Category Archives: Novels
Writing Tips
The new book is going well, I’ve just crested the 18k word mark and the 2k per day quota is working out fine. In getting a very nice review on my True Blood fanfic, someone asked for some writing tips and I decided to share them here in case anyone is interested.
The number one piece of advice I can give is to write every day, I suppose that applies to either. Unless there’s some kind of cataclysmic event that prevents you, even a few hundred words per day will help you keep connected to your story and keep your momentum going.
For novels, I always make sure I have an outline before I start so I know how the beginning, middle and end are going to turn out, and hopefully plenty of bits in between. When you think you’re ready to start writing, don’t. Take another couple of days to revisit that outline, adding to it and fleshing it out (I even add bits of dialogue that come to me along the way). When you get stuck on the novel later you’ll be glad for the pre-work you’ve done to get you back on track.
Also, don’t stop writing if you get stuck on a scene. It’s okay to keep going even if you know a scene isn’t working just right. You can always go back and fix a scene later but you can’t fix what you never write in the first place. This I learned from NaNoWriMo which encourages you to just write like crazy for a month with absolutely no editing until you’re done with the first draft. Before I started writing this way I was always a victim of my inner editor and I’d never get past a few chapters.
Also, also, I find it helpful to set a daily quota for myself when working on a book. Even if it’s self imposed and no one else will ever know if I make that quota or not, it keeps me on track. I’ve done it with a 3k a day quota and written a 100k book in 30 days (which is rough with a full time job I admit, but can be done) and I’ve done it with 1500 words per day (which is easier on the schedule but doesn’t quite move things along as well as I’d like) and the one I’m working on now is coming in at about 2k words per day. This seems to work well, and I can still enjoy some evening time with the family and I should be done in just over a month’s time if I get a little extra in on weekends. But of course YMMV.
Also, also, also, you’ll want to keep your first book in the 80k to 90k range at the most or publishers won’t take a chance on it.
In other thoughts, who else is excited that Vampire Diaries is coming back on the air soon?!?
Next Stop World Domination!
So after about a year of trying to get a literary agent to represent me, I’ve finally got one in my corner! I got a call that the agent I had sent revisions of Pretty Witches All in a Row to is ready to represent me. So next step is… not a whole lot for me. She’ll take over the next steps in getting it before publishers and I get to work on my next book instead of having to pimp out query letters for the completed books, yay! I’m super thrilled about this because I hate the business side of things, I just want to spend all my time writing! She advised me to stick to the same genre to start with, Paranormal Mystery. So I’ll be scrapping the work in progress I had going (Touched) to write something with a bit more mystery in it like Pretty Witches. To that end I’ve started researching and outlining my next book A Touch of Madness. I’ll have more on that soon once I write up a good blurb to describe it. I’m just excited to be one step closer to being published.
Next stop World Domination!
Crash and Burn
or
Into Every Life A Little Rain Must Fall
It happens to the best of us but I’ve had a pretty serious derailment for the new book over the past couple of weeks. As I was writing, I had a realization that it was really splitting apart into two books; the story of my MC coming home and dealing with past issues with his family and friends and the ghost hunting storyline. So, I’ve stopped the writing and I’m planning on pulling them apart into two separate books. I haven’t made a whole lot of progress in this respect because I’ve been going through some health issues and diagnostics for that. The good news is I don’t have a brain tumor or stroke, but the bad news is, the search continues to figure out what’s going on with me.
As such, I’ve been taking it easy, not really pushing myself as much as I might normally do with my writing and I’ve just got the one True Blood fanfic going at the moment as well as the Vampire Diaries recap. Hopefully I’ll get some answers soon and I can focus on getting better and moving forward again. I really am looking forward to working on the next Vampire Diaries fic, but for the moment that’s on hold.
In other news, I saw I am Number Four last weekend and it was better than I thought it would be. The main kid wasn’t as annoying as the commercials would have us believe and there was a lot more Timothy Olyphant in it than I was expecting which makes it Olyphantastic!
Oh and don’t forget, Justified is on tonight 10pm on FX!
Happy Valentines Day!
So the new book is still going well, I’m up to 22,857 words so far and things are progressing nicely. The only thing is I keep going back and forth on the main character’s name. I had him at first as Rand Cooper and I was happy with that when it was set in the south. When I changed the location to California I switched it to Nick and now I can’t decide which I like better!
I finally wrapped up my fanfic Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down! It came in at a whopping 47 chapters! I’m sad to see it go, it really turned into an epic tale, but at the same time I’m happy to move on to something new! I’ll probably be starting up the next fic in a week or two so I can get a little more done on the book before I start.
Something strange came to my attention on fanfic.net the other day, I found out that someone had literally copied and pasted my work, added a bit to the end and called it their own! I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but come on! I reported her and sent her a note demanding that she take it down immediately which she did. She had the nerve to tell me that she thought she had my permission!
Pretty much her inquiry went: Hey are you gong to complete this story? Because I think it is a base for a lot of good branches and if you wont complete it, others can gladly.
Anyways LOVE your writing…..
my reponse: I really hope to get back to this one at some point, but I keep running out of time! as always, so many projects, so little time to write!
So… where exactly did it say she could copy my work and not give me credit? I wouldn’t have cared if she took the basic concept and rewritten it, lord knows I don’t own the market on crossover ideas, but damn… it was disconcerting to see my work under someone else’s name. She even changed the POV from third person to 1st when she started writing without batting an eye. Strange…
So, how is your week going?
FebNoWriMo Begins!
First day in on the new novel Touched, I’ve finished with 3212 words for the day, just slightly ahead of goal to hit 80k this month. So far so good!
My plot has undergone some serious shifts just prior to getting started, including a complete change of venue from the deep south to the west coast. It’s amazing how such a basic shift changed so much in the outline and the characters!
I know I’m late on the Vampire Diary recap, I was out of town all weekend to celebrate my anniversary and now with the new book I’ve been swamped! I do hope to get to it at some point though, I’ve had a lot of fun with it this season. 
Bring on FebNoWriMo!
The clock is ticking down to FebNoWriMo in which I’ll be attempting to write a novel in the short month of February. I’ve been bitten by the book bug big time and have been plotting all weekend in anticipation of getting started. The new book is tentatively titled Touched and centers around a man who can see and talk to ghosts. He reluctantly returns to his home state of Louisiana to work for an outfit that runs haunted house tours, clashing with the opportunistic owner. After having turned his back on his family for the past twelve years in an attempt to escape his complicated past, he now has to deal not only with the tortured souls trapped in the touristy haunted house but his own ghosts of the past.
And if my brains don’t leak out of my ears (as I write this, I have a really bad headache, so it’s a possibility), I’ll also be working on wrapping up my two current vampire diaries fanfics and starting a new one as well as the VD episode recaps when it starts back up this week again!
Wish me luck guys!
