Category — The Business of Writing
When the Novel Fails, Listen to Your Muse
So it’s been a while since I last posted, mostly because I’ve been working hard on the next novel while my agent is still trying to sell the other one. However, things have gone less than smoothly this time around and thought it might make an interesting blog post.
I started working on this second novel while I was shopping for an agent, though I didn’t pick up any significant momentum on it until well into summer of last year. I’d outlined it, just as I’d done for previous novels, so I knew where I was going, but pretty much I was letting the muse guide me. After finishing a section, I decided that I’d started the novel too late into the narrative and so went back and added another section at the beginning. It was working out to be a piecemeal of several different stories I’d written and either failed to sell or never made an effort to sell to magazines. I wanted to write a book in the same universe as “The Hearts of Men” but decided I didn’t want to use Mextli as a POV character. I’d written a novelette that I kind of liked from the POV of Xolotl, the servant of Lord Death, which revealed how Mextli and the other gods came to be reborn and I thought that he would make an interesting POV character. I also wanted to take a step back from my comfort zone and try using 3rd person this time rather than 1st. I did start off writing it in 1st, but halfway through I realized that certain plot elements required the use of 3rd, so I switched.
So I worked on this for most of the year, and I set multiple deadlines for getting the first draft done, but each one came and went and I still wasn’t finished. I often felt as if writing this story was really work and not any fun; with the previous novel, despite taking as long as it did, I never had the feeling that I was doing a job I had to do, but rather I was doing something I love and had a lot fun doing it, even when the critiques came back with frustrating results. I never felt the desire to give up on that book (or the second part, which I haven’t rewritten yet, but will if I can sell the first book). This one, however, I felt often that I would rather be doing something else; the days spent working on it felt tedious and often the narrative wandered away from the close 3rd with Xolotl to a more general omniscient. My impulse was to follow Mextli–who was an important but secondary character–and not Xolotl, and I kept having to wrangle myself back on track. I knew where I wanted to be at the end of it, but getting there turned into a meandering, disjointed mess, with me throwing in any new idea that seemed cool. I added in sub-plots that came out of nowhere and really contributed nothing, and introduced characters that became a drag on the plot events. Even after doing a rewrite that cut 20k words of plot, I still had a tremendous mess on my hands, but wanted to believe that it wasn’t as terrible as I thought.
Having finally made a deadline, I turned it in for critique. I also sent the draft to my agent, to get her feedback on what I’d done, in hopes of avoiding an extra draft between my post-crit draft and the final. And she actually got back to me before the crit group did, and the news wasn’t good. But on the other hand, all those doubts I’d been pushing aside to get this thing done were completely vindicated now: this book sucked.
I spent a couple hour depressed about it, but then told myself to knock it off and start thinking about fixes; a bit difficult without having heard back from my crit buddies yet, but by the end of the day, I started thinking of every difficulty I had with the book, and the one that stuck out the most for me was the fact that I’d kept wanting to write more and more about Mextli, and I’d have to remind myself that this wasn’t his story. And when I thought about switching to his POV for the story, that excitement came on strong for the first time. It would mean completely ripping apart the story and reworking it, but if I’m enthusiastic, it could significantly easier than trying to squeeze some blood from this stone I already have.
Still, I held off on committing to anything until I heard back from the crit group. They pretty much reconfirmed all my suspicions about things and backed up my agent’s concerns about the protagonist and offered multiple suggestions on what I could go from there. In the end it was obvious that the book I’d written wasn’t anywhere near good enough, and I didn’t know enough about Xolotl to understand what makes him tick, so I decided to trunk the novel and start all over again, switching to Mextli for the POV and to tell his story.
I know, that sounds depressing, all those months of work gone to waste, but actually, I feel the exact opposite. I’d lost the passion for that novel long ago, probably long before I was even halfway through it, but I made myself go on. The lesson learned here: listen to my muse. He knows what’s going on and I ignore him at my peril. I had new ideas and they made me excited to get to work.
But I was a little gun-shy now and did not want to end up with a jumbled mess again. I typically do general outlining and leave the scene by scene stuff to when I do the actual writing, but this time I decided to plot the whole thing out, character motivations and all. But first, I decided to do something I’ve never done before: character interviews. My biggest issue last time was that I didn’t know my protag very well at all and as a result he seemed to have no compass guiding his actions; he just did stuff to meet the plot rather than his actions moving the plot along. I was determined to not let that happen this time around, and though I think I know Mextli pretty well, I wasn’t too sure about his primary adversary. I downloaded a sheet of questions for a fantasy character interview and used that as a basis to figure out all my primary and secondary characters. I started out with the characters I knew best and found out some interesting–and in some cases very surprising–things about them. But when I came to the villain, whom I knew so little about beyond basics, as soon as I started answering the questions, I started hearing her voice very clearly in my head, and I was really quite taken by her. Her backstory blossomed and it was far more nuanced and intriguing than I’d ever imagined before, and by the time I finished all the character interviews, I knew I wanted to write about her too, since Mextli’s story is so closely interwoven with her own, so I decided a dual narrative was how I wanted to go. I also discovered something new about another character I thought I knew really well and this changed everything on multiple levels. The overall story arc of the universe as I’d envisioned it in the previous draft was no longer viable.
From there I started into a detailed outline, pretty much scene by scene, working out the whole plotline and making sure that things that happened happened because someone made them happen rather than them just happening (my friend Janice Hardy shared this link with me, which is a little discussion from the makers of South Park, about how if you’re saying, “And then this happens”, then you’ve made a wrong turn.). I worked on this outline for about 2 weeks, slowing down and reading some references when I got stuck. When I got to the end, the book turned out way different than I first envisioned it, but it feels fuller and more connected than the previous draft felt at any time.
I don’t know at this point if the plot as I have it worked out right now is a success, for I’m getting feedback on that before starting, so my road map is completely clear, but this time I have the definitely feeling that I’m onto something far better and I’m eager to get started on the actual writing.
So my second novel was a complete failure, but hopefully I can take the lessons from that and make something much better this time around.
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May 11, 2012 No Comments
The Uber-unglamorous Life of this Writer
I’m boggled that it’s been over four months since I’ve last posted anything, but sometimes there’s nothing interesting going on. So, what exactly have I been doing since January? Mostly doing the rewrite on the latest novel and getting it ready for my crit group, which has it now. I also took some time to do some reading, something I don’t do nearly enough of. I’ve been trying to work my way through the Song of Ice and Fire series and have made it as far as A Feast For Crows before having to take a break from it. Right now I’m researching for the next novel (which, gasp!, is not Aztec!)
On the sub front, everything’s been pretty quiet, though hope springs eternal. With any luck, I’ll have a new novel making the rounds by June or July.
Other things I’ve been doing these past four months: toilet training my cats, and it’s going surprisingly well. If I’m successful at getting them completely litter-free, I might do a blog entry about the process. We’ve been working on it for just over two months now and we’ve got probably another month worth of work left on it.
So, as you can see, not a whole lot of excitement going on here at Casa de Morganfield. I keep more day-to-day news at my Facebook page if you want to keep more up to date on what I’m doing, so feel free to send me a friend request over there if you wish.
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April 18, 2012 No Comments
The End of Year Post
It’s fashionable to do these, so here it is: a listing of the important things I did (and didn’t do) this year.
On the whole, this has to have been both the best and worst year I’ve had, professionally. On the “worst” end of the spectrum, I found myself having difficulty remaining focused on projects. On the short fiction front, I finished a decent draft of one novelette, and started a second story which I never finished, but no short fiction got submitted this year. In fact, my inventory is currently sitting at zero. I never subbed the finished story because I ended up deciding to roll it over into a novel. On the novel-writing front, I think I did pretty well. I managed to cut 50k from the latest version of the novel and start the agent hunt. I also wrote a new novel, which I still don’t have a title for, but that took most of the year to write. I’ve taken this last month off to just do nothing and let the creative batteries recharge after making that final push to finish the novel during NaNoWriMo. Funny how I feel like I didn’t get much done this year.
On the “best” end of the spectrum, I landed an agent this year and we’ve blazed a significant trail through the in-boxes of many an editor in New York. No novel sale yet, but I did make a reprint sale this year, to Escape Pod. And my last short story appeared in Space and Time in January or February. While there isn’t much stuff listed in the “best” category, this does feel like a year in which I accomplished the most significant stuff of my career so far, mainly making that leap to being represented and making a push into the novel market. I’m finally one significant step closer to doing what I really want to do, and that’s being a novelist.
On that note, I’ve made a decision about what I want to do with writing from here on out. I want to focus on novel-writing; if a short story comes to me, then of course I’ll write it, but I’m not going to push myself to write short fiction anymore. Novel-length is my most comfortable length and that’s where I want to focus my efforts. I may eventually come back to writing short fiction, but for now, I want to follow my muse, and it’s got at least one other novel idea I’d like to try out.
As for resolutions, I don’t like to make those. Then there’s nothing to feel bad about when I miss the mark. I do have plans for the first couple of months of the year, involving getting the latest novel into shape and ready to submit, but beyond that, I want to let the muse show me the way when I get there.
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December 31, 2011 No Comments
The Beginning of the Holiday Season
Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving (for everyone who celebrates). I managed to wrap up the first draft of the new novel last Tuesday, with the full thing coming in at 127k, a much more manageable length than the 200k first draft of The Bone Flower Throne. It’s very rough, and I still don’t have a title, but I’m going to give it some thought over the holiday. The plan is to let it sit until after the New Year, then diving into the next draft. I’m hoping to have it ready for first round critique by late February. For now though, it’s vacation time.
My plan for vacation time: read some books and play some video games and watch some movies. I also want to start thinking about my next novel project, maybe do some rough outlining and try to figure out my characters, and do some research reading. I have a world in mind, but no story to go with it (and oh boy, it’s not going to be an Aztec fantasy…well, at least it will be more than just that. I’m imagining an alternate Americas where the divergent point is back during the Pleistocene Epoch, so there will be some crossover, but only on a general basis.). I also don’t know yet whether it’s a fantasy or just a straight-up alternate history yet. Lots to think about.
On the reading front, I’m rereading Salem’s Lot right now. I first read it when I was twelve, and I read it in about 12 with the help of a pot of coffee. I don’t remember much about it, except that I couldn’t put it down, and really, though I’m reading it slower this time, I am rather hooked by it. I’m getting a lot more out of it now than I did when I was twelve. It reminds me a great deal of King’s other book Needful Things; he does small town life really well and compelling. I’m about halfway through right now and might finish it up today, though one of the kids is home sick, so hopefully I won’t be interrupted with having to clean up unpleasant things. 
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November 28, 2011 No Comments
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
Yes, it’s November, which means it’s time again for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for short)! I’m actually a pretty big fan of NaNoWriMo; I like the idea of it: spending a month putting butt in chair and just banging the words out until you have none left. But what I like most about it is having the deadline looming, and knowing just how many words I need to write daily to meet it. The last couple times I did it, I bashed that 50k into the ground (the second time I did it, I ended up at about 75k by the end of November. ETA: Holy cow! I went back and looked at my previous NaNo entries on LJ, and I actually finished with 110k. Was I insane or something?!?). It’s amazing to see just how much I can do without going crazy (and it’s alot!).
The first two years, I worked on The Bone Flower Throne, and this year, I’m going to finish up the current WIP, which is already sitting at 95k. I’m aiming for a finished product of about 120k, but that leaves me a lot of room to go over at this point, since I cut heavily in edits. My process pretty much involves just dumping my brain on the page and seeing what I like after the fact.
Now, I know there are some purists out there that insist you don’t really “win” if you don’t start a fresh novel at the beginning of November. I say horse-hockey to them, and they need to get a grip. “Winning” doesn’t land you a publishing contract, so who gives a fuck if you “win” or not. I know people who set out to write 50k in short fiction during the month (a much harder task than writing 50k of a novel, if you ask me). I did my first NaNo with a fresh project, but by the second time, I was really wanting to finish that sucker that I’d let languish for an entire year with no work on it. And seeing how motivated to crank out word count I’d felt during the previous year, I decided that’s what was most important: just getting the work done. It’s been a few years since I’ve done NaNo, so maybe folks aren’t as anal retentive about the “rules” as they used to be, but regardless I’m NaNoing to get work done, and that’s all that really matters. I need to get that first draft done and ready to edit and rewrite by the beginning of the year because my motivation has been in the toilet since the end of summer.
I’m far enough into the novel that I don’t have a working outline anymore, but I know where I’m going, so I’m kind of winging it, working off a crude roadmap in my head. I don’t have any opinion for whether or not people doing NaNo should have an outline or not; everyone works differently and it’s perfectly okay to stick with what’s comfortable. But November is also a good time to try different methods, so one shouldn’t be afraid to try outlining if they’re normally a pantser, or try pantsing if one’s normally an outlining control-freak. (though if one hasn’t outlined at this point, they’ll be behind).
If you’d like to follow my progress over at the NaNo website, my username is tlmorganfield. Feel free to buddy me and I’ll buddy you back. And good luck to all those joining the fray this year!
And turn off your internet while you’re working. You’d be surprised by just how much extra you can get done when not wasting your days on YouTube or LiveJournal or Facebook or Twitter.
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November 1, 2011 No Comments
