Carolyn's Blog

Monday, May 31, 2004

Just over 70K. Things going very well. More and more of it is fighteningly good.

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Sunday, May 30, 2004

Well. I have 70+ words now. Nonnie sent back my synopsis and I now, almost entirely, understand the error of my ways. Once, I was blind, but now I see. I really hate synopses. They are hard and I suck at them. But now, I think this one does not suck in quite so humiliating a fashion. Plus, this particular story is pushing an envelope or two and I wasn't just saying, through the magic of rhetorical subtext, so the f*#% what? But now I am. I think.

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Friday, May 28, 2004

OK, the synopsis is off to Nonnie. Now, on to fixing up my ending part. Plus I need to make my list of things to work on (Action Items, I like to call it). Off to work.

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Thursday, May 27, 2004

69K. I was at the gym (exercise is good for you!) and had some great ideas and then went home and wrote a completely unexpected chapter which, at the moment,I like a lot. At 10:00 pm I realized I forgot to finish my synopsis. But I just had to do that chapter.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2004

OK. 68K I figured out the ending while I was at the gym today. I believe the "relationship" chapter will not be necessary. I now can say I officially have all the pieces in place, except that fixed last chapter is really rough. But now I can start obsessing about layering and complexifying. Hah. Do not rush to your dictionaries. I made up that word. However, I am a trained professional and I'm allowed to do that kind of stuff. OK, now I can try finishing up the synopsis (it's really close to being done enough to send for review...)

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Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Under the weather yesterday and today. Tired. Not feeling good. Writing wise, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is when I said I had 67K, that was incorrect because somehow chapter 14 got in there twice. The good news is that now I really do have 67K because my last paper read through resulted in the equivalent of another chapter 14. So, the good news is I have been working hard on my synopsis. The bad news is it sucks.(nonnie, help me!) Geez, I hope she doesn't make fun of me. The good news is I have only the ending ending to figure out. I got all the antagonist stuff tied up, but the bad news is none of the relationship stuff is ended. I do have at least one more chapter to write, but I have no idea what, except between chapter 29 and chapter 30, there's a gaping lack of flow. I need a relationship chapter in there, but I need to think of what that can be that won't really be horrible and uninteresting. I'll think of something. So, soon, soon I will have a synopsis that won't make an agent barf. It's late, 5am is too dang early, but at least I don't feel as crappy as I did this morning.

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Sunday, May 23, 2004

67K. Kind of impressed with myself at the moment. Naturally, I have moved chapters all around, but I seemed to have fixed my mess of an ending and even, yay! starting layering in changes to account for the usual unexpected stuff that happened while I was fixing the mess. Like the uncle isn't really who he says he is and I figured out who the villain is in all this. I was surprised, but not totally. Plus, I swapped the names of PE's sister and her youngest niece. Works better this way. One thing is my possibly too hot chapter got moved from nearly the end to practically the beginning and actually seems to have gotten hotter. It's right there on the edge and quite possibly over it. At the moment, which admittedly is far too early the in morning, I think I have a complete story (well, I need the final, final, sum up chapter). But, I don't have any major holes to fill. Now I just have to tie it all together and make it resonate. I know my themes and they're already starting to gel. So, I'm at my favorite part of this work, pulling it together.

Oh, plus I worked also on my synopsis today. Nearly ready to send off for review.

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Thursday, May 20, 2004

More than yesterday, but not as much as the day before. 64,603 to be exact. Have pretty much worked my way through the woods, possibly into another issue, because then all I'll need is for them to get married (1 paragraph, tops) and then Major Haggart shows up with his bombshell, which will only matter to PE. So, then I will be done. But it getting to 90K shouldn't be an issue. But ANYWAY, you know what has me more excited than just about anything? I just got an email from Amazon and my copy of Mary B's Slightly Dangerous is Shipping!!! Yipee! I cannot wait to read this book. Am having fantasies about developing a sick headache the day it arrives and staying up all night to read it and not going to work the next day. This is also, of course, my fantasy career. (Oh, speaking of which Carolyn, have you finished your synopsis so you can get a new agent who will help you plan the career you have in mind? Uh, no.) Anyway, GML and PE are still hot. Their relationship is hot and really different. Ok. Tomorrow I will work the synopis and send it to Nonnie and have letters to agents out there. Because I really need to write for a living.

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Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Slightly less as of yesterday, but I did work my way through the mess of the back end and now know how to proceed. Also today got some good work done that will refocus GML and what he's up to plus draw on some of their earlier behavior. So, all in all, despite the decrease in word count, things are OK. I worked on my synopsis last night. Have I mentioned that I hate them?

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Monday, May 17, 2004

Back to 64K right now because I deleted a chapter and hosed large portions of another. But then I started working on the part to replace it and, naturally, it turned out a bit different than I expected. So, at the moment, I have chapters at the end where stuff happens in completely the wrong order and I need a big chunk of time to get in and start hacking away at it so that stuff is presented in climactic fashion rather than the present anti-climax mode. However, I am not terribly distressed about this because it's forcing me to work on the ending which has been hanging around doing nothing because the ending doesn't exist. But, now I must deal with PE's father being not really dead the whole time, which is actually OK. But I also need to figure out when PE and GML get married because where I thought it was isn't going to be it. It was great having all day to work on writing. I got a lot done.

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Sunday, May 16, 2004

65K. I didn't do the final read through of my paper for school. Guess I'll do that tomorrow. Basically, the paper is done anyway and I'm mostly feeling like I don't care. My son had a play date and I got many hours in a row to work without interruption. I read through the whole MS which means that 65K sitting there is deceptive because I have one chapter, possibly two, to delete. But I know the replacement for one so maybe it will come out a wash. I do not have to go to work tomorrow on account of having to go in on Saturday for a while, so I will have a writing Monday. Sigh. Some parts were not so good, others were good and some were very good. I'm going to plain old read in bed tonight. My life is just so darn exciting!

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Friday, May 14, 2004

Well, I have about 64K now. JL and GML argue about the Dear John letter that Pansy was previously giving to GML. Now she sends it to JL and it's news to GML. Much better. Got the scene where GML is with Lady R and can't bring himself to sleep with her because PE wouldn't like it, it's pretty rough though. Mostly talking heads kind of stuff. My paper for school is 99% done. Should be in shape to turn in on Monday, and then it's on to the agent search. It's 7:43 PST and I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. Two nights in a row the pager went off at 3am due to job failures on the server. Ick. Rant deleted.
Oh, no. The peahen just walked past my window and she has four little babies. I think we can give them away this year too. We were able to catch the babies last year. Anybody want baby peacocks?

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Sunday, May 09, 2004

Also, 63K now. I ran through my paper edits up to the argument/Lady R part, which will have to wait, I think until the paper is 100% complete. Am stressed though about the career thing,the boss thing and the life in general thing. Also, of course, it's just about midnight and I have to get up at 5am, plus Mondays are my long day.

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Couple of things. 1) Had a brilliant idea about The Heir and how to fix something. Sort of a "duh" moment, to be honest. Instead of GML asking JL to step aside, PE has written a "Dear John" letter to JL, breaking things off because she's been messing with GML. Bad moment between the brothers. This works much better because then I am not left with the problem undercutting the drama of GML's decision to marry PE since GML can play it typically close to the vest when he's arguing with JL. Also, this solves the issue of GML and Lady R which I have added, plus I've converted the PE in London scene to PE with Lady R and a rather uncomfortable situation for all, since GML will be there. Also Major H will call, too. So, GML can watch PE go off the deep end with talking before she thinks and finding herself mired in consequences. So, this will be a bit of work, but all to the good.

Item 2) is actually kind of big. At my local RWA chapter meeting (San Francisco Bay Area) the speaker was Susan Grimshaw the National buyer for Waldenbooks. First, it was an absolutely fabulous presentation. Whoa, do I know better what to do to get my book out the door. However, what matters, really, is that before the meeting, I was getting a bite to eat and there were two women there also getting some food, (unbeknownst to me at the time, they were Sue and a WB Romance expert named Ellen) so, I said hi and all that. They both knew my name and my books. It was pretty clear their recollections about my work were good ones (not, oh, heaven's she's a hack, I hope I can get out of this quick....) which was nice. They, like me, loved the cover for Lord Ruin. True, the cover was great and perfect for the book. They were a bit less enthusiastic about the cover for The Spare -- no doubt the lack of embossing . Now, here comes the part that is big. After the presentation, I was telling Sue how great and useful the information was (and boy is that true, I will be posting some pages to the website soon) and she very genuinely told me I could do big things in the business. So, this is an affirmation that is extremely significant. What is immediately apparent to me is 1) I need to quit the day job sooner rather than later (erk! and live on what money, how to pay bills???) and 2) I have probably made yet another tactical error in wanting to be further along in my story before attempting to sell it. This is exactly why I need an agent. The agent of my dreams would have bopped me over the head and told me that.

My paper for school is substantially done. Really only polishing left. Tomorrow is my last day of class. Then I will get an agent and figure out how I will manage to write and live at the same time.

posted by Carolyn @ 5/09/2004 02:13:00 PM Permalink

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Am slogging through the back part of The Heir. There's stuff I know is in the wrong place, but will have to wait a bit before I know how to fix the bump (biiig bump) in the flow. That will eventually take care of itself. King continues to become an interesting character. I was reading a bit last night after I got home from school, and I fixed some stuff (well, that's the point, right?) But I know what to fix and how to fix because I have spent so much time getting GML and PE working in the beginning. OK, well, not totally, but mostly.

Also, just as an aside, my issue of RT hasn't come yet, but apparently there's a mention of my blog there and just reading between the lines about something someone said and going off the deep end with it, I am not making anything up here except The Heir. That's fiction and I'm suppose to make that up. This blog, however, is not made up. I'm probably about 97% honest here about what it's like for me writing stories, and that 3% is some stuff that would either kill what little career I have or else just be mean and I at least try not to be mean. And now, I have to go to bed and do some further reading. Also, I wrote at least 1.5 more pages for my 20 page paper for school, so now I am about 50% done with summer break coming. I think I'll have The Heir finished, as in 95K, by August. Reality check, that would mean 15,000+ words in June and July, so may end of August? 10,000 words per month, June, July, August. Hmm. that about 2600 words per week for 13 weeks. (yes, I counted). Well, I would be pretty darn close to done, I think. Off to bed.

posted by Carolyn @ 5/04/2004 09:28:00 PM Permalink

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Monday, May 03, 2004

At 62K. Have re-ordered a number of chapters, paper reading. But it's not quite hanging together. GML is not quite cohesive. At one point, I really didn't like him much, which was kind of the point, and then he got rehabilitated, but maybe too soon. I want him to be a villain, only that means there needs to be an apparent anti-villain, right, which is, technically, his brother, who has been sent away. Anyhow, when I was reading yesterday, parts of it had no tension, they didn't seem to be building to anything apparent, plus I still basically have no idea how I will tie up all the various loose ends. Also, I wonder if maybe I shouldn't start just writing a bunch of scenes that I really like and make the challenge figuring out what order they should be in and how to link them to each other. Sigh. I need an agent. I need a story good enough to convince an agent that I'm worth having.

posted by Carolyn @ 5/03/2004 04:37:00 PM Permalink

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