Do This. No, Do That. No, Do This.

If you are looking for ways to improve your writing, one of my favorite resources is Dave Farland's Daily Kick in the Pants. It is an email that comes to you, not exactly daily, but pretty close. One email the other day talked about who to trust when it comes to writing advice. The obvious answer was the person who has done it the longest and is the most successful. While I totally agree with this, I think it goes a little further than that. Why? Because even the most seasoned authors have different opinions on the best way to write. As Dave pointed out, just because someone can write, doesn't mean they know how to tell someone else how to write.

So what is a new writer to do? Well, for one thing: WRITE! All the writing advice in the world will do you no good if you are not sitting everyday putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard. It isn't easy. Just look at my numbers for the last few days. Part of my problem is that there is so much writing advice that is going through my head. I have all the advice I tell my clients that I see make their stories stronger, I have all the advice that I've read in great books such as Characters and Viewpoint or The First Five Pages, I've got all the advice I've learned from going to workshops and con panels with amazing author's such as Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp or LTUE or Worldcon, I've got all the advice I've gathered while having lunch with Brandon Sanderson or Dave Wolverton/Farland, or Dan Wells. It is all up there swimming in my head. These people are the best at what they do. I've sat with them, picked their brains, found what worked for them. So what is my problem?

Well, sometimes their advice, no matter how good it sounds, goes against one another's. What worked for one author, was different for another. Everyone has their own plot structure or unique outlining method, and don't get me wrong, everyone of their ideas is excellent. I love making Character Sheets based on the outline found in Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic. I love plotting out my story on Dan Wells 7 point structure. But they each seem to be giving me different advice. They are only telling me what worked for them.

While there are a few musts in this industry: you must have compelling characters, you must have a plot that is intriguing, you must have a beginning, middle, and end, the way you get there might be very different than the way they got there--and it might be the exact same. So, what should you do? My advice, for what it is worth, is to keep reading those books, keep going to those cons and workshops, listen to what they tell you and try it. If it works for you--great, if not, find what will. The most important thing is to keep an open mind. Don't get set in the idea that this is the way it has to be. There are many paths to the end of a book, but one of them is not sitting around and waiting for your book to be handed to you on a silver platter.  You have to want it! You have to work for it! Read, learn, and most importantly Write! That book is in there, now make your own path to finding it!

And as always,
WRITE ON!

Sabine

The Joy of Editing

Back when I was finishing my degree and had oh so much time on my hands, I decided to add one more log to the fire and began editing for Eschler Editing. It started merely as a "Soccer Money" job since M is  now not only on a club team, but has recently made the Regional Olympic Development Team as well (They narrow down the State ODP team from 40 players to 20 for this.) But along the way I discovered that I was learning too much to ever give it up, and having a ton of fun along the way. So now in addition to posting about my writing, I can post about being an editor and all the things I've learned. Hopefully some of it will help you. To start off, here is the link to my current blog post for Eschler Editing on Inventing Time to Write.

Hope these tips help you become a more productive writer. Remember, now is the time to write your story!

Write On!

Sabine

The Tree is NOT Coming Down!

I love Christmas time! It is full of traditions at our house. The tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving. On the four Sundays before Christmas, we light the candles on the Adventskranz. St. Nick comes on the 6th of December and leaves treats in the kid's shoes. We watch ELF, and I always make my famous Schwarzwald Kirsch Torte. Technically Christmas time ends on the 6th day of January. Traditionally it is the day the wise men came, the last day of the 12 days of Christmas, and the day the tree comes down.

This year we have not quite stuck with tradition. For one thing, the tree didn't go up until the 23rd of December. I was busy with finals (I ended up graduating Suma Cum Laude!) and work, M had just made the Olympic Development team for the third year in a row, and I had a couple of manuscript edits that I promised would be done before the New Year.

Maybe it was the fact that the tree went up late, or maybe it was the fact that since the New Year started my life is still running on full gear, but the tree didn't come down on the 6th of January. I though that maybe it would come down today since I am off work and between edit jobs, but there is still the house to clean, books to be read, children to play with, a hubby to watch Downton Abby with, and a submission to get ready for this weeks writing group.

So, it looks as if the tree is here to stay. I remember one year when I was little. We used to have real candles on our tree, back in the day when it was easy to go to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a fresh tree each year. One year, the tree stayed fresh for so long that we kept it up well into February just for the lovely evergreen smell. We took down the Christmas ornaments and decorated it for Valentine's Day. The way it is looking I think I better get the kids to start cutting out some paper hearts, and who knows, we may even end up having to cut out some four leaf clovers as well!

The Next Chapter

Once upon a time there was a stay-at-home mom who cooked, cleaned, chased after kids, and all of the million other jobs that only a mother can understand. Knowing that soon all of her children would be in school she decided that maybe she should go to school as well. Because she also loved to write, she signed up to take an English class at the local university one night a week. Three years later she graduated.

Yes, it is official. I am a college graduate. I have a BA in History through Utah Valley University. So now what?  What is the next chapter in the book of my life? Most important is that I get to pick my kids up from school everyday, and spend my evenings hanging with my family and not with my textbooks. I hope that I will have time to blog a bit more, I plan on hitting a long line of books on my GoodReads list that have been put on hold, and I definitely plan on writing--a lot!

The good thing is that all my jobs are beneficial to my writing goals. Working as a part time cashier allows me time to read and brainstorm ideas. Working as a freelance editor gives me the chance to improve my writing and critiquing skills. And being a mom to a soon to be teenager keeps me up on the  current trends that all my YA protagonists need to know about!

In January I plan on continuing sending out queries on And the Sky Full of Stars. I plan on working intensely on a second draft of Room for Two. And I plan on keeping up with my blog and hope to catch up with all of you. 

I wish you all a wonderful New Year! 

Write On!

Being Wicked

So I have not exactly kept up even when I promised I would. I guess you could say I've been being wicked. So now I will play catch up again. A lot has been going on. M has had two soccer tournaments in a row both of which her team won. The first one she didn't even plan on playing in because my nephew was here from Pennsylvania and we were going to have family time. We did help out with the teams snow cone fundraiser which turned out to be a huge success. On the night before the final game the coach told M she was on the roster and if there was any way that she could come to play in just that one game he would love to have her. She went, she played wickedly, she scored both the goals which in turn made them the winners! Since she usually plays defense this was a sort of big deal!

This past weekend they went up and played in the Park City Extreme Cup. They ended up winning that with a shut out tournament. Over five games they made 38 goals and had no goals scored on them. It was needless to say very wicked.

Speaking of Wicked, last week I took both M and C to see Wicked up at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake. It was amazing. I've seen it once before in LA a few years ago and this was very comparable. Defying Gravity was mine and M's favorite song, and of course, C loved Popular. It was a fun girls night out and much worth the 3 month wait (I got the tickets for Mother's Day).

As for my own wickedness, I am a little behind on my writing, but only a little. The tuition deadline is coming up at work and there just hasn't been much time to write there. I am going to have to start getting up early to get in my word count I think. But I can do it. I have about 30K more words to go, but I have the end scene planned and I pretty much know what I have to do to get there, so from now until August 26 when I want to be done, it is full steam ahead.

The good news is I got another request for a partial so I have two partials out right now on SKY. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Writing ROOM I see how much my writing has improved and I have realized that it is likely it may get out there before SKY does. But SKY is a fun story in a great setting (I love Southern Utah) and it has been holding its own. So if I could get an agent on it before I even start sending ROOM out, that would indeed be wickedly awesome.

Until next time: Have a wicked grand day and WRITE ON!

Falling Behind

It is always easy to make your goals those first few days or weeks. At the start of June I made a goal to blog once a week, send at least one query a week for Sky and write 15 minutes a day on Room. I was doing great for a while, but then as usual life hit. Even though school is done, I still have homework. I have to read in German everyday so when I start my class in the August I am not completely behind. I am working on my senior writing project so that I can defend my paper in October instead of at the end of the term when I am trying to deal with finals. So, its not really like I have any extra time.

I am also looking at a full time job, and so I am doing some applications and some online training to get up to speed. The kids soccer schedule is never ending. But on a high note my house is clean. With that being said, sometimes I look at everything I have to do and tell myself its okay to fall behind, and it is. I am a busy girl. The problem is, I want to be a writer, and so falling behind is unacceptable. So I will recommit. I will write a blog once a week. I will send out a query once a week (after I rewrite my query based on the awesome workshop I went to this week on writing queries by Elana Johnson, but that is a topic for another blog). And now that I have figured out what I want to do with Room and have edited the previous fifteen chapters to make the ending work I am going for an even loftier goal. I want to finish the first draft by the end of August.

Those are my new goals. That is what I am committed to and I will not allow myself to think that just because I am busy I can fall behind. I want to write. I want to be published and the more I do each day, the closer and faster I will get to that goal. So until then....WRITE ON... because I will be.

Done with School

Friday I had my last History class for the summer. I am officially done until August where I will have my last or second to last semester. It all depends on if I get into the wait listed class I need. I like the whole block class they offer in the summer. It is nice to be able to take two seven week courses, even if I have to sit in a class twice as long each day. I like being able to look forward to some down time. Which in my world means time to clean the house and get caught up on the millions of projects that get pushed aside when I am in school. One of those is the novel.

It actually hasn't been pushed aside, more like placed on simmer while I decide just what needs to happen next. I realized that I was making things far too complicated so I have stopped my 2000 words a day this past week and took a step back to make sure that everything is going to work before I take the next seven week and pump out the last 40,000 words.

In order to graduate I need to take 4 classes in the Fall. German 2020, History of South Africa, Roman History, and my Senior Research Class. That means if I don't finish this draft by the 27th of August when school starts again I can pretty much count on it not seeing light again until 2013. I have a habit of being able to edit when I am swamped with other things, but not being able to produce new material. So I guess you can say the Race is On! Hope to see you on the other end!

Write On!