After posting about Writer's Block yesterday, I was pumped to go to work with the attitude that it's all in my mind and can be overcome. No, I didn't start pouring out pages and pages of fiction but I was able to start writing after I had analyzed my 2 novellas. It would have been easy to shove them under the rug and just start a new story. The chances of me improving if I did that would be close to nil. So I took a closer look at Road to Array and The Glen and decided to merge both stories.

Huh?

Yeah but Ellen overshadows Daniel most of Road to Array (and it is meant to be HIS story)  Selfish? I guess so but coming to this realization made so many things clearer and it changes so many things including the entire plot. It sounds scary but don't be afraid to take a risk. There's a good chance that the new story would be the better for it and I'm taking it.

 

There is no great writing, only great rewriting. ~ Justice Brandeis

 

I haven't written anything in a month. My writing prompt attempt in the middle of may does not count. Maybe I should say I haven't worked on anything new since completing my novellas at the end of April.

The problem: Reading

Okay, there are people that say reading (maybe novels in the genre you write) will help get over writer's block. That works. You just have to be careful that your characters aren't all of a sudden sounding like someone else's. So my problem isn't novel reading. I can barely get into a book these days. Hmm...maybe I should look into new authors to read. The problem isn't reading. It's reading about writing.

Yep, Reading about writing, has completely stumped my creative flow. After my attempt at publication (see yesterday's post), I recognized my writing neded a lot more work. I started to read up on writing. There are endless articles in Writer's Digest or Women on Writing! about  adding 10K words to your story (much needed by me), Show Don't Tell (which can help in the adding 10K words), Making your Characters Jump Off the Page, working on subplots, Character motivation...

You get it.

Suddenly, I find whole days passing (time flies when you are on the web. one minute it's 8am the next it is 4pm and I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch which can feel amazing if you have been writing all that time. If you have been reading about writing...not so much). So days pass by and all I have done is read about writing and this has caused a performance anxiety of sorts.  Every word has to make my characters sing. I'm doubting if my description is good enough. Am I telling or showing? Do my characters have enough conflict? Is my romance subplot underdeveloped? It goes on and on and on.

I'm not saying these questions aren't important. They are AFTER you've finished your first draft. These are the questions I should ask while revising previously finished works. For my new idea/premise (for me it's my first try at romantic suspense as opposed to my usual romantic mystery) all I should worry about is getting my words down on the page after my usual outline (a bare bones chapter by chapter synopsis).

Of course, I couldn't resist seeing what others had to say about Writer's Block. I think I can't help but research- it's the curse of having an engineering background (that's a story for another day). 

Writer's Block- A Definition by Example

The main jist of it- "Even so, the author believes that writer's block "never happens" (Perret 84) to professional writers and is a "cop-out" which professional writers never use because "You write, you eat. You don't write, you find another job" (Belkom). "

Definitely food for thought. (and the Writing Quote for Today)

A professional writer should have weekly goals (more realistic if you have a day job that takes up certain days of your week. Even if writing is your full time job, there is probably still a lot going on in your life.) You push to write whether you feel like it or not because as a professional your agent is wanting to sell your next book once he/she gets done with the one on hand.

So we should all think like professionals.

I need to set a daily word goal (I don't have a job. I most likely won't be working until summer ends. I am traveling around all summer and not staying anywhere long enough. Home is the longest stay right before I start school again and that would be for 3 weeks tops).

Sorry I digress.

I'm pulling out my guns and killing writer's block.



You should too.

FAILED.

After a month of researching into query letters, synopsis and polishing those first few chapters as well as coming up with a list of agents/publishers that represent similar books in my genre, I realized that I just was not ready. The question that comes to mind is : Why did you go through all that just to figure out you aren't ready? The truth: A mixture of being weak-willed and bored.

Okay, to explain that I have to start at the real beginning.

I graduated from university in December 2008. I won't go into the nitty gritty details of job search etc and just say I didn't get one. So I stayed with family and applied to graduate school which doesn't start until Fall 2009. Now, I had this huge amount of time on my hands and it was the perfect opportunity to finish editing 2 of my mystery stories and by April I was done.

That was when boredom set in. I had spent the past four months editing two stories and for the first time, I had no new ideas coming in. Friends and family knew I had holed myself up doing nothing but writing and as far as they were concerned unpublished writing is useless writing so I got asked continuously when are you going to get published?

I caved. I hadn't planned on attempting the whole "trying to get published" experience until I was done with graduate school, had a day job and was relatively settled so my answer should have been 2012. What did I say? Now.

too short.Once I say something, I stick to it even if I know that I just hung myself and so began my road to publication. April  was used to do the research mentioned above and after sending out a number ofl query letters in May, I discovered that my stories were. I always found it albeit annoying when I googled up novels and word count, there were endless posts about trying to shave off 20K words from a 100K + novel when it took tears, sweat and blood for me to get to 60K. Turns out I don't have 2 novels but 2 novellas. Trust me there'sa big difference in the publishing world. Agents bulk at selling novellas especially from an unpublished author. Nothing less than 80K would work.

The solution I came up with was to rewrite- make sure characters were developed to their fullest, add a subplot or 2 relating to the original plot, develop a minor character and/or work on pacing. It does seem daunting but I am willing to give it a shot and if it doesn't work out then I just have to start anew. Write another book making sure to incorporate all metioned above and plan for at least 80 K this time

The second problem was something I discovered through reading agent blogs and researching and it is a biggie. Writing credentials.  If you are already published well this isn't a problem  If you aren't- maybe you have a degree in a writing related field a B.A in English or Journalism or an MFA. You may have even gotten some of the short stories you wrote during your undergraduate/graduate years published in a magazine or journal. Yeah I didn't have that.

There are a few solutions to this one
Enter Contests. Notable ones that relate to your genre. Win first place or at least be among the top finalists
Join critique groups- Like I said before notable...and you get advice from published & unpublished writers (even better if they write in your genre)
Join Professional writing organizations- Okay so some of biggies only accept authors that have published at least 1 novel but certain chapters might be more lenient or they might have a chapter for the newbies
.

Maybe it was a good thing my answer to my family wasn't 2012. At least, I know what I need to get done by then.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.~ Confucius


P.S Some posts on my live journal page will be moderated to friends only. To be able to view all posts, send me a message saying hey it's me from xyz to be added to my friends list.

I know next to nothing about live journal. I hope I get a hang of it soon. I joined because of The Fictionpress.com Anti-Plagiarism Coalition

I never want to see anyone, and I never want to go anywhere or do anything. I just want to write.
~ P. G. Wodehouse