drafting.

I'm not a published writer.  I may never be.  But I do my homework.

Every single published writer who's taken the time to stick up a blog or an "about my writing process" page that I've read all say the same thing:  there is no such thing as a perfect draft.  Therefore, I get really vexed when someone says "oh hey, I've written a story!" and they hand it to me and say "I wrote it last month.  It's perfect."  Bgah.  It's not.

And this is where I need to stop and clarify:  there's no such thing as a bad story.  But just because you have a good story doesn't mean that your writing is up to snuff.  You can be a master storyteller on your first try, but that sure as heck doesn't mean that your book is ready to go to the publisher on the first run.  Seriously.  Don't do it.

Seriously, I'm not a professional editor, either, but there are reasons why my peers have always given me their "stuff" to edit.  I'm an avid reader.  I read books objectively.  Good story, love this character, this one's flat, a couple blaring grammatical errors in chapter three.  It's not a good book or a bad book, and if you ever hear me use those words, it is reflecting my opinion of the story and whether or not I, personally, enjoyed it.  Well-written and poorly written, on the other hand, are a completely different can of worms.

If I tell you that you shouldn't be capitalising your colours, for example, it's not because I'm trying to take away your creative license or make you look bad.  It's simply that your creative license only extends as far as content goes, and you cannot change the rules of the language.  Seriously, I know.  I regularly spell things in British English (did you see the "u" in "colour" up there?) but I live in New Hampshire and I darned well know better than to stick that in anything short of something like this - a blog entry that will account to nothing.  On my own time, I spell "a lot" as one word, and that's all fine and good, until I want something published.  If I'm too self-centered to change the spelling to something that is proper American English before sending it out to an agent, then I'm just wasting the agent's time.  Grammar, same deal.  For real, people.

Sometimes - okay, a lot of the time - I'm pretty snobby about my own writing.  I love my characters, I really want Jacob and Jessica to remain mortal enemies, not people-who-hate-eachother-at-first-and-then-fall-desperately-in-love.  However, as much as I may defend my point in the beginning, I think that you'll often find that when I go back and change things, I really do change things.  I say this because I want to make a point:  I practice what I preach.  I have been writing and rewriting the same story for the last ten years, and last year, I bloody finally finished the manuscript.  Note that word:  manuscript.  Not book.  I haven't finished the book.  The book isn't finished until it's bound and has a publishing house insignia on the side.  When I draft, I don't just fix things.  I rewrite.  So when I mark up someone's manuscript (ah!  That word again!) I don't expect the writer to do anything more than I do.

And, seriously, that being said, if you think that I'm harsh to you, you should see this page that I'm looking at right now of my own manuscript.  I think I've got something scribbled about every third word.

So, yes, you can write a very slow book (see "John Green") or a very fast book (see "Stephen King").  Your proliferation depends on who you are.  But in the end, only about 5% of that finished manuscript is going to be gold.  You know what that means?  That means 95% is rubbish.  Take the advice or leave it; it's not my advice.  It's wisdom I grabbed from John Green, from Laurel K. Hamilton, from Tamora Pierce, Jodi Picoult, and Stephen King.  If you don't like it, that's your problem, but all five of them are published and successful.  Shout "but that book totally sucks!" as many times as you like, but clearly millions of people disagree with you.  These people are doing something right.

Dunno about y'all, but I'm going to put my lot in with them.

So, here I go.  Draft X of Chapter Six of Fate, here I come.

Last Movie/TV Viewed: Lie To Me, S2Ep11
Last Song Heard: "All the Small Things" by blink 182
Last Google Search: "pizza hut" (guess what I had for lunch).

the edit monster says "omnomnom!"

Yesterday I blogged about my difficulties with one of my characters and speaking in her voice.  That is part one of my difficulties with editing Fate, and this is part two: the Edit Monster.

I think everyone has their own Edit Monster.  Mine has wrinkly orange skin and bronze-colored plates like a stegosaurus.  He's reasonably well-trained and never nips at me.  Edit Monsters certainly do tend to have their own qualities.  Mine, like any child, loves eating out.  Meaning that if I'm editing a friend's story, it will bleed.  Lots.  And when I edit my own, it bleeds lots too, but later on I find that the Edit Monster hid the brussell sprouts under the napkin and put way too much ketchup on its meatloaf.  After the whole process, yes, I've cut out a great deal, but suddenly it seems as though I have a thousand words more than when I started editing.  Um, doesn't that kind of defy the point?

Personally, I've always been a prolific writer.  I volunteer to do the single twenty-page essay because I know that if I try to do the 3-seven-page essays, I'll end up doing 3-twelve-page essays.  It's a gift, and sometimes it's a curse.  I know I'm not alone.  Sammy, over at Access Approved, finished her first novel at over 200 pages.  Mine doesn't get that far.

So what I want to know is... what type of writer are you?  Does editing sometimes seem add to your work instead of fine-tuning it?  And, most importantly, what does your Edit Monster look like?

Cheers!

hello darkness, my old friend

Let me set the scene for you.

The air inside the cabin is dank and musty, and you feel your allergies acting up, so you step outside on to the rough wood porch overlooking rolling fields.  The sun is just creeping up behind the farthest green hill, and the sky is splattered in pink and blue.  You're not alone on the porch, even though it's just barely sunrise.  But you're not surprised.

Leaning against the dipped wood rail, her hands are wrapped tight around the bone china teacup.  She doesn't say anything to you; just flicks her short red hair over her shoulder and takes a sip.  It's a little strange, seeing an experienced army pilot watching the sunrise and drinking herbal tea from a cup painted with dainty yellow flowers.

Meet Jylouna Martin.

She is my nemesis.

For the last I-don't-know-how-many-weeks I have been fighting a silent battle with her.  I avoid writing in her perspective because she simply disapproves of it.  Just.  Can't.  Get.  Into.  Her.  Voice.  Ever. I love her character (I love all my characters) but whenever I read back what I have written I feel like crumbling up a piece of paper and throwing it violently at... something.  Only I write on my computer, and it's harder to crumble my laptop screen.

I was pacing back and forth in my room when I reopened Chapter Four of Fate for editing.  Partially because Jyla was up to her old "you're-going-to-write-in-my-voice?--I-think-not" tricks, but my difficulties were also coming from a different character:  Timothy Brown.  Since my goal is to finish 'Tweens by the end of the year, I've been writing, even thinking a lot in Timmy's voice.  So as I was trying to write Jyla, I was writing Timmy.  Editing is slow.

Ever have that problem?  A character voice you have a lot of trouble writing in?  What is your greatest difficulty when switching efforts from one work-in-progress to another?

Also, I wanted to share this.  I know I'm three months early, but I just discovered the band All Caps and I thought maybe some people could relate to the sentiment of this video.

flash fiction thursdays: guilty until proven innocent

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

As she blinked, red dots splattered across her vision from the interrogator's lights.  Jyla kept her hands clasped to her sides.  Her interrogator faced the steel wall.  Jyla chewed on her bottom lip and watched him, waiting for him to move, listening for his breathing; waiting for any sign of her interrogator's humanity.

"Where were you first taken?" he asked a voice like snake.

"Borderlands," Jyla responded immediately.  Her instruments were destroyed when her aircraft ignited, so she had no way of giving more details.  Her interrogator did not turn to face her.  Instead, he stood in motionless silence.  It made her skin crawl.

"Where."

"My instruments were destroyed in the fire that took my Mosquito."

"Where are the ruins of the aircraft."

"I told you, Sir, I don't know exact coordinates."

Her interrogator stepped forward and placed a white gloved hand against the wall.  The outline of a door carved itself in the metal.  "That is not good enough," he told her, and exited.

Even after he left, Jylouna did not move.  She knew the walls were mirrors, and people were watching in.  She suspected that the King's Men thought that she had betrayed the King and given her aircraft to rebels hiding in the forest.  And even though she knew these allegations were false, she had no way to prove it.

.

Author's Note:
Seeing an upcoming deadline, I've switched from working on 'Tweens to editing chapter four of Fate.  The character here, Jylouna (Jie-L'ow-Nuh) is the character whose voice I speak in for that chapter, but she is also my most difficult character to write.  I've been having difficulty getting back into her head.  Please let me know if this is flat or feels forced.
Much love,
Amber