Dawn Reno Langley's Blog, page 8

A new work begun

About a month ago, I started a new novel while I waited to hear about the projects currently doing the rounds with agents/editors. It's a way of keeping myself busy so that I don't go crazy. The one thing that never becomes easy to endure in this business is the rejections. And there are always plenty. Even for the best writers in the biz.

This new book requires research, and I embrace it. I also embrace the fact that I have to learn new tricks -- as an old dog in a constantly-changing marketplace. Writing is writing and good writing is timeless, but the taste of the people who might read my books needs to be challenged. Knowing I need to rethink some of my works, I have sought out some help.

That help has come in several forms: one is a book doctor who has helped me craft some pitches for the books I'm sending out to agents/editors. It's the first time I've paid money to a professional to help me with that process, and it was money well spent. The polished pitch I ended up with for the Izzy book taught me volumes about what to do for the other books. I learned a lot and will go forward with a much better idea of how to pitch my books.

Secondly, I have bought several books to add to my shelves, and one of the best purchases I made was one of Donald Maass's books. He's a rock star agent who knows exactly what it takes to make a bestseller happen. His WRITING 21st CENTURY FICTION made me think long and hard about the problems in my novels and how to fix them.

Each chapter is followed by questions that task the writer to go back through his/her novel and rethink characterization, plot, tension, description, dialogue, and everything that creates a complicated and complex book that can easily take up space on any bestseller list.

Today I didn't write. Today I thought about what kinds of complications I have not yet used in my novel. Today I 'cooked' some ideas. Tomorrow, I'll put them into action. And I think my writing will be better as a result of knowing I needed help in the first place.

Projects Done and Started

After a long holiday, I came back to work a bit frustrated that I hadn't met my goals of rewriting/proofing all four projects, but with a bit more time and several more weekends, I met my goal. Sent out the memoir about Izzy, immediately got feedback and thought that my structure was wrong with that one. I'm waiting for one more agent (who has the full manuscript), and depending on what she says, I think that one will be rewritten into more of a narrative format.

I sent Jack's Truck out to several independent publishers, and one of them emailed right after the first of the year to send the digital copy (they had originally wanted a paper version, which I thought was a bit old-fashioned but sent it anyway). Still waiting to hear from all of them.

Surprisingly, I heard from an agent about JT just last week, and she wanted to see the whole ms., which was exciting because I thought I had heard from everyone. Fingers crossed that she likes it!

Analyzing the Prescotts is done, but I'm waiting to get answers back from these agents before sending it out. If either of them responds positively about my other work, perhaps they'll like ATP too.

Mrs. G's Adventures in Dating is also waiting . . .

And while I'm waiting, I took five days off from work to start my new novel, the follow up story after Jack's Truck. I've been waiting years to start this novel, have done a lot of research in Mississippi on the civil rights movement there, and I was ready to go. I'm two chapters into it, have a full outline done, and am liking where it's going. It's keeping me busy while I wait (which I'm not good at doing).

And I'm blogging, doing theater reviews, and taking care of my Facebook group of historical writers. Keeping extremely busy!

Peace to all of you.

January 7, 2014

I spent the holiday vacations writing and editing and proofreading and rewriting, so that once the first of the year came around, I'd be able to start sending out queries to editors and agents. I've started. And I've already received answers from most of them. Some of them have been positive, which is great. Some of them have suggested major changes in one of the books, which is fine, too.

Four books are ready or close to ready. Two of them are floating in pub/agent world. Two of them are awaiting my time to type in changes (that are already penned on the manuscripts). One of me is awaiting the moment when I can tell you all when the next book will be hot off the presses.

Until then, it's back to work for me!

Midway through NaNoWriMo

Last weekend, I attended the North Carolina Writers Network Conference in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Not only did the ocean air rejuvenate my senses and clean out some of the "fidi coco" (nonsense that flops around in your brain), but I also reconnected with my roots: other writers. Sitting in on the workshops and talking to writers at breakfast/lunch/dinner reminded me that I'm very lucky to be at this point in my career when I have quite a bit of published works and enough knowledge to make me dangerous. But there's so much more ahead!

Now that I'm halfway through November and halfway through the 50K words that I promised I'd tick off on my rewrite of 'Analyzing the Prescotts,' I'm looking forward to December and January.

I have a Plan. I'm capitalizing the word because it's important to my future. So important that everything else is on hold. I want to publish the works I currently have in my coffer and there are two new works on the horizon that have been bopping around in my head waiting for the moment when they can make their first appearance on the page.

There's an urgency to my writing habits these days. The writing is in the forefront. I put off social occasions to write. I write during lunch. I rewrite in my bed at night. I steal moments during my workday to jot down notes or to connect with the social platforms I'm building.

I have a Plan. Now, to execute it.

If you can dream it, you can make it happen!

NaNoWriMo 2013

This year, I decided that I was doing NaNoWriMo a little differently. Normally, (I say that loosely since I've participated only twice), one would produce 50K new words of a novel (or any other type of book, I suppose), but since I have two books ready to send to agents and two others that need rewriting, I thought it would be more prudent of me to spend the month rewriting with a goal of getting all four books out in the netherworld by the beginning of the year. I look at it this way: if I have four books doing the rounds and am working on a new book while I await answers on those, I have a better chance than just sending one out -- and it will drive me less crazy if I am rejected on four books rather than concentrating on just one.

So, Jack's Truck is ready to go, and I'm not working on it anymore. I still believe it's my best novel, though it has yet to find a home. That one will start going to new agents this week.

I finished the Izzy book and the first rewrite of it last week, so I'd like to send that one to the book doctors I spoke to several months ago. They were quite interested. I should strike while the iron's hot. If they reject it, I'll send it to a couple more readers and do more tweaking.

I'm rewriting Analyzing the Prescotts for NaNoWriMo. That novel was written for my PhD dissertation, so it has been written and rewritten several times. I've decided to restructure the story and make the psychologist the main protagonist rather than the "narrator." Taking the chapters apart and re-envisioning them is a massive undertaking, so I don't feel 'guilty' for using this one as my 'new' book for the month of November.

And, finally, Mrs. G's has been rewritten once, then read by two readers. I put it on the back burner, but will finish the rewrite once the Prescotts is done.

That is the layout of my work for the next couple of months. Once those books are done, I'm starting Sunflower, a story set in the Civil Rights era of an interracial marriage. I've been waiting to sink my teeth into this one for a while . . .

More after NaNoWriMo craziness is over!

New WEBSITE

Knowing that an author's platform is paramount in the publishing industry today, I have been working hard to get "the pieces" together, and I think I've finally got it to a point where I can introduce it. My new website is up and running and lookin' good: www.dawnrenolangley.com
AND I have an author's Facebook page now, too: https://www.facebook.com/dawnrenolang...

as well as several blogs (all of which are linked to my website).

If there is anything else I need to do to make myself salable, I hope I find out soon. This takes so much TIME. Time I'd rather spend writing!

Goals and Schedules and The Future

Life has taken me by the coattails and swung me around during the past couple of months. In order to get a handle on everything, I sat down and looked forward (instead of in my rearview mirror, as I have for the past couple of years) and realize that if I'm going to have the life I want, there has to be a road map in place and I need to be driving my own car. So, I now have a five year and ten year plan that includes schedules for the books that are currently on my "hot plate."

This is something I've espoused for my students but to actually do it for myself . . . well, that's put it this way, I never did think about anything beyond the next week or so unless I was planning a vacation.

Now, the vacation is planned (Thailand in May) and I have a publication/writing schedule, as well as a life plan and retirement schedule.

First on the hotplate, finish rewriting the Izzy book, which is currently on my bedside stand, 3/4 of an inch of printed pages awaiting my proofreading/editing.

I'd better get to it!

Start with the second chapter

When I teach people to write, we often talk about beginnings. I remember a workshop years ago with a wonderful writer (who has since been published) and the first chapter of her book. She had titled it a prologue, and I could understand why she began the book with it. Basically, it was the whole back story that the plot was based upon. It explained everything. It was well written and interesting. But it didn't move the story along. No action. No dialogue. Just a bunch of descriptive, beautifully wrought phrases that built a spectacular background.

The story itself . . . wow. It hit you in the middle of the forehead from the very beginning, then reached down, grabbed your throat and made you gasp until the writer ended that chapter. There was time to sigh and think, then you wanted to continue -- and once again, she had you by the throat, your eyes bugging out as you ran the words through your brain, choking for breath, until the chapter ended. And thus it continued throughout the whole novel.

I said during that workshop, "Dump the prologue. You don't need it. You can insert a couple of words or a phrase of history every once in a while, but the reader doesn't need the whole history. You wrote the prologue for yourself."

She resisted, we argued, but eventually, she dumped the prologue. And, man, did it improve the book.

I am remembering that lesson now because I'm teaching it again. To myself.

Tonight, I'm looking at the prologue for my Izzy book and the first chapter, and I'm going to take out my scalpel and cut, cut, cut. Hopefully, there will be very little bleeding.

Unrealistic

Yup, I knew that plan to do the rewrite of the book in a weekend was unrealistic from the get go. But I did do 125 pages, and I think I might have cut about 10. That's not nearly enough, but it's showing me that I can definitely cut the longer sections by at least half. That's better than nothing! The problem with this book is that my style is to write short and add the flesh and bones during a rewrite. That's not working well with this book since it's too long to begin with and my tendency is to add all the similes/metaphors/prettiness now that I'm done spitting out the initial draft. I have to change my style for this portion of the writing process for this particular book. Not an easy thing to do.

Second Drafts are Harder

I have this unrealistic plan to finish the second draft of the Izzy book over the weekend. I have to be nuts to think that I'm going to be able to rewrite 500+ pages in about 1/100th of the time it took me to write this damn thing. Insane.