Ransom Noble's Blog, page 3

Hello, 2023.

I took time off to be with my family while they were home. My husband isn’t quite sure what to do – today is his 18th day off in a row (extra vacation – use it or lose it) and he goes back tomorrow, along with the kids. I’ve seen so many memes about coming in, being quiet, and nobody yelling that this is your year, but being the best version of myself isn’t claiming anything about the year.

There’s a quiet time for me between Winter Solstice and the new calendar year. I often choose a new notebook and find some goals I’m ready to work on, whether they’re new or not. Writing always makes that list, no matter what I did the year before.

I joined 750words in 2011. In the last 12 years, I’ve written over 4 million words, and that’s just what was tracked on the site. There are usually blog posts, handwritten ideas, and all sorts of rewrites that aren’t tracked. I learned a lot. For 2022, it was around 252,000 words, and I didn’t write in March. (Mom died, and before that I traveled a lot to see her in hospice. It’s very difficult to give myself permission not to do my words, but this was the time it was appropriate.)

Within my projects during 2022, I had a story published. I have a couple stories out for consideration, and I managed a decent rewrite of the first book in the space western series. I also had a couple other ideas for extended series or novella length works. I’m hoping to continue the series and see how many others I can develop.

While I’m still working on my revised goals for the year, I’m going to start the second book rewrite as well as a short story this week (the one I didn’t finish by the 31 Dec deadline). I have my new notebook lined up, and I’m excited to see what happens with both of the projects. By the time I finish one of them, I’ll have another to work on. Some of you know my love of paper – so my project binder as well as this year’s notebook are below.

Service Guys

I always wonder what they expect when they come to a particular house. Today we had a whole-house humidifier installed to the furnace. It’s a straightforward, time-consuming job. The guy who showed up was young, had a smile, and seemed pretty understanding that I hadn’t gotten my kids to school yet because we expected him tomorrow.

If he’d shown up tomorrow, husband was on track to work from home and be on top of everything he was doing. Instead, I got to sit in the mechanical room and chat with him. Most of these guys are good-natured. I learned a lot about them during my internship in college, where I worked for an HVAC controls company, so he’s literally the kind of guy I worked with back then, except it’s no longer the 90s and stuff.

So I ask him about what else he’s doing, and we commiserate about how birds get in the way. He’s never quite sure how a job will go. My husband prepped the water line that goes into the humidifier, and he had a large mechanical room to work in. The next job he’s going to today is in a closet, in a condo, and he’s not even sure water is hooked up in there. His height is another barrier – closets are not made for men over 6′ to comfortably work in generally. I hope he has good luck, but often not so much.

His manager called, and he forgot to tell that dude that he was expected tomorrow. I told him that was very important to express to the managers. While the service guy laughed, I know he understood my point. However, I think my tomorrow will run smoother despite the mix-up, and today I am working with a short time to do a few things. Luckily I’m flexible.

One of my favorite parts of listening to him today was how he didn’t have “real” tools. He even had to borrow my broom to clean up after himself. I wish I could write a note to those managers: He needs all the tools. They send him into all the jobs, and sometimes he has to call someone else to show up at a job. Every job brings something unexpected, and sometimes they’re good things- like the waterline this morning- but most often the other way. Be kind to any service people who come into your home. They most want the job to go smoothly and everything to work when they’re finished.

End of November

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Have you ever tried to write a novel in a month? It’s not necessarily impossible, especially for a zero draft. The fun part for me this month, I didn’t try to write a zero draft. I aimed at a better one. However, I didn’t take into account how much I had to write from scratch to make this novel work.

So, I have a draft that is better in some places than others (especially the middle needs attention). The part I’m really proud of is that this draft is all Book 1 and not with Book 2 mixed in of my Space Western. I have a beginning, middle, and end, and my plot and characters are pretty much where they need to be. I only have chaptered it up to 9, and I am starting to go through to find the rest.

Also, I wrote/edited about four short stories this month. Two have been sent out, one is finished this morning (that few paragraphs were haunting me), and I’ll start the rewrite on the next soon.

Finished four books this month, and I was surprised they were all #2 in series:
Narwhal I’m Around (The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter #2) by Aaron Reynolds
Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse
In Over Their Heads (Under Their Skin 2 of 2) by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Merger of Evil (Sequel to Minion of Evil) by Shannon Ryan

November (NaNo and more)

I crossed the 50 000 words for NaNo today. I’m not quite done with the novel yet, and I’m all right with that. I’ve also submitted two short stories to magazines for publication. I’ve got two or three more short stories I’m cleaning up. The good news is also I have notes of names so I don’t forget them. I have minor twin characters that are difficult to parse sometimes. I’m so excited to finish this draft, though I had no idea how much I’d need to write from complete scratch when I started. I have two more of these, but the second book has more of a draft, I think, because books 1 and 2 were woven together. It feels like I barely scratched the surface getting book 1 by itself.

What’s gotten into me? Who knows, but it’s fun. Life feels great when you’re accomplishing the things you know you need to do.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Reading while Writing

I’ve been working on this novel for a long time, but I keep needing to put it down. This week I read my current draft (40k) looking for the things I need to finish it.

A friend and I swap recommendations, because we each need to do that. I found a new speed-reading app and she found a read-aloud app, so we’re both playing with these. It’s exciting, because I’m not always good at reading my work out loud, but I listen when it plays. I also can catch the big gaps in my story when I speed-read and see, oh, right, that’s a big gap.

Usually I try to write in order, but I got ahead of myself. It’s understandable because this rewrite was much different than others – I have a highlighted and commented copy by my side to make it both easier and harder. Easier, because I know what this book looks like instead of the last draft (which had a combined book 1 and 2 feel to it), and harder, because sometimes elements of both books are very much entangled together.

It feels like the downhill stretch. Exciting to know what I need to finish and have a plan for how to do that. I’ll probably need to read it aloud, too, so I know I finished this draft. Maybe by month’s end!

Descriptions

I remember that very first novel I tried to write- I was in high school. I had pieces, some good and some not so great, and so many more ideas in my head than I knew how to put onto paper. Classmates knew some of my notebooks held poetry and others held these story notes. In my first high school, they’d pass my poetry notebook around after a few stories in junior high. In my second high school, a few trusted friends would listen to my meanderings. I still have these notebooks in my office.

Description has always been a bit troublesome. That first piece of novel I had a character who changed hair from blonde to red and back again at times, so I found a way to weave that into the storyline. It was easy to get lost in such a huge cast of characters as an epic fantasy might be; at times I did lose my way. The novel (or series, who knows?) never did materialize, but something about that act of creation felt like it was my thing.

On the way, however, I’ve had to get better at descriptions. Yesterday I sought out a description for a character I don’t often see from the outside. I’m not sure he’s got the right coloring for his species. I looked up notes from years ago to figure that out. (I do not recommend dragging projects out for years. They evolve as you do.) It becomes a distraction, and yet I’m still glad I’ve got those original notes on my ideas of what these creatures may be. I’ve similarly been trying to document all my places that are named as well as visited. (Because in a series we’re going to come back to the places where the Important Characters reside.)

I love how it is all taking shape, and I’m excited to get to the end of this draft. Descriptions may never be my ultimate strength, but I’ve improved over the many years I’ve been writing. I should just pretend he’s the cute guy in the picture.

Short Story or Novel Opening?

This is something I’ve struggled with a while. It probably leads to the idea that so many of us are novelists or short story writers, because a few of us are always starting with what feels like novel openings.

The real trick, I suppose, is figuring out the difference to make that short story shine. Maybe upping my short game will also improve my novels. I do think I’m improving, though. I included enough world building to make it feel like the beginning, rather than ch 3. Chapter 3 beginnings feel like they’re in the middle of something much bigger but not enough to give the reader the feel for all those beginning definitions to really ground someone in the story.

Still, I appreciate the opportunity to turn over this story and try again. Are you with me on the idea that we always find a few ways to improve a story once we ask someone else to look at it? I often find I do. I’m going to find a placebo reader who will just let it sit three days for me to rewrite it again. It may not be enough. Writers seem to need muses that make everything urgent and life-threatening, or they end up doing housework or something less filled with blank pages.

I’ll admit to my NaNo project, and today I woke up at 5 (accidentally) but I got in a good sprint this morning before going back to bed. The novel is progressing, and my time bomb is still ticking. The main character just got hit with an idea that makes her think uncomfortably about her future.

Finger crossed.

Leveling Up, Writer Style

Often, I attribute these things to research. There’s so much to learn, and so many ways to apply that knowledge. I’m also staying on my writer’s track, though, and part of that means learning about self-publishing, marketing, and sales of books. It’s a lot to figure out all at once.

So since I’ve been working so hard on an outline (I’m not even sure what comes up in your mind for outline, but it’s not the one we learned in school) and I’m learning to convert that into a pitch. I know the basic information, and I can keep rewriting my book while I consider what to add to make that into a pitch for a book people definitely want to read.

Some people are naturally gifted at how to make things sell with their words. Mom was great at that, keeping the truth to the words but making it sounds more employable for the context. (She made a good living as a technical recruiter.) I think often writers like me are so focused on creating our worlds and making that narrative flow that we don’t spend as much time with things like how to sell it others. That weak writing muscle then becomes something we’d rather farm out than practice.

Maybe that’s just me. Except I’m pushing myself to learn. I’m going to tell myself they’re like push-ups; they bring strength to a bunch of different parts through working together and if I practice I’ll learn to nail it.

Writing Life

I’m not sure anyone knows what to expect when we dreamed as kids to grow up to be writers. I had ideas but no deadlines except schoolwork, and writing (and reading) filled up a great deal of my free time. Adults seem to have a lot of extra responsibilities and a whole lot less free time, so what does that life look like?

Creative scheduling helps. I know I’m brilliant at picking up part-time jobs. I have three besides writing at the moment, plus the full-time job of herding children everywhere. The good news is that ties down part of my week (Mondays and Tuesdays) so it isn’t a long mess of days without much change in what happens. I’ve also learned to use timers and lists of what needs to get done, though somehow the laundry is always trying to take over my to-dos.

I’m currently 13.3k into a novel rewrite, with a bunch of work on untangling that plot from book 2, as well as finding the details of book 3. It’s going to feel amazing to get that trilogy together, though I’m not exactly sure how long it’ll take. Rewrites are apparently easier for me than major edits, and that’s a very interesting realization for me. It has helped me shake off that major edit dread, and I’m starting to see where i get lost in the words while I’m doing it differently.

On the horizon- self-publishing, a press, and an anthology for Paradise ICON to support the con. The first two are here and here. I’m really excited to bring another one into existence. Also, to learn the book making process and all the fun parts of marketing.

Don’t worry- I’m still writing. Make that 41 days!

Writing Season

ICON is this weekend, and I’m excited to go. I also got out that long-term novel series project, and I’m excited where this rewrite is taking me. It is something I’ve never quite tried before. More short story ideas come to me, too, and I’m still unsure of what will happen with the project I sent to my Paradise ICON group.

I know I’m always excited when writing season comes, but on my rewrite – I have chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 finished since October 1st. Of course I messed with my timeline and I haven’t gone over (Ch 2 and 4) again except to change obvious number of days in travel. The point is to get the story readable and to only include Book 1. Currently my draft has so many different notes it can be very difficult to read. There’s a heading for every chapter on whether I put it in Book 1 or Book 2 or what part needed to be in which book.

Also loving that I’ve been spending most of the time the kids are at school with my stories. I’ve also been reading some middle-grade speculative fiction lately, as well as adult versions of it. Watching a few space westerns, too, to round it all out well.

A chapter a day keeps me too busy to worry about what I might not be doing. Though I do worry when my son says he dreamed up monsters and he’s afraid he made them real. It sounds like he needs to write things down, too. More to come, I’m certain.