Getting closer!

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Two years ago this January I put the first word of my novel down on paper. Now I have four books under my belt. Isn't that crazy? Man oh man, I love this writing thing!

I've been hard at work getting my fantasy story ready to send out to agents. It's going through the wringer with my critique partners, and I have been busy with all the other 'stuff' that comes along with trying to get an agent to notice your work. The query is pretty much set. And it's good (I think). I had an epiphany this week where I realized that the query for my first novel wasn't that good. It was ok. But it told too much. I didn't know how to make it zing. This one zings. (I think/hope/pray). The synopsis just needs some minor tweaking and other than the really random things some agents want included in a query, that stuff is good to go.

I hope to get all my chapters to my critique group by mid-December, then go through the manuscript with a fine tooth comb, making final line edits. I have 35 agents on my list to query, carefully researched, selected, and rated. I've decided to send queries out in batches of 7 and have already arranged agents into groups, because this is what my type A mind loves to do. It's so satisfying to see things come together to the point of being ready to send stuff out.

Hopefully, queries will start going out just after the new year. Ya'll, I'm so stinkin' excited about this story. I'm getting great feedback and sometimes I'll just sit and read it and think "holy smokes, I wrote this?". Great characters in this one. I had no intention of writing a sequel when I first wrote it but now? Holy smokes. So many places this story could go *cue goose bumps*

I have my fingers crossed that this one will catch someone's interest. And maybe, just maybe, you'll see this story in print some day. It's a lot of hard work to get there. Because, as the Fairy Godmother said, "Even miracles take time." ;)

We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I leave you with some teasers of pictures I had in my head when I wrote this story.

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Plotting a Book

My fantasy story and I are in a wrestling match. I think I am finally winning.

When I was done-ish with my first (what turned into 3) books, I was looking for something else to write. Those first ones had been YA historical fiction. I wasn't too keen on contemporary (though must admit I am dying to write one of those right now!). I decided to go with fantasy, and scoured Pinterest one Saturday morning and put together a rough concept. And the phrase Elsi, wake up popped into my head.

So I pulled up a blank document, typed in that phrase and let the story fly.

And it did. To amazing places. I let my characters make decisions without an outline or end goal guiding them. It was pretty fantastic.

And oh so messy, because I did not plan it out one. single. bit. 

After struggling with an ending, I finally wrote one just to have one down. I had a phone conference with the amazing Janice Hardy and am now doing a story map, breaking down each scene into a 2 page worksheet and identifying plot points. I am very visual so my dining room right now looks like this:

Chalkboard decals and giant post it notes are great for writing down basic plot structure and keeping track of the story goals of a dozen different people/groups. The chalkboard decal is wonderful. If I ever write full time, I will repaint my dining room in chalkboard paint and people will come over and think they've stepped into a scene from "A Beautiful Mind" or something.

The chalkboard was not big enough, so I brought out butcher paper, taped it to the dining room table, and then lined up my index cards of all my scenes and shuffled them around to where I wanted them. Surprisingly, only a couple of scenes are moving.

My notebook of scene worksheets, complete with revision notes. This has taken forever, but I really think it will help. 

This book alternates between 2 POV's so there are a lot of scenes (54 to be exact). It's been time consuming to break each scene down, but helpful because there are just a lot of pieces to this. I created a reality with all these rules/laws, I have a cast of 5 main characters, there are 2 sets of bad guys, and the group hops between worlds (12 total). My scene sheets crack me up because there are notes like this on them:

-Elsi is wearing pants in this scene.

-Who attacks them here? Good guys or bad guys? (cause I wasn't sure myself when I wrote it)

-Remember they haven't kissed yet!

-Is Jep still in the tree here?

All important things to remember when I rewrite ;)

Have you ever tried to create a Rachel Ray "30 minute" meal, only to get frustrated when 45 minutes later, you are still not done? She can do it in 30 minutes because all the prep work is done. Things are chopped and measured out and ready to go. Makes the actual cooking easier.

This book will be my 30 minute meal now that things are diced and portioned out. It's taken an enormous amount of time, but man, it's helping. I've already stumbled across scenes that need to be moved (and I have a better idea of where to put them), scenes that can be cut or merged with another, etc etc.

It's funny how I am so character driven when I write, which is great, but then I do re-reads of stuff, and realize not a lot happens, Turns out plot matters. Which elicits this response:

D'OH!

We are getting there. I need this reorganized and then I can start rewriting, which I am dying, dying, dying to do. I threw up some chapters on my crit board where I played around with Elsi's voice/attitude, and people loved her, so she will need to be remade during this rewrite. So crazy excited about this story. Lots of people have been intrigued by the story line when I threw my query up on my crit board (there's another trick I've learned: write the query before the book, or at least before the rewrite. It narrows the book down to it's meat. I get lost in the gravy and potatoes sometimes.). The chemistry between my two leads is swoon worthy. (Admittedly, I have a major crush on my male lead in this book. He's rough and tough and so unapproachable, which makes him, oh, just delicious I tell you). 

Back to figuring this beastly mess out so I can write it! 

Solve this puzzle for me!

Ok, I'm super struggling with plot for my story and need some fresh eyes/ideas. No storytelling/writing skills needed. You've read books. You've seen movies. You can totally help.

This is what my story looks like. Oy vey.

Here's the premise (it's a Young Adult Fantasy story):

Ilan is a land with no future. The Relater, the only person who can write storylines to keep the world from crumbling, has been lost. Ilan depends on the dedication of Seekers, who steal pieces of others' futures, and heralds who open portals to the other worlds who have storylines to spare. But it's only a matter of time until the Seekers cannot supply enough futures and thousands will perish. 

The Relater must be found. Elsi, Ilan's best herald, must aid two Seekers in their mission: find the Relator, and don't come back without him.


Make sense? The Relater is a god-figure basically. He creates life by writing your story (imagine your story is a book and so is mine, all kept in a library. No Relater = no stories = no life = bad)

So far so good?

Ok, my character arcs (what happens to them and how they change) are fine but my plot is falling apart. The main goal in the book is to find the Relater. At some point the group discovers that he didn't get taken as they had believed, and as their government kinda told them, but that he left on purpose. They end up finding him in the end, but my quandary is this: why did he leave? I need there to be a reason, and a good one (since him going missing is the whole premise this book is based on).

Right now, I have it that he left because people (mostly in the government) sought the Relater to abuse his power so he (and his siblings-that's another surprise) have been hidden away in other worlds until their world could be purged of corruption.

Dear stars, that's so cliche. And seems, meh. This is the backbone of the story and while again, my character arcs are good (hopefully) I don't want people to get to the end, see this, and think "what the heck?"

I feel the reason why he/they left needs to be better (and there can be just one Relater-I'm fine with that). He is the creator of life in their world, and their world will cease to exist without him. He left voluntarily. Why??

This I do not know. Sigh....any ideas??

And now for something completely different

So this week I have been on a writing frenzy, and have finished the (oh so very) rough draft of Book 3 (fist pump!) A friend of mine who is a published author once told me the best thing to do after you finish a rough draft is to let it sit and work on something else before coming back to it. I didn't heed this advice at first because I was so stinking excited about my very first rough draft and just wanted to be with it all the time (think high school crush obsessiveness). But now I have learned the wisdom of letting it simmer before coming back for rewrites.

So, now that Book 2 is in the hand of some first readers, and Book 3 is on paper, it's time to move on to something else.

I started writing a story this past winter that I LOVE, but that I abandoned because keeping up with it and the trilogy I was writing became too much. But ah, now that the trilogy is ripening, we are back to this little beauty.

It's a fantasy genre (what?!?) and I love it. (Still YA, but fantasy YA) I had stopped working on it also in part because I was half way through the manuscript and wasn't sure what I wanted to happen. I mean, I knew my character arcs (how my characters change and grow), but I didn't know the plot to get them there. I'm still working on that, but am oh so excited to get back to this little gem.

This new story involves ideas and themes and things such as this:

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Ah, intriguing, yes?  I love this story, but man, it's been hard to put together. Writing fantasy is hard because you create a whole new world, which has to have rules and limits and sometimes coming up with those is hard. Especially since I decided to write a story about people who can travel between worlds. Hello, multiple world building!

This story includes worlds such as this:

Worlds trapped in winter. Craggy mountains, deep valleys.

Frosty mountains, tall trees

Worlds of woods;. Forest floors that muffle sounds and secrets and traitorous deeds.

Deep woods. What lurks behind those trees and shadows?

 Ah, and then this. A graveyard. But this is not a typical graveyard, and contains secrets and truths, and will lead more than one of my main character's to do things they never thought they would.

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Ah, and the characters in this book---oh man, I love them. Five main characters (five!) plus a colorful supporting cast. Here's a small sampling:

This is E. She's the main lead character of the story. Guarded. Smart. Knows just about everything and can sense what she doesn't know. Gifted. 

Self loathing, but she doesn't know it.

E.

Then there's A. "Feisty" describes her the way "warm" describes July in Louisiana. Committed to duty above all else. More gifted than anyone. Single minded. Purposeful.

Judgmental. Unwilling to compromise. Prideful.

A

Then there's T. Murderer. Criminal. Outcast.

Hot tempered, angry, vengeful.

He's my favorite :)

Kinda pictured him like this.

Oh yeah, and bad guys. Lots of bad guys.

Enemies

Or, are they?  Sometimes who you think is an ally turns out to be an enemy. And enemies can end up being allies.

Or the love of your life.

Ya'll, this story is going to be soooooo good!  

Now I just have to write it...