Work In Progress Wednesday

Hey, all! Today is the day in which I talk about a current WIP of mine.  Also, I'm going to talk about Dragon*Con, Carrie Ryan, and robots, so stick around.

First today's menu is a gigantic helping of cool excuses as to why I haven't exactly been working on my MSS this past couple of days.

Excuses: 

It's been a busy week for me. My husband and I went to the Decatur Book Festival, for one thing, where I heard Carrie Ryan talk about her zombie books. That was cool. But it did interfere with writing.

Also we did stuff with friends and family.

Then we spent a day at Dragon*Con:

Cute little lego stormstroopers!

I wish I'd taken more pictures of the awesome and the crazies at Dragon*Con, but I'm really shy and I was generally hesitant to walk up to random people and ask for a picture of them. I mostly took pictures of Star Wars costumes because I knew my little brother and sister would want to see that. I also saw a TON of awesome steampunk costumes, which made me very excited (but unfortunately I don't have pictures of that). And at one of the vendor booths, I found the steampunk pocket watch that inspired a portion of DRAGONSAYER, the book I'm currently querying...

But still, no writing.

But I'll talk about the WIP anyway:

I'm still having trouble with the flow of the story, and perhaps this is where some of my procrastination is coming from... I'm slowly uncovering the motivations of various characters and figuring out their convoluted back stories, but even then the writing itself is feeling clunky to me. Slow. Clogged. I need to do something, but I'm not sure what it is yet. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

The problem MIGHT be the POV (I'm currently writing in 3rd, but the story is beginning to feel like it needs to be 1st ... since I'm 30k in at this point I rather dread the prospect of changing it...)

Also, robots:

He could look like this.

I really really really really really wish I had a robot that could change the POV or tenses for me when this happens, because it is SO TEDIOUS to do myself. I would call him Robob. Will someone invent him for me, please?

Thanks. I'll be eternally grateful.

Awesomesauce Contest

So today I'm blogging about C A Marshall's awesome contest she's having in which she's giving away a free manuscript edit!

* cue cheers *

The zombicorns are partying, that's how awesome this is!

This is a pretty awesome opportunity, so if you haven't already done so, head over to her blog and check it out!

Zombies Vs. Unicorns

Folks, before this blog goes on any further I feel that I must make myself very clear on a serious and controversial issue that has been sweeping the interwebs. Are you Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?

In short: I am TEAM UNICORN.

Adding to their awesome? Rainbows and glittery little stars, people.

Well, at least, maybe. I'm going to admit I am slightly baffled by what we are supporting with this debate. Are we discussing the merits of the aforementioned creatures? Their ability to dismember you or me in a fight? Their ability to dismember each other? Which one we would prefer as a dinner guest? As a next-door neighbor? Which brand of apocalypse we'd prefer?

I'm not entirely sure, so I will address each of these concerns individually so you can understand why unicorns are the superior choice over zombies* in every instance.

Individual Merits of the Species:

A disgusting, rotting zombie.

Zombies are gross. They are shuffling, shambling, decomposing bodies that eat brains. Unicorns are beautiful, glistening, magical specimens of horsehood that have GIANT GOLDEN HORNS sticking out of their heads. Also, they have magic and stuff.


Ability to dismember you/me in a fight:

Should we be Team The-thing-that-can-eat-us-all or Team The-thing-that-won't-hurt-us? You decide. Either way, unicorns pwn, because let's face it. Zombies are slow and dumb. You can run away from them. You can outsmart them. You can cut them in two with a chainsaw. Ah, you might say, but you could cut a unicorn in two with a chainsaw! Let me say this in response, friend--I'd like to see you try.

Now unicorns, according to some interpretations, are gentle, docile creatures. According to other mythologies, they are fierce, vicious killing machines. Either way, if you're looking for a beast that is equipped to pose the greatest threat to your continued existence, look no further than the unicorn. From the tip of its wicked golden horn to the edges of its razor-sharp hooves, the unicorn is equipped to do serious slaughter to anybody who crosses it.

A unicorn prepares to dismember this disgusting zombie.

To sum up: unicorns kick serious butt. But I'd like to think that their benevolent natures keep them in check. So either way, unicorns win again.

Zombie's/Unicorn's ability to dismember each other in a fight:

Like I said before, zombies are slow and dumb (see my note about "real" zombies at the bottom) These slobbering, lurching monsters would be skewered by the unicorns before you could say "braaiiiiiinnnnnsss."  Also, did I mention unicorns have MAGIC?

MAGIC!

As a dinner guest:

Come on. You're making this too easy. With zombies--you ARE the dinner. With unicorns--if you're lucky, they'll even take care of the weeds at the edge of the driveway.

As a neighbor:

Zombies would make terrible neighbors. They would try to eat you, for one thing. That would put a serious damper on those summer block parties. Also zombies are probably awful with upkeep. Imagine how the property values will plummet when they leave bits and pieces of sweet old Miss Beckinstock lying by their mailbox.

Unicorns, on the other hand, would enhance the neighborhood. They'd probably attract rainbows and kittens. Even if they were evil, vicious unicorns, they'd probably at least keep their lawn a decent length.

An evil unicorn is still breathtaking.

Which sort of apocalypse?

Well, let's see. In a zombie apocalypse, humanity as we know it ceases to exist or moves underground in bunkers, armed with chainsaws. In the uniclypse, as I'd like to call it, rainbows, ice cream cake, and puppies are showered across the globe. Even if you're subscribing to the evil unicorn theory (EUT), at least you have decent opponents running around in all their muscular, obsidian-black glory.

So there you have it. My defense of Team Unicorn.

Now, if your purpose in delineating teams is to defend your position on which mythical creature would make a better subject of a dystopian/horror novel, I give you one word:

Zombicorns want your braiiiins too. But they are still magnificent.

Zombicorns.



What's your team, and why?

------------------------------

* I am going with the Romero or real zombies over any special "fast" zombies, because hey, you can't just go adding crap to your mythology.**  E.g., bam, unicorns can fly. See how infuriating that is?? :-)

**Not unless you're me defending team unicorn.

Setting Personal Goals

I love goals. I set all KINDS of them--"I will be showered and dressed before noon," for example, or "I will only spend X amount on ice cream cake this month."

Ice cream cake, while delicious, must be eaten in moderation.

Writing is no exception. Personally, I have tried a diverse assortment of goals when it comes to managing my creative output--some with success, some with not-so-awesome results.*

In one of my high school classes, we were taught about making goals (I believe it was health class specifically, which is weird, but ... whatever). I remember being told that you should have 3 types: 1) short term goals, 2) medium term goals, and 3) long term goals.

I absorbed this information like a good little student and have replicated it in my writing life. If you're like me, and goals help focus, motivate, and compel you, I would encourage you to set a few.

But what sort of goals should you make when it comes to writing?

Short term: 

This usually looks like "I will write 1k a day all summer" (*snort* because THAT happened, yeah...) or "I will spend X time each day writing instead of on twitter."

Medium term: 

For me this usually looks like "I will finish writing this book by August."

Long term:

"I will finish 4 WIPs this year." I really set this goal this year--whether or not I'm crazy, I'm not sure... (I have, however, completed 3 to date. I'm not holding out hope for the completion of that 4th one though!) This might sound super productive, but in reality I have about 8 WIPs in various stages of completion lying around at any one time. Finish, of course, means "complete the rough draft." Editing is a whole different animal.

I play lots of mind games with myself (an aspect of my ocd, I'm afraid) and for me, goals are mostly about suckering myself into expending some extra frantic effort for the singular consolation of achieving said goals. But hey, it can be very effective!

If you don't have any goals regarding your writing, I'd encourage you to make a few.

It could be as simple as "I will write every single day, even if it's just a sentence."

----------------------------------------------
* Once I set a short term goal (1 week) of writing 5k a day. It ALMOST KILLED ME. No, seriously. It was awful.

Experimenting with POVs ~ SHORT STORY EXCERPT

I read a book recently that switched between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, and I was captivated by the 2nd person narrative. I'd never read fiction written in the 2nd person before (and then in another book I've read recently, Stolen, I felt as though it was in 2nd person since the character is addressing someone by "you" the whole time--but really it was in 1st person).

Anyway, inspired by what I'd read, yesterday I was bored at work and started writing a short story using the 2nd person just to experiment with the style. I wrote a bit more when I got home ... voila.

(I'm not really sure what I think about it yet. I think the question of appropriate POV depends on the story itself--3rd is more detached and allows for a subtlety that 1st doesn't, and can give a sort of dramatic irony at times that is difficult with the 1st person narrative. But 1st has its advantages too, and can feel more intimate and personal. To me, 2nd person feels very hypothetical, and I am liking that. It's personal yet at arm's length simultaneously.) 

Anyway, here's an excerpt:

Imagine you’re sitting on your bed in a two room cabin in the woods. It’s late, not too late, but late enough that it’s dark outside and shadowy inside. There’s one lamp glowing by your bed, and you’re reading some paperback from the airport you had a layover in yesterday. You’re sleepy, kind of hungry, and ever so slightly pissed off because this stupid cabin doesn’t have hot water, and what kind of vacation doesn’t include a steaming shower or bath at the end of the day?

But you’re overall glad to be here, in the middle of Nowhere Mountains of USA, and you’re trying to read and ignore the bellowing of frogs outside your window.

You were watching TV while your parents drove to the grocery store at the bottom of the mountain, but there was a news bulletin about a bank robbery or escaped convicts or something, and you got scared and turned it off. Now you’re skimming this boring book and trying to keep your mind off of all the things that could go bump in the night out there.

You realize something isn’t right and you look up from the page, but it takes you a second to pinpoint what has tripped your subconscious radar. What has made you pause.

You figure out what it is—the frogs have gone deathly silent—just before someone kicks in the back door.

BAM. Splintering sounds. Crashing. It’s the most terrifying noise you’ve ever heard. You know immediately. You know. Somebody is breaking into this cabin and you’re here all alone and they are going to probably kill you.

Of course, you panic. You’re seventeen and in high school. You don’t know what to do. You don’t know self defense. Adrenaline shafts you in the heart, pushes you off the bed. Your hands are shaking and your vision is blurry because you can’t breathe right and you’re trying to be quiet. You run towards your window because the only thought in your head is ESCAPE.

The window doesn’t have a latch. It’s one of those ones that isn’t made to open. You hit it with the heels of your hands, and that hurts like fire. The window makes this awful shuddering sound, but the glass doesn’t break.

You start crying, the sobs are crawling out of your throat around the tightness squeezing your breath away.  You kick the glass so hard you fall on the bed. When you push yourself up, somebody’s in the doorway.

Everything slows down and becomes painfully distinct. The man is a dark, ugly shape, foreign and wrong like a spider in the shower or a roach in the closet. He’s blocking the other room, and behind him you can barely hear the shatter of things falling in the kitchen over the roaring of blood in your ears.     

He’s looking at you, and you’re looking at him. You drop your hands to your sides. Your mind jumps ahead to the part where they kill you. You hope they’ll do it quick. But then you stop thinking that because you aren’t going to give up yet.

He says something to you but you can’t understand him. Your brain has stopped processing language. You back up. You’re cornered. There’s no door out except the one he’s standing in and you can’t run through the walls. You reach behind yourself and grab anything—a hairbrush. It’s the most worthless weapon in the world, but you clutch it to your chest like it’s a knife. You’re thinking WHERE IS MY CELL PHONE? Except you don’t get signal up here anyway and besides it’s probably in the front room where the other people are. You are shaking so bad you almost drop the hairbrush.  You feel like you can’t breathe.

The guy walks into the room until his legs hit the side of your bed. He stretches out his hand. His mouth moves.

You scream something at him. Maybe it isn’t even words. Maybe you said dontyoutouchmeillkillyou but of course you can’t do that because he is much bigger and much stronger than you are.

Another guy comes in the room, breathing hard and bleeding a little on his forehead. He looks at you and he looks at the other guy. He laughs in a mean way. The kind of laugh that says he is annoyed.

You’re so terrified you think you might crawl out of your own skin and claw your way through the wall.

THIS. IS. IT.

The prospect of your own death is like a black hole and you’re being sucked towards it.

Chasing Trends

I read this post today, and it had a wonderful quote that I wanted to share:

“Write only what you want to write . . . Especially don’t listen to people . . . who think that you need to write what readers say they want. Readers don’t always know what they want. I don’t know what I want to read until I go into a bookshop and look around at the books other people have written, and the books I enjoy reading most are books I would never in a million years have thought of myself. So the only thing you need to do is forget about pleasing other people, and aim to please yourself alone.” ~ Philip Pullman

I 100% agree that readers don't always know what they want. I certainly don't always know what I'm going to like, and I can be VERY opinionated about books. I have picked up some of the most unlikely books considering my tastes, and found myself loving them--fanatically, passionately loving them.

For instance, how many people discovered they liked vampire fiction after reading Twilight? Or YA, for that matter? How many people don't like dystopias or sci fi but loved The Hunger Games?

I know of more than a few, I can tell you that.

So I urge you, fellow writers, keep writing what you love, whether you think it will fit the current trends/readership tastes or not.

Remember, trends come and go. Fantastic storytelling and compelling, fascinating characters will always be hot.

Now, I'm not advocating that you shouldn't seek to understand trends or follow publishing news and advice. That would be arrogant and probably stupid too. I'm saying don't go out and write a mermaid novel just because a bunch of agents said mermaids were the new vampires even though you want to write historical fiction and frankly you hate urban fantasy. Just don't do it. Don't let yourself fall into the trap of chasing trends. Don't give up just because your book isn't at the top of the "it" list of genres right now.

Besides, how do you think those genres got to be at the top of the "it" list? Somebody wrote an awesome book that helped spark a trend. And it could happen again :-)

Write what you love and create characters and a world you're passionate about and that readers can be passionate about too, because that's what I want to read when I pick up a book, WHATEVER the genre or subject matter may be.

Interview on the QQQE!

If you haven't done so already, check out my interview with Matthew Rush on the QQQE!

Many thanks to Matthew and his readers for such lovely comments and helpful advice!

XOXO

~ Katie