WIP Wedneday #1 -- Querying vs. Middles

So, WIP Wednesdays are no uncommon thing, and I certainly babble about my WIPs often enough, but I liked the idea of having a structured time and place for that. Author and blogger Anna Staniszewski does these lovely once-a-month-or-so WIP Wednesdays which I liked better than weekly updates, so I thought I'd adopt that concept over here.

And the thing is? I LOVE hearing how other people's WIPs are going, what projects they're working on, etc; so I hope you guys will share about your WIPs  as well. (I really mean that! Share! Comment! I want to hear about it!)

Project one - MIRRORPASS

I just wanted to do a quickie update on MIRRORPASS since it's still out on submissions. So far? Those have been going pretty good. I debated how much to share, and I think I'm going to go with, "there's been interest." Nothing extraordinary, but not too shabby, either. Right now I'm working on reigning in the daydreams and keeping my perspective, but I know some days I end up walking around with a secret smile on my face. I think I described it to one friend as feeling like a swallowed star.

Project two - Shutterbug

A little catchup first. Some interesting things have happened since I wrote this post mid-October. Basically, I wrote the first third of the novel in this mad rush during September, and then kind of remembered I was a college student with homework assignments, so I spent the entirety of October playing catchup, not writing much at all. And then I spent a lot of November...also not writing.

When I look at my writing records, it wasn't all that bad, but it felt bad. I went from writing 35k in two weeks, to writing a scant handful of times in the next two months.

September - 35k
October - 8k
November - 9k

And my current wordcount is 57k.

I have definitely slowed down (although I am still proud of that progress.) Some of this was intentional; after the mad September rush, I needed to gather my thoughts and recover some creative stamina. But I was also getting a little nervous about how fast I was going. Was this going to last? Should I keep pushing myself? Would that kill it? If I slowed down, would I be able to start again, or would I lose it?

When pushing started making me grumpy about the whole project, I slowed down and started working at a more natural pace. It took me a little bit to find a solid balance between pacing myself, pushing myself, and procrastinating (hello, Pinterest) but I think I'm settling into a good rhythm. 

Nice as it was to write that much that fast, this feels much more natural to me. I tend to brainstorm a lot. I'll write for three or four days, then stop for a week or two just to think about what happens next. If I don't do this, I hit deadzones where I have to back up and figure out where I went wrong. The problem with this method, though, is middles. Because middles take a lot of figuring out.

When writing MIRRORPASS, I came up with this theory that the best and natural way to handle middles is to send your characters on some kind of journey. It could be a physical journey, or it could be a personal quest, or it could be the Rocky Balboa training montage, or in a romance it might be the period when the characters are falling blissfully in love and their relationship is coming into it's own. So even though Shutterbug is past the halfway point wordcount wise, I have finally hit my middle journey--Toby setting off on his search to find Mirelle.

This is exciting. And a little scary. And a bit intimidating. I have a lot of plot threads I have to weave with perfect intricacy, or things are going to get clunky fast. Some areas are still gray smudges to me. I'm trying to accomplish some things I've never done before--like getting my characters to fall in love, and a John Green-esque quest. It's going to take a lot of thought to pull off.

At the same time, though, the middle is where Major Things Begin To Happen. Stuff is Set Into Motion. All sorts of dramatic, painfully sweet scenes are coming up, some of them scenes I have been dreaming of since the very beginning. Then once I'm through the smudgy grey area, the climax buildup is going to happen fast. That is where things get super exciting. Like, I get jittery thinking about it.

So, currently? My biggest problem is that I need to just write. To not let the idea of the middle or the gray areas get to me. Because honestly, once I start writing, this novel just flows so easy. It's ridiculous to keep waffling like this.

As motivation, I sent the draft off to a couple first readers, and I also set myself a loose deadline to finish it by the end of December break. So there, wafflepants. I've got a deadline now. Time to bring it.

Okay. Your guys' turn! Tell me about your WIPs. Still working on your Nano novels, or did you skip Nano like me, and do you have something else you're working on? Any progress? Setbacks? Successes? Please do share!

Truly and always,
-Creative A

Introducing Shutterbug Meets (Invisble) Girl

For those of you who missed this post, I'll just recap by saying that after having finished MIRRORPASS at the beginning of August, I'm finally starting a new WIP, and here are all the juicy details.

Title: Shutterbug Meets (Invisible) Girl  
Genre: YA magic realism with elements of action, adventure, and romance.
Status: Drafting.
Pinterest page: here. 

I have a working blurb up on the WIP page, but I thought you guys would much rather read this early prologue:

This is the story of a girl who didn’t belong anywhere, who slept in the velvet curtains of an old theater and danced over steam grates. Her name was long forgotten. Her past, unknown. Sometimes she sank beneath the ground where the city’s roar became a steady heartbeat. Sometimes she visited the children’s hospital and whispered stories to the sleepers. When she was very lonely, she drifted up to the moon, until the pull of the earth was barely a tug at her feet.

She didn’t realize how lonely she’d become. How often she floated above the highest skyscrapers, her chin tipped up toward the stars, thinking she could drift away forever, and nobody would notice.

She was wrong.

Toby would have noticed. She did not always remember him, but Toby had never forgotten about her. Even though he was in high school now. Even though he’d had friends and crushes, joined a band, switched to photography, moved downtown—the memory was always there. Making him think. Making him wonder why.

In a way, this as much his story as hers. Because though she had forgotten him, Toby was determined to find her, and bring her back. 

But that doesn't tell you much about the actual plot, so, elevator pitch:

Peter Pan meets 500 Days of Summer When sixteen-year-old Toby McCleary finds an impossibly old photo of a girl he befriended, and lost, just nine years ago, he sets out on a quest to find the mysterious disappearing girl of his childhood--and keep her safe from the crime family claiming her as one of their own.

Ooooh. Ahhh.

Those of you who have a sense of my writing will know this is a different sort of novel for me. I've never once written a high-school story, or anything in first-person present-tense, or heck, even a romance before. It's set in a city, and I've never lived in a city. Half of it is told by a boy, and I am not a boy. It does not have mad scientists, for once. Instead, it involves a crime family with a very big secret.

It's younger. It's sweeter. It's in some ways more real, and more grim, and more beautiful, than anything I've written in a long while.

It also involves a lot more dialogue, and all in all, I am ridiculously excited about it.

Okay, but enough of me talking! Playlist time. It's been interesting working on the playlist, because I have the voices of both Toby and his mystery girl to consider, along what happens when you put those two characters and voices together.

So here are a few of Mirelle's songs: 

Next a few of Toby's songs, although I'm having trouble finding songs for Toby, which means either A) I don't listen to his kind of music enough, or B) I'm having trouble pinning down his voice. Probably both. Anyway, songs:

And here are what I call the duet songs:

I think I will leave it at that, but if any of you have song recommendations, please do share. (And as always, please feel free to tell me how your WIP's are going!)

Truly and always,
-Creative A

How I Wrote 35K in Two Weeks, or, Playing Catch Up (With Bunnies)

If the bunny is my writing, and the turtle is my homework...
Maybe "Tortoise and the Hare" wasn't such a good metaphor to pick for this post.

So I've been playing a bit of catch-up, lately, with classes and mid-semester finals coming up, so while the blog has been quiet, I've been a very busy girl. And the best part is that I've been very busy writing. You may be thinking, "Oh right, those short stories you mentioned? Those are coming along? Good for you." And yes, those are coming along well, thanks. But it gets even better.

As in, rubbing-my-hands-together-with-glee better.

Let me backtrack.

August 4th:

I send out my first query letter for MIRRORPASS, which means I am done, utterly and completely, with edits and polishing and everything else. It's also the first time in two-almost-three years that I'm without a WIP. (You can hear the cries of unwritten story ideas at this point, hoping they'll finally get their turn.)

Unfortunately for my other story ideas, I decide that I need a break. Two-three months sounds about right. Four to six maximum. During the interim, I will work on writing short stories, will NOT listen to the wails of dismay coming from my story ideas folder, and will focus on school.

Mid-August:

Getting into the hang of the short story thing. Impressed how well my break is going, despite the lack of news on the submissions front. Feel like I could go on like this forever.

End of August:

Submission news starts trickling in. Experience an erratic pendulum of blissful self-confidence in my novel's brilliance, to plunging certainty of my novel's absolute sucktitude. Worry about what I should write next, and how do I avoid the sucktitude this time around???

Bake a slew of cookies. Eat them all. Feel a bit better.

Early September:

Completely in love with short stories, and find I'm writing extra ones, daydreaming them up fast as I can. Starting to daydream before bed as well. Starting to have story-like dreams that I think about all day and modify. Starting to look longingly at calendar and trying to pretend I'm not doing so.

End of first week of September:

Find short stories growing longer, and longer, and longer. Get anxious about what I'll write next, when I write again. Will it be Shutterbug? Eternity Shift? Unamed Time Travel novel? Firebird story? OR HOW ABOUT THAT EXOSKELETON ONE I COULD WRITE THAT RIGHT, RIGHT?

Beginning of second week of September: 

Do some serious praying. Tell God I don't know how to decide which novel to jump into next, that I'm feeling stuck with all these old story ideas. Tell Him I definitely do not want the next novel to drag on for two-almost-three years. A bit shyly, ask Him to give me passion for whatever novel will come next, to direct it and make it clear to me, and that the passion would be my sign.

Middle of second week of September:

Write best short story thus far. On a high, write next best short story thus far. Out of short stories and impatient to write more, take story-dream idea and stay up until 3am pounding out 5,000 wonderful, useless, feverish words.

End of second week of September: 

Look at calender and experience delightful shock that Second Month of Two-Month-WIP-Abstinence is almost over.

Stare slyly at laptop out of corner of the eyes.

Decide it won't hurt to toy with one of story ideas. They've been taking turns screaming, and right now, Shutterbug is the one calling my name.

Unfortunately, I've tried writing the beginning of Shutterbug so many times, and had them all not work out, that I'm not sure which way to approach it. Spend a few days fiddling and futzing and muttering under my breath. Feel haunted by the sensation that I need the beginning, I want to start at the beginning, only, hadn't I tried that like ten times now? Hadn't I failed each time to find the true beginning? If not in all those ten places, then where was it?

Writing urge becoming almost impossible to resist. Drawn to my laptop with ever-increasing gravity, a shrinking orbit that brings me, near desperate now, ever closer.

Feel like the beginning involves sadness. And beauty. And loneliness. The beginning should feel like poetry recited on a rainy night, in the city...the beginning should start with story, with the story sweeping these two characters together...

September 11 at 12 noon:

New word doc. Titled Shutterbug Meets (Invisible) Girl. Blank page. Begin with these words:

"We could have met so many different ways."

Begin with a distant, lonely, invisible girl who overhears the telling of a bedtime story, and is drawn to it like moth to the flame. Begin with a little boy who loves ninjas and new best friends.

Begin there. With new best friends.

Begin at the beginning.

* * *

And this is where I start sounding like I'm bragging, because oh, you guys, it doesn't end there. I wrote about 10k in one week. I wrote another 10k the next week. Then, the very next day, I wrote another 10k. Add that up with some slosh words, and Shutterbug's current wordcount is 35,000 words. Which, considering that I'm shooting for a nice 80-85k means I'm already over halfway through.

And I did all that in two weeks.

Guys, I've had my good days before, but never writing streaks like this. Never in my life have I known exactly which scene I'll write next, and the scene after that, and after that, stretching on for the entirety of the novel, except for maybe one or two fuzzy spots near the middle. Shutterbug is a completely new experience for me in so many ways--written in first person, present tense; dual narrators; the romance; knowing my plot so far ahead--everything.

Now, I did notice that after that whirlwind two week period of writing, I was ready to stop and breathe. (Which was good, since I was super behind on homework.) And I've been playing catch-up on the homework front all of October. Haven't added a single word to my 35k. And it has been completely fine, which is almost as amazing to me as the fact that I wrote that much that quickly, while in college, while MIRRORPASS took an entire year to draft, and another year and a half to edit.

So. Summary. Yes, I've been a bad blogger. Catching you all up now. Have lots of posts written that need proofreading before I grant them eternity on the interwebs. Meanwhile, now that you're caught up, I plan on posting a formal introduction to Shutterbug tomorrow, complete with the official working blurb and soundtrack tidbits and Pinterest stuff. Too, finals are this week, which means next week is break, and you can bet your socks Shutterbug will take precedence once again. I just need to get there.

Phew. Now that I spent who-knows-how-many-words blathering on about my WIP (I have a WIP again!), tell me about you guys. What are you currently working on? How goes it? Anyone gearing up for Nanowrimo? My head's been full of Shutterbug, and in all honestly, I'd forgotten about Nano until a friend mentioned it.

I am so not participating in Nano this year.

Truly and always,
-Creative A

Have a Little Music

Some of you very perceptive followers may have noticed I didn't post this past week, like I'm supposed to. Or maybe not. Maybe I just outed myself.

Well, either way, I'm sure you'll be delighted to know that I actually had a few posts planned, and I had a whole day cleared out for it, and everything. Then something wonderful and amazing happened. I had a Creative Explosion. I suddenly, abruptly, at 9:20 at night, had torrents of words spilling out of me, and, well...

I never did get around to writing your post.

But I made a ton of progress in Shutterbug Meets (Invisible) Girl. As in, record-making progress. And I'm happy, and I want you all to be happy, too.

So here are some songs that make me happy. (I know I totally just cheated there. Let's both pretend we didn't notice. Maybe I'll distract you by saying that these songs have been my soundtrack for Shutterbug Meets (Invisible) Girl.)



I feel like this song was made for coffeeshop writers. Who doesn't go to a coffeeshop, and dream, and think about about the people they see there?




Just heard this for the first time recently. Love the chorus!




This is my current anthem for Adelle, the heroine of Shutterbug Meets (Invisible) Girl, but also a completely cute song.




Absolutely love this one. The lyrics are gorgeous and stunning, and it's part of what inspired me to include a male POV in Shutterbug. The intensity is itself heartbreaking.



Truly and always,
-Creative A

The Writing Cave

Us bloggers are super aware of our blogger positions, I think. Countless times I've read other people's apologetic posts on how they haven't been blogging for a while and how they're really sorry because they had all these plans but real life got in the way...and I read thinking, I can empathize, but I hadn't even noticed. Not until they apologized anyway.

Another super-sensitive habit of bloggers is that we sit here and think of what all our readers must be thinking. (I promised them a post on my goals. They must be wondering what's taking me so long! I'll do the post on adverbs instead. Oh geez, look at that timestamp. Now everyone will know I was lazy and did this at midnight in my pajamas. With food in my teeth. Because I got the munchies after dinner.)

Honestly? We have no idea you did that. Sounds like fun. Why didn't you invite us to join the party?

Being that I am a blogger and also very self-conscious, I know that I haven't done a New Year's post (like I planned) or any of the other five posts that I've been dying to put up. I'm also aware this has been a slow blogging year for me.

But for once, I have a good excuse as to why I haven't been blogging.

I was outlining these chapters:

This is Chpts 14-19 of MIRRORPASS.

It's the biggest problem section of my novel left to tackle.

Each colored sticky is a scene in the chapter, with brief explanations of the events. Blue notes are the main POV, orange for any other POV. I put gold stars next to the good stuff. (I don't know if you can see, but there aren't a lot of gold stars.) But that's okay, because in the white notes, I detailed everything wrong with the chapter.

The white notes all said basically the same thing: I don't have a good grip on a certain character or the motivations involved, so these chapters are all repetitive as I try to hash out why people are acting certain ways.

Now I'm brainstorming on the character and motivations before rewrites.

I was also cutting up this:

It's is my rewritten version of Chpt 11, MIRRORPASS. The middle scene is one long dialogue about 2k in length. I needed to figure out why it was all over the place. So I identified the topics discussed, highlighted them with a unique color, and then cut it up, putting all the colors in the same pile.

(This is a technique mentioned in Monica Wood's "The Pocket Muse.")

And then I organized it like this:

I tried to keep the colors together (and thus the topics discussed) which didn't work so well. At least until I started pulling out pieces that didn't fit. And writing transitions.

I also allowed myself to 'wrap' one topic in another, using one topic to frame the other. Conclusion? Dialogue and transitions are very interesting. I rearranged a lot.

But finally I got it done.

...the hardcopy version, at least.

In sum, I have been writing. Like a madwoman. Like a dark creature that emerges from it's hole only for coffee, frozen pizza, and Star Trek reruns at 11:30 each night. My family jokes about me going back to my cave where I'll disappear for hours on end.

So, dear world, I am truly and deeply sorry I haven't been blogging. With hyper-awareness I apologize for not posting the New Years Resolution post that you probably didn't notice was missing from my corner of the blogosphere. I also apologize for not putting up the final addition to my "So You're a Writer, Do You Need a Website?" series. It will go up. It will. Even if I have to post it while I'm in my jammies.

And don't worry. I'm totally neglecting my real-life responsibilities as much as my blogging ones.

Back to the writing cave,

-Creative A

Upcoming Interviews and...

This is my apology for the oblique post header, but I was sick of how many posts I've entitled "News" lately, but really that's what this is, a post with all kinds of news and other such random things that can't quite be classified. So. Accept this Threadless T graphic in exchange for putting up with my cliffhanger.

But yeah, so, news! Remember how I wanted to finish Mirrorpass by the end of my break? (Maybe I never said that. Um, pretend I did, because I wanted to.) Well, I was so caught up in finals and research papers that Mirrorpass was dragging her heels right around the 59k mark, being 59k out of an estimated 75k story. Now I finished finals. Wrote those papers. And have spent the last few days settling back into my writing groove. After today's writing session I tallied my wordcount...and Huzzah! I'm at 69K! Only 6K left. Which totally rocks.

Second piece of news is brief; I'm still working on my linklists, and have two out of the four updated. Some of those writer blogs are insanely awesome and I encourage you to check them out.

Also, this is your last chance to swap links with me because I tend to update my list in binges and...well...this might not happen again for another six months. You've been warned.

Third piece of news is that I finally may have gotten some of my fiction published! I submitted a piece of flash fiction entitled The Eye to my college newspaper, and they emailed me back after a few weeks saying that it *should* be published in the next week's newspaper. Except I read the email a week late and couldn't procure a copy of the paper. Published? Unpublished? Will I ever know? Mixed basket of joy here. Especially since I promised myself I wouldn't post any of my fiction until after it was published, so, what should I do now that it's 'maybe' been published? Maybe post it? I don't know guys, sway me one way or t'other.

Before we get to the rest of and most exciting news, let me ask you a question. When--and why--are good times to start a personal writer blog? Because I've been considering blogging about it. Actually, I've been considering DOING it, and blogging about it would help, but first I want to know what you think. Are personal blogs easier? Harder? Do they impact your writing career for the better, or do they simply raise false hope?

Share.

Now for main news: I have interviews coming up! Oh oh yes! Ordered monthwise, here they are.

January:

We get to talk to Jen Nadol about her debut The Mark. This a YA novel about a teenager who can see an aura--or mark--around someone the day they are going to die. This debuts Jan 19th.

March:

Lauren Oliver talks about Before I Fall. This is a YA debut about a girl who finds herself living the same day over and over again, learning that she has the power to change the lives of those around her...and maybe prevent her own death. This debuts on March 2cnd. Lauren Oliver has agreed to give away one Advanced Reading Copy of her book here on Headdesk, and the giveaway will be conducted the following week.

And just a week later we hear from Teri Hall about her YA debut, The Line, in which a young girl inside a closed society overhears a cry for help in the forbidden, mysterious place beyond known borders. Teri Hall has also offered an Advanced Reading Copy of The Line for giveaway, so we'll be having that contest as well!

After that, Kimberly Derting will talk about The Body Finder. This is a YA paranormal thriller about a girl who has the ability to sense dead bodies, and what happens when a serial killer begins murdering in her town. This comes out on the 16th.

May:

Joelle Anthony stops in to answer questions about Restoring Harmony. This is a post-apocalypse novel about a teenager girl who sets off on a dangerous cross-continent journey after her grandfather. This debuts May 13.

June:

Heidi R. Kling talks about her debut Sea, the story of a teenage girl who travels to Indonesia after a tsunami, falling for an orphan there while learning about her mother's death years before. This debuts June 10th.

The awesome Cyn Balog answers some questions about her new novel, Sleepless. This is the story of a Sandman who lures people to sleep, the girl he becomes to attached with, and what happens when he's no longer able to protect her. This comes out on the 13th.

There's a bunch of other people who've agreed to the interview as well, and I'm crazy excited about some of them, but they won't get announced until I can set a sure date.

Merry Christmas to you all and enjoy the holidays!

Truly and always

-Creative A