LáylaMessner.com

Young Adult Author

Archive for the category “Writing/Publishing”

01 Jan 2012
3 Comments

2012 Writing Goals (+ Molten update)

Hello, and welcome to 2012. It’s going to be a great year! Do you have your writing (or other) goals/intentions articulated, yet? Here are mine.

FOCUS–2012 is going to be all about nurturing my creativity. My focus can be summed up thus: Don’t try; just be yourself. & don’t give up. Trust the characters, the story, and your creative process. (Stay tuned for related Molten update, at the end of this post.) Without further ado…

Author Goals 2012:

  1. Finish draft 12 of Molten
  2. Proofread-via-Kindle Molten
  3. Query Molten—at least 3/mo (total of 33 in 2012), or until I sign with literary agent
  4. Edit YA dystopian WIP
  5. Send draft 3 (or 4) of dystopian to betas
  6. Edit dystopian post-beta-feedback (no more than 3 additional drafts)
  7. Proofread-via-Kindle dystopian
  8. Book proposal for dystopian
  9. Submit/query dystopian
  10. Write, edit, and submit for publication at least one short story
  11. Draft a new novel
  12. And, of course, continue to build author-related relationships via social networking & blog
  13. Reading goal: Read 50 books (having never before counted my reads, this may turn out to be an insane goal for me; we’ll see)

1st Quarter Author Goals:

Jan:

  1. Finish draft 13 of Molten
  2. Proofread-via-Kindle Molten
  3. 5-10 personalized queries for Molten
  4. (Optional) Draft creepy short story

Feb:

  1. Send first round Molten queries
  2. (Optional) Synop for Molten
  3. Read straight through dystopian SNP
  4. Synop of dystopian (for me)
  5. Draft 2 of dystopian—structural + (optional) fill in blank spaces

March: NaNoRevisMo

  1. Draft 3 of dystopian—edit text all the way through (Beta-review draft)
  2. Send second round Molten queries

Peeking ahead to the 2nd quarter: While dystopian is with betas, write pitch & synop. Submit/pitch/query dystopian by end of May, at latest.

Molten Update:

I planned to tell a long story about how I came to the realization I’m about to share, but I’ve been journaling all day and I’m tired, so I’ll just share the essence. On Jan 31–in other words, last year, but also just yesterday–I had a conversation with the hero of Molten. And he says he’s a vampire. The de-vamped experiment is thus over. I got three things out of  the experiment: 1. I wished I’d written in present tense; I no longer do. I like the past-tense version. 2. I wasn’t sure I’d gotten up all the metaphorical bones of the story. After reviewing the novel, I’ve filled in the holes I found, but for the most part those were small. It hangs together as a whole. So well, in fact, that I havn’t been able to make the de-vamped plot work. 3. I’d come to doubt my choice to write a vampire book at this time. I no longer do. This is the story that came to me, and the story I want to write. I knew that when I started, and it’s good to be reminded. Molten is, in essence, a about a guy who will not give up on that which he loves. How can I do any less for him and his story?

This decision is reflected in the goals above. I ache a little about it–for the character possibilities I saw that will now never live, at least not in this book–but I think the ache is just part of the process.I remain, as always, willing to be wrong about this. If an epiphany to the contrary strikes, I’ll get back to you ;) .

[Update, March 28, 2012: You know how I said I was willing to be wrong? Well Shortly after writing this, I began to dream about the de-vamped version, and I realized I had missed something obvious. There is an alternate vamp-free plot hiding in there, it just isn't exactly what I tried before. The best part is that since the changes come out of the Molten universe, they are fairly straightforward. For the bulk of the book, the words can stay the same, especially since I'm sticking with past tense. I did some more editing and now have the first 100 pages of this version available as well.]

Happy 2012!

p.s. Oh! I just realized I forgot to share a token person goal. Want to know what I’ll be up to in 2012? Well, I’d like to go on at least one in-person date. Wish me luck!

Posted in Devamped, Drafting, Editing, Goals, Milestones, News, Planning, Querying etc, Vamped, Writing Journal, Writing/Publishing and tagged , , , , , , , ,
29 Oct 2011

I suck at giving up, but excel at changing my mind (I’m still vamping. Also: Ready, Set, NaNo)

I admitted to myself a few days ago that giving up on my vamps was making me depressed (I LOVE vampires, especially mine), and it was precipitous to switch directions so close to a finished draft with a stronger beginning. So I buckled down and just finished a vampire-inclusive Draft 12. Right on time to enter a couple Nov contests. Yay! The really good news is that the more I attempted to take the vamps out, the more I realized what a cohesive whole the book really is. I believe I’ve found those last few missing bones (archeology metaphore, see this post), to make the manuscript feel whole.

As I mentioned, I plan to enter contests and query again. In the meantime, NaNoWriMo (who’s with me?) should reveal whether the Devamped version has a life of its own. And I no longer feel as though I’ve given up, but like I’m playing around with my manuscript–much more fun!

Posted in Editing, Goals, Milestones, News, Querying etc, Vamped, Writing Journal, Writing/Publishing | Leave a Comment
17 Oct 2011
5 Comments

I’m de-vamping my novel

If I’ve told you anything about my first novel, this is probably what I said, “It has vampires in it.” Which means that you are once more about to know next to nothing about it–I’ll remedy that in a minute–because I’m taking the vampires out.

I started querying in at the beginning of April (fyi: as my fellow writers know, six months is not very long to spend querying) and I’ve received some comments from agents who like/love my premise, but don’t feel optimistic about selling a YA vamp paranormal romance right now. This alone is not enough to warrant the re-write, in my opinion. I believe that there will always be vampire love stories and that they will continue to enjoy wide readership. But, these agent comments did get me wondering.

Could this story be true to itself without vampires in it?

I’d asked myself this before, when I was still writing and looking for agents to query, and I kept coming across agent bios that specified, “NO VAMPIRES.” The answer was always, “No.” My tale was a vampire story because the plot necessitated that creature. (Well, zombies would have worked, but they just don’t do anything for me.) There just wasn’t anything else I could use. I LOVE vampire stories myself. And, as I mentioned, I believe vampfic will continue to sell because people like the read it.

But, recently, I got to talking with my buddy Hope Collier who reminded me of something a fact that should have been obvious: I’m a writer; I can just make it up. That got me thinking some more and, long story short, I came up with a way to write vampires out of the story. The question then became: would this re-write be truer to the soul of the story than the vampire version? I have been meditating on this since the beginning of September.

Option 1. Stick with the vampires (at least for now.) Do one more edit (including a faster paced opening), and continue querying. If I don’t find my agent match, I can always try out the other idea.

Option 2: Shelve the vampire version and do a major overhaul following this new idea. If it doesn’t work, I can always return to the vampires.

I was originally going to go with a mix. Edit the vampire version, and while querying that, experiment with the new version. But I’ve decided to go full-out with Option 2, and here’s why. In On Writing, Stephen King gives a metaphor of novel-writing as an excavation–the writer’s goal is to see how much of the skeleton she can unearth–and I have always felt I didn’t get the whole shebang with this story. Now, I think this is always true; you don’t ever get all of it. And I think another edit might get just enough more. And I truly believe that, if I continued querying, I would eventually find the agent who loved the vampire-version enough to sell it. BUT, now that I have the new idea, I have this feeling I can’t shake that replacing the vampires will unearth a lot more of skeleton (get me to the story behind the story, if you will), and I have to find out if that’s true.

So, I am de-vamping my novel (and, as I said above, I can always return to the original manuscript if the hunch turns out to be wrong. Or if I get an offer from one of the agents still reviewing it!)

This re-write is also going to include the faster-paced opening, and I am translating the story from first person past, to first person present tense. I have long felt that if I could do one thing differently with this book, I would have written it in present tense, because I feel it suits my voice better. I was talking with Lorna Suzuki on Twitter the other day, and she commented in passing that she’d originally planned to write three Imago books, but ended up writing nine! Well, I’d been thinking, “Hey, past tense is fine. Hopefully, I’ll write a trilogy, and then I can do my next book in present tense.” Oops. Gonna go ahead and take care of that now. And I am aiming for the new version to be about 8,000 words longer, for a total of 70K.

My goals for the next month and a half are as follows:

October: New beginning (√ done). Work through ms converting past–>present & replacing vampire elements. Cut what won’t work.

November (NaNoWriMo): Write 50K new words from which to take the extra words I need to make 70K (I won’t need  full 50K, which is good, because I tend to cut 30-40% of my raw material.)

Oh, and to go along with the re-write, I have also completely revamped my website (ironic, isn’t it?).

Now, the part you’ve been waiting for. I promised to make up for doing away with the one bit of info I’d given about my novel, and I will. I have a new title, a logline, AND an excerpt (aren’t you glad you read, or skimmed, all the way down?). Click here to find out.

Posted in Editing, Goals, Milestones, News, Querying etc, Writing Journal, Writing/Publishing
13 Apr 2011
2 Comments

Blood & Cakewalks – drafting & editing with urban fantasy author Carolyn Crane

Once upon a time on Twitter, two writers got to talking…[i.e. why tweeting is fabulous for writers, but I digress.] One of the writers in question was (obviously) me, the other was Carolyn Crane (@CarolynCrane on Twitter), author of the urban fantasy Disillusionists Trilogy. The topic of conversation: drafting vs. editing.

I LOVE first drafting; editing gives me performance anxiety. For Carolyn, “first drafting can be like cutting open a vein, and revising and editing is an enchanting and fun cakewalk.” Talk about opposites…or so it seemed. We decided to interview one another in the hopes of learning to love our less-favorite task (and then share what we discovered with our readers.) In the process, we discovered some interesting similarities.

Carolyn posted the conversation on her blog. Come check it out, tell us whether you prefer drafting or editing, and share your tips. Excerpt:

Layla prefers first drafting & I prefer editing…can two oppositely-inclined writers help each other?

Carolyn: What do you enjoy about first drafting?

Layla: It’s a very raw feeling. Like telling uncomfortable secrets. But I think what I love about it is that there’s nobody here but me, no one to see it. I don’t have to worry about what anyone else will think… [read more]

Carolyn: My tips for editing success would be…Henry Miller once said, “don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.” [Read the full post here.]

—

Meet Carolyn: Carolyn is an urban fantasy author living in Minneapolis with her excellent husband and two daring cats. She enjoys reading and running, and is big on psychological intrigues and plotty mysteries. MIND GAMES and DOUBLE CROSS (Books #1 & 2 of the Disillusionists Trilogy) came out in 2010; book #3 comes out 12/2011. [Adapted from Carolyn's Blog - "The THRILLIONTH page" - where the above conversation is posted.]

For more information about the Disillusionists Trilogy, visit authorcarolyncrane.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

Posted in Drafting, Editing, Writing/Publishing
28 Dec 2010
1 Comment

3 Simple Things You Can Do To Step Up YOUR Writing in 2011

Did you click on this link hoping I’d have a quick list for you? I’m actually going to do you one better and guide you through a simple excercise to create your own personalized list of 3 simple, but highly effective – very possibly the MOST effective three things – YOU can do to meet your writing goals. How does that sound?

Okay, I’ve adapted this exercise to meet your needs as a writer from a Life Coaching tool I learned at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. As it appears here, you may think of it as a self-coaching activity.

Two quick notes before we get started: it will be better, though not essential, if you DO each step before reading the next one. Also, the more focus you are able to give the exercise, the more you are likely to get out of it (even if that means not doing it all in one sitting.)

Here are the 10 simple steps to create your list:

1. Get a blank page/screen to write/type on, and divide it in two.

2. At the top of one half write “MORE,” on the other “LESS.”

3. Ask yourself the following question:

What do I want MORE or LESS of when it come to my writing?

4. Now, under the appropriate headings, BRAINSTORM whatever comes to mind. (More pink ballerina pens? Less adjecives starting with “g”…whatever.) Even when you think you can’t think of any more, wait a little while longer.

When you feel complete…

5. Look at your lists and ask yourself:

When it comes to my writing, which ONE of these (it can be a MORE or a LESS) would make the BIGGEST POSITIVE DIFFERENCE?

The answer will probably just jump out at you, and it may very well be something totally unexpected.

6. Now, get a new page and write/type your chosen MORE or LESS at the top of it.

7. Ask yourself the following question:

What are 3 things I can DO to create MORE or LESS of this in my life?

Aim to make at least two of these be things you will know when you have done them. For example: “write 1000 words a day for a month” is better for this purpose than, “write 1000 words a day (for the rest of my life)”. (At the end of the month you can choose to set this goal again.)

8. Make a clean copy of your list and put it somewhere you can see it.

9. (Optional but encouraged) Tell someone your goal: “For my writing, I am going to create MORE or LESS of this in my life by a, b, and c.” Ask them to check in with you to see if you’ve done these things.

Don’t have anyone to tell? (Or even if you do.) Share your goal and list below.

10. Look at your list. Your very own personalized list of 3 Simple Things You can Do to Step Up YOUR Writing in 2011. Smile :)

I hope this was helpful! If you found it so, please pass it along to your writerly friends.

Wishing you the best on your New Year of writing.

Posted in Coaching for Writers, Writing/Publishing
07 Dec 2010

You Have A Dream–2011. 365 days. No excuses. (For writers and others.)

Dictionary.com gives the following definitions for the word excuse:

ex·cuse – noun. “an explanation offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation, promise, etc.: His excuse for being late was unacceptable.”

ex·cuse – verb. “to regard or judge with forgiveness or indulgence; pardon or forgive; overlook (a fault, error, etc.)…to release from an obligation or duty: to be excused from jury duty.”

That said, the next time you find yourself making an excuse for not writing, ask yourself, do I really want to be released from my writing?

To indulge in a sweeping generalization, I would hazard that when something really matters, there either is no excuse, or you don’t need one. (There’s no excuse for running over a child, and you don’t need an excuse to make love to your spouse, for example.)

What Kind Of Excuse Are You Making?

People make excuses all the time. I think excuses are fine…if you really want to be excused from the thing we are trying to justify not doing. Just save your excuses for things you don’t actually want to do.

The problem comes when we start making excuses for things that we really want to do–like writing. Though we may speak them aloud, these excuses are not for other people; they are for ourselves. We are trying to justify neglecting our own souls (soul, here, in a non-religious sense.)

Big Scary Excuses

There are a few excuses that get a lot of milage in US/Canadian culture (maybe elsewhere too.) They are so popular because they feed into cultural beliefs about what’s true. As such, they are useful because they silence opposition (kind of like the proverbial “female problems” for getting out of work.)

It goes like this. You’re talking to a friend about your writing (or your wish to go back to college and become a fashion designer, or how you’ve always wanted to spend a year volunteering in Africa, or…your Big Dream, whatever it is). You have awesome, supportive friends, so your buddy is right there cheering you on. S/he beleves you can do it. No, you’re not to old. Yes, anything is possible, and is posible for you. Go for it. Make that dream come true!

And then you say it. You reach into your pocket and pull it out, your Big Scary Excuse. “But…” you say.

  1. …I can’t afford it. (Belief: money is finite and comes in direct correlation to hard work.) Or…
  2. …I don’t have time. (Belief: time is finite, and you have to trade most of it for money.) Or…
  3. …I have children. (For women especially. Belief: you have to sacrifice yourself for your  children.)

So your friend shuts up. It’s not your buddy’s fault. S/he uses the same excuses. And what’s she supposed to say–quit your job, neglect your children? Your friend changes the subject and you breathe a sigh of relief, because s/he gets it, how impossible your dream is.

And your heart dies a little more.

That’s why I think of the above three excuses (and I’m sure there are more) as Red Flag Excuses. They really  have nothing to do with money, or time, or parenthood. They are about collective beliefs on the Possible and Impossible. The are red flags that you are trying to excuse yourself for not listening to your own inner needs.

Living From the Possible

Step One, when you have a dream is to decide that it’s possible. Or at least that whether it’s possibe or not, you’re going to try, and keep trying, and keep trying, and…

Repeat after me–

I don’t know how I’m going to find the time and money and take care of my kids so I can write the book I want to write (or go back to college, or volunteer in Africa), but I know that it’s possible.

Ask yourself–What if I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that my dream is possible?

No More Excuses

Now, Step 2–Commit to yourself, that, when it comes to your dream, you will no longer make excuses. In fact, let’s make

2011 the the year of no excuses

Instead of “I can’t afford it,” say,

I wonder how I could work with my finances to make it happen.

Instead of “I don’t have time,” say,

I am going to find a way a way to make time.

And instead of “but I have children,” say,

My kids learn from my example.

Repeat after me–

This is important to me. Starting today, I’m going to act like it.


Three Resources Blow Your Excuses Out of the Water

1. Friends (offline and on).

Ask them to call you on it when you make excuses, and hold you accountable to your dream-related goals.

2. Read The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks

This book will challenge your ideas about why you aren’t blissfully happy (yet) and don’t (yet) feel like there’s enough time in the day.

3. Hire a writing coach

A good writing coach is to a writer as an olympic coach is to an athlete.

A writing coach is trained to help you:

  • prioritize
  • ground your vision in doable goals (and stick to those goals)
  • work through creative “blocks”
  • create a deeply satisfying life
  • and reach your full potential.
Posted in Coaching for Writers, Writing/Publishing | Leave a Comment
18 Aug 2010
9 Comments

The Dream of Perfection – thoughts for “editing block”

A few days ago on Twitter @KMWeiland posted the following quote: “The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.” – William Faulkner

At the time I was experiencing something like “editor’s block.” Not the kind of block where you can’t work, but the kind where it’s like wading through sewage – not fun, you don’t want to.

I kept coming across advice about writer’s block that is designed for the first draft: “just remind yourself that it’s the first draft; it doesn’t have to be perfect.” Well, that really helped me write my first draft. But now I’m editing. Trying to get the manuscript ready to send it to agents, and I’m thinking, “How does that help me? It’s not the first draft. It does have to be perfect.”

Then K.M. Weiland also posted this quote: “I am irritated by my…writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce…the sound…”-Flaubert

And I thought – with relief – this is exactly how I feel.

Because let’s tell the truth: It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t. Brilliantly written manuscripts are rejected every day and sometimes less than acclaimed writing knocks the socks off the best seller list.

Am I saying you should be lazy, send out unpolished manuscripts, that you don’t have to write well? No. I am saying that the idea that we can control whether or not our manuscript is successful by making it perfect is an illusion. A fantasy that we can control something we can’t really control.

The truth is that while quality writing matters, there’s also a whole lot of magic involved in the success of a book–call it luck, or alignment, depending on your personal beliefs. And magic isn’t something that you can control, only something that you can align with. And you do that by feeling good about your project, and visualizing, and surrendering a little bit. And then it’s out of your hands.

Magic is messy.

And here’s the rest of the truth: no matter how hard you try, no matter how long you spend revising, it will never be perfect, will never completely match that “vision of perfection.”

But that’s okay.

The reader will bring the rest to the table.

So take a deep breath, and repeat after me: “It’s never going to be perfect.”

That’s right. Never.

Now, pick up your metaphorical pen, and get back to work on that piece of beautiful imperfection that is your life.

–
How do you turn off the critical voice and keep the creative juices flowing during the editing phase?

Posted in Editing, Writing/Publishing
07 Aug 2010
12 Comments

5 Things I Learned From Writing the First Draft

1. There will never be a day when everything is done and you can write.
But that’s okay. Write today, with everything undone. The other stuff will get done in the empty spaces, or when it has to (or it won’t get done.) Allow the things that don’t matter, the things you hate doing, be the things that get left to the wayside.

Would before should.

If you would write, but you should scrub your toilet…Write. And one day you’ll wake up and find your as on top of the other stuff as you ever were, but your novel’s being written/been written/sold.

It’s not necessarily about putting your writing first. It’s more about figuring out exactly where in your list of priorities writing falls (perhaps after feeding your children but before dusting your ceiling fan) and doing the tasks themselves in that order. (If you look at your life you may find that there are a number of things you do that aren’t truly that important to you before things that truly are. I think taking outer actions that don’t match our inner values can lead us to feel dissatisfied with your lives.)

2. The Mean Voice will change its tactics (and that’s how you’ll know you’re getting somewhere).
You know the voice I’m talking about—the one that tells you you’re a terrible writer, you’ll never sell anything, and if you do, no one will want to read it, in fact, you’re not even a writer at all, just a hopeless wannabe, oh, and your nose is too big, and one day your spouse is going to realize he or she made a terrible mistake and leave you. That voice. Well, that voice can keep up.

Before I really settled in to write, my mean voice was all about how having the time to write was a pipedream, how I would change my mind about wanting to be an author, and, especially, how I would never finish my first draft. Well, I got closer and closer to completing my first draft and I started to think, “I am totally going to finish this!”

One day, I’m tying away, and the thought hits me out of the blue, “Look, you’re almost done, and the story isn’t good enough. You’ve completely failed at truly conveying its essence, and now you never will. You’re not good enough of a writer to write this story; this story is too good for you.” (Yes, it’s kind of like the spouse thing above.)

You see, up until that moment, I was supremely confident in my story—the doubt was in my follow-through. But as soon as I established my follow through, the attack switched to the story itself with a whole new fear. Now instead of, “what if you never finish writing this book,” it was, “what if the book is finished and it sucks.” That seemed even worse. After all, if I wasn’t done, there was still hope, but if I was finished…

Fortunately, I realized it was the Mean Voice that was talking to me. I was then able to come back with, “Wow, I must really be getting close for you to be so afraid.”

Ironically, I am now in the thick of editing, and I’m back to being bombarded with, “You will never finish this book. You will give up partway through the editing because the book sucks so much and needs so much work.” So now I can remind myself, “wow, I must really be getting somewhere if the Mean Voice wants me to give up that badly.

The voice that’s saying you suck isn’t telling the truth.
It’s just trying to bother you.

3. First drafts don’t take all that long to write.
They really don’t. Just create a regular writing practice and stick to it (most of the time). It’s totally doable. When people say “the muse shows up on command,” they are not lying. You’ll see.

But the first draft is not the end of the road either. May the rest of the process be easier than you imagined as well.

4. Be as curious about the process as you are about the story.
Every day writing a novel you learn something new about how to write a novel. About how you write a novel. About how you write this novel.

It’s a process of self-discovery and self-growth – kind of a cool bonus, I say. (Being aware that it is a process of learning is a great defense against self-criticism when the process doesn’t unfold exactly as you thought it would.)

5. Trust the story.
Odds are, you believe in the story you are telling (or at least trying to tell). So when you doubt yourself as a writer, forget about yourself. Put your focus on the story. Listen to it. When you don’t know what to do with plot or voice or…Trust the story. Remind yourself that you trust the story and the story chose you to write it, and wouldn’t have done so if you weren’t up to the task.

Summary:
1. Make writing a priority and everything else in your life will reorder itself accordingly.
2. When you find yourself barraged by doubts, remind yourself that it’s just the Mean Voice. A new set of doubts means you’re making progress. Yay!
3. The first draft is totally doable (and the rest is doable with a first draft.) Set a regular writing practice (see #1) and you’re off and running.
4. Be curious about yourself as a writer (instead of expecting your process to be like anyone else’s, or to unfold according to any preconceived idea.)
5. Trust the story.

Bonus Tip: If I could take ONE thing I’ve learned since I started this novel back with me to the beginning of the first draft it would be: You are really going to do this; don’t worry.

And If I could take ONE thing forward with me into the next phases of my life it would be: Once, where I am now was “pipedream,” so hold tight to that next dream, wherever it is, and one day (probably one day soon) you’ll be looking back here and forward to your next great dream, from there.

Okay, you’re turn:
What have you learned from writing first drafts, or about writing first drafts?
Let’s share some writerly wisdom here.

Posted in Drafting, Writing/Publishing
29 Jul 2010
2 Comments

Why I probably shouldn’t write #1KWds Today (Or: when to go ahead and “look like an idiot”)

My commitment to writing 1000 words a day is getting in the way of my editing. This can’t happen. So…

I am going to have to alter the rest of my 31 day commitment. (I have 16 days left.)

Now, I don’t want to change my commitment, and here are the reasons:

1. I like writing 1K words/day; it makes me feel good. And I am having a lot of fun with the words I am writing.

2. If feels a little like giving up and I HATE giving up.

And, 3. I don’t want to look like an idiot since /I/ started this 1Kwd challenge and other people joined. And I don’t want to encourage anyone to quit.

/But/ I try to watch out for worrying too much about looking like an idiot. Better to look silly and be true to what ya gotta do, right?

Okay, now here are the reasons that I need to change my commitment:

1. I was adding a section of new words to my WIP that I expected to run about 40K wds before cuts. But it seems to have ended at 15K wds, and I will be adding in words I cut previously instead. As a result, in order to keep my 1K wds coming, I’ve been writing in the sequel.

And I love writing in the sequel. It’s fresh and easy writing, but…I don’t need two unfinished WIPs. I need a finished manuscript and then a new WIP.

2. What I really need to be doing now is editing. In the principle of “doing the most important thing first”, I need to edit first and only write new words if I have extra time and energy. I can’t do that if I am committed to writing 1KWds/day because…I don’t want to look like an idiot.

When editing, it’s difficult to keep track of the number of new words I’ve added, and, in any case, adding is not the point.

3. If I have a certain amount of time, say 3 hrs, for writing during the day and I use, say, 1:20 of it on writing in the sequel, I will not be able to get as deep into my editing in the remaining 1:40 as I could have in the full 3 hrs. I need to keep my focus.

Now, am I glad I started writing in the sequel? Yes! Now I have something to start from. Might it be ideal to write 1K words and edit each day? Perhaps. It would certainly be very productive. But right now I am finding it to be too much and to split my focus. Does my WIP still need more words? Yes, but I need to add them here and there while editing (see above about it being being difficult to keep track), so…

My new commitment:
For the next 16 days, I will edit every day for at least 1 hour. Ideally for longer on weekdays, but after 1 hr my commitment will be fulfilled.

When I’m done editing for the day, or if I have an idea that just has to be written, I can still write my 1K (or more or less) words. I can still replace a day’s work on my WIP with a full-length blog entry once a week. And if, occasionally, the sequel is calling to me, I can always replace the editing with 1K wds for that day.

Thus, to summarize: until Aug 13, 2010, with the understanding that editing is the priority, I will either A) edit my WIP for at least 1 hr. Or, B) Write 1K wds.

There. That feels really great.

Now, another note: I think that long-term writing every day may not work for me – I like taking weekends to recharge. But I am going to continue for the duration of the every-day challenge.

(Oh, and this blog was 616 wds long, 626 now.)

Posted in Editing, Goals, Writing Journal, Writing/Publishing
24 Jul 2010
8 Comments

Setting Boundaries with the WIP? (writing is engagement with life)

Usually when I think of boundaries and my WIP (work in progress), I am thinking about setting boundaries that will allow me to focus on my WIP. But lately, I’ve been having another thought entirely…

What if I need to set boundaries with the WIP itself?

I often remind myself of the following truth: it is not my story; I serve the story. In a way, rather than the story belonging to me, I belong to it. Rather than having come up with the story, the story has “hired” me to write it.

In this context, setting boundaries with the story makes a lot of sense. After all, any other thing that I served or belonged to, I would need to set boundaries with so that it wouldn’t totally control my life. And so as to maintain my sense of self as separate from it.

…The story is coming through me, but it isn’t me. If I think like that about my WIP, I can make my decisions in terms of what serves the story, rather than in terms of what I might want. This can help with, for example, benefiting from the feedback of betas and editors – all I have to do is make sure that the person in question is in touch with the same story I am in touch with. (If it sounds like I believe that stories – at least the bones of them, the mythic shape of them – live out there in the ether somewhere, I do? Both that they live in the collective psyche, and that they live.)

For so long, all I wanted was to set the boundaries I needed to set so that I could devote my life to getting my WIP’s story written. Now that I have done that, I find that I need to set boundaries with the story, to keep some parts of my mind, some time in my day, just for me to listen to myself, without the story in there. To keep some space just for me and the other things that matter to me.

This is a new discovery for me and I haven’t mastered the art of setting boundaries with my book yet, so I am going to use this space to brainstorm some ideas of how I might do that. I could:

- Make a list of other priorities and make an effort to schedule those as well.

- Take a look at how I could make my writing-time more productive so that I can have more free time.

- Not think as though I have to spend a certain amount of time (i.e. 40 hrs a week) on writing-related stuff to consider myself a full-time writer.

- *This is a big one* Honor the fact that quiet time – and not just quiet time spent thinking about the WIP – is integral to my writing process. The same goes for a certain amount of interaction with other people, talking about things other than writing.

- *Another big one* Following from the last: Remember that things that don’t look like writing contribute to writing (and not just writing-related things.) See this blog post at “Life According to Chubs” for more on the concept of writing as “eating the world.”

- *And the biggest one yet* Focus on creating a sustainable writing-practice. Not just through the completion of this WIP, but for my lifetime. In other words, remember that I am a writer because I write (and because I am a person who has to write)…regardless of this WIP.

- Last but not least, as a kind of meditation, I could set aside at least 5 minutes (even one minute, or one breath) in the day where I am not allowed to think about my WIP.

I can’t produce the evidence yet, but I have a hunch this is one of those paradoxical situations where setting boundaries with my WIP will result in increased creativity – because it will nourish my creative spirit, give it time to recharge, and thus be more sustainable. And I am writing this post because maybe that is the case for you too.

What I got from writing this blog post and what you might get from reading it:
Writing is the place where life experience and the written word meet. It is digested life experience, and life experience in the process of being digested, reformed into something else. Without the writing, there is no writing (deep, I know), but without the life experience the writing is dead. Writing is an engagement with life, with the world. In the same way that you’ve got to read, in the same way that you’ve got to write, to be a writer, you’ve got to live and just take the life in, so that when you sit down at the keyboard there will be something in there to come back out.

This week’s question: Do you set boundaries with your WIP? How so?

Posted in Editing, Writing/Publishing

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