A soccer break

I usually write my posts at night, but I got beat up pretty badly in my soccer game tonight. Ball to the face, my already bruised toe stepped on again, and tripped by the goalie, which resulted in me doing a flip and landing on my head and back.

So since I'm pretty sore and my head hurts, I'm going to take a couple of days to recoup. Be back on Thursday.

Throwing stuff away

Today my daughter got mad at me for throwing away an art project she did at school a year ago. It was a picture she drew on tin foil and she wanted to do it again, but couldn't remember exactly how to do it.

This begs the question. How much of your old writing do you keep. Sometimes I think I keep too much. Every time I change a chapter, a query letter, a synopsis – I change the date and keep the old one, even though I might have only changed one sentence. I keep thinking that maybe I'll change my mind and decide that the paragraph on page 10 was better in version 15 than version 18 and if I throw it away I'll never remember what the exact words were.

How about you? Do you let go of your old words, or do you hang onto them like clothes from the 1980's.

To my American friends

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Here's hoping you are able to visit with family, have a great dinner, and get some great deals at the mall.

I'll probably be having cereal, working, and juggling basketball and soccer practices.

Just for fun here's a few things I'm thankful for.

1. That we have a garage to park our cars in.
2. That I only have to drive to work 3 days a week on icy roads.
3. Friday - because it will be a balmy -1C, instead of -38C

Stay warm.

What comes first?

What comes first for you – the book or the movie?

Do you like to read the book before you see the movie, or do you like to see the movie before you read the book?

In need of a pick me up

As of Tuesday it has snowed nonstop and I'm quite tired of it. I'm in need of a pick me up from the lack of sun. I'm thinking a good movie might be in order.

Except I hate crowds, so I'll probably just rent a video.

But there are some good movies coming out.

1. Harry Potter - you know the one with the wizard boy.
2. Voyage of the Dawn Treader - the obvious cast
3. Love & other Drugs - with Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal
4. Restless - with the girl from Alice in Wonderland. Apparently she meets a boy who likes to go to funerals and talks to a dead Japanese fighter pilot. (She's also the new Jane Eyre - not sure when that one is coming out)

How about you do movies give you an escape from everyday life and if so what movie are you most looking forward to?

What I did...

Thanks so much for all the great advice on Monday. So this is what I did.

I got home from work, and I went for a walk to clear my head and because a blizzard was coming, and I wanted to enjoy some sunshine. I took a bath. I did some laundry. I watched TV.

The next day I worked on finishing the chapter and I think I was making it more difficult that it needed it to be. I was over thinking it. So I made my changes, and my husband read it and understood what was going on. Yeah! Now I can mark that off of my things to do.

Later on Tuesday I tried again to work on my synopsis, but with not much luck. I went to my soccer game, which started at 9pm. Scored a goal, got an assist and we won 5-0 (sorry I just had to brag, since I don't get to do it very often). Woke up Wednesday with a horrible headache and slept for four hours. Got up and actually made progress on the synopsis. Slowly I'm inching my way toward finishing this thing.

With my current WIP I've alredy written they query and it was way easier to do it while writing my draft. I'm thinking I should do the same for the synopsis.

Which bodes the question. Do you think it's easier to write the synopsis before you write your book, during, or after?

When things click

I think we've all had those moments when things click. Plots come together, chapters have well formed arcs, and our character development is right where we want it.

Last week as I was working on my synopsis, I had a moment of "yes, this is what my plot needs" then I spent the whole week trying to implement it, and I hate to say that nothing clicked. I tried massaging the chapter. I tried rewriting the chapter. I even tried to move things around. Nothing worked. I think that I need to leave it alone, let it sit for a week, but I've never been good at doing that.

What do you do when you're stuck and nothing is clicking?

Massaging

For me massages are a necessary evil. I don't get the swedish kind with the aromatherapy and citar music playing. I usually go for the sport massage. The masseur kneads and puts pressure on all the knots I have in my back and shoulders. Usually I want to cry or at least hold my breath. In short, it hurts. I'm usually sore the next day, but a few days later, I feel pretty good.

I've been working on my synopsis all week. Well not every minute of the day, but it sure feels like it. I've got all the main points written out, and the first half is mostly done, but the second half needs a lot of massaging. It's going to be rough, and it will probably hurt. I'm hoping not to hold my breath until I'm finished, or I might just pass out.

On the plus side, I figured out a different motivation for my main bad guy that I'm totally excited about, maybe writing a synopsis is a good idea.

Conversations

Setting: Driving highschool aged son home from school with eight year old daughter in the back seat.

Daughter: Can you give me some advice about highschool?

Son: Sure

Pause

Daughter: Okay, go.


Setting: Going to a wedding shower, daughter is wearing skinny jeans with black shoes that have a little bit of a heel.

Daughter: I'm pretty sure I look like I'm ten.


Have you overheard any interesting conversations lately?

Walking a Straight Line

So last week I talked about being stuck and muscling through Chapter 6 and a little bit of Chapter 7. I told a friend, who has written four books, about this on Saturday, and she asked why didn't I just go to the next scene and come back to it.

Here's the thing. I'm a very linear writer, which is probably to my detriment. I have a hard time writing out of order. I'm not sure why. I've tried jumping ahead to other chapters, but it just doesn't feel right. It's like I want to progress with my characters at the same time as them. I'd make a horrible actor or director.

How about you? Do you jump from scene to scene or write linear and why?

Getting past Chapters 6 & 7

I've been stuck. For two weeks, I've been trying to finish editing Chapter 6 of my current WIP. I had the first part done, but the second part wasn't ringing true. I questioned the flow, the tone, the voice, the importance of the scene, but today I muscled through.

I said to myself, "Self, if you don't try, it will never get done."

So I just did it. It might not be perfect and I might change a few things tomorrow, but for the most part I think it's pretty good.

Now I have Chapter 7. When I wrote my draft, I didn't write Chapter 7. I wrote write dragon scene here and moved on. Today I decided that I couldn't procrastinate anymore, so I wrote half of it and although it will probably change, at least I have the words down, because you can't work with anything if you don't have anything to work with.

Make sense.

My advice for the weekend. If your stuck, flex your brain and try to muscle through.

Newbie Advice

Over the past year a few friends and family members have asked to read my book. Most take a while to read it and I have to ask what they thought of it, but on Monday I got a great email from my niece. I sent the book to her on Thursday and she read it in three days. Gotta love that.

Here's what she said:

"Wow, I am surprised that it has not been published yet."

And then she went on to say a lot of other nice things, which I won't bore you with. But it was really nice to hear some positive feedback.

Then she told me she was writing a novel and asked for any advice. I told her to read some books on writing (which is something I wish I had done), visit some blogs (wish I'd known about this sooner), and have a sense of where you're going, plus a few grammar things (no adverbs, avoid passive).

If you knew then what you know now, what advice would you give to someone just starting out?