This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

Poll #1484453 Hot Romance!!!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 45

Oracne needs to write a "hot romance" story. Which of these settings appeals?

This is my first choice of sub-genre.

You should do another poll for characters!

My random comment is

I continue to read bits of The Moonlight Mistress. I think I'm checking to see if all the words are there, or something. There are parts I didn't revise a great deal, and I keep searching those out; those are almost like reading something new. I found a small continuity error I made, that most readers probably won't catch. It doesn't make any difference to the plot.

I, who dislike reading on screen, have bought four m/m romance e-books, three of them by people I know and one that's set in World War One, so of course I had to have it. I'll probably post about them after I've read them all. Luckily, I could download all of them in PDF format, so I can print them on scrap paper and read them that way. Yeah, yeah, I'm a Luddite.

I upped my weights yesterday, to the degree that for some I had to really struggle, but today I'm not nearly as stiff as I worried I would be. Though I am not dancing like a butterfly, either.

Today's pro blog post is Oral Tradition, Epithets, and J.D. Robb.

I am still basking in getting a review. And a nice one, at that.

Wrote 1000 words yesterday, between lunch and after work.

I'd forgotten how lovely outside validation could be. Someone else was entertained by what I wrote. It's not the sole reason I write, but it's a nice bonus.

This weekend I was having a really hard time writing, and feeling overwhelmed by it. I think the solution is to unplug this weekend and hopefully on Friday or Monday if I can get one of those off from the day job. Then I can just write. It often helps to have an uninterrupted stretch of time, especially several days in a row, because then I can build up momentum. It also helps not to have other things tugging at your attention, which I won't quite manage this time, but I'll do my best to ignore things.

I'm about halfway through the draft of The Duke and the Pirate Queen. Sometimes I think it's not bad at all, sometimes I think it's a mess and have no idea what I'm doing.

If someone invented a writer confidence pill, they would make a mint, if only writers had any money to buy the things. (I'm assuming the really, really bad writers wouldn't buy such a pill, because they would already think they're brilliant and don't have to do anything to get better.)

Despite having so, so much to do, I spent yesterday evening playing with The Tots. We played with markers, Elder Tot using hers to color, Younger Tot pretending to draw (cap on), pulling caps on and off, putting markers into open box of cereal, carrying markers to staircase and back. YT kept saying the same word over and over, which I finally recognized as her big sister's name. She was very happy to be playing with the big kids.

Need to do a load of laundry and pack for Montreal and do some writing, but I fear the writing will fall by the wayside if I'm not really disciplined about it tomorrow morning. I feel as if writing on a single day during the week might not do any good, but that is a Big Lie I am telling myself. I will write tomorrow, all morning, just as usual. I have the time. I've made the time for myself.

Over at the pro blog, I wrote about Erotic Journeys and Bodice Rippers. I was thinking about changing styles in romance novels, and how romance novels are different from erotica, and the like.

Also, Cecilia Tan did an excellent guestblog for me earlier this week: Why Writing Romance and Erotica Is Like Being Good in Bed, on possible differences between commercial and literary fiction.

I'm down to the last hundred pages or so of Moonlight Mistress.

I've concluded it's an odd book. Probably because I never did a chapter-by-chapter outline, the story seems to flow in strange ways; or maybe it's just that I have too many characters. I seem to have skimped on transitions and setups, to some extent, dropping in on one group, then another. Not sure how this will work out for readers. It's too late to change it, now.

Re-reading, I'm reminded of writing music without bar lines.

No writing today, as I digest yesterday's excellent critique from slithytove, mroctober, pointoforigin, and filomancer. Am pondering how I can incorporate various suggestions, if those suggestions would work for the sort of novel this is, and how much better I aspire to make it, and if "better" in my opinion will make it more or less popular with readers (a thing I try to prevent myself from worrying about, as useless approval-seeking, and yet I do), and whether I should consult my editor about one or two plot ideas that are different from the synopsis they bought, or if I should just stop worrying about all that and go to Readercon this weekend, and let my backbrain make all the decisions, as it usually does. The subconscious has been giving me floods of anxiety dreams the last three days, or maybe it's four. I would like that to stop now, please.

It was a lovely break, if tiring, to go and play with Mademoiselle and The Maw after I got back from workshop.

Travel to Readercon is sorted, and I'm pretty much packed. Thank goodness I accomplished something. Still need to pack for RWA, because I leave for that two days after I return from Readercon, and will probably need to sleep or something in those two days.

Understatement: I was very glad to see filomancer yesterday.

My wordcounts on Friday and Saturday were 1530 and 1576, quite respectable, though I have done better in similar situations.

Dinner out tonight with feklar and barbarienne, then dinner out tomorrow with non-LJ people, then a haircut on Wednesday.

Ummmm...I went over my line edits for Moonlight Mistress, which were pretty brief, but of course I plan to spend a lot more time making final changes of my own once the manuscript arrives, hopefully today.

I will have a houseguest unexpectedly this weekend, but she's okay with me virtually abandoning her while I work. I need to send the manuscript back next week.

I also sent off a blurb I'd promised someone. I think they wanted it sooner than they got it, but, well, I was busy. And it's now done, so I don't have to ponder it any more, and can go back to my own novel.

I don't plan to work on the pirate novel at the same time as I'm doing final changes on Moonlight Mistress, but I had some new thoughts while I was at WisCon that should help, mostly about the secondary characters.

If you're a writer, what are your writing goals for 2009?

Mine are:

1. sell another novel (and if I do, finish a draft of it)
2. complete at least one short story and sell it
3. work more on imparting information actively in scenes
4. work more on doing more with fewer characters
5. figure out plot. I work on that one constantly.

Sunday afternoon/evening I attended shvetufae's writing group. I decided on a question and answer format rather than simply reading, and I think that was the right choice. I was able to answer questions about what it's like dealing with professional editors (for instance, I shared my revision letter for the current novel), my opinion on full-time writing versus having a day job, the conventions I like best and why, my experiences so far with sfwa and rwa, and networking strategies, such as making sure to spill something on the editor so they will remember you. Not!

And a bunch of other questions, too. I don't remember them all. I invited them to pick my brain, and so they did. It was loads of fun, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Also, it was great to meet some new folks and renew acquaintance with some I'd met briefly before. (If you're out there, feel free to email/say hi/whatever, any time!)

Pay it forward!

Prelude to an Unwritten Masterpiece

You like my bird-sung gardens: wings and flowers;
Calm landscapes for emotion; star-lit lawns;
And Youth against the sun-rise ... 'Not profound;
'But such a haunting music in the sound:
'Do it once more; it helps us to forget'.

Last night I dreamt an old recurring scene--
Some complex out of childhood; (sex, of course!)
I can't remember how the trouble starts;
And then I'm running blindly in the sun
Down the old orchard, and there's something cruel
Chasing me; someone roused to a grim pursuit
Of clumsy anger ... Crash! I'm through the fence
And thrusting wildly down the wood that's dense
With woven green of safety; paths that wind
Moss-grown from glade to glade; and far behind,
One thwarted yell; then silence. I've escaped.

That's where it used to stop. Last night I went
Onward until the trees were dark and huge,
And I was lost, cut off from all return
By swamps and birdless jungles. I'd no chance
Of getting home for tea. I woke with shivers,
And thought of crocodiles in crawling rivers.

Some day I'll build (more ruggedly than Doughty)
A dark tremendous song you'll never hear.
My beard will be a snow-storm, drifting whiter
On bowed, prophetic shoulders, year by year.
And some will say, 'His work has grown so dreary.'
Others, 'He used to be a charming writer'.
And you, my friend, will query--
'Why can't you cut it short, you pompous blighter?'

--Siegfried Sassoon

I know there are those who write only to earn money, but most writers I know also write to express or fulfill themselves in some way, even if their income is dependent upon it, and of course there are those who write only for personal fulfillment, some who show their writing to others and some who don't. I want to go a little deeper than that. What, exactly, do we get out of writing? What do you get out of it?

I shall make a numbered list.

1. Stories. There are stories I want to read that no one else has written, so I write them myself.

2. Sharing. I want to share my joy in my stories. I want others to love the story of them, to think about my characters, to put their own spin on my ideas.

3. Pride. I have pride in my skill at making characters, stories, prose itself, and I have pride in my perserverance and market savvy that got my work published. I have pride in my dedication, that allowed me to publish over and over again.

4. Money. It's very, very satisfying and validating to be paid money for doing something you love and find fulfilling. Also, I like spending the money on things like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. DVD boxed set.

5. Secrets. Having secrets is having power. Writing is something all my own; my characters and stories are all my own; I can think of them in my head, planning and plotting and exploring new ideas for future projects, all the while keeping it to myself as a secret pleasure of which I share only fragments.

Anybody else?

These are my notes on the narrative panel at WisCon. Mostly, I didn't write down attributions, or try to make a sequence (or narrative!). This is just the bits that struck me, and that I wanted to refer to later. Also, there might be some of my own thoughts and interpretations, but not a lot.

The panelists were L. Timmel Duchamp, moderator; Carolyn Ives Gilman; Susan Palwick; Pat Murphy; and Eileen Gunn.

Received narrative as a force/atmosphere and combating/resisting received narrative; reader reading subversively, and writer leading/seducing reader into the subversive reading. The latter sounds like the hard part.

How do we make new narratives/stories for which the models don't exist? Subverting the conservative force of narrative: this equals story, this does not equal story. Making new story understood as story.

Narrative arc can be independent of structure; for example a single narrative arc, but structured as scenes going forward and backward in time. Structure can reinforce narrative arc, also. Thematic reinforcement ought to work as well.

The game of reading is to see narrative in a collage of events; seems to happen naturally when you have three random events; even two will do.

If reader is faced with a puzzle, must read interactively to assemble the puzzle/narrative.

Writer can write a story and then distance herself from the story, allowing her to rework it with greater freedom. "That story is done. I am now working on this story." (William Gibson recommended this technique to Eileen Gunn.)

Once a narrative is out in the world, it's no longer yours.

Exploit the holes in the story. [I think this meant, exploit the holes in one story to make a new, more interesting story.]

Carolyn Gilman: narrative is not explanation, it simulates explanation; narrative stresses competition and conflict; narrative tends to stress the personal and private over the public and political. Sequence in narrative implies causation.

This meme is no doubt past its sell-by date, but I'm doing it anyway.

Novels I've written and how it relates to the novel/s I've sold.


1. First attempt: a futuristic sf novel, in which I did a lot of things to the city of Philadelphia, both good and bad. I started over several times, never completed a full draft, did complete a couple of outlines which I didn't follow very well. Worked on it in dedicated fashion, though, for a long time, and produced a lot of wordcount. I was told the characters were fun. Am still fond of a couple of them. Might go back to it someday for a white-page [from scratch] rewrite. For now, trunked.

2. Second attempt: a fantasy novel, working from a detailed outline. Again made the mistake of starting over when it wasn't working, instead of pushing through the bad parts. Original plot was way more than I could handle. I was told the characters were fun. I did a lot of research for it, though, and that was fun. Unfinished. Trunked. Reworked some bits in recent years, before I had deadlines.

3. Third: 100K historical novel, completed, revised twice, synopsized, and queried. No agent was interested; never heard back from the one manuscript requestor. Say it together: I was told the characters were fun. My agent has it now, to give it a look when she has time.

4. The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover, faux-historical erotic romance. My current agent, who contacted me on the basis of a story I sold her, asked me to do a proposal based on that story. The novel was sold on the basis of the proposal, which was three chapters and an outline; by the time it reached Acquisitions, I'd sent them another seven chapters or so, so they had about ten in hand when the purchase actually went through. Turned in October 2007; due out December 2008 from Harlequin Spice. I've been told the characters are fun.

5. The current project is second on the Spice conrtact. It's set during World War I, and with werewolves. In progress. Due August 2008. We shall see on the characters.

6. Next, who knows? I want to do some more proposals, especially a Western, which would have to be with some other publisher, since my current one already has a Western series. Depending on how well my books do for Spice, they might offer me another contract, and I have a list of ideas just in case, which I'd like to add to. I'd like to go back and do a YA fantasy, and something with that sf idea. I will worry about it when the current novel is done.

500 words Friday night, 1000 on Saturday, and 1500 on Sunday. Not too bad. I'm also reading more bits of my research books, and I made some revisions to my scene list, and am taking Thursday and Friday off from the day job to write.

I've noticed that when I'm pushing, as opposed to when I have all the time I want, I don't wait for scenes to come to me (scene defined as something with action and dialogue), but write in a more narrative style, describing what happened. Still in pov, but not really what I want. Most of that stuff will be expanded into actual scenes--show, rather than tell--once I get to revisions. But right now, getting the ideas down seems more important, and I think will help me in imagining the scenes themselves. And I have more time to decide what needs to be shown, and what can be simply told.

I think I'm going to move the wordcount bar down to 80,000 for the zero draft. A lot of this narrative will take up more space when it's in scene form, and I don't want to overshoot. So if I'm aiming for 80K, and I'm almost at 43K, then I'm halfway done! And I should have time for at least one revision pass, if I can keep up the pace.

I achieved my thousand-word goal last night, so now I only have 95,000 words to go!

The first scenes I wrote for this book were constructed as standalones, for my own benefit, because I had no idea at the time how they'd be connected. Right now, I'm working on what will probably be chapter one. Since I know what happens in chapter one, I'm writing it in order, start to finish. I noticed last night that the story seemed to be moving slowly, or the writing was. I realized this had to do with the transitions. It wasn't that the transitions were bad, or lengthy, it was just that I had to sit through them while writing them, which was a change from simply writing scenes that were "the good parts" and stopped immediately afterward.

I remember this feeling from before. When writing transitions, I become more aware of myself practicing craft, because I'm less emotionally engaged. Which transition do I need to show? Which can I skip? How can I include a room description in that transition? What bit of character tension can I include when the two people walk across town together? It feels slow because I'm thinking all this as I write, and I at least think through most of the steps necessary to move the characters from one place to another, even if I don't put them on the page.

Transitions are a large part of the book, and the character and descriptive bits I include in them are going to have a cumulative effect. I have a lot of words to use up in this novel, but I don't want to waste any.

My brain feels empty. All the mad whirling of recent days has whirled off into the distance, like that Muppet Show sketch of "The Windmills of Your Mind," with the muppet who has three feet on a wheel that spin faster and faster until he explodes. I'm after the exploding part.

I thought of various things about this method of writing. Normally, I hate having to push and rush and not give myself breaks. I prevent it, by trying to keep a schedule, even if that schedule shifts according to circumstance. Since I was a bit more than a week from deadline when I realized they were expecting more wordcount than I'd thought I was producing, this method wasn't much use, though I did schedule myself so far as wordcount needed for each remaining day. In future, when I sell something, I will find out what wordcount they want as soon as they say they want to buy it. For the second book for this publisher, of course, I know now, and will outline and plan accordingly.

After the weekend's marathon writing sessions, I could have held onto the manuscript for one more day, and added another couple of thousand words, cleaned up the later parts, etc., but on brief reflection, I just couldn't take it any more. I'd burned out. Better to put the thing in the courier box before I read over what I'd done and despaired because it wasn't a brightly shining jewel of perfection. That way lies not only madness, but never finishing anything.

Good things I learned from my writing marathon:
1. I can trust my basic prose level to sound okay on first draft, without me paying too much attention to it as it flows out. I saved my concentration for keeping the whole story in mind. Having done paper edits before all this final writing took place helped a lot on thinking about the story's shape; so did the comments I got from workshop on the partial. Making notes after those comments and edits, on specifically what I needed to include before the novel's end, also helped a lot.
2. Breaks are necessary for me, even in a marathon, even if the breaks are only standing up after an hour or so to put away part of a load of laundry. That's one kind of break. The other is finishing a large section, then taking a think-break and making notes on the next section, so I don't have to waste time flailing when I sit back down again to write. I enforced my think-breaks by trapping myself downstairs waiting for my laundry to finish, with no entertainment but the notebook and pen.
3. I can write a lot in a short period if I need to, but never as much as I wish I could.

My manuscript is running short of ideal wordcount by at least 10K, maybe 15K. That's because the line that bought my novel generally has books of a longer length than I intended when I wrote the outline. I know how I can make the story longer, and where, and what would happen in those scenes. I told my editor I'd do my best. But when? Even taking a day off work would likely only net me around 1500 words.

Of course, I will have (approximately) 3-6 weeks for revisions later on, but I'll be, well, doing revisions, so am not sure how much new writing I can add then.

Must not panic. Panic is bad. I am perfectly on schedule for writing a novel of 80K. 90-100K is the tricky part. If you're playing along at home, that about 50 pages I need to crank out. It's a good night if I write 4 pages. Michael's trick of changing fonts is fine if you're running over, but not so much when you're short.

War stories, anyone?

How do you describe your characters?

All at once, the first time we see them, or in dribs and drabs? Or never at all?

How specific are you? As specific as the story requires? On what elements do you tend to focus? (It changes every time is an acceptable answer.)

As a reader, do you prefer being told exactly how a character looks, or do you prefer to imagine them yourself? Does it annoy you when a description does not match your mental picture?