Freewriting

Things are hectic around the upcoming holiday weekend, so I'm not posting as often as I'd like. A friend of mine pointed out on Facebook that my last post was full of so much writer jargon that it made little sense to him. Once I realized that, I figured I could spend a few postings deciphering the jargon.

Freewriting was one term I used. Anyone who's seen the movie Finding Forrester has seen freerwriting. Sean Connery's character does it when teaching the main character how to get going on a project. The idea is that you put your fingers to the keyboard and just write whatever comes to you. Start it like a diary entry, or describe what you see on the wall opposite you, or make up a story to explain what the people outside your window are talking about. The idea is to just get going and keep the words flowing.

The result, when it works like it should, is a lot of fresh prose with ideas pulled off the back of your brain. This is an excellent way to discover new characters or themes or even plot ideas. It doesn't often work well for, say, writing an entire piece. Although some of my favorite stories have that fresh, flowing, freewritten feel. The Last Unicorn springs to mind, though I don't know if Peter S. Beagle actually freewrote it.

I realized when I started freewriting to come up with my next YA project that it's been far too long since I've done this exercise. I've planned and plotted and troubleshot everything I've done recently before I even started the first draft. I definitely need a change of pace.

Finishing buzz

There's nothing quite like feeling done with a project. It's finally come together and done what you want it to do. I think I've been on a finishing buzz high these last two weeks as I turned in the edits on a novel and now finished the major edits on my Chinese themed short story. Extra thanks to Trevor, Char, and Samantha Ling for their crits (and Ling's story is wonderful, I hafta say.)

I guess short story writing is the key to feeling that finishing buzz more often. If only I were any good at it... As S.M. Stirling puts it, writing a short story is like trying to stuff a cat into a Coke bottle without breaking bones. Some people excel at this (and by that I mean short story writing - if I know anyone good at cat stuffing, I'd prefer not to know who they are). I do not, but short stories are great exercise, I think. They take as much work as novels and pay a lot less, but you really have to know how to build a scene and structure a plot to make them work.

So, I've started another novel, and in a break from the norm, it's starting as a freewrite project. I feel my YA science fiction needs some fresh ideas and a new direction. Freewriting will either give it that, or it'll at least pass some time until a more intelligent idea comes along.

Edward v. Buffy

Funnily enough, Shiny just posted this on their site too (no wonder I like those people!) Anyway, this gave me a good laugh. Yeah, it's a rather obvious statement to make, but you know? It's well said all the same.

Done! Well almost... after this re-read and I fix this one thing....

I'm pretty much done with the edits on my next LDS novel. I'm to that stage where I know I should just quit but I keep wanting to pick at things and move commas around, etc. I told my editor I'd have it to her tomorrow (as anyone in a self-motivate or perish career can tell you, emailing promises is a good way to impose deadlines on yourself.)

The Very Small Array, a listserv of southwestern speculative fiction writers (and editors, and friends of either category, and people who don't really live anywhere near the southwest) was kind enough to brainstorm titles for me. One that stuck out to me was Hidden Portraits (thanks Terry!). My editor likes Paint Me True (I forget who gave me that one... but thanks!) Now that she's pointed it out, I can see that it's a good title. It'd be ever so daring for me, though, because it has a verb in it. Nearly all of my titles are nouns. In fact, all but one story I've ever sold have nouns for titles.

Root is out

I've been so busy doing edits and redrafting that short story, not to mention playing with my son, that I'm a little late announcing this. My story, Root, is out in Shiny Issue 5. I originally wrote that story to submit to Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's The Coyote Road. Ellen liked it and was very positive. Terri thought it was too similar to another story by a big name author, so in the end they passed on it. I'm always grateful for positive feedback in a rejection; it helps me keep subbing and subbing until I can sell a piece. Ellen's been very generous to me over the years.

It took me several years to find a home for Root, but Shiny seems like the perfect place for it.

Rewrites

Actually, I'm doing edits, not rewrites. I told my editor I'd have this novel back in to her by mid-month. I appreciate the deadlines; it means someone besides me cares whether or not the novel ever gets finished and polished.

I notice that my mood changes a lot while I work on edits. I can hit some real low points as I try to figure out how to fix what's wrong, and it's easy to get so down on myself and the novel that I just want to mail it off and wash my hands of it. It's a temptation I can't afford to give in to. People tell stories, and a lot of them are urban myth, about the novel they hated that turned into their bestseller. Writer's get depressed, or they get scared when they're digging deep and are outside their comfort zone, but the story I hear waaay more often is that it's the beloved novels that sell better. (Which isn't always the the same as selling well, but that's a separate issue.) The ones that you tune up to the very best of your ability and that you still manage to enjoy reading for the umpteen millionth time stand a better chance in the market. The novel that depresses you more often than not has something wrong with it, and you know it. Hence the depression.

So edits are as much about finding that emotional place as tuning up the novel. It isn't as simple as just cheering myself up, nor is it as simple as working out all the kinks in the plot. I find I have to work on both of these at the same time to get where I need to go emotionally, and get the novel where it needs to go structurally.

Overload, of the best kind

I haven't blogged as much as I wanted to lately. I've decided I need to pare down the number of creative projects I'm working on at once to two. One will always be writing, but this week I've been doing edits on my LDS novel, making a baby blanket for an old friend (as in one I've known for a long time, not elderly), and digi-scrapbooking the Mah family reunion. I really enjoy all of these, but I'm not getting quite enough sleep...

My son has started sleeping for long stretches, though, which means we often sleep through the night. While the rest is nice, he wasn't really bothering me when he did wake me up. He'd just feed, then go right back down to sleep, and it was always easy for me to drift off again. I almost miss him when I don't get woken up!