Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 169

Happiness is . . . ZZZZZZ

Happiness is oversleeping and then finding out a water main broke in front of your house and you slept through the worst of the repair.  

Actually, happiness is just oversleeping on a weekend.

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Cherry Saturday, December 15, 2018

Today is Cat Herders Day.

That means today is dedicated to impossible tasks, things that are so complex and difficult that they’re like herding cats.

Or you can just herd cats.  I herd dogs several times a day, but dogs are much easier to corral that cats.  For one thing, they’ll do damn near anything for a cookie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_MaJDK3VNE

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This Is a Good Book Thursday, December 13, 2018

I read a good YA, Mostly Straight, this week and a strangely unsettling NYT bestseller.  Still not sure why the bestseller so unsettled me.  That’s the only word I can think of to describe the feeling of “something’s off here.”  Not giving the title of the book because it may just be my reading biases since the book was well-written.  I went back and reread Heyer’s False Colours as brain bleach, and ended up skimming large chunks of it, possibly because I’ve read it at least half a dozen times already.  I think once you get past six readings on a book, you’re basically doing the good parts version anyway.  

So what did you read this week?

(And in an unrelated note, big thank you to everybody who’s giving me feedback on Act One.  Never apologize for beta reading, I need honest criticism and you’re all giving it to me.   Absolutely nothing to apologize for because I’m grateful for all of it.)

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About the Hotels aka The Parts People Skip

I’m reading your comments and not commenting because I’m still in the zone where I’d probably start justifying which is just wrong, and I’d planned on doing the discussion post on Monday since I figured most people would take the weekend and I’d need that time to figure everything out, BUT . . .

Lots of you are mentioning that you know I need the Hotels later.  I do.  BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER.  If they’re a problem, they go.  

Here’s the thing.  When readers hit a part they don’t understand or can’t make mesh with the rest of the book, they skip it or skim it.  That’s bad because it throws them out of the book, and it’s also useless because that important stuff that has to be in there for later?  They’re not reading it, they’re skimming.  So with the Hotels, I’m disrupting the story and not getting anything for doing it. And even if by some miracle I was getting something for doing it, it still wouldn’t matter because it throws people out of the book.  It’s a lose-lose proposition.

All of which is to say, don’t worry about what I need later.  Reading is in the now of the moment so my later needs are irrelevant to your reading of the book now.  If you skim, it has to go.  

My big fear now is that I’m going to have to cut Part One entirely and that’s gonna be a problem.  Lotta set-up stuff in Part One.  On the other hand, that’s 6,000 words right there.  ARGH.

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Working Wednesday, December 12, 2018

I’m finishing a book and working on the start of a History of Trees Shawl because it’s all V-stitch and I find V-stitch conducive to thinking.

What’s are you doing this week?

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Act One Is A Little Long

In every book writing process, there comes a time when you absolutely cannot see where you’ve gone wrong. And, friends, we have reached that time with Nita’s book.

I’m still rewriting Acts Three and Four, but Act One is ready for beta reads.  And since I’ve posted earlier drafts on here before, I’m giving it to any of you who care to read 42,000 words of too long fictional first act that you probably have read too many times already. (For those of you new to this, a first act must introduce the protagonist and introduce or foreshadow the main conflict, preferably on the first page, introduce all the major characters, foreshadow the antagonist, introduce all the subplots, and end with a turning point that spins the plot in a new direction and makes the story new.  Backward and in high heels.)

So I need fresh eyes, aka beta readers that are not me, to look at this act.  I know some of you have read a thousand drafts of this already, so “fresh” is stretching it, but any help you can give is appreciated.  And if you can’t, that’s fine, I’ll just sit here in the dark alone.

I need to know:

1. What Needs To Be Cut:   This goes back to Elmore Leonard’s Rule: Try not to write the parts people skip.  I’m not talking about what’s not necessary to the story.  It’s ALL necessary to the story, every brilliant word of it.  I’m talking about the parts where you start to skim, the parts you’re bored by, the parts you hurry through to get to the good part you hope is coming up.  I don’t care if it’s crucial to the plot, if you’re skimming, that part gets cut because let’s face it, you’re not reading that part anyway.  I’ll get the info in some other way.  Tell me where you got bored, where things went on too long, where you started looking at the clock and thinking about something other than the story (food, sex, a different book, etc.).   The first act is about seven thousand words too long, so I know the dull parts are in there.  Be brutal.

2. What Must Be Kept:  I’m going to have to cut seven thousand words.  What parts of this act would you throw your body in front of to protect?  What stays no matter what?  Because otherwise, that bit may feel my vorpal blade.

3. Anything Else You Feel Compelled To Share: Those are the two things I most need from beta readers, but given my experience with betas in the past, you will feel constrained by limiting yourself to those two key criticisms.  So go ahead and put your two cents here.  However, avoid sharing suggestions as to how you’d fix a problem.  Instead, go write a blog post explaining in detail how you’d fix all the bad parts, developing a better cast and providing a better plot.  Then write that book.

At least that’s how I ended up spending three years writing this sucker.

Follow the links starting with this one:

PART ONE

and if you have time, put your critiques in the comments below.

Thank you very, very much.

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Competent Happiness

I don’t know why I didn’t figure this out on my own (it’s #68 in the happiness book) because when you think about it, it’s obvious:  Doing things we’re good at makes us happy.  

Success usually makes us happy, but I think even more the process of succeeding, doing something we’re confident about, making something we’re skilled at and enjoy doing, has to achieve something like a state of flow, the sense that where we are and what we’re doing is exactly where and what we were meant to be.  Which of course puts Working Wednesdays in a whole new context.  Doing what we’re good at is good for us (assuming we enjoy it, just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it).  

I was thinking about the book the other day and realized I am no longer worried about it.  I have no idea if it’s any good, but I’ve reached that stage where I know what I’m doing.  I’m good at this part, at pulling it all together, at fixing plot holes and pacing, I know what I’m doing here.  That’s a real rush.  I’m happy.

This may also be why we like watching people doing what they do well, aka competence porn.

Don’t feel guilty about doing things you’re good at, even if other people dismiss those things as hobbies or daydreams or trashy romance novels.  Doing things you’re good at is good for you.

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Cherry Saturday, December 8, 2018

Today is Brownie Day.

Just ONE DAY, people.  Take one from the edge.

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Cinderella Deal, Going Cheap

The Cinderella Deal is an Amazon Daily Deal today, Friday, December 7, which means you can get it for $1.98.  Never let it be said that I’m not cheap and easy.

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This Is a Good Book Thursday, December 6, 2018

Today I am reading about the Mueller investigation and how to use an Instant Pot and the pros and cons of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators.  I miss fiction.  

What’s new (or old) on your reading list?

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