Tuesday Hangovers

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First Draft Island

Effing Genius / By /

So, earlier this evening, kvetching about revision on twitter As You Do, I tweeted:

And:

Which, of course, yes, so familiar here too. And then the fabulous Sarah says she can do maps in Paint. And then a bit later BEHOLD, the first draft of First Draft Island (!):

I simply could not let this go unshared, lost to the ever-shifting twitter cocktail hour sands.

Larger image of Sarah's brilliant mapping behind the cut:

…

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Wrangling the Wild Year

4 Comments / BirthdayGras!, Real Life / By /

Last night I started thinking about where I was this time last year and how much has changed since then.

We were in Vieques, on the only real and true vacation we've ever taken (thanks to Kim O'Donnel and Russ Walker for that, and a fabulous trip). I was just about to finish up a major revision of the novel that's now called Blackwood, and I was feeling a bit at sea about where I might be headed. Would I ever sell a book? I wasn't sure, but I knew I'd keep writing them regardless. I already had a little bit of a beginning of a new book to work on next, but I wasn't sure about it. And so, mostly, I was just trying to make that book–then called Strange Alchemy–as good as I possibly could at the time.

I'd been on my own with the dogs for the week before and hadn't slept much and had developed a theory that maybe I didn't need to sleep anymore, or only a couple of hours a night, something I refer to as "becoming Bill Clinton" (get your mind out of the gutter: this was because he famously didn't need much sleep; I envy people with this evolutionary advantage). Luckily, this insomniac mania wore off after a day at the beach on island time and I did not go insane and start believing I was Bill Clinton.

Anyway, my birthday was the following week, and I'm coming up on a birthday this week (Thursday, to be exact), so maybe that accounts for the stock-taking. But, also, sometimes I have a tendency to just keep working nonstop, which means not pausing to appreciate Something Big Happened.

It's hard not to notice, though, comparing this year and last year. I did sell a book (thank you thank you again to superagent Jenn and supereditor Amanda), and it will be out in two months. I'd be spending a lot more time worrying about whether or not people will like it (yes, okay, I'm still spending too much time doing that), but I have a second book to turn in soon. And I'm just about to start revising it, so that will happen. I love this book and it's sooo scary trying to make it what I want it to be and believe it can be (and on time). Both the love and the fear are necessary, and planning. Pause for gratuitous shot of desk prepped for revising (click through for annotated photo):

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Anyway, long way of saying, I'm in a much different place this year…in some ways.

But the main thing I'm worried about now is the same thing I was worried about then. The focus is exactly the same: on making the book the best I can at this time, and then once that's done, writing another one. The focus is on the writing.

And when I think about the future and what I want for my career, sure, there are more specific things I'd like to happen. But mainly I just hope that I will be able to keep telling stories and that some of you (and some people who aren't you! total strangers who don't know I exist!) will get something valuable out of those stories through that magical collaboration of writer and reader.

I also want to say to those of you still in the query and/or submission stage that you know as well as I do the important thing is to keep working, because you never know. The imprint I'm being published by didn't exist yet at this time last year, but I feel SO incredibly lucky to have landed there. I pinch myself daily. And when I think, Hey, I sold a book and it will be in bookstores! Holy crap, Something Big Happened! what I also think is that it wasn't magic. It was something I worked really hard for, for a really long time. And, honestly? That feels like the biggest achievement. Giving up is easy. But it's not for writers, mostly. Writers risk failure and rejection every single day. It's not for cowards.

And at the end of the day I truly believe what matters most* is the same for all of us, sold and unsold, beginners and those well into their careers**: one word in front of the other. Keep moving. Keep writing. Keep trying our hardest to get better.

Meanwhile, I hope the surprises this year has in store are as good as last year's.

*'What matters most' is chosen carefully here. Obviously, we all have lots of concerns based on our careers and individual circumstances, but from my vantage this is nearly universal. It's the only part we truly have control over, so it better be.

**Although I could be wrong about this. It's entirely possible once you get further into your career you worry about bears or clown attacks.

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Plottings & Plannings

Blackwood / By /

Hello, my lovelies! Happy day before Independence Day, if you celebrate such. We mostly soothe Emma the Dog and wait for the horrorbooming to end (though we are going out to Celebrate Your Independents tonight at West Sixth, and you should too, if you're in the Lexington-ville area).

Wellll, my biggest news is that I finally finished the draft of the new book. It is a first draft (see this marvelous post about such by Susan Elliot Wright, spotted courtesy of the excellent Kim Curran), so mostly I'm taking a few days pause and then rolling up my sleeves to spend this month making it presentable by Looming Deadline. Then I shall gather the thoughts of smart people (most especially my fabulous genius editor) and attempt to make it Way Better Than Presentable.

In the meantime, I'm also trying to get Blackwood launching ducks of the promotional variety–really, there won't be any ducks (though there will be donuts)–lined up. Because, I don't know if you know this, but September 4 is SHOCKINGLY SOON. (I am shocked, at least.) Said lining up involved making a list today of everything cyber and real-life that I know I'm doing and that I might be doing. Which is where you come in:

Should you be interested in setting something up in either the online corners of the world or the real ones, let me know.

(I might be contacting you regardless, but I wanted to say it anyway.) I'll be adding at least a couple more things to the events page soon, but here it is for now.

My goal for all of this is to have fun–and for the season of promotional launchening to be fun and not obnoxious for y'all as well. To that end, ideas, cocktail recipes, requests, etcetera, are welcome and encouraged. Also, haikus about alchemy. Actually, maybe we'll save the haikus about alchemy for release day.

As you were.

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Thursday Hangovers

Hangovers / By /

Another crazy week, another crop of quick links.

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Bunheads Chatter Chorus (Episode Three Edition)

TV Goodness / By /

And I've posted the thread for tonight's episode, which is:

Inherit the Wind. When Fanny's attorney gives her shocking news, she takes it hard and makes the situation more awkward for Michelle. Making matters worse, Michelle has a run-in with the law when she takes off in Hubbell's car to blow off steam, only to break down in the driveway of a handsome, local recluse. Meanwhile, the girls compete against other dance studios in an "ugliest feet" contest.

Last week was interesting, including lots more spot-the-Gilmore Girls-parallels: Black Swan Rory, a quick glimpse of a chef that better not be a Sookie analogue, etc. Now it sounds like we may get the Luke (and/or Christopher) analogue tonight. (I do like a handsome recluse, however.)

Anyway, you can find the discussion space for this one over at Facebook.

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Friday Five of Random Chatter

Nattering / By /

1. Christopher is coming home today. YAY. In case you were wondering about the grossness sweepstakes (I know you were, c'mon), the dead bird count is holding steady at three. The tragic bird Okies seem to have gotten their tiny plan together to not fall out of trees into the Dust Bowl and/or Emma the Dog has been unlucky instead of wrathful. Whatever the case, I say again: YAY. Now if I could only stop yawning. (I did reveal on twitter the secret head-tapping trick of wakefulness, provided by Barb at a Wiscon, I believe. It works. At least temporarily. You just tap your scalp with your fingertips and ignore the strange looks. *taptaptap*)

2. So, I didn't finish the draft of the gods book this week, but I managed a respectable 7,000 words. The lion's chunk of that was on Sunday, which is possibly the only time I've ever drafted a chapter in a day. The rest was pecking away. But this was a week filled with family medical issues and hospital trips and ambient stress and running le household solo and tres dead birds and such. I'll take it. Annnd I'm finally in the home stretch, aka the last 10K (I hope this isn't one of those false horizon endings…), so next week should do it. Resisting panic, since I'm really looking forward to digging into the 1.0 to 1.5 or (with any luck) 2.0 draft. For once, I actually have a list of pre-notes for that first pass of revision. Speaking of which…

3. Terri Windling had a typically great collection of quotes (and Tilly photos) this morning in a post titled "The courage to be bad," which says it all, doesn't it? I tumblred a piece of it, and I just saw Kat Howard has a nice process post inspired by it too, in which she talks about how we learn to let go of that idea of perfection in first drafts as we get better at revision. And, yes, what she said. I think one of the most freeing things for me about the First Draft now is that unlike when I started out and would sometimes hand this off to C or others unvarnished as soon as I finished*, I now know that the Real and True First Draft is for my eyes only. It makes the writing go much easier to know no one will ever see it quite so messy, except me. (Barring the bus crash that is one of my greatest writerly fear fantasies; to have left a first draft on the desk and get hit by a bus is only topped by the thought of a half-done revision and getting hit by a bus.) And not that this first revision will be the only one by any means, but hopefully it will be enough to enable the REAL revision that will inevitably be necessary. I think the bones of this draft are pretty solid (the outline more or less held), but it needs some facial restruction and skin grafts and emo therapy here and there. As always. Not that I'm not half-panicked during a draft the whole time, because, believe me, I AM. But I feel like I've also learned to let go of the idea of solving all the problems (especially smaller ones) during a first draft. I can take it on faith now that if I keep writing, those little alarms in the subconscious about reveals or the fuzzy parts of the ending or characters who aren't quite right yet will present solutions or at least that solutions will be able to be teased out of the completed draft (almost goes without saying that's with the help of writer friends, agent and editor, but always worth saying, of course). Not to say I never stop and actively come up with solutions, but I'm way more comfortable rolling with uncertainty now. Once it's complete I can be more efficient about problem-solving. Maybe. Anyway, something I noticed and decided to natter about. Clearly.

4. Remind me of all this when I start panicking during the revision about how it will never be any good and there's no way I'm equal to the task, what is wrong with me for even trying this, etc. etc., okay? (Seriously, this book has been hard for lots of reasons. Because it's big and epic and *hard*, natch, but also perhaps because I'm writing it while careening toward the release of my debut novel–more fun with ambient stress!–and my worry has been deep at times, but now I'm back to loving it, and I just want to finish so I can Make It The Best I Can. Hallelujah. Not a moment too soon.) Those feelings are a completely normal and unavoidable stage, too.

5. But enough process-o-mancy. Some things well worth reading elsewhere: "it's who you are at the core" by Justine Musk (HELL YES); "10 Things I Learned on Book Tour" by Austin Kleon (good stuff in here applicable to lots of situations, not just touring); "The Incredible Resilience of Books" by Peter Osnos (the sky is the sky and cannot fall); Shannon Messenger on figuring out how to deal with reviews and best interact with review(er)s online as a debut author (to which I can only say, yes, and always thank you to anyone who reads my book–I commented there too); and, finally, the Books That Shaped America exhibit at my beloved LOC (thoughts on the list?).

Have a great weekend, everybody. *mwah*

(*Finished as in typed The End, not as in really finished. The whole problem. And, okay, so I totally did this to Beth Revis and Laurel Snyder at our retreat earlier this year, but I had no choice. It was an extreme situation, and there was No Time. Sorry, guys! I sure hope I don't get hit by a bus before I get around to taking another pass at that one.)

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Tuesday Hangovers

Hangovers / By /

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Bunheads Chatter Chorus

6 Comments / TV Badness, TV Goodness / By /

And tonight's episode is:

For Fanny. An unexpected occurence puts Michelle at odds with her new mother-in-law; Fanny's students prove to be an inspiration.

The Facebook discussion thread is right here.

Unrelated personal nattering: For those keeping a grossness tally of C's week away at le workshop (okay, that's just me, but I'm going to inflict it on you too), so far I've had to dispose of THREE dead birds from the back yard. Tragic bird family–seriously, they are the Okies of bird families, the back yard is the Dust Bowl, and Emma is the Steinbeckian wrath–keep building their nest where babies get washed out when it storms… Sadness. Especially when you have to intercept a half-golden retriever, half-basset hound who apparently got the retrieving gene loud and clear. Don't let her innocent mug fool you.

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Cold-Blooded Killer* (aka Warm-Blooded Retriever)

Anyway, come over later and talk TV (and things that are infuriating said in interviews).

*Did I ever post Christopher's story about the teacher who told his seventh grade science class that: "Dogs are cold-blooded. How else are they able to sleep outside during the winter?"

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Nutso Crazytown Week (With Bunheads Bonus)

Excuses, Excuses, TV Goodness / By /

Lalala, is my hair on fire or does it just feel that way? It just feels that way, I think. Whew.

Most of my week was spent writing a lengthy essay about one of my favorite book series, about which more once the TOC is public (and I find out if the essay turned out acceptably, of course). This involved much flipping around in copies of said beloved books, and a passel of post-it noting that is going to be a pain to remove when I finally get around to that. I like reading on my Nook fine, but I must admit more than once this week I thought that I couldn't even imagine trying to do the same sort of thing if I didn't have hard copies at hand.

And the rest of the week was eaten by pecking away on the draft of the gods book, which it's my Sworn Intention (before you, my sacred witnesses) to finish next week while Christopher's off in the mountains of North Carolina at Sycamore Hill and I'm a workshop widow. It shall be done, etc. Add to all this a sudden hospitalization in the family and a random act of vandalism last night where some jerk smashed the driver's side window of our car while it was parked on the street across from our house and…this has not been the soothing week of soothingness.

At all. But so it goes.

The one bright spot, however, was a sun appearing on the horizon of summer's barren TV landscape: Bunheads. It's early yet, and it could go the path of suck, but I fully loved the first episode. If you haven't heard about this show, it's by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and it's a major return to form. Yes, it shares commonalities with GG, but one) that's not a bad thing and two) I believe it'll grow into something very much its own. (The Bunheads of the title are ballerinas.)

Anyway, long-time blog readers may remember ye olde Gilmore Gossip Circle, in which we'd gather to gab in the comments after episodes. It was great fun. There have been other attempts made for other shows, but they tended to wane. Karen Meisner and I were chatting about Bunheads on Facebook (as we recently did during the ANTM finale, too) and decided to try and give the old analytical TV stop a revival…but since we've been doing the chats at Facebook and it's so much easier to comment there, I'm thinking that's where they'll be. I'll put up a public post there with a description of the week's episode on Monday evenings and link to it from here. If you're a Facebook hater (smart), then feel free to just comment here, though I suspect it will be rowdier over there.

So, if you're so inclined, join in next week's:

Bunheads-1

CHATTER CHORUS

And if you missed the premiere it's up online.

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