Writing–2014 Writing Goals

January 3, 2014December 17, 2013 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

Last year my big goals were revising The World (Saving) Series to the point of doneness; submitting seven short stories that were ready and waiting; working on a sooper sekrit project; and turning Night of the Nothing Man into a novella.

Of those goals, I managed to hit most of them. The sooper sekrit project hit several snags and skids and brick walls. It’s still there, but I still don’t know what it is or what I’m going to do with it yet. And I didn’t submit those seven stories. I submitted a few of them, but in the end, they got designated for an anthology. So they will get published, just not submitted.

Of course, the two big goals, World and Nothing Man did happen. Both of them done and one of them published (I’m still sitting on World, not sure what I’m going to do with it yet).

This year, similar things will happen.

Yet another of my novel manuscripts will be revised to the point of doneness. I think it’s going to be Spirited in Spite. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. And if I get it done early enough and I’m feeling adventurous, I think I’ll start working on A Tale of Two Lady Killers in the same fashion.

In novellas, I have three that need to be revised and one that I have an idea for and would like to write. I feel like all of that should happen. Novellas are kind of my thing right now and I feel like I should ride that wave all the way to the shore.

I need to get back on track with the sooper sekrit project, too. Even though it’s just sitting there, I feel like I’ve done too much on it to just shelve it. There has to be something in that mess I produced and I need to find it.

And that, friends, are my 2014 goals. They don’t sound like a lot, but believe me, it’ll be work.

Writing–2013 NaNoWriMo Done

November 18, 2013November 13, 2013 ~ Kiki Writes ~ 1 Comment

Let’s review: this year’s NaNo project was going to be a deviation from my usual NaNo ways by writing two 25,000 words novellas (that go together) instead of one 60,000 word novel.

I was lucky this year to have a three day weekend to kick off the writing and I took advantage of it, getting myself a good head start. I then continued at my usual pace, logging about 2,000 words a day during the work week.

And then I hit another bit of luck.

Though I worried about how I was going to have time to NaNo with three jobs, it turned out to be all for nothing, as is my way. I got an unexpected two days off from one of my jobs, which set up yet another three day writing weekend. I ended up writing about 17,000 words in those three days, nearly 13,000 of them coming on Saturday and Sunday.

Looking things over, I figured that if I could take advantage of an easy Monday and get 4,000 words, I’d only need 2,000 words a day after that to finish in exactly two weeks, an amazing feat in my world because the quickest I’d ever done it before I think was in about twenty days.

I got my 4,000 words on Monday.

Then the cold I’d been battling since that past Saturday got the best of me.

I wouldn’t be able to work one of my jobs while sick. I decided to yet again take advantage of this lucky break (if you want to call not being able to breathe and getting worn out just making dinner lucky) and see if I couldn’t make one final surge.

5, 799 words later, I was done.

On November 12, I checked in with 50,188 and the completed first drafts of two novellas (written basically as a novel).

Here’s what I learned from this year’s NaNo:

-That I can push myself if I really want to and I shouldn’t be afraid to push myself sometimes.

-That I’m getting better at how to work. I set my goals, planned out how I was going to accomplish them for the day, and I got them done.

-I will never feel like I write enough words in the day. If I still have time before sleep, I feel like I’m wasting it not writing. That’s both a good and a bad mindset.

-That all first drafts continue to be crap, but I’m getting better at making my first drafts less crap and more usable stuff.

This was a good NaNo. I’m pretty proud of my drive this year. I don’t think I want to try it again, not for a few years anyway, because it was quite draining. And it hasn’t escaped my attention that I still have plenty of time to write another novella if I wanted to.

But, I think instead, I’ll enjoy being done early and move on to tie up some loose ends on some other projects.

Ah, the sweet smell of victory.

Writing–Remembering My First NaNo

November 13, 2013November 8, 2013 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

According to the stellar counting abilities instilled in me by The Count, this is my tenth NaNoWriMo. The funny thing about that is there was a time when I thought I’d be able to remember every single NaNo project I did because I didn’t realize just how many I’d end up doing.

The truth of that is here I am working on my tenth and I don’t think I could name them all.

But I can remember my first one. I think that’s because it turned out to be the most important.

I lost my first NaNo, but at the same time I won it.

My first NaNo was in 2004 and back then I was hard pressed to finish any story, let alone a long one. I’d written a few all the way to the end, but they weren’t worth much, none of them more than a couple thousand words at most. When I decided to take on NaNo that year, I had my sights set on that 50,000 word goal line. I was sure that I could do it. I had the story idea. I even outlined it on some note cards. I was ready.

And then the reality of November set in and I realized at some point by week two that I was woefully unprepared and I had really underestimated this challenge.

I didn’t come close to 50,000 words that year. I think I ended up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000. But, two important things had been accomplished during that November.

I wrote the longest thing I’d ever written.

I finished writing the longest thing I’d ever written.

Oh, it was pretty much garbage, but it was FINISHED.

That first NaNo gave me the confidence to keep writing. I now had in the hands this knowledge that I could finish anything I wrote if I went about it the right way and didn’t give up just because I got bored before the story got to the good part.

That first NaNo also taught me something about planning a novel, about how I work best. It opened a door for me to step through and learn and improve.

So here I am, ten NaNos later, looking at my seventh winner, trying to get 50,000 words in two weeks instead of a whole month and I’m thinking…

Man, this never would have happened, I never would have gotten here, if I hadn’t done that first one back in 2004.

That’s one that I will never forget.

Writing–Is This Worth Writing?

August 14, 2013January 22, 2016 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

I’ve got two potential ideas for this year’s NaNoWriMo. I’m actually delighted that I’m getting any ideas so early considering the last couple of years I’ve waited until the last minute before coming up with something. I’ve also got an idea for a new novella (unless it decides to keep growing). I’m rather excited by the sudden influx of creativity I’ve got going on here.

However, I’m faced with the usual problem whenever I get any idea: is this worth writing?

I admit that I get a lot of ideas, notions, scraps of inspiration, and those end up getting jotted down in my idea notebook because most of the time, as good as they seem, there’s not much to them. At least not yet. So I save them for later.

There are times, like recently, that the ideas I get are so strong that they won’t leave my head and I find myself having a whole lot to jot down in my notebook. I keep coming back to those ideas because there’s something there that arouses my interest and keeps me wondering how it could all work out.

Those ideas, the ones that seem to have so much promise, are the ones that I judge the harshest. And I’m not always a very good judge. Sometimes I get caught up in the excitement and I start writing an idea that maybe isn’t ready to be written, or shouldn’t be written at all. After a few days, maybe a week, I realize it. The whole thing grinds to a halt and I’m left disappointed.

It happened recently. I had this great idea and I started to sketch it out. And while I was still sketching it, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to start writing the beginning of it. Sure enough, had I put in the due diligence of sketching, I might have realized that my enthusiasm would be short-lived and the idea would have been better left to settle in the sketch stage instead of being rushed into production.

That’s the kind of dance I’m doing now with these three new ideas. I’m doing a lot of thinking and sketching. The two potential novel ideas will need some research, one more than the other. But more importantly, is there enough story there that’s worth writing? I don’t want to be caught short during NaNo. One of the novel ideas I can tell has a problem with having enough story. Right now I’ve only got one main thread and that’s not going to be enough to go the distance with if I want to do it for NaNo. The other one already has a few threads to work with the main thread, so I consider it to have a little more potential. Except the way I want to do it is different than anything I’ve ever done before and it might not be a good idea to do it that way.

The novella is healthy as a horse, as near as I can tell. The only question I’ve got with it is will I be able to write it the way that I want to and the way that I see it in my head.

But that’s another post for another day.

Writing–That Walk Away Point

August 7, 2013August 4, 2013 ~ Kiki Writes ~ 1 Comment

It really doesn’t matter what kind of writing project it is -novel, novella, short story- it seems that at some point during the revision stage I have to walk away from it. Letting the story settle after a round of revisions, putting a little distance between myself and the words helps me see what needs to be done.

However, for some stories, the walk away isn’t just part of the revision process. It’s because I’ve grown to absolutely detest the story

I mentioned last week hitting that point with the Ivy novella. It’s not a unusual breaking point for me to get to when a project is being difficult.

There comes a point when I don’t want to look at the story anymore. I don’t want to read the words. I don’t want to try to make the story better. Just thinking about the story saps my will to live and makes me question my dedication to being a writer.

The only logical way to deal with this overwhelming feeling of disgust is to walk away. I put away the disagreeable project in question and I leave it alone until I’m done hating it. Sometimes that’s a couple of weeks. Sometimes that’s a couple of months. But the distance eases my hatred and makes my heart grow fonder for the piece.

Okay, not always. Sometimes the distance allows me to just hate the piece less while I gain the important objective view of the story so I can finally finish revising it and make it worth reading.

I don’t like hating any of my stories, but it happens. And I think it might be very easy for me to just abandon the stories I despise and move on to something I love. But, I don’t. I force myself to finish them to completion because just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean that someone else won’t adore it. It’s not fair for me to give up on it just because I don’t like it. If I’ve gotten that far with it, then the story deserves to be told, whether it ever gets published or not.

And I also don’t hate stories for an eternity. Sometimes I hate them at the walk away point, but then rediscover my like/love for the story during our separation. Now, if I abandoned the story just because I didn’t like it when it was being its most difficult, that would be a total injustice.

I’m exaggerating, but only a little bit.

I usually feel guilty when I first walk away a story, but I know in the end it works out for the best.

We all need our space, you know.

Writing–July Projects

July 3, 2013January 22, 2016 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

I don’t really have a lot going on this month, if I’m going to be honest.

I’ve finished cutting down and revising the Ivy novel into a novella. I did that at the end of last month after unexpectedly finishing everything I had planned over a week early. I needed to do something productive and that was it. I’m going to let it rest a couple of weeks and then go through another round of revisions on it.

Remember how I said the short story anthology I was working on was subject to change? Well, a change has come. I think one of the stories would work for a short story contest. All I’ve got to do is cut about thirty words from it to hit the word limit. So I’m going to do that. Meanwhile, I’m going to revise the new stories written for the anthology (again) and then start really looking at putting the thing together. I think I’ve got more holes in this plan than I initially thought, even before submitting one of the stories.

And…that’s it. All that’s left are little things, like doing a couple of essays I’ve got ideas for, but keep putting off doing and doing some organizing stuff.

Now watch. I think this month is light and I’ll end up racing to get it all done by the end of the month.

Writing–I’m Done…Now What?

June 26, 2013January 22, 2016 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

I finished my last pass on The World (Saving) Series. So now I’m faced with the questions I didn’t want to answer earlier this month when I was making out my goals list.

Now what do I do?

I can’t go any farther with the manuscript on my own, that’s for sure. I’m not going to see any other changes that need to be done (though it’s possible that I could find grammar errors that I missed). I don’t have a regular beta reader and of the few friends that I’ve used in that role, I’ve never had them read a full-length novel manuscript before. I’m not sure I can impose on their time like that.

But even if I do eventually have this thing go through beta or ultimately decide not to, then what? What do I want to do with it? Do I want to try to use it to land an agent? Do I want to try to get it published with a traditional publisher? Do I want to self-publish it? Or do I want to just shelve it, chalk it up to learning since first novel manuscripts don’t usually sell anyway, and then move on to to something else?

I’ve asked all of these questions before, probably on this blog, but now they’re not hypothetical. They’re not in the future. They’re really here, in front of me, waiting to be answered.

And I don’t have the answers right now.

I think, right now, at least for a little while, it’s going in a metaphorical drawer. I’m just going to enjoy the doneness for a bit, the sense of accomplishment that I actually saw a novel manuscript through to the end. Put off the questions for a little while longer.

Maybe in that time, when the glamour wears off and I start feeling the weight of that finished beast sitting on my hard drive, I’ll come up with the answers.

Or maybe at least find a beta reader that I don’t mind punishing.

Writing–Rereading the Written

May 29, 2013January 22, 2016 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

I’ve got several manuscripts that I’ve written that have been hanging out, waiting for me to get back to them. Some of them are just first drafts; others have had one or two rounds of heavy-lifting revision done to them. All of them were put to the side so I could focus on something else.

Since I didn’t have much going this month, I decided to read them all to see what I had and get reacquainted with them.

It was interesting to see where I was as a writer a few years ago. I can pretty much tell what was going on in my life just by reading the manuscript. It’s fascinating. Nobody else would be able to pick anything up, but I guess because I wrote it and lived it, I know exactly where I was.

Looking at the pieces in a more professional, critical light, I’m happy to say that all of them are workable to an extent. I could make them all into something that you wouldn’t gouge your eyes out while reading. Which is reassuring in a sense. There will always be work waiting for me because I’ve got four manuscripts in various states just waiting to be finished.

And it won’t be a waste to work on them since there’s something worth working on there.

I admit to liking some more than others. Spirited in Spite and A Tale of Two Lady Killers have gone through a couple of heavy-lifting revisions and their stories are pretty good. Fun, quick little things that won’t require too much more lifting to finish.

The untitled Ivy novel should probably be revised down to a novella because I padded that thing pretty hard. The other POVs can go (though I might save Leo’s and rewrite it as a short story). Sticking to solely Ivy and shortening it up will do the story wonders. I might also end up changing the location. We’ll see.

American Vampires, I don’t care for. It’s only a first draft, a NaNoWriMo draft at that, so it needs A LOT of work. And I know what I was trying to do with the original attempt at a story, but I missed the mark. Of all the pieces, I like this one least and it will take the most work. Somehow, though, I think it might be worth the effort. Eventually. I’m in no rush to get back to it.

When I’m done with The World (Saving) Series, it looks like I’m all set for the next revision project. I’ve got plenty to choose from.

Writing–I’ve Never Been This Close to Done Before

May 8, 2013January 22, 2016 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

I completed my latest round of revisions on The World (Saving) Series. I was about half-way through when it occurred to me how little revising I was actually doing. Then it dawned on me that I was doing little revising because the story, for the most part, is done. As in, I’m not adding or deleting any more scenes, I’m not changing any more of the plot, I’m not doing anymore tinkering.

The heavy-lifting is officially done.

And that’s when I had my little moment of panic.

I’ve never been this done with a novel manuscript before. This the farthest I’ve ever gone.

I’m scared out of my mind.

It’s like a trick or something. I’m at the point in revising when I’m moving more to polishing than really revising. Now it’s all down to the nuts and bolts, the word choice and phrasing. The little things.

So naturally, I’m paranoid.

Not having ever been this far, I’m now thinking that there must be SOMETHING that I’ve missed. Some giant, glaring error. Some heavy-lifting off in a corner that I’ve walked by a dozen times, but never noticed.

Because I can’t possibly be this close to being done.

It’s a weird feeling, like when you think you’ve left the iron on (do people still iron?). You’re just sure that it’s on, but it’s not, but you can’t shake the feeling that the damn thing is still on. I cannot shake the feeling that I can’t possibly be this close to being done.

But I am.

Oh, I’m not stupid. I’m sure a good and proper editor would have a field day shredding this manuscript and exposing every single flaw it contains (and I’d be fine with that). But the fact that I’ve gotten this manuscript to the point where I could polish it up and submit it without (much) reservation is a milestone. Never have I been so close to this kind of completion. To me, it counts for something.

It also brings to the forefront of my mind that I should have an idea of what I’m going to do with this manuscript. Do I try to submit it to agents to attempt to get representation? Do I just go ahead and shelve it and start working on something else since first novels almost never get anywhere? I don’t know. I’m in new territory here.

I never thought I’d ever get this done.

And I never thought getting this done would be so scary.

Writing–May Projects

May 1, 2013January 22, 2016 ~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

Uhhh…I’m kind of at a loss of what I should be working on this month.

I’m going to finish up the latest round of revisions on The World (Saving) Series. I’m going to continue working on the short stories that I’m either going to submit or use for the self-published short story collection.

I’ve now got three sooper sekrit projects and I plan on continuing to work two of them (one of them I’ve kind of lost the heart for).

And aside from that…I don’t know.

It sounds like a lot, but it’s not really. I may take a look at a few of my other manuscripts, just to see if there’s anything I want to start working on, but I’m not sure I want to start another big revision project before I’m done with World.

Maybe I should take advantage of this slow month and catch up on my reading. I’ve been slacking the past couple of months.