Being Slapped Upside The Head With A Lightbulb

You know I’m really going to miss going to classes. I get so much writing done.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that I finally know how to fix Getting Over Mr. Wrong. This is the novel I plan to tackle on the first. This 20k train wreck has been sitting on my computer since March. At the time I didn’t know how in the hell to fix what was wrong with this novel. A lot of it had to do with not wanting to write anymore, period. The other half is that I knew in my gut I was going down the wrong path with this story.

The blessing and the curse that comes with a straight contemporary is that it rides on conflict and conflict alone. Yes, I know all books need this one essential element, but I’m here to tell you it’s VERY obvious when you don’t have it in a straight contemporary. Romantic suspense–pfft–the dead body, or the serial killer can provide you with what can be missing. A romantic adventure can stall without it, but then you have the treasure, clock ticking to beat the bad guy to help guide you through.

But a contemporary lacking true conflict, glares like a big ass laser, repeatedly, directly, into your sensitive retina.

Sorry I got sidetracked…

I need to thank Debra Nixon, or whatever her name is who started the Goal, Motivation, Conflict craze. Me, sitting in my Litigation class–and hopefully my teacher doesn’t read my blog–I wrote out my characters’ name and their GMC. The hero’s was easy. And then I started on the heroine. All I had at the top of the page was the heroine’s name and her occupation. Nothing I thought to write down locked into what the hero’s GMC would be. This is the one thing I need in order to keep writing on a story–the hero and heroine have to be at odds. Where I was headed in this story the heroine was already half in love with the hero, and the hero was going to fix all the heroine’s problems. THE END. A boring ass story, far from what it started out to be.

So, I did something I don’t normally do–I started to think. It hurt at first, but then I got used to the strain. I kept thinking about how could what the heroine needed conflict with what the hero needed. I really looked like I was paying great attention to what the teacher was saying. A plus for me–unless of course he’s reading the blog now…

And then like the post title, a lightbulb slapped me upside the head. The heavens opened, beaming down rays of light and the chorus of people song that high note “aahhh”. I now know the path this story needed to go down. My heroine shall exact her revenge on the male species. It’s a simple, tried, true brillant idea. A woman scorned, but since it’s a romance I must make her fall in love. She’s going to hate me. And this is usually the sign a book will be going very well from here on out.

*le sigh* I’m going to totally kick this books ass now. Can’t wait for the first.

Silver Platter NaNoWriMo Book

EDITED TO ADD: I’m over at Southern Fried Chicas today.

Let me give you the backstory first. I think it was about a week and a half ago or maybe two weeks ago I had a strange dream. Not a Martin Luther King type of dream, but as close as I’ll get as having one like him. I was in a wedding. Kid and Play were doing there famous dance and then my father, during the reception came up to me, with fear plain on his face, and said to me and told me I needed to get back to my room. My room was 613. (Even being asleep I knew I needed to take note of this. 13 is just my number.)

At this point, the dream really started to get strange. All of sudden I was a teenager again. I was between 14-16. I had a guy friend. He felt like my brother, but not blood related. We had powers. Cool powers. This evil being was following us, trying to erase us off the face of the earth. We were hiding from him, and right before I made myself wake up, were we about to defeat him.

More things happened in this dream than I’m willing to share, but all the details were so vivid. A part of myself was on high alert. It was like 5:30 in the morning, but I forced myself awake. I found the nearest pen and paper and started to jot down all the details the dream had given me about this world and the powers that I had and my friend had. The idea bugged the hell out of me for the rest of the day. Even at work I kept writing down details on the post-it notes. Out of that strange dream that started off with Kid and Play (Seriously, there were doing the famous dance move from House Party) an idea for a YA took root.

This is what I have so far.

I’ve also put together a Book Soundtrack with upbeat songs even though the book feels dark, but I won’t know until tomorrow (tonight at 12:01) when I start writing the book. The heroine, Jalani (Jelani meaning mighty i.e. powerful) is snarky as usual. Cian (Cian= ancient i.e. knowledgeable) is cynical. Both are the perfect characters. Did I mention this is a YA? (Pam, calm down. I know you are still excited…)

The amazing Gwen Hayes told me that’s how the famous Twilight series started. I’m not sure if this is THE IDEA, but I’m so damn intrigued that I’m committing the next month to writing this book. I think that’s the essence of NaNo. Write an idea and really go where it’ll take you. And, folks that’s what I’m doing. I know I’ll going way, way off the path with writing this YA. I’m a die-hard romance writer (Trust me, I’m thinking of Jalani and Cian’s book when they are grown…Yes, follow your mind to the gutter.) But I can’t ignore this idea.

The moral of this rambling post, novice and newbie writer, go where the ideas take you. (Well, if you are not on contract.) You never know where they will take you.

And, sometimes ideas are given to you on a Silver Platter. Don’t be scared to ruin them by writing them. It takes balls I can tell you that much. By 12:01 tomorrow night I may hate this idea, but I’m not stifling my creativity by trying it first.

Have you had a strange idea for a book and still decided to write it?

(Also, let me know your NaNo screen name. I’ll add you to my buddy list. You know once the site isn’t slogging through the thousands upon thousands of Nanoers.)

IN A PAST LIFE I HAD TO BE A PLOTTER

Though I may pants my way through the first draft I plot every detail once I’m done. I have to know what happens when, and why it happens, how does it feed into the bigger picture, and what are the baby steps that’ll get me to the final character arc, black moment, and resolution. That’s a lot to remember, especially when you don’t remember half of what you actually wrote.

Also once I get the notion in my head to REALLY revise I’m very critical of every scene, every sentence, every word. I guess that’s the process for me. I first go through the book to see if the story flows. I think to myself not a bad job, not sure what to add. Then I read it again to fix crappy wording. I think to myself not a bad book. Then I go through the ms again and plug in missing words. I think to myself well…what next?

And finally I can go back “revise”. Not that I don’t consider what I did before not revising, but it just wasn’t changing the face of the story. First I do a synopsis, but the first time around that is always a pointless venture. So I outline.

Bad picture I know, but the gist is I need to fill up all those empty slots with story details. But not too much. I want the editor/agent to get the gist of the story and not bogged down with details they can read from the story.

The Catch-22…I need to plot out the story before I can even finish plugging in the details that are important to just get the gist of the story.

I used the three act structure. The term it means breaking up my story in three distint sections. The first act is usually the set up of the story. The second act is the boggy middle. The last act is the beginning of the end of the story. I also use turning points (think of points of no return in the story.) Something has changed for my character that she’ll never be the same after it happens. They have to be signifact, but the skies don’t have to open up and you hear music. Vague details, but they let me know what was happening to my story and when.

Lastly, character notes I made during the story are extremely helpul. I usually detail what the character learns in the exact order she/he learns them.

Now as far as structure is concerned I went one step farther. At the beginning of the story Phoenix lets her friend read her tarot cards. I wrote the book with each card in mind. Justice, Five of Cups, The Lovers, Judgement, Two of Swords, Ten of Wands, Grim Reaper. Each card carries a meaning, the first card is her past, the second is her present, and the rest are the future. I can write down every scene and it’ll go under one of these categories. Actually, before I started Overworked and Underlaid I did. I didn’t need it anymore so I tossed it out. Am I now regretting it, yes, but that’s beside the point.

Now I can write the synopsis and start revising.

Who said writing is easy?

SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT

I’m so not making my word count for this novel. At least not the first time around. I have five more major scenes I need to write. A sex scene, the wedding, the heroine leaving and the hero letting her go,the heroine’s last and final turning point, and the HEA. That’s all folks.

Yesterday, I wrote 3,557 words and the ending was becoming clearer. I actually jumped ahead and wrote parts of the fourth turning point. (I never jump ahead)But that scene was like a movie playing in front of my eyes. I had to get it down and when I did I started to cry, because the heroine is letting go of all the stuff (emotional baggage)that is keeping her from the hero. For me letting go is so powerful. It’s really speaking your fears out loud. I’ve only written one other scene in my career as a writer that made me sob. (its in I SAID NEVER and it’s also a turning point, the heroine finally cries. Throughout the whole book the character doesn’t cry even when she’s at her Mom’s funeral, even when I threw all the other stuff at her when a sane person would have shed a few tears, I never said she was sane, so that scene is the most important in the whole entire book.)

I digress. Things are going to get ugly. (Imagine the scene in SOMETHINGS GOTTA GIVE type of crying)That scene is going to be a killer and after I write it I may have to stop and go back to my writing later. My goal is to get to page 220(in a good world 220 pages x 250 words a page = 55,000 words, in the real world that’s probably 45k maybe, I’m at page 192. SO FREAKING CLOSE. (And to appease the obsessive part of me I changed my goal to 50k, much more realistic since I know 55k) is a dream.

I’m tasting the ending here. Gotta go. And have a good Veteran’s Day(even though it was really yesterday)

side note: here’s the clip (if you’ve never seen the movie) and it’s in Spanish, but you’ll get the gist.

BLOG AMENDED TO ADD:

Officially at 1:11 a.m. on November 13, 2007 I finished the first draft of OVERWORKED AND UNDERLAID.

Words added for this week: 8,894 (in two days people)
Actual word count:44,230
Total pages:221 (which means in a good world I’m at 55,250!!)
Brain Status: Dead
Total books completed this year: 3
Finishing a book: Priceless
(really you should have seen that one coming)

SWEATY UPDATE, part four

I’m finally done with my first run through and I have to say not bad. So about 2 months and some change I wrote 63,000 words.

Now I have to step back for a week or two and then attack my story with a vengeance. I have to forgot all the reasons I love my character to see if she’s just plain annoying. I have to see if my hero is the type of guy any woman can fall in love with. I have to see if their relationship can hold up even after I wrote THE END. Do I have plot holes the size of Texas? Is the ending satisfying or does it drag on to long? And what details can I add to make the big picture clear.

Since I’m concentrating on the story this is the part I love about revising. The other stuff not too much.

So you ask what am I going to do for the week I’m not looking at or breathing my story?

I’m going to write another one.

As Phoenix would say, Insane, I know, but there you have it.

A DEEPER MEANING

Most writers talk about theme. To me it means the underlining meaning of their story. This includes scripts or even TV sitcoms(well the good ones). Reading over I SAID NEVER I’m seeing the theme in my book. Simply, it’s to have faith.

When I started out writing this book I thought appearances was the main point of the book. Of course that changed when I realized my heroine was having responsibility she didn’t want heaped on her. Then I thought it was letting go of your burdens.

Now why does having faith seem to have a stronger meaning in this book?.

My character lost hers. She lost her faith in love, in living a good life, in human kind. I can also say she lost hope. She also lost hope that she could love somebody unconditionally. She put conditions on her relationships with her family, her best friend, and any potential lover she had. Unconsciously she’d tell the guy you can have me physically but you can never have me emotionally, mentally
I find that powerful. Right now I’m in awe of my character and her bravery to let herself love again without guarantees.

All in all, I love writing.

BURNING UP THE SHEETS

Well, something I wrote got me thinking about sex scenes. One nifty bit of advice I learned not to long ago from Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer is to think of a sex scene as a scene that has sex in it. I know it’s just a play on words but it makes all the difference. I have scenes in my book where my characters are talking over coffee, searching for a culprit, and burning up the sheets.

Why is it important to realize the last example needs to have conflict just like any other scene? Because gratuitous sex is bad. May not be in real life, but in a romance, especially a romance, that scene better have a purpose.

What I’ve found to work for me is to write the scene, write the scene after it and look at the whole picture. What happened before they had sex to lead them there? What changed or what can I see changed between them after they had sex? In my head I see the scene as body language. What are the character’s not saying verbally but are saying in how they interact and move. Does the heroine take complete control and does the hero allow her? How does that differ when they actually have clothes on? How can I show and maintain characterization in this scene? How can I deepen it?

The answers vary from character to character and what point the h/h are in their relationship, the level of trust they have, who’s realized their in love first, and what makes this time different than all the others.

A sex scene isn’t just about sex. Go ahead and let the hero insert tab A into tab B and see if I’m wrong. I’ll wait . . .okay I won’t, but comment if you want to add or argue.

Yes, you already know writing isn’t easy.

KNEE-DEEP IN PLOTTING

I know it may seem ass backwards to outline, write the synopsis, figure out plot points, after you’ve written the book, at least to the plotters out there. For me it makes logical sense. How else will I know how to tighten my story if I don’t know what happens when?

I’ve said this before, I treat my novel like a road map of my story. It’s far from being done once I write THE END.

So what am I doing now?

I had my mother buy me the 300 pack of index cards. I’ve written down the catalyst for my novel and pinned it to my cork board to remind myself why I wrote the book in the first place. I’m 127 pages in and my hands are crapping from all the notes I’m taking. But the most important ones are the turning points and what I call the minor turning points.

The trick I learned is to write around those BIG moments in the book, where something HUGE happens to the character. They might not know it but they can’t turn back, they can’t be who they used to be. Phoenix’s first minor turning point is deciding to go back home for her mother’s funeral. Once she steps foot out her car her life will never be the same. She won’t feel the same about herself, and her journey to the fourth and final turning point is already set in stone and she can’t stop it. Hell, she doesn’t even know it’s coming. The first major turning point is the funeral. I won’t get into detail, but something inside Phoenix shifts after she sees her mother dead.

With that I’m in the strange place of revising. I have to be objective, (when to cut scenes or flesh them out) yet at the same time I still have to hear my character’s voice. I may have to plug in scenes that I missed on my rush to the end and I can’t do that if I can’t feel my character anymore. It’s a strange limbo type of feeling.

What’s complete objectivity? When I’m sending my book out the door to publishers as something saleable.

Oh, a little sidebar. It’s kind of hard to edit a sex scene when your 3 year old son is trying to sit in your lap.

Who said writing was easy?

SWEAT UPDATE, part tres

I’m glad to announce last night I wrote THE END on my fourth novel and being who I am I’ve made small revisions up to chapter 4. Given there are close to 20 chapters I have a ways to go. But I officially have 70k words just shy of my 100k word goal. Once again I must say I kick ass. Now for the hard part, revising.

Revising is one of the most hair pulling process of writing for me. It the process where craft meets creativity. To be completely frank the first draft is pulling a rabbit out of my, well, I’m b-sing my way half way through the novel. My father sells real estate so it’s kind of ingrained into my genetics to make things up as I go.

When I’ve written THE END I finally have a map of my story. I can be honest and say this is my downfall. I still have yet to convince myself what I’ve written isn’t set in stone, but that’s another post.

Now, theoretically, I know who my character’s are, their role, their upbringing, each main character’s motivation, how they arc in the story line and why I was meant to write this story at this time in my life. I just have to find it out of 70, 000 words of gibberish that resembles a book. At this point I’m turning Audrey Hepburn into a lady.

This is the time for me where I break out the charts, attack my cork board and put down plot points i.e. turning points, where I buy a lifetime supply of index cards and record what happened in each chapter to make sure my pacing isn’t off, make sure I left clues to who really committed the crime, make sure there is sexual tension, conflict. Last but not least,I have to fix all the sentences that makes absolutely no sense. The ones where I ask myself if I’d been drinking that particular night. Sticking in words I could swear on Holy Bible I put in. I mean “the Holy Bible.”

See the crux?

But now at least the rabbit is safe until my next novel.

THE END-ways to not panic

I’m about 5k words or less from writing THE END on I SAID NEVER. I’m at 66k words and have a very long road ahead of me.

What have I learned?

Getting the story down is the most important with a first draft, at least for me. I can write beautiful, thought provoking prose later when I revise.This has been the biggest lesson I’ve had to learn. I’ve been able to tell myself it’s okay to write crap and it’s okay to let go of my need for perfection. Not everything I write needs to shine the moment I write it. I can’t stop writing when it doesn’t come out ready and publishable.(That’s just psychotic and unproductive) I can write stuff I know I’m going to cut later. If I want to describe how a room looks for three pages just to get a sense of who my character is by what they notice then I can go for it. I’ve given myself permission to write. Just write.

The second thing I’ve learned is the only way I can see my writing flaws is to write another book. You learn by the process of writing. I’m not saying getting feedback or even participating in online workshops, or what have you, doesn’t work, but if you don’t apply what you’ve learned by writing then you’ve wasted your money.

By writing crap just to get pages down I can spot when Ive left crap in my previous novel. Or more honestly when I was being a lazy writer and left scenes in that didn’t need to be in my novel. There is a thin line between beating yourself up and being more critical of what you write. There’s a saying to not write what a reader will skip over. If you are reading something you wrote and you skip over it, cut it. Don’t look back because nine times out of ten you won’t even remember that you’ve cut it.

Lastly, I have got to believe in what I’m writing and that what I’m writing is worth reading. All this trickles down to writing the best damn book you can and submitting when you’re ready and realizing the catch-22 is you can’t get published if you don’t submit.