Hacking The WIP

I've had a revelation.

A couple weeks ago, after careful debating, consideration, and frantically emailing my crit partner, I've come to the conclusion that I need to hack a major part of my WIP.

For some reason I thought I needed to have both my main character's POV and the love interest's POV (and for the life of me I can't remember why I came to that conclusion).  But I kind of didn't decide that until a little ways into my book.  So I had my MC and her personal journey and conflict, and the overarching conflict all the characters had to go through, but the love interest didn't really have his own story.  He was just there along for the ride.

After a question was brought up about his POV, I began to think about it.  Was his POV necessary to the story?  Did he propel any of the plot forward?  While he is considered a big character to me (it's sort of an ensemble cast of four characters, with my MC as the main-main character), I couldn't figure out his purpose (besides making out with my MC).

So I'm chopping his POV.  Cutting it right out and making it all from my main character's perspective.  It's going to take a while, but I think it's worth it.  I think it will make my MC stronger.

While their love story is a significant part of the novel, I want to focus more on her personal journey and the four of them as a group and their collective journey together.

Tell me, have you had to chop a significant portion of your book?  Was it hard to let go of a big part of your "baby"?

Why Hello, 2011

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope everyone who took breaks this week are well rested and ready to get back into the 'ol grind of blogging.  And if you've been blogging this week, I am SO sorry I didn't read it.  I've missed your blogs and can't wait to get back to reading them!

I had a wonderful break this week, even though I was missing Little Monster who was a couple hours away at Grandma's house.  I started revising, and have learned a very important fact:

I hate it.

Seriously.  You have to sit there and look at every little note or critique and think about whether you want to change something or not.  Then you have to go in and figure out how to change it.  Then you have to go in and actually do the changing.

It's very tedious, but it's gotta be done.  The only good thing is that I *think* I'm making my manuscript a lot better.  I started writing a it while ago, and I've learned a lot since then. 

But dude, it takes

But I want to do it because I believe that everyone needs to do at least one revision.  Probably more. I can't say how many everyone should do because everyone's writing styles are different.  With me, it takes me a while to crank out a novel (I edit as I go...I know, I know, many of you would tell me to not worry about it but my brain literally does not let me knowingly write a bad sentence) (now, unknowingly writing bad sentences is a whole different thing...that's why we need crit partners and revisions) so I hope I won't have too many rounds of revisions.

So this brings me to a couple of resolutions goals for 2011.  (I hate the term "resolution".  I'd rather call them goals)

Last year was called "2010: The Year of Writing The First Novel and Taking Way Too Long To Finish But Also Starting A Blog and Meeting Awesome New Friends".
This year will be called "2011: The Year of Revisions, Queries and Hair Pulling"

At least, I hope I get that far.  Not the hair pulling so much, but it's kinda of inevitable- with querying comes hair pulling.  It's kinda like a deep fried chocolate covered oreo and nausea.  You can't eat one of those suckers without getting sick.  But you eat it anyway because you love the taste no matter what the outcome.

I'm not setting myself anything too lofty because if I don't make my goals I'll basically die a slow death, agonizing over the fact that I didn't meet them.  I'll just get this thing polished and ready to go out.  Easy Peasy right?  Yeah...I'm not gonna jinx myself too much.  Hey, if it doesn't happen, then it doesn't happen.  I'm not going to cut corners just to make my goal within the year.  This thing has to be perfect in my eyes.  So I'll do whatever it takes to make it that way.

Just gotta work hard and put my mind to it.  Like Jessie, Lisa and Kelly once sang:  "Put your mind to it, Go for it...Get down and Break a Sweat".  And that's exactly what I intend to do for 2011.





How about you all?  What are you goals for 2011?

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Editing

First draft done: check.  Suggestions and edits from Crit Partners: check.  New office chair: check.  New keyboard and mouse to make editing easier: check.  Having no idea what I'm supposed to do now: check.



Like how I jerry-rigged the mouse area because keyboard tray doesn't have a place for the mouse? Perfect for writing I'm sure...


So I finished my first draft, yeah yeah, cool and all that jazz.  As I stare at the two copies of my manuscript- one marked up by one crit partner, and the other marked up by the other crit partner, I can't help but feel a little overwhelmed.  Now what? 




Colene's edits on the left, Andy's on the right (obscured by my "title page")


Where do I begin?  This is my first time editing a 94,000 word novel that I've written.  I have no idea how to start.  Do I go over the two copies of my novel from each crit partner and compare notes?  Do I print out a completely fresh copy (oy, the paper) and do my own edits?  Do I open my word documents and make edits on the computer with the bubbles and stuff, while I have the marked up manuscripts next to me?  Or do I just do that when I'm ready with my crit partner's changes?

Editing can be a cruel mistress that leads you on and gives you false hope.  On the one hand, you are ecstatic to have finally finished your manuscript, but on the other the actual process is agonizing.  You have been through so much with your characters: laughed with them, cried with them, loved them, hated them, screamed at them and pleaded with them.  You know your world inside and out, and now you have to chisel away at it, like chiseling away at your own heart.  But it has to be done.  You have to break that mistress down bit by bit until she's perfect and you can make her into your wife.  (okay, that was a bit much on the analogy part, but seriously...I had to go there)  It's a constant pull of emotions- highs and lows that bring you on this roller coaster we call Editing, only to end up right at the beginning to start a bigger and higher roller coaster we call Querying.

So here I am, ready to go uphill with this thing and I don't know where to start.  How do you start your first round of edits?  What do you do to help get you organized and ready to tackle that mistress and tame her?  (okay, that was really bad...)  I'm going to stop with the bad analogies and let you do the talking.  Maybe you can come up with a couple awesomely bad analogies yourselves, and more importantly, tell me how you edit.

My Oun Buch

"My Oun Buch"
That's the title of Little Monster's first book she wrote several weeks ago.  I'm so proud *sniff*.  Now she's cranking them out faster than me, and comes up with great ideas like "All obaut Ranbos" (she gushes about rainbows in this one- I think she saw the double rainbow orgasm guy on youtube).  Or the classic, "All Obaut Haus's" in which she channel's Lady Gaga's Haus of Gaga to write eloquently about different colored houses (plus she's all about the diversity).  And then she dabbles in horror with "Stars in the Sci" in which you think its an innocent book about stars in the sky, but then the Wicked Witch of the West comes and eats the stars. 

I'm not gonna lie.  It can be hard to come up with some good book ideas (and blogs for that matter...geesh, how do you people do it every day?).  Everyone keeps telling us, it has to be unique!  It can't be the same old stuff we see every day (but at the same time, they seem to gravitate towards what they think will be popular).  Agents want that twist that will catch their eye, and publishers want good books they can sell.  I'm always so worried my idea isn't "original" enough, or my voice isn't strong enough, or it's just missing that "something".  And don't get me started on queries!  My hands are shaking just thinking about writing one.

So here I am, on the threshold of editing my own novel, and I'm scared I just wasted a year of my life writing the dang thing.  I wish I could crank them out on a whim every other day like Little Monster.  Life would be so much easier.  I'd have a million awesome stories to choose from (like the all-popular "All obaut graps and abbles and boobares and tmatos and urnges that come off of chrees" in which succulent grapes, apples, blueberries, tomatoes and oranges fall off trees and cover the ground...I mean, c'mon- genius!)

But I do have a ton of ideas that just come to me, so I guess I'm lucky that way.  I'll just be standing around and BAM, an idea forms and I have to jot it down or else I'll lose it.  I've always been like that- making up stories, daydreaming and imagining myself in different worlds.  I think thats why I love fantasy so much.

So this brings me to that all-important question everyone has to have at the end of their blog posts that makes you (my dear readers) think:

How do you come up with your book ideas?  Do they just come to you while you are doing something completely unrelated (with me, it's always when I'm at work scanning books or entering requests- totally inconvenient!), or do you have a time where you have to sit down and think deep and hard about possible stories?  Do you gather inspiration from the world around you, or do you look within yourself to find that perfect voice?

Happy writing people, and go eat some booberes and some stars for me.  I'll just be at my desk tearing my hair out and weeping silently over my current WIP while Little Monster bangs out her millionth novel.