From the Writer's Desk

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

On Writing: Questions to Ask Yourself During Editing

Yes, I know it's not All About Editing week anymore. But I'm editing again, so it's on my mind again, which means you lovely readers get yet another post on the subject. This time, I want to talk about the questions you should ask yourself as you're reading your work and editing it.

The subject for this post first occurred to me when I was editing Please, Sir and working on a particular scene. Paige is standing in her boyfriend's childhood home, in the foyer, and there are pictures on the wall. Originally, there were photos of her boyfriend's father. That just didn't make sense. I needed a certain reaction moments later, when Paige meets John, that just wouldn't have happened if she had seen pictures of him. Logic. Sometimes I have it.

Does this make sense?
My number one question. If you ask nothing else, ask this. Does this make sense? As I mentioned before, it made no sense for Paige to see a photo of John and then react as though she hadn't. If the answer is "no," things need to change. If the answer is "maybe," you should probably try to figure out why it isn't "yes." And if the answer is "yes," can you explain why that is?

Does this help or hurt the story?
A protagonist moves the story. There are various other definitions, but that's the one that helps me the most when it comes to identification. For me, words are also the protagonist. Each word should help move the story forward. (Or backward, whatever; I love Tarantino as much as the next cinema fan.) Every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every scene should move the story. It should help. It should help tell (by showing, but you knew that) the story. If it doesn't move things along, it hinders. It hurts. Hurting is bad. Pain means that something is wrong. So, you know, fix that or something.

Is this the right word?
If you've checked out the word usage tag here on my blog, you probably already know that I'm a big fan of the "use the right word" piece of writing advice. Not just because I have a literary lady-boner for Mark Twain, either. The right word makes all the difference. Are you using the right ones?

Why does this story need to be told? (What's the point?)
Maybe you're really good at asking this question before you even start writing. If that's the case... Okay, you can't see me, but I'm totally making faces at you. For the rest of us, a good time to ask this question is during editing. Why are you telling this story? Why does it need to be shared? The answer doesn't have to be epic and life-changing. It could be something as simple as, "Because I wish I could have read it without having to write it." If you can't come up with a reason--for real; if you ask yourself this question in a fit of insecurity and frustration, the results won't be accurate--then it's time to reevaluate what you're saying and why you feel the need to share the story with people.

Each and every piece you shove out into the world should be your very best. Taking the time to edit, to examine your work and your choices and your motivations, is vital to the process of making it the best.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

On Writing in the New Year: Resolutions

Making resolutions isn't something I only do once a year, but the first of January always gives me special occasion to reexamine the previous year's goals and resolutions and to make new ones for the coming year.

Eight months of 2011 were devoted to learning about the publishing industry, learning about self-publishing, and fumbling my way around blogging, Tweeting, and releasing the first few books. I'm coming into 2012 with a little bit of knowledge and experience--and that's only good enough to point me in the direction of more knowledge and more experience.

So here they are, my 2012 Resolutions:

I will finish every story I start, even if I don't share it.
I will take risks, try new things, and avoid The Rut.
I will finish the vampire novel.
I will do my very best to offer readers something new every month.
I will do my very best to blog consistently and offer quality content.
I will seek out more guest posters.
I will read one book a month (because a writer who does not read isn't much of a writer).
I will learn more about publishing, self-publishing, promotion, marketing.
I will remember to check my email, Twitter, and Facebook regularly.
I will more actively market my work.

This is going to be an exciting year.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Monday Miscellany: Welcome to the New Year

Yesterday, I sat down and listed the projects I have planned for this year. There are eight. Three short stories, three short story collections, and two novels. That number might actually be nine because there might be a third novel, it all depends on how I manage my time. This number doesn't include the half-dozen ideas I have scribbled in notebooks and on dry-erase boards, it only includes the stories I have already outlined, action-drafted, or drafted. Will I be busy? Yes, I think so.

I'm still in the process of editing One Good Cowboy. Finding the time has been a little bit difficult, but things are getting back to normal soon (husband is going back to work, visiting sister is starting to venture out on her own), so I'm optimistic that it can be finished this week.

Over the weekend, I rang in the new year with a cranky one-year-old who refused to fall asleep until she saw her daddy. Yesterday and today, I lost the two most important cards in my life (my ID and my debit card) and I have not been able to find them yet. We suspect the cranky one-year-old threw them away without anyone noticing. So... not the best start to the new year. But I'm not pessimistic!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Blog Roundup: December 26, 2011 - January 1, 2012

Chuck Wendig thanked his readers and shared his blog's top 25 posts of 2011.

Greta van der Rol shared her experience with an "autocritter." If you've never used one (and I'd never even heard of them before that post), it's an informative article.

Roni Loren shared The 10 Commandments of a Successful Author.

I missed this post when it originally went up, but J. A. Konrath shared his resolutions for new writers. He also interviewed his cover artist.

James Killick wrote about 4 ways your protagonist can learn the truth.

Stella Deleuze posted her tip of the week: how to do a major re-write.

The Sharp Angle posted a query critique.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

SitRep Saturday: One Good Cowboy

So I didn't finish editing One Good Cowboy this week. Bad writer, no donut! I did make it through two pages, though, and those two pages saw some added backstory, some character development, and some voice development that the first and second draft were missing.

I also wrote the short summary:

Heather Wild has enough experience with cowboys to know that she doesn't want another one. Ty Youngblood is set on changing her mind.

I'm still working on the longer summary.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Self-Publishing: On Sales

There are places to check out sales data from traditionally-published and self-published authors. I've read many times that romance and erotica are regularly bestselling genres. You can see what that means, numbers-wise, at websites like Erotic Romance: Sales Data. The RWA has a page featuring romantic literature statistics. Erotic Romance reports traditionally-published sales information and while the RWA numbers may include self-published numbers, from what I can gather, that's mostly traditionally-published information, too.

J. A. Konrath dedicated an entire post to discussing his sales figures. The post is a couple of years old, but it's not a bad place to start. Norah Wilson even has a special tag for sharing her sales data. That information is more recent.

Here's my data.

I started in August with one erotic short story collection priced at $0.99. I added romance novelettes in September and November, both priced at $0.99, bringing my total number of books available at the end of November to three. For roughly a week after the release of each book, I offered coupon codes for Smashwords to Twitter followers, blog readers, and my friends and family on Facebook and through email. (Most Smashwords "sales" in August, September, and November were free downloads.) All of my books were approved for premium distribution through Smashwords, but as you can see, the vast majority of my sales came from Amazon.com and the vast majority of those sales are of a single book. (The Cowboy Next Door specifically. I don't have any explanation for it, either.) I don't do too much in the way of promotion: occasionally I tweet about my books and every time someone visits my blog they see the book covers on the right of the page. Mostly I chalk up those numbers to luck and to decent enough writing to grab a reader's attention.

With all of that said, I find those numbers more than satisfying. Okay, frankly, I find them downright exciting. They're encouraging. They give me hope that this self-publishing thing is going to work out. I honestly hoped for slower, steadier growth over a much longer period of time to start seeing numbers like the ones I saw in November.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Resources: Publishing Part 3: Alternatives

I've shared resource links for traditional publishing and for self-publishing, but what if you don't want to write books? What if you want to be read in some other way? There are alternatives.

Freelance Work

Magazines

Newspapers

Blogs

As with the other posts, these links are by no means exhaustive. But these are--or are very similar to--the links I used when I wanted to know about freelancing, writing for magazines and newspapers, and blogging.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Cover Reveal: One Good Cowboy

Monday Miscellany: Covers, Holidays & Birthday Shopping

Over the weekend, I came across this photographer and fell in love with his photos. Especially this portfolio. There was one photo in particular that caught my eye, so I emailed Rob Lang to ask about his stock prices for ebook covers up to 10,000 or 500,000 copies (vocabulary I learned from Dreamstime). Unfortunately, he was a bit outside of my price range for now, so I have him bookmarked for later use. I have another cowboy novel in the planning stages and I think I just may spring for one of his photos to use as a cover later this year when it's ready to go. He was quick to respond to email and his prices, despite being out of my range, were actually very reasonable. If you're looking for a good cowboy photo, he might be your man.

Anyway, I ended up finding a really excellent photo to use over on Dreamstime and the cover for the new cowboy WIP is ready to go. I'll post it later on today.

We celebrate Christmas in this house and we had a nice holiday. My daughter's gifts were all a huge hit. I'm really proud of keeping the number of them under control, too. She's one of two grandchildren on my side of the family and an only child in her own home, so the potential for things to get out of hand is really there. The adults here--my sister, my husband, and myself--seemed pretty pleased with their presents, too. I know I am. Do you want to know how boring I am? I was given the new Betty Crocker cookbook and I spent most of yesterday planning meals for the next two weeks featuring main dishes from it.

Today, I think we're venturing out for a bit. My husband's birthday is next week and so I think it's time to get his shopping out of the way since my mother will be here to visit in a few days and the rest of the week is full of doctor's appointments, airport runs, 24-hour-duty shifts, the New Year, finishing editing the new WIP, and lots of reading.

Oh, yes, lots of reading. Starting Wednesday, I'm giving up writing for however long it takes me to finish Witch in Wolf's Clothing by A. M. Belrose, and Supertech and Morgan's Choice by Greta van der Rol. Reading I can do with a house full of people. Writing I can't. I'm just dying to read Ms. van der Rol's other two books, too. I've held off long enough. I'm not looking forward to the empty feeling when I've finished them, but I am looking forward to starting To Die a Dry Death afterward. (Yep, still a fangirl.)