What Tickles Your Fancy?

With each book, my writing method seems to define itself a little more.

For my first book I wrote a one page summary of the plot before beginning and tried to map out chapters in a notebook…but it was to no avail. - I totally pantsed the project in the end, letting the story go wherever it wanted.  It was a lot of fun but after all was said and done, I ended up with a 130k project that began with three chapters of back story, contained stiff dialogue, useless details, description and adverbs galore.

Now- this would be a dream come true for those who love to edit and revise.

Unfortunately, I am not one of ‘those’. - As president and co founder of the Revision Haters Club, my first project was a living nightmare.

Two years later, it still needs work.

With my second project however, I found myself writing a scene by scene outline without even realizing it.  Before I started writing, certain scenes would just come to me while I was driving or doing dishes.  Sometimes it would be a funny scene based on a small bit of dialogue. Sometimes it was an emotional scene to develop the plot or characters etc…  In any case, I wrote all the scenes down, everything I wanted to see happen in the book between the characters and then eventually sewed them into the plot, making sure each scene served a purpose.   

Once those were down, I had to do some actual brainstorming and find ways to fill the holes where there was nothing to move the plot along.

When I finally sat down to start writing, the outline helped so much because I always knew where I was going.  The actual process of writing a first draft went by a lot faster (two or three months rather than the eight months I spent on my first book)

The scenes themselves would often change or go in a direction I hadn’t anticipated.  The characters wouldn’t react the way I’d imagined in my daydreams and I never tried to force it in this case.  Often times I’d have to delete, rearrange, or flat out change the scenes in my original outline but I didn’t mind.  Despite trying to map things out, I still love the feeling of letting the writing go where it wants.  There’s nothing like it.

Now that I’m brainstorming a fourth project, the outline has become an essential part of my writing method.  I let the scenes come, let the characters form and become clearer in my mind while silently building  anticipation for the day I’m ready to sit down and let the fun begin.

What is your writing style?  Are you a plotter or a pantser?  If you’re a plotter, was it something you’ve always been or did it kind of creep up on you like me?  If you’re a pantser, how do you handle the revision process?  Has anyone done both and what  differences/ difficulties did you find with each?

I Love You Man...

A year ago today, I didn’t have a blog.  I only had one manuscript- my first manuscript, and while it still holds a special place in my heart, I’m not really sure if it will see the light of day again. 

A year ago I was learning how to (really) revise, how to effectively critique and how to query.

My journey began when one agent said ‘I want to see more’ in December, right before the 2010 New Year. 

I sent him the full as requested and then spent the next 48 hours blowing into a paper bag.  I couldn’t eat.  I couldn’t sleep.  And I finally realized, I am SO not ready for this.

And as luck would have it, neither was my manuscript.  He sent me a quick rejection a couple days later and a part of me was relieved.  I mean, if the idea of an agent asking for more sends me into the trembling fanatics of a thirteen year old Justin Bieber fan, I’ve got issues.

I lacked maturity, and I lacked the craft and discipline that comes with experience.

Meeting all of you has changed that for me.   Interaction with ‘real live’ agents has made me realize they aren’t superstars (although if I did meet Nathan Bransford on the street, I’d totally ask for his autograph.)  I’ve made some awesome friends, agented, unagented, published and unpublished.  You’ve all taught me so much but, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nothing can compare to the support I feel just knowing that you all are out there, just like me.  I’m not alone in this.

So this new year I’m wishing all of you success in your endeavors, whatever they might be.   You can probably imagine my goals for this year since it’s a dream most of us have in common;) 

In any case, I look forward to this year 2011 with you!

*CQG*

Stop the Ride!

Well, Christmas was certainly a whirlwind of activity from which I have not yet recovered.  But I have to admit, I had a great holiday and I hope all of you had one too!

Unfortunately blogging time will be sparse for the next few days.  I’m home for the next week with three dahling children expecting me at their beck and call.  I’ve had to remind them on a few occasions that ‘I am not your slave.  I am your mother.’  (though often times I do wonder if there’s much of a difference.)

In the meantime, I’m definitely getting ‘the itch’ to start something new.  I find I am the happiest, most easy going and optimistic person when I’m in the middle of a writing project.  I dunno what it is- the process of creating, the magic of seeing things come to life or the renewed feeling of hope.  In any case, I’m honestly at my very best when I have a writing project going on the side so I think it’s time I sit down and do a proper outline on something I’ve had in my head for awhile.

How was everyone else’s holiday?  Did you take my advice and get fat’n happy?  Does anyone else feel like they’re only living a half life when they aren’t writing something?

*CQG*

More on 'Getting Fat'...

I already knew that French meals were longer and more drawn out affairs than their American counterparts.  I had spent hours beneath the sun at French barbeques, enjoying the six course afternoon lunches of patées, fresh salads, grilled meats, sausages, pastas, cheeses and fruit pies.  (Yes, in that order) 

But nothing (and I mean nothing) had ever prepared me for what the French call ‘Le Réveillon’. 

Not even Thanksgiving. (And that’s saying something)  Now, there are probably many variations in tradition depending on the region and family- (kind of like how we Yankees like the green bean casserole and the Suth’rns gotta have their macaroni and cheese or sweet potatoes.)

It all begins with a Kir Royal (champagne with a spot of cassis berry syrup mixed in) accompanied by the French version of appetizers. 

Les Appéritifs – In this case we usually have little thinly cut white breads spread with tarama (I think it’s ground up cod eggs), tapenade (ground up olives and anchovies), and tuna or salmon patées.  There’s also these miniature hard boiled eggs you dip in mayonnaise and little rounds of soft cream cheese adorned with pink or black fish eggs. 

Once we sit down at the table.  We don’t really get up again for at least three hours.  (Between the wine served and the amount of food we eat, that’s probably in everyone’s best interest.)

There are several ‘Entrées’.  –Of which, the seafood is usually served first.  

Seafood Entrée(s)--(Cue ‘seafood wine’- usually white & dry) We have thin breads or in some cases ‘blinis’ (kind of like airy, salty pancakes) spread with sour cream and pieces of smoked salmon with squeezed fresh lemon juice on the whole. 

Then there’s the oysters served with thin slices of dill bread to seep up the sauce.  Some like them with fresh lemon juice.  I prefer a shallot and wine vinegar sauce. 


Snails are served stuffed with a garlic herb butter which is very good!  But I prefer the sea snails or 'bulots' with mayonnaise to be honest.

Meat Entrée- foie gras. (cue ‘foie gras wine’-usually white and fruity)  Foie gras is a huge duck liver that’s been prepared with porto or spices and then stuffed in a terrine and cooked at high pressure then cooled so it comes out in perfect round slices.  According to my father in law, it’s against all that is holy to spread foie gras.  It must be ‘placed’ on the toasted white bread or toasted ginger bread before consumed.  I like it with fig jelly.

Main Course.  (cue main course wine- usually red)  Most often a cooked turkey or a game hen stuffed with a chestnut, sausage and liver stuffing and accompanied by vegetables.

Cheese plate  (cue cheese wine- still red)

Salad and clementines- to HELP DIGEST (?).  

*ahem*

Dessert- the ‘bûche’ is a cake made to look like a log.  It’s a symbol of the ‘yule log’ that was once burned throughout the winter holidays.  They come in every flavor, frozen, fruity, chocolate, etc… and they’re delicious.  And, of course, served with champagne.

Then… we all drive home:)

Have a very Merry Christmas people!

 

*CQG*

A Woman on a Mission

Of course, all I want for Christmas is a literary agent.  But it looks like Santa isn’t ready to leave me one beneath the tree, tied and gagged with a pretty red bow.  SO I’ve decided to set my sights a little lower.  

This Christmas…I want to get fat.

Yes.  It seems I have actively decided to put on the pounds.  If its main component is butter or sugar it is in. my. mouth.  Getting fat is easy, inexpensive, and kills time like nothing else.  Really, a number one gift idea if I do say so...

Sure, it may be the source of clogged arteries, tooth decay and an expanding waistline but who really cares about the fine print at Christmas?  Who doesn't buy the toy just because it 'may contain chokable pieces'?

I just tell myself ‘life is short and simple pleasures are numbered.  Might as well enjoy the hell out of it before I die, right?’  So in comes the pastries, the white breads, the meat patées, and jellies. 

Plus I’m not doing much writing at this time of the year.  It’s a shame really.   If I’d mixed the buttered sweets with hours spent typing in front of the computer, I’m sure I could get my ‘ass’ets to expand even faster.

Speaking of food, unless Santa does really surprise me with a call back from a fairy god agent, Thursday’s post will be exploring the pleasures of the French ‘Reveillion’- a feast that rivals our own Thanksgiving.   I hope everyone has a fantastic holidayJ

Now, go get fat, people!

*CQG*

Yer Botherin' Me...

For anyone who’s ever taken high school French, you should know that ‘Sorry to bother you’ translates to :  ‘Désolé de vous déranger.’

Yes, you might notice ‘déranger’ holds a mighty close resemblance to the English word ‘deranged’.  I don’t know about you but when I think of the word ‘deranged’, I see a wild psychopathic look in someone’s eye, hair on end, and perhaps a bit of saliva escaping the corner of one’s mouth.--Which isn’t a far cry off from what happens when you ‘bother’ a French person enough.

Because, in my experience, the French are very easily annoyed. 

The first sign that you are annoying a French person:  The long, loud, drawn out sigh or ‘huff’.  I hear this one whenever the lines in the post office, grocery store, bank, or social security offices are moving too slow.  Which they always are.

Next there are the small actions one can commit that fall into annoyance territory:

Ex: cutting in line, talking too loud,  bumping into someone with your grocery cart, double parking, ignoring the ‘priorité’ when driving, taking too long in public bathrooms, holding up the line more than usual in the places mentioned above, banging on walls after 10pm, not recycling your trash, leaving the community garage door open, etc…

(If you are part of a home-owners association, the lists of things you’re not allowed to do because they fall into the ‘annoying’ category is never ending.)

So all of the above could very easily earn you a quick, but sometimes brutal ‘you are annoying me’ phrase from a Frenchman or woman

What’s fascinating is that the French have more ways of saying what essentially translates to ‘you’re bothering me’ than I can count, and they range from the polite to the downright vulgar.  Here are just the ones I’ve learned so far:

C’est pénible:  That’s trying

C’est fatigant:  That’s tiresome

Ça me fait chier:  That makes me shit

C’est soûlant:  It fills up to maximum capacity (Soûler is also the word for ‘drunk’) or ‘You’re making my  head spin- and not in a good way.  But in a ‘I’m so drunk I’m gonna puke’ way’.
Ça me gave :  That’s stuffing me

Ça me gonfle:  That’s inflating me or making me 'swell'

Ça me tape sur les nerfs :  It’s hitting on my nerves

Ça m’enerve :  pretty much same as above

Ça me casse les pieds :  That breaks my feet (yeah, I don’t get it either)

Ça me casse les couilles :  It breaks my balls (and yes, they do mean those balls)

Ça m’emmerde : It puts me in shit (noticing a trend here ?)

And still others:

C’est embêtant- That’s troublesome

C’est agaçant- That’s annoying

C’est chiant – That’s shitty annoying

Hope you enjoyed your Friday French Lesson:)  You may now close your notebooks and get ready for third period.  Stop snapping gum Candyland.  Matthew Rush, your desk is a disaster.  Jessica, for the thousanth time no doodling! and Vicki!  If I catch you passing notes to Stina again...:)

Go forth my fine people and be….annoyed:)

Have a great weekend!

*CQG*

Red in the Face

How many times have you seen someone blush?  I mean really blush out of embarrassment or uneasiness? 

The reason I ask is because in the last few years I’ve noticed a trend in most of the published works I read. 

Everyone blushes. 

‘Cheeks go pink’, ‘face grows warm’, ‘heat rises’, ‘turns crimson’,  ‘shamefaced’, ‘red ears’…blushing. 

Which, honestly, I find kind of odd.  I mean, you can sort of expect it in period books- especially regency romance where everyone is blushing at the drop of a hat.

But when a modern-day headstrong, sarcastic, confident hero/heroine blushes about something stupid, it makes you wonder doesn’t it?  Just how and when blushing is necessary or appropriate? 

I’ve seen kids blush when they’re the center of attention and don’t like it.  I’ve seen teens blush if being ridiculed in front of someone they have a crush on or admire.

And…

I hate to admit this, but I am a total blusher.  Which in my opinion is kind of weird and totally unfair. 

I’m a pretty confident person.  I don’t mind being the center of attention…that’s never made me blush.  Crushes never made me blush.  Nor any kind of sexual innuendo (pfft)

I’m more of a ‘one on one’ blusher.   I usually blush when talking to one person, in most cases a perfect stranger. 

You see, I suffer from this thing called ‘Foot in Mouth Disease’, which I apparently inherited from my mother.   It’s like my mouth goes on auto-pilot and my brain is just one step behind - -much too late to save me from saying some of the stupidest things on the planet.  And in front of strangers, no less.

(*side note- This explains why I still haven’t mastered the feminine and masculine in French and probably never will.  My mouth simply does not have time to stop and think about the sexual connotation of an inanimate object.)

So what happens?  The stupid thing slips out.  But I could totally make a recovery- turn it into a joke, or just change the subject- making the person in front of me forget about my momentarily breech of etiquette, humor, morals, esteem or whatever else I’ve lost in their eyes in that mere second.  But alas, I get that slight twinge in my gut and I know its coming.

The tops of my cheeks go first.  Just a little warmth.  And then I think ‘Oh shit, I’m blushing.  I’m blushing. I’m blushing. I’m blushing. I’m blushing. I’m blushing. I’m blushing. Oh no, their gonna see it.  They can tell I’m getting redder. Nooooooo!!’

It really is like a snowball effect.  I blush harder because I know I’m blushing.  It’s a vicious cycle.  And before you know it, my face isn’t just red, it’s, like throbbing.  A red glowing beacon. 

And in the meantime, here I am, just trying to hold onto the conversation while perspiration starts to form on my upper lip, my face pumps with the rhythm of my heartbeat and the person in front of me is cocking their head to the side, probably wondering how I’ve achieved the unique blood red pigment and if my ears really are turning purple.

Does this happen to anyone else?  Cause from where I’m standing, the only people it happens to live in the literary world…. How many people have you really seen blush in your life and what was the situation that brought it on?