Writing

NaNoWriMo 2019

October 23, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake 1 Comment

I will not be doing NaNoWriMo again this year.

To those that are doing it, I will once again cheer for you from the sidelines.

I set my goals last January, and I am trying to stick to them as well as I can.

At the moment, I am working on my February 2020 goal because that is what has me inspired right now and because I managed to finish my October goal earl. Which happened to be the first draft of Thomas of Claudia. So maybe that means I already finished Nano?

Okay, so not really.

I just can’t complete so much in a month, especially not a month when I am already so busy at work.

Thomas and Claudia’s story is currently only fifty-five thousand words, but it has a beginning, middle and end. I like the characters, but clearly the novel needs more robustness.

64514455 — Will always be how it is for me.

Not surprising as that is how I write.

I have given up on trying to do what I am “supposed to” do. I don’t outline. Yes, it means more rewriting. So be it. In my defense, my editor says my first draft is like a very chunky outline. All the pieces are there, but they are stripped down to their bare bones. Not that she has ever seen a first draft, but she has seen how my revisions work. And she knows how spare the third draft she receives from me is. So, instead of paring down and killing my darlings, I tend to start by writing a skeleton draft and layering on from there.

skeleton-1522620_640 — Actual footage of my first draft.

This is what works for me. It may not be the best thing, but it works.

To everyone out there taking on Nano, I wish you well!

I will be writing this year along with you instead of revising as these new characters just won’t hush, but it will be at a much slower pace.

My family thanks you, especially as I need to keep that day job!

And so does my cat.

*Yeah, he’s cute. Until you want him to move.*

Writing Update: September

September 26, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

Things were going okay until they weren’t.

September Update — Thank goodness I worked ahead a little.

Work has been crazy, and I have been struggling to feel even remotely creative.

We tend to play video games as a family, and some of that game time crept into my writing time as it was easier to consume creative content than to produce it.

Still, all in, I am on track for the year, but only because I worked ahead earlier in the year.

I am halfway through Prince Thomas and Mage Purple Class Claudia’s story. Finishing it in November is my goal. I hope to make it, but work will only get busier. I have a huge deadline on November 15th, and a “drop dead” date on December 19th. I am marching to those orders now.

We all know stress kill creativity, but with so many other things going on at work, it is absolutely overwhelming right now.

I also need to tackle a series of promotion stuff I tend to be less enthusiastic about doing. I need to set aside some time to just do it, and I am hoping that will happen late in December. Work will not quiet down until next April, so I have to figure out a way to push through this. I also need to start a lot of the bits of publishing a Knight’s Redemption ahead of time so it doesn’t derail me like publishing Knight of Valor did this year.

Yes, I finished my December goal. It was a rewrite I worked on while I was delayed with Knight of Valor.

As I am reviewing this year’s goals, the one thing I have to admit is revising take a lot more time than I would like.

Once I complete Thomas and Claudia’s story, I will have written three first drafts this year. But I was only able to publish one book.

As I take a look at next year’s goals, I think I need to reduce my number of first drafts to two. I wanted to publish three books per year, but the editing time doesn’t permit that with my other obligations. Perhaps if I only write two in a year, I can then have the time to do all the edits on them so I can release two in a year.

Something to ponder.

I do enjoy the thrill of crafting a story fresh. It’s one of the best and most exciting parts of writing.

But there is also something gratifying about a final draft.

Given how goal oriented I am with my day job right now, might not be the best of times to make such decisions.

Writing: Why Vacations Are No Longer “Catch-Up Time”

August 1, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

We just recently got back from vacation. Once upon a time, a vacation from work was a relaxing time, a time I could catch up on my writing, maybe even get a little bit ahead. We’d have things planned, of course, and spontaneous things would come up, but there always seemed to be plenty of time to get in a few thousand more words.

Then we had kids.

familyvacation — And I have to people. *shudders*

I had thought the four day weekend we had for the Fourth of July or the week of vacation we took would give me some time to work on my writing and maybe do a few other things like update my mailing list. We had quite a bit of time after all. Sure, we had things planned, like a small cook-out with close family and a larger graduation party for my niece. I already had the food planned, and I had selected tasty things with minimal prep. The gift was already purchased. And yes, we were taking the kids to a water park. Wait, what do you mean my expectations weren’t realistic?

But I hadn’t figured that one or the other of my children would want to snuggle the entire vacation. And by snuggle, I mean never leave my side. Even in ninety degree weather.

parentspersonalspace — Can we be any closer, momma?

While this is a gift, and I like snuggling them, by day two, I am getting a bit annoyed. Snuggling literally means they sit on me. Both of them. At the same time. While still cute, they are a lot bigger and heavier than they were. And they squirm. And wriggle. And try to steal more real estate on my lap from each other until they both get tossed off.

And there comes a point where I simply want my space back.

And writing does not happen when there is snuggling. Most of the time, writing doesn’t happen when they are awake and in the house. My oldest one is an avid reader, and despite her age, she can and will read over my shoulder as I am typing. Yeah, not cool, especially if I am “in the zone” and don’t see her right away as I don’t write “closed door” romance.

Reading doesn’t usually happen, either. I don’t read “closed door” romance, either.

While I wouldn’t trade these days for the world, I do need to adjust my expectations.

Vacation doesn’t mean what it used to, and if I still want time to write every day, I am going to have to get up at 5am like it’s a work day.

Not that I want to get up at 5am. If left to my own devices, I wouldn’t go to bed until well after midnight then sleep in every morning. But that hasn’t been my life since college. The one and only time my natural sleep cycle meshed with my obligations.

I wish I were a morning person.

Things I Learned Writing Knight of Valor

July 11, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

Pending no major calamities, Knight of Valor will be released at the end of this month. I started writing this book in January of 2015, so it’s taken over four years to write, edit, revise, rewrite, edit again… You get the picture.

During that time, I learned a lot about writing, both the craft aspect of it, but also what works for me. Here are a few things I learned.

You Get Better the More You Write

I was just getting back into writing in 2015 after a long sabbatical, and it was a challenge to write even the first draft. While writing may have a degree of talent, see George RR Martin or Nora Roberts, it also has a huge degree of practice. The more I write, the better I get at it. I have to believe this is also a part of why George RR Martin and Nora Roberts are so amazing. Certainly, I need to read, too. Studying craft books helps as well. But none of that replaces the work of sitting down and crafting a story.

Revising is Crucial

I need to revise. My first draft is far from perfect. So very far. It is mostly a sandbox I have shoveled sand into that becomes the rough lump of a story. Revising turns that lump into a sandcastle. Some stories take more drafts than others. Knight of Valor took more than twenty drafts. A big part of the revision process was making up for how rough the first draft really was. I was out of practice when I wrote it. More recent works have required seven or eight revisions. I almost felt bad about it. Then I came across this.

revision4 — Yeah, even he had to rewrite.

Take Only the Advice That Works for You – Ignore the Rest

Part of the reason this book had so many revisions was I took a lot of advice I shouldn’t have. More benign advice was to write in any order than piece those scenes together. Yeaaaah, no. Doesn’t work for me, and it created a lot more work in the revision process.

For example, I was also reading a lot of craft books on romance as I wrote this, and they were all touting the alpha male as really the only hero most romance readers wanted to read about. So I revised and changed the hero and made him a lot more alpha. But then I didn’t like him anymore, and that meant I didn’t like the story Knight of Valor became. So I revised it again, removing most of the edits I had added, then focusing on really showing who he was instead of what a craft book told me he should be.

EatMushroomsAdvice — What works for one author doesn’t always work for another.

Write Your Story

Which leads me into my last point: learning to trust myself to write my story. The one I want to tell. The one that reflects my characters. That can be a lot harder than it sounds, as I learned writing Knight of Valor. Doubt is a powerful force, especially when you are working on a story for years at a time. When there are so many things going on around you personally, professionally, and in the world. Sometimes it can seem foolish to question those who “know” what they’re doing. In writing Knight of Valor, I’m glad I did. Even though it took me all those revisions to do it.

Maybe I Can’t

June 20, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

No, this is not a de-motivational poster.

I discuss time management a lot, and I realized something important.

I just can’t “do it all”. No matter what society tells me. No matter what society expects of me.

Sure Sheryl Sandberg wants us to “Lean In”, but I can almost guarantee she has never had to figure out how to pick up her child from dance class, get laundry done, and make sure dinner is on the table.

I guess this really hit home as I was looking at the list of writing projects I want to achieve, what I have achieved this year, and even where I have failed.

CelebrateSuccess — Except a writer is never done.

Successes

I will publish Knight of Valor this year.
I will publish A Knight’s Redemption within 6 months of Knight of Valor
I finished Leikar and Annabelle’s first draft
I will finish Rohan and Makayla’s first draft
I completed a third revision of A Knight’s Second Chance
I will complete a fourth revision of A Knight’s Second Chance

There will still be a few months left in the year for me to complete my other goals of:

Writing a third first draft novel
The really hard first-second draft revision of Rita (name may change) and Logan

Misses

Deadlines. They seem to go whooshing by.

Areas to Focus on

Accepting that creative endeavors are not the same as corporate finance. I am understanding a little better why we’re still waiting for Winds of Winter.
Accepting that I might have had unrealistic expectations for myself. Because that never happens…

All in, I am happy with the way the first half of this year went, but writing down goals put a little more stress on me than I was anticipating. Still, I think it has really helped me to focus and shown me how much I do accomplish.

Progress Update – May 2019

June 6, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

Things are interesting.

I completed my May goal of finishing a new first draft about Annabelle and Leikar. Yes, Annabelle from Seducing the Ice Queen, and those were snippets of Leikar’s back story on some of my micro-fictions.

I was also able to work through a third draft revision of The Pirate Captain’s Daughter and send that off to my beta readers. I had planned to do that in September.

I also finished the final revision of A Knight’s Redemption, which was my June goal. I am now working through all of the administrative things it takes to publish a novel. This novel was supposed to release in mid-June but now won’t until several months after Knight of Valor comes out.

Why? Because it’s the fourth book in the series, and Knight of Valor is the third. My amazing editor got it back to me on Memorial Day saying once I made her last round of revisions, it was ready for final line editing.

I have started that round of revisions…Okay, so I haven’t.

My issue is, once again, time.

See, I started a new novel.

Yeah, I know, I know.

I thought it was going to be a nice short story, maybe a novella I could give away for free as an introduction to the series.

Except now I am at 30,000 words and still going strong. And I *know* better than to stop now to edit something else. I will lose my momentum, my muse will turn on me faster than Jon Snow did Daenerys, and I will be lucky to finish this novel at all.

Sometimes it sucks to be a pantser and write without an outline or anything more than a vague idea where the story is going. But that is my writing style, for better or worse, and it’s the only way I have ever been able to finish a novel.

I am going to take a deep breath and keep working through this current novel. Once it’s done, I will polish Knight of Valor. Yes, I am going to be approximately three months late releasing it.

I am truly sorry.

I hate missing deadlines, and I seldom do.

But you deserve the best I can do with this story and so do the characters.

The good news is A Knight’s Redemption is very close to being ready. With some luck and hard work, I will have it out within six months of releasing Knight of Valor.