WP Platinum Blog
I am almost back on the horse. It’s been a long month healing and I know I haven’t been posting as many of these blogs as I normally do. My hands are still hurting (yes, both) but they are getting better. A lot of it is the small issues of getting my strength in them back up. That will probably take another month before they are fully up to snuff.
In the meantime, I’ve had ample time to read and think. I can now say that one of the worst things in the world is to have a preponderance of time to do something and to be unable to do it. It leaves your mind working in ways that just aren’t healthy. At least in hindsight.
My mind has been turning on the relatively simple task of interactions. I am usually a very calm woman. One of those that don’t often get mad and when I do it’s a hot, vivid, furnace of an anger. This means that when I get angry to that point, I am a violent bitch, but on the up side it means that my anger doesn’t usually last longer than a few moments.
As soon as that burst of frustration is over, its like a cloud passing on a sunny day, the sun comes back out and the world lights up again. The anger doesn’t stay around, doesn’t linger.
This month, it has been lingering.
I hadn’t realized that my writing had become like a drug to my system; that I needed it simply to keep my mood in a steady pace. This has left me with two main bits of trivia that I’ve learned during this month. One, that without my writing I am a bitch. Two that I don’t think I am not a good spouse.
The first is slowly working its way out of my system… or back into my system, if we’re taking the writing is a drug comparison. As I am able to write and work on my novels and stories again, I relax and calm down. My temper evens out and I will go back to being very difficult to perturb.
Number two on the other hand isn’t something that I can fix that easily. I feel that I am a bad spouse because I am a selfish writer. I don’t listen as well as I used to and my mind tends to get stuck on writing prompts and my books. My husband has requested that I add in here that he disagrees and that I’m a good spouse, even when I’m in this sort of a mode.
What do you think? Does being a selfish writer make you a bad spouse? Do the two not have anything to do with each other? Is there such a thing as a selfish writer? Let me know your thoughts below.
Posted in Blogs on March 25th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | No Comments »
Note: I haven’t heard anything back from my submission yet, which doesn’t surprise me, since their “due” date hasn’t even been reached yet. So, perhaps those of you who have queried more than I can tell me why I am already checking my email with a half desperate air? I’m generally known for my patience…
First update, I’m still in pain. It’s annoying but its only my own fault for not resting it as much as it needs. My hands appear to need a full day to get over pain when I finish working and more days to rest to make sure that the pain doesn’t come back. Even now, after typing just a paragraph, I can feel a little bit of pain in my fingers. On the other hand, I do know that it is getting better. It’s very slow, but at least I’m getting back to health slowly.
So, what have I been doing since typing on a computer has been out of my list of activities. Well, I’ve been getting back to my roots and doing quite a bit of reading. In the last two weeks I’ve read 4-5 books and started another 3. Why so many books on the go, you may ask? Well, I used to read one book until I’d finished it but since I can do nothing but read I’m reading for different reasons.
The first book that I’m reading is Shalador’s Lady by Anne Bishop. This book I’m reading for the pure fun of it. Her writing is fast paced, fun to read and I love the Dark Jewels World. The ideas Anne Bishop delves into – rape, love, pain, darkness within the heart, the power and place of men and women in society – these are the things that I love to read about, even as parts of the plot sicken me. Personally, I hope that my writing can one day be compared favourably with her writing. Her books are definitely something that I aspire to write like.
The second book I’m reading right now is Dance of Dragons by George RR Martin. I read his books more because I enjoy long term story-telling that holds nothing back and threatens everything, than because I find his ASOIAF books fun reads. Personally, I find them a slog to get through and the writing can drive me insane with the repetition in characters occasionally (as an example, I really only need to hear about Tyrion shaking off his d*ck once in any given chapter). Still, the story is entertaining and I love the nothing-is-safe feeling (and because I actually love Daenerys… She is my favourite character right beside Arya).
The third book I’m reading is a very interesting one called The Fox and the Jewel by Karen A. Smyers. This book is one of the best books on contemporary Japanese Inari worship that I’ve found. This book is not only very interesting on a subject that I find infinitely interesting to research but it will help me to make the Kitsune in my book seem much more real.
That’s it for today, except for a small update. I was trying to hold off, but I’m moving this blog to a once weekly upload until I get my tendonitis under control again. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you’re reading right now and why you’re reading it!
Posted in Blogs on March 18th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | No Comments »
Every once in a while, the stars align in ways most foul and I will simultaneously have a bad week at work at the same time as having my moods shift. Usually, I can stop this before it becomes truly incompatible with my normally good humor. Unfortunately, I usually get rid of the truly bad mood and forestall its dire effects by writing. Which is why the last two weeks have been some of the worst in a year or so; at least as far as unchangeable moods are concerned. Today I finally realized that writing is my drug. It makes me happy when I’m down, it relaxes me when I’m stressed and it makes me smile and want to slow down when I feel rushed.
Which should explain my twitter feed for the last two weeks…
I haven’t been able to write anything fiction-wise in the last two weeks.. Reading helps but not enough. Which means that today I was in full b*tch mode. On the other hand, today I’m actually writing this blog post with via typing instead of speaking it via Dragon, so I am healing… just not fast enough for me to be satisfied. Well, hopefully this means that come Wednesday I’ll be healed enough to do some actual work! I’ll keep you updated.
In other, much more exciting, much less whiny news, yesterday I sent in my first query. It’s for a short story I wrote about a girl who discovers she’s a changling. It got some really good reviews from my critique group and other friends I’d shown it to, so I figured I may as well see what I could do with it.
It’s been sent into the Ron L. Hubbard Writers of the Future contest which offers publishing in their yearly anthology for the winners.
Honestly, I don’t know how far I’ll get but I figure the worst that happens is that they say no and decide it’s not good enough to publish. If they don’t accept it, I plan to take any comments I get back on it and work on another edit before sending it in to Apex Magazine.
This story is good and I think that I need to get over that terror of querying eventually. Or perhaps you eventually get over the terror but the fear of rejection stays with you forever.
Any published authors out there wish to throw in their two cents?
Posted in Blogs on March 11th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | No Comments »
But the flesh is oh so weak!
Today is one of those days that almost makes me wish I wasn’t a writer. Not because of any of the usual reasons though. Today, my issue is much more physical. My tendinitis is flaring in a bad way right now.
The weather here in Calgary is never static to begin with but it is vastly worse during the spring and autumn months. Unfortunately, the chaotic weather brings with it vast changes in temperature. We can go from -15 Celcius temperature’s at night to 10 Celcius or higher temperatures during the day. The change in temperature makes my tendinitis kill though. It shoots tiny blades of pain though my arm, weakening it; especially if I can’t rest it thoroughly either.
Which brings me to today’s problem in a nutshell. I want to write, its in my blood to write… but I can’t when I’m in pain and unable to hold up a book without wincing.
On the other hand, it does give me plenty of time of read, even if I can’t write at the moment. I’m on my 5th book since Wednesday!
My hand is starting to hurt though, so I’m going to cut this short and wish you all good reading or writing; whichever is in the cards for you right now!
Posted in Blogs on March 7th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | No Comments »
This is my final post on my process. The paper edits and beta reading stages! Thank you for staying with me through the whole discussion of my writing process.
Scene by scene, from “Page 1″ to “The End” I will do my edits for voice, word choice, grammar, continuity edits and the rest. I pay particular attention to whether the scene is doing what it needs to and that I’m including all the right foreshadowing to make my plot work. As I go through, I will make notes on everything for continuity sake. What colour’s eyes were the protagonists supposed to be and are they all the way through the novel? Was that sub-character wearing a red outfit in one scene and the next right after wearing black? I write it down while I’m doing my edits simply so that I have a clear and easy reference guide (particularly good if one characters needs to remember something from a previous chapter, saving you from having to find that scene and double check the information, it will be in your handy guide).
After I have finished the entire novel this way, I will have my critique group or friends take a look at it so that I know that I’m getting the characters across like I want them too. This is a very important step. In my current novel, I discovered that one of my protagonists was hated almost universally. I thought I’d written him to be unlikable, but sympathetic, but apparently the sympathy part was missing. This is the point at which I look at every critique and comment and decide if I am actually doing what I think I’m doing and if I’m not, I change it.
Which means that, yes at this point I edit through the novel again. At this point, I find my drafts are usually tightly written, doing what I want them to and that the characters are coming across correctly. Once I finish that, I have 4 or 5 Beta-Readers go through the thing with a fine tooth comb, asking questions, making observations and overall checking my work.
The edit based on their responses here is more limited. I’m usually not making giant edits here, but tweaking small things (since any big ones have been caught in the earlier stages).
This….. This is when I finally look at my manuscript and think, “I’m done.” It’s currently an exceptionally long process and I’m hoping that as I get more and more books under my belt that I will be able to tweak this further and trust my writing enough to take out a few of these steps. Until then I’m stuck with a very long process.
It’s worth it in my opinion. All the work, the pain and the frustration. At the end of it, you hold in your hand a perfect book. Something that you can send out into the world and be proud of. At least, until editors get ahold of it and send you back criticisms on it. At that point, this process will change a bit, though exactly how I can’t say, since I’ve never gotten to the end of the process.
My current book is in edits, in the stage when I’m having my critique group look at it. I’m hoping to have it ready to go to my Beta Readers by the end of March and to agents/publishers by the end of April. We’ll see how that goes and, of course, I’ll keep you updated here.
Posted in Blogs on March 2nd, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | No Comments »
Welcome back! Sorry for the delay! Life jumped in. I’ll post the last part of this set on Friday!
Last week I discussed my writing process. This part can easily be described as my revision/editing process. Most of the focus here is on the Seven Anchor Scenes, what they are and what they do in your novel.
After reading through my novel, I open up three documents on my screen. One will be a copy of my plot (what I wanted the story to be), one will be my novel itself (what it became during the writing phase) and the last one will be a blank document. I read the story front to back once (making no changes) and then I’ll go back to the beginning of Chapter 1.
Slowly, I start to go through my novel again, scene by scene – conferring with my original plot – at a calmer pace. As I read each scene I write down in the black document what that scene in my novel is doing in 100 words or less (no more than 150 even if it’s an important anchor scene). If it’s not doing what that scene needs to do, I decide what that scene does need to be doing”. Then I decide if I’m cutting the chapter completely, editing it very heavily or if I need to rewrite that scene entirely. When I’m done going through the novel like this, I’ll have a 7 -10 page document. Beside each scene I’ll have a note of whether I’m keeping it, cutting it, rewriting it, or taking bits and pieces but leaving the rest.
Then I’ll go through and I will rewrite all of the scenes that need to be rewritten. This was the hardest part for my current novel… I had 40K+ to rewrite on it when all was said and done. After I have rewritten the scenes, I’ll go over that document with my scene by scene layout and I’ll identify my seven anchor scenes in it.
The seven anchor scenes are the seven scenes in your novel that provide the main story. The thing to remember is that every anchor scene (or most of them) come down to your protagonist making a choice.
Inciting Incident – The trouble that starts your book – We should find out about your characters most important thing (MIT), their goal and find out what is stopping them from reaching them.
Turning Point/Acceptance of Call to Action – This is the scene in which your character decides that they can’t just sit by the side anymore. They have to take action and fight for what they want.
Midpoint/Reversal of Fortune – Something changes, either making things easier for your protagonist or new information that changes the battlefield for the protagonist. Also, the end of Act I.
Act II Turning Point/Point of No Return – This will show us what happens that leads your character to the Choice that nothing will sway them from their appointed cause.
Act III Turning Point/Dark Moment – This scene will show your character making the choice to fight even though they think they’ll lose.
Climax – This is the final battle between your protagonist and antagonist.
Resolution – This is the happily/unhappily ever after ending. What does the world look like in that snapshot view? This is also where you tie up any loose ends and how the protagonist reacts to their story being at an end.
Remember that between each of these scenes, you have to make sure that things get constantly worse. A story without problems isn’t a story. It’s a happy daydream.
At this time, I’ll play around and move my timeline around, making certain I don’t have a really short acts, that my scenes are decently spaced out and all around that the scene is doing what I need it to (again). When I’m happy with what I have down, I’ll start my actual “paper” edits.
Posted in Blogs on February 28th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »
Note: This is the first of a three part set of posts that will detail my writing process. I gloss over the actual planning and writing phases to make room for a very detailed selection of how I edit/revise my novels. If you’re interested in that information let me know and I’ll make a dedicated post for each!
I have a bit of a confession to make. I used to love writing but editing for me was impossible. During school, my idea of editing was rewriting/typing out the exact same thing I’d written originally, corrected for spelling mistakes and the occasional word choice. My teachers would tell me it needed editing but I didn’t understand what they meant. I was one of those kids who just wrote a decently clean first draft. Couple that with the fact that my teachers just assumed I’d been taught to edit when I hadn’t and you can imagine why the idea of editing terrified me.
Now here’s my second confession. I have learned to love editing. There is something about taking my raw magic (words on the page) and revising them, making them better and the story structure cleaner. Making certain that I am saying exactly what I wanted to say. Until recently though, I still told myself that I hated it. Why? Because I didn’t think I was competent enough to be doing it. I know that it’s really just the “author’s bane” getting the better of me. My low self-esteem is one of those things that I know I just need to deal with. So finally, I decided that I would take a writing course that focused on editing.
Last Sunday I finally finished it. It was a 6 week course, but honestly, calling it just a revision course is a little bit of false advertising. I considered it much more a lesson in story. The basis of the class and what we focused on was the main anchor scenes of a story and how they fit together. Personally, I would suggest taking this course whether you’re a pantser or a plotter. Pansters will learn the information about story that will then help inform their subconscious to make a better final project. Plotters on the other hand will have a better understanding of the narrative structure that will let them plan a better story from the start. Either way, this course will help put in your hands the tools needed to prove that your book is worth more than the mere sum of its parts
After I finished the course, I was asked by a friend of mine online (@Siri_Paulson) what tips I could share. I thought about it for a moment and then realized that what I had learned was more than could be put into a few tweets (although, that might be an interesting challenge in brevity later). I told her that instead of trying to condense it down I would do a blog post on it instead. That then bloomed into a nearly 2k discussion on my writing process, which is what you’re getting here.
First we start with the novel. I am a planner but not obsessively so. Before I begin writing I have a list of main characters, ideas for sub-characters that are only somewhat fleshed out, world building from an MC’s perspective done, and a 1-3 page plot detailing the broad strokes of my story written out. None of this information is set in stone. Some of it will be cut and placed directly into the novel, some of it will not make it in the final cut at all, some of it will be placed in discretely, a line here, an emotion there, whatever the story needs.
While I’m in the rough draft phase I will make minor edits to my plots, add in lists of my characters and try to keep straight the details (blue or brown eyes, that the continuity is correct and that the motivations are still in line for the character). Then once I have finished the draft, I put it away for no less than 3 months. That time is needed to let your story relax and set in your mind.
After that, I open up my novel and read it front to back. I don’t make any notes or any changes. I just think about that story and what I would like to see changed. This is where the true editing process begins.
Come back on Sunday for part two of my writing/editing process.
Posted in Blogs on February 23rd, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »
Not just a sword a character of mine used anymore…
I’m going to take a quick break from writing to talk to you about those nights. You know the ones. You have a cold so you haven’t been sleeping well for a few days. When you get home from a long day of shopping and driving after a longer day at work and after relaxing for about an hour you curl up in bed beside your significant other? You both promise yourselves that this is only going to be a quick little nap or that one of you will stay awake? Then you don’t and you wake up at 10 pm 11pm and you can’t get back to sleep?
Yeah, that’s my life today.
My husband is still sleeping in our comfortable bed where I will be heading after I finish writing this blog post. I have to work this morning, waking up to go to work in about 3 hours. I’m hoping that after I get another hour or so (and perhaps an energy drink for work) that I’ll be fine for most of the day and #FNTWP on twitter tomorrow tonight.
Not that this is a wholly odd evening. I’m just usually the one sleeping while my husband sits up with insomnia half-asleep playing video games. I tend to get annoyed at him when he’s like I am tonight. I know that it’s very hypocritical of me, to tell him to wake me up when I won’t wake him up in the same situation.
That, honestly, is one of the things that make me love him all the more. Not many men would be willing to deal with all of my idiosyncrasies including the times when I’m hypocritical… not when the rest of those little odd things include me writing/talking about writing nearly 24/7.
Anyways, I think its time for me to head back into my warm bed so that I see if I can find some minor amount of sleep before I have to wake up and work at my tiring, annoying day job. Also, here’s hoping that you all got the sleep you need.
Posted in Blogs on February 17th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | No Comments »
I apologize in advance; today’s post is a bit rambling because I didn’t really have a starting or ending place in mind when I started.
I am on Twitter daily, checking it out whenever I have time or I’m bored or when I really need something to distract me. I comment a few times a day which is why in just over a year I’ve tweeted over 6500 times (which is just over my total period). A very large chunk of those get posted on Fridays. Why on Fridays you may ask? Am I really one of those women that prefers my cats and fleece sweaters and glasses to drunkenly falling into peoples beds?
Well, the short answer is yes. I am just that dull a person. I admit that I did my clubbing about 5 years ago over one summer when I was 25. I didn’t like drinking, I’m not the sort of woman to take home men I just met and I generally prefer atmospheres where I hear what people are saying to me. Following the other train of thought, I think a night writing with friends is a great way to spend a night and willingly spend hours each month planning roleplaying games and hoping to eventually play in one. Years ago, my coworkers thought I was insane, playing roleplaying games which were thought of as Satanic.
Nowadays, times have changed. Roleplaying games aren’t considered a bad influence anymore. I’m now a respectable 30+ year old woman which means I only horrify my coworkers about once a week (usually with my beliefs on subjects better left unspoken). I have found many friends that actually have similar interests and my coworkers tend to be willing to believe that I am just the most boring person alive.
Let’s face it though, the life of a writer sounds pretty boring to anybody not also a writer. I stay home almost every night and work on my laptop churning out words and distracting myself from churning out words. Every two weeks I go see my fellow Bitches in my critique group (My critique group is called A Bitch of Writers, not to be confused with the great Wordbitches, whom I suggest you check out as they also have an awesome blog). On the off weeks, I run a penny poker game. On Sundays I destroy my self-confidence by finding out how little I know about story during Lani Diane Rich’s revision class.
So, yeah, all in all, I am that dull a person. Still, I am getting to be known (almost, kinda, slightly) on the Twitter front, mainly for my part in running the hash tag #FNTWP every week.
However, it finally occurred to me last week that #FNTWP is finally getting big enough that I better do it justice by explaining it here on my blog. Epic Robot Danni and I run FNTWP every Friday from 7 pm to Midnight (Mountain Time) though any who are there earlier or later are more than welcome to join in. Basically it’s a writer’s hang out. Writers stop by, chat and talk, discussing their plots, their trials, their tribulations, their celebrations and their triumphs.
Any of you who are looking for a place to meet writers I would suggest that you come by and join us.
Posted in Blogs on February 8th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | Comments Off
Okay, today’s post was going to be a post on my editing/revision class and what I’m learning from it. Well, I’m learning a lot and that’s sorta the problem and why I won’t be talking about it today. I have to live the creeds I preach and today I didn’t. That regression, such a small thing, bothered me as soon as I’d realized I had done it. Not only that but it destroyed my entire good mood, which is actually a pretty hard thing to do.
My husband helped get me out of the funk by calling attention to it though in a way I really didn’t appreciate at the time.
What did I do, you ask?
I defended my work.
It was unintentional but it affected me just as badly as if I had done it knowingly. I know I can’t be there to defend my work but the person in question hadn’t read my work. I attempted to explain what I had obviously missed originally but what I ended up doing was defending my work. I had answers but I hadn’t shown this in the description.
Afterward, all I was able to take from it was that my story design was “pretzel-ly”. My story is a bit convoluted but I had made it partially that way deliberately. For some reason, being told so really got to me.
So, what am I going to do about this blow to my ego? Well, tomorrow or Tuesday, I will look over this again and with a slightly more rational eye. I will see all the good advice that she gave me and note what I think needs to be noted. The other suggestions I will look over and see if I can make them work.
Sometimes, it’s really hard to watch someone misunderstand what you were trying to say about your novel. And sometimes you have to remember that they may have not have misunderstood what you said.
And that’s all right, too
Posted in Blogs on January 29th, 2012 by B.A. Matthews | | 4 Comments »
