More Ch-ch-ch-changes

Saturday we held what I thought would be my last (and possibly THE last) CWC meeting.  I had announced a few weeks earlier that I'm still struggling with my writing and need to step away from even listening to critiques.  I've also cut back on reading agent blogs and those that dispense writing advice.  I haven't canceled my subscription to Writer's Digest, but I have dropped Poets & Writers for now, and WD is going on the shelf until I feel like it won't negatively influence me.

Since Mary and I carpool down to Pueblo, she wasn't sure she wanted to keep making the drive each month alone, especially since she's been struggling with her own writing and might not have anything to submit for a while.  Shane, too, hasn't been able to write, not so much out of writer's block, but because it's his first year as an English teacher and that pretty much eats up all his time.

That would leave just Ali and Jenny.  And Jenny has another critique group (she's fickle that way).  So, death to CWC, right?

Wrong.

I returned to the table after a bathroom break.  Conversation ceased, heads turned.  Oh-oh.  "What?" 

They decided, in the five minutes tops that I was gone, to change the format once again.  We'll still get together once a month for dinner--on Saturday, which works better for everyone--to talk.  About writing, other kinds of storytelling, what we're having trouble with, what's working, our lives in general.  Basically, whatever.  Sorta like the old Pirate days.  If someone wants to submit something, they can, of course.  And, if I still need to avoid all critiques, I can read it and mark it up (for some reason that doesn't bother me), drop Mary off with my feedback so they can discuss, and go somewhere for an hour to hang out or write.  Then I'll join the rest of the group for dinner.

Cool, huh?

Second transformation of the group in almost two and half years.  Most writing groups don't make it a year.  And big changes will kill even the strongest group.  But we seem to be the little Timex group.  We just keep ticking. 

Reading Cozies

DB handed out cozies at the CWC meeting on Saturday.  I've read them all my life for a light change of pace.  Jenny did her own study of them a few months ago.  Mary seemed excited about reading one, or two even.  But I don't think Ali or Shane have ever read one.

Ali's already posted about her first impressions of the beginning of the book DB gave her.  It's not looking too promising.

It'll be interesting to see what everyone has to say next month.

Have you ever read a cozy mystery?  Did/do you like them?  What about reading other genres that aren't your normal go-to picks?  Were there any that pleasantly surprised you?  Or annoyed you?

When The Universe Conspires Against You

As you may know, CWC has not been able to meet since the beginning of December.  An unexpected death and various snow storms have caused delays that turned into outright cancellations.  We finally agreed on this Saturday, with a forecast for highs in the mid-50s and sunny skies.  And then one of our group got news of another friend's death.  It just seems like the Universe is trying to tell us something. 

Ali received a much more positive message the other day.  I've been getting some mixed signals myself.

This time we're sending a message back to the Universe:  We're meeting.  One of our number will be attending a funeral, and we'll have to figure out times to exchange submissions, critiques, etc. with her.  And while our thoughts with be with Mary, her family and their friends, we're going to go ahead and do this thing.

Maybe the Universe is just nudging us (and with something that big, a nudge can feel like an earthquake) to see if we're really serious about this CWC thing.  Because maybe if we're not, then we might not be serious about the writer thing.  What the Universe needs to know, however, is just how bloody serious we are.  So we're going to prove it.

Ever get the feeling that the Universe/events/gods/life was trying to tell you something?  What did you do with the message?

Looking Back

Yes, I'm blatantly copying Jenny.  But it's that time of year. 

How did 2010 measure up?

All in all, pretty well.  Not if I look at total words written.  That number is way down for the year.  I did get MMG one revision closer to being ready to submit, though. 

I think I accomplished something better than a lot of words.  Or at least as good as.  I finally realized what works and what doesn't for me when it comes to feedback on my writing.  And I managed to articulate that to my critique group.  The thing that still makes me smile is that they immediately got it.  A couple other members also spoke up at that point to say what is and isn't working for them. 

I read a lot of books this year.  Just look at the list on the right.  And I learned so much from having read them.  As I do with just about every book I read.  Not just about writing either, but that sure helps.

PPW asked me to do a regular blog post for them.  It's my What I Learned About Writing series.  I publish here first, then PPW picks it up.  Pretty shiny.

My first blog post on Red Room was picked up as a featured blog.  I supposed to get a bunch of books, but haven't seen any yet.  Not like I don't have enough to read.

I took a banjo class and am still practicing regularly.  Performed three dance numbers and a couple "specialties" with my dance class as the Pikes Peak Center--and loved it.  Took an additional tap class over the summer that really helped with technique. 

A pretty dang good year. 

December Goals

I've been pretty wishy-washy about my goals lately. But it's felt like I needed that in order to figure out my next steps. Which story to work on. That sort of thing. I've definitely decided to work on MMG, since it's the one that's been in the queue the longest (it hates being called "the oldest").

So, without further ado:

--Finish CWC critique(s) (1/1)
--1,250 words a day on MMG

Okay, maybe a little more ado. Since critiques are now due the 1st Sunday instead of the last Monday, I'm counting the December critique. Which is Jenny's for this month.

Where did 1,250 come from? That's about 5 pages. When things are percolating, I can get 5 pages in about an hour. Doable. AND that should get me to Done about the end of January, which is what I was shooting for. All good.

Easy peasy.

More Of The Same

My October Goals are a rehash of my September Goals. Bad month for writing. And it sounds like it was that way all around.

DB had her first feedback from CWC last night. I'll let her tell you about it herself. But it was interesting that she said every single member of the group was blocked in one way or another. Either this one just wasn't feeling the story, or the stress of everyday stuff was taking up all that one's brain power. Weird. I wonder if all critique groups have that happen. That everyone seems to get into a mental/emotional sync.

Maybe I'm missing the group and the deadlines. Don't know. All I can do right now is get everything ready to go. And then maybe play a bit. See if there are any short stories that want to be told--although that's not very likely. Ali suggested poetry to DB. Maybe I'll give that a shot. Nobody else needs to see it, right?

Here's to everybody breaking through the wall this month!

Job Sharing

Summer is supposed to be a leisurely time. Or so we believe. It comes from our school days. Three months off to do with as we please--at least within the parameters of what our parents will allow. But I still can't shake the feeling that I should be able to kick back, read, ride my bike and generally goof off.

But that's not really the way the adult world works. No three month break from the day job. Grass needs cutting, and houses need cleaning. Life--and the responsibility that go along with it--marches on.

Which means that I can't drop everything to work on MMG revisions. As much as I'd like to. But there is one thing I can set aside for a while. Or, rather, put in good hands until I can give it more of my attention. Creek Writers Council. As I work on the revisions, I have nothing to submit to the group. Some of them have read the book two or three times now, in different iterations. Instead of trying to put it through piecemeal, I've asked for a couple volunteers to read the whole thing when it's done. Some will be new to it, and others will have seen it before.

I'm letting D.B. deClerq, a good friend and fellow writer, take my spot for a while. She's working on a second draft of HM, her cozy mystery, and would like the opportunity to submit it to the group in chunks, while she works on another mystery series.

Once again, CWC shows what an amazing group of people they are. Within our rather strict rules, there is room to do what's best for each member's process. The rules are there to keep everyone working. But when they get in the way, they can be nudged a little to fit.

I'll still be reading the submissions--can't quite give that up--but won't have to worry about having something to put before the group myself until D.B.'s received the final feedback on HM. It should give me time to get MMG in shape and out into the world AND rework TKoS so I can submit it again. While that's going through, I can maybe get Vesta ready to submit as a full. But if I don't get it ready in time, D.B. could have her second mystery ready. I foresee us leapfrogging like that for a while.

Win/win. Gotta love that.

Loving/Hating CWC

The group gave me their feedback on MMG last night.

The comments were fabulous. Really good suggestions all the way around. I was told to leave several scenes as is--which is always nice to hear. Love that.

There is quite a bit that needs work. Maybe not a lot of work, but work nonetheless. One of the suggestions--that I agree with, btw--is that the main narrative needs to change from 1st to 3rd person. And other sections that are in 3rd person need to switch to 1st. Again, I agree. But hate that. Lots of work to get it right.

I don't want to wait a long time to start this next revision. And the gang agreed. "Jump in" seemed to be the consensus. Love that.

But that means I'll have to shelve what I'd planned to do next. Only mildly dislike that, truth be told.

AND they gave me a pass on having to submit anything new this month, which I was supposed to do. See item above about shelving the planned next project. Love, love, love that.

So that's 5 loves to 1.25 hates.

Guess it's still love.

Good Enough?

Saturday I spent a good part of the day organizing the basement. I found a lot of old writing. Some were from critique groups past that somehow never found their way back home. Some were submissions to Apollo's Lyre or the PPW NewsMag. Those hit the new, heavy-duty shredder. Many were short stories or early versions of MMG.

It was amazing how many different iterations it's been through. There's the yellow one, the blue one, the pink one, the gray one and now the green one. That's a lot of writing and rewriting. And a lot of trees sacrificed.

My protagonist is nineteen-year-old Kitty Stuart. She wants her mother to haunt her, but in Kitty's attempt to piss her mother off enough to do it, Kitty falls in love with a twice-divorced, alcoholic twelve years her senior. That's what will end up haunting her, or worse.

In the earliest version, I started the book when Kitty's mother was ten years old. Okay a bit of a running start. Second version was going to be alternating chapters of Kitty and her mother as a girl to compare/contrast their lives. Again, way too early. The third one starts with Kitty as a senior in high school to show her life before and then after her mother's death.

The fourth one starts at the mother's funeral, and while it can be argued that that is where the story starts, it was confusing to throw the reader into a huge extended family scene. They don't know this girl yet so there's no connection to what she's feeling. This one was read by a few people and I consistently got that comment.

So, now we're on number five. We start with Kitty "running away" with her beau. I'll find out in two weeks if it's the right place.

It was good to note that each version improved on the one before it. There are a lot of years of writing represented there. One would hope that reading and attending workshops and conferences and getting feedback would help. And I do believe it has.

Now I'm trying to not anticipate what the CWC+ will say about this latest incarnation. But of course I am. Throw it under the bed? Major changes or just minor ones? How many more times through? And the biggest one of all, which they can't answer: Do I have it in me to do another major rewrite of this one?

And the big existential writing question: When is it good enough?

I don't expect anyone to answer those here. That's what the group is for. Except maybe that very last one. When do you know it's good enough?

Feminine Ink Revisited, This Time With A Guy

It's been years since I was involved with Feminine Ink. I don't even know if they're still going. I started the group so I like to think that somewhere in a coffee shop in Colorado Springs, Mickey and company are going strong.

The Fem Ink (as it became known) rules were as follows:
1) I did all the prompts. Yes, I can be a control freak, but with good reason in the case of a couple regulars.
2) We wrote for about 7 minutes without stopping. If you didn't know what to write next, you wrote "I don't know what to write," or "la la la," or "Deb's a big old jerk for picking this stupid prompt." It helped thicken my skin.
3) Then everyone read what they'd written.
4) No critiquing or really commenting on the writing was allowed. This was to protect feelings and to avoid discouraging those who were just starting their writer's journey.
5) And the last rule of Fem Ink Club was no talking about Fem Ink Club. That way no one would feel they couldn't write what they wanted.

At our CWC meeting on April 26, we did something similar. I had submitted the first 300 pages of MMG at the end of March and the rest of it at the April meeting. This meant we had nothing to critique since I didn't want a partial critique--I know, picky picky picky. This experiment differed from Fem Ink in that:

1) Everyone brought in 2 prompts (although we only used 1 each)
2) Feedback on the writing was encouraged

It was fabulous. The write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants muscles were stiff. It felt good to exercise them a bit. With 4 of the 5 prompts being complete surprises, I didn't have to worry about subconsciously pre-writing anything. The feedback we got, although all positive, was very helpful. We know each other so well that what was left unsaid was just as useful as what was voiced.

Jenny threw in a twist, as she is wont to do, and said we should all expand on one of our responses and submit it this month. Which to do? Should I use one of the ones with a strong restriction? One allowed no visual descriptions and another was written without adjectives or adverbs. Or take one that will allow me to go off in any direction?

I'll read through them later and decide. Whatever I pick, I know I'm going to learn something and have fun doing it. What more can you ask for?

Blind Rewrites

Jenny and Ali talk about a method of rewriting short stories called "The Blind Rewrite." I don't know that it warrants capitalization and quotation marks, but that's the way they always say it. What you do, as I understand it, is rewrite without looking at the first draft. Hence, blind. The theory behind that is that you will remember what it important and forget what isn't. Not sure that I completely agree, but it's a method.

However, how does one manage that with a novel? Yeah, I didn't even want to think about going there. But I came up with something that worked.

Step 1) Print out a clean copy of manuscript.
Step 2) Read and mark up.
Step 3) Add in any pertinent comments from critique group.
Step 4) Using the now not-so-clean copy, retype the whole thing.

Oooh, you say, no wonder it took you so frikkin' long to get that rewrite done. Well, yeah. But I think it was worth it. We'll find out at the end of the month if the CWC agrees.

There were areas in the original where I'd started telling instead of showing. There were missing scenes needed for tying others together, for clarifying certain things, for heightening tension. I had dreaded having to write those new scenes, but by retyping the whole thing, those scenes just kind of organically appeared.

Another benefit was noticing a lot of continuity issues and many other missing scenes. I was also more aware of repetitions--words, phrases, ideas, actions. I know I didn't catch or fix all of them--that's what critique groups are for--but I caught a lot more than I did in the read-through.

One of my fears going into the rewrite was that I wouldn't have enough when I finished. I started with just shy of 200 pages, maybe 50,000 words. Way too short for a mainstream novel. What if there wasn't enough 'there' there for a full novel? Well, not to worry. The finished product was 603 pages and a little over 104,000 words. Which gives me a nice buffer for the things CWC will cut.

Cutting and pasting would not have solved nearly so many of the problems. Especially not the problems I didn't realize I had. This may be a time-consuming method, but it's one I'm going to keep using. At least for the 1st rewrite after receiving feedback from the gang.

There will be other things to fix, but I hope that this version is in good enough shape that those won't be major.

Fingers crossed.

May Goals

Not many blog posts last month. It may have had something to do with working on those April goals. I felt that if I had time to write anything, I should be working on MMG. So I did. Although I missed the deadline for getting everything to CWC, I did finish the rewrites at 9:45 p.m. on 4/30/10. So I did complete them in April. The final pages went to Ali, Jenny & Shane on Saturday (after I took the full manuscript to Carrie so she could be first). I will deliver Mary's to her today on my lunch break. Phew!

I hope to blog more this month on the experience of revising something so big. It came in at a little over 104,000 words. I'm sure I'll be told to cut many of them, but it definitely needed more than the first drafts had.

So, May goals. I'm taking it easy this month, gang.

--Expand on one of the prompt responses for CWC.
--Work on short stories.
--Work on poetry.

Just playing with words for a while. Soon enough I'll have to get serious with either Vesta or TKoS.

April Goals

I didn't make it all the way through the revisions of MMG last month, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's going. I gave 300 pages to CWC on Monday night. They'll get the rest at the end of the month. Feedback is set for the May meeting. Can't wait to find out if it's worth saving or not.

April goals are easy. No critiques to do. Just one thing to finish. So here we go:

--Retype marked up pages. (300/? pages)
--Read through.
--Make any quick fixes found in read-through.
--Print out for CWC and Carrie. And any other takers. (300/?)

Surfacing

I realized early last week that I would not have a full, revised manuscript to give to CWC on the 28th if I didn't do something drastic. Even with working on it during lunch hours, stealing time at work and using every unbooked evening wasn't going to get me there. So I took Friday off and left it open to take this Friday off if I need to.

At first, I had a little trouble settling down. But it was nice to have a table to spread out my marked up pages, notebook, index cards, coffee, etc. Soon I was typing away, not only fixing old stuff but adding new stuff. There were interruptions, though. I was doing laundry at the same time--that old multi-tasking gene just wouldn't shut up. But I had 30 new pages at the end of the day.

Saturday I settled in much more easily. No laundry. No housework (which I'll pay for later). Just me and my story. I was so into it, there didn't seem to be anything else. I've never experienced that with revisions. First drafts, yes, but not rewrites. Before I knew it, I had 50 more pages knocked out. Pages that I was happy with.

Yesterday, I had to deal with some other obligations. And, man, was that tough. I felt like I had to fight my way up from the bottom of the ocean. The real world looked odd, off, foreign. I just wanted to go back into MY world, the one I had created. I was a bit snappish early on. Spent some time in the writing room, reading some of my friends' stuff. Not exactly my world, but not this one either. By the time I met a friend for a play at Theatreworks, I was back here.

It's probably a good thing I did that yesterday. I'm not sure my boss or coworkers would be very understanding about it. Snapping at the boss or customers is not a good idea. Especially if you need the job.

I'll still need to take this Friday off. Possibly Thursday, depending on how much I can get done during lunch breaks and after work. But now, instead of feeling like I'm wasting vacation time, I'm looking forward to getting back to that world.

Two Unexpected Hours

Monday night was our regularly scheduled Pirates' Night. We gather, eat pizza, drink whatever and talk. About books read and movies watched and life lived, but mostly about writing. It's informal. No critiques, although pages are swapped once in a while. A night I look forward to all month.

I arrived at 5:30, ordered my slice of pizza, found a seat and pulled out my manuscript to mark up. I ate the slice while I continued to mark up pages. I wrote missing scenes. Every so often I glanced at the door. Ali had said she'd be + 1, but late. Fleur couldn't make it. But no one else showed up either.

About 7:10, I texted Ali. She was about 15 minutes away. Then I ordered a decaf latte. And I marked up more.

At 7:30 Ali + 1 arrived. I put my marked up pages away, and the usual talking commenced. No one else made it. Life managed to interfere with more than one Pirate this month. Emails had been sent after I'd left work for the day. But the talk was interesting, and the next two hours flew by.

It wasn't until the next morning that I pulled out those marked up pages to see how many there were. Surely I'd made my 30 page goal for the day. Goal + 67! 97 pages in two hours. Two hours I didn't expect to have. Two hours that prove how much can be accomplished if the butt is planted in a chair and a pen is kept in the hand.

And I'd managed to get past the worm hole without being sucked in. You know the point. The place where I'd decide I needed to go back to the beginning and start over. But I just scribbled right past it. I'm now in "new" territory.

This means I'll have revisions done well before the CWC meeting this month. I may even get a second pass (quick though it will have to be) to do more clean up. All because of two hours.

I'm keeping a look out for two more.

What A Rush

And that's actually a double rush. One from being on a new blood pressure medication. The second from getting so much accomplished last month. I definitely like the latter one better.

Just look at all I did (and it doesn't even cover the non-writing related stuff):

--Finish reading MMG with plot questions in mind (300/300 pages)
--Look at all characters and determine if they stay or go (Done)
--Fill out character surveys on remaining characters (Done)
--Review each scene for what it adds (or doesn't) to the story (Done)
--Plot map entire manuscript (Done)
--Revise 1st third of manuscript (Done)
--Complete CWC critiques (2/2)

Yay, me! Everything with a check mark. I like this breaking things down, um, thing. Let's do it again for March, shall we?

--Mark up all of the printout of previous version.
--Write missing scenes.
--Retype marked up pages.
--Read through.
--Make any quick fixes found in read-through.
--Print out for CWC and Carrie. And any other takers.
--Do CWC critiques. (0/2)

I'm really glad there are five Mondays this month.

February Goals

This is a scarily short month. More so than usual since CWC meeting is on the22nd. Must get critiques done this week because I'm out of town one of the three weekends before the meeting.

What else can I get done this month?

--Finish reading MMG with plot questions in mind (98/300 pages)
--Look at all characters and determine if they stay or go (started)
--Fill out character surveys on remaining characters (started)
--Review each scene for what it adds (or doesn't) to the story
--Plot map entire manuscript
--Revise 1st third of manuscript
--Complete CWC critiques (0/2)

Hmmm, busy month, but doable. Will have to be since I only have 55 days to get MMG in shape to print out and give to CWC. You're not going to mention how many days it would have been had I really started back in October are you? Didn't think so.

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught

My sister is watching South Pacific in the other room as I work, can you tell?

Sometimes one does have to be carefully taught. Other times it's the casual lesson that works best.

As you all know, I've attended conferences and workshops on craft. I have dozens of writing books on my shelves. An embarrassing amount, really. And they've all helped shape my writing to a greater or lesser degree.

Then last Monday night, we critiqued Ali's full manuscript that had gone through a first revision. What a lesson there was in that. So many of the questions and comments struck home for me.

"What does this scene accomplish?"
"You need more tension here."
"Why is she doing this?"
and a biggie for me "Where is the emotion?"

Ali has done an amazing job with her story. The amount of improvement from first draft to this version is truly impressive, especially given that she accomplished it in less than two weeks. There is more for her to do (isn't there always?), but it's really really good.

I'm using what I've learned--both the more formal lessons and those important ones I've picked up giving and listening to critiques--as I read through MMG. I'm 98 pages into a 300 page manuscript. I should be done reading by mid-week. Then the dissecting begins.

Is it salvageable? Only a lot of work and a bit of time will tell.

That Old End of Year Feeling - Looking Forward

The end of year reflections we indulge in tend to lead to some kind of plan for the future. What do I want to accomplish? How do I want to live my life differently? Better?

After a lot of thought, here are my writing goals for 2010:

--Revise MMG by end of March to submit to group. (Or Jenny may hurt me)
--Rewrite part of TNN not yet submitted by May CWC meeting to reflect changes that will be made to beginning .
--Query MMG (after any changes based on critiques from CWC) by end of July.
--Revise Vesta by end of September.
--Decide on next novel to start.
--Start it.

Looks like "revision" will be the word of the year. Whatever the new novel turns out to be should be a nice break.

November Goals

I pretty much rocked October, especially given that it was chock full of extra-curricular activites. I finished everything. Well, everything but getting all the way through TNN. That was due in no small part to doing exactly what I'd said I wouldn't do after it happened with Vesta. After the first feedback session at CWC, I decided to rip everything apart and put it back together --better! faster! stronger!--before the next submission. In a month--right. Please remind me of this when I submit the first part of my next manuscript, whatever that may be.

Time to set goals for November. No NaNoWriMo for me this month. I have tons to revise since Jenny challenged me to put a revised full of MMG through the group soon. And then there's Vesta waiting to be revised as well.

I want to finish the first draft of TNN before I start the MMG revisions. I have maybe 100 pages to go, and there will be a submission due in January. I doubt it will be the rest of the story, but should get everyone close to the end. Of course, the critique for this month. It'll be great to revisit Mary's TF. And then revisions, revisions, revisions. I don't know that I'll finish this month, but I have until the end of March. I, foolishly perhaps, raised my hand on Monday night and claimed March to submit the full.

Should be a busy, but fun month.