1st Draft :-)

The 1st Draft of my novel WALKING OFF PLUTO is at last complete at 77,000 words. How do I feel? Very excited and a little sad. I'm attached to my characters and want to continue their stories, but I wrote the novel with the full intentions of it being a stand-alone novel.

I am determined to get this book published. I will be patient. I will edit it. I will make hundreds of revisions until I am beyond satisfied. If it takes a year, so be it. I'm not rushing this time and ruining my chances with a crappy query and bad editing. Agents expect polished manuscripts.

But I'm also not going to jump right into editing either. I'm giving myself a two week break to work on other projects: my play and my unfinished Nano book. My play revisions have a real deadline, so that's a priority. My nano book, I should have finished months ago, but Pluto took over my writing world. I also have two novels I wrote back in 2010 that need editing. OH wow. I have lots to do!

No new projects until the old projects have been worked on. I have a list of pitches for future novels, but I will hold off on writing any of them until summer.

Yay for more daylighT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sex in Novels (i suspect I'll get a lot of readers for this posting wink wink)

I'm about to hit 60K in my novel and feeling really good about it. I'm 3/4 of the way done. Almost at the climax of the story.

Speaking of climax, I've been meaning to blog about sex in novels. I for one like it when authors are not afraid to be graphic about sex. Stieg Larsson does an excellent job of this as well as Audrey Niffenegger. But for many writers, it's very easy for the wording to come across as a porno. So you have to be careful. I also believe that unless the sex is vital to the plot or reveals something important about a character, then it should be avoided. Throwing in a sex scene just for fun is not productive.

Looking back at all my novels, I have written my share of R-rated (and sometimes NC-17) sex scenes. They've included passionate first-time affairs, lesbians in the desert, high schoolers fooling around without using protection (what dumdums) and rape. I think I probably could and should have cut or shortened about 40% of those scenes. One (and I'll admit it was the lesbians in the desert) really doesn't add to the plot or reveal something about a character. It's there for pure shock value. And it doesn't work. It needs to be cut (and saved for a more appropriate setting).

So, let's hear it. What are some sex scenes you've written that you probably could have done without? Or better yet...when did you write a sex scene but tone it down because you were scared to be graphic? Think you might wanna go back and add a little "classy" steam?

Goals

Writing Goals for March 2011

General:
Use similes sparingly
Don't overthink everything, that's what editing is for
Write, write, write

To be accomplished by April 1st
Finish 1st Draft of WALKING OFF PLUTO (25k left)
Edit play SAMSON AND MS DELILAH
Finish Nano book!!! (5K left)

30,000 words in one month? I can totally do it!!!!!!!!!!!
And if not, who cares? I'm on nobody's schedule but my own.