WIP Wednesday #7

Well, I haven't posted one of these in awhile. Hmm, since July 2009 to be precise. Oops. But I swear, I'm here! And I'm still spending a crazy amount of time behind my computer screen.

If I'm not working on the novel--which continues to progress, no matter how slowly--it's writing about hot dogs, or writing entertainment articles/reviews on Gather, or brainstorming new novels (yes, yes, I know, I should be focused on getting the first novel done first--but sometimes, I just can't help myself). Then there's also attempting to keep up with everyone else's lovely blogs, and keeping up on Twitter/Facebook... and then, you know, working a full-time job and somehow also having a social life away from the computer.

All of this begs the question, when is too much... too much? Probably when you don't enjoy it.

Luckily, I'm still enjoying all of it. So, here's me, still sitting behind my computer, writing. (No one really believed me when I posted on Facebook that I was giving up on my novel on April Fool's Day).

After the amazing Paris trip, I've been overcome with so many ideas for the novel, important details that I need to include in my WIP, Through Charlotte's Eyes. I can finally really envision it whole, and that's such a driving force for me to finish this novel within the year.

But along with all these details are keeping track of my timeline that moves back in forth between 2005 and 1792-3, making sure I'm not repeating things I mentioned in Chapter 2 again in Chapter 17 that don't bear repeating, and so forth. Two weeks ago, I spent at least a half hour trying to track down something I had already written that affected what happened in a later chapter... I thought, there has to be better way to go about this. There has to be a way to be better organized. And voila! I thought of Scrivener, but, alas, that's only for Mac users. But the creators of the word processing program for writers recommended some other programs for Windows, luckily.

Thanks to those recommendations, I've been using Liquid Story Binder for the past two weeks and I'm finding it so much easier to get organized, so I don't spend wasted time tracking down things that I worked on weeks ago. Phew! (Anyone else using LSB? Or another similar program? How are you liking it?)

Things are moving smoothly now. I WILL finish this draft, I WILL get it edited, I WILL get it out to beta readers, and I WILL finish this novel by year's end. To keep pushing forward, my writing pal and I are organizing our own Write-your-A$$-off day for the end of the month. And I can't wait... writing a little bit here, a little bit there on the novel, never feels like enough. April 25th can't get here soon enough!

WIP Wednesday... *ahem* Thursday... #6

The title of this blog post says it all... I'm running behind on everything, the deadlines for my WIP included. I would rather crawl into my bed and hide under my covers then admit this - but I need to keep holding myself accountable - so I'm just going to spit it out and say it, as much as it pains me.

I still haven't even met my writing goals/deadlines for June 30th.

Commence gnashing of teeth and tearing out of hair.

Okay, okay. I'm calmer now. The deadlines are to help, not stress me out. I have excuses, plenty of them. I've been busy. And it's not like I haven't been working on the novel, I have - just not as much as I'd like to (or should) be.

I've been working out tons of snafus with getting the lease for my new place (I'm now halfway there; lease signed, just need a move-out date, and, you know, to start painting and packing). I've been out of town (to see a good friend from high school, and it had been much too long since we'd seen each other last). I've been spending time with my youngest sister before bidding her farewell (she left for Paris on Tuesday for five - yes, FIVE, weeks - and I'm oh so jealous of her). And, of course, I've been writing about hot dogs.

HOT DOGS.

In ways, I feel like my life is being taken over by hot dogs. Don't get me wrong. I'm loving it. I love keeping my eyes open for news stories related to Chicago dogs. I love hearing people's comments about my stories. I love reading about hot dogs, trying new hot dogs... simply put, I love the distraction. And, yes, it's a big distraction that is nothing related to Paris, riots, the French Revolution, time travelling, and all the other things my novel is about.

So it's decided. I'll keep working on Through Charlotte's Eyes, I'll keep pushing toward meeting my deadlines (even if I'm way behind), but I'll also start brainstorming on ideas for a novel that revolves around hot dogs. That, I believe, is the perfect solution.

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To join in on WIP Wednesdays, check out Kate's blog.

WIP Wednesday #5

My writing comes in waves. I write a ton and then… it trickles. I’ve been like this for years – not counting my year in grad school where I wrote every day because every day I had either a deadline or a goal that I needed to meet if I was to get my thesis done (which I did). But I graduated from The University of Chicago about a year ago, and my writing went back to coming in waves. In last week’s WIP Wednesday posting, I recounted all the progress I made in the previous three weeks – and then that wave of work ended. This past week I’ve been working on only one lonely chapter, and I haven’t made a drop of progress.

I want to get back to being as productive as I was back in grad school. Granted, I don’t have entire days to devote to my work – I have to pay back those grad school loans somehow! – but I know there’s more that I can do, and that’s why I wrote yesterday’s post and created some pretty hefty deadlines for myself. The deadlines make me a bit nervous, but I kind of like it that way. I have distinct goals that I can tick off each week; I can measure my progress. These deadlines – and thereby my nerves – help hold me accountable.

Then again, last night my daily writing consisted of writing the beginning of a story that got stuck in my head on my way to work, and that had nothing to do with my novel… but at least I was writing.

I’ve got a lot to do in the next two weeks – writing and otherwise – so back to it!

As always, happy writing!

If you want to join in on WIP Wednesday, check out Kate's blog here.

WIP Wednesday #4

It's been awhile, I know. My computer still has a virus, and until I get that fixed, I'm using my boyfriend's laptop - which is fine (even if it's disconcerting to look at the keyboard and see Chinese characters) but I know I haven't spent as much time writing as I should be.

It hasn't helped that I'm still having issues with my eyes. The eye doc says (after four appointments in the last two months) that my eyes are getting better and the nasty eye infection from my building's pool is starting to clear up enough that I can wear contacts again - finally! (But only for a couple hours, every couple days. Yeah. Seriously.) I've also been hunting for a new apartment, and am possibly moving further north but still well within Chicago city limits. I've been out of town, gone to weddings, have been volunteer teaching right after work... I know. I'm just making excuses for myself. I still need to write every day and keep plugging along! That said, despite my absence from my blog, I am making progress on the novel, albeit slowly.

In the three weeks since my last WIP Wednesday posting, I've revised/rewritten Chapters 4 through 10... okay. Wow. I didn't realize that until I looked it up. Seven chapters ain't so bad!

What I've been working on:

• Changing the POV from third to first person. I hit a couple road-blocks when Anne had her first time-travelling experience; the POV shift meant that her entire relationship to Charlotte changed. At first I didn't see how this would work. Would Anne just float around like a ghost watching everything? Nope! She becomes Charlotte, and I feel like I can say that without giving too much away. I'm still working out a few kinks - does Anne automatically know what Charlotte knows? - but so far, so good.
• Anne's voice. Ohmy. She sounds more like a teenager than ever before. Thank you first person! Not only that, but the dynamics of her relationship with the grand-mother she's never met before are coming out like never before. They clearly both want to get to know one another, but don't know how without coming off snippy and resentful because of their pasts.
• Incorporating more French Revolution history but not overwhelming the reader with too many dates, facts, etc. This is something I'll be working on until the novel is finished!
• Giving enough context for what's going on with France's 2005 riots for some of the scenes to make sense. So far, so good - but I still feel like I don't know enough about the riots. This frustrates me, so if anyone has any good resources, knows anyone I can talk to, please let me know!

Looking forward:

• I'm approaching the midway point of my novel, which makes me nervous. This is the least revised part of my book and I KNOW how much works needs to be done.
• The ending. I had a total 'light-bulb' moment two days ago about the novel's twist. That's all I'll say, otherwise it won't be a 'twist'! I might even write this twist (and the novel's ending) before I write the middle, because I'm way more excited about it and how it'll impact Anne and Charlotte.

As always, happy writing!

If you want to join in on WIP Wednesday, check out Kate's blog here.

WIP Wednesday #3

This WIP Wednesday revolves mainly around my Write-Your-A$$-Off Saturday, because it was a glorious day! Progress was made! Not that I haven’t been writing otherwise, because I have, but in spurts. And on Saturday, I told myself that laundry, that reading, that cleaning and dishes and vacuuming, and all the other things that I do to procrastinate could wait. I walked the four blocks to Panera, found a working outlet and a corner, opened up my boyfriend’s laptop (mine is still laid up with viruses galore), and dove right in. I took a short half-hour break but otherwise I got four and a half hours of solid writing in!! I need to do this more often.

I’ll be honest here. For the most part, I write every day, but not always on my novel, and, as of late, I’ve felt like my novel progress has slowed to a crawl. Rewriting huge chunks of the novel and changing the point-of-view from 3rd to 1st has re-energized me, but I still felt like I needed to make more progress. (Unfortunately, thinking and working things through in my head, just doesn’t count). And so Write-Your-A$$-Off Day rolled around, and I thought this was the perfect time to get moving and make some real, substantial progress. And that I did!

Even though I’ve been telling myself that I need to focus on the middle and the ending of the novel, the beginning taunted me. So I spent my Saturday reworking and rewriting Chapters 1 through 3. Chapter 1 especially, because the opening scene just didn’t feel like enough of a hook, and I felt like I was giving too much away in the rest of the chapter. After over an hour of reworking Chapter 1, I ended up cutting 700 words (or nearly half of the first chapter) and the entire opening scene changed. Progress!

First person is also working out splendidly. Anne’s personality is beginning to really shine through, and I’m realizing how much more I like her now that I hear/see her more in the writing. Her motivations are also coming across more than ever before.

Also, just because I focused on the novel’s beginning on Write-Your-A$$-Off-Day doesn’t mean I’ve been ignoring the rest of my novel. I’ve been reworking Chapter 6 and 7, when Anne time-travels and spends her first extended period of time in the French Revolution and inside the head of Charlotte. I’m encountering new questions: how does Anne’s thoughts impact Charlotte? Is it really Anne’s actions? Does she feel like she’s rewriting history? All these questions – and more – are creating some interesting developments that will affect the rest of the novel. And this, if I do say so myself, is pretty exciting.

So back to it!

Life is going to be pretty busy in the next few days; for one, I’ll be up north in Michigan over Memorial Day weekend (meaning, I’ll be without email/Internet). Then again, Michigan is where I always feel the most inspired, so even while I’ll be on vacay with some friends, expect another progress report next Wednesday! Oh wait - I’m volunteer teaching next Wednesday, right after work… so, hmm, maybe next week will call for a WIP Thursday? We shall see!

If you want to join in on WIP Wednesday, check out Kate's blog here.

WIP Wednesday #2

After all the helpful comments last week, meeting with my writing buddy CB on Sunday, and rewriting a few chapters, I decided to change the POV in my WIP from third person to first. Commence screaming, gnashing of teeth, and pulling out of hair.

But, seriously, I'm excited! While it seems like this huge, overwhelming project - because it is - it's not that much more work than I was planning on. I've already been working on rewriting huge sections of the novel, so changing the POV is just one more step in that process. At least, that's what I tell myself.

Plus, during this past week, as I've been rewriting chapters 4, 5, & 6 into first person, all sorts of new ideas have emerged, as if they've been there all along, but I just needed to discover them. It's an invigorating feeling, and I'm more excited about this novel than I have been in the past couple months.

I initially wrote Through Charlotte's Eyes in first person because of Anne's time-traveling escapades; I couldn't imagine the way the time-traveling would play out, with Anne being inside Charlotte's head, experiencing the French Revolution, without it being in third-person omniscient. That, and the fact that there's so much history involved, which no single character knows, that I didn't think I could write the novel from first person (Anne's perspective) alone.

Yet, so far, so good. The issues seem to be working themselves out as I write. (I had a wonderful 'aha' moment yesterday as I discovered a way for Anne to know things about the past, and about Charlotte, that she shouldn't know... but I'm not going to give too much away about that). The real challenge, I think, will come with rewriting the switches between 2005 and 1792/1793... but Bob & I are excited to take on the challenge this week! We're very excited about this development, if you couldn't already tell.

Til next time, happy writing!

If you want to join in on WIP Wednesday, check out Kate's blog here.