Sharing the Joy

Since I published my first book, I've had many ups and downs. Sales are slow which is not unexpected. It's difficult to get the word out about the book. But slow or even nonexistent sales will never sour me about writing (publishing, maybe...).

I had the opportunity to speak  about NaNoWriMo at my daughter's school on Friday, specifically the Young Writers Program. Sharing about writing and the 30 day NaNo challenge with the 4th and 5th grades was definitely one highlight of my year. Not only was it fun for me in the sense that I do love to share in general, but the kids really moved me.

They had amazing questions, thoughts, and ideas. They are originals and ready to write about anything from sports, to video games, to nature, to space, to history. This generation certainly has the potential to outshine the rest of us. Some of them are already writing collaboratively!

I'm going to keep that day locked in memory forever.  :)

Pay and Panic and Positivity

To begin... I've been paid! It's not much, but it's actual money. I made $11.24. This means that I'm officially a paid author.  My hope is that I'll be able to make more off of my second book, but that's in the future.

So, about the panic... I've twisted myself all up in knots. My calendar keeps taking on more and more for November, which is supposed to be the time I'll crank out the first draft of The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic, or at least 50,000 words of it. I don't know how I'm going to squeeze in enough hours to write. I'm trying not to get it in my head that I'm going to fail this year, because I do tend to fulfill negative thoughts. Instead, I'm looking for positive thoughts.

My short list of positive thoughts: I love the idea for my new book. I love the characters I'm creating for my new book. I will enjoy writing the new book.

If any of you out there are positive thinkers and have words of inspiration for me, please leave a comment. I can use all the positivity I can get!

What's in a Name?

Many of my characters for The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic now have names! I try not to let myself struggle with character names because I've always figured that I can change them as I go, or even in an edit. But, I don't change character names. At least not so far. Especially not in an edit... I grow attached to the characters as they are.

So, without further ado, please meet the starring cast of CCIM:

Haley Peters - Owner of "Re-Views on Main: Used and Collectible Books"
Penn Smith - Cryptanalyst at the University and Haley's best friend
Megan Douglas - Owner of “Mystic Moon” Spiritual Books and Supplies
Dorothy "Hypatia" Meadows - Employee of "Mystic Moon"
Deputy Alejandro "Alex" Rossi - Deputy with the County Sheriff

Trouble is coming to South Fork...

Just One More Revision to My Logline

Revision is the butter to the writer's bread. Everything, yes, sadly everything, can probably be improved. I'm a very lucky person to have a good friend who will beta read pretty much anything and everything I give her. She's provided some valuable feedback which helped improve my logline. (Thank you, Richa!) In addition, last night I spotted a flaw in my thinking...

Although my main character's best friend will provide initial antagonism... he will not be the primary antagonist. Instead... this is so much better... he'll be the one arrested for her magical mistake!

I know it's not attractive to toot your own horn, but boy am I pleased with this idea change. While it's extremely threatening to have a Federal criminal case hanging over your own head, how much worse when it's someone you care about and it's your fault! Do you walk, or perhaps crawl, away? Do you "save" him? Ah, so much potential for drama!

The revised logline is below. Again, I am soliciting thoughts and opinions. If you have a suggestion, please comment.

On the verge of a another slow small-town Summer, a shy used book store owner receives an old and incomprehensible tome which she finally interprets as a book of wholly useless magic with the help of her cryptanalyst/hacker best and only friend; but when she uses the text and causes her friend’s arrest for a felony theft he didn’t commit, she must learn to make real-world friends and request their help to undo her mistakes, before the mysterious group attempting to purchase the text decides instead to take it from her or her best friend is convicted. – The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic

Thought for the day

I'm taking the day "off" from planning, meaning I'm not actively sitting at my computer typing. But that doesn't mean I'm not working on my book...

"The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.” - Agatha Christie

Progress on a Logline

I'm not going to pretend that this is the final version of my logline, but it's starting to resemble my vision for this novel. It's time to float it past some people. If you have a comment, please leave it. It can be specific (certain words that don't fit or a question on the plot) or very general (love it or hate it).

If you think you read this genre, but this doesn't look like a winner, I'd especially appreciate hearing from you.

On the verge of a another slow small-town Summer, a shy used book store owner, who prefers the company of books to most people, receives an old and incomprehensible tome which she finally interprets as a book of wholly useless magic with the help of her University-employed cryptanalyst/hacker best friend; but when she uses the text and finds herself a person of interest in a felony theft investigation, she must learn to make real-world friends and request their help to undo her mistakes, before the mysterious group attempting to purchase the text decides instead to take it from her or she finds herself facing a Federal prosecutor. – The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic

Celebration and Preparation

3 P.M. So little time and so much to do...

I completed my first draft of Truce or Consequences on October 1st. With NaNoWriMo right around the corner, I've had to launch myself straight into the preparation phase of my next book with no time off.

It seems appropriate to pause for one moment and celebrate my second novel. No, it isn't finished, but, as I wrote above, I have a completed draft. In December, I'll be able to come back to it and begin editing. If you're a writer, you know how amazing that is. Staring at a blank page is much harder than fixing problems in a manuscript. (I don't mean to imply that making changes is easy or fast, but it's a lot easier to edit something than nothing.)

All right, moment over.  Time to move forward. My next book... I've had an idea I've been kicking around for quite some time, based solely on an idea for a title, The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic. The last few evenings have been spent trying to turn that title idea into a theme and a plot, and most importantly, I'm trying to create some characters that fit into the world and will drive that plot. This is the first time I've ever started from something as vague as a title. As I've posted before, I usually start with the characters.

In an effort to bring as much together as quickly as possible, I've been re-reading my copies of the "Save the Cat!" books by Blake Snyder. While the focus of these books is on screenwriting, I agree with the woman who turned me on to these books, the storytelling aspects are just as applicable to a book as they are to a movie.

To my surprise, I've spent over five days agonizing (no, I'm not kidding, I'm talking about serious pain) over what kind of story I'm going to be telling. Clearly, my genre is Fantasy. But what kind of a story is it? Is it a quest story? A wish-fulfillment tale? A story of friendship/love? Or a rite of passage?

Those are my top four choices, but there are other possibilities. Overall, I tend to read romantic fiction and, thus far, that's what I write. Logically, unless I plan to stray from my natural inclination, a love story seems to be the choice. This is probably why I'm struggling. Because I look at the scenes I've imagined and keep thinking that this is really either a wish-fulfillment tale or a rite of passage story. There's no reason I can't have a love story intertwined, but I just don't think it's the main focus.

So that leaves me twisting and worrying. Should I change the story (rebuild the characters I've already played around with and upend the plot) or should I stick to what is already simmering in the back of my mind and shape it into a rite of passage or wish-fulfillment tale?

Blake's advice, at least as far as I interpret it, is to give up things that don't work. I can almost hear him add "and don't look back." If I follow that advice, then my move is to pick a story type (I guess I'm leaning toward rite of passage) and start shaping what I've already created so it will work and discard anything that isn't fitting right.

Hmm, how disappointing. I really hoped that by just writing this out, I'd have some kind of epiphany about what I should do. Truly, if I'm to be ready for NaNoWriMo on November 1st, I should have my logline by now and be working on character sketches and maybe even the storyboard. I've only 21 more days to flesh this thing out before I start writing. Oh, who am I kidding? There's nothing to flesh out yet. Not even a choice of story.

This blog post has gone downhill very fast. From celebration to a mild tone of panic. Perhaps even strong panic. I need to make some decisions today.

10:31 P.M.  Deadlines really are magic.

Feeling the pressure helped me make one decision. I'm keeping the characters, just reshaping them a little. My protagonist (yet to be named, poor thing) will be the proprietor of a used bookstore in a small town that boasts of the small town feel, while having a University just outside the city boundaries. The antagonist will be a friend of the protagonist who will initially aid her with her quest to understand the strange book (exact means of acquiring the book to be determined) in her possession but will later discourage her exploration and use of the magic within the book under the guise of protecting her from harm (while in reality stunting her growth).

I've many twists and turns yet to plot out and I can't go much further until I pick my story. Just these decisions however make me more confident that I will figure this out. It's a matter of going deeper. Looking much harder at the conflict. On the surface, it now feels like a story of friendship (and the pitfalls of thinking you know what's best for others). But, I will delve deeper... I did use the word quest.

Onward... to the logline!