Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 256

Monday Movie: Beastly

I think I've reached the insane obsession phase of the writing process, as I made a lot of progress on the book over the weekend and can see what's ahead of me more clearly now.

As I mentioned last week, I went with some friends to see the movie Beastly. I'd read the book a few years ago and was curious about how they turned it into a movie. This is basically a modern telling of the Beauty and the Beast story. A rich, superficial jerk plays a cruel prank on the wrong goth chick and finds himself turned into a hideous monster, and he has one year to find someone who can love him even in that state, or it will last forever. His best hope is the brainy scholarship girl who seemed to find something to like in him other than his wealth and his looks, even when he was being a jerk. So, he comes up with a scheme to get close to her.

Possibly the biggest change between the book and the movie is that he's not such a hideous monster. They pretty much just turned him into a tattooed indie rock star. Or, as one of my friends remarked, "They should have at least taken away the six-pack abs if they were making him ugly -- like, give him a flabby belly, or something." But no, the "hideous beast" was a ridiculously built (and frequently shirtless) guy with swirling tattoos all over his body and face. He looked like he belonged on an album cover. I'm sure there are parts of New York where he could have gone and had women hanging all over him. It's been a while since I read the book, but I think they also significantly changed the last part leading up to the ending (the death/resurrection part of the hero's journey) in a way that made it a lot more shallow and trite. It seemed to just end without dealing with an issue that I would have thought would have been a pretty big deal.

The movie also left out my favorite aspect of the book, though I'm not sure how they would have conveyed that on film. In the book, the guy first decides to try meeting someone online, since then no one will know what he looks like. As in the Disney version, he has a magic mirror that allows him to see anyone he wants, and he uses it to get a look at the people he's chatting with online. Thematically, it shows that he's still shallow and rather hypocritical, since he's expecting them not to care what he looks like but he wants to see what they look like. But then, hilariously, he finds that almost no one on the Internet claiming to be a teenage girl really is a teenage girl, as he discovers that he's chatting with people like dirty old man pedophiles, cops trying to catch pedophiles, pre-teen boys pulling pranks or middle-aged women. And then there's the online support group for people who have been transformed magically, including the frog who has trouble typing with his flippers. But that didn't make it into the movie because I guess they were going with more of the Twilight teen angst approach, so there were lots of scenes of the guy looking longingly at the girl while a moody pop song played. I will say that it was one of the healthier relationships I've seen portrayed in this kind of thing, with only a tiny bit of stalking. But I'd generally say to save this one for HBO viewing, unless you're with a group of snarky friends and you have a theater to yourselves during an early matinee.

If you find the idea intriguing, read the book, which I thought was really clever in a "why didn't I think of this first?" way.

My Life as a British Sitcom

I celebrated St. Patrick's day by going to a movie and lunch with the ballet gang. I had a corned beef sandwich for lunch, and then I had braised cabbage (yum) with dinner, so if I put the two meals together, I was pretty traditional. The plan for the day was "cheesy teenybopper movie we can snark at," so we went to see Beastly. I'd read the book a few years ago and really liked it, so I figured I could at least have fun comparing the movie to the book. But I usually do my movie reviews on Monday and I have other stuff to talk about, so I will wait to discuss it in depth.

Meanwhile, I'm struggling with the book I'm currently reading. In the past few years, I've finally learned to give myself permission to put down a book that I'm not enjoying, but I don't know if I would say that I'm not enjoying this one, but I'm still not sure I want to keep reading it. The world building in it is fascinating, with a complete history and mythology. But I don't actually care about the main character or the plot that's happening in this fascinating world. I don't dislike the main character. I just have no emotional connection whatsoever. It's like following a Monopoly token around the board while watching someone else play the game. I find myself saying, "Hey, enough of this plot stuff. Can I get some more infodump about this world's history, please?" I keep turning pages, but I've realized it's more because of the drive that would lead to me reading an entire volume of an encyclopedia whenever I tried to look up one thing than because of the usual "I want to see what happens" drive that keeps me reading a novel. Given that the novel was published and is an award contender, I'm pretty sure my response isn't typical, unless it's being recognized for the amazing world building. Normally, when I'm just not feeling a book, I'll skip to the end so I can see how it turns out and then either it's easier to put down or I'm intrigued enough by the ending to read the rest of the book. But here, I don't really care how it ends (I've skipped to the end and it didn't change how I felt). I just want to see if there are any more history tidbits.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was lacking TV favorites, but I do have a show that's growing on me. I didn't watch Parks and Recreation from the beginning. I picked it up in the middle of last season, but I've recently found myself rewatching episodes OnDemand because the show is just so warmhearted and endearing, with a heaping dose of quirky. Plus, an episode a few weeks ago gave me a huge epiphany about something that happened in my life.

Spoilers for the episode before the one last night:
In this show, Rob Lowe has been playing a state auditor who's come to town to deal with the town's budget crisis. His character is as about as perky as a man can be, a super-positive guy who speaks in affirmations, never criticizes, never says anything negative and avoids conflict at all costs. He's been dating a woman in the town, and now that he's finished his assignment, he's about to go back to the state capital. After dropping a lot of hints, she finally asks him what this move means for their relationship, and they have a long conversation about it, coming to the conclusion that she's not going to move to join him yet, but they're going to continue the relationship. But then after he moves, she starts to worry that he's cheating on her, since she hasn't heard from him very much, and then he's kind of cool and politely distant when she gets in touch with him. So she goes to confront him about it, and he tells her that he isn't cheating on her, but he's also not dating her. She rewinds the conversation in her head and realizes that he actually broke up with her before moving, only he did it in such a positive, affirming way that she interpreted it as him saying he wanted to continue the relationship, since he just kept talking about how great she was.

And then I realized that had happened to me with the ending of my last serious relationship. This had been haunting me for more than a decade. I'd been dating a guy for a while, and it seemed to be getting serious. I was even starting to think that this could be The One. We'd both been kind of busy for a while and had trouble getting our schedules in sync to get together much, so he then asked me out for a big date -- a concert, then dinner at a really nice restaurant where they had a live band for ballroom dancing. It was a great date that totally seemed to confirm my feelings that this could be the guy. He seemed to be feeling the same way because he started talking about how glad he was that he'd met me and how amazing I was. And then after that date, he fell off the face of the earth. I didn't hear from him for weeks, and when I called to see if he was okay, we had a short, polite conversation before he had to go, but he promised he'd call me later that weekend. Then he did call for another short conversation, and then I never heard from him again. I'd called that my X-Files relationship because it was like he was suddenly abducted by aliens just after the date that sounded like he wanted to intensify our relationship. But now, looking back, I'm thinking that the date was his way of doing a "nice" breakup. I totally got the "it's not you, it's me" speech, the "you're great and I'm glad I met you, but …" talk. So no wonder he didn't call and acted like I was being crazy and clingy when I called him. Obviously, he didn't communicate it that well if it took me more than a decade and a sitcom episode to figure this out, but now that I think about it, there were other conversations where he'd mentioned trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life and how he didn't want to base any decisions he made on his connections with other people. I guess I got dumped because having a girlfriend would have contaminated his decision-making process. (Note to guys: the girl probably won't get the message if you take her out on a big, fancy date to soften the blow.)

Yes, my dating life is like something out of a sitcom. Only, it would have to be a show with one episode every five years or so. So, it's like a British sitcom, I guess, with a total cast change for each season.

Anyway, I now have another writing project I really want to work on, which is typical for when I'm about halfway through a book. But then that motivates me to finish the book so I can work on the new project, which means writing blitz! Let's see how much I can get done this weekend.

St. Patrick's Day Ballet Day Out

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm celebrating with a girls' day out with some of the gang from my ballet class. A lot of them are teachers and on spring break, while I have a flexible schedule. But since they're teachers and used to getting to work freakishly early (to me), that means it's an early morning for me, and I still have to get dressed. So, short post today and probably a movie review tomorrow, unless I decide to procrastinate this afternoon and create an epic post (I did have one planned but don't have time to write it now).

Breaking In

When I put out the call for writing questions, one of the most popular ones was about how to get published. This is also the question I seem to get most often in real life when someone finds out I'm an author: "How did you get published?" I'm afraid they're usually disappointed in my answer, that I wrote a book, sent it to an agent, then she sent it to publishers. They seem to be hoping I'll have some magical formula or special circumstances, like I mailed the manuscript during a full moon after making a sacrifice to Zuul, or I rescued an editor's daughter from alien abduction, so she agreed to publish my book.

I often use the analogy that getting a book published is like losing weight. There's a very simple formula, but it's very hard to actually do it. Losing weight comes down to using more calories than you consume -- eat less, exercise more. And yet people keep looking for some secret way to do that and make it easier or quicker, like eating certain foods or certain combinations of foods or eating at certain times. Even so, it's very difficult to successfully lose weight. When it comes to writing, the formula is to write something and then submit it. But people are always looking for shortcuts or magic tricks to make it easier or quicker, and very few people who attempt it are successful.

Let's break down that simple formula:
Step One: Write a book
That's both the hard part and the easy part. It's hard because writing a book is difficult. A lot of people have great ideas for books. Fewer ever actually start writing those books and even fewer finish those books they started. But it's the easy part of the publishing process because it's the one part you really control. You can control what you write, how you write and how much you write. Almost everything else depends on someone else. This part, though, is yours.

Yes, there are stories about people who got a three-book, six-figure contract based on an idea scribbled on a cocktail napkin, but you hear about these things because they're so rare as to be newsworthy, and what those stories usually don't mention is the fact that these things often happen to people who've written several previous books that just didn't find a market, so the editor or agent in question is well aware of the writer's ability. Don't base your career planning on an abnormality. Write the whole book. Even with as many books as I've completed, I still find myself learning a lot about the story from the process of completing a draft, which affects the beginning part that would go in a proposal. You'll put your best foot forward if you complete the book and revise the whole thing before you start trying to submit.

Of course, the book has to be pretty good to be published -- not necessarily brilliant because subject matter and market trends are possibly even more important these days -- but your odds are better the better your book is. Here's where you can go to seminars, find a critique group, enter a manuscript contest that gives feedback, read books about writing, read blogs about writing, etc.

What should you write? I would suggest writing the book you can't NOT write. Write what you want to read. Chasing trends is dangerous. Generally, if you hear about a trend, by the time you can come up with an idea and write the book, the trend will be dead. But passion always comes through, and writing the book that's burning a hole in your brain will give you the kind of authentic voice publishers are looking for.

Step Two: Submit the book
This actually falls into two sub-steps
A: Research
You need to know where to submit your book, so start looking for agents who represent that kind of thing and publishers that publish that kind of thing. There are a lot of differing opinions on whether to get an agent first or submit to publishers first. I sold my first five books on my own, but they were category romance. I wouldn't even attempt it on my own these days. A lot of publishers now won't take unagented work except under special circumstances, and even if they do, it can take them forever to respond. At the same time, agents can afford to be very picky about choosing clients. Most libraries carry some kind of writer's marketplace book that lists publishing companies and agencies. You can also find a lot of information online. Many authors mention their editor and/or agent on the acknowledgments page in their books, so look there. Look at which publishers are publishing the books you like to read. There are also a lot of scam artists out there, so check on Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors to make sure you're dealing with legitimate publishers and agents. Many agents now have blogs where they talk about what they represent, how they work and how to contact them. This research is a lot of work, but you need to do it up front. Don't go submitting to someone and then asking about whether they're legitimate (if they ask for money from you up front, they aren't). Beyond these pointers, I'm going to leave you on your own because if you can't figure out how to find this stuff for yourself, you need more help than I can give you. If you can't find the right information without being led by the hand, then you may be in the wrong business.

B. Submitting
This is another one of those easy/hard things. It's not too difficult to follow the submission guidelines specified by your target editors or agents. Don't try to be cute or fancy. Doing something contrary to their specifications only makes you stand out in a bad way. If they say they don't want phone calls, calling them will annoy them, not make them think that you're a real go-getter. Remember above all that you want it to be as painless as possible for them to read your work. And then you may have to wait. And wait. You'll likely get rejections. You may have to move to your second-tier list of targets. During this time, keep writing. If this book doesn't do it, the next one might. Most people don't sell their first books. If you're getting a lot of rejections, it could mean that this isn't the right book right now or that you're not ready, so come up with something new.

There's a lot of talk about networking and contacts, but I'm not sure that anything other than pre-existing celebrity status will really put you ahead. The networking and contacts may get you a faster read, but won't sell a book they wouldn't have bought anyway. Where the networking and contacts can help is with choosing your targets. You'll have a better sense of who is most likely to be receptive to what you write if you read agents' and editors' blogs, stay on top of what's selling and listen to editors and agents speak at conferences. A conference pitch is one good way to get past the "no unagented material" problem with publishers, so if you'd rather not find an agent before getting an offer from a publisher, then look for writing conferences that give you the opportunity to meet with editors.

Now, selling a book differs from losing weight in one key area. While there are genetic and glandular factors that can come into play, losing weight is mostly something you can control. Most of it is up to you. In publishing, it ultimately is out of your hands. You can write a book and target it as well as you can, and then beyond that, you have next to no control over what happens. Selling a book comes down to getting the right project on the right desk at the right time -- and you can't know what "right" is ahead of time. You can get clues, like learning editors' individual preferences (that's where an agent is valuable), but timing is the hard part. That right desk may have already been swamped by "right" projects, so even perfect targeting can involve bad timing. Luck plays a huge role. You can increase your odds by writing and continuing to submit (the more times you play, the better your chances of breaking in and the better you'll be with the practice) and by paying attention to the market.

And that's really all there is to it. It's incredibly simple while being incredibly difficult.

If you're relatively new here and want to catch up on all the writing stuff I've discussed in the past, which includes some of the basic how-tos, I put together the first couple of years worth of writing posts as a pdf e-book. You can download it here. I'll probably do another one at the end of this year.

Book Report: Preconceived Notions

I got significant writing done yesterday, and then just as I finished my writing session for the night, I realized that what I'd just written was all wrong. Well, not so much wrong as incomplete. In planning what happens next, I found myself "planning" what I'd just written, filling in holes that needed to be dealt with before I could go on to "next." This is the kind of thing I usually end up doing on the second or third draft, so I hope it means I'm breaking my pattern of writing a draft that then needs to be entirely rewritten. The fun irony is that this is happening in a book that I planned to write as a fast first draft before rewriting completely. By the time I'm done with the "first" draft, it will have already been rewritten, piece by piece. I suspect that in the long run it will be faster than writing a quick draft and then spending months rewriting. It just feels slow for now.

Meanwhile, I'm on a mission to read my way through the Nebula Award finalists so I can make a more informed vote. I doubt I'll get through all of them, since I just have a couple of weeks before the deadline and there are a lot of books. But I figure that reading the ones I can get my hands on will broaden my reading horizons. It's good to every so often let someone else dictate your reading choices. I started with two young adult books that are up for the award whose name I can't remember but that is apparently not technically a Nebula (I'm thinking it's named after Andre Norton, but I'm too lazy to look that up at the moment). They were the books my neighborhood library had that I didn't have to put on hold.

First was Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. I hung out some with Paolo at MileHi Con last fall but hadn't read any of his work. This book falls into the current trend of dystopian young adult books, depicting a near future where society has either fallen apart or has become some kind of cruel and horrible culture. Or, as I've been known to call them, the "AAAAAHH! We're all going to die from global warming!" books. I will admit that I don't quite understand the popularity of this trend because I find these books oppressive and depressing, and there were a couple of times when I almost put this book down because it was just too bleak for me to take. But I couldn't because I cared enough about the main character that I just had to see what would happen to him and what he would do, and, ultimately, it was a good adventure story. I used to enjoy reading books about people stranded in the Outback, and stuff like that, and I even enjoy Dickens, which depicts a pretty dystopian society, so I mentally moved it into that category and then I really enjoyed it (I'm not sure why it bothers me more to see this kind of world depicted as an inevitable future, but it does). In a future when global warming has dramatically altered the earth (it's hard to tell how much because the viewpoint character's perspective is very limited), a lot of people on the coast live in severe poverty, scavenging what they can from the giant beached oil tankers that are now obsolete. Nailer is one of these scavengers, a teenage boy who's still small enough to fit into narrow passageways on these wrecks to pull out copper and other valuable metals. After a storm, he comes across a wrecked clipper ship with more wealth than he can imagine -- and with a lone survivor, a teenage girl. He has to decide whether to risk everything to try to get her back home (where he might get the chance at a new life) or to kill her and take the scavenge that will make him wealthy. This is a real page-turner that puts the characters through some truly harrowing adventures, and in spite of the bleak setting, there is a thread of hope. It was really fun to see how the main character's horizons are broadened and how he learns to define "family."

Then I read White Cat by Holly Black. I first heard about this book when I went to see Sarah Rees Brennan on her book tour, since I figured that when someone has come from Ireland, I can go across town, and Holly was touring with her. I ended up hanging out with them for a while. I thought this book sounded intriguing, but I was somewhat leery of the "bad boy" factor. I would describe this book as a sort of less-glitzy White Collar from a teen perspective and involving magic. It takes place in an alternate present where magic exists, but it's illegal. That means a lot of people with magical powers are criminals and use magic to commit crimes. They tend to work for the large organized crime families. Our Hero is the youngest son in a family of magical grifters -- and the only one without magic. He's finally got a chance at a somewhat normal life now that his mother's in prison and he's going to a boarding school away from his brothers. But then he starts having strange dreams and sleepwalking, and it's almost like someone is trying to send him a message through his dreams, letting him know that his memories of the worst thing to ever happen to him may not be accurate. This was another page-turner. I read it in just a couple of days and couldn't put it down (I should get more work done today, now that I've finished it). My worries about the bad boy factor turned out to be totally misplaced. The book is told from the boy's point of view, so there's no swooning over how dark and dangerous he is. He makes no excuses for himself. He's very matter-of-fact about what he is. He's a born (and made) con artist, but we mostly see him using his skills for a somewhat good purpose, he does have a personal moral code, and although he is something of a criminal, he's the "good" one in the family, which I suppose makes him a rebel of sorts, but he's also the good guy. Yes, I even found myself liking this guy, though not in a "he's so dreamy!" way, since he's young enough to be my son. I'm not even sure I would have crushed on him if I were a teen, but I still find him a very compelling and intriguing hero.

So, these two books go to show that preconceived notions about what you'll like or not like can be very misleading. You could miss something you'd enjoy if you reject it because it contains an element you don't usually find appealing. That doesn't mean I'm going to be revisiting vampire books or that I'll go out searching for more dystopian future books or bad boy hero books. But when I consider books, I need to look beyond my knee-jerk turnoffs.

However, I think I need to read something fun and light now. I can't deal with too much darkness and danger.

Advanced Problem Solving Methods

I think I should be complaining about Daylight Savings Time, but strangely, this is the time change I adapt best to. It would have helped if I hadn't had to sing for the early service at church on the day of the time change. As a result of getting up more than two hours before I usually do, I was a bit groggy all day, failed at napping, but the napping attempt made it hard to get to sleep at night. Even so, I got up at about the time (clock-wise) that I normally do instead of waking up at my usual time (body clock-wise).

I spent much of the weekend fretting about the current project, trying to untangle a logic problem I'd realized was there. I was worried that I'd have to scrap a scene that I really like that also sets up something major for later, and I couldn't figure out another way to work in the part that sets up the something major for later if I scrapped the scene. But then as I was falling asleep last night, the solution occurred to me. I just have to change the bad guys' plan. I had them trying to do one thing, but it makes more sense if their goal is something different. The genius thing about this solution is that it means I don't actually have to change anything because their plan is still off-stage. I'd just been worried because their actions didn't really fit what I thought their plan was. Now their actions fit, and I can move forward.

It does seem strange to spend the weekend trying to work out a problem that got resolved by changing nothing, but that change will matter as I move forward, and I'd rather spend the time just thinking now than scrapping and rewriting large parts of the book later.

Not that this thinking involved slaving over a computer or notepad. Mostly, it involved long walks, hanging out with friends, petting a dog, reading, lounging on the sofa and watching way too many crime shows on TV. We're talking advanced problem solving methods here.

Speaking of which, is all electricity in Las Vegas diverted to the casinos? Because it seems like the cops there are always searching houses for evidence with the lights out, using little pocket flashlights. That's not even when they're searching for trace evidence of biological fluids using black lights. It's in the "let's see if there's anything in there that would tell us anything" searches, and they could miss entire pieces of furniture by searching with a tiny flashlight, let alone scraps of cloth or footprints. I got hoarse from yelling, "Do you people not know how a light switch works?" so many time at the TV. (Yes, I'm very late to the game on this one, but I thought that watching crime shows would be good helping me learn to write twistier plots.)

Now it's spring break in my area, but I hope to use the time I gain from not having ballet or children's choir to get some momentum going on this book. I'm way behind on something that I planned to be a quick project.

Oops, forgot to say ...

In all my "yay, new computer!" buzz, I forgot that I've got a couple of bits of housekeeping.

First, for the every-other-week writing posts, I need new questions or topics. I've been doing the hero's journey so long that I seem to have lost the ability to think of anything else. I can address writing craft, the business of writing, writing life, etc. It needs to be something of general interest (not just specific to your unique situation) and the kind of thing that can spawn an essay.

Then, in the weeks when I'm not doing writing posts, I'm answering Enchanted, Inc. series questions. These can be about the world, the characters, where ideas came from, what inspired things, etc. I won't answer something that might spoil future books, but otherwise, ask away.

You can leave questions in the comments or e-mail them. Look in the archives for topics I've already discussed (I've tagged these entries with "enchanted inc"). I know I've dealt with the issue of sex, where the character names come from, the magical educational system, the fairy godmother and the crystal network.

Posting from the New Computer

First, prayers and good wishes go out to the people in Japan and other areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami. My mom called and told me about it because I don't turn on the TV in the morning, and when I did turn on the TV, it was even worse than I had imagined. My Japanese readers are so awesome, and now I'm worried about them.

This post is coming to you from my new computer. I did the Internet part of the setup yesterday, and while I was all worried about getting the ISP settings right, it turned out to be along the lines of the typical Mac setup, which goes like, "Open box, plug in computer, turn on computer." I managed to transfer over my Firefox bookmarks and then went around to my regular sites that require log-in, so it looks like my Internet use is good to go. I ended up not getting much of anything done yesterday because it was like "Wheeeee!!! Internet again!!!!" I was tracking down all those fun videos that people have sent me that I couldn't watch on the old machine.

Today, though, I must work. I think for a while I may use the old computer as a writing machine and this one for Internet stuff, just so I don't have to disconnect from the Internet and carry a computer around. It's nice to have something that's always ready to write and something that's always online. After I finish this book, then I can bother to learn what horrible things Microsoft has done to Word in the new edition that will work on the new machine. They keep adding "features" that maybe five people in the world will ever need but that make it more complicated to do the basic things most of us do all the time.

Has anyone written a computer game that involves shooting or blowing up that stupid little paperclip thingy? I don't do games, but that might be fun to have. I've had him turned off for years, but will admit to every so often bringing him back just so I can say mean things to him. He makes a good target for my Microsoft rage.

One thing I will have to adjust to is the fact that the clock on this computer is accurate. I'm so used to having to adjust to the fact that the other computer gains time. All clocks around me tend to gain time, so I'm sure I'll soon be five minutes ahead, but for now it seems to be correct.

In other news, it's been announced that Doctor Who will begin again the Saturday of Easter weekend -- and BBC America will be showing it the same day as it's shown in England. I'm hoping one of my friends has a premiere party because I don't get BBCA on my cable other than OnDemand, and that tends to be sketchy (they randomly just don't get around to posting episodes, or they put them in HD only), plus it involves waiting a day or two. With it being Easter, I can't invade my parents because I have a choir rehearsal on Saturday and then have to sing for two services Sunday, including the 8 a.m. service. If I don't find a premiere party, my parents may outgeek me and see it first.

Though I shouldn't be surprised if my parents outgeek me, as I got the geekiness from them. My mom watched the original Star Trek during its original run with me when I was a baby, my parents dragged me to see Star Wars, they gave me my first science fiction books, my mom gave me my first Narnia book, and my dad took me to see just about any movie involving space. I had no choice but to turn out this way.

Okay, there seems to be an Autocorrect feature in this version of TextEdit (which I have now turned off). It tried to turn "geekiness" into "meekness," and that's not at ALL the same thing.

The Ongoing Plan for World Domination

I've been doing some work on the Ongoing Plan for World Domination. And, yes, it really does exist, even in writing. I suppose you could call it a "business plan," but that sounds boring. I'm not too motivated to carry out a "business plan," but an "Ongoing Plan for World Domination" sounds like fun. Businesses would probably be more successful if they were carrying out a Plan for World Domination instead of a business plan, but they might want to change the title when using it to get a business loan or venture capital funding (then again, the venture capitalists might be impressed by the boldness). I dare you to have a "plan for world domination" instead of a "business plan" if you have to prove to the IRS that your writing is a business rather than a hobby.

I think I've referred to it at various times as a "grand" plan, but what's written on the actual plan is "ongoing," and I think that's a good thing to keep at the forefront because, really, does one ever truly achieve world domination? Even when you get there, you have to stay there. Maybe if I ever achieve JK Rowling levels of success where I've made enough money to live more than comfortably for the rest of my life while building a few hospitals, my existing books are bringing in enough money in royalties to constitute a healthy salary, and publishers beg to publish anything I want to write, then maybe I can quit strategizing and just do what I want to do. Until then, the plan is ongoing and constantly updated.

I started the plan with a focus on the things I can control, so it was all about putting in the time to write so I could produce books, as well as working on improving my craft so I can write better books. There's also some market research to help me focus my efforts on projects that stand a better chance of selling and some marketing/promotion ideas so I can do my part to make my published books sell better, though that part has taken a backseat while I work on the writing. It may not look like I've done much in a while because I haven't had a book out, but I've been steadily writing. When something breaks through, I'll be ready with a flood of books. That's one of the things I noticed in my research. While it is possible to hit it big with one very successful book a year, it does seem like a lot of authors get their big breakout moment when they manage to get a fair number of releases in a shorter amount of time. That seems to generate the snowball rolling downhill effect. So, even while I'm waiting for something to happen, I'm still plugging away.

But then there's the problem that most of this business is totally out of my control. I can do my part by writing good books, but even the best book ever can get a response like, "I was hoping for something more like Enchanted, Inc., but we don't want to continue that series." Or there might be nothing else on the market like it, so since they have no comparisons no one is willing to take the risk to publish it. Or it may be a case of "there was already a book about a half-breed fey enchantress who uses ballet moves to fight evil fairies, but it tanked, so obviously there's no market for that kind of book." It seems weird to not plan for such a huge portion of my career, even if it is outside my control. So, I decided to plan hypothetically by writing out what I want to happen, specifically, with each project and in a bigger picture sense (since what happens with one project could affect other projects). Not just "have it be published" (duh), but which publishers I think are the best fit for this project or which editors I'd like to work with, advance range, what kind of publication (hardcover/trade/mass market), even ideal release timing. I must say, it was a little scary writing all that out, like I was somehow daring the universe to come and get me. My heart even beat a little faster while I wrote it. I'm not into that woo-woo The Secret stuff where I think that writing it down makes it more likely to happen, but it does seem to help my motivation to have in mind why I'm spending hours at the keyboard and going days without leaving the house. Plus, having that step in the plan means that I can also make hypothetical plans for best and worst-case scenarios, along with the most likely scenario, and then I can also develop ideas for publicity and promotion based on these possibilities.

And then I took an even bigger step to look at what would happen to my life if these various scenarios happened. For instance, selling the project currently on submission would be mostly a sigh of relief thing, because it would mean actual income (yay!). With that sale and knowing there would be money coming in, I might take care of a few repairs/replacements around the house and buy a toy or two. If the Enchanted, Inc. movie goes into production, that would be bigger money, but not really life-changing. I'd probably do a little more stuff around the house to upgrade it (because even if I were in a position to sell and buy something new, the house probably couldn't sell as it is now, especially not in this market). I might allow myself something of a splurge, like flying first class to WorldCon and maybe taking a real vacation. The real benefit from the movie would be in what it could do to book sales -- a re-release in conjunction with the movie would mean more royalties, boost the sales of the other books and maybe mean the publication of more books in the series, and then that success makes it easier to sell other books. But there's no guarantee. I can think of authors who've had movies made from their books who didn't become bestsellers and who have seemingly fallen off the face of the earth. I suppose it depends on whether the the movie is any good, how successful the movie is, whether they change the title, how the publisher deals with it, etc.

I even tried to imagine my life when I reach the level of success I want, and I was surprised to find that it's not too different from my life now. I would like to get a larger house with a real yard, a guest room, a bigger kitchen, more closet space and more book storage space. I might upgrade my electronics and maybe even have a good media room. But I like my car, so I doubt I'd be going for a BMW. I don't really want a mansion and would likely stay in my middle-class neighborhood because I like my neighborhood. I might travel a little more and do it a little more luxuriously. I might even get a housekeeping service. Now, that's at the level of success I think I can achieve. We're not talking JK Rowling or Stephen King money, but I can't imagine that much money, and I can't think of how it would change the way I live. I think it would mostly make me feel a little less worried about my old age and being able to afford to pay people to take care of me when I get to that point.

If I ever reach the JK Rowling level where money essentially becomes meaningless and I'm writing because I want to and because I want to provide books to my fans, I might be seriously tempted to come up with creative ways to make publishers compete for my books. Forget auctions and bids. I'd make them do something like shopping cart races through Central Park, with the executives pushing the sales people in carts. Or maybe a talent show, bake-off, "beauty pageant" type thing or a charity fundraising competition. Winner gets to publish my next sure-fire mega bestseller. That sounds like a lot more fun than having a crazy fit on Amazon reviews or demanding that my work not be edited, which is what a lot of authors do when they reach mad levels of success.

It was strange how doing this affected my attitude toward my work. It was a nice reminder of what I'm working for. I'm not spending hours at the keyboard for nothing. I'm building my future guest room.

Now I have to take care of one or two things, and then I'm going to start dealing with the new computer.

The Crystal Ball Network

First, a bit of housekeeping: My comment notifications have been very sporadic, so I'm just now discovering some older comments. I'm trying to find and unscreen the comments from non LJ members, but if your comment hasn't appeared and/or I haven't answered your question, I'm probably not ignoring you on purpose.

It's funny how when I plan to waste time, I get so much more done than when I plan to work and end up goofing off. Yesterday afternoon, the local PBS station re-ran the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert that I caught part of on Sunday night, so to justify spending the time to watch it, I planned my multitasking carefully. While watching/llistening I wrote blog posts for the rest of the week, wrote my medical school stuff, did a little work on the Ongoing Plan for World Domination and planned out the next part of the work in progress, which I got to work on soon after the concert ended. If I'd planned to work, I would have spent that entire time goofing off while thinking that I should be working and probably would have ended up sitting down to work at about the same time.

As for the concert, I still don't have my "dream" cast recording. I need to put together bits and pieces from multiple versions. I have a new musical crush in Alfie Boe, who played Valjean. I've never found a Valjean I liked better than Colm Wilkinson (though the last time I saw the show, the understudy I saw blew me away), but Boe is on the same level, though with a different type of voice. I immediately got online after hearing him Sunday night to find out who this guy is. He has some albums that I will have to get because, wow. I'm more of a baritone/bass kind of girl, but this is the kind of tenor I like. I have the 10th anniversary recording with Lea Salonga as Eponine, which is probably my favorite version of the role, but I also liked her here as Fantine, since she remembered that "I Dreamed a Dream" is not a wistful, hopeful or ambitious song (Susan Boyle did sing it beautifully but missed the point entirely). It's an angry, bitter song about lost hope and betrayal. This may have been one of the better Cosettes I've ever seen because she could sing high without sounding harsh and had a very sweet voice. The Javert was good, though my dream casting would be Terrence Mann, who was in the original US cast (the recording I don't have because it mostly duplicated the original London cast except for a Marius who was whiny). This concert would be wonderful except for a truly weak link, and I have to question the wisdom of throwing a Jonas brother into a bunch of opera singers because that was just mean. I was so embarrassed for the poor boy, especially when they brought out the original cast at the end and we got to hear Michael Ball on one of the same songs, and the comparison was shocking. The Jonas brother (I don't know or care which is which) has a decent voice but no technique and no force or power behind it. There would be these people belting it out and then his thin little voice with no support would come trickling in. The thing from this concert that might make the recording worth getting, though, was the encore with the four Valjeans -- Wilkinson, Boe and two of the actors currently playing the role on stage -- doing a tenor quartet version of "Bring Him Home" that was absolutely gorgeous. However, it doesn't exist on CD. It seems that there's a DVD, but the CD that looks like it's of the same event is not. It's just the current cast recording, with different people than in this concert, and it doesn't include that encore. There is a CD single of that encore, but it's a British import that costs as much as an entire album and is currently out of stock on Amazon.

I would love to get to be in one of those mass choirs for a production like this. I know I'd probably never get to play one of the principal roles or even be in a real production, but singing in the chorus for a staged concert would be awesome. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen this show -- countless touring productions and once on Broadway -- and I never get tired of it.

It's time for another Enchanted, Inc. series question! I was asked about the crystal network, how it works and what it shows.

The short answer is that I don't really know.

I have to confess that this is one of my less developed bits of world building. It's a relic from when I was initially doing the "it's just like a regular office, but it's magic!" thing and having way too much fun with it. I was trying to map magical things onto common office things. So, if there's a phone on every desk, what would a magical office have? Well, naturally a crystal ball!

I didn't need to develop it much beyond that because my viewpoint character can't use these things, so she can't report how they work or what she sees. That means they're essentially a bit of set dressing to provide a bit of "Ooh! Magic!" And they don't even seem that practical, since everyone ends up with a phone and a computer, anyway. But I put them there in the first place, which means they have to stay there even though there's not any major use for them other than "Ooh! Magic!"

However, I think they work kind of like a cross between the Internet and a fortuneteller's crystal ball. They show images, but in order to really use them, you have to have the magic talent not only to see the image, but also to grasp what the image means. It's kind of a psychic thing, where the real information isn't actually in the ball. The image in the ball transmits the actual information directly into the mind. So it's not as much like a computer terminal as it is a psychic link. It works two-way, like a psychic Internet, so you can send and receive and post your own information.

So far, the magical world doesn't have a dedicated mass media, so this is the closest they've got, with everyone sharing information.

Sorry, probably not a very interesting answer, but there you have it. Not everything in the books has some great meaning or reason. Some of it is just to be cool.

Any other questions? I don't currently have anything in queue.