Awards and Delays

[First illustration for Misadventures of the Just Us Chickens.]

My son and cowriter of Doomimals: Extended books (pseudonym: Ax the Narrator) started writing his books when he was 13, earlier this year.  He began with short stores and then started writing novels like they were short stories, one small mini adventure at a time.  I helped him polish the first of these novels, The Misadventures of the Justice Chickens, and then he submitted it to the children's book writing category of the League of Utah Writers' annual contest.  When I first entered several years ago, I got a few prizes, first and second place.  But I was an adult, not 13, and already had a degree in English.  Ever since, I've felt lucky to get an honorable mention, as I did this year for my essay and the last two weeks of my nephews' mom's life, "Battered Wings."  This is a competitive contest, with lots of entries, most of them written by adults, some with degrees like me.

[2nd place!]

I say this to help you understand why it was so amazing that my boy's first novel achieved second place in this children's book writing contest.  It's a very good book.  Instead of heavy critiquing, the judge recommended a few line edits and begged that we find a way to let him/her know when it's published, so he/she can buy a copy.  That's downright high praise for the book written by a 13-year-old.  I want to get this series (and mine) out to you, but life has gotten complicated and busy.  I still need to finish polishing and illustrating my books, so they're all ready for you.  The first three books in the Just Us Chickens series will appear as bonus material at the end of my first collection, and then my books will appear as bonus material at the end of his.  It may be we'll be publishing both sets at roughly the same time at this rate.  I'll keep you posted.

Updates

Since I last wrote in this blog, I have been busy working toward a writing career without yet breaking into print.  However, I have been ramping up to move in that direction. 

Last summer, I spent several months getting feedback on my short stories (I have roughly 10 or so, many of which have won prizes), so I can start submitting them for publication.  I sent a few of them out, one of them to magazine after magazine with no success, even though it won a first prize from League of Utah Writers and an honorable mention from the Writer's Digest contest.  I've since learned that a fraction of a percent of short stories actually make it into the top publications.  My focus has turned elsewhere, but I'm still determined that they see print. 

I also sent the first of my chapter book series for 7-10-year-olds, Doomimals book 1: CockadoodleDOOM (about kids and their super-powered pets saving the world from the Dog of War), out to a few of the handful of agents who work with this age group and genre, also coming up empty.  I decided at that point to back up and get the feedback of a freelance editor, as I did with my first romance novel.  I am now working through that feedback. 

Just in the last couple of weeks, I started listening to the free webinars that have been sent through various sources to my email.  I figured a free webinar may enlighten me as to something I may be missing.  The first made it clear that I need to do a lot of marketing, myself, no matter how I break into print, self-publishing or otherwise, and gave me some clues about how to do it.  I totally recommend such webinars, even though they all end in a sales pitch. 

Another of these webinars, given by The Write Practice, offered to take me through the process of writing, networking and marketing, and actually publishing a book either through conventional or self-publication.  This seems an offer I could not pass up.  I have just started following its instructions in assembling a webpage, linking to my extant and future writing.  I will forward the link as soon as it's done. 

Another most exciting development in my life is, after struggling with the conventional publication process and balking at the prices companies want to help you get self-published, I may have hit upon something in between, a new kind of publication that features the best of both worlds.  It is in its fledgling stages, but I will write about this in the future as well if it comes to fruition. 

In other words, it finally feels like I'm very close to breaking in print besides local presses and my theses on Amazon.  I'm not sure where, how, and what will come first, but I'll keep you posted as it happens. 

New Plan

I think I've been going about this whole trying-to-get-published thing the wrong way.  I've been taking my one, monumental novel kind of project (first, the LDS romance, then the kids' chapter book), sending it off, and waiting for it to come back only to have it refused again.  Then I'd send it off again or go back to the drawing board and try to send it to an editor for revision ideas.  I'm stalled on revising the romance and getting ideas on my synopsis for my novel. 

In the meantime, I've been sitting on award-winning poetry, short stories, children's stories, and a braided essay for decades.  Years ago, I heard the advice that I ought order a copy of each and every magazine before sending anything off.  It sound so expensive and stressful that I haven't done anything with it.  It's just all been sitting there, gathering dust. 

Well, about a week or two ago, I started formulating a new plan.  My romance novel still needs a serious overhaul (getting some emotional distance preparatory to that).  I'm soon going to send off the chapter book yet again (it's been to one publisher and three agents, all of whom passed with or without an explanation).  But in the meantime, I have also started polishing up my old short stories, one by one, and have started doing research into online resources about each of these magazines.  I already have a refusal for the first of them. 

I have decided I just need to treat this like a business.  I have a chart.  I will write the name of the publisher or agent to whom I send one of these items along with the date it was sent and the time it will take for them to get back with me.  I will then wait for it to come back and then mark the result.  In the meantime, I will be doing that with my ten or so other short stories as well as my kids' stories and poetry.  One of these days, if I'm persistent, something will pan out.  When it does, I will make a blog to celebrate.  In the meantime, I just have to keep at it. 

Writing Conferences and Presenting to Agents

I haven't bothered to write her for a while because there are only just so many ways to say, "I'm still revising.  Pardon the dust."  But over the weekend, I went to a League of Utah Writers conference that was amazing and really got me back on track with writing.  For several months now, I've been working on revision of my adult novels based on an editor's and fellow writers' feedback, much of the time putting it off by doing other writing.  I know I need to get serious about that and get it done. 

But the morning of the conference, I had the thought that not spending a little extra money to present to a publisher or agent would be squandering a sterling opportunity. I don't make it to the conferences often.  Before I could doubt myself, I submitted a request to meet with an out of town agent who was looking for manuscripts for her agency.  Middle grade manuscripts.  That's when I thought of the series I have mapped out but that, other than the first two books, have simmered on the back burner while I beat my head against my romance novels. 

Now, I've sent off materials to agents before.  I've presented to publishers and agents at conferences on occasion, and nothing has ever come of it but a polite thank you and a we'll let you know if we're interested.  But I figured why not?  I've already gotten League feedback on the first two books of the Doomimal series.  My kids love what I have so far and are always making more suggestions for my next stories.  It was worth a try. 

I was a bit disheartened when two freelance editors pointed out all the flaws in the first chapter at that conference, but I was already committed, and the agent had tacked on an extra time slot just for my last minute arrangement.  I forged ahead and met with her, not expecting much. 

My spirits sunk a bit lower as she informed me I was thinking in terms of the wrong genre, that it's not middle-grade as they usually work with but early chapter books.  It turns out middle grade fiction now concerns itself more with darker, more teen or adult issues and tends to be longer than my research suggested and than my manuscripts were.  A story about kids and their pets facing off with some mysterious dog of war and her magical army of animals just didn't seem like middle-grade material like I thought.

But then she also told me she thought my concept "had legs" and could go places.  For the first time in my life, an agent invited me to submit my manuscript to her agent who works with middle-grade.  It's no guarantee since its target audience is a bit younger than their usual, but it's a definite opening, and after I rework the manuscript according to the feedback I've received (as quickly as possible), I will act on this opening.  It feels like I'm standing at the cusp of something big, something I've dreamed about since I was constructing picture books for my sisters out of scrap paper as a kid. 

I can't celebrate just yet, but this feels like a good thing.  A very good thing worth a blog.  There is definitely something to be said for conferences and for taking advantage of every opportunity available to get your work out there. 

Enjoyment

I haven't gotten to the meat of reviewing the manuscript I had the editor go over, After the Dream, though I've started it.  I'm right now focusing on finishing turning its sequel, Pigs Fly, into 3rd person since 1st person from two perspectives was not working for many people.  It's a long, tedious process.  However, I'm finding it enjoyable because I quite like the characters and the story.  Which tells me readers are more likely to enjoy it.  I've heard it said that if a scene from your story makes you laugh or cry--feel something--chances are good you'll get a similar reaction in your reader.

Here's one of my problems with the first manuscript, the one I've been procrastinating: I've gone over it so many times that it's hard to view it with new eyes.  It's difficult to feel all I'm supposed to feel with it anymore because it's hard to gain any distance.  One major reason I haven't tackled it yet is because I'm trying to achieve that emotional distance again, to be able to see it with eyes as fresh as possible.  But I haven't actually read the second one all the way through, yet.  It's still fresh to begin with.  It's much easier to enjoy because I've only ever read it once, maybe bits of it twice, including when I first wrote it.  I imagine I'll get tired of it, too, one day.  But the manuscripts need to be published in order for them to make sense.  Soon, I'll be done with the work on Pigs Fly and will get back to After the Dream.  In the meantime, I will keep enjoying that second manuscript as I ready it for my alpha and beta readers.

Getting past the blocks

Part of my issue with continuing to work with my writing group was a simple case of writer's block.  I kept thinking about how I needed to amp up the action, make my middle-grade fiction more and more challenging.  I could not figure out how to get my characters out of their latest fix by having them climb a taller mountain because I'd built the mountain so high.

Then I started talking to my kids, who both fall into the target audience, about what to do next.  They didn't know exactly how to get my characters out of their fix, but they had a different perspective.  Maybe I didn't have to have the characters climb the mountain so much as to tickle it.  What if they didn't have to climb the mountain but to make it laugh?  What I needed to do was to think like my audience to get my characters past the latest problem.  I didn't need to make the characters harder, faster, meaner than they already are but remember that the story needs to remain fun for my audiences.  I don't have to break the rules I already set to have fun with the story.

I haven't quite gotten the characters out of their latest fix, but I'm getting closer.  And once I do, I can see momentum will start to build again.  If I have fun again with my writing, so will my audience.

Torn

I know what my story concept is and always has been for the beginning of "After the Dream."  A woman dreams of and acquires her perfect happily ever after only to find it's not what she bargained for.  Yet I keep running into people, most recently my paid local editor, who recommend I incorporate my character's past later and don't start with these events at all.  Granted, my editor just said this was a bit long for a prolog.  Now, I'm torn between staying true to my vision of the story, the original concept on which I based the entire story, and heeding the gatekeepers to publication.

It is frustrating that in the conceptualization stage, an author is led to believe the sky is the limit, that anything you can imagine can be written and shared.  Yet when it comes right down to it, those who don't bow to the conventions of the craft can't get a story out there to be read.  This makes self-publication tempting; however, how does one get one's name out there to begin with if it isn't attached to a known publisher?  I see all these people around me getting published.  It feels so effortless.  I'm sure all of this will ring a bell to many beginning authors.  I'm just looking forward to being one of the wise, published authors who can guide others through this dizzying gauntlet.

Feeling the Inspiration Come Back

I've missed my desire to write.  I've wanted to want to write for a while.  But with my busy, crazy days, I've been so burnt out by the time I get to the end of the day.  So what is a writer who doesn't really write much?  A little lost, I'm afraid.  I've felt lost without the writer side of me but loathe to do something after hours since work hours meant staring at a computer.

Now, I'm looking at the light at the end of the tunnel [and it's not a train.]  One insanely time-consuming assignment wraps up this week, and I'm seeing my writing through the end of that tunnel.  It makes me feel light and happy.  I spent real time editing one of my drafts for the first time in weeks last night.   I feel my writing self beneath the surface, just waiting to come out, or rather, creeping back out, little by little.  Soon.

Battling the Blank Page

I have piles of editing to do, but I also need to keep up with my writing group.  So this week's push was to write two chapters.  Yes, just two.  And I just couldn't figure out what to write next that didn't repeat all that had gone on before.  So I'd write two or three lines to nudge the action forward then stop and stare at the screen.  I'm just not an outliner.  It works best for me to brainstorm a bit before I sit to write just so I know what's about to happen, then I sit and write.  But I haven't brainstormed recently.  So that blank page loomed large all week.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place, which was go to my brain trust.  It's a middle-grade fiction book, so I took my questions to my middle-grade kids.  What happens next?  They came up with a forward pathway right away.  Duh.  When all else fails, do the obvious: brainstorm.  Talk it through.  And that, my friends, is the path through the cold, white desolation of the blank page.

Burned out

So much for my habit of writing every day.  I've started teaching 2 sections of an online course with a total of 80 students, 3 rounds of grading per.  It's eaten me alive.  Plus, I've been participating in my writers' group, giving feedback, plus having guests and a million other things.  So I've been writing one paragraph on my middle-grade fiction here and there and doing minimal revising of my sequel to the novel I submitted to the editor for review.  I think part of the issue was I was working so hard for so long on that project that I'm a little burned out.

But in the next few days, I'm supposed to get the editor's review back on my manuscript.  That was fast.  Within short order, I will have those comments plus some I already had to look over and employ on my book.  In the very near future, I will be up to my eyeballs in editing again.  But for now, I've been having vision problem: I've been having a hard time seeing how I could fit writing in and having a worse time finding the ambition to do so.  But that's all going to change momentarily.

Back into Writing

I've been writing daily, or at least editing most days, for a few years now.  It's the only way to keep the momentum going.  I've  been trying to get my husband to write.  We both know he has stories to tell and meaning to share.  He started a story about a woman dealing with post-abortion stress without realizing it.  It's a great story, and he's a better writer than me overall.  I know there are people who can be helped in their healing process through his writing.  But depression weighs him down.  Stress keeps his days full.

Last night, we went camping, and without my prompting or reminding him, he started writing again.  I'm hoping we can keep this momentum for him going.  I'd like to get him into League of Utah Writers, a writing group that has helped my momentum keep going with my middle-grade fiction novels.  Here's hoping this wasn't a fluke.

Choked

So much for my writing deadline.  It doesn't help when I know the due dates are artificial.  I got a lot of work done toward getting my manuscript edited by the deadline.  But a lot is not the same as all, not by half.  I knew deep down [or not so deep down] that the deadline wouldn't make me or break me.  I want this manuscript done and sent to the editor.  I want to move on to my other book for a while.  But it's really hard to sit and use as much time as is necessary to get it all done.  So I had to extend.  I just hope I don't have to extend again.

It's not that an extension is all bad.  I have more time.  But this puts off my submission to another publisher even more.  It means people who might be helped along in their healing process have to wait that much longer for my novel.  It frustrates me to fail in even this artificial a due date.  I just need to find a way to motivate myself, a set number of hours to work on this project daily and a reward [maybe something without excessive calories] to give myself every time I succeed in meeting that goal.  I know I can do this.  I just need to do it.  It's so much more fun to do the actual writing.

Ticking Clock

I set the due date for my manuscript to arrive with the editor for the beginning of August.  That date felt so far away when I set it.  Now, it's around a week away.  And I don't feel anywhere near ready.  It's amazing how many things seem more urgent...or interesting... than editing, even as the due date looms large.  It's not that I can't reshuffle that deadline, but I'd like to be done with that manuscript for a while.  I love it, but I've been working on it for over two years.  I'd like to do something else for a while.

I imagine whether I end up moving the due date or not, just the act of giving myself a deadline, artificial or otherwise, will drive me to get more done.  It's amazing how inspirational a due date can be.  It's just so very tedious to change a manuscript from first- to third-person.  I know it needs to be done.  I've given the reasons it needs to be done.  I get it.  But I'd much rather watch a video, read a book, write new material with my middle-grade fiction, or clean my toilet, anything rather than back to the tedium of editing like this.  Even revision can entail a little writing and, therefore, more fun.  Ah, well.  I have nothing more important to do, really, so off I go.  Editing, here I come.

Ignoring the Elephant

I have started tearing apart the manuscript of my first book, After the Dream, as per recent feedback.  I kept the original draft, but I see now that it won't work for a lot of readers.  It's just not "fun" enough.  It hurt to write, so it hurts to read it.  As I said before, I have feedback that would guide me how to turn it into a standard romance.  But I don't WANT it to be a standard romance.  The, for me, there's no point in writing a standard romance since there are so many.  The book for me is at least as much about healing as it is about romance.  So I need that aspect.  How do I balance fun and meaning?

So while I ponder that, I'm off doing some fun and frivolous writing on the first draft book two of my middle-grade fiction series, Doomimals.  The first, Cock-a-doodle-DOOM, one has mostly been run through League of Utah Writers for feedback and is also waiting a revision, as is the first draft of the sequel to After the Dream, Pigs Fly.

So what do I do in the face of all this revision that needs to be done?  I entertain my kids with chapter after chapter of the fun stuff, Cat-a-clysm, because they're my most immediate audience.  I no sooner finish one chapter then they have to have the next.  Which makes me wonder what I was doing wrong with the first one that they weren't pushing me quite so hard to get them a new chapter.  Maybe it's just because this one is about CATS, and as far as they're concerned, nothing is more important.  So I keep looking at the elephant, the large pile of revision to be done.  And while I'm looking at it and trying to guilt trip myself into doing something about it, I'm entertaining kids.  It's the adult, mature version of procrastination.

Another first draft!

Yay!  I finished the first draft of my middle-grade book Doomimals Book 1: Cock-a-doodle-DOOM. My readers in my writing group are almost done with it and tell me they're enjoying it.

I have a committee of family members reading it and eagerly anticipating each new chapter.  So much so that my little girl would not be happy until I wrote the first chapter of the next book Cat-a-clysm, plotted based on "The Three Little Kittens" just as the first one was plotted based on "Chicken Little."  They've been a lot of fun to write.

But now I have a problem: I have three drafts in various stages of completion, one that I thought was done that needs to be tweaked and two that just have a first draft.  Two need to be read aloud with my husband [and one run through my editing software] while the third needs some revision based on feedback.

And my little girl has now listened to my first chapter of Cat-a-clysm and is addicted.  She must have MORE.  Not to mention a list of other things I need to do in the day.  So now, I have to figure out how to fit everything at once.  And the increased humor in book two means book one needs to get funnier.

I wonder if there's an app for finding more time in the day, maybe expanding my day to 30 hours instead of 24.  I guess there are worse problems than having too many manuscripts, like staring at a blank page and wondering how to find those first words.  I've been there, too.  One of my early blogs covers that.  I'd rather have this problem.

Crossroads

I'm at a crossroads.  I have now finished the rough draft of book 2, Pigs Fly.  I would like to go through and work on my next reading through with my husband, who is a good writer in his own right.  He will help me add more humor, more snark, as well as more of the spiritual.  I have a willing audience, fans who have read my first book who have expressed an interest in reading the second.

On the other hand, I have a local editor who has given me a discount and will be putting my first book, After the Dream, on their summer schedule.  It needs to be refined and tweaked to the best of my ability before they look at it and tell me what else it needs.  And what if I make substantial changes that impact book two?  Is there any point in revising book two until I know what's going on with book one?

For now, I've been reworking short stories I wrote and won prizes on 14 years ago, thereby improving my editing skills as well as figuring out how my editing software works for when I tackle the big pieces.  The contest due date is tomorrow, so it's not like this delay will go on for much longer.  I suppose it's back to book one for me.  I just hope it doesn't take long.

Polishing

Once upon a time, 15 years ago, I entered three short stories in the League of Utah Writers contest, and I won first prize on all three.  The next year, I figured it would be no problem to win some more since I had such luck the first time.  I got a couple of second prizes.  Not bad.  The next year, I entered a few more pieces and won nothing.  I gave up for a while.  I've entered a few contests since, have gotten a few honorable mentions here and there, including with Writer's Digest.  But otherwise, I have struggled to repeat the glory of that one shimmering year.

I've started assembling several short stories, including the prize winners, into a short story collection called "One if by Starlight" about women finding confidence in an insecure world.  It has kind of a slim plot in a frame story.  I'm not sure if I should publish it as a whole or hold onto the individual stories against publishing indie if I have to go that route with my novels.  For now, I'm polishing the best of the stories to submit them in a contest for prior winners.  The part that makes me feel really good is that I'm finding so much to fix.  The last time I tinkered with them several years ago, they were as polished as I could get them.  Now, I'm finding more to polish and fix.  I guess that means I've improved as a writer.  I know it couldn't hurt to get some more wins on my resume for when I submit my novel to another publisher.  Now if only I could find time to do everything at once.

Back to Editing

I'm almost done with my rough draft for my second book, Pigs Fly.  I know there are parts that need to be beefed up, particularly the spiritual parts, a few characters that more or less disappear, subplots I planned to write but haven't, and especially spiritual parts.  However, mostly, I need to let the editor side of my brain back in the door.

Mostly, I just write my first draft.  I let the words flow naturally.  If something needs to be edited or substantially altered, I just note that without going there and move on.  I have written most of my important scenes, sewn them together, and smoothed out the plotline.  Now, I can open the door and let my internal editor tackle it.  While she's in the room, I also need to let her take a serious crack at that first manuscript.  I just dread this part.  The fun part is letting my imagination go nuts.  It's play for me.  Now, I feel like I'm having to go back to work.  When I wrote my first book, After the Dream, I took about six months to get to this point.  Once again, it's been six months.  I just pray it doesn't take me the same twelve months to get the work part out of the way, so I can get back to playing.

Making Sense

Right now, I'm working on making my story make sense.  The first thing I do, after some work on characters and getting the basic concept down, is to write whatever comes to mind from the plot.  Oh, I need a scene where my characters fight?  Great.  Sit down and write it.  Somewhere, there's going to be a flashback about how Robin got her pig?  Awesome!  Sit down and write it.  I blogged about this previously.  I call it quilt writing.  I first create the quilting squares of writing, or scenes, then sit down and put them together.  A couple of weeks ago, I assembled the spinal column of my story.  Now, I'm working on making sure all the bones fit where I put them.  When they don't fit, I put them somewhere else.  For instance, I wrote a scene in which one character reacts to another's negativity.  When I wrote the scene, I didn't know where it would fit in the story.  When I figured out where it had to go, plotwise, he hadn't yet learned some of the factors that went into his reaction.  Those bits had to be cut.  It hurt.  I wanted them there.  But I needed that scene right there for the plot to make sense.  

Some people may say at this point, "Then why don't you start out with an outline?  It would save you time in the end."  For some authors, that works great.  They figure out the plot line, outline it, then flesh it out by writing it.  I'm trying something similar on the side with my mid-grade children's story series Doomimals.  But I run into a lot more walls and run out of steam a lot more often when I have to figure out the dreaded What Comes Next.  It's just not the way I think, the way I function.  I thrive on making sense out of chaos.  If I don't have chaos, I don't have material.  Either this makes sense to you, and you should read on, or this doesn't make sense, and you should ignore me and work with your outlines.  

I heard a writer say everyone uses outlines.  They may do it first or they may do it later.  I suppose that's true.  But I have discovered to keep my creative juices flowing, I can't outline until the characters have told me what's going to happen in the story.  I don't really know the details of what's coming until they come out of my fingers.  If I don't know the details, what do I have to outline?  

If you're a chaos writer, one I've heard referred to as a "by the seat of your pantser," and you're finding neat outlines and chronologies aren't working for you, sit down and start your quilt squares.  Write something, anything, every day, from a character description to the most dramatic moment in your book to a scene that is just for you because the reader doesn't need this much detail.  What happens ANYWHERE in your story or even before or after your story?  Do you have a vivid image of your final scene but no idea where to start?    Do you have a really great idea for a flashback?  Sit and write it.  Get those juices flowing.  Make your squares, and eventually, a beautiful quilt may just come out of it, even if some of those squares never get used.  

Dialogue

So I learned I've been doing dialogue wrong this whole time.  Okay, so maybe I can say I've been doing dialogue in a less professional manner than I should without knowing it.  I watched a video posted by BookBaby/Autocrit about dialogue, and it showed me how I should be doing it according to many editors and publishers.  I knew that adverbs were to be minimized if not avoided entirely in strong writing.  Too many -ly words can lead to weaker instead of stronger writing, and the Harry Potter series was improved as J.K. Rowling worked on trimming them back.  So I knew that I shouldn't tag dialogue with phrases like "said happily" or "asked sadly."  But it seemed to me like the word "said" was such a dry, dull word.  I've heard again and again that redundancy is the kiss of death for good writing.

Well, it turns out I was wrong.  I submitted my first manuscript chock full of characters that screamed, purred, mocked, or murmured their words.  Instead, I should have erred on the side of boring and redundant.  It turns out that one is best served having characters that said this, said that, answered this, and--occasionally--shouted or whispered something when the volume becomes important.  Who knew?  The dialogue tags are simply to show the reader who said what and then fade into the background.  Instead, one should concentrate on beefing up the dialogue, so it's obvious who is screeching, purring, etc.  Not only that, but one should avoid having the characters speak and do something that can't be done while someone is speaking like laughing or coughing words.  Good to know.  Now, I'm wondering what other bits of writing wisdom I'm missing.