Let the voices in your head be your guide...

I gave in and took another break from TF so I could put down on paper what was going on in my head with the new mainstream fiction project. I literally couldn't sleep at night because the plot was threatening to do me in if I didn't let it out. ;) Really, I couldn't sleep at night, and this thing does seem to have a life of its own, but it's not that ugly.

I wrote about 15 pages in one night, nearly to the end of the first plot point. I need to write up another five or six pages and then I can return to my regularly scheduled TF programming. I will finish!

I've decided I must choose now whether to attend the writer's conference in La Jolla, or a writer's retreat in Michigan. I am leaning toward the retreat, because it's small (maybe 50 folks) and two writers on my most-admired-author list are on the staff (Jacquelyn Mitchard and Jane Hamilton). I would love to "sit under their tutelage", if only for an hour or two, but also the opportunity to be in a small, relaxed setting. It's at a retreat center, so people eat camp food together and hang out for an entire casual weekend. In an obscure spot on her website, Jacquelyn Mitchard says this is an annual event she doesn't miss no matter where in the world she is. That's good enough for me!

I've also got a good plot for a short story called "Odds." I need to be writing small pieces to send out for publication or contests, because the word on the street is if you are already published in some form or fashion, you're more likely to get the "big stuff" published. Maybe I'll work on that later this evening for a little while.

A Lyric for the Day
(which has inspired the working title for my new manuscript)

If I'm always here to catch you,
then you're only going to fall again,
but if you fall right through the bottom,
then I'm always going to feel the blame.

Wrong to try to fix you,
and wrong to turn away.
I'm guilty,
guilty either way.

From"Guilty Either Way" on Underneath by David Wilcox

Let the masters speak

Quote for the wee hours

"There is no use trying," said Alice, "I cannot believe in impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen."When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

- Lewis Carroll, From Alice in Wonderland

Gulp

Let me just cut to the chase today with my Quote of the Day:
And – here’s a critical part – when you finally start to write something, do not let yourself stop…even when you are convinced it’s the worst garbage ever. This is the biggest caveat for beginning writers. Instead, force yourself to finish what you began, and THEN go back and edit it. If you keep scrapping your beginnings, however, you’ll never know if you can reach an end. Jodi Picoult, from her website FAQs.

JULIE, OH, JULIEEEEEEE!?!?!?! YOO HOO!!!!

Up the hill slowly

Well, I apparently jinxed myself, because although I have crept higher on the word count for TF (over 40K now), I have less momentum and have felt like my writing stinks this past week. AND...I started on the adult fiction idea I had two weeks ago. It just wouldn't leave me alone (especially in the shower...haha) and so I figured I better get it on paper before I lost it.

I am determined to finish the first draft of TF soon, though, no matter how sick I get of it, or how stupid and silly it seems. My reader buddies seem to like it, but they are friends. :)

Entering the B4B contest was fun, and I have gotten a few nice comments on it, but overall, I've had that ugly self-loathing about my writing lately. I've heard that happens.

Strangely, the title of this blog seems to be appropriate again and again as the weeks go by. I started reading the book recommended by my father in law, On Writing Well (William Zinsser), and one of the first chapters is about how your audience must first be yourself and not all the people you are trying to please. Waddya know. I'm a people pleaser for sure, and fight that battle on a daily basis.

Quote of the Day
You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment, you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for. If you lose the dullards back in the dust, you don't want them anyway.

A momentous occasion

...and another issue of mysterious timing.

Tonight, I passed the word count of my first manuscript, which lies wallowing in its uncertainty. I was at 37,099 apparently when I took a detour to work on Trading Faces, and very early this morning, about five minutes ago, I checked MS Word's wonderful word count feature and TF was at 37,954!

Okay, so let's hope that doesn't mean I'm about to give up and start writing another one.

Then, last night, or morning, about this same time, I was finishing up my current fiction read, By Bread Alone, a semi-recommended novel about a lady who bakes sourdough bread while doing all kinds of other crazy things, and in the last few pages of the novel, a previously unmentioned character was brought to light. I don't remember her first name, because she was only mentioned once, but her last name was...dum dum dum...Entwhistle! I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it here, but that is the same last name as my main character in TF. Now, how many characters do you see with the last name Entwhistle???? Todd picked it for me, and it was perfect. I'm not even sure where he got it. Oh, he says it was the last name of the bass player for the Who. Waddya know.

So, between that and the Appalachian Digital Library, this week has been an odd one. Signs?

I also signed up for my first ever real life writer's conference today! Very excited and nervous about that. I'll have a read-and-critique session with an agent who represents several well-known young adult and children's authors and hope to get some good feedback from her. I hope to have TF all polished and pretty well before September, which is when the first few chapters of the manuscript have to be sent in.

As my good friend, Boyd Pritchett, once said, "Joy! Joy!" And, I guess that's my Quote of the Day.

Timing with a capital T

I got Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff email this morning and it just happened to point to the Digital Library of Appalachia. I've been doing some research on various aspects of Appalachia for TF, in case you couldn't guess from my previous post, and so I was humming the Twilight Zone song in my head as I saw it. I've seen some of the sites referenced in on this one, but this ties them all together in a nice little package. I guess that MLS degree does come in handy at times because I would never have signed up for Marylaine's newsletters if I hadn't been so entrenched in all the happening news for librarians for a few years there.

You can sign up for the newsletter even if you're not a librarian. Every couple of weeks you get an email with about 10-20 interesting websites she has discovered on the Internet.

36,279 and three-quarters

I'd say that I'm officially three-quarters of the way through this first draft.
Go, Julie!!!

:-)

I'm seriously trying to remember what song was running through my head most of this day and haven't a clue. Here's what should be running through my head right about now:

Lyric of the Day

Well, I was born a coal miner's daughter
In a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler
We were poor, but we had love
That's the one thing that daddy made sure of
He shoveled coal to make a poor man's dollar.

--Loretta Lynn

Lines untied

Wow, I had a book idea this morning shortly after having a momo. (Don't ask where that came from, we can't tell you, but it's our speak for "emotional moment.")

As I might have mentioned, I've struggled with finding my own personal voice in writing adult fiction this year, and that's partly why I decided to stop and take time to work on a middle grade or young adult book--I feel really good about that voice and it was easy for me to get in the groove. I have struggled with the women's fiction book I am currently about half through, although like I said last time, I have a new outlook on it suddenly. It has serious overtones, but also lots of nice, pleasant scenes of just family and relationships.

I love Jodi Picoult, and although I don't want to be "just like her," I admire her style of writing greatly and it really moves me. The style that's kind of inline with Jacquelyn Mitchard as well. So, this idea I had this morning would definitely lend itself more to that type of "Picoult-esque" voice--mine, obviously, but about a serious issue of the heart. One I can also relate to (didn't I mention it came from my very own momo? Heh.) I made some quick notes so I wouldn't forget, and am going to let it mull a little in my own heart and head while I finish up TF, Book the first. (Don't you love Lemony Snickets? You should read one or two if you haven't!)

My lyric for today might have been used back at the beginning of this blog, but it's there in my head again today.

Lyric of the Day

I have drifted down a ways along the shoreline,
I just watched these ropes give way
where they were tied.
I could have reached out quick when the ropes first slipped, if I had tried,
but I was wondering
where the wind was trying to take me
overnight, if I never did resist, and
what strange breezes make a sailor want to
let it come to this,
with lines untied, slipping through my fist.

David Wilcox, Slipping Through My Fist, from Underneath

Plodding

Just being kind of quiet on here this week, plugging away at TF in my spare time. I've regained ground and am nearly up to 3,500. (EDIT: Um, yeah, that should be 35,000! I didn't lose that much ground!!) I set a goal of trying to write at least 500-1000 words per day a few weeks ago, and I am going pretty steady.

I'm afraid this part is seeming kind of mundane (this blog and the manuscript, dontcha think?), but I think that's what's supposed to happen in the middle sections...you get kind of tired of it, and yet you plod on, knowing that you can go back later and rip it to shreds. But, first you promise yourself you must make it through that first draft. I wouldn't really know, but that's what I've heard. :) (Which is why my OTHER one is still sitting there in my computer lonely at 38,000 words since April--I got bogged down in the middle and TF conveniently distracted me. I have been brainstorming on that one more today, though. Of course, in the shower.)

Todd was peeking over my shoulders a little bit ago, and I was covering the screen saying, "No, you can't read it, this paragraph is horrible! It's boring!" And, of course, he proceeded to read it out loud, which made it worse. He hasn't read any of the GOOD stuff yet, so I was really squirming. He knows the plot, but I'm not wanting to put him through too many readings of a book for young girls. I am not that cruel. He'll see the finished or nearly finished product so he can realize what a genious writer he is married to. Heh.

Saw The Devil Wears Prada at the theater tonight. Oh, yes, my husband suggested we go see it, after he read my mind and suggested eating at Johnny Carino's or Macaroni Grill (MG was where we went.) I liked the movie, but came out feeling awfully cynical, too.

Where is the balance between fame and fortune and real life? Gosh, I hope I don't ever have to make that decision. ;-)

Quote of the Day
"That's all."

Can ya name it? Can ya, can ya, huh? (Gail? Gail? Anyone?)