Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2012

The Nano Book--Not All That Little

It's November--always auspicious, since it's my birth month--so I signed myself up for my first official NaNoWriMo, which all of you writers know is not a teeny-tiny poem; it's short for National Novel Writing Month, in which, technically, you're supposed to write a 50,000 word novel start to finish before month's end. Here's the trouble: my novel is already 40,000 words fat, and that's probably only half-way to The End, but I need a push to finish, so if I write 50,000 new words this month and finish the second half of the novel I've been eking out for a year and a half, and then end up with a 90,000-word Beast, am I cheating? Do I care? Just need to finish this book. And then spend the next two months after NaNo hacking and slashing (oh, the pain) down to a more appropriate word-count. Not quite a nano-sized task, but I'm geared up and ready! (Yes, that was an exclamation point. That's how geared up these fingers be). I've info

More on researching your novel: chaos unwound

I'm always interested in how individual writers write. The whole process fascinates me, especially since it's so different for everyone.  Here's more on researching for your (fiction or fantasy) novel, this time from Shannon Hale, who, by the way, is doing a great little series of blog posts  where she goes through her award-winning Princess Academy chapter by chapter, analyzing and answering questions.  Someone asked if Shannon did all her research for the book as she wrote the first draft, or if she wrote first and then researched to fill in the gaps.  Shannon: " I do minimal research before beginning, write the first draft or two, and then do more intensive research, so that I already know what I'm looking for. I like the story to lead the research, not the other way around. I know other writers research in different ways." Another chaos-writer. I'm feeling a bond. Only, the way she describes it, the whole process sounds rather orderly. J

Unintentional Fire Break

Sorry for the blog silence again. I really meant to be good, but then fire season started up in Utah and my lungs responded by getting pneumonia. Not my favorite part of summer Feeling somewhat better now, so I'll be getting back to the blog soon. One good thing? Too tired to exercise or weed or clean or do laundry or play chauffeur, and lots of writing time on the couch with the laptop, so I'm finally loving my novel again. And I've read 1500 pages. That's two good things. Yes, storyfires. With way too much smoke.

Researching your novel: chaos eating the sun

Lately I'm interested in how people research for their novels. Rick Riordan: organized Rick Riordan's style, for example, seems all efficiency and organization. Before he sits down to write, say, a book based on Egyptian mythology, Rick claims to 1) toss off his research in about two weeks; then, when he knows everything he needs to know about his subject, he 2) jots down an outline, and 3) churns out a story. Which then, of course, is brilliant, funny, and makes your kid (who never wanted to read before) love both reading and Egyptian mythology. I'm in the middle of writing a fantasy novel, so you might think research would be kind of minimal. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha! This is my style: 1) Write the first page with a setting loosely based on reality. Realize you have no plot because your setting sucks because you don't know enough, and also you don't really want to know about that place. Love the first page, though! 2) Pick a new setting on which to lo

Not just a hobby, dude

It's April, so I was doing my taxes. Not my favorite thing on earth. Actually, I was gathering papers and checking my files and looking up figures and calling up my dentist so I could figure out how much I spent on family dental bills last year ($3,000, believe it or not. Yes, we do floss our teeth), and then giving all the results to my tax accountant, because numbers and my brain, they don't mix, and my taxes happen to be complicated. So, technically, the accountant   was doing my taxes, not me. I was just paying for it. Not my favorite thing, either. I needed more deductions. So I asked the tax guy if I could deduct writing expenses. Writing conference fees, travel expenses, the research trip I really need to take for my next book...because I had heard... Him ( sympathetic smile ): No, unfortunately, since your writing doesn't bring in any actual income, the government considers it a "working hobby." You know, something you just do for fun. I thi

Resurrected

Some of you have noticed Storyfires has gone dormant around here this winter. Thought I'd resurrect for Spring. My tulips and forget-me-not are in bloom. Aspen and maple leaves have appeared. Bleeding heart. Cherry blossoms. I keep thinking I should xeriscape my yard since I live in a desert. Cactus. Yucca. Mesquite. So I went to the nursery and came home with thyme and irish moss and delphinium. My psyche thinks I live in England, where things are green because it rains. I am alive. I am writing. Just so you know. Free books will be coming again. More stuff about writing. More about the writer's life. Finding balance. More about barefoot running. Maybe a poem or two. Just to torment you. See you around the fire!