Category Archives: writing

05.11.13
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It Be Done! Or Maybe Not.

The Weeping Willow (yes, the title stays, ha!) in its expanded and fully rewritten plus revised form is now in my publisher’s hands. I only have enough time to down a couple of dozen teabags’ worth of Jasmine Fancy Tea before diving back into the fray and getting started on Eve of St. Agnes.

After a fairly shaky start – and an equally shaky time spent on the learning curve, so to speak – I think I’m now pretty comfortable writing novellas. What I do know for sure is the fact that I’m utterly incapable of answering submission calls now for multi-author anthologies. ^^;;; I’m too entrenched in – for lack of a better term – writerly independence, i.e., I can only write what I want, when I want, and at whatever length I want. Or, in the case of my previous two efforts, at whatever length is required to tell the story.

And here comes the irony of novel vs. novella writing for me.

When I write novels, I have a very specific word count target, and I aim to complete a book whose length falls within 10,000 words of it, either over or under. That means more room to expand, of course, but also to pad, which isn’t a good thing. Trust me, padding can be very, very tempting, and sometimes I’m not even aware that I’m padding stuff until I go back and reread the draft. Sometimes an editor will point that out. I try, anyway, during the revision phase to cut out what I consider to be padding in my books, and I’m hoping that readers find not much extraneous material in any of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they disagreed, but hope springs eternal. And as you very well know, writers are the worst judges of their work.

Oddly enough, when I wrote the novellas, I started out with a target word count, which in the end, didn’t matter, and I had to ignore it and let the story write itself to whatever length was needed. Benedict started out with a 20K-word count target, and it ended up being 24K+. The Weeping Willow started out with a 25K-word count target, and it now clocks in at 28K. Heaven knows how long Eve of St. Agnes will be, but judging from the notes I currently have, it’ll likely be within the same range as the other two.

The biggest plus to writing a novella is the fact that the plot is really limited, and there’s no need to complicate things with subplots or a gazillion side characters. Sticking to what’s necessary was what required a bit of a learning curve to me as I’ve long been used to letting it all hang out and write this, that, and the other till a full-length (YA length, that is) novel is born.

As I’m not a writer of action or adventure (unless it’s Masks), I think a novella works best with the more internal stuff that I tend to gravitate to insofar as conflict’s concerned; otherwise, readers might get bored or complain that my stories are too slow. And that’s another reason why I’d like to hone my skills in this story length. This would be a good platform to develop a strong, more solid but still complex plot dealing with a character’s maturation without all the appendages required in a full-length novel.

So I’m moving on to Eve of St. Agnes with a bit more confidence while still crossing my fingers and uttering a desperate prayer. Yeah, I know, ironic.

05.06.13
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Can I Blog While Driving?

It’s coming to that, yeah. When I’m behind the wheel, I get inspired with ideas for blog posts, and I get myself all worked up and gung ho about it. Once I’m at home, staring at my WordPress dashboard, all I can say is “Uuuuuuggghhh… I want to read a book…”

At any rate, “Benedict” – or should it be Benedict? Can’t remember the rule for italicizing novella-length fiction titles – is now cleaned up and in my publisher’s hands, all set for a September release date. That’s a good time as I needed something toward the latter part of the year to keep my name out there in between longer book-length releases.

As far as the original anthology plan is concerned, it’s now on the plate, with a lot more time allowed me to write and revise the other stories included in it. Benedict is one, and The Weeping Willow will be the second story. Since everything in the book will be in the 25K-word range, there’ll only be three stories in the collection as opposed to the originally planned five.

The third novella is called Eve of St. Agnes. I wrote a Gundam Wing fanfic once upon a time with that title, but this story isn’t a reworked fanfic. It’s still inspired by John Keats’ poem, which I adore totally (hell, I worship Keats), but it’ll be thematically similar to the other two novellas and will be more in line with Benedict in tone rather than The Weeping Willow. The third story will be out early next year, and along with it, the anthology.

I’d love to be able to continue writing novellas and experiment with that form some more. For someone who’s more comfortable writing longer fiction, it’s a good shorter length to work with, as I’ve learned the hard way when I tried to tackle something less than 15K words. Someday, I suppose, I’ll be able to manage short fiction the way I was able to write it back in the day. Considering my preferred genre, it’s a challenge trying to create a fantasy setting within a limited word count, but I figured it all hinges on practice for me. I just need to give myself more time to experiment.

Eve of St. Agnes will be the last fairy tale I’ll be writing for a while as I’d like to concentrate on beefing up my contemporary backlist. The last Masks book will be up next, and then I’m going to see if I can overhaul Knights of Wollstone as I’ve yet to figure out what plot point’s been screwing things up for me there. The fantasy boarding school gothic stuff is definitely something I want to do, and hopefully I’ll have that ready for consumption next year sometime.

05.01.13
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A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the New Month

Apparently April decided to let up on the torture devices – did I tell you that I had my car towed on Sunday on my way home from work? No? Well, yes, I had – and end her bitchy reign with an act of mercy. See this video?

Guess which of the two I identify the most with. Guess.

I finished a story. A very problematic one, at that, and it was completely unexpected, the breakthrough happening while I was idly writing notes for the next chapter of The Weeping Willow. And when a breakthrough happens on a problem child, you shouldn’t ignore it.

I’m talking about “Benedict,” which is now complete and currently clocks in at 24,000 words. I’ll be revising the holy heck out of this story on Friday, so I’m spending the rest of this day going about my usual chores, et. al., in a shocked daze. There are a few things I want to mull over regarding story lengths and some such, but that’ll have to wait for another day, preferably when my brain’s regenerated to replace those gooey, pus-like bits that are strewn across the floor from last night’s cranial explosion.

I’m also running on four hours of sleep. Because, you know… problem child.

04.24.13
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Sluggish Is As Sluggish Does

Heh. Went back to my old blog theme, which I’m terribly pleased with because, well, I like how Victorianishly cozy it is (Jeeves, add that word to the OED, please). And it fits little ol’ Cedric. You know, the Victorian boy on my widget and my Gravatar. I wish I knew who did the original illustration. I think it was called “His First Canvas” or something like that, and it was from the 19th century. No amount of Googling has yielded any more info on it, unfortunately – even the image itself, which was an old random and very happy accident while I was scouring the ‘net for what the hell ever it was I was looking for.

But I’ve named the kid Cedric, and he’s now my online icon because he’s just the sweetest thing since David Copperfield and his cross-country trek to find Aunt Betsey. That is, until the original artist decides to haunt my ass and force me to take the image down.

And so the low energy levels continue, which have been compromising my writing progress. It’s one thing to take my time on a story; it’s completely another when I’m only able to yield less than 3,000 words a week. Seriously, brain? Seriously?

Remember this? Yeah, we’re back to that.

Working at home and on my laptop (or even Andy’s laptop, for that matter) hasn’t been the best for me lately. I even messed around with the time I write, which, unfortunately, also meant staying up well beyond the witching hour, hammering away. Different writers have different “artistic clocks”, i.e., hours of peak creativity vary greatly from one person to the next.

I happen to be cursed with a late hour creativity thing, and I normally can’t function on a story until after ten p.m.. I’ve never been a morning person to begin with, but unfortunately my days fall in with the rest of the world’s, which means less hours of sleep after an evening of glorious writing and a great deal of caffeinated propping the following day in order for me to work or run errands or take care of chores. Blabbity blah, blah, blah.

So I decided to dust off my old notebook and work on The Weeping Willow (title still in danger of being changed) the way I worked on Gold in the Clouds. I even forced myself out of the house and exiled myself to the library in order to write, figuring that a drastic change in environment will help.

And it did. Mind you, it took me all day to write a 2,500-word chapter, but I did it, and while my right hand hates me at the moment, it was fantastic going through those same feelings I had when I wrote Gold in the Clouds in longhand out of desperation. That story was unplanned, but I was at my wits’ end because I was stuck in jury duty and needed an outlet.

In this instance, I’m stuck at home because of a bum Achilles tendon, and I’m bored out of my mind. But, hey, whatever helps, yeah? Yeah.

04.06.13
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And My Goal-Tweaking Continues

And so it goes… I can’t write like it’s 2008. Oh, for the good ol’ days of newbie writer zeal. Sigh.

As noted previously, I had to scrap my hoped-for anthology project because I couldn’t make the deadline for “Benedict”. I might still be able to get that anthology done, but I need more time and can’t get that done under the pressure of a deadline. That’ll be Important Life Lesson Number (fill in the blank) for this writer. I can write to length, depending on the complexity of the story’s plot. As far as “Benedict” was concerned, the plot was too complicated, and I need more room for world-building because the setting’s very necessary for the conflict to take place.

The story’s been set aside because it’s not contracted unlike “The Weeping Willow”, which I need to tweak further. But going back to my previous point – since I’ve been going at my own pace since 2008, I’m no longer able to work with a publisher’s deadline, which also means I’m no longer able to answer calls for submissions (not that I’m looking for those). Any deadline I work with will have to be my own, and that date is never set in stone. I found that the more I remind myself of cut-off dates set by my publisher, the more I totally fuck up my story. For “Benedict”, my writing grew harder and harder till the process ground to a halt, and I kept hammering away at it for a week without any luck. Five days before my publisher’s deadline, I had to email her and give her my sob story, and I’m incredibly lucky to have a very understanding publisher who was willing to work with me.

But I know I shouldn’t keep doing this. It’s a pain in the ass for my publisher (I assume), and the last thing I want is to wear out my welcome. I’ve been very happy with JMS Books, and I hope to continue my professional relationship with them for as long as I can.

This year’s been off to a pretty muddy start; we’re already in the second quarter of 2013, and I’m forced to rethink and reshape my goals, considering what my recent experiences have been on the writing front.

I do wish I could write with the zeal of a newbie, but I can’t anymore, and it’s detrimental to force myself to stay on that path.

2011 and 2012 were the peak years of my writing output. I think I produced way more books in those two years (including trunk stories that turned into published short fiction), and at the beginning of 2013, I was hoping to keep that momentum up. Unfortunately things haven’t been working to my advantage on a number of levels, the most important thing being my overall health. I’ve been exhausted since January – low energy levels, difficulty concentrating while writing. I never came down with a case of bad colds / fever / the flu, but the feeling of being worn out persisted, and it’s still there. Maybe the frenzy of the past two years, juggling my day job, cycling, and my increased publishing output, finally took its toll on me.

I also keep saying this, but it’s well worth repeating. I’m not getting any younger. ^^;;;;

Things I was able to pull off before, I no longer can without a lot of effort, and it’s taking me this long to, well, accept that and adjust my thinking accordingly.

While I still agree that the best advertisement I can invest in is new books, I need to slow down and stop buying into what a number of writing experts say regarding pumping out book after book after book (i.e., publish six or more longer works per year such as novellas and novels). I’ve already given up on the dream of quitting my day job and being able to survive on my writing alone – mind you, producing books for a niche market. Given a choice between reputation and sales, I’d love to take reputation and be assured of – excuse the narcissistic prattle – my legacy as a writer of fantasy LGBT YA fiction.

And I don’t have the ability to pump out a bazillion books per year and still manage that. Some writers are gifted enough to accomplish that, but not me. I need to slow down, reverse my pace from what I had in 2011 and 2012. To that end, I’d like to give myself even more time with each book and bring my output down to three short novels a year. If I were to publish novellas, it’ll be about four and no more than that.

I hope to be able to work consistently on improving my writing, but I need to accomplish that at a realistic pace that allows me to work within the time limit I can set for myself. So it looks like the last Masks book will be written this year, but it won’t be out till early 2014.

I’ll admit that there’s some regret here, but at the same time, there’s also a great deal of relief. As long as I’m willing to keep my goals flexible, I’ll be okay, and I can assure myself that I’ll be able to continue writing stories that are dear to me for as long as I’m able.