Erica O'Rourke's Blog, page 4

SoATW: I Have A Book Due In Four Days

Happy Friday, Team SoATW! We've survived another week of Summer of All The Words, and as you can tell by the title of this post, I'm a leeeeeeetle bit panicky right now. Which means today's post is short and sweet. Literally.

If you were here right now, you'd probably say that the last thing I need is more coffee. You would be wrong, alas. I need ALL THE COFFEE. And now I have a new way to drink it, courtesy of the lovely April Genevieve Tucholke. (I also have an ARC of her new book, BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, which is tops on my TBR pile.)

The link below leads to a recipe for Magical Coffee, and that's exactly what it is. My friend Erin Bowman says she likes to cut down the sugar to one tablespoon, but she's a better person than I am. Four days before deadline, caffeine + sugar is where it's at.

Click here for Magical Coffee!

 

GOALS:

Do you really need to ask? FOUR DAYS. I'll be around Sunday night, of course, but I'll take Monday off to celebrate a certain Marshmallow's birthday and the unique joy/terror of pressing "send" with a giant manuscript attached.

See you on the other side, team. Wish me luck!

 

 

SoATW Friday: Deadline Frittata

Congratulations on surviving yet another week of Summer of All The Words! We've got a bit more than a month left, and I'm about ten days away from a massive deadline, so this is going to be a quick post.

Fittingly, it is about my favorite quick dinner: the frittata.

When I'm this close to deadline, it's just not possible to make a fancy dinner, especially when 3/5 of my crew are getting home after 7. They want food, and they want it right away, and I want them to eat something other than pizza or smoothies.

Enter the frittata: a less-fussy version of an omlette, stuffed with whatever leftovers you have lying around. I can't even give you a proper recipe, because it's just...a mishmash. Google it, if you lack confidence, but I swear it's the easiest thing in the world.

A frittata has only two hard and fast requirements: Eggs, and a nonstick skillet you can put in the oven (no plastic handle!). A regular skillet would work, I suppose, but eggs tend to stick.

Here's how it works:

Crack a bunch of eggs in a bowl. For five people, I usually use seven, but whatever you've got is fine. Add a little milk, a pinch of salt and as much pepper as you're comfortable with. Beat with a fork.
Pull out whatever leftovers you want to get rid of: small or cut-up pasta, cooked veggies or meat, tomatoes about to go south, odds and ends of cheese (we like goat cheese, broken into clumps). If you have grated cheese, put a little bit to the side.
Melt butter or olive oil in the non-stick skillet.  Not a ton, but enough to coat the pan nicely.
Pour in the eggs. Swirl them around. When they start to set but are still very liquidy on top, mix in your leftovers. Leave the pan on medium heat.
Let it cook. There's no real point in poking at it, unless you want to pull the edges away from the side of the pan and let the uncooked egg dribble into that space. I do this once or twice, but it's not essential.
When it's almost completely set, sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Run the whole thing under the broiler until the cheese starts to get melty and a TEENY TINY bit brown.
Wrap a towel or hot pad around the handle and pull it out. The handle will be VERY HOT, and it is hard to type with a giant burn on your hand.
Serve to ravenous family with some good bread and whatever condiments you like.
Feel virtuous for combining protien and veg in one pan, which someone else should wash.
Get back to work.

And work is exactly where I'm headed now. I'll be around for the nightly twitter meetups, and next Friday's blog. Otherwise I'll be pretty scarce for the next week or so. Check in with each other here or over at Clara's blog, and I'll see you Sunday night!

 

SoATW Fridays: Conference Edition

Congrats on surviving yet another week of Summer Of All The Words! Now that the Fourth of July is behind us, life here shifts from enjoying summer to freaking out about how much we need to get done before school starts again.

You may know that next week is the Romance Writers of America's National Conference. Clara and I will both be attending, which means we're going to be hard-pressed to make it online at 10pm, because we will be busy learning things and having fun and wearing fancy clothes. We'll have some plan in place for you all, but it's not decided yet -- watch Twitter for updates.

I'll be signing at the conference's Literacy Autographing, by the way, along with 400 other authors. If you're attending the conference or are in the Atlanta area, I'd love to see you!  (The event is free and open to the public.)

2013 "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing
Wednesday, July 17
5:30–7:30 p.m.
Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atrium Ballroom A–C (Atrium level)

In honor of Nationals Week, today's post is about three simple tips for a successful conference. They apply whether you go to a giant national event or a small regional workshop, and they will make your experience significantly more rewarding, both personally and professionally. Ready?

Be Professional: Respectful and positive should be your watchwords here. Don't be the drunk girl in the hotel fountain, don't pitch agents in the bathroom. Save your gossip sessions and snarky comments for a time when you are not in a crowded public area. Most importantly, Regardless of their publishing status -- unpubbed, self-pubbed, Big Six or small press -- treat everyone as equals. Because they are. People have long memories, and bad behavior at one conference will follow you through your career.

Be Prepared: Rehearse your pitch. Research the editors and agents you think might be a good fit for your work. Plan your sessions in advance, and have second choices lined up. Pack your bag carefully. You've spent a lot of money to be here, and preparation will help you make the most of it.

Be yourself: This is the most important tip I have. Yes, yes. You're here to network/sell books/find your dream agent/further your career. It's going to be easier to do if you're genuine. The flip side of this is also true. Every person you encounter is an actual person, with actual feelings and thoughts. They aren't a stepping stone on your path to world domination. I've been to conferences where people only wanted to pick my brain, or convince me to put them in touch with my agent, or read their manuscript. I've also been to conferences with warm, kind, funny, intelligent people who didn't ask me for a single thing. Guess who I'm more inclined to offer to help, without them having to ask?

Goal Time!

My goal for this week is to keep revising, despite the chaos of Nationals. If I can get to page 200, I'll be a happy, happy girl.

How about you? Hit the comments, then head over to Clara's blog for more SoATW tips!

 

SoATW Fridays: Wiggle Room

Congrats on surviving another week of Summer of All The Words! We're about a third of the way through, and it seems like things are going well for everyone. Remember that the twitter meetups will resume Sunday night at 10pm CST.

I've got a busy week coming up -- a visit to my sister, a week of no camp for the kids (and diminished writing time for me), and preparations for the RWA National Conference in mid-July. I'm also expecting a fresh round of revisions on DISSONANCE. All of these things combined will make it harder for me to hit my beloved daily word count.

The good news is, I knew it was coming. When I filled out my calendar, I looked at late June and knew life would get crazy. The only thing that combats chaos is preparation, at least in my house, so I started building in wiggle room -- not just in writing, but in every aspect of my life.

The benefit of wiggle room is that when things start to slip out of control, you're not immediately plunged into a post-apocalyptic state of despair. You've got time to get things back on track, to catch a breath, to avoid the trap of, "If only I had____."

Wiggle room gives you peace of mind, and a cushion to soften the inevitable blow.

Here are some examples of how I use it:

Boosting my word count: According to Scrivener, I need to write 1,173 words every day to finish my zero draft of Dissonance 2 by my target date. But I've set a daily goal of 1500 words, which gives me an extra 300-ish words each day. Over the course of a week, I end up with an extra 2100 words -- almost two days' worth. Four weeks in, I'm almost 10K further than I need to be, all because I force myself to write a measly 300 extra words each day.

Cooking: We belong to a CSA, and while I love fresh, local, in-season produce, it is expensive. Nothing makes me feel worse than produce going bad, so I tend to do all my prep at once: I sautee the greens (SO MANY GREENS) while I roast the other vegetables, wash and tear the massive quantities of lettuce so it's ready for salads. Aside from keeping produce from going bad, it cuts down on cooking time later in the week, and ensures we have vegetables with every meal.

Buying multiples: Our house is not enormous and I don't like clutter, so I'm not a huge fan of buying things in bulk. BUT. If my kids use it more than once a week, or they need it for camp AND home, we stock up: waterbottles, beach towels, socks, hairbrushes, sunblock, so if we run out (or lose something) we can carry on with mimimal disruption. My big girls are picky about clothes, so when we find something they like -- Old Navy's tank tops for the older one, or Lands' End shorts for the midde one, I buy them in every color. (Big Marshmallow has two sisters' worth of hand-me-downs, so she needs nothing.)

Ready the night before: All three girls are expected to have their bags and lunch for the next day ready before bed, so there's no fussing in the morning. I do the same with my writing: once I've met my wordcount, I take a few minutes to figure out the scenes I'll be writing the next day: which characters are involved, their goals and conflicts, how it will advance the plot. It takes ten minutes while I'm eating a bowl of Moose Tracks (see: reward) but it saves me a ton of time the next day when I'm waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

I am always on the hunt for tricks like this, so chime in: how do you work ahead of the need?

Check-in and Goals!

I'm well ahead on my word count, so my goals for this week are to keep it up while the kids are home all next week. Harder than it sounds, but...that's why I have you guys!

Chime in with your goals in the comments, and then hit Clara's blog for more tips!

 

SoATW Fridays: Treat Yourself

Congrats on making it through this week’s Summer of All The
Words! Watching more and more people pop in and make progress is so inspiring –
thank you all for participating and spreading the word.

I will confess that last night, with a messy house and
mountains of laundry and children who were suddenly unable to follow
complicated, multi-step directions like “PUT ON YOUR PAJAMAS,” I was sorely
tempted to bail. But the thought of everyone else meeting up and making
progress without me was enough to change my mind.

Sometimes, a little peer pressure is all I need to get motivated. Other times, I
rely on my deep-seated fear of missing a deadline. While both of those are powerful motivators, my favorite
method is, frankly, bribery.

I have talked before about how essential rewards are. You should
celebrate your successes. All of them. Writing is hard work, especially when
there are so many other things vying for your attention. When you meet a goal, treat
yourself to a little something.

For example, I made my daily wordcount yesterday, and so
rewarded myself with a ginger beer. (I don’t like most pop, but I have an
alarming weakness for very spicy, non-alcoholic ginger beer.) Sometimes it’s
something else: a few chapters of a new book, a walk around the neighborhood;
hanging out on the couch while my husband watches Workaholics. It’s an acknowledgment of the progress I’ve made.

As the tasks get bigger, so do the rewards. When I turned in
the latest round of revisions on Dissonance, I treated myself to a Blu-Ray
player and Wreck-It Ralph (I would have just bought the DVD, but only the
Blu-Ray had the special features.) My rule about electronics-based treats requires me turn in a draft of a book, though, so I'm not too spoiled.

Your goal-reward ratio may be different, and that’s fine.
Determining the value of your effort and energy is a very personal calculus.
What’s most important is that you DO value it – that you recognize your
accomplishments and milestones during what can sometimes feel like a long slog. 

Goals!

This week, my goal is actually three: to make my weekly
wordcount, as noted on my calendar; to finish outlining Dissonance 2 in detail;
and to start work on my next round of Dissonance revisions. My reward will be
to finally watch the Director’s
Commentary of Wreck-It Ralph. I might even make popcorn with oodles of butter.

Your turn: What’s your goal for the week? And equally
important, how are you going to reward yourself? 

When you’re done, head over to Clara’s blog for tips on getting the most out of writing meetups.

RITA Finalist Shindig Chat: THURSDAY

So...what are you guys doing Thursday night?

Wanna chat? Wanna VIDEO chat? Wanna meet not just me, but the other Romance Writers of America's RITA finalists? (You might have heard of them -- Robin LaFevers, Katie McGarry, and Emily McKay!)

Now's your chance! The four of us will be participating in a Shindig Chat THIS Thursday, June 20th, from 8-9pm Eastern time. I've had the chance to use Shindig before. It's an incredibly cool video chatroom, where you can see me, and I can see you (or not -- you can choose to make it audio-only), and we can both video chat and text, along with a room full of people.

It's basically a party in my laundry room. You've all been dying to see my office/laundry room, haven't you? I'm not promising I'll tell you DISSONANCE secrets, or what happened to everybody after the end of BOUND, but I'm not NOT promising that, either.

You DO need to RSVP to the event so that the good people at Shindig can send you the appropriate link. Click here for more information: http://shindig.com/event/rwayoungadult

See you there!

 

SoATW Friday: Flexibility = Freedom

Happy Friday, Team #SoATW!

I hope your week was a productive one. I'm generally pleased with my progress -- I didn't get as much outlining done as I would have liked, but I'm on track to finish up a project I've been procrastinating on since...oh...December. The brain space I'll reclaim once I cross it off my to-do list will be staggering.

You may (or may not) have noticed my absence during last night's #SoATW Twitter Meetup. I was sad to miss you all, but I had some writer friends in from out of town, and since they're normally scattered across the country, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Even so, I still had work to do, so I decided to run a midday writing meetup instead. I got my work done, and while I missed the usual camraderie, it freed up my evening for a special occasion.

How could I pass up an evening with these ladies? They're as lovely as they are brilliant and talented and funny. Also: SUSHI. (From left to right, Erin Bowman, TAKEN, Susan Dennard, SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY, Sarah J. Maas, THRONE OF GLASS, Kat Zhang, WHAT'S LEFT OF ME.)

One of the keys to successfully managing your summer writing is FLEXIBILITY. Life is going to throw you curveballs, good and bad. It's one of the reasons I build wiggle room into my writing schedule. Giving yourself permission to shift the schedule when necessary -- whether it's writing a horrible synopsis instead of outlining, or moving your dedicated block of writing time, or increasing your daily wordcount so you can take off on a long weekend with the family -- gives you freedom to enjoy your writing AND the rest of your life.

The best example of this I've seen: Mia, one of our regular #SoATW'ers, lives on the East Coast -- which means our meetups run until midnight for her, and like most sane people, she would prefer to be in bed by then. So she very sensibly started up an East Coast #SoATW -- she writes from 10-11 Eastern Time and checks in as we're gearing up. And it's working pretty well, I think, because she hit 50K this week, which was her goal. (YAAAAAAAAY MIA!!!!)

Flexibility is your secret summer weapon. Fire at will.

Remember to check out Clara's post on how to feed people when you'd rather be writing.

And now, I'm turning it over to you: how was your week? What are your goals for next week? Hit the comments, and we'll see you back on Twitter Sunday at 10pm CST!

 

SoATW Fridays: Staying On Track

Congrats, SoATWers! You've survived the first week of The Summer of All The Words. Whether you joined the Twitter Meetups regularly or worked on your own timetable, you've made progress, and that's what this summer is all about.

Our purpose for the Friday blog posts is to share some tips about balancing writing and the rest of your life, especially during summer. The comments are a place for you to share both tips and progress, and set goals for the next week if you think that will be helpful.

Speaking of goals, I suspect by now you've set one (or several) for SoATW. My tip for today is how to keep yourself on track to meet those goals. When I'm trying to balance writing with our summer plans, a paper calendar is a huge help. It lets me see family obligations and writing ones simultaneously, which allows me to manage my time better and keep my focus where it needs to be at any given moment. 

Planning my weekly wordcount is a simple formula. If you're revising, use page counts instead.

Set a deadline and count how many weeks until it arrives.
Set a target length.
Divide your target length by your number of weeks.
Write your weekly target on whatever day you decree check-in day. Make sure the total on each check-in day is cumulative.

In my case, here's my self-imposed schedule for DISSONANCE 2:

Deadline: Sept. 6 Weeks until deadline: 12 (actually, it's 13 but I'm taking a week to outline)
Target length: 100,000 words
Division: 100,000/12 = 8,333 words per week.
Written Targets:

You'll notice I also include my daily word count -- but that's just a rough estimate. If that level of detail feels stressful, you can just include the weekly goals. I also use Scrivener's Project Target tool to stay motivated, but I'll talk about that in another post.

A few words about math and tricking myself: first, I round up my weekly target to 9000, because it's easier to add AND because it gives me wiggle room. For the same reason, I bump my daily word target (1285) up to 1500. Here's the real reason: It's not significantly harder for me to write an extra 300-ish words each day, but the cumulative effect is an additional 2000 words per week -- it's a painless way to make a big difference.

This system works for me because it applies necessary pressure. October feels far away, and it's easy to think that I can make up the time by working harder once my kids are back in school. But if I see my weekly target tick upwards, and my wordcount falling further and further behind...I realize very quickly how hard it will be to make up that lost ground, and I buckle down.  Equally important, the calendar keeps me from working in a blind,
all-consuming panic. I know what I need to do, and I know it's doable,
so I can spend time with my family without stressing out.

I'll be the first to admit that this level of structure isn't for everyone, but if you're struggling to keep on track with your goal, you might want to give it a try.

In the meantime, how was your first week of #SoATW? Feel free to use the comments to share your progress and helpful tips; you can also tell us your goals for next week or for the entire summer. (You've already seen mine.)

When you're done, head over to Clara's blog for another suggestion about how to balance writing and family! Happy Weekend, all!

The Summer of All The Words

I don’t know about you, but around here, summer is hell on my
writing schedule. The calendar books up quickly, the kids are home from school,
and the usual routines fly out the window. I like my children quite
a bit, but nothing puts the kibosh on spontaneous family fun faster than the
realization that I haven’t made my daily wordcount. Balancing work and family
is always trickiest for me once summer hits, and this year is no exception.

Over celebratory sushi this weekend (yay for meeting
deadlines!) I was discussing summer plans with my friend and fellow YA author
Clara Kensie. We’ve found that writing together keeps us more focused and
productive, and we were searching for a way to continue our meetups in the face
of warm weather chaos.We reviewed our goals, realized how
much work we were facing, panicked for a few minutes, and then decreed this would be the SUMMER OF
ALL THE WORDS.

(It might have been the lychee martini talking.)

We needed a plan. And by the time we’d finished the last
pieces of salmon avocado roll, we had one – and we’d love for you to join us. Our
goal is to create a flexible, low-stress way to check in with other writers
during the lazy days of summer, so we’re keeping it as simple as possible:

For the next thirteen
weeks – until Labor Day weekend – we’ll be meeting up on Twitter at 10pm CST, Sunday
through Thursday, for an hour of work. You will know us by our hashtag:
#SoATW. (My twitter handle is @erica_orourke; Clara’s is @clarakensie.)

For that hour, you can work
on whatever you want: drafting, revising, proofreading, synopsis-writing,
query letters, blog content…it’s totally up to you. You don’t have to work on
the same project every time (I definitely won’t be). You can write in any
genre. The point is to give you a small, dedicated block of time each day to
focus on whatever aspect of your writing is most pressing.

On Fridays, both
Erica and Clara will post a tip on their websites about surviving summer chaos, and we’ll
open up the comments – to share tips, to celebrate meeting your week’s goal and set ones for the following weeks, and to ask for suggestions.

Participation is completely voluntary – you can show up only
on Tuesdays, every day, or every third Wednesday. You can check in on Fridays
or lurk in the comments or ignore the weekly posts. Use what’s helpful and leave the rest.

The one thing we DO ask is
that at the nightly Twitter meetup, you
use this hashtag: #SoATW. This way, other participants will recognize you.

FAQ:

So, how exactly does this
work?

A few minutes before 10pm CENTRAL TIME, if you’re following
Clara or me, you’ll see something like this on Twitter: Starting #SoATW in
five minutes! Who’s in? I’m revising Chapter 8.

At 10pm CST: Time for #SoATW – see
you in an hour!

At 11pm CST:Halfway through
Chapter 8.  How’d everyone do? #SoATW

Remember: use the
hashtag, or we won’t know you’re participating!

Why 10pm?

Our days and evenings are filled with work and kids and
various obligations. By 10, life has settled enough that we can head into
our writing cave and close the door for an hour. Staying up until 11 won’t turn
us into total zombies the next day, though it might require an extra cup of
coffee.

Why Sunday through
Thursday?

If your summers are anything like ours, Friday and Saturday
nights book up pretty fast. We’re not looking to put a crimp in your social
life.

Why only an hour?

An hour is enough time to make progress, if you do it
consistently, but it doesn’t feel like an overwhelming commitment.

Look at it this way: if you can write 1000 words in an hour,
five times a week, you’d end up with 5000 words each week. 5000 words a week,
over twelve weeks, means you’d have 60,000 words by Labor Day. Even if that’s
not an entire book, it’s a pretty good start.

If you’re revising, you can still use this formula: ____
pages per hour x 5 hours x 12 weeks = ______. (Feel free to write your own
formula. I was an English major and cannot be trusted with numbers.

Why thirteen weeks?

Because that’s how many weeks we have until Labor Day. In
the formula above, we’re assuming people will have vacation or family
obligations for at least one of those weeks. And it’s always nice to leave some
wiggle room.

I can’t possibly get all
my work done in an hour! Can I do more?

Of course! The Twitter meetups function like a virtual writing
date, but if you need more time to make your goals, take it! We’re here when
you need us, and we’ll cheer you on. 

I can’t make it
Mondays!

Totally fine, my friend. Pop around when you can, and we’ll
be thrilled to see you.

More questions? Hit us in the comments!

We’ll see you at 10pm
CST tonight.

BOUND in Germany!

The weather here is gray and rainy again, which makes it feel a bit like I am living in Shetland. This is okay by me, as I would very much like to go to Shetland, where there are beaches but no one forces you to swim, and snug cottages, and woolly sheep, and presumably many, many cups of tea with biscuits alongside. Really, is there a better place for a reader to go? I DO NOT THINK SO.

But since real life precludes that sort of travel right now, here is something else that is foreign and delightful: the German cover of BOUND!

I've talked before about how much I love these covers (see TORN and TANGLED here) and this one is no exception. According to Google's Translation Matrix, the title in German is THE CREATOR. Which is AWESOME in so many ways my head nearly exploded.

Deutschland, ich liebe dich.