Catch A Star As It Falls

Progress continues on Normal. And the today happened. I came to a chapter that I knew would be the biggest chunk of work in this rewrite, and stopped.

Not because I didn't know what to do.

Because typing hurts.

While reading the newspaper this morning, I somehow pulled my back out of whack. It's okay if I'm leaning back in my computer chair, but sitting up to type makes the pain worse. As I'm typing right now, I'm sitting back to rest periodically and this isn't exactly a huge blog post.

This is lousy timing. I need to get that prompt-related submission in very soon (though that story is almost ready to go) and send in the Nebula nominations. And then there's Normal.

Stupid defective human body.

I lost my momentum.

After getting into a good groove on my Normal editing, everything fell apart in the past few days. I didn't get to edit on Friday or Saturday. I thought I would get the opportunity last night, but then Critter began screaming and crying about his ear hurting, and even after he went to bed his sleep was restless and irritable until almost midnight. So yeah. Editing didn't happen.

For me, losing that momentum is a bad thing. It's the same way with both writing and exercise--if I miss a day, I feel like I'm atrophying. My confidence slips. The self-critical thoughts worsen (What if Normal still sucks? What if I can't fix it?). I look at the time line and start worrying that my missing my daily goals for two days, I'll miss the long-term goals as well, and everything will fall apart. Pebble, boulder, avalanche. PANIC.

Perfectionism really sucks sometimes.

A few years ago, those thoughts would have continued to drill into me until I was paralyzed with depression. Now I know better. Today, I had to edit. So I did. I worked it in while my pizza crust rose. Go in, knead dough, set timer, go back to computer. Continue for two hours. Eat. Go back to computer and edit short story.

It worked. I met my goals for the day--chapters 12 and 13 on Normal have been edited along with the entire short story, "Lemon Drops" (5k words). Not saying that those worrying thoughts are gone, but I did mute them up for a little while. Being able to say, "I accomplished something" is a powerful thing.

Now to continue this forward momentum during the week while my husband is home... gulp.

I have a love of typos. I admit it. I even collect errors from newspapers and magazines (and wow, I need to find time to update that page). I came across one in Normal yesterday that sent me into a fit of giggles: bear hands. Apparently, my heroine has a bit of a hair issue, and that's why she wears gloves. Who knew?

It brings to mind the writers' conference two years ago. I sat at a table with several established authors. One of them writes romance, and she spoke of an absolutely awful typo she made in a short story submission, and she didn't catch the error before sending it off to the editor. Instead of "thigh," she typed "thing." It therefore changed a sentence to, "She laid a hand on his thing."

After we all quieted our hysterical laughter, she added, "And in that same story, I made that typo twice!"

It's comforting to know that the pros still make errors like that.

Anyone else have favorite errors to share?

It occurred to me today that the heroine of Normal was born sometime in the past month. I should have figured out the exact day and celebrated somehow. If I had oodles of spare time, I might troll through hospital records in the Seattle area to see if a girl with her exact name had been born, just to creep myself out.

More editing today, both on Normal and the "She missed her train" prompt story.

( Excerpt from NORMAL. )

It's the evening of the 31st already? Eep. If the rest of the year goes by this quickly, I'm in trouble.

That said, I did make it through chapter three of Normal today. I switched around the content a bit and did some rewriting to make it work. I hope to pick up the pace this week since Critter has four full days of school and I have no other appointments. Of course, now that I said that, we'll all catch H1N1 or something dire will happen.

Here's this week's quote, from one of my favorite books on writing, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott:

"For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really, realy sh**** first drafts."

I intend to post this at some query review sites soon, but I should start with my own blog first.

( The newest query letter for NORMAL. )

Just to note: the word count on this is 275. According to Nathan Bransford, the sweet spot for queries is between 250 and 350 words. So lengthwise, this is perfect; the rest is debatable.

Comments and critiques are welcome.

Very little to say right now. Work continues on short submissions, with several projects still ongoing. I haven't started on the next editing stage on Normal, though I have pretty much convinced myself I'm going to completely delete my second scene in chapter one.

So... yeah. As the subject line says, I'm plodding along.

Here's a highly relevant quote:

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a
manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer.
You send that work out again and again, while you're
working on another one. If you have talent, you will
receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.

~Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

Jay Lake's description of the larval stages of the common American speculative fiction writer cracked me up this morning. Well done, sir.

I've spent much of the week working on a short story beginning with the prompt, "She missed her train." However, the story didn't end up that short. The rough draft word count tally is 4,560. Ugh. I did not expect it to be that long. I may be able to get it under 4000 after some cutting and polishing (and oh boy does it need it).

Writing time has been at a premium the past few weeks, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It all comes down to Critter. Even with his difficulties, he has usually enjoyed leaving the house and seeing the sights, especially if he had mild confinement (i.e. a stroller or shopping cart). However, now he's almost five and tall for his age. He's also having horrible, ugly, mortifying meltdowns almost every time we take him out in public. Why, I don't know. A few days ago, our attempt to go out for my birthday dinner ended quickly; in the lobby, Critter ordered that we be seated to the right, while the hostess guided us left. Cue a screaming, thrashing fit (with kicks that almost hit the other diners). We left promptly. No birthday dinner for me.

I would rather avoid more public difficulties like that. Therefore, the time-consuming chores I used to do with Critter in tow--like grocery shopping--I am now doing while he is with school. Today, for example, I burned up two hours on grocery shopping. It irritates me that I'm losing my writing time like that, but if I can actually get the errands done without Critter going ballistic, it's worth it.

I just hope he outgrows this phase as soon as possible.

I've spent the past week on smaller submissions. I can now say that I have two stories out to pro markets, two new essays in the Chicken Soup slush, and a new attempt with the first place I ever submitted to two years ago (they sent me a quick yet kind rejection).

There are also two current projects-in-progress I hope to finish in the next few days. Not sure if that will happen since I'm feeling migraine symptoms kicking in, but I hope to get a few hundred words done today.

I really need to start on the next go-through of Normal this week. I may need to push that off till next week, which irritates me. It looks like my husband's work schedule may allow me to attend the writers' conference in April after all, so it's imperative I get Normal in decent shape as soon as possible.

Now if only my son/brain/need for sleep/sanity would cooperate...

I feel really weird doing this. It's easy for me to say, "Hey, I published this, read it over here." However, asking, "Hey, can you vote for me?" is a bit more of a challenge. But here we go.

I have several stories eligible for Nebula Award nominations within the short story category. Per the rules, they must have been published in 2009 and within the United States. [Oh, and now I notice works published online count as if published in the US. Now I can add Niteblade stuff!] If you are a member of the SFWA with available nominating slots, I kindly ask that you consider these stories.

Biding Time, Beth Cato.

The Pacifier, Beth Cato.

The Empty Crib at the End of the World, Beth Cato.

The Teething Ring, Beth Cato.

Promise in the Dust, Beth Cato.

Thanks!

The secret project I began work on at the end of October has come to fruition: my first published magazine article. And it's about editing NaNoWriMo manuscripts.

Read Beginning After NaNoWriMo over at WOW! Women on Writing.

I hope it can help folks out and expedite the editing process. I've learned the hard way - I'm not kidding when I say in there, "Editing takes practice and possibly a prescription for anti-depressants."

Rhonda, is it okay if I link to the article on Nanoljers? I don't want to be all spammy, but it is relevant to the community.

For a few days, I've been pondering ideas for guest blog posts. Using my background of geekiness seemed like a central theme, but nothing came together for a concise post. Then last night, I was unable to fall asleep, and suddenly it hit me: this wasn't a concept for a blog, it was the perfect idea for a Chicken Soup essay for their Family Matters anthology!

Of course, this realization comes last night, and Wednesday is about the worst possible day to get any writing done. Still, I managed to type up the first two paragraphs in between therapy appointments.

Insomnia has its uses, sometimes. But a good night of sleep would be nice.

Ack. I haven't posted since the 5th. I've obviously been slacking off with my blog.

The good news is that I've been busy otherwise. Last night I finished the read-through of Normal and was pleasantly surprised by how well it flowed. I had forgotten some of the scenes I'd added, so it felt like I was reading someone else's writing. Kind of eerie, really. I need to do some fact-checking on the next time through, and there's one scene I need to completely delete and then modify that chapter accordingly. I tried to force in a healing scene from the older draft, and it's easy to see it was forced in. So bye-bye it goes.

I'm not going to have loads of free time this week. Critter has some things going on at school, and I even get to play chaperone for a field trip. I had a few more rejections come in for contests I entered last summer, so I need to send out some more short submissions I've been putting off. That will be the focus of the week. Next week, the nit-picky edit of Normal draft 6.0 begins.

I have read through chapter 12 of Normal, a little over halfway through the book. As the post title says, I don't hate it. Actually, I'm rather pleased. The info dumps are gone. The action is more consistent. Celeste is more proactive. I'm surprised there weren't more typos considering the speed I tore through the last draft. I'll have a few rough points to smooth out on my next time through - when I truly edit - but I don't think I'll need to spend months and months on solo editing. That means I can probably join a critique group this month (February at latest).

Submitting work for criticism is never fun, but eh. It can't be much worse than what I was told in August. Famous last words, right?

Regardless, optimism is currently high, and I'll enjoy that while it lasts.

Critter goes back to school on Monday. I'll have my mostly interruption-free writing time again (whee!) and plan to use it wisely.

I'm starting my edit of Normal.

My original plan was to finish the rough draft for Abnormal, the sequel. However, if I do plan on attending that writers' conference in April (which now looks iffy by my husband's work schedule) it's more important to get Normal back in query-able condition. I've spent the past few days psyching myself up for the task. This involves stewing over the novel in my head, thinking about what I need to change, what I need to research, and how to connect it better to the sequel.

My first time through, I just read and take notes. Otherwise, the editing just seems too overwhelming and contradictory. I hope to make it through the whole draft in a few days, and then start the actual editing by next weekend. Time constraints are my motivational friend.

Meanwhile, I haven't been goofing off for the past week. Well, not totally. I've been reading up on markets, getting several essays written and edited, and small submissions sent out. I find it interesting that I spent much of December working on nonfiction; I didn't plan it that way, but maybe my subconscious was giving my creative brain a rest after NaNoWriMo.

Regardless, it worked. On the 31st I finally finished up my chapter outline for Abnormal, which had me stumped for several months. Hooray! Now to get the manuscripts in decent shape for public viewing...

I capped off 2009 in grand fashion.

I first read about SFWA back when I was a teenager. I forget where exactly - maybe Writer's Digest, as a mention in some author biography, or in the old B. Dalton fantasy/scifi bulletins. But I do remember I wanted to join. To be considered a peer of these fabulous writers? Wow. As a teenager, most of my writing was either for school or in detailed recaps of my dreams (which in some cases gobbled up 4-6 hours a day). I told myself I was a fiction writer, but I was so crippled by my perfectionism and fear of rejection that I didn't write and submit.

Now in the past few years, I've fought through those crippling thoughts. I honestly didn't expect to get a pro publication in 2009. I didn't put it as part of my resolutions for the year because I thought I would be setting myself up for failure. It was too soon, my writing wasn't ready yet. I think it's even nicer because it was a surprise.

I still have a long way to go (get those &%$@ novels published) but I can look back and see the tremendous progress I've made. I'm thankful to have my fellow writer friends here for the ride, to provide pep talks when I'm feeling down and to cheer when I've found success. I couldn't do this all on my own.

May the New Year bring our publishing dreams to happy fruition!

This year zoomed by. Anyone else find it bizarre how time passes so slowly when you're young, and speeds as you get older? I'm definitely in the "older" category now - I turn 30 in a few weeks, and all of the toys I remember as a kid are now back in "retro" versions. 80s music is now considered oldies. Gah. That's just wrong.

( Here are the goals I set for 2009 )

Now, to 2010.

I do like how JA Konrath does his resolutions. Specific, motivational, and honest. Here are my personal aims for the new year:

1) Edit Normal. Have the first three chapters honed by April 10th, finish the rest by June 1st. Which leads into the next goal...
2) Join a critique group in January (most likely OWW and use feedback to revise Normal.
3) Attend the Desert Dreams Writers' Conference in mid-April, located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Network. Try not to be such a wimpy wallflower. Do agent pitch session. Follow through. (This is why I have the goal of having the first part of Normal ready by mid-April. Now I just need my husband's work to set his schedule so that I can register for this conference.)
4) Continue to send out submissions to smaller contests and publications, always having at least five stories/essays on submission.
5) Aim for another pro (SFWA-listed) publication in 2010.
6) Continue to participate in 50book challenge and LibraryThing, reading at least 50 books during 2010 and posting reviews for all.
7) Diversify. Continue with fiction and essays, but send out more poetry and magazine queries. Have at least one poem [may raise this goal later] in circulation at all times.
8) Finish the rough draft for Abnormal by August.
9) NaNoWriMo 2010. I want to do it. I'm not sure if I should, as I already have three manuscripts in various stages of completion. If prudent, go for it; if not, forgive myself, or set some other writing goal for November.
10) Maintain my professional website and promptly update with any publication news. Redesign site.
11) Don't give up. I've come a long way in the past year and there's plenty of mountain left to climb. If tired of climbing, use dynamite.

Merry Christmas and best holidays wishes to all. May your food be divine, family tolerable, and good memories be made that last years to come.

My story "Biding Time" is now online at The Pedestal Magazine.

I already knew I'd be in good company as Ken told me one of his Clarion peers has also been accepted, but I just about keeled over when I saw Jane Yolen listed as one of the other authors.

Man. When I break a rejection streak, I break it with style.

I am not feeling at my best tonight as my body rebels against the constant blooming cycle here in Arizona, but I wanted to make a quick post.

December 20th is my day in TTA Press's Advent Calendar. I'm very grateful for the editor to link to "The Pacifier" and Niteblade. It's nice to see Marge Simon's artwork recognized and complimented on as well.