Sunday, May 29, 2011

Have you missed me????

So I've been away for a while.

Working on a different platform, under a different name.

So there it is.

I haven't even checked in at this blog in like, forever.

Sorry. I feel kind of guilty when I scroll down to the Cluster Maps icon and see that someone out in the middle of the ocean actually looked at my blog and... it was all old news.

Thanks for stopping by.

So I've been busy writing. I finished another novel, I'm shopping for a new agent with said novel, and, in the process, have discovered that my current project (hereafter referred to as my WIP, which is short for "work in progress") is a depressing fraction of usability. In other words, of my approximately 52000 words written on this project so far, I'm going back to do a rewrite which will probably use less than 20,000 of those hard-won words.

But it's just not working.

The problem is, I really love these characters. I love them so much that I'm considering, for the first time, giving up my "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" organic writing style in favor of an outline. I'm reading books, watching DVDs, perusing the net on all kinds of outlining/plot planning methods. I've looked at THE SNOWFLAKE, BLOCKBUSTER PLOTS, and all kinds of other stuff. And... the artsy-fartsy part of my brain (the one that rules me, mostly) is saying, "No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-NO!" But the "need to finish this book and have a sellable product" part of my brain (it's a very teensy, microscopic part) is saying, "Make the stupid outline, genius!" (You see, even the miniscule pragmatist within me is sarcastic. It stings. Really.)

So... I think I'll have to come up with my own plot planning way. Find the method that works for me. I don't do Excel Spreadsheets (although I am taking a class this summer... long story) and I can't write within the constraints of a chart. So I think I'll outline in freeflowing, paragraphical style. Like a 7th grader's book report, with a lot of crappy transitions like, "and then she..." And maybe, just maybe, within those twenty thousand words, a new spark will light, a new fire will burn, and a new phoenix-of-a-story will soar into being.

We can only hope.

Now I'm off to write a book, but you better go read one. Need a suggestion? Lisa T. Bergren's River of Time series is entertaining, funny, and well, awesome. And I'm reading Tammar Stein's KINDRED right now and it is hugely interesting look at angels and demons and powers and principalities... through the eyes of a Jewish teen. So... what's keeping you here on the internet when you could be off reading a good book?

Oh, right. You missed me.

But, seriously, thanks for stopping by.
Now go read a book or something.