Love that! It hasn't happened much lately, so I WILL OH MY GOD FREAKING TAKE IT!
Excited about more writing tomorrow!!! Sometimes the brain just gets cloudy, and sometimes it isn't. I love the clear days that have focus and drive and determination but not crazy... Cuz the crazy days SUCK!
Let the writing flow! Thank you God! Seriously!
Feeling more relaxed, which has played into successful writing. I've gotten back to trusting myself because I am a good writer. And I know this. I will succeed.
Missing my LONG distance writer friend but my emo-ness can't rule my life.
Writing rules my life. I love it. All kinds of it. Even query letters! Kind of in a groove with those as well!
Can I get a Southern cheer? Yee-haw!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Simple Things
I got my book back from one of my editors. Lots of work ahead of me, but it's my favorite kind.
Drafted another query letter. To another agent.
Had lunch with a very good friend of mine today who put life back into perspective. Well, at least a little. And it was enough to make a difference.
Bought Bud Light and made campfire potatoes to channel my Dad. He always used to tell us to, "Stay tough. You're tough. You can handle it." He's said that to me more times than I can count. I needed a reminder today, and I got it.
Thank God for the simple things. And days that are simply better than previous days.
Drafted another query letter. To another agent.
Had lunch with a very good friend of mine today who put life back into perspective. Well, at least a little. And it was enough to make a difference.
Bought Bud Light and made campfire potatoes to channel my Dad. He always used to tell us to, "Stay tough. You're tough. You can handle it." He's said that to me more times than I can count. I needed a reminder today, and I got it.
Thank God for the simple things. And days that are simply better than previous days.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Productivity Abounds
-ish.
The Novel Synopsis got much better and slightly shorter today. It's going to get even prettier and more concise tomorrow. Because it's about two pages too long. What? Yesterday it was three pages too long! See! Progress!!!
Making progress on query letters, and I've heard from both of my editors. Moving forward. Every day. And should have my novel back from both editors very soon! I'm excited! And nervous! I feel like I'm about to reunited with my child whom I've spent the last month away from. Not only am I going to get her back but she will be marked all over. So, I have to tell my ego to shut it while I look at her ugliness to make her prettier. It's much better to have someone I know tell me where her rough edges are than a literary agent or publisher who doesn't know me and whom I don't know. At least my editors who are reading her are reading her with love. And hopefully they'll spare me a rejection letter or two as well. That would be awesome! As I'm going to have to tell my ego to "Shut It!" over and over again as the rejection letters come pouring in. Because I hear that's how it works. And I know someone will want her.
Gearing up for St. Patty's celebrating. Blowing off a little steam is productive too. Getting out of the house and for real away from my computer is good sometimes too.
The Novel Synopsis got much better and slightly shorter today. It's going to get even prettier and more concise tomorrow. Because it's about two pages too long. What? Yesterday it was three pages too long! See! Progress!!!
Making progress on query letters, and I've heard from both of my editors. Moving forward. Every day. And should have my novel back from both editors very soon! I'm excited! And nervous! I feel like I'm about to reunited with my child whom I've spent the last month away from. Not only am I going to get her back but she will be marked all over. So, I have to tell my ego to shut it while I look at her ugliness to make her prettier. It's much better to have someone I know tell me where her rough edges are than a literary agent or publisher who doesn't know me and whom I don't know. At least my editors who are reading her are reading her with love. And hopefully they'll spare me a rejection letter or two as well. That would be awesome! As I'm going to have to tell my ego to "Shut It!" over and over again as the rejection letters come pouring in. Because I hear that's how it works. And I know someone will want her.
Gearing up for St. Patty's celebrating. Blowing off a little steam is productive too. Getting out of the house and for real away from my computer is good sometimes too.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Who knows?
Sometimes life as a writer is just crazy because I'm a writer and thus slightly crazy. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But some days I feel like the more I try to understand myself, the less I do, and I should just stop trying to understand the mass of complexities involved in my writing process and just go with it. This is how the channels have skipped lately.
Weekend out of town. Lots of notes on random scraps of paper or in the notes folder on my blackberry. More time collecting all of these notes and putting them into play.
Tired. Time change sucks and is very confusing when you go from CST to EST and back again during the time change. Grumpy morning. Whatever writing. Emo writing because it has to get out of my brain in some sort of attempt for me to be able to move onto writing about something productive or actually on my To Do List. Only half productivity. And when I say half I really mean zero.
Warm bath. Good, new fiction novel. Motivational signs for myself. Meditation. Catch up on sleep! Deep breaths. Prayers. More prayers. And even more prayers to God to take the things I'm thinking about because they're not what I need to be thinking about: query letter, novel synopsis, novel... And these things I'm thinking about are OUT OF MY CONTROL! Who knew my crazy writer self was such a control freak? Yes, I can hear all of you who are laughing at me right now having known this to be true for years.
Rewording the phrase To Do List a million different ways to make it easier mentally. Writing motivational phrases at the top of every day's list of activities, suggestions, or ideas to start my days on a positive note.
Dave Matthews, more Dave Matthews, my Soulful playlist, classic rock, Modest Mouse, silence, and then country. Which I should have been writing to all along. It does wonders for me. I sing along loudly, looking like a fool to the neighbors who walk by my window, but writing up a beautiful storm.
Scheduling every minute of my day in half hour to hour long increments. Checking things off! Checking things off! Sticking to my damn OCD schedule and CHECKING THINGS OFF!!!
Yes, I am this much of a crazy writer! But it worked, yet again, for me today. So I check off one more thing: this blog. Then I go watch some Dexter for inspiration. Yes, Dexter is on the To Do List as well!
Weekend out of town. Lots of notes on random scraps of paper or in the notes folder on my blackberry. More time collecting all of these notes and putting them into play.
Tired. Time change sucks and is very confusing when you go from CST to EST and back again during the time change. Grumpy morning. Whatever writing. Emo writing because it has to get out of my brain in some sort of attempt for me to be able to move onto writing about something productive or actually on my To Do List. Only half productivity. And when I say half I really mean zero.
Warm bath. Good, new fiction novel. Motivational signs for myself. Meditation. Catch up on sleep! Deep breaths. Prayers. More prayers. And even more prayers to God to take the things I'm thinking about because they're not what I need to be thinking about: query letter, novel synopsis, novel... And these things I'm thinking about are OUT OF MY CONTROL! Who knew my crazy writer self was such a control freak? Yes, I can hear all of you who are laughing at me right now having known this to be true for years.
Rewording the phrase To Do List a million different ways to make it easier mentally. Writing motivational phrases at the top of every day's list of activities, suggestions, or ideas to start my days on a positive note.
Dave Matthews, more Dave Matthews, my Soulful playlist, classic rock, Modest Mouse, silence, and then country. Which I should have been writing to all along. It does wonders for me. I sing along loudly, looking like a fool to the neighbors who walk by my window, but writing up a beautiful storm.
Scheduling every minute of my day in half hour to hour long increments. Checking things off! Checking things off! Sticking to my damn OCD schedule and CHECKING THINGS OFF!!!
Yes, I am this much of a crazy writer! But it worked, yet again, for me today. So I check off one more thing: this blog. Then I go watch some Dexter for inspiration. Yes, Dexter is on the To Do List as well!
Meg's Fiction in A Flash
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
This novel is a pleasant surprise and deviation from Brown's masonic symbolism trilogy. Yes, I realize this book was published before The Davinci Code and the like. Let's just say I'm a late bloomer to the earlier works of Dan Brown.
From the prologue, this story is off and running in true Dan Brown style. Also, in Brown's style, the prologue places readers in one setting, while the first chapter takes readers to a completely different continent. Brown's prose are detailed but not overly so, thrilling, suspenseful, and fast-moving. The text springs to life and is constantly moving forward at a rapid pace with which readers anxiously keeping up, frantically flipping page after page.
It's not hard for a true fiction lover to sink his/her teeth into a Brown novel. Conflict abounds, and he masterfully weaves multiple plots into one thick, compelling story as readers worry about individual characters, government conspiracies, and national security threats. Calling this novel a page turner is an understatement. And just when you're in the thick of it all, thinking you've made some progress, and you're sure who's good and who's bad, Brown puts one little paragraph in there that forces you to question everything you thought you knew.
Brown always has a romantic subplot, and this novel is no different. This subplot is always masterfully intertwined into the major plot of the story leaving readers pulling not only for the good guys to win and the threat to be destroyed, but also for the lovers to be reunited and live happily ever after, or at least happily until the next national security threat. The emphasis put on this subplot is generally well balanced within the framework of the story.
Dan Brown follows a very successful mystery/thriller formula but makes it feel less formulaic with the depth of the characters he develops. He also plays with issues that are current and very real in today's society. The idea of a government agency responsible for reading emails and listening to phone calls in a counter terrorism capacity may once have been a dream, but is now very much a reality and thus something people are already considering the ramifications of. So Brown's fictional account of the possibilities of an agency like the NSA and the breadth of its control is interesting, scary, and eye-opening making for a great novel.
This novel is a pleasant surprise and deviation from Brown's masonic symbolism trilogy. Yes, I realize this book was published before The Davinci Code and the like. Let's just say I'm a late bloomer to the earlier works of Dan Brown.
From the prologue, this story is off and running in true Dan Brown style. Also, in Brown's style, the prologue places readers in one setting, while the first chapter takes readers to a completely different continent. Brown's prose are detailed but not overly so, thrilling, suspenseful, and fast-moving. The text springs to life and is constantly moving forward at a rapid pace with which readers anxiously keeping up, frantically flipping page after page.
It's not hard for a true fiction lover to sink his/her teeth into a Brown novel. Conflict abounds, and he masterfully weaves multiple plots into one thick, compelling story as readers worry about individual characters, government conspiracies, and national security threats. Calling this novel a page turner is an understatement. And just when you're in the thick of it all, thinking you've made some progress, and you're sure who's good and who's bad, Brown puts one little paragraph in there that forces you to question everything you thought you knew.
Brown always has a romantic subplot, and this novel is no different. This subplot is always masterfully intertwined into the major plot of the story leaving readers pulling not only for the good guys to win and the threat to be destroyed, but also for the lovers to be reunited and live happily ever after, or at least happily until the next national security threat. The emphasis put on this subplot is generally well balanced within the framework of the story.
Dan Brown follows a very successful mystery/thriller formula but makes it feel less formulaic with the depth of the characters he develops. He also plays with issues that are current and very real in today's society. The idea of a government agency responsible for reading emails and listening to phone calls in a counter terrorism capacity may once have been a dream, but is now very much a reality and thus something people are already considering the ramifications of. So Brown's fictional account of the possibilities of an agency like the NSA and the breadth of its control is interesting, scary, and eye-opening making for a great novel.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Thankful Thursday!
Thankful for an easier writing day than some I've had recently. Today, I told myself I was going to write x, y, and z, and my brain said okay. Let's get it done. And I did.
Thankful for sunshine. It just makes me happier and my writing better.
Thankful for the ability to run as much as I do. Again, the physical activity just makes me happier and thus my writing better.
Thankful for my imagination. I spent the afternoon running around in my imagination trying to figure out what messed up thing my new character, Stephanie, was going to do next. My imagination makes me feel like a little kid: free, like anything can happen if I can just dream it up. And that's why I read so much fiction and write murder mystery novels. I like spending time running rampant through the wilderness of my imagination.
Thankful for the ability to swear in my writing, since I gave it up in real life for Lent.
Thankful for the ability to think outside the box sometimes. Instead of composing my query letter in front of my computer, which WAS NOT working, I walked the dog. And I took pen and paper with me. Thankful that this approach made all the difference. And I now have a query letter. Finally.
Thankful for my fellow writers. I love all of you near and far. It's good to have people to bounce ideas off of, to help me work through ideas when I get stuck, to help me edit EVERYTHING, to help me write some of the difficult things, and to just generally provide a supportive, knowing ear when I need it.
Thankful for sunshine. It just makes me happier and my writing better.
Thankful for the ability to run as much as I do. Again, the physical activity just makes me happier and thus my writing better.
Thankful for my imagination. I spent the afternoon running around in my imagination trying to figure out what messed up thing my new character, Stephanie, was going to do next. My imagination makes me feel like a little kid: free, like anything can happen if I can just dream it up. And that's why I read so much fiction and write murder mystery novels. I like spending time running rampant through the wilderness of my imagination.
Thankful for the ability to swear in my writing, since I gave it up in real life for Lent.
Thankful for the ability to think outside the box sometimes. Instead of composing my query letter in front of my computer, which WAS NOT working, I walked the dog. And I took pen and paper with me. Thankful that this approach made all the difference. And I now have a query letter. Finally.
Thankful for my fellow writers. I love all of you near and far. It's good to have people to bounce ideas off of, to help me work through ideas when I get stuck, to help me edit EVERYTHING, to help me write some of the difficult things, and to just generally provide a supportive, knowing ear when I need it.
Monday, March 8, 2010
I scored a triple whammy!
So...last week I spent two full days agonizing over my Novel Synopsis (Okay probably longer than that agonizing but only two full days of physical writing.). So last week I spend two FULL days writing my first draft of my novel synopsis.
This morning I began rewriting my novel synopsis after having done just a little more research on novel synopses online. There are several factors for the rewrite here. First, I was reading the same information I'm sure about how to write a novel synopsis. I was just reading it from a different source thus different wording on how to achieve this seemingly impossible task. Sometimes wording it differently is all it takes for the light bulb to turn on in your brain.
The second reason for my morning rewrite is...the first version SUCKS! I mean. It sucks big time!!!
So not only did I waste two whole days writing this steaming piece of s*@t, but it is, in fact, garbage and thus, will not be used. One, two, three...I'm hittin' em outta the ball park here guys!
The silver lining to the writer's Triple Whammy. What I wrote this morning flowed really easily, kind of came naturally after I'd done a little more research, and is going to be very awesome when I'm finished with it.
In other oh-my-God-I'm-not-published-and-want-to-be-so-badly news... Querying a literary agent is freaking hard! Query letter writing is not fun writing! You don't kill anyone in a query letter. There's no romance in a query letter. No suspense. Just business! And what do I have to say about business writing like resumes and cover letters...Ewwww! Gross! I loathe them! I avoid writing them like the plague! Can I write these businessy things? Yes. Do I want to? NO!!! However, a friend of mine today equated these query letters to cover letters. You can use one for all of them because you say the same thing to everyone; you just change a few of the specifics. Maybe my friend's right. Maybe my friend's wrong. I think she's a little right. So, for real tomorrow, I write a query letter. I've already written and rewritten a really good elevator pitch, which is the first paragraph of the letter itself. Thus, I only have two or three more paragraphs to write. It has to all fit on one page after all.
More deep breaths. More sunshine. (Hopefully!) More Dave Matthews. More telling myself, "I can do this! I can do this. I CAN DO THIS DAMNIT! And I'm going to!"
Also having fun writing a new character named Stephanie. She's young and violent and hopefully Faulkner-esque!
This morning I began rewriting my novel synopsis after having done just a little more research on novel synopses online. There are several factors for the rewrite here. First, I was reading the same information I'm sure about how to write a novel synopsis. I was just reading it from a different source thus different wording on how to achieve this seemingly impossible task. Sometimes wording it differently is all it takes for the light bulb to turn on in your brain.
The second reason for my morning rewrite is...the first version SUCKS! I mean. It sucks big time!!!
So not only did I waste two whole days writing this steaming piece of s*@t, but it is, in fact, garbage and thus, will not be used. One, two, three...I'm hittin' em outta the ball park here guys!
The silver lining to the writer's Triple Whammy. What I wrote this morning flowed really easily, kind of came naturally after I'd done a little more research, and is going to be very awesome when I'm finished with it.
In other oh-my-God-I'm-not-published-and-want-to-be-so-badly news... Querying a literary agent is freaking hard! Query letter writing is not fun writing! You don't kill anyone in a query letter. There's no romance in a query letter. No suspense. Just business! And what do I have to say about business writing like resumes and cover letters...Ewwww! Gross! I loathe them! I avoid writing them like the plague! Can I write these businessy things? Yes. Do I want to? NO!!! However, a friend of mine today equated these query letters to cover letters. You can use one for all of them because you say the same thing to everyone; you just change a few of the specifics. Maybe my friend's right. Maybe my friend's wrong. I think she's a little right. So, for real tomorrow, I write a query letter. I've already written and rewritten a really good elevator pitch, which is the first paragraph of the letter itself. Thus, I only have two or three more paragraphs to write. It has to all fit on one page after all.
More deep breaths. More sunshine. (Hopefully!) More Dave Matthews. More telling myself, "I can do this! I can do this. I CAN DO THIS DAMNIT! And I'm going to!"
Also having fun writing a new character named Stephanie. She's young and violent and hopefully Faulkner-esque!
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