Hey, guys, Ink here. First of all: I got finished with the 2nd draft, and it's mostly because of Dwight's amazing pep talk. Thank you so much--words can't even express my gratitude, and if you know me, I'm rarely at a loss for words.
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As most writers know, some characters have a disconcerting habit of materializing out of nowhere and hopelessly confusing our beta readers. You know the one I mean. The ones that show up halfway through the story and throw the climax out of whack in ways you never imagined possible. Those little mavericks who never quite follow the plan. And probably the most interesting and fun characters in your book.
I don't have any brilliant tips for taming them. I pretty much let them do what they want and sort the rest out later. They usually seem to know what they're doing, even when I don't. So I trust them. They make things interesting. Especially during the rewrite stage.
Anyway, I have more fun with these guys than with all the other characters in the book. So how do you have one of these oddballs as your main character? I know it can be done. The Bartimaeus Trilogy is living proof. It's time to bring the smart-mouth sidekick type into the spotlight. Any suggestions as to how?
(Of course, there ARE the characters who pop out of the ground not because they weren't planned as part of the plot, but because you skipped their introductory scene. I know that all too well... O, November, month of highest triumphs... and forgetting to write the scene where the MC meets the love interest.)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Blogs: Are We Having Fun Yet?
Miri is procrastinating. So what else is new, right? But for once, Miri is not procrastinating on writing her NaNo (which is careening toward its conclusion with the speed of a striking snail!).
No, Miri is procrastinating on the actually rather obscene amounts of homework she has due Monday and Wednesday.
Therefore: Agent blogs Miri and/or Ink find helpful and/or entertaining. Because we care.
Seriously, Miri didn't read nearly enough blogs at first, and Ink still doesn't read all that many. But there's a lot of good information out there, and we'd hate for anyone to miss out.
Pub Rants - Run by Kristin Nelson, a very nice agent from Somewhere-That-Isn't-New York (ahem, I mean Denver). Filled with very solid advice on all stages of the publishing process and usually funny to boot. You really can't go wrong with this one.
Nathan Bransford - Another one from S-T-I-NY, this time to the tune of San Francisco, CA. "This Week in Publishing" segments, fun and torturous (for us and him, respectively) contests (in fact, the next one is coming up soon!), and an astonishing number of insights on space monkeys.
The Rejecter - She doesn't hate you, she just hates your query letter. An assistant at a literary agency, Rejecter is full of insight, tips, and examples of career suicide to be avoided at all costs. Oh, and she's got a nice post up about certain e-readers.
Agent in the Middle - Reading this blog in its online form makes Miri's eyes bleed (sorry, Agent in the Middle, but pink text on a black background just isn't all that easy to take) but the content itself merits the extra five seconds to copy-paste it into the word processor of your choice.
Lit Agent X - She hasn't updated in awhile, but we certainly can't fault her for that. -innocent whistling- In any case, her archives are worth a look - she's hosted several query pitch contests on the blog and gives examples of problems with queries she's received through normal means. Informative, funny, occasionally headdesk-inducing. Miri, at least, hope she comes back soon.
And a bonus: this has nothing to do with agents, but Miri thinks that writers are the only people who can truly understand the lethality of a term paper written with no punctuation or spaces.
No, Miri is procrastinating on the actually rather obscene amounts of homework she has due Monday and Wednesday.
Therefore: Agent blogs Miri and/or Ink find helpful and/or entertaining. Because we care.
Seriously, Miri didn't read nearly enough blogs at first, and Ink still doesn't read all that many. But there's a lot of good information out there, and we'd hate for anyone to miss out.
Pub Rants - Run by Kristin Nelson, a very nice agent from Somewhere-That-Isn't-New York (ahem, I mean Denver). Filled with very solid advice on all stages of the publishing process and usually funny to boot. You really can't go wrong with this one.
Nathan Bransford - Another one from S-T-I-NY, this time to the tune of San Francisco, CA. "This Week in Publishing" segments, fun and torturous (for us and him, respectively) contests (in fact, the next one is coming up soon!), and an astonishing number of insights on space monkeys.
The Rejecter - She doesn't hate you, she just hates your query letter. An assistant at a literary agency, Rejecter is full of insight, tips, and examples of career suicide to be avoided at all costs. Oh, and she's got a nice post up about certain e-readers.
Agent in the Middle - Reading this blog in its online form makes Miri's eyes bleed (sorry, Agent in the Middle, but pink text on a black background just isn't all that easy to take) but the content itself merits the extra five seconds to copy-paste it into the word processor of your choice.
Lit Agent X - She hasn't updated in awhile, but we certainly can't fault her for that. -innocent whistling- In any case, her archives are worth a look - she's hosted several query pitch contests on the blog and gives examples of problems with queries she's received through normal means. Informative, funny, occasionally headdesk-inducing. Miri, at least, hope she comes back soon.
And a bonus: this has nothing to do with agents, but Miri thinks that writers are the only people who can truly understand the lethality of a term paper written with no punctuation or spaces.
Monday, January 14, 2008
The Other Kind of Home Stretch
This is Miri, and may I be the first to commend Ink for being SO. DANG. CLOSE. to finishing her rewrite!
*round of applause*
Great job. Now finish.
(Like I can even talk. Ink, readers, please smack me over the head via comments.)
As a status report from my end, I am inching nearer and nearer to the end of the rough draft of my NaNoWriMo novel from this year. I'm probably 7-10k out. That's not that much. I put that much away in six days during NaNo. Thus illustrating another way the real world should be like NaNo, but for still-developing-discipline cases like myself, it's hard to make it happen.
Once again, commentary headsmacks are greatly appreciated.
*round of applause*
Great job. Now finish.
(Like I can even talk. Ink, readers, please smack me over the head via comments.)
As a status report from my end, I am inching nearer and nearer to the end of the rough draft of my NaNoWriMo novel from this year. I'm probably 7-10k out. That's not that much. I put that much away in six days during NaNo. Thus illustrating another way the real world should be like NaNo, but for still-developing-discipline cases like myself, it's hard to make it happen.
Once again, commentary headsmacks are greatly appreciated.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The Home Stretch
Hey, y'all, it's Ink, and she's not happy.
I'm roughly two chapters from being done editing my first novel. This edit was highly productive: I got rid of (most of) the crap and filler, added more fun stuff, cleaned up the prose, and had a blast doing it. But now that I'm 30 pages away from the end, I can't seem to let go.
Yeah, I've been crazy-busy. I've been writing other stuff. I've had the end-of-quarter bedlam. But should that be an excuse?
Really, I'm a bit lost. So what do you guys do when you lose some of your writing discipline?
I'm roughly two chapters from being done editing my first novel. This edit was highly productive: I got rid of (most of) the crap and filler, added more fun stuff, cleaned up the prose, and had a blast doing it. But now that I'm 30 pages away from the end, I can't seem to let go.
Yeah, I've been crazy-busy. I've been writing other stuff. I've had the end-of-quarter bedlam. But should that be an excuse?
Really, I'm a bit lost. So what do you guys do when you lose some of your writing discipline?
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Editing: Are We Having Fun Yet?
Ink is currently editing her first novel, and she is, indeed, having fun. However, not everyone seems to be enjoying the process of ripping apart their literary babies so thoroughly as her, so here are a collection of links to ease the process:
Holly Lisle's One-Pass Revision: the Holy Grail of editing writers-first draft to last in one revision? Is that possible? Maybe for Holly Lisle. Ink didn't do so well, but Ink also wasn't anywhere near as ruthless as she should have been on the first pass, necessitating a second, more productive one. It's definitely worth a look, and an excellent method.
Paperback Writer's notes on editing: It looks good to Ink, although this article more of a description of how she does it versus how to do it yourself. PBW has a step-by-step here, which Ink found helpful and entertaining.
Sara McGrath's Editing and Polishing Suite: a nice article on how to edit a novel. Ink is also intrigued by the other articles in the suites, with titles like "Advance Techniques," "Theme," and "Marketing and Selling." A nice jumping-off point, and also worth a look if you want to write and sell a book with friendly guidelines from start to finish.
Self-Editing by Lori Handeland: This is a great prose checklist-follow it and Ink thinks your writing will not suck. However, if you're a NaNo novelist like her, you'll want to make sure your plot is coherent before you get down to the paragraph level.
NaNoWriMo.org's 'I Wrote A Novel, Now What?' Page: a good resource for those of us who stomach the notion of looking back over the fruits of our caffeine-induced labors. It will also help you if you're not so certain about your plot, as will One-Pass Revision.
Here's Ink's suggestion for NaNo'ers, ripped off Chris Baty's advice in No Plot? No Problem!: write out the events in the story scene-by-scene. Do this with the novel in front of you. See if they lead to the next one, well, like dominoes in a row, each event leading inexorably to the next. If not, delete the bad ones and put in new ones. Switch 'em around and see if that does anything for you. Once you've got that down, then, and only then, do you begin to work on your prose.
Good luck, guys! Anchors away!
Holly Lisle's One-Pass Revision: the Holy Grail of editing writers-first draft to last in one revision? Is that possible? Maybe for Holly Lisle. Ink didn't do so well, but Ink also wasn't anywhere near as ruthless as she should have been on the first pass, necessitating a second, more productive one. It's definitely worth a look, and an excellent method.
Paperback Writer's notes on editing: It looks good to Ink, although this article more of a description of how she does it versus how to do it yourself. PBW has a step-by-step here, which Ink found helpful and entertaining.
Sara McGrath's Editing and Polishing Suite: a nice article on how to edit a novel. Ink is also intrigued by the other articles in the suites, with titles like "Advance Techniques," "Theme," and "Marketing and Selling." A nice jumping-off point, and also worth a look if you want to write and sell a book with friendly guidelines from start to finish.
Self-Editing by Lori Handeland: This is a great prose checklist-follow it and Ink thinks your writing will not suck. However, if you're a NaNo novelist like her, you'll want to make sure your plot is coherent before you get down to the paragraph level.
NaNoWriMo.org's 'I Wrote A Novel, Now What?' Page: a good resource for those of us who stomach the notion of looking back over the fruits of our caffeine-induced labors. It will also help you if you're not so certain about your plot, as will One-Pass Revision.
Here's Ink's suggestion for NaNo'ers, ripped off Chris Baty's advice in No Plot? No Problem!: write out the events in the story scene-by-scene. Do this with the novel in front of you. See if they lead to the next one, well, like dominoes in a row, each event leading inexorably to the next. If not, delete the bad ones and put in new ones. Switch 'em around and see if that does anything for you. Once you've got that down, then, and only then, do you begin to work on your prose.
Good luck, guys! Anchors away!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sisters Twice Removed
Hey, guys, I'm happy to inform you that Miri of http://miri-grace.blogspot.com/ is now a partner in crime (the boring Blogspot drones say "admin") of Ink and Words!
~*~
Well, hello again! As most of you probably know, I'm Miri, young aspiring writer, partner-in-crime of Ink, also a young aspiring writer. (The blogosphere's just littered with our type, isn't it?)
As Ink mentioned, we're going to attempt something new and groundbreaking: content! Well, our kind of content. Look to Ink for the aforementioned hardcore grammar beatings; I'll be making posts about Japanese, interesting historical snippets, and suchlike. So, I guess not much has changed. Except that we'll be updating more often. And eventually have all kinds of fun and useful resources for your perusal.
The nice little two-squigglies-surrounding-a-star symbol henceforward will mean that there has been a change of author within a post. We'll try to keep it to a minimum, because interrupting is rude. Usually. :)
I'm very grateful to Ink for the opportunity to join forces. Let the fun begin!
Hey, if she's Ink, that makes me Words...
We plan to update weekly, alternating between whining about wordcounts and editing and doing silly things like helping others with Japanese lessons and harcore grammar beatings. Pfft. Charity is silly. Anyway, check in often, because those week-long (okay, month-long) gaps in updates are about to become a thing of the past.
You may know her well from her own blog (in fact, you probably know me from her blog), but I'll shut up so she can introduce herself now.
Well, hello again! As most of you probably know, I'm Miri, young aspiring writer, partner-in-crime of Ink, also a young aspiring writer. (The blogosphere's just littered with our type, isn't it?)
As Ink mentioned, we're going to attempt something new and groundbreaking: content! Well, our kind of content. Look to Ink for the aforementioned hardcore grammar beatings; I'll be making posts about Japanese, interesting historical snippets, and suchlike. So, I guess not much has changed. Except that we'll be updating more often. And eventually have all kinds of fun and useful resources for your perusal.
The nice little two-squigglies-surrounding-a-star symbol henceforward will mean that there has been a change of author within a post. We'll try to keep it to a minimum, because interrupting is rude. Usually. :)
I'm very grateful to Ink for the opportunity to join forces. Let the fun begin!
Hey, if she's Ink, that makes me Words...
Saturday, December 01, 2007
The Big Braggy Post
You knew this was coming, didn't you?
I'm an official NaNoWriMo 2007 winner! Sure, I still have to finish the book, but it went a whole lot better than last year, so I'm just happy all over. Pfft, and they say sophomore year is hardest. (Watch, next year I'll get hammered. Karma does not rest.)
My novel's called 'Disenchantment' and, in summary, America has launched a War on Magic and sends vampires, werewolves, and all degree of magical creatures into rehab. My protagonist, Jordan Allaway, is a 17-year-old human girl trying to have a normal senior year. Unfortunately for her, 'normal' is the last thing on her roommates' minds.
Sounds like a decent pitch, just have to send out the queries for my first NaNoWriMo novel and edit this one before I get to use it again.
On this business side of things, find out with how much your blog is worth here: http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/
I'd tell you how much mine is, but the Intrawebz aren't cooperating, and it's pitiful anyway.
(And, yes, perceptive readers, I snagged this from Holly Lisle. If she comes by and asks me to take it down, well, hey, that alone would probably double my blog worth anyway.)
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