really needs a better title, but damned if I can think of a better one) has been rejected by a couple of agents already, and after Colleen Lindsay rejected it, I decided it was time for a major overhaul. I took it with me to the Writers' Digest Editors' Intensive that [livejournal.com profile] slightlyjillian and I went to in October and got some very useful critique comments, but I've been dragging my feet at actually putting them in place.

Thanks for being tough with me. *G* Your comment also prompted another friend of mine, who wanted to say that but didn't have the guts, to be strict with me too. She said, "Well, now that your real writer friend has said it, I will repeat it." LOL!
[identity profile] jomk.livejournal.com on May 17th, 2010 06:41 pm (UTC)
I was a bit apprehensive about being so bold, but I know you're serious about this, so I just went with the truth. You'd figure it out anyway, might as well be now. Good for you for moving forward. A lot of people I know (a LOT!) want what they imagine writing is, very romantic notions for the most part, and throw in the towel when it gets hard. But as Jimmy Dugan said in A League of Their Own: It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.
[identity profile] stephaniecain.livejournal.com on May 18th, 2010 12:08 am (UTC)
LOL Oh definitely, always always be bold and firm with me. Very early in my life, my mom read the Anne of Green Gables series out loud to me, so I learned at a young age that the writing life is full of rejection after rejection. I knew that when I stated that a full-time novelist was what I wanted to be, and when I declared as a Creative Writing major at Purdue. Through four years of writing and critique classes, I could never understand other peoples' thin skins (though I tried to be as sensitive as possible), because we weren't there to be told we were awesome, we were there to be told how to be better. LOL So anyway, I'm definitely not afraid of constructive criticism. :) *hug*
[identity profile] slightlyjillian.livejournal.com on May 16th, 2010 12:15 am (UTC)
Oh Asimov. I love his science fiction and how he could write almost anything not matter how implausible and still get away with a good yarn.

You have my sympathy. I know that I'd like to be writing in the original fantasy universe I've been tooling around in for years, but I just don't have what it takes (skills, understanding, the story) to write that...

On the other hand, I have made progress on the YA novel and it's better for the practice I've put in. So I feel pretty good working on that story instead even if the other is still dear to me. My thought is that the epic stuff will benefit from what I learn toiling through the YA novel.

Haha, maybe it'll make the epic less, well, epic and more manageable? Who knows.

*wry grin* I know that I don't quite have the discipline that [livejournal.com profile] jomk mentions. That's why I need the day job... soon.
[identity profile] stephaniecain.livejournal.com on May 17th, 2010 03:07 am (UTC)
Ha. Asimov not only wrote science fiction, he literally wrote about almost everything in the library. *G* In library school we were told he wrote a book for EVERY Dewey Decimal category, but I see now that's not true, none of his books were catalogued in the 100s (Philosophy). But still. The man worked on around 500 books, and how many short stories? Wow.

Definitely progress on the YA novel is good, and the YA market is a growing one for sure. Also, when do I get to see that! *makes grabby hands*

I think your task for the Epic Fantasy Novel O Doom is to make that timeline. I'm telling you. Two drafts ago, The Loyalty Factor had a day-by-day timeline of the novel, because otherwise I got all confused.