Writing Wednesday

Oddly enough, now my Littlest is out in the world, my writing hiatus seems to be at an end. (I can roll over in bed! I can bend! I can walk ten paces without losing my breath! I can lie down without being choked with heartburn! And, most importantly, O happy day, I can write!)

And so, with great celebration, I am returning to my beloved stories and characters. They never really left me - at night, caught between waking and sleeping I'd run through images and scenes, mull over characters and unravel plot tangles, but putting fingers to keyboard? Not so much.

I've finally transferred all the manuscripts I want to work on this year onto the laptop possessing its full complement of keys and without cracks in the screen, renewed my membership of Scribophile, my online writers group and… set to work. (This time with a sleeping baby on my lap - her noisy breathing makes a lovely soundtrack and she herself is a brilliant little heater.)

It is wonderful to have that rush and thrill again, to pick up where I left off and throw around ideas and images, get lost in dialogue. I've missed it.

I've started small with editing. I was perplexed to realise that I've used the same rather dodgy word on every second page of the first three chapters of the novel I'm working on. Hmm.

A friend pointed out with a previous manuscript that every time I described a dragon - which was a lot I used the word 'flanks'. I seem to have done a similar thing here, but because my protagonist uses sharper language than I'm accustomed to, I've used a pseudo swear word in place of what she'd really use…I've started to wince every time I see it. Let me redress that.

In order to keep my momentum going I've decided to set aside one blog a week to keep myself accountable with my writing.

So: This week, I've edited three chapters, and marked out writing on Scribophile that I'm very much looking forward to critiquing. Next week - I'd like to edit another three chapters (some of which are mere outlines which will need to be rewritten) and critique at least three chapters on Scribophile. There's also a synopsis I need to work on… again.

What are other people working on?

Less (can be so much more) On writing and Nanos

My aim this year is for Less.
Less clutter. Less junk. Less stress. Less rubbishy food. Less screen-time.
I'm fairly sure tens of millions of others are starting out the year with the same resolutions.
As I've started the year with a binge shop of massive proportions, checking out op-shops from Maleny to Mont Albert, Morwell to Morayfield, I'm not going too well on the less clutter. But on the plus side I shouldn't really need to shop much for the rest of the year. And I do have bags of stuff piled at the door to go back to other op-shops. It's a beautiful cycle. Sort of.
The other thing I've decided to do less of is… writing. Last year I clocked up over 150,000 words, mostly in three lots of National Novel Writing Months.
I loved the rush. The drive. The community. The sheer satisfaction of getting the words down. The thrill of spending dedicated time with my beloved characters.
I was also distracted from my kids, drank too much coffee, ate too much sugar and fat, didn't sleep enough and had spiralling stress levels from trying to juggle everything else while also finishing my novels (or 50,000 words of them) to deadline.
November? When my Beloved had his BIG, all important exams, I was just recovering from two months of morning sickness, which had immediately followed two months of bronchitis and sinuitis and my Beloved had various ailments?
I. Don't. Want. To. Think. about how stressed I was. I can feel my shoulders tense just trying to remember it.
Do I love thinking about the gorgeous gem of a story I wrote that month, gleaming on my desktop just waiting for a polish? Why yes, I do.
Did I love spending all that time with my characters, discovering unexpected plot twists and delving into new layers? Absolutely.
Was it immensely satisfying finally getting down a story I've been thinking about for o, eleven years.
Well, yes.
Do I want to do it again this year?
Not a chance.
This year, I'm taking it slowly. While I feel a pang, (or two, or twenty, or two hundred) for all the stories I'm desperate to begin, whose characters keep clamouring at me, write me, write me, I'm going to put them on hold for now. While I might write down the odd note, or scene or even chapter here or there, I'll block my ears and let them nag a little longer.
I'm still going to do Nano's this year. But I'm chopping them in half. In each of the three NaNo months I'm only going to write 25,000 words. And I'm not starting anything new. I'm just going to finish off the three novels I wrote in last years Nanos. Green Dragon Waking - a story of a world of wishes, a girl who dreams true and the turmoil that comes when a wrong is righted. Overly Caffeinated Werewolves -    a tale of a edgy barista who has to confront becoming a were-wolf queen, her sister's kidnapping… and the fact she inexplicably can't drink coffee anymore, and The Toad Lord - a retelling of the fairy tale of the frog prince set in Scotland in 1801.
I can't wait to step into my magical worlds.
But I'm so relieved to have decided to do less. 

Yay, me!

As of right this minute, 3.40pm, 30^th April 2013, I’ve completed Camp NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated that means that in the last 30 days I’ve finished 50,000 words of my novel, Overly Caffeinated Werewolves (Are not Pretty), and I'll get all sorts of cute goodies like computer badges and half-price writing programs.

 Yay me! Happy Dance! I'm a winner - it says so on my stats page and I didn't even need to run anywhere or muck around with a ball!It’s a wonderful feeling. A nice solid, bulk of work, sitting there emanating good vibes at me from the heart of my computer. There's still another 25-35,000 words to go, but the main structures there, and its been so much fun to write and I can't wait to juggle it around a bit and see what happens.

So, yes, my manuscripts a mess. Things are all higgledy-piggledy and towards the end there I was just writing scenes with neither placement not correct punctuation. 

Stuff happened I did not plan and that still vaguely perplexes me. Did I know the Sun goddess and her fiery chariot were going to play such a strong role, or that Mia would go hang out with the Greek style, but double-breasted, Amazons in Amazonia, where the Sun and the Moon have a massive break-up fight in the middle of the river?

I didn’t have a clue. But she did. And they did. And I think it will work.

Nor did I know Mia's detectiving would lead her to the land of the Were-Cats and the sad tale of the were-wolf and the were-cat who fell in love and had kittubs, who become the Lands first police force….

Okay, I admit, when you don’t have the time to think things through plots get messy… but I’m sure given a few strong blows and some nails I can hang it all together!

But the words are there. I’m confident that with a bit of play I can make something fun and strong and full of fizz from them.

And now, now I can finally edit! Those pages that weren’t quite right so I rewrote them? Those extra adjectives that so aren’t my protagonists style. Vamos! They go.

I just have to wait until I’ve uploaded the words and it’s all been verified and I  can hack into the manuscript with an ax and remove all the dead wood and really see it’s beautiful  trunk and branches.  (Have I played with that metaphor enough? – the trees out the window before me are stunning falls of sun-caught gold, so I’m very ‘treed’ up.)

Presently, thanks to too many 4am writing starts, I am a tad sleep deprived, and possibly a little too caffeinated. When you have to stop and think before you can work out how many coffees you've drunk, the suggestion is there's been a few too many. 

But... oo. Happy shivers. Hello, my little manuscript, I'm very pleased to meet you!

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

I'm way, way behind on my Camp Nano word count. Which is strange 'cos I'm completely loving writing Overly Caffeinated Werewolves, but If I'm to get my 50,000 words by the end of March, I need to so get onto it. At the moment I'm blaming the evil tummy bug for the delay, but I can't help feeling a real writer would have just ploughed on right through.
Anyway. I'm bringing out the big guns.
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!
So:
(Homemade) Coffee Candles. Lit.
Coffee: In Mug. Double Shot. Friends of Same, East Timorese Blend. Courtesy of Mum.
Music: Coffee Playlist, Itunes.
Presently Playing: The Coffee Song, The Coffee Protection Society.

Wish me luck! I'm aiming for another 10,000 words by... o, tomorrow night. 23:59 hour.

What do you do when you want to get a lot done in a short amount of time?

My Kind of Camping...

It's April 1st today. Easter Monday. April Fools day. My prizes go to Australian Geographic and Google for April Fools day pranks.
And... wait for it, it's also the starting date for Camp Nano, which is like NaNoWriMo, where you write a novel (or 50,000 words) in the month of November, but you can chose the word count you want to aim for and you don't need to write a novel - you can write a script or short stories or whatever. Everyone is also allotted 'virtual cabins' and cabin mates to help keep you accountable and to try to raise some campfire cheer.
Anyway, I've chosen to work on a novel and aim to complete the first 50,000 words by the end of April. I'm not entirely sure I'll manage it, but I love the thought of trying it. The idea of being completely immersed in my delicious and highly caffeinated story for 30 days? Mmmm. Yes please. Happy shivers.
So the kids and I gathered kindling and I lit the fire today and we watched if for most of the evening - and may I say it was a very well lit fire and a beautiferous blaze. My beloved and I drank spiced tea (in the vain hope the ginger would settle our tummies - the tea was delicious, our tummies are still tumultuous) in front of the fire and outside the stars appeared in a high Autumn sky.
Now, with the kids asleep and the fire died down, cosy in bed in my fav flannel jammies,  all warm and fuffly from the dryer, it's time for me to open a new document and begin writing my brand new and sparkling (but not in a vampy way) novel!
Seriously, forget pit toilets miles away and no hot-water, this is my kind of camping!

I believe you talked me into it (one more cup of coffee...)

On Saturday I bundled up my beloved and met up with a friend and we had coffee in the big smoke.
I tried not to look too much like the country bumpkin I now am, after all, Melbourne CBD was my stomping ground for many years, but there were a few times I had to close my gaping mouth, and not just at how aggressive city drivers are.
Now, we didn't just have any old cup of coffee.
We were all snooty like and went to a coffee tasting.
I might have mentioned (a few hundred times) that I'm about to stop dilletanting around with backstory and start writing my next book, Overly Caffeinated Werewolves (Are Not Pretty), and in aid of this I have begun serious research into The Coffee World. (O, the hardships! Does not your heart bleed for me?) Unfortunately, recent trials have proved that drinking too much coffee makes me ravenously hungry, so I've been trying to cut it down to one cup a day. However, in the interests of research, I sometimes make it two. Or three. Occasionally four.
Purely for the sake of research, you understand.
Anyway, researching places I could test really good coffee in Melbourne both Campos coffee and Seven Seeds Coffee came up on google, and I chose Seven Seeds on the basis of.. well, it was free,  while Campos charge $30.
Seven Seeds Cafe is tucked into an industrial-ish street near the Queen Vic Market and very easy to miss. We arrived early for a coffee (the kind with milk) and it was bustling and thriving and looked very cool with lots of exposed bricks. I am a sucker for exposed bricks.
The actual tasting was in a little glassed in room they use for training and was... brilliant. To be honest I thought they'd have us in and out in five minutes, but it went for nearly forty five minutes and Casey, the teacher, was wonderful. She was just back from a coffee buying mission to Burundi and full of knowledge, stories and passion.
The table was laid with 6 different coffees from various countries and we all had impressive clipboards and sheets to note our impressions. First off, we circled the table smelling the ground coffee. I completely failed to smell any of the notes of caramel, spice, woodsmoke or anything else I was supposed to. I did get a repeated smell of maybe... roast tomato? And one coffee totally smelt of tea-rose. After we'd all (very seriously) made our notes, hot water was added, and we smelt again. The smells were completely different.
And I am totally not a super-nose.
I did not smell any aromas of black-currant nor of roast beef. But never mind, my protagonist will be a super-nose. I will live vicariously. Fiction is good like that.
We waited awhile, while Casey told us about what they look for in beans (a clean, fresh, fruity or florally taste) and how a lot of ordering is done on big online coffee auctions and then we 'broke' the coffee (disrupted the crema on the surface) and tasted it again. And it was totally different. (More so to people with more refined palates than mine own) Some tastes had intensified, some had gone, some had come...
And then finally... when the time was right, we tasted.
And it all just tasted like coffee to me.
We were supposed to slurp it off the spoon and half the time I had a coughing fit, but it all seemed... very coffee like. Some were quite pleasant. All could have done with lots of froth.
I am not a sophisticate. But never mind, my character is, and I now know how she needs to 'cup' (taste) her coffee samples and what she's looking for and what she intends to avoid. (Potato tasting coffee is bad, very bad. Who would have thunk it!)
And now?
Well, I am a massive Seven Seeds fan. (No, this is not a sponsored post... giggle!) And my beloved and I intend to 'cup' all of the numerous coffees we have in the house to try to develop our noses. And I think, I think I need to go to more coffee tastings.
So much fun!

                                         My coffee at Seven Seeds. A lovely caramel aftertaste.

                                      The roaster at Seven Seeds

                                          Coffee Plants at Seven Seeds in a little glass room.

                                                The 'cupping' table

                                             Coffee Poster

                                            A fellow taster. Okay, the friend I dragged along (My beloved is anti-having his photo online) Also displaying the exposed brickwork.

                                             Unroasted coffee beans

Can a Leopard Change it's Spots (Or a Pantser become a Planner)

Are you a pantser or a planner?
I hadn't come across the term 'pantser' until I joined Scribophile, the online writing group, last year, but discussions about 'pantsers and planners' come up frequently in the forums.
As I understand it a 'pantser' is someone who writes 'by the seat of their pants', ie. without a plan. They just sit down and type. As opposed to a planner, who (as the name suggests) has it all planned out.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently as I write (and re-write) my synopsis for my Work In Progress,  Dragons' Nest.
There's something about condensing a novel into a page that brings out all the plot flaws.
The kind you look at and go. O. Hmm. And then hmm, again. And then, why don't I just go and have a cup of tea. And then another. Maybe some wine. And horrible phrases like 'Deux ex Machina' reverberate rather badly.
Now, I'm not saying I'm upset to spend more time with my delightful characters in my perfectly delicious world, because let's be clear, it's a heap of fun. (Hello, fortress of the werewolf queen, I'm here to stay!)
But it's a little worrying when you truly think you're finished, and have been thinking you've finished for a good few months, to realise there's plot holes big enough for a container ship to disappear into, requiring a good three extra chapters to fill.
And I got to thinking maybe if I'd written the synopsis first, and you know planned, that wouldn't have happened.
As it is, what is now one of the crucial plot lines only sprang itself on me one delirious night when I was approaching the finishing line. Now, fleshed out and bristling teeth, it's an integral part of the story.
Which isn't to say I don't write a lot of notes: because I do. I have hundreds (literally) of notebooks all filled with almost illegible writing of snippets of scenes, character descriptions, research and chapter outlines.
But... in the heart of writing strange things happen and I end up on unexpected voyages into the unplanned and unknown. Unfortunately these voyages sometimes contain detours into the land of Gaping Plot Holes.
I can think of at least three manuscripts I have sitting in forgotten folders that all have a sweet little hole... about eight tenths of the way through.
Yep. I love the characters, love the setting, lots of tension. But... there's that dang hole again.
So I'm wondering. I'm starting my next book soon (cue excited shiver of anticipation) and as usual I know (and love) my protagonist well. I know the names of her great grandparents and her favourite childhood pets. I know her main conflicts, flaws, weaknesses and bugbears. Mia just wants to run her cafe and concentrate on making the best coffee in the world... but instead she has to deal with her ancestral legacy of a magical world of mythical beasts. She can ignores the fantasy world pretty well until a werewolf pack (which happens to be the one her long dead dad came from) holds her sister hostage until Mia takes her rightful place as Queen of the Wolves.  
Problem: why, exactly, do the pack want Mia to be Queen?
I want the pack to want Mia to be Queen (or at least contest for the Queenship) because that's where my story goes and it suits the images in my head. But why do they want her to be Queen? They've never met her, didn't think much of her sister, and know she has no interest in them.
Problem.
Will I write the whole book... get to... o yes, eight tenths of the way through where, in the denouement, some explanation needs to be made for this irrational behaviour and um...fudge...and then put it in a folder for a few months hoping the issue will miraculously resolve itself? Or will I try to write out a complete and satisfyingly believable synopsis first?
I believe... I believe I'm going to try to write the synopsis first...
I think nature intended me as a pantser, but that bit.. that bit eight tenths of the way through a manuscript?
It's really getting to me.
So goodbye to my old pantsering ways.
Henceforth, meet the new, improved planner.
Stay tuned to see if a leopard can change their spots... or a pantser become a planner...

Would it Smell as Sweet?

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?
Say, if roses were humperdinks instead, would we like them as much?
I still love hydrangeas, although I'm not a fan of their name. I think it makes them sound deranged. I prefer them when I think of them as snowball-bushes.
I'm in the midst of a character (re)naming.
It's the middle of the night, (1.54 to be precise) and I'm finally getting some editing done after a holiday hiatus... and... I keep seeing one name and stopping. It's just not right.
My character is small and sharp, vivid and mercurial. A barista (with a degree in International Relations her mum nagged her into getting) she's the eldest and mama wolf of five sisters who re-discover the magical world of their childhood. And I need the perfect name for her.
She's a secondary character in the book I'm editing, but she'll be a primary in a book I write later in the year. (Overly Caffeinated Werewolves Are Not Pretty - yay for a great excuse to drink A LOT of coffee and do some intensive pinteresting!)
And she started off (years ago) as Chardie. I know. I don't know what I was thinking either. I must have been momentarily deranged. And not in a nice hydrangea-y way. In a totally flipped way.
I moved on to Bella. But realised that a certain vampire series makes that name a bit used. Passe. Old hat. Which is a shame, as I loved it until the whole Twilight thing was pointed out to me and I deflated.
I moved on to Belle. But then realised as the main character is called Nell... that's not quite where I want to go. Nell-Belle, Pell-Mell. Sigh.
So now I'm searching for a name. The name. The one that sings.
Midnight inspiration... please strike soon.
Something short (a diminutive of a longer, elegant name preferably), something sharp. Something that makes you think of an edgy, no-nonsense, latently were-wolf, coffee snob? Preferably ending in something other than L, O, A or Y.
Not that I'm picky or anything.
Midnight inspiration please strike soon... soon... soon... Sigh.
Looks like I'll be hitting the name books tomorrow.

Plotting & Planning, Plotting & Planning

So. Now that book's (sort of, vaguely, not really) out of the way, I'm starting to think about the big question. What comes next?
It's getting time to put the old manuscript away for awhile and then return to it with unblinkered eyes some time hence, but the big decision remains: what to work on next. (I'm procrastinating on a. editing, b. the dishes & c. taking the kids to the park in the rain here, it's always nice to kill three birds with the same stone.)

I love the excitement of diving into a brand new story, of finally trying to grasp some of those images and conversations that have been swimming around for months or sometimes years. But first to decide.
My choices at present are between some old and new manuscripts.

Choice One: Overly Caffeinated Werewolves (Are Not Pretty) Book Two in the Emporium Sisters' Escapades. Bella's story. I suspect it would pretty much write itself... and be soooo much fun.

Choice Two: The Toad Lord: A re-telling of The Golden Ball or Frog Prince (I have not yet seen the Disney Version & would put it off until the manuscript was finished). I'd be setting it in 16th century Scotland and making it a lot more gritty. I'd also get to use my Toad Lord pinterest board for heaps of visual inspiration, thus strengthening my claim that Pinteresting is working. I made notes for this story decades ago and put it on the back burner. It would be great to resurrect the idea and the perfect place to use lots of lush, descriptive writing. Mmmm.

Choice Three: Sara and the Seven Beasts: Spoilt teenager Sara falls through the sea into another world. Created centuries ago by the seven dancing beasts, it has since become corrupted half the beings have lost memory of their animal selves. Sara & the Princess Lasiale have to wake the sleeping beasts in order to end the oppression of the unchanging and bring harmony back to the world.
This is pretty much half written. I would like to get it finished, and it has some great bits in it...

Choice Four: Searching for Seadragons: 17 year old Zoe retreats to the sea after witnessing a suicide. Over her year by the shore she thinks about who she is and the world around her. Her sister and friends keep interrupting her reflections. This is a rewriting and editing job. I wrote it back in high school and quite a lot of publishing houses (OUP, A&U etc) liked the first few chapters & asked for more... but then declined. Re-reading it, they were right. The ending is completely unsatisfying and I missed the obvious. You know - the guy yelling hey - I'm the one, I'm the one. Now to re-write, scrap the last chapters and add drama and romance. I do love the characters... and lets be honest, it would only be 20,000 words and a rewrite. And fun words. Sea words.

Decisions, decisions. Now let me add to the mix I've decided to do NaNoWriMo - which is when you write a novel (50,000 words) in a month in November, and only Overly Caffeinated Werewolves (Are Not Pretty) or The Toad Lord would be eligible for this, and I have a bit of juggling to do.

Which one next... which one..
Let me ponder, and return to the dishes and my editing, and hey, looks like the rain has stopped for the moment, the playground calls.