Wow

A whole year has went by and I haven't posted once! Terrible. To be fair, 2012 was a terrible year. Let's not talk about it.

I have been busy. I have been editing my novel religiously, although I did miss my deadline of 1/31/13 to have it finished. I was stuck on Chapter 13, an unlucky number, true. I just could not get over the direction one of the male characters took. But, after talking to my husband about male behavior, I left it in. So, I am now on Chapter 15 out of 23 chapters. I am going to market it as a transformative tale wherein a young woman learns to trust herself.

I have also made several resolutions for the new year:

-Sell Tomorrow's June, the novel mentioned above.
-Write and sell two short stories. I already have one that needs tweaking but I have a great idea for another one.
-Make writing and editing a habit.
-Get my other romance novel ready for sale. This is more of a traditional romance set in modern times. It needs tweaking.
-Develop new projects. My husband and I have several ideas for books and screenplays we want to develop.
-Finish Buy Here, Pay Here, my screenplay about the car lot.

Last year was not a total loss. I started reading novels voraciously, particularly romance novels because I have to know what the market is like. I found a few great ones: the Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning rocked; I loved Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark; and last, but not least, The Fallen Angels from J.R. Ward, which brings me to my next topic. I was so taken by the male lead in the Fallen Angels series, Jim Heron, that I devoted NaNoWriMo 12 to writing a fanfic novel about how the series ends. Ward is positioning Heron to have a happily ever after (HEA) with a 19-year-old virgin named Sissy. This won't do. I didn't want my poor mom to continue to listen to my outrage over this blasphemy, so I wrote an alternate series-ending novel where he ends up with someone more suited to him. Like me. The exercise accomplished three things: first to show that I can pound out a novel in a month, like old times, and have it be good with just a bit of mild tweaking needed; second, to get me back into a writing habit; and third, to show that I could write fanfiction. I won't offer it for sale because the characters are Ward's and it would be nearly impossible to change the particulars, but at least I know I can do it.

I also transferred my domain name to a new web host and I bought www.carolinefuller.com. Caroline Fuller is the name I am going use to write. Caroline Fritz is too tied up with work. Although I am working on a romance novel writing name like Anastasia Caldwell. I don't know. The new website is not up and running yet. I am going to work on it in between everything else. I will keep you posted as to when it is up and running, again.

I  envision 2013 being a productive, successful year. I also was just promoted to editor of my own magazine, so I will be busy, but it is a good busy.

Chapter 2 and a new challenge

I started editing Chapter 2 tonight. I am infinitely inspired by The Writer's Almanac podcasts, which my husband downloads for us to listen to. I recommend it wholeheartedly. I am going to up my editing schedule to get the book done. It is hard work! I have come to a conclusion about myself which I may or may not have mentioned previously. I have realized that my problem isn't about writing everyday. It is not about not being able to find inspiration. It is about wanting to avoid the hard work of writing and editing. Are my edits good enough? How the hell should I know? I guess I will find out!

I have also signed up for another writing challenge, Script Frenzy, where participants write a 100-page script in 30 days. This is scheduled for April.



I am excited because the rules say you can work on a script that has already been started or you can start something new. Either one works for me because I already have a script started and I want to turn my latest NaNoWriMo novel into a script. It is nice to have a choice! I have a week and a half to decide what to do.

Jumping in

I have allowed myself to become distracted these past weeks, so I have made a goal for this weekend: rewrite the first chapter. I bought a really great book, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King, and it has been very useful. I am coming to realize that there is a formula to writing books.

I will keep you updated on my progress and let you know when I reach my goal.

My novel in index card form

Here it is, my novel distilled onto 4x6 index cards.



That was the easy part. Next comes the hard part. Cutting out the superfluous and work on the pacing. My writing style for this novel was breathless enthusiasm, while entertaining in small doses, does not a novel make.

Of course I will post updates.

Progress and stuff

I wanted to check in. I have been working diligently and am finally finished transposing my story onto note cards. The next step is to lay out the cards in the order they appear in the book to decide what needs to stay and what needs to go.

So this is my next step.

Full-speed editing

One of my New Year's resolutions was to be more serious about my writing, to the point where I schedule it. So far (it is only Jan. 7, I know), I have been keeping my promise. I work on my book on days that the Red Wings aren't playing. On those days, I do something crafty. On the weekend, I split, depending on what is going on.

So the editing has been going well. I am plotting each scene on an index card pursuant to the last post I made and #3 in the list in my post on 12/7. I have also realized a couple of truths about myself, specifically, that it isn't necessary for me to read a book in its entirety. If I skim pertinent chapters and make notes, then it is just as good.

Another truth: I know next to nothing about story structure and it is sad. I am educating myself with a great book titled, The Portable MFA in Creative Writing. I guess I should have majored in Creative Writing in college. Maybe I would have known earlier what I was doing.

One more truth: I am further ahead than I think. I don't know a lot of writers. I know a lot of wannabes and I always compare myself to them when they haven't written anything. The fact of the matter is I have written three books, a play, and several poems. I have to work on the next step (which is what I am doing now) and shaping the work into something publishable. I have to stop being so hard on myself.

That is it for today. More truth as I uncover it!

Editing: the first phase

I began on the first phase of editing my book, Tomorrow's June. According to Chris Baty (see previous post), he recommends going through each chapter and writing down the characters who appear and the action that occurs.

Done and done.

The next step is to transpose the story into movable outline form, preferably on 4 x 6 cards.

Until then.

The next step

OK. I have given it a few days. I have mulled it over. I have given it every consideration. I am ready to begin the next step.

Editing.

I wrote in my last post about seeking out advice on editing from Chris Baty and being gobsmacked about what he wrote. Herein I berate myself for a sentence or two: I seem to operate in a dream land where I drift from topic to topic, thinking I know what I am doing but in reality have no idea. I have had my first novel finished for YEARS. I had no idea how to edit it, just a vague assumption, and I still didn't do it. Please tell me what that means?

I have lately come into contact with several old friends, mine and my husband's. Everyone is doing their thing and living their lives while I knock around with the same two chapters that need editing. It is ridiculous, really. I did a cursory look at the dozens of writing books on my bookshelf and none tell the reader how to edit a book. Instead, they are filled with advice on "capturing the muse." I don't need my muse captured, she lives in my basement.

So, what to do? Here is the advice, in a nutshell from Chris, keeping in mind that edits take at least a year:

1. Print out a copy of your manuscript.
2. In the margins of each chapter, write the following: the characters who appear and the action that occurs.
3. Transpose your story into movable outline form by using index cards or digitally. This is done by breaking down each chapter into its component scenes and creating an index card for each scene, noting the same information in #2: the cast, the action, and what role the scene plays in advancing the story.
4. Cull the cards. Remove unnecessary scenes. Make sure the remaining characters are central to the story and if they aren't, have a damn good reason for being there.
5. Figure out the pacing by moving the cards (scenes), testing structure and ideas, until the arc appears. Reshuffle the cards, literally.
6. Implement the changes in #5 to the manuscript.
7. Start a sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word rewrite. Look for wooden prose and awkward conversation. Check your research and facts.

Brilliance.

I found none of this advice in any of the books I spent all my hard-earned money on. So I will start from the beginning and begin to print my manuscript. I am going to start with my first book, then go to last year's NaNoWriMo story titled Three Weeks in Arizona, then this year's winner, which is untitled.

I plug in my printer, make sure I have enough paper, and hit print.

"Replace cyan cartridge" appears. I check my supplies for a cyan cartridge, which is blue and I am printing in black ink but it doesn't seem to matter because the printer won't print without it. I don't have one. Does Toni Morrison go through this? I mean really. I have to go buy one and money is tight.

This, readers, is in a nutshell, my writing life.

*** Update ***
I told my husband and he suggested we go to the university and print them, so I did and I now have a hard copy of two out of the three novels. He is going to print the third one for me this week.

Crisis averted.

A new challenge

So I wrote this 50,000 word novel, in fact I now have THREE 50,000 word novels to edit. I just signed up for NaNoEdMo, that's right National Novel Editing Month, which happens in March. The goal is to devote 50 hours to the task of editing. I can totally do that.

And here is an embarrassing confession: I really don't actually know how to edit a novel. Sure, I edit every day in my job, but a novel? To find an answer, I turned to Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo, and read his advice on how to edit, it was really great advice on how to take the novel apart and then put it back together. So I will be doing that for all three novels. In fact, I am going to start with my first book after I log off of here.

I re-read last year's NaNoWriMo entry last night, which I am going to title, Three Weeks In Arizona. It was pretty good! So I am going to include that in the editing mix as well. In fact, I might use Three Weeks as my editing project in March, but we will see.