You asked for it – real life writing process example

Yesterday was a near perfect day. It was cold and snowy so I wrote by the fireplace all day, a mug of coffee in reach. I got in about 7 hours of writing, went to the gym with BH, ran on the treadmill at a decent pace (3.25 miles at a 1% incline in 30:18 minutes, for those of you who care about these things) , stretched, showered, visited my parents, ate leftover turkey soup for dinner, watched half a movie, and was asleep by 10 pm. Seriously – I adore days like that.

Let me tell you how the writing went. I am currently turning Part 2, Draft 3 of my WIP into Part 2, Draft 4. (Draft 4 of Part 1 is finished. It is 163 pages long, so I figure the total book might come in between 300-325 manuscript pages.)

Yesterday’s task was to smooth out the action in chapters 24 – 28, and to polish chapter 24 until it was so tight and bright I could see my face in it. After much jumping back and forth, I felt the pacing was off in the section. In chapters 21 – 23 there are several Very Dramatic Things that happen. Chapters 24 – 28 are kind of a breather, both for the characters and the readers. A fair amount of time passes and there are some subtle and important developments and the character changes her opinions about a few things. In Chapter 29, we again get a Big Honking plot twist that sends life on another wild ride for our main character.

But every time I read through it, something didn’t feel right. The character’s motivation was a little off – I figured that out by my second cup of coffee. That could be fixed by clarifying some of her dialog and giving a few more peeks into her head. But that wasn’t enough…. what wasn’t working?

Revision is a pain in the butt, no question about it. It is also a necessary part of writing. You need that flash of inspiration, sure, but (for me at least) if I don’t revise and hone that flash, it is wasted. In early drafts, I often throw in way too many characters, details and (in this case and in the case of FEVER 1793) too much historical research. This tends to make the book bloated and uncomfortable, like eating too much junk food.

I find it helpful to ask myself – at every scene – “what happens to the rest of the story if I throw this out?” If the answer is “Not much” than it is time to reach for the delete key.

After close examination, and a good lunch, I realized that Chapter 27 was a total waste of time. It was a talking-heads chapter in which my Main Character and someone else stand around (in a dynamic location – very cool – I hated cutting that) and talktalktalktalk – no action at all, no true furthering of the plot. So I threw out the entire chapter and renumbered everything else.

By the time we left for the gym, chapter 24 was in really good shape. Getting rid of 27 allowed me to see more clearly what had to happen in 24-26. Today’s goal in to rewrite Chapter 25 (minimum goal) and to rewrite 25 & 26 (maximum goal).

That’s the way it works in my head.

At long last, winter blows in

As I type this, the sun is crawling up in the east, turning the 10 inches of snow we got yesterday the color of platinum. It is -3 degrees outside. The air is perfectly still; the birds are huddled in their nests and the squirrels have taken the day off. Not me. I have the coffee pot going and breakfast is minutes away.

It is such a relief to finally have some winter weather. I need seasons.

Spent yesterday with an awesome history professor who wrote a very important academic book that relates to my WIP. She graciously shared some of her research with me and let me talk through another plot knot. It was a terrific day and went by way too fast. I think I have figured out how to cut out a chapter and will work on that today. Given that the outside temperature won’t reach much beyond 19 degrees, I am going to abandon my office and write downstairs in front of the fireplace.

Thank you EVERYONE for delurking and semi-delurking and just saying “hi” yesterday. I will finish responding to comments today.

Looking for a procrastination device? Speak pops up on YouTube.

Today I get to pick your brain

When my head was in the sand last week, apparently it was Delurking Week. Having you been lurking here, but hesitated to speak up?

Well, introduce yourself! Please! Who are you? Why are you here? Add a comment – stay anonymous if you want, but give me a couple hints about why you stroll down this forest path.

Why am I asking you to pull aside your invisibility cloak? I spent most of yesterday putting together a list of updates and changes I want to make on my website. This got me thinking about the blog and why I write here. A big part of why I write this blog is participate in a community of like-minded people. But I think I need to be clear about what is on your mind.

What do you want me to write about on this blog? What should I never, ever mention again? Want more pictures? Of what? Do you want more stuff about the writing process, or should I never use the word “deadline” again in a sentence?

And on a much more significant note, he never had a blog, but Dr. King knew the power of the word.

TWISTED playlist – vote early, vote often!

I did it! (I think.)

Thanks to all of your great suggestions yesterday, and a very, very late last night with Stef and Amy and my husband, I have put together the first crack at the TWISTED playlist and I posted it on iTunes.

If you go to iTunes>Music>iMix, type in halse in the Search box for iMix Name. That should take you to it. (Does anyone know of a faster way to do this?) iTunes wouldn’t take the whole thing, so I mentioned the other songs in the Description. Vote for my mix! (You vote by rating it on iTunes.) Make me smile! Throw me a bone while I sit, chained to my desk, the fires of the deadline crackling at my feet, smoke curling upwards!

I am asking to create a new page for my website that will features playlists for all of my books. Here is what I have for TWISTED, so far. And yes, the order of the songs is important:

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” The Pogues

“Brick in the Wall” Pink Floyd

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” Nirvana

“Yoda” Weird Al Yankovic

“Trogdor” Strong Bad (http://homestarrunner.com/downloads.html)

“I Want You To Hurt Like I Do” Randy Newman/ Land of Dreams

“Come As You Are” Nirvana

“Needle in the Hay” Elliott Smith

“Munich” The Editors

“Hurt” Johnny Cash

“She Hates Me” Puddle of Mudd

“How to Disappear Completely” Radiohead

“Everybody Hurts” R.E.M.

“Hallelujah” Jeff Buckley

“Real Men” Tori Amos

“Float On” Modest Mouse

What do you think?

P.S. One last thing: the Syracuse Post Standard ran my essay on how salt potatoes are so, so, Syracuse.