Time ticks away

I don't know how time goes so fast, I really don't. I swear, just yesterday it was the first week of July & I was just starting summer break (I worked June. No real break there.). Now it's the last day of July & I'm starting to think about what in the world I'm going to teach my eighth graders.

As usual, I started the summer with a huge to-do list and, as usual, not much of it got done. Time just kind of gets away from me when I'm not on a specific schedule. My non-specific schedule involves getting up; watching the Today Show while Twittering, blogging and catching up with blogs through my Google Reader; running some errands; reading or watching some more TV while trying to convince myself to do something else (like revise or check something off the to-do list)...well, you get the idea. No schedule=not very productive.

I think that, if I were a full-time writer, I'd really struggle with time management, at least at first. I totally respect those who can schedule their own time effectively enough to do all they need to do. My awe increases when those same people do all this while juggling kids & family. I'm responsible for myself & my dog. We do just fine. Throw some kids into the mix and it would make life much more unpredictable (of course, you do it because you want to and because you have to. Flexibility is key.).

Once the school year starts, I WILL schedule time to work out and to write.


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Writing = Revision & editing

Yes, it's true. Writing a first draft barely scratches the surface of what "real writing" entails. I try to tell my students this but they never seem to believe me. They want to write that first draft and call it a day. But there's so much more.

Even when a first draft is typed into a program like MS Word with an editing program, it's still not actually edited. Right now, I'm revising the first draft of my novel and it's fun but very difficult--there's so much that needs to be changed, added, and deleted to make it flow. Even if this were a one-page paper, I would still edit and revise it.

Revision gives the author a chance to go back and fix mistakes. How often do we get a chance to do that? Especially before anyone else ever sees it? A writer gets to go in, see what's working, what isn't working, add details, take out driftwood-it's great.

Now, it is true that you can edit and polish TOO much. Some writers don't move past the writing and editing stage. They never give themselves the chance to become authors. While some may disagree with me, I define an "author" as someone who's been published. Me? I'm a non-fiction author (no, not novel length stuff but I've published a ton of articles and, hey, my thesis for my MEd was published!) but a fiction writer (at least, for the moment. I do hope to change this soon.).

So, off to continue with my revisions, get my WIP as polished as possible and send it off to my crit partner (yes, everyone should have someone else read their work--a crit partner is key).

Weekend Reading Recommendations

I just read two fantastic YA books this week (while avoiding revising my own).

Book #1: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
This is the last of the Percy Jackson series. Percy approaches his 16th birthday and the prophecy surrounding it and all the half-bloods are preparing for battle against the Titans. While the gods are off battling a rampaging monster, Mount Olympus is undefended-perfect for Kronos to come and destroy it. But Percy and his friends are there to stop it.

Fun book! Love the tie-ins with mythology (one of my favorite subjects in school). Percy and his friends are well-drawn characters and I was sad to see this series come to an end. Or is it? (SPOILER ALERT!) At the end, the Oracle makes another prophecy, one involving seven half-bloods. Will Riordan follow up and write another series? I certainly hope so!
I give this book four out of five cookies.

Book #2: My Soul To Take by Rachel Vincent
One of the first of the new Harlequin Teen imprints, this book provides a good dose of romance along with a great story. Kaylee Cavanaugh is a bean sidhe - a banshee - who screams uncontrollably when she's near someone who's just about to die. When she catches the attention of one of the hottest guys in school, she just wants to enjoy it (even though she's a little suspicious of his sudden attention). But healthy girls are dropping dead for no apparent reason and suddenly the hot guy is more than he seems-especially when he doesn't think her need to scream is weird.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book-something new and different on the paranormal scene. Kaylee struggles with trying to fit in and screaming bloody murder in the middle of the cafeteria isn't going to help with that. The other characters fun-esp. Emma, the best friend.
I give this book four out of five cookies.

Where does the time go?

Blurb for book

Okay, several of you have asked what my book is about so I figured I'd give a little blurb here. Now, this isn't polished or pretty or anything

1st Draft of WIP DONE!!!

OMG-I just finished my first draft of my very first fiction novel!! I can't tell you how excited I am. The book is far from done but I made it from beginning to middle to end.

Okay, so I still have to revise the entire thing. I have to read through it and make certain that, well, I follow the plot, that my characters have the same tone all the way through, that my plot arcs follow through, that I don't have extra characters, and that everything is necessary.

My writing has to be extremely tight-meaning it all works. Nothing's out of place. Everything makes sense.

But, tonight, I celebrate. Tomorrow, I work. Woot!

This Week's Top Read

Top read of the week:
Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
Five (out of five) cookies

What's it about?

All her world’s a stage.
Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater. She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents. She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own. That is, until now.
Enter Stage Right
NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.
COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD SEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE’S sidekicks.
ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie’s weakness. The symbol of impending doom.
BERTIE. Our heroine.
Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

IMO (in my opinion):

This was a great book and not just for the kiddies (it is labeled a Young Adult book). It was humorous, adventurous, and kept me reading it until I was done. Mantchev is exceptionally creative, using her theater background and experience to add rich details to the plot. The characters each had their roles to play and they were well cast.

I loved Ophelia, who was drawn to water (no matter what play) and kept drowning herself in it. The fairies were fabulous--food-obsessed, potty mouths who were Bertie's best friends in the theater.

When Ariel first came on the scene, I couldn't get the Little Mermaid out of my head and had to look at the cast of characters to find out who he was. Then I really couldn't figure him out at all. Was he the bad guy? Is that why the Wardrobe Mistress had warned Bertie away from him? Was he a good guy? After all, the butterflies seemed to like him. I liked not knowing what he was going to do or who he really was.

The only character I really didn't like so much was Nate, Bertie's crush. He seemed a little flat, despite being a pirate, and a little too nice. Maybe that will change in the next book.

The end only began the characters' journey (though there were enough loose ends tied up that I wasn't yelling at the book to tell me what happened--I've done that before. And thrown said book across the room.) and I'm looking forward to the next Theatre Illuminata story.

3/4ths done!

I think that I'm about 3/4ths of the way done with my first draft! I'm kind of excited, even though I'm stuck at the moment (thus the blog update rather than the WIP). My characters are ready to rescue mom, one pair is already in love and the other pair, well, let's hope that things work out for them. I think I know how it ends, though that can change (hey, who knows, mom might not actually make it through--she is a sacrifice, after all. She may have to be sacrificed!).

Of course, a first draft is no where near a polished draft and there's still a ton of work to do on it before I even think about sending out query letters and committing my project to someone's slush pile. But that's where the fun starts.

Editing is one of my favorite things. Finding just the write word, making scenes flow, adding more details & imagery...I love it. I'm looking forward to it. In fact, one thing that I'm trying (considering this whole work is an experiment), is that I'm taking notes on things I want to change, rather than going ahead and changing them right then and there. I think that it'll work well because it's easy to get caught up in the fixing and harder to actually finish.

So, now that I've procrastinated a little, I think that I'll return to my WIP and see if I can't make some more forward progress!

It's a Learning Process

Every day, it seems, I learn something new about writing and the writing process. Or, through my own writing, I verify something that a writer with more experience said about writing.

For example, when I read about writers saying their characters "talked" to them or wouldn't let them do something, I used to giggle. I mean, really? You're the writer, right? So, you're the one in charge of the story. It's as simple as that. WRONG. I'm constantly amazed by what my characters do or say. They assert their personalities and make sure that I do things their way. I'm just the typist.

While I haven't had a problem (yet) with writer's block, I do have a problem with writer's procrastination. See, I know what I'm going to write and where my next scene is going to go but I just can't seem to get to it. Sometimes, it's because my characters are too busy chatting or flirting with the boys, sometimes it's because I'm spending too much time playing on Twitter, and sometimes, the lake is calling me and I just can't stay inside.

And then there's the mid-book slump. Which I've hit. It's not that I don't like my story and my characters, but I'm ready for the book to be done (which is a totally relative term-revising & editing are next!).

If you're a writer, whether you're published, have been writing forever or just starting out, the best ways to learn about the process are to write (duh), to read (double duh) and to read the blogs and advice of those who have been there, who have experienced the things that you are now experiencing. Writing a solitary process most of the time and it's really nice to know there are others out there going through the same thing.

Write On!

All you had to do was ask...

So far, I've done most of my research for my WIP online. There's a ton of great information out there on the internet. Pretty much anything that you want to know.

However, when you want something written in a different language and you aren't willing/able to just use the "phrases" that are out there, you have to call in the big guns. I tried, I really tried to write my threatening message in Latin by just using what I found on the internet. And it wasn't too bad. But I wanted to be sure that I was actually saying things the right way...and not cursing or saying something wildly inappropriate.

To translate from English to Latin, I used this really cool translation program I found through the University of Notre Dame. It looked okay to me but what do I know about Latin (except the stems I teach my students)?

With a little more research, I found a Latin professor at Notre Dame and, using my most persuasive email language, begged her to proofread my message.

She emailed me back in THREE hours! With suggestions! And an offer to rewrite my message using "real" language (not just the stuff I pieced together on the internet) if I'd just sent her! OMG! This is the most fantastic woman in the entire world! (and she deserves all the exclamation points I can give her!!!)

Thank you, thank you Professor Hildegund "Gundi" Müller of the University of Notre Dame!

Pictures Count as a Post, Right?

Finnegan, my guest blogger for today:

I'm just teaching him how to blog. Maybe his posts will be more interesting than mine. But they'll probably just be about squirrels. And kibble.

My boy, the only child in my life (child with fur, to be exact), has got to be the most adorable dog on the planet. Agree or disagree, it's alright by me. I still say he's the cutest!

He gets very upset when I stick him outside and he wants to be in.







He also is a big fan of his kibbles.