Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts

Pardon my absence, I've been busy working...

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And by working, I mean, writing. And by writing, I mean working on my actual book.

Back in high school I wrote a 321 page manuscript (roughly, 95k words). It's a young adult fantasy currently going by the title Runenaeth's Falling. That manuscript was banished from my thoughts a while back when I got mad at the publishing industry and called it quits as a writer. However, with my recently renewed sense of purpose and a desire to write I've decided to give that story an overhaul and again work toward seeing it published. So, if for extended periods of time I disappear from creating brilliant and witty blog posts that manuscript's my excuse for absensce.

Last week I stuck with my goal of 7 hours/week of writing time; I hit just over 7.5 hours. This week I've done less blogging and a lot more of just knitty gritty nitpicking at my drafted novel. I did previously have the manuscript read over by a professional editor (thanks to my supportive parents), but besides the actual grammatical and spelling errors which have already been brought to my attention, I want to give the whole thing a makeover.

Here's my current plan (someone see that I stick to it, please):

  1. Reread my entire manuscript through, like I would a book written by another author, trying to judge it objectively. (As I am reading through I am taking notes and jotting down potential ideas and edits, but for the most part I am trying to read it with the eyes of a young adult reader)
  2. Actually make change & polish it up to its very prettiest
  3. Publish (right now looking into self publication methods as a starting point)
Overall, I know I love writing fantasy and the bones of my story are good. (Some point soon I will get a synopsis posted for you, to hopefully peak your interest and get some feedback as well!). However, I know it could also be better. I want to write with excellence and craft my stories with the pride and precision of a skilled artisan.

Major concerns with my book currently include:
  1. Passive voice over active. I made the mistake of greatly overusing a passive voice, rather than one of action (Example:"She began to think" or "He was starting to" versus "She thought" and "He started"). Not only does passivity unnecessarily bulk up my word count, it also sort of drags the story along at a slow pace. I want to rewrite all those points in the story to accelerate the overall flow and drive the story with more force.
  2. Too much internal dialogue. The story is written in the third person omniscient form of narrative, meaning the reader has insight into the character's -mainly the protagonist's- thoughts and emotions that the other characters do not. You, the reader, are all knowing, while the characters, like us in real life, cannot see into anyone else's minds. Nothing's wrong with that form of narrative and I will still be using it, but I want to lessen my use of literal written out thought processes going on in my main characters head. I sloppily overused "she thought to herself" type moments to reveal the plot; I would rather the plot be shown as it unfolds in a natural way, not told. Reader's are smart. If it's well written, they will figure out what I want them to see without being told to pay attention.
  3. General laziness in description. I don't want to just tell a reader something about a place or character and then just move right along. I want to make a reader feel and see and known things, like they are there experiencing them. Again, showing, not telling.
  4. Arbitrary and unnecessary fantasy. I write fantasy, therefore it's fantastical. I don't have to play by the rules of the real world, and that is fun. However, it can also be a crutch. I have a couple instances where major problems are "magically" solved because, hey, it's a fantasy book and I make the rules (Not from my book, but a hyperbolic example would be something like "Oh darn, here is a locked door and we need to get in now! Wow just so happens I have a mystical key which can transform itself into the shape of any lock in my pocket, and I failed to mention it up until now"). Sure, it can be fantastical, but it needs to make some sense within the story line or I will lose all credibility. Can't just be pulling my "fantasy card" left and right if I want my story to be taken seriously.
  5. Any cliche. Fantasy is a genre that has been done and overdone, but fortunately it can always be made fresh. While I am adhering to a rather "typical" good versus evil type plot with a female heroine of the "chosen one" type persona, I want my story to be new and still unpredictable.
So there we are, please excuse my tardiness from blogging. Just didn't want anyone to think I was slacking off already due to my lack of posts, and I also wanted to get my goals written out nice and concisely for the benefit of us all, in hopes that I will better stick to achieving them. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I'm on to Part Two, Chapter Seven. Word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page, chapter by chapter, meticulously manicure my story from a draft into something I will feel proud to call my art. Slow and steady, folks. Now, back to work...





First Day on the Job:

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Over the weekend I attended a Writer's Conference and I must say the results have been life-altering. Not only was I inspired and educated (I took 60+ pages of hand written notes!), provoked and commissioned, stretched and uplifted, challenged and changed, but I received a new job while I was there.

I am pleased to announce that I, Isabella Kiss, am a Writer. Allow me to explain...

No, I haven't quit my waitressing job. No, a major publisher didn't knock on my front door and offer me big bucks to write a best seller. Really, nothing has changed. Except for everything, that is.

Prior to the conference I was still hemming and hawing about writing. In truth, it was little more than a hobby, of which I have many. About a month prior (unknowing that this upcoming conference would be 10 minutes from my house very soon), I decided to take writing more seriously. I determined that, yes, I did still desire to pursue writing; I did still want to be a writer. I wasn't sure where that would take me- what I would write, to whom I would write, or how- but I at least had regained some motivation. When I learned of the upcoming conference, I registered with a hope and a prayer that maybe something big would be sparked in me.

But writing was still one of those "if I have time" activities, though I knew as well as any of us that "if it fits in my schedule" is a laughable concept, because without serious effort what ever really does just fit? Did you know that when surveyed, something like 81% of Americans say that there is a desire in them to write at least one book? But out of that percentage, only about 1% actually do.

Oh good, I thought, I'm one step ahead of the game. I wrote a book. Not published, but at least written. I have a manuscript of around 350 pages which I wrote, rewrote, had edited, rewrote again, then got mad at and locked in a filing cabinet. I wanted to be published. I wanted to change the world. I wanted to send out queries and immediately have every publishing house in NYC calling my house desperately wanting to make my work the next best thing. When that didn't quickly become a reality, the all-or-nothing part of my personality decided if I couldn't, with ease, make it big overnight then I would never write at all. Fact is, I let discouragement beat me. I gave up that manuscript's ghost and quit altogether.

Now, another  rough statistic for you: around 8 million unfinished manuscripts are hiding on hard drives and in filing cabinets, unpublished, unread, and mine is one of them.

I cannot begin to sum up all that I learned in the last few days regarding my craft, but something that really stuck with me was this: I have to stop treating writing like it my hobby that may someday be my job, and start treating it like my actual job. Yes, I am still a waitress, with several creative side-businesses. Those are my income. But writing? Writing is my career and it must be prioritized accordingly.

Maybe I won't make big money. Maybe, for the time being, I won't make any. Maybe a massive publishing house won't publishing my first novel and selling millions. Maybe Isabella Kiss will be a name known in my local library and not all over the world (yet). Maybe I must start small. Maybe I will have to self-publish, self-market, and self-make. But one way or another, I have to do whatever I must in order to get that manuscript, and any to follow, into print and into the hands and minds of my audience. I am not giving up on hopes of greatness and broad scope (because I do strongly believe that I have favor by the power of prayer), but for now I am working on learning to embrace the smallness that I must start with and work with what I have in this moment. Maybe someday I will be a household name with a book on every family's shelves and two on their kindles, but for now I have one manuscript and I have to do something about getting it out there. The next step to accomplish that goal is to schedule nonnegotiable time, such as that with a job, and all I may do in that block of time is write (or do something productive to my writing).

So here is my new job: 5 days a week I have to write. (If I write more, excellent. But I cannot write less). On my days off  from my "other" job (Monday & Thursday) I intend to write for at least two hours. Remaining days, 1 hour. That gives me at least 7 hours a week. It doesn't matter where I do it, be it my desk, upright in my bed with cat companions on my lap (which would be my current & preferred whereabouts) or elsewhere, and the medium- be it pen and ink, or with my fingers upon my laptop keys- doesn't matter, as long as words are coming out.

Acceptable writing activities include blogging, enhancing my blog/platform/readership, drafting and note-taking, furthering my writing skills, researching publication methods and taking steps towards that goal, working on new pieces (be they big or small), and most importantly, pulling my manuscript out of hiding, polishing it up and readying it to make its debut to whomever may read it. Unacceptable activities include usage of my phone in any way, talking to anyone other than myself, petting cats, watching netflix, or distracting myself with other forms of productive, but non-writing related busy-ness (for me this is most often my other two favor hobbies: crocheting or cooking). Also, all other offers that may come must be responded to with "I'm sorry I can't that day/time; I'm working."

As of today, I am a writer and I intend to take that job seriously. No longer am I treating it as optional or negotiable. I was created by my Creator to create with words. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a manuscript I must see to.

To write or to have written: that is the question

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A very wise former English teach and family friend of mine once asked told a question which one of her professors had placed before many years prior.  The question had helped to form the course of her life; it took her from wanting to be a writer, to wanting to teach middle school English instead. She shared this memory with me knowing that I too had hopes of being a writer. She wished to challenge me in the same way her professor has challenged her.


DO YOU WANT TO WRITE OR DO YOU WANT TO HAVE WRITTEN?

This professor of hers had claimed at all that all aspiring authors, those with a love of  English and literature, with a desire to create art with words could be broken into two categories: those who write and those who want to have written. In some way, that question also became critical in my own life. At the time, I immediately answered "I want to write." It was one of those "moments" that shapes you and you find out who you are. I was one who wanted to write, for the love of writing. Because I had to write. 

That question lodged itself deep in my mind and I think on it often. Do I want to write- for the love of writing, for the sake of the craft, because I must and have to? Or do I want to have written- be published, be read, be labeled "author," but not necessary enjoy the ride to that point. Do I write because I am a writer or am I a writer because I write. The distinguishing factors between the two may be subtle, but they do make all the difference in definition. 

Most often (and currently), I feel like I fall somewhere in a valley between a writer and a have written. I know I love to write for writing's sake. I've adapted my habits from hand written scrawl to typed text for the sake of modernity, but I know I love to write words. To play with phrases. To paint pictures with a pen. The very craft excites me. But the process of what to do after one has written something does not.

This valley- this rut- has been dug by the fraction of me that is reigned by self-doubt and perfectionism. Fear of judgement. Fear of my words not being liked, not being good enough. The hopes of "have written" frighten me, which causes me to want to write, but only in secret, unread, unseen, unnoticed. Unjudged.

To be a writer, one just has to write. But to be an author, one has to be READ. And to be read is to be judged, either as good or bad or some form of mediocre. Truth be told, that terrifies me. (Now as to why it matters what a publisher or reader may think of me, I have no idea. It shouldn't. But it does. Another problem for another day...)

To be an author, they say, requires thick skin, much like that of a rough and tough rhinoceros. Unfortunately, at this stage I feel more like a new born, fresh to the world, and well-lotioned baby Rhino...who writes. My skin isn't as tough as it needs to be and every opinion cuts deep. So instead of picking up a pen and sending work out into the world to be evaluated and judged by whomever, I plop down on my rhino rump and I hide. Whenever I do write anything, it gets jammed into a filing cabinet and left to collect dust. 

Sure, I can write. I could write thousands upon thousands of words and piles of novels, but if they never leave my hard drive, what exactly is the point? I can claim that it is for my own joy, my own betterment, my own sanity that I write, but something in me knows that that isn't the whole truth. In order to change the world, my words have to leave my house. Art, of any kind, should be enjoyed. Perhaps not everyone will like it, but if it elicits a response, any response at all, it is, by definition art. 

To be an author, I must be read. That is scary. That is thrilling. I want to write to the point of having written. For better or worse. For richer or poorer. It is time to open up the filing cabinet and harass some publishing houses with persistence. It is time to write and write and write until something good happens. It is time to be a big girl rhino with her name on the front of a cover. It is time that I, Isabella Kiss, stop writing in hiding and get myself read. I need to write, so on my last day I can say "I have written." Ready, set, go. 

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