2010 in Review

The year is over in a few days and I decided to look back on 2010, in terms of reading and writing:

1--The number of novels I finished

83,000--The word count of my finished novel

75+--An estimate of how many books I read this year

11--The number of query letters I've sent out so far

2--The number of new novels I started writing

2,500--The length of my only short story this year

19--The number of blog posts, including this one, for 2010

99--Percentage of how happy I am when I write (characters do make it difficult that other 1%)

125,000--The number of words I've written this year


This is rather silly, but it'll be interesting to compare the numbers at the end of 2011. Here's to a great year in 2011! (I may even start saying twenty-eleven instead of two thousand eleven.)

Let's Revisit Short Stories

A little over a year ago, not long after I started my first novel, I toyed around with a few short stories. One of them I tried submitting, but it was ultimately rejected. It didn't bother much then or now since I like longer stories; short stories are too restrictive.

One of them, about the legend of Melusine, I ended up incorporating into my now second Secondworld novel. Melusine and her family will play a large role in the second book.

The other story, Burden of Discovery, I think still has an interesting premise (set in the future, where barren women are the outcasts of society and worth is determined by how many children you have), but is more suitable to a novel than a 5,000 word story. I've put in on the back burner for now, but maybe someday I'll be able to rework it.

Since I finished Melusine's story back in 2009, I have focused solely on my novels. I enjoy a larger cast of characters and the freedom to play around with the plot. I never thought I would try writing a short story again unless it tied to my Secondworld novels, hopefully after they'd been published. Then this week I started thinking, what if I gave short stories another chance? It'd be nice to write something that wasn't part of an 80,000+ word story and I could even write it in first person (something I want to do, but my current novels require narrow third person viewpoints).

I sat down and five minutes later, I had an idea. What if one of the characters from my second book, a huldra who can shift to the form of a fox, wrote a letter to his children about his first days as a shape-changer, offering fatherly advice along the way? I sat down and started writing. I finished half of it, took a day off for Christmas, and finished the second half this morning. It's cute, to say the least, and after letting it sit for a few days, I plan to edit it and submit it to a few online magazines.

After a year of near-constant writing and editing, writing a short story was easier for me. The key was to keep the topic narrower and focused, and not try to write a story spanning a number of years, as I had tried to do before. If my fun little exercise pays off, I may have to repeat it again in the future.

Encouraging the Next Generation

The holidays are here, which means I'm driving here and there, to one party, dinner or another, trying to keep my sanity. Yesterday, before going to my brother-in-law's birthday party, I decorated sugar cookies with my niece and nephews. This may seem ordinary, but to any aunt out there who is close to her nieces and nephews, it's not only a lot of fun, but dear to your heart.

After decorating the cookies, my niece had a surprise waiting for me that I hadn't anticipated: she finished her first story. If I'm such a good aunt, as I indubitably am, then how could something like this come as a surprise? Well, my niece is ten years old and like books with pictures, a la Diary of a Wimpy Kid. And while she loves the stories in Japanese Ghibli films, such as Howl's Moving Castle, she has never been a big reader (despite my nudges over the years). I was about to try and steer her towards manga (or graphic novels, if you prefer) when she blindsided me with her story. When I asked her why she wrote the story, she said, "Well, you and Leah (another aunt) both write and my teacher's son just got published, so I thought I would try it too." Let's just say she got a lot of hugs and extra love for that comment!

She was anxious to mail it off and even fetched an envelope. I read the story and afterwards I decided to help her pursue this new interest and had a "junior writer's talk" as I like to call it. In other words, I convinced her to type it up, let it sit a few days and have others offer some suggestions. She was pretty open to the idea, and I hope she takes my advice to keep writing (and to read more). Her story was creative, and if she keeps it up, she has potential. As an extra last minute Christmas gift I've decided to give her a notebook with "Stories by Joanna" on the cover and encourage her every step of the way.

More than one way to plot

After receiving my first request for a partial, I decided to be more productive on the second book in my series. I know that one request for a partial doesn't really mean anything, at least not yet, but if I don't keep writing, I know for a fact I'll never have a chance at being published.

I wrote the first few chapters last week, but then I reached a point where I realized I need to flesh out a new character and my overall plot or this draft would end up a train wreck. Since I wanted to avoid that, I took some time to think about plotting.

Now, I'm pretty much a non-plotter. This means different things to different people, but to me, it means that I don't have every little thing figured out and take inspiration from my imagination as I write. For the first book, The Secondworld Stranger, I spent ages trying to put a plot together. I had read a number of books on writing (if you haven't read Writing the Breakout Novel or The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, I suggest you do, as these are some of the best) and all had different takes on how much plot you need to have structured to start writing. I tried writing all of the events on cards and putting them in the right order, but that didn't really help me. Writing the plot sequence out didn't help either, and in the end, I just started typing and it worked out okay. (I think it's because of the amount of time I spent thinking about the plot beforehand.)

This time around, however, I wanted to try something different. Somewhere I read about how you should, ideally, write your first synopsis before you start writing your novel. I thought, what the hell, maybe my spur of the moment inspiration would come through for this exercise. I started writing a synopsis, and what do you know, it worked. I don't have every little detail figured out (I need space to play around with for the story) but I was able to iron out some major questions I had about backstory. I have the last 1/3 of the book to plot, but I should have the basic plot outline finished today or tomorrow.

All in all, how you plot a novel is up to you and your style. Some people may be meticulous, thinking out every detail and write the story in a matter of weeks or months. Others may just write a first draft and go back. Or other are like me, and fall somewhere in-between. Whatever your style, the most important thing is to keep writing!

Go, go, go **deep breath** Go, go, go

Today I finished a book that left me exhausted. It wasn't a deep, philosophical work or a book written in Japanese (I have experience with both). Believe it or not, it was a paranormal romance.

If I reach page 50, or if I'm feeling generous, 100 and nothing has happened, I stop reading. Maybe a plot is too predictable, or maybe the writing is poor. At any rate, there is such a thing as not enough tension in a novel. What most people don't really talk about are the instances when a novel never stops for a breather. The novel I finished today was just like that; a nonstop ride from start to finish.

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the characters, but there comes a point when you've had enough action and banter to last you for days. It makes it hard to finish the book, or if you persevere like I did, you end up exhausted. I know a book shouldn't be too slow, but please give us a little breathing space every now and then. We want to believe good things can happen in novels along with the bad.

And I hate to say it, but I've had my fill of vampires for a little while. I think I'll go back to historical romance for a week or so and see if I can dive back in. Let's hope so because I have a stack of paranormal books from the library, just sitting there, waiting to be read.

Side Note: I've started writing book two of my Secondworld series. There's so much possibility...

Polished Completion Happy Dance

As the title suggests, I've finished polishing my manuscript. From my first big edit to a polished product took me three months. Editing was, and has remained, my least favorite part of the writing process. I owe a big kudos to Michelle, my reader extraordinaire. I only hope everyone else is as fortunate to have a sister who also has a knack for spotting inconsistencies and giving invaluable critiques. Of course this is the same woman who never lets me forget I caught her kitchen on fire that one time...

At any rate, you may be wondering what next? Well that's easy: time to start Oliver's story for book two. I recently sketched up the plot for books two and three, although being the non-plotter I am, I have just the bare bones. I love to incorporate ideas as they come. A prime example is this morning: while I finished polishing the last few chapters, I realized what the fourth book will be about. Some authors want to write a trilogy and move on, but I believe with a large, complex cast of characters, writing a series will be fun. I love the world I've created (Secondworld) and hope to work my way forward and back in history. If you think you know what's happened in the past, think again. The Fair-folk have hidden themselves well over the years...

As time and word count goes on, editing may become a little less tiresome, but only time will tell. I certainly hope I don't have to throw out the first 100 pages again, like I did with this first book, and start over.

Time to celebrate briefly with some upbeat music before chaining myself to the keyboard once more.

Query update: I've researched and found five wonderful agents, sent them letters and now have to wait. I'm still researching agents for my second wave of letters, but I'll wait a little bit longer before I send them out.

My First Battle Scar

Well, it's official: I've received my first rejection letter. While this doesn't really change anything, I suppose it tranfers me from the group of "I want to write a book" to the group of "I wrote a book and I'm trying to get it published."

Personally, I'm good with rejections. (After attempting to find a teaching job, or any job really, in this economy, you get used to it.) What I was sad to read was how many agents won't respond with a rejection email, but only respond if they're interested. The reason? Too many heated and nasty emails in return.

To all those people who can't seem to take rejection well: shame on you. With many popular agents receiving up to 100 queries a day, there is no way they are going to accept everyone. The agent business is subjective and no, not everyone is going to fall in love with your work. Treat others how you want to be treated. This is the motto I live by, and hold my students to, and maybe you should try the same.

If you can't take rejection, and refuse to believe there is a way to better your writing, then maybe you should rethink your goals.

And to all agents who have received the aforementioned nasty emails, I'm sorry you had to put up with it. Please do your job and know that at least this aspiring author will respect your decision, no matter if it's a rejection or not.

Query Update: I tweaked my letter and sent out my first real wave. Now I wait.