Visual Storyboarding: Accountability

So - I am woefully behind on my last installment of the Visual Storyboarding series. I'll spare you the excuses, or if you want to know precisely why I haven't done more than flash fiction here in a good while, you can visit my Beauty of Painful Grit post.

Recently, I've tried to practice what I've been preaching to all of you since my blog first started in late September 2011. After months of lecturing on how to write, what to do, and not do, I've made it a priority to put my money where my mouth is. I've been writing - serious rewrites on Castle 8, and expanding my suddenly-hello-here-I-am-you-ought-to-write-me manuscript idea for Welsan.

But it's easy to get discouraged when you're writing bits and pieces every day, and your characters argue with you, or simply won't cooperate. So I figured out a way to help me overcome the doubt that so often bogs us down.

This is what I would rather be doing all day.

I have so many jobs, and so many demands on my time, that making time to write is difficult. Of course, we could all say that - life in the 21st century is an ongoing cautionary lesson on the cannibalistic principle of busy-ness. Our lives eat us alive, and with it most (if not all) of our creative energy. That's the very real threat, at any rate.

My writing funk came from knowing that I was doing a lot of writing - A LOT of writing - and yet very little of it was showing up in my manuscript. It was a horrible feeling to think that I was writing my fingers off and had "nothing" to show for it.

I was also discouraged because, a couple years ago, I and a few writing friends made it our mantra to write a minimum of 500 words a day. The ugly truth finally hit home: 500/day just wasn't a feasible goal for me. It felt more like a hollow ritual that somehow had me by the neck.

So one day in mid-May I stopped, and took inventory of my writing life.

I thought about how much blogging I do. That I had been trying to get back into more flash fiction. That I was spending a chunk of time each month beta-reading for friends who are on the same road to publication that I am.

It wasn't that I hadn't invested in my love, I realized. I had lost track of how I invested in that love.

My accountability calendar. This is now as routine for me as brushing my teeth.

Pictured above is my personal solution to that quandry - and, as you might expect, it's a very visual way to keep track. But I am a very visual person, so this is what works for me.

If you study the above photograph, you will detect several patterns to how I "keep track":

     * I always note the starting word count, and ending word count on my manuscript each day.

     * I then figure the difference and note the total word count in the box at the top of the day.

     * Negative word counts are considered progress 

     * Other things noted as writing progress:

          - flash fiction opportunities (Menage Monday, Five Sentence Fiction, Write4Ten)

          - posting said flash fiction on my blog, or other blog posting activity

          - beta-reading for someone else

          - those evenings spent doing significant networking on Twitter

Keeping track of my writing in this fashion didn't make a lot of sense for the first few weeks, but now that I've been at it a couple months I'm detecting distinct patterns. I've learned that:

     * Up to three non-writing days in a week is fairly average for me. 

     * I tend to write more toward the end of the week.

     * Getting anything written on Monday is nothing short of miraculous most weeks.

     * When I make time to read, I am more likely to make time to write

In recent weeks I've seen several bloggers sound off on the "Don't count your words - make your words count" saying, and similar axioms. I must say I am inclined to agree. I also think the age-old advice to "write every day, regardless" is also worth its weight in gold.

Obviously writing isn't going to happen EVERY day - see my calendar as proof of this - but if the habit of writing every day is there, and the accountability to boot - then the dream moves forward.

Not by leaps and bounds, perhaps, but forward movement is all any writer ultimately needs.

How do you make your words count? How do you hold yourself accountable for your dream?

Let me know in the comments!

And as always - thanks for reading!!

If you missed the earlier Visual Storyboarding episodes, you can follow these links to catch up:

     PART ONE: Storyboarding vs Mere Plotting

     PART TWO: Building on Your Hook

     PART THREE: Chasing Down the Details

PART FOUR: Jellybean, Licorice, Vonnegut, Line

Flight of Blue ~ Interview!

Welcome to a very big day in the life of one of my writer friends. Today, Anna Howard releases her debut novel, Flight of Blue to the reading public. A YA book about magic, friendship, and what it means to do what is right over what is easy - Flight of Blue tackles hard issues in a fairy-tale-with-a-twist approach.

Haven't heard of Flight of Blue? Here is a snippet to whet your appetite:

A cursed traffic light. A rip in the fabric of the world. A possum sorcerer injured on a quest for revenge.

Kai and Ellie embark on a journey to return the sorcerer to his home. Entangled in events that could destroy the world, Kai must choose whether to accept the role he was born to play, but isn’t sure he wants.

Writing a novel is always an intense act of love - and very hard work. So of course I wanted to know more about how Anna got to this point. Lucky for me, she was willing to sit down for an interview and give me the inside scoop on how her dream became a reality.

* * * * *

Hello, Anna! Thank you for taking time to answer my questions. First and foremost, how did you get the idea for Flight of Blue?

After nearly being t-boned in an intersection when someone ran the new traffic light by my house, I was driving home with adrenaline pumping in my veins and saw a possum lying by the side of the road. I stopped to see if I could help, and the possum told me a story about a sorcerer and the curse on the light. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ;-)

One of the more powerful sorcerers in the books is a talking Opossum. It's such a great twist to the story, but I do have to ask: Why Opossums? What made you pick that creature and not racoons or foxes or something more "traditionally" fairy tale-ish?

Well, Angela, that's a good question. I'm glad you enjoyed the twist, but I have to confess, I didn't plan it. Possums are unfortunately the most common victims of careless driving in the semi-rural area of Tennessee where I live. So my sorcerer was always an opossum. Once I met Reginald and then met his folk, I realized what a fun group they were and how much material they gave me to work with. Plus, Reginald's fun to tease. I call him a rodent and Kai calls him Reggie, and I'm not sure which of us is higher on his black list, but he's so cute when he gets all bristly. I suppose it could get us cursed or something, but Reginald's sort of sworn off cursing things in revenge after the fiasco with the traffic light. At least, I sure hope he has...

I know from my own writing experience that certain aspects of novel-writing are more difficult than others-sometimes it's an unsavory character who is hard to write, sometimes its a specific scene. What was the biggest challenge about writing Flight of Blue?

I'd say the biggest challenge was actually Sebastian. But of, course, it wasn't his fault. It was just difficult to remember to record his reactions to events since he wasn't taking part in the conversations. I finally figured out I'd been neglecting him when he kept up a constant stream of head bumps and wiggles, drawing more and more attention to himself until I had appropriately recorded all of his contributions to the events.

While Flight of Blue has a happy ending, it does end with a few unanswered questions, and hints of events to come. What can we expect for our heroes in the next book?

After discovering where his parents are, Kai will embark on quest with his friends to free them. The Realm of Darkness is even more intent on taking control of the Middle Realm, now that they've realized the Keeper walks the Realms once more. Kai will have to battle enemies on all sides with the help of his friends from Flight of Blue and some new ones along the way as he strives to retain control of his own mind and solve a puzzle that will give him a powerful means of rescuing his parents while discovering more about the mysterious prophecy of the Lucinarium.

When can readers expect the second episode in the Keeper of the Keys Chronicles?

The release date is still to-be-determined, but definitely by Summer 2013, and hopefully a bit sooner if my team and I can swing it. The sequel is called the Guardians, and folks who are interested can like my Facebook page and/or sign up for my mailing list to get updates as planning progress. I can say that I'm about halfway through the first draft, so it is definitely underway!

Links:

Facebook:

http://facebook.com/aehowardwrites

Mailing list:

http://eepurl.com/kj4dj

Thanks, Anna, for a great interview!

Curious? You can check out Flight of Blue using the links provided above, 

or check it out on Goodreads!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creative Pacing

A new month, a new blog design - and a new update schedule. Welcome to the new AL.

When I started my blog waaaaaaaaaaay back in September, I decided that I would not marry myself to one specific updating schedule, though the "shiny" of a new endeavor naturally meant that I was posting a lot. As in, every day.

I wasn't worried about the frequency at the time. New things always have their lustre that must wear off before you step back and readjust. Knowing that this blog would be a learning process, and an ongoing "writer's resume" (of sorts), I decided to keep up the 5-6 posts per week routine until I felt that both the topics and the pacing had worn thin, and I needed to scale back.

The big surprise: It took me five months to get to that point.

But that threshold - or perhaps I should say crossroads - has at last come. Personal craziness aside (the Goff Clan has been racking up frequent flier miles at the doctor's offices and hospitals lately), I've come to a point where the daily writing energy that I've funneled into blogging needs channeling to other projects, not the least of which is the now nearly-completed trilogy that I hope to query beginning in late May or early June.

The Upshot: I am going to hold true to my original vision of what I set out to do, by:

(a) Going to a Tuesday/Thursday update schedule (weekend silly posts and Six Sunday Sentence excerpts will continue as usual) 

(b) Hold myself accountable to the original discipline which started this adventure in the first place. (Especially item #3 in that link)

This new schedule will allow me to do three things:

1.  Focus on the writing that is at the heart of why I do what I do. 

2. Give updates of higher quality to my blog followers (including the popular Agent Tweets series) 

3. Stay sane.

OK ---- so maybe that third item is a bit of a stretch. But here's hoping. :-)

I also intend to continue with Lillie McFerrin's weekly Five Sentence Fiction challenge (really excited about this week's prompt, by the way - go check it out!). So expect the odd random flash fic to appear here from time to time.

So with all that being said...next Agent Tweets coming to you next Tuesday! With a little weekend silliness along the way.

Keep Reading --- Keep Writing --- Keep On Creating!

Let me know what you think in the comment section!

http://anonymouslegacy.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-endeavors.html

Agent Tweets #7: Got a plan?

Welcome to my weekly series that highlights and responds to 

publication-centric comments from agents and editors, gleaned from Twitter. 

As always: I do not name agents and editors quoted in these posts. The quotes 

listed here are indicative of the spectrum, and just happen to be 

the most compellingly worded variations.

This week's installment should be a "d'oh" kind of post for those of us who are looking to query for an agent, sooner or later. But now that I'm nearing my own self-imposed deadline to look for said agent, I am finding I need to review those "d'oh" memos. One can never assume that the obvious will dawn on an eager wanna-be-published writer when they're in the throes of querying. (I know that's true for me.)


Here's a scattering of agent tweets I've seen on this topic lately:

         Selling SF is different than selling literary fiction. Markets are different, editors are different 

Why shld you read from pub before sub'ing? To know if your story fits, to check out their quality, their editing, their formatting//What if you're submitting to a place you'd be horrified to have your book associated with or that doesn't do quality work?// Throwing it at the wall to see what sticks isn't a good publishing plan for any author. Do your research!

Why this matters: Let's put this in practical terms: If your desire is to teach, would you apply for a job as a deoderant tester? If you are gifted in mathematics, would you actively seek a job as a makeup artist? Would an experienced prison warden actively look for a way to work arranging choreography for the Bolshoi Ballet?


Of course not. (Not unless you're looking at one of those as the potential lead-in for a great fiction piece, in which case - be my guest.) 


Further, there's the point made in the second tweet: what if you show up for work to find you've landed with a bunch of prissy neatnicks when you're the tomboyish mountain girl, or a bunch of hard-nosed thugs when you're the prima donna? Remember that if you land a job with Agency X, then their website, and other workers associated with them, become part of your collective public image. You need to know before signing your contract whether you're OK being known as part of the Neatnick Wilderness Thug Girly-Girl Collective before you send those business cards to the printer.

The same applies with whom you query. Consider it as a job interview for your book. If that is so, then your query is your job application, so you want to make sure it goes to the right office, the best prospective employer. 

Photo Source

To help narrow down the possibilities of whom you should (and should not) query, I would highly recommend Chuck Sambuchino's 2012 Guide to Literary Agents. Not only is it full of great listings, but also contains a very informative FAQ section at the beginning that gives more clarity to submissions, what to reasonably expect from an agent (even after you get signed), the question of critique fees, and the rest. For those of you who have Kindles, this book is also available as an e-book for only $9, as opposed to the usual $20. (Nice deal if you ask me --- that's how I came by a copy.)


Of course, once you think you've narrowed down who you want to query, make sure you go to the next level of preparedness, and do the following:

     * Go to the agent's website. Again - if we're talking about potential employers, you'd want to know a little about who they are, what makes them tick, and the kind of books they have represented in the past. Also: If you've been "handed" a link to follow, doing your homework and finding a rather unprofessional website can be your first red flag that it isn't a reputable agency for your manuscript. (I've seen a few of those. They're creepy.)

     * Double check submission guidelines. Sometimes agents will tweak what they are looking for, which means certain genres can roll off or on the menu at different times. Don't assume that an agent always is looking for paranormal romance, or high fantasy, just because they have in the past. Publishing trends are constantly shifting, and unless an agent sees themselves as serving a very narrow and specific niche (I don't know of any like that - do you?), then they will generally close or open submissions to certain groupings of literature according to what they are certain they can sell.

     * Don't overlook "annoying" submission requirements*. You're sending your query to its first job interview. Make sure you tuck in its shirt, zip its fly, and wipe its nose nice and clean before you send it in. (Or, put more practically, make sure your query is in the correct format, and within the specified parameters. If the agent says "Send the first three pages in the email - no attachments" then do just that.)

*Topic of a future Agent Tweets post.

Do you have a favorite online source for writers wishing to narrow down the field of agents?

If so, let me know in the comments?

(Do You Have a) Life Novel?

I've been very busy lately. VERY busy. What with traveling, teaching, and other work obligations, I've hardly had time to turn around and look at my shadow. Pile on that the added complication that several family members have been racking up frequent flier miles (so to speak) at various hospitals lately, making the past six weeks especially rocky.  Funnily enough, it's at times like this that I feel the strongest urge to write.

Writing is a long-standing habit for me. I started my first journal in second grade* entirely on a whim - I'm not even sure where I got the idea to do such a thing (maybe from my teacher?) - but it certainly marks a major turning point for me. Looking back, I'm inclined to think of that moment as when I truly became a Writer.

I haven't journaled faithfully over the years, though during certain seasons of life I have journaled religiously, and in large quantities. What's interesting to see is the steady trajectory of my life that has been mapped out over the years, in the hodge-podge of notebooks, fancy journals and oddments of typed paper stuck together in old report folders.

This past weekend I was home all day on Saturday, with the hours to call entirely my own. It was such a luxury, I wanted to spend it well. Some of that time I spent rereading old journal entries.

Talk about being transported to another place entirely! If I am never published for the public to read, at least I have the novel of my life written - or it will be, by my journey's end.

Here is a short sample of some of those entries:

December 27, 1983: Today was icy cold. There were even icicles on the volkswagon. Thursday is to be even COLDER. Maybe even SNOW!(**) 

October 16, 1989: Mondays are always kind of looney, but this one was really strange. I don't really know why. Maybe it was because everyone was in a good mood today. That almost NEVER happens. Anyway, I had a pretty good day, except for lunch. _____________ wasn't at school today, so Annual Staff was sort of depressing. We seem to get this kick out of harassing each other. 

September 3, 1994:  Today we went traipsing about in Papa's gardens, picking whatever was ripe. Tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers - we wrenched them off their dewy bushes by the handfuls. We inspected the fig tree, but Papa said those fig-buds wouldn't be ripe for another three weeks. We then loaded ourselves down with baskets and grocery bags, and went to the back yard to pick pears. The tree was so heavy-laden with fruit that two large branches had broken from the weight. 

February 17, 2011: Today went by the used book house...and purchased six books. One is a beautifully illustrated 1946 version of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The other is a 1980 compilation of the correspondence of F Scott Fitzgerald. Apart from my propensity to gravitate toward obscure books (the Correspondence, not the Rubaiyat), the Fitzgerald purchase was a real guilty pleasure...I've decided that between [reading] Mornings on Horseback, Mary Chestnut's Civil War Diary, and now Fitzgerald's Correspondence book, that I am being fairly chased back into journaling again. And it's about time.

(*) The big topic of importance that started my very first journal entry? I had a glass of Five Alive with my afternoon snack. Big news, folks!!

(**) Big news for central Alabama, folks. Trust me.

NOTE: I didn't go a whole fifteen years without journaling...but even so I can see a distinct and sheer drop in my journaling once I had steady and increasing access to the internet....

Ugh. Internet vs "old school" journaling.

Knowing how journaling has defined me over the years really makes this one of my snarky little soapboxes. Obviously I love the internet --- I wouldn't have a blog if I didn't --- but I've got to keep my boundaries clear and well-defined.

I can't give up my old-school journaling. I can't be unfaithful to my original Self.

Do you journal, even sometimes? Is it s safety valve, a creative outlet, 

or a natural extension of your love of writing?

How do you journal - with pen and paper, into a computer file, 

scrapbooking, or something else? Let me know in the comments!

Pulse Check

As a teacher, I constantly give pulse checks to my students. In my classroom, a "pulse check" is a start-up activity or pop quiz, in which I ask broad questions that let me know where the students are - how they are progressing with projects, what they are reading (or not reading), what has overwhelmed them, what has surprised them, and what they think adds or detracts from the class.

I do these every other week or so; and over the course of the semester these pulse checks tell me something  that the individual papers cannot. Collectively, they show me how far my students have come: in their thinking, their writing, what they find important or unimportant. One pulse check tells me details of the moment they're in; an accumulation of pulse checks shows me their trajectory.

Last Saturday night I got a pulse check of my own, and when I least expected it. I was printing out my NaNoWriMo script when I found I was in need of some divider tabs. I fished around in a desk drawer and found them, buried underneath an avalanche of construction paper. When I pulled them out, however, I discovered the tabs were already labelled with old story titles. Story titles, moreover, for book ideas I had not thought of since college. Book ideas that, at the time, I thought would launch my writing career.

Need I say it? The titles were horrible. Every one of them.

Don't think so? Then let me tell on myself for a moment. Here is the full list of what my College Self considered "promising material" for future publication:

Haley's Comet
Yearleaping
Devil at Death's Ridge
The Unpredictability Factor
The Pirate Conspiracy
Summer of the Vikings
Flight of the Predestine
Raising Cain in East Wigging

The worst part of discovering these labels was knowing that, once upon a time, I had a working rough draft for every one of these underwhelmingly banal ideas. Every. Single. One.

Now, if you're not laughing at me, you might be tilting your head to one side and thinking "Well, that one doesn't sound so bad; I'm pretty sure I've heard of that title elsewhere - or something similar to it..."

Which is one of the reasons I find all of these titles so cringe-worthy: first, because they are all so neutral and generic sounding; and secondly because I remember the general concept behind each book, and they were all monumentally bad. Even if the titles themselves were all right (only the East Wigging title still makes me smile a little bit), the stories would not have lived up to any marketing hype. Not even close.

I looked at the divider tabs, and thought about the ideas they represented. Then I glanced back at my NaNoWriMo manuscript, for which I needed the divider tabs in the first place. I hardly knew whether to laugh or blush. In the end, I was encouraged, not the least because the reminder showed me a couple things about myself:

* I'm glad I wasn't published while I thought I was great. Obviously I was infected with some serious "delusions of adequacy" at the time I wrote those labels. I thought then that I had grand, new, cutting-edge tales to tell. Ideas that no one had ever considered. I, with all my inherent creativity, would write those books and wow the world. My Present Self looks back at that season of life and says an earnest thank-you prayer that the Almighty prevented me from taking any of those manuscripts through to the end. I shudder to think of the consequences, had I tried to seriously submit any of those earlier ideas.

* I'm glad I lived a little before I truly knuckled down with my writing. Since making those dividers, I've traveled to five continents, been a sign language interpreter, and learned how to cook hard-core vegetarian and vegan food. I've played flag football in the woods at night (and got a killer bout of poison ivy as a result). I've had an herb garden, been mistaken for Sigourney Weaver, and helped take apart (and reassemble!) a Chevrolet motor. I've been cussed out over the phone by an irrational customer. I've skied in the Andes and hiked in the Alps, been camping in a snowstorm, and read copious amounts of Viking sagas. I had a pickle-canning fiasco that ended in stitches and a tetanus shot. I've played poker for Skittles and won.

Such experiences gave me a wider view on the world than ever before; and when the time was right, those experiences didn't just trickle into my writing - they leapt and flew and wrangled and erupted onto the page. Marvelous eruptions, in ways my Present Self still can't fully understand or explain.

But I have a hunch my Future Self knows very well how it will end. And when that Future Self sees what sort of literary litter I am leaving behind now, she will take another pulse check, blush a little, and say "My, how far I have come...."

Life in the GURMAD

So, the fantabulous Amanda said in her guest post that I am currently wandering around in the GURMAD - ie, The Great Unknown Regions of Mystery and Death. I laughed aloud when I saw that, because that really describes my life right now.

Well, apart from the death stuff. No death-ish-ness, or anything pertaining thereunto, going on here. (So don't worry about that.)

Even so, my life is enmeshed in the Great Unknown on several levels - some of which has been going on for a while, some which is only now gearing up (including this blog). Being self-employed is, in itself, a Great Unknown, an adventure within adventure, that is ongoing and ever changing. And I love it. Despite the curve-balls it throws me sometimes (okay, maybe more often than merely "sometimes") I wouldn't change it. Life in the Great GURMAD is one heckuva ride and I will proudly wear my membership badges (all of which I have entirely earned).

This week finds me in Texas to see old friends for an extended and much needed vacation. So you might say that here in the GURMAD (shall I not do it in all caps? I think it works well as a name of it's own) I have found an oasis, where I lick some of my battle-wounds and get myself back up to snuff for the next round of adventures - because the Gurmad, like Wonderland and Neverland, is full of adventures, each one coming closely on the heels of the next.

And honestly - I need those adventures, especially the little ones that add so much flavor and variety to each day. If you follow my Twitter status updates, you know that I am always posting about the oddments that color my days, and it is those oddments that feed my writer's brain and give me the wherewithal to pour out new ideas onto paper.

This holiday in Texas has been just that. I have been able to unplug from the Blackberry (well, mostly), leave the grading and lesson plans behind, and not worry about anything else for several days. I have been treated to copious amounts of hot tea, lots of conversations with precocious children (my friends have four, each one of them a rosetta stained glass window), twilight dinners on the back patio, immersion in local history (Texan history is one of the things I know practically nothing about), daily naps and the most wonderfully restful, soaking conversations you'd ever want to bask in.

The timing could not be better. With my manuscript rolling out for its first round of cold reads with the Beta readers, NaNoWriMo only two weeks away, plus my 983475 other jobs that I must attend to (one must pay rent and buy groceries, after all....selfish but true), I am staring a ton of deadlines in the face - some self-imposed, some just part of the natural workings of the Gurmad. But it can all stack up very quickly.

That's why I need to remember that Gurmad is a much bigger place than deadlines and bills and lesson plans and such. There are three-year-olds that need foot races, Darjeeling tea to be savored, mango salsa to be slurped in large quantities, evening conversations by candlelight to be enjoyed, and friends to embrace in ever-winding layers to which (one hopes) you never quite find the bottom.

That is the beauty of Gurmad: it is mysterious and dangerous, and maybe death does peek in on you once in a while; but mostly it is a glorious adventure full of unbounded opportunities. So many opportunities that, as Amanda speculated, I may have a hard time finding my way out.

And honestly? -- I hope I never do.  :-)

Caffeine Rush

It is after 2am and I am still glued to my keyboard. I have been writing a monster email/FB post for the last hour, trying to explain to my friends why I am dropping the sprawling village of Facebook in favor of Twitter, this blog, and focusing on my manuscript.

It was hard. Not because I didn't have good reasons - I have a list a mile long - but because I realized what a huge turning point this is for me. I am reformatting my life as we speak, and it is both exciting and daunting. Essentially I have come to my playing field, faced with my appointed "pitch and toss" game of life, that Kipling spoke about:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings 

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss...

To do so, I need both hands (electronically speaking), and make the most of my opportunities at the keyboard amidst my three jobs and all the responsibilities that come with them. I'm making adjustments financially, schedule-wise, and in many other ways to make sure I do what it takes to make this - both the jobs and my novel - happen.

I could fluff on about this some more, but I am dead tired. Tomorrow (today?) may be one of those wacked-out school days where I teach class (and quarter exam reviews, no less) on diminished sleep and lots of coffee.

LOTS of coffee.

And if I'm lucky, I might even make sense. Or at least be somewhat entertaining. (My students could tell some stories on me....)