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.

Waiting in Line

Does life ever feel like one giant line that never seems to end? And yet the line does end and you're told you need to go somewhere else and wait in an even bigger line. Everyone around you is impatient and loathing you because you're in that line, taking up a space, consuming air, getting ahead and maybe they're not.

I'm 24. I am single. I live at home with my parents because I can't afford to live on my own. I work. I don't have a career. I have a JOB. In five years, I ideally want to be published, own a house, be married, and be thinking about babies. But at the rate I'm going, in five years I may not have any of those things. I may still be in line, waiting for a new job, or waiting for an acceptance letter, or waiting for a guy to buy me a rose.

I'm stubborn. And dedicated. And IN LOVE with writing. So much that I'm not going to get out of line. My line may be the longest of them all. There may be a shorter line close by, but the results would be less satisfying.

I will wait. There's lots to do when you're waiting in line. Just have to think a little off the page...

word counts, book review, and Valentine's Day

When I begin a novel, I always ask myself: how long is this going to be? My estimates are never right. In fact, most of the time they're way off. For example, my current book was only supposed to be 50,000 words and it's currently 45,000 and I'm not even sure if I hit the half-way point. My last novel was supposed to be 80,000 and it barely scratched 66,000. I always wonder which is better/worse...to overestimate or underestimate? Or does it even matter?

Book Review! I finished THE REPLACEMNT a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to write a review. I think this is an excellent first novel for author Brenna Yovanoff. She takes YA to a new level. For one thing, the teenagers actually sound and act like teenagers. They swear. They take off their clothes around the opposite sex. And they are funny. Or at least, they think they're funny. Bravo to that! Most writers are terrified to drop the f bomb. Shakespeare forbid they say it in a YA novel. In The Replacement, I was happy to see that wonderful word about two dozen times. Plot wise, I loved it. Lots of twists and turns. The only bit of criticism I have is sometimes certain sections became too telling and/or simply structured. There were also at least 6 typos but I blame the editors/printers for that. I give this book a 9.5/10 and recommend it to all those who want to read a good YA novel.

Valentine's Day was yesterday. Yep.

You know you're in love with your WIP when...

1- You think about your characters like they're your friends/enemies.

2- You like editing and revising what you've written.

3- You go to bed a half hour later because you just have to get to a certain word count.

4- You feel like its the "one."

5- You think about what actors/actresses would play the characters if your book ever became a movie. You wonder if they'll give you a cameo in the movie or perhaps a speaking part. Will they let you write the screenplay? Will you win an oscar for best adapted screenplay?

6-You can block out your mother sreaming at the TV during the superbowl and write a very intense scene without feeling distracted.

7- You think about who you're gonna dedicate the book to when it's published. You think about all the time you'll have to write once you're a bestseller and your bank account has gone from three figures to six.

8- You just keep thinking to yourself, "This has to be published. This HAS to be published!"

And I'm sure there are plenty of other signs, but those 8 are mine. :-)

Dialogue

Just thought I'd share some dialogue from my novel...


“Don’t apologize for things you have no control over.”

“Control. That’s a pretty strong word in my dictionary. I don’t like it when people try to control me. I feel like I’m being kidnapped and rearranged into something else, something I’m not. Sometimes…well, actually most of the time, I like to pretend I’m on another planet.”

“Babe, you are on another planet.”

“I wish it were true.” She sighs and slaps her hands against her knees. “Sorry, I’m saying things that don’t make any sense. I’m really tired.”

“Can’t apologize for that either. We only use like 10% of our brains, so everything we say or do is only 10% understandable when you look at it from a full-brain perspective.”

She rolls her eyes. “Oh, please, that 10% thing is just a myth. Our brains do a lot more than just think for us. Most of the brain’s energy is used to make our neurons communicate with each other. That’s how we’re able to breathe. How our organs work without us thinking, ‘Hey, stomach, it’s time to digest this burger I just ate.’ Those functions occur on their own, using the other 90% people like you think is impossible to tap into.”

“Wow.” Peter folds his arms across his chest and nods three times. “You are a real geek, you know that? You like comic books and science. Do you like Zelda too? Or are you a Final Fantasy fan?”

“Smart ass. I’m neither. Zelda and Final Fantasy are for little girls who can’t handle a gun. I play Resident Evil and Call of Duty.”

“Damn. Will you marry me now?”

“No.”

“Someday you will. And we’ll have little geeky babies together.”

“No, we won’t.”

“I’m kidding. Don’t look so constipated about it.”