Publishing

So, I met with a very good friend today and we fell into the conversation of publishing.

I'm very close to being done with the second draft of my book. In fact, if I can just crank out these last ten chapters, I'll be able to start editing. And from there... I'm not entirely sure what I want to do. There's many options. I could try and find and agent and publish that way. I could try and send my manuscript to publishers to see if I could get it published that way. OR I could self publish.

Self publishing is beginning to have an appeal to me. Originally, years ago, I would have never consider the option. Now, it doesn't seem like the other two options are a good idea at the moment. If I self publish, I'll be able to promote the book myself, have family and friends buy it and read it, and hopefully have it start building a bit of a fan base that way. It might be a little pricey in the beginning but, hopefully, it'll start getting a little more rewarding as time goes on.

So, I'm beginning to get revved up for the new year. I'm going to try to do a chapter at least every day (if not every two days) so I can get those ten chapters done in a couple of weeks. Then I'm going to crack down on the editing.  Hopefully, if everything goes well, I will have my stuff up in at least 6 months for everyone to be able to buy a hardcopy of. I want to start getting this done. I want everyone to see what I'm writing.

And I'm guessing (right now) that the only way to do that at the moment is to self-publish.

NaNoWriMo Exhaustion... Already?

I kicked butt yesterday.

I'm proud to tell myself that because I really did. I was able to crank out two chapters and over 4500 words for the second draft of my novel in 24 hours. I spent nearly 7 hours writing yesterday. I fell into bed exhausted but totally happy last night. And, according to the boyfriend, the actual writing wasn't too bad either (but you can never trust those you love, right?)

I am exhausted, though. Today, especially, since I had to divide my time between chores, errands, school work, and writing. I struggled to finish chapter three, on which I got stuck twice but forced myself out of writers block after taking a break for an hour or so each time to work on something else. (Like reading boring literature: aka - the textbook for one of my classes. Believe me, that makes you want to get back to writing after a while.) However, I did finish it, finally, and I've made it to 7,301 words, which is a huge jump from the 3,334 words that I only need to have today. I'm looking forward to writing chapter four tomorrow, too, but I'm dreading school. I just want to spend my time writing. However, on the bright side, I organized a student NaNoWriMo group to hang out with me and write in between classes in one of the student centers and, from what they've said on the website, most people seem to be looking forward to it. I really think I'll be making a lot of friends out of this experience (just as I did with the whole HvZ experience) and I'm up for a challenge.

Daily clip - from Chapter 3:
     With a warning screech, Katisha suddenly veered to the left and Tristen clung to her neck, hanging on for dear life. He heard the screams of hundreds and, glancing to his right, he saw a large, boat-like contraption that was attached to a fabric air-filled balloon-like structure. The boat was double tiered and, from what he could tell, those with the finer clothing stood screaming at the bottom tier and those with more decent outwear screamed from the top, as the boat veered to the right, away from Tristen and his dragon. Katisha screamed in fear again, trying to stay air-born after her sudden scare and the people screamed right back at her. It hurts, Tristen… she complained, lowering their altitude once more. I must get away. Several strong beats of her wings and they were miles away from the flying contraption, leaving Tristen only to stare back at it in bewilderment.
     What in the name of the gods' could that have been?

Writing on the Edge

I just realized that the whole theory to life is, "Ask and you'll find out if you'll recieve."

It's actually, "Wait and see if the opportunity presents itself."

I met with my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) group today to discuss semantics. We worked out two days every week to meet and where we were going to meet. Our ML (Municipal Liaison) had lots of great ideas of where to meet or contests we could have and I can already tell that I am going to like these ladies a lot. I'm a little sad that we don't have any males in our group right now; I'm hoping that putting up posters around school and an article in the newspaper might do the trick but I'll find out this week whether or not the university is ok with me doing all of that. We're all really excited to start and I actually forgot that it was the middle of October, not November. *claps hand to forehead* Silly me!

What I just discovered, however, was that I actually get to go to the one event that I was SURE that I wouldn't be able to attend this year. The NaNoWriMo Night of Writing Dangerously on November 22 in San Fransisco costs about $200, which I don't have and which is supposed to be sponsored, something I doubt I'll have happen. Anyway, if you get the $200 to go, for $300, you can bring a guest. One of the women in my group has really bad night vision and wanted to know if someone wanted to pay the guest price (of $100) and go in on driving her down to San Fransisco so that she could go. I totally jumped at that opportunity. I'm positive I can scrounge up $100 (compared to $200) somewhere to have an amazing 6 hour novel-writing experience, complete with a buffet dinner, a chance to get a professional author's photo, and conversation with TONS of other writers.

So there you have it. My month (which has been awesome due to HvZ, Writer's Conference, and NaNoWriMo) has gotten even better. I cant wait for November to start.

New Projects!

I just found out on Wednesday that the National Novel Writing Month is in November.

Isn't that just EXCITING?

I've always wanted to try and I decided that, why not only try it, but just be one of the winners this year? That would entail writing 50,000 words in 30 days. And it really wouldn't be that hard; I would just have to make sure that I write every single day and don't lazy. It would be a really good way to knock out the second draft of my novel in 30 days. Especially because I reaaaally need to do that. Really. It's time.

Now, I know what you're thinking. 50,000 words! But, if you break that down by thirty days, it becomes 1,667 words a day or approx 3 pages, single-spaced. See? Not really that hard. On some days, I'll probably end up doing more. And the cool thing about NaNoWriMo this year is that there is a new program that they are testing called Scrivener, which basically helps you write your novel by setting it up so you can access everything easily. I have another program like it called Story Mill but, as I test Scrivener out, I really like it a lot. The trial for it for those attending NaNoWriMo this year is longer than 30 days since the makers really want writers to buy it. It lasts from the beginning of October until the 7th of December. If you're attending, you get a 20% discount on the product if you actually buy it after December 7th and, if you win, they'll give you a 50% discount.

I'm so excited. The majority of my school projects are early this semester and NaNoWriMo stops before finals so I can take the time to study for that as well.

Yay!

If ANYONE (seriously, anyone) is thinking of doing NaNoWriMo next month, please let me know. I would be so blessed to have a fellow writer undertaking this with me. The web address is http://www.nanowrimo.org/ . At this exact moment, the site is down but it should be back up again soon and you can sign up! It's totally free and, like I said, you win if you write 50,000 words or more. That's it. And lots of people win every year.

Also, there's a Write-a-Thon that they are having in San Fransisco on the 22nd of November and you have a raise a certain amount of money to attend (will be available once the site comes back up) but this is just general information for all of you. I'm positive that I wont be able to attend that.

Until November... chapter outlines, here I come!!

Back to Living in Ink

I am very sad that the conference is over.

I have a few regrets. I regret that they didn't have any classes on fantasy writing. I regret that I was not awake enough this morning to appreciate the Dialogue seminar (even though it was just ok, anyway). I regret that the keynote speaker, Christian Moerk, didn't have another talk. These, of course, are things that I couldn't have changed, even if I wanted to.

However, I appreciate sooooo much after this conference. I appreciate the Point of View versus Point of Narration class because it made me think and end up asking another author for advice on the subject that a professional editor was giving my group. I appreciate the time during the lunch hour that I got to speak with Christian, to get to know him a little better. I appreciate my Complex Characters seminar because I can work on creating my characters in the close 3rd person, something which I'm struggling with.

I want to give you all tons of stories from the conference but it will just have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight, I am tired and I need to get to bed asap to start the long, 7-hour trek home. (I"m happy about this, however, because I bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to listen to on audiobook on the way home so I can get a good laugh for 7 hours.) I hope you all can wait until then. I promise to relate many stories of Christian and the seminars and the people that were there. There is so much to tell.

But for now, goodnight.

And a special thanks to my grandparents, who made this whole thing happen.

Day 1

The first day (or night, as it was last evening) of the Central Coast Writer's Conference was AMAZING!!!

To start off with, I got to see a ton of people that I knew. My best friend's cousin, a friend from church, a former instructor and a very good writer friends. Also, the key note speaker was AMAZING! His name is Christian Moerk and he is from Denmark. His new book, Darling Jim, is pretty popular now, so if you look him up, I'm sure that you'll find it. He was witty and sarcastic, all that you could want in a good author. He called people out on dumb questions and answered the good ones in good humor. Most of all, he gave good pointers and he was very firm about the fact that you need to write every day. I felt that he was the best speaker I've seen in the 3 years that I've been to this conference.

Then, my good writer friend and I skipped off to the lecture of the night. The one we had signed up for was about story structure and, I am happy to say, I am going about outlining my novel the right way. According to the author who was instructing us, there are seven steps to outlining a basic story, seven steps that all stories have:

1. The weakness and the need. The weakness can be based off of the need, such as character lashing out due to their unawareness of their need.
2. Desire. This needs to be deeply connected with the need of the character in some way. The character knows of his or her desire but not of his or her need.
3. Opponent. This cannot be the character; normally it is some tangible force that the character is struggling against.
4. Plan. This involves how the character is going to go about defeating the opponent and achieving his or her desire.
5. Battle. This is the big finale, and can be resolved with an actual action or just words.
6. Self Revelation. This normally takes place during the battle when the character finally realizes his or her need.
7. New Equilibrium. This is the ending, how the character ends up. It could be anything from happy, sad, not getting the need, getting the need, dead, getting what they want but not being happy, not getting what they want but being happy... the list goes on and on. Every book needs this.

So, what was cool about this was that I was able to outline this in all three of my main characters. Since my novel is told in three perspectives, all three characters have to have their own need, weakness, desire, opponent, plan, battle, self revelation, and new equilibrium. I know what all of those are now!!!

This is turning out to be a VERY benificial conference. I'm glad I came.

Well, off to get coffee and get ready!

3-2-1 and the Editing Has Begun

I have spent the past 3 hours today, plus 2 hours yesterday, editing the first five stories that are up for review on Week One.

And I have learned something very important about myself, something I know pretty much already but was very obvious today: I'm not very patient with myself.

I like to know things. Now. I hate struggling with something that I know that I will be very good at in a week's time but am having a hard time with at the moment. For example, I'm learning how to do stuff in AP Style and I've only written in MLA format before. And, while AP Style is turning out to be fairly easy to learn, I'm having to learn it on the spot and apply it in what I'm doing. If I can't find it, then I have to contact one of the other copy editors to help me and I know that they're getting tired of my endless questions. Is this supposed to be capitalized? Do I have to state that it's the website specifically? Do I have to keep using Individual Honors or can I just shorten it to Honors? Do I have to use the "he said" and "she said" all the time? (That one kills me the most.) The list is endless.

I was relieved and terrified to send the completed stories to the chief editor, not know if I had caught all the corrections or not. The feeling of failure terrifies me.

This is probably a reason why I'm having so much trouble writing a second draft of my novel. My first draft is there, the idea is there, the basic plotline is there, but I'm afraid to get it done, get it edited, and get it rejected. The fact that I'll be published by October means very little to me because it is friends of mine (well, friends of Jo's) who are publishing my two stories and, while I know that all the professional astronomers who have heard the stories have thought they were good, I still haven't ever had to go through the terrifying process of submitting them to an editor to decide whether or not they are worthy of a book.

Today, I thought I would post the stories that my two sweet little cousins wrote when I was living with them two weeks ago. I'm sure they wont mind if I post them, since Mary is 5 and Zac is 7. This whole thing started when I first got to Bakersfield a couple of weeks ago and told Mary that I would make her into my little prodigy. She decided that she didn't like the stories I wrote and read to her (because she's 5 and who can honestly understand Pluto's issues with planethood at 5?) so she made me jump onto my laptop and write this little gem (btw, I somewhat corrected these stories grammatically so they would make more sense but the ridiculousness of it still belongs to the kids):

The End Book

There once was a girl who liked to sleep. Her mom said it was time for breakfast and her mom told her it was time for lunch and time for dinner and she didn’t eat any food. And she died when she was sleeping. The end.

After which, Zac heard what we were doing and decided that I needed to write one for him:

Zoo Mischief

Once upon a time there was a zookeeper. Once day, a chimp got out of his cage. He stole the keys from the zookeeper and unlocked every animal from their cages in the zoo. A little girl saw an elephant and patted its back. The elephant fell fast asleep and the zookeeper heard the elephant snoring. Quickly, he rushed to gather up all of the animals and locked back in their cages once again, especially the naughty chimpanzee. The end.

And Mary demanded a third, which was interuppted in the middle due to a phone call so I'm sure that's why it sounds a little odd:

Space Chimps

There were once three chimps. The littlest chimp said, “I have a mission.” The chimp went into space with his mommy and daddy. The chimp went into space. The big boy chimp went inside and then got out and the ship blasted back. He said, “Chimps don’t leave chimps behind.” Then they made a new rocket. They went back into space. The end.

At this point, I saved their stories and switched back to working on my novel. Mary put up a fuss s0 I ignored her most of the time and she ended up sitting next to me on the couch, staring blankly at what I was writing, and pointing to a paragraph every couple of seconds and asking "what does that say?" She's a very vocal kid. I love her, though.

She and I spent one evening taking crazy pictures on my laptop (because I have the Mac Photobooth). Here's a few of my favorites:Zac joined in here.
This is the totem pole with Mary, myself, and one of my uncles.
I taught her how to do a fish face.
She gives the weirdest kisses. They're all large and sloppy and wet but... gotta love 'em.
I don't actually look like this but Jo thought it was hilarious and forced me to post it. He just told me he wants to blow it up and put it on his wall. Meh.
Duuuuuuuhhhh.....
Cousins Unite!

None of these photos are flattering, of course, but it shows that, when Mary and I do get along, we have a TON of fun. I can't wait until she's old enough to come and stay with me for a week.

On Writing and Conferences

I hate getting geared up and ready to go and then having to halt without even beginning.

That's how I feel about my writing at the moment. The conference is less that 2 months away and I have promised my self that I would finished my 2nd draft outline by the time that I got there. If not started my second draft already. However, like some brick thrown at my head, I am in need of inspiration.

Oddly enough, this is partially why I am going to the conference. Inspiration. And also to make my second draft sound amazingly fantastic so I dont have to do too much with my 3rd draft. (I don't know how many drafts my novel will take before I am satisfied with sending it to a publishing company.)

If I was 8 again, writing my stories for the first time (I began writing in 3rd grade and haven't stopped since), then I would consider taking my characters aside and having a sit down (or slap down) with them. I would tell Jacob to be more stubborn, Tristen to figure out what was going on, and Ellion to move it a long. But, unfortunately, they wouldn't listen to me. Especially Jacob, since he's been part of my character collection since I was in 4th grade and has not left me since.

My block could be partially due to the fact that I'm at my aunt and uncles, dealing with a screaming 5 and 7 year old when I'm not working at my uncle's restaurant. But that's no excuse! So I will slap myself on the hand and try to finish a chapter outline today.

Speaking of the conference, I had lunch with my grandfather yesterday, who found out that I don't have two cents to keep myself going (which is why I am here, working for my uncle, 5 hours away from my beautiful apartment, my adorable gecko, and my boyfriend). He started asking me all these questions about the conference, like "would it help the writing of your novel" and "what kinds of classes are you taking." Suddenly, before I knew it, he was giving me the money that I needed for the conference, telling me that I deserved it. (Yes... well... I am getting published in September, so I agree with that statement.)

So thank you grandpa for all of your help! I am now even more excited to go since I have the funds to pay the fees!