Kimberly Dean's Blog, page 45

Spring fever

It's so difficult to write when spring starts to arrive.  Like everyone else, I want to be outside reveling in the warmer temps, planting flowers, and enjoying the sunshine.  My productivity always falls around this time every year.  Maybe that's why I'm perversely happy that rain is predicted for all of next week — and maybe that has something to do with my newly planted grass seed.  If I can't go outside, I might as well write.  Either way, a change of seasons means a change in attitude and a change of pace.

So does spring reinvigorate you?  Are you diving into new projects or opportunities?  How do you get yourself out of your winter rut?

Good Guys Finish Last

I was going to name the post "Character Development", but that just sounded too boring.  I've been working a lot on this issue lately, and it occurred to me how much easier it is to write villains.  Why, I wondered… but the answer wasn't far away.  I think we see a lot of them in our real lives.  In your day job, is it the most qualified person who gets promoted?  Or is it the manipulative wench who presents others' work as her own?  Who gets the last seat on the bus?  The tired waitress with aching feet or the teenage snot who darts in front of her?  And don't even get me started on cellphone etiquette and the like…  My point is that we see and experience these kinds of behavior too much, and it sticks in our craw.  We want to see those evil people get theirs, but does that ever happen?  That we can actually see?  Or is it years and years in coming?

Good guys don't make as big of an impact on us, for some reason, and that's a shame.  We see someone plug a nickel in a stranger's parking meter and think "awww".  But then it's gone in a blip.  A guy might help clear snow off their neighbor's driveway, but when the big windstorm comes through town, whose tree is going to fall on his house?  It's sad and it's not right, but it's true more often than not.  Good guys finish last.

I think that's why we enjoy books so much.  In 300 pages, the bad guy always gets caught up in their own web.  The good guy triumphs AND gets the girl.  But I guess that's why we call it fiction.

What to work on next?

I'm in that strange, between-projects stage.  I'm trying to figure out what to work on next.  It's harder than you might think.  I've got two full manuscripts and a partial floating around out there.  Do I work on the partial, finishing more of the story, in hopes that it will be picked up and I'll be ahead of the game?  One of the completed manuscripts is the first in a three-part series.  Should I work on Book 2?  Or should I start a novella or short story that I can finish more quickly?  These are the things that bounce around in my head.

Not to mention the story ideas themselves…

Book 2 in the series and the rest of the story for the partial manuscript are fleshed out pretty clearly in my head.  But then there are the fragments of other ideas.  Most are short little scenes.  One is a story set in space that is just plain stupid — but it's there in my head, taking up valuable room.  Sometimes the idea is more of a feeling.  Like I see a dark, scary alleyway.  Tension is in the air, floating like the fog that hides the dark corners…  What's the story associated with that?  I dunno, but it's one of my blips of inspiration.

Finally, there's the time commitment to consider.  When I start a new book, I know I'm committing the next 6 months of my life to the project.  I'd better be sure that's what I want to do.   Going down the wrong path can eat up a lot of time.  So you see, without feedback from an agent or editor, it's hard to decide what to do.  A solid "this stinks" or a more exciting "we want this" can make my direction so much clearer.  Any takers?

Without that, I guess I need to sit down and think.  Sometimes I just go with the story that's consuming my thoughts, day in and day out.  This time, though, I think I need to take a more business-like approach and consider all the pluses and minuses.  It might not be as much fun, but it's time to be practical.

A Decade of Writing

I did some spring cleaning this weekend (yes, wishful thinking).  I was going through the dreaded filing cabinet when I found something that made me stop and smile.  It was a copy of the deposit slip for my first ever royalty payment.  The story was Playing With Fire, a short story I wrote for Black Lace Publishing.  Wow, that brought back memories.  I still love that story, naughty as it is.  It was published in Black Lace's Wicked Words 5 anthology, and then again in their Best of Wicked Words anthology several years later.

Funny thing is that the date on that deposit slip was 2001.  It's now 2011.  I've been writing for 10 years.  A decade!  It's hard to believe.  I still remember how stunned I was when I first found out I was going to be published.  I didn't receive "the call" as most people put it.  A contract just showed up one day in the mail.  Now it's been ten years.  Wow.  Just… wow.

Finished!

Oh, happy day!  I finished up my latest manuscript this afternoon.  What a relief.  Of course, it's not finished finished.  I need to set it aside for a while, then go back and read it again.  Sometimes I'm just too close to the story to see the bumpy spots.  I'll need to polish it up and finalize all the formatting.  Then it's on to marketing it and, hopefully, editing it again.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I finished only five days behind schedule, and I'm happy, happy, happy.  Hopefully when I go back, the story will be pretty decent, too.

Pick-me-up

I had a little day-trip today.  Although I hadn't exactly been looking forward to it, it turned out to be a marvelous change of pace.  The sun was shining and the sky was clear.  The temperature got all the way up to 34 degrees, making it a positive heat wave.  It's amazing how much that sunshine picked up my mood.  It's been cold and overcast for so long, I hadn't realized how badly I'd been trudging through my days.  That shot of Vitamin D has picked up my energy and my mood at a much needed time.

You see, I'm closing in on the end of my work-in-progress.  It's at this stage that I always get anxious to see the end.  I want to finish so badly I can barely stand it.  I imagine it's like running a marathon (not that I'd ever do that).  At mile 23 or so, you've just got to be exhausted, but the finish line is in sight.  Do you kick into gear and make a mad dash to get it over… running the risk of pooping out and not finishing?  Or do you keep the pace so you know you'll cross that finish line, even if it will take longer?  I'm trying to keep the pace.  If I go too fast with the writing now, I'll drop important points or get sloppy with characterization.  Yet I want to zoom to the end, just to get the story out of my head.  I always have to go back and fix things when I do that, but it's difficult to keep my patience.

Hopefully this feeling of refreshment will help me refocus and get the job done sooner rather than later.

Plodding vs. Plotting

I'm making good headway on my latest work-in-progress.  I finished Chapter 12 yesterday, so my New Year's resolution may hold.  (Fingers crossed.)  The problem was that after I typed the words "Chapter 13," I came to a screeching halt.  I needed to plot.

Some writers can sit down at their computer and just go, not caring that they don't know where they're heading.  In some ways, I admire that.  It's daring, it's free, and it's open to possibilities.  It's also not me.  Some writing instructors or other helpful souls will tell you that when you hit a writer's block, you should just sit down and write whatever comes to mind.  They believe that will help break through the resistance.  I've tried that, and it's a complete waste of my time.  I can't seem to be creative and orderly at the same time.  The solution for me is usually to sit down and map out where the story needs to go.  That's the creative part.  Once I have that, it's a matter of execution.

In my current story, it wasn't that I was at a complete loss for direction, it was that I had several specific points I needed to hit and a certain number of pages to get there.  So I spent yesterday mapping how to get from Point A to Point B to Point C to, eventually, The End.  Everything needs to come together by that final page.  The TV show, Seinfeld, had some great examples of plotting.  George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer would all be obsessing about their individual problems until the end of the show where everything would come together for a hilarious conclusion.  Remember Kramer's meat slicer being used to cut food thin enough to slide under the door to feed Elaine's cat?  Or Kramer hitting the golf ball into the ocean and "marine biologist" George having to save the whale?  Genious!

Sometimes you just need to find your own way of doing things.  Don't block out what others are advising, but pick out the information that works best for you.  Maybe you can go to the grocery store, walk through the aisles, and buy everything you need.  Me?  I need a shopping list.  Maybe you can accomplish everything you wanted to do in a day without reminders.  Me?  I need my "to do" list.

So how about you?  Are you a free spirit or a list maker like me?  Do you plan ahead or go free wheeling?

Ghost Flute Reviews

Reviews are coming in for Ghost Flute.  Here are a couple:

Siren Book Reviews:  4 1/2 siren stones “I couldn’t put it down, and the goose bumps that covered my skin were a sure sign that the story mesmerized me.”

Night Owl Romance:  4.75 stars and a Top Pick “This is a wonderfully original and interesting read and once I started reading, I wasn’t able to stop till the book was finished.”

I’m so happy people are enjoying the story.