And the Plot Thickens....
Or more accurately, the plotting continues!
Okay, so a few of you know I thought I was supposed to go out of town this weekend...turns out that's NEXT weekend. But that's allowed me plenty of time to work on plotting--although what I'm plotting is the WIP I've been working on for a little over a month. Not really be best course; I'm looking forward to plotting "correctly" with the next book! (By correctly, all I mean is plot first THEN write). So far, I've spent two days working on fully developing my characters and plot points (yes, I'm bad, I usually just dive right in and start writing). A number of plot bunnies (or I guess sub plot bunnies) have been birthed in the process and I'm really excited! So far, the plotting is worth the effort even if it's put me behind (which probably wouldn't have happened if I'd just done it this way to begin with.) I bought this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Outlining-Your-Novel-Success-ebook/dp/B005NAUKAC/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1367592236&sr=1-3&keywords=k.m.+weiland While I'm not sure what Ms. Weiland actually does for the
three months
she says she usually spends outlining (I'd lose my mind if I spent three months writing
ABOUT
the story in my head--not to mention, my goal is to finish a book in
two months
), I have found some good advice (including a rec for
yWriter
software, which has been way cool to work on). Yes, some of the advice is just plain common sense, but sometimes we need that little pep talk (and she makes a point of saying that outlining is an individual process and what works for her won't necessarily work for others. To illustrate the point, she interviews a bunch of different authors with different outlining techniques to give insight into how different people do it.) The best news: I'm enjoying myself! This isn't the tedious job it used to be (back when I thought an outline really had to look like the ones they taught us to do in school: I -- Chapter one A) boy walks into a bar 1) boy is there because friend talked him into it, he's miserable B) boy meets another boy Yeah, I'm bored already. No wonder I never stuck with any kind of outlining or plotting. Like I said, I definitely can't see spening more than three DAYS on the process (maybe four or five starting from scratch with a brand new manuscript), but letting go and asking "what if?" in a plot notebook is a lot easier than doing it in endless revisions (one of the many things that went wrong with
Hanging by the Moment
before I was finally able to finish it. There was some personal stuff going on in my life, too, but I probably would have completed the book a lot sooner if I'd had a better handle on it from the beginning.) This is all a part of my effort to really be able to make a living off my writing (bearing in mind, I have a husband with a decent job, so mine isn't the sole household income!). That means putting out a minimum of 6 books a year. Oh and that reminds me: I was reading my friend
Dora Badger's blog
(she's been talking about the state of the publishing industry). I had no idea that the "Big Six" was in the habit of contractually limiting the number of books authors could write in any given year. (I highly recommend her series on publishing to everyone who either currently writes or wants to write for any kind of profit, be it a full time living or play money.)
Special AnouncementI'm creating a newsletter! So far the plan is simple:
Once a month, I'll send out a newsletter with recipes, fun stuff, news, updates, contest announcements, etc. If something truly extraordinary happens in between newsletters, I'll send out a brief announcement. That's it. No spam, no bogging down your email box. Please consider signing up.
SUBSCRIBE to H.B. PattskynsLoveletters
Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author
Okay, so a few of you know I thought I was supposed to go out of town this weekend...turns out that's NEXT weekend. But that's allowed me plenty of time to work on plotting--although what I'm plotting is the WIP I've been working on for a little over a month. Not really be best course; I'm looking forward to plotting "correctly" with the next book! (By correctly, all I mean is plot first THEN write). So far, I've spent two days working on fully developing my characters and plot points (yes, I'm bad, I usually just dive right in and start writing). A number of plot bunnies (or I guess sub plot bunnies) have been birthed in the process and I'm really excited! So far, the plotting is worth the effort even if it's put me behind (which probably wouldn't have happened if I'd just done it this way to begin with.) I bought this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Outlining-Your-Novel-Success-ebook/dp/B005NAUKAC/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1367592236&sr=1-3&keywords=k.m.+weiland While I'm not sure what Ms. Weiland actually does for the
three months
she says she usually spends outlining (I'd lose my mind if I spent three months writing
ABOUT
the story in my head--not to mention, my goal is to finish a book in
two months
), I have found some good advice (including a rec for
yWriter
software, which has been way cool to work on). Yes, some of the advice is just plain common sense, but sometimes we need that little pep talk (and she makes a point of saying that outlining is an individual process and what works for her won't necessarily work for others. To illustrate the point, she interviews a bunch of different authors with different outlining techniques to give insight into how different people do it.) The best news: I'm enjoying myself! This isn't the tedious job it used to be (back when I thought an outline really had to look like the ones they taught us to do in school: I -- Chapter one A) boy walks into a bar 1) boy is there because friend talked him into it, he's miserable B) boy meets another boy Yeah, I'm bored already. No wonder I never stuck with any kind of outlining or plotting. Like I said, I definitely can't see spening more than three DAYS on the process (maybe four or five starting from scratch with a brand new manuscript), but letting go and asking "what if?" in a plot notebook is a lot easier than doing it in endless revisions (one of the many things that went wrong with
Hanging by the Moment
before I was finally able to finish it. There was some personal stuff going on in my life, too, but I probably would have completed the book a lot sooner if I'd had a better handle on it from the beginning.) This is all a part of my effort to really be able to make a living off my writing (bearing in mind, I have a husband with a decent job, so mine isn't the sole household income!). That means putting out a minimum of 6 books a year. Oh and that reminds me: I was reading my friend
Dora Badger's blog
(she's been talking about the state of the publishing industry). I had no idea that the "Big Six" was in the habit of contractually limiting the number of books authors could write in any given year. (I highly recommend her series on publishing to everyone who either currently writes or wants to write for any kind of profit, be it a full time living or play money.) Special AnouncementI'm creating a newsletter! So far the plan is simple:
Once a month, I'll send out a newsletter with recipes, fun stuff, news, updates, contest announcements, etc. If something truly extraordinary happens in between newsletters, I'll send out a brief announcement. That's it. No spam, no bogging down your email box. Please consider signing up.
SUBSCRIBE to H.B. PattskynsLoveletters
Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author
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