AS THEY DREAM Playlist

It's been five months since my last post. Now isn't the right time to explain where I've been, but I'll say that it wasn't a pleasant place. I'll also say I've reached a point where I'm ready to kick my preppy, "never-give-up-yay-failure" Past Self in the behind.

But with my newest high fantasy WiP out with betas and the initial responses looking pretty positive, I'm going to dare show a hint of optimism. Below is my playlist for the story, with each themed title linking to youtube clips of the songs. I'm sure the only person who gets a kick out of these is the author, but hey, some of you might find use in the instrumental pieces. (The best thing about scores is they're written specifically for emotional scenes, so they're great to write to.)

1. Dedication (This book will be dedicated to my BFF)

2. Bombs in Allayz de Savogn

3. Priestess

4. It Always Rains in La Vierz

5. Deep State Meditation

6. A Wedding Turns Sour

7. Sanctum and Storytime

8. Kissing by Campfires

9. Death in Ytzuam

10. The Warriors Separate

11. Hypothermia

12. Something Else to Live For

13. Jhaizi Mountains

14. Flying Through a Storm

15. The Library Falls

16. Four is the Perfect Number

17. Lost in the Spirit Realm

18. Champions for Humanity

19. Red Stars Rise

20. Acknowledgements

Oops, there were more Doctor Who scores in there than I expected. I never thought I'd like anything by the artist for number 8, but those lyrics were crazy perfect, so there you go. Also, number 18 is TOTALLY the theme song for the whole story. Yay number 18.

Maybe this music won't mean much to you now, but at least you have some hints as to what the story will be about. Or... you'll be more confused than ever. Either way, enjoy!

(Yet Another) Change to the Process

A few posts back I raved about how well plotting worked for me. I got the story written quickly, it was an adequate length, and there were few revisions needed. With such a successful experience, I figured plotting would be my best bet for my newest story. So last week I sat down and started brainstorming. I wrote copious notes for about five pages.

I didn't write anything else for six days. Not a word.

Yesterday, I'd had enough. I didn't know the minor details about my world yet. I didn't know much about the plot. I didn't have essays on my main characters (although I know a fair bit about where my minor characters come from). Despite all this, I opened up a Word document (I know, not even Scrivener!), and started writing.

I wrote a chapter. Four(ish) pages. Maybe not a huge amount, but it was a start, and it was darn better than how I was doing before.

So why didn't plotting work for me this time?

I thought about it, and the best answer I can give is this: Last WiP, it wasn't really a first draft. It was a rewrite. I wanted to take out the magical elements (which were essential to the plot in the original), and emphasise what had been the secondary plot.

And that made all the difference. Because I had a basic plot already written out. I had the setting, and the characters. Technically, that original story WAS my plotting.

I don't know much about this new story. At ALL. But maybe if I think of my first draft as my plotting, work out world-building and character development as I go, and write it relatively quickly, I can do up a proper plotting sheet and then open up Scrivener to do it properly.

I can't believe it's taken me so long to figure out that this is my process.

How about you? Have you worked out a process, or does it change for each book? Do you have another way of besides just "plotting" or "pantsing"?

WriteOnCon!

That's right, the biggest, best FREE writer's conference is on again! And the Ninja Agents start making their appearances THIS MONDAY.

*squishy-hugs conference*

Last year I tried my luck with PRINCE OF CITY NIGHTS and won a few pitch contests but it didn't eventuate into anything. This year I'm going in with my freshly-polished sci fi TWELVE MINUTES OF MIDNIGHT.

If you wanna see what I've been working on (and help stop my query getting lost in the forums while the agents are snooping), please check it out and post a comment/suggestion/crit on my page. It'd be much appreciated! (You have to sign up to see the forums, but it doesn't cost anything. Plus, you can see all the awesome crits on my work already! :D)

Here's my QUERY.

Here's my FIRST 250 WORDS.

Here's my FIRST FIVE PAGES.

I'm not going to get any sleep for the next few days zzzzzzz

PS If you're looking for an agent and haven't signed up for WriteOnCon... WHY? GO DO IT NOW!

Superhuman? I think so.

Ahaha, are you ready for this?

School holidays have just finished.

Two weeks.

80 thousand words.

My latest WiP is DONE.

I can't even begin to describe how good it feels. 80k. Eighty. Thousand. Words. I've never written a finished manuscript this long, let alone a first draft. (The last first draft I wrote was 36k. Seriously.) While I don't know if I can technically call this a first draft, it was written from scratch, with only the setting and maybe three characters the same. The plot had changed from fighting a Beast to... nothing even remotely related. In fact, the fantasy elements were taken out altogether.

But how did I go from writing teeny tiny first drafts to this mammoth of a manuscript?

Plotting.

It's possible that those who know me have just fainted on the spot. I know, right? Me? Plot? NEVER!

That's what I used to think, and I'm not sure how well I'll do if I tried it again, but goodness, it worked this time, guys. I was lucky enough to have recently attended an advanced writing class hosted by Juliet Marillier, and she mentioned her plotting methods and how she didn't understand the whole "pantser" thing because she couldn't imagine doing a million drafts. And I thought, wait, you don't have to do a million drafts? So I had a go at plotting, writing the whole story out scene by scene then adding scenes when necessary, and viola! I now have a real, much-more-advanced-than-usual first draft that has a decent word count.

I'm so excited. I'm off to do my victory dance. How's everyone else's writing going?

The Lucky Seven Meme

Morgan Hyde tagged me in the Lucky Meme (you know the one), and I haven't done a post in a while, so I figured I'd go ahead with it.

Here are the rules in case you've been living in a coffin:

1. Go to the 7th or 77th page of your current WIP

2. Go down to the 7th line

3. Copy the next 7 sentences or paragraphs and post them AS IS (no secret editing - the guilt monkeys will know).

This one's from the seventh page of my current WiP:

How? How could wax be this stubborn? Did it take after the personality of its owner or something?

She ducked down and checked the cupboard under the sink. It was cluttered with Bluet's many products and...

Dissolving fluid.

If it wasn't mildly acidic she would have kissed the bottle. Every privy needed dissolving fluid, and chances were it wouldn't damage the leather.

She used toilet tissue to dab a bit onto the boot and held her breath. The wax sizzled away. The leather remained unharmed. Thank the King.

"Miss Stella, what exactly are you doing in there with my boot?"

Stella almost dropped the bottle and the boot. Merse opened the door and stared at her. "Are you quite finished?"

If you want to be tagged, consider yourself tagged! And link me in the comments so I can read it :)

Done!

I've finished the first draft of my latest WiP! *pause for cheers* Some stats for the interested parties:

Total word count - 52,129

Projected word count (once I've added in all the extras I thought of along the way... and fixed all the plot holes, ug): 75k-80k

Date started: 28th May this year

Current feeling towards ms: I never want to see it again (Kidding! Kind of)

What will happen next: Leave it to work on second WiP and come back to it in a month or so... hopefully with a little more enthusiasm than what I'm leaving it with

YAY! Party for all!

How's everyone else's WiP going?

A Chat with a Publisher

Today I was lucky enough to receive 20 precious minutes and a critique from the managing director of a major Australian publisher. She'd read the first ten pages and synopsis of my WiP last week.

Well.

That 20 minutes turned into 40, and she gave my writing so much praise I was starting to repeat my thank yous out of sheer astonishment. I definitely used the words "you're so nice" too many times - someone could've turned it into a drinking game and gotten smashed.

Now this woman is a total stranger. She didn't know me from boo. But she saw something lurking beneath the surface of my writing, and it's something I've been struggling with for about a year.

The writing lacked ME.

It was good, she promised me. Excellent, even. But where was the passion, the uniqueness, the voice that made it stand out?

Her question brought back memories of a time in 2011 when I was writing PRINCE OF CITY NIGHTS. I had read so many "how to" guides and so many blogs that the rules/guidelines/whatever you want to call them were whirling around in my head every time I sat down to write. I struggled with a blank page for almost a month. Eventually I stopped reading blogs, shut the voices up, and just wrote.

So it's happening again. While I can switch those immediate voices off, it seems subconsciously I'm still thinking of my target audience (and getting published) over writing what's in my heart.

I'm not sure how to overcome this problem because it's so hard to get out of the mindset, but I'm thinking if I work on the story I'm writing purely for me and my friend (just for fun), as well as practicing some stream-of-conscious writing, I might be able to shake the nay-sayer voices off. If you have any extra advice, I'd be glad to hear it.

And, yes, for those of you who are curious - she asked to see the full manuscript once I'm done with revisions *insert flailing here*

Falling Behind Fast Tech

A while ago I wrote a post on how writers can keep up with such a fast-paced technological age. For my lastest WiP I had to journey into the contemporary world and use not just current technology, but high tech stuff. It's scary because I know it won't be long before this "high tech stuff" is outdated.

I was doing fine at first. I wrote about animatronics and state-of-the-art robotics and glasses that allowed you to use the internet...

Glasses that allowed you to use the internet.

Google, you've done it again.

Now, I need these glasses. They are imperative to the storyline. But they need to be awe-worthy in terms of technological development, and by the time I've found an agent and a publisher and this book hits stores, the glasses will be a thing of today, not the future. And a few years from then, they'll be a thing of the past.

I'm sure plenty of you have come across something like this before. When I tweeted my woes, I had more than one sympathetic response that came with a similar story. I guess I can count myself lucky that I've come across it this early in the drafting stage. It can still be changed.

But how?

Well, this is where the brainstorming comes in. (After the curled-up-in-a-fetal-position-crying, anyway.) Thanks to an idea from my lovely boyfriend, I'm keeping the glasses but using them in conjuction with internet-based contact lenses. It will require further thought to cohesively fit it into the storyline, but it's something.

And that's the thing, isn't it? Living in a time like this, the only choice we have is to keep up, keep changing, and stay one breathless step in front of the people who are working much too hard to make the future today.

And Google, don't steal my idea until the book's out, got it?

Two Announcements!

It's been a while since I've done a personal post. I thought I'd better update you on the two AWESOME things that happened yesterday:

Exciting news one:

Have you joined SCBWI yet? I thought nah, it's more an American thing. I thought nah, I'm in a teeny tiny isolated city - it's not worth paying money for conferences I can't attend.

And then I joined.

And there's a branch in my teeny tiny city.

And better than that, there was a callout to meet with Sarah Foster, managing director of Walker Books.

And I got in.

I get to meet with Sarah Foster and talk about my latest WiP for twenty minutes. She will read and crit my first ten pages and synopsis. Some people have snagged publishing contracts this way.

Now I'm not looking specifically for a publishing contract, but wouldn't you say this is a mighty fine opportunity? Wouldn't you like a similar opportunity?

Get out there. Join SCBWI. It's worth it.

Exciting news two:

I am now officially an intern at Twelfth Planet Press, a boutique Australian publishing company run by one of the most successful, hard-working women I know. I found out yesterday, and by this morning I was swamped with emails of things to do. Not a lot of it makes much sense to me (there may have been panicked tears for a bit there), but I'm going to sit down today and go through it slowly, googling the terms I don't understand.

My first jobs involve making up a sales kit for a distributor and writing a feature article for a blog. It's so great to see this side of the publishing world, and while I'm slightly terrified, I'm also really, really excited. I hope to do the best job I can, and I'm looking forward to the learning experience that comes with it. I think this will definitely make me a better, more worldly writer.

And that's the news!

Uncensor Yourself

So I'd chosen my middle grade story. I'd had a basic idea of what I wanted to do with it. I had Scrivener to help me. I'd altered it to censor for younger children -

Wait, what?

Yes, a lot of you are probably rolling your eyes right now (if you were paying close enough attention). It was hard slog writing something that was altered for the audience. ALTERED FOR THE AUDIENCE. Face-freaking-palm. I would barely manage a thousand words a day, and I dreaded going back to the story.

Then, as I'm reading the rave reviews on CINDER, about the whole world being in danger, about Lunar queens and plagues and bioelectricity and all this stuff that pushes the story to the limit (there's nothing localised about CINDER), I realised my mistake. You want to go big? You want to get published? You're going to have to push your story. Uncensor yourself. Make it EPIC.

And you know what? Once I scrapped the old version, I opened up Word (I hear gasps from the audience here) and started writing the story how *I* wanted to write it. Religious aspects that would freak out parents? Whatever. Scary scenes? Kids can handle it (god, have you guys seen/read Horrible Histories? Jeez!).

And you know what? I did almost 4.5k words yesterday. This is the story I was trying to tell.

Writers, don't hold yourself back. You'll never get attention with a safe story. And it's as hard as hell to write a story that you only half love.