Falling out of love with your book

Everyone does it. At some point or another, in the first drafts or the revisions or even the final read-through, you’re going to hate your book.

I do, at least. I wince reading paragraphs full of bad writing. I swear the plot doesn’t make any sense. I’m convinced my characters are bland and uncompelling. And I know—I just know—that I’m wasting my time with this one.

It happens with every single WiP I’ve ever worked on. And sometimes I’m right—sometimes the book just isn’t cutting it, and I have to shelve it. But most of the time, all I need is to step back. Take some time off from the book. Work on something else or take a full day and visit museums and go on walks and forget about the horrible book for a little while.

When I come back to the manuscript after a breather, I’ll realize that maybe it’s not so bad after all. There are always mistakes, but I can fix most of them. I can fall back in love with my book again, and there’s no better feeling than that.

Does this happen to you? How do you get through it?

Long Weekends and Downton Abbey

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Four-day weekends. That was pretty nice, I have to say.

2. Turkey sandwiches with cranberry and dressing. Thankgsiving leftovers are sometimes even better than the actual meal.

3. Case Keenum. He’s the University of Houston quarterback, and he’s the major reason we’re ranked #7 in the nation right now. I come from a family of big U of H fans, and we’re all so excited.

4. Those times when I can’t bear to shut my laptop because the words are just flowing. Such an amazing feeling (one I need more of).

5. Downton Abbey. I got hooked on this amazing historical drama from the UK about a house and all of its occupants, family and servants, in the early 1900s. And now I can’t wait for more episodes!

Happy Monday, everyone! Anything making you happy this week?

Turkey and Football (of course)

Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone! I’m taking the rest of the week off to get ready for eating massive amounts of turkey (and, you know, get some writing done). But before I go, I wanted to list the five things that make me so very happy about Thanksgiving:

1. Turkey. Oooh, and stuffing. And cranberry sauce. And mashed potatoes (my mom makes them with bacon, and they’re sinfully delicious). Can you see why I need time to mentally prepare myself for all that food?

2. Chocolate turkeys. A delightful variation of regular turkeys (chocolate formed into the shape of a turkey, in case you are unaware).

3. Pumpkin pie. Um, obviously. I adore it. Especially with massive amounts of whipped cream.

4. Good company. Because that’s nice to have while I’m stuffing my face.

5. Football. Playing it, watching it—football is immediately associated with Thanksgiving in my mind.

What makes you the most excited about Thanksgiving?

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. We finally got a good day of rain here this week, so of course I spent the evening making brownies and cocoa and writing. Rainy days are my favorite writing times.

2. We needed that rain desperately. I went to Washington-on-the-Brazos (a state park about an hour outside of Houston) a few weeks ago and found that a lake (very large pond? I don't know water terminology) that had been there last year had completely disappeared. It was awful.
What it looked like before:

And now:

3. I’ve finally got a copy of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races, and I’m savoring it. Her writing creates this harsh, beautiful world on the edge of the sea, and I feel transported every time I pick it up.

4. Of course, reading her book has inspired me to look over my descriptions in my own WiP and try to make them as full and sensory as possible.

5. It’s going to be another weekend of college football and writing—I’m so excited. And I can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost here!

Happy Friday, everyone! Anyone have any fun weekend plans?

Ruining My Characters' Lives

I’m horrible at bringing my characters to their lowest point. I know as authors we’re supposed to throw everything against our main characters, making it incredibly difficult for them to achieve their goals. But after spending so much time building a character and getting to know her, I hate putting her in harm’s way. Or even just hurting her feelings.

That’s why the moments of reversal are the hardest for me to plot and to write. I know I have to turn the plot around, make it look like my main character won’t get what she wants or do what she needs to do. I have to bring everything crashing down. But I have to separate myself from the book and from the character and look at it objectively to see what horrible things I can make happen. And that’s always ridiculously hard.

Thank goodness I don’t have to kill people in my books. I would be a wreck.

How do you find the strength to throw everything against your characters?

Armadillos and Hardcover Books

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Armadillos. I saw one "in the wild" this week, and they are the weirdest-looking animals ever.

2. Cooking shows. I have never made any of the recipes, but they’re inexplicably so much fun to watch!

3. Biographies. I’m on a nonfiction kick again. I love reading about people’s lives (especially English queens).

4. Hardcover books. Is there anything more wonderful than opening a new hardback and falling into a new story?

5. Honeycrisp apples. Oh my goodness, they taste divine. I'm currently obsessed.

Happy Monday, everyone! Anything making you happy this week?

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Maureen Johnson’s The Name of the Star completely creeped me out this week. It’s an amazingly scary book about a Louisiana teenager who moves to a London boarding school just as someone is recreating the Jack the Ripper murders. I highly recommend it (but only for daytime reading—trust me).

2. For some reason, I’m craving an afternoon of watching black-and-white movies. I haven’t watched a good older movie in a long time. Does anyone have any suggestions?

3. I think I’ve gotten worse at multitasking. In college, I could watch TV, write a paper, and have a conversation with a friend all at the same time. I really can’t do that effectively anymore. I end up ignoring at least one of those things.

4. I love putting my iTunes on shuffle and seeing what comes up. There are so many songs on there that remind me of very specific points in my life, and I (usually) love reliving that.

5. I may or may not have found myself watching college football on mute while listening to French music last weekend. Gotta love my disparate interests.

Happy Friday, everyone! Anyone have any fun weekend plans?

The Problem with Skipping

When I’m writing a first draft, I try my best to write linearly. I make a fairly detailed outline in my planning stages, and I want to follow it. But it’s so very tempting to jump from scene to scene. I’ll get a great idea for a line of dialogue or a descriptive passage for a later scene, and I can’t help but skip a few spaces down and type it in.

It sounds innocuous enough, I know, but it can really mess up my character development. I’m always concerned with communicating my main character’s growth and the evolving relationships between my characters, and when I skip around, it’s harder to keep track of these things. I end up spending a lot more time in revisions with reverse outlining all of these issues and correcting any discrepancies. My transitions between scenes become less organic, as well.

I’m trying to develop a system to get rid of this problem. When I have a spark of inspiration for a later scene, I type it into another word document. Then, when I get to that scene, I add it in only if it fits. I have to kill some darlings, but my story’s so much better for it.

Does anyone else have this problem? And all you NaNo’ers, how’s the second week going?

Saturday Afternoon Naps and Cream Cheese Icing

Things that make me happy, even on a Monday:

1. Saturday afternoon naps. Especially while watching college football. Somehow, those are the coziest naps.

2. Discovering the song that just perfectly fits a character in my WiP or a scene. I’ll play it on repeat for hours.

3. Lemon spice tea. Makes my writing nights so much better.

4. The fact that instead of using air conditioning, I can now cool my apartment by opening a window. Yay for fall finally arriving in Texas!

5. Cream cheese icing. I made too much for my red velvet cupcakes a few weeks ago, so I just had to make pumpkin cupcakes so it wouldn’t go to waste. Such a terrible problem to have.

Happy Monday, everyone! Anything making you happy this week?

Five Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Lydia Kang is having a contest on her awesome blog to celebrate reaching 1,000 followers and getting a book deal! CLICK HERE to go to it. You could win books or a critique or gift cards—it’s an amazing prize list. And if you’re not following her already, you should be!

2. Ahh, I can’t wait for the Hunger Games movie! I don’t know if I’m going to like all the actors in their roles, but I want to see if the world they create is the same I saw in my head as I read the book.

3. I need to stay away from all libraries for a while. I keep coming home with piles of amazing books—my TBR list is way too long!

4. I have the hardest time coming up with last names for my characters. First names are fairly easy, but coming up with something more interesting than “Smith” or “Brown” gives me headache, for some reason. Does anyone else have this problem?

5. We finally got a real cold front! So for a few days, we’re going to have a high in the sixties, and I can finally wear some of my favorite sweaters! So excited.

Happy Friday, everyone! Anyone have any fun weekend plans?

Why I'm Not Doing NaNo

I’m not doing NaNo this year, because it just didn’t work out with my schedule. But for all of you doing it, I’m rooting for you!

To be honest, I don’t think I would be the best NaNo candidate. When I’m writing a first draft, I tend to make word count goals for myself. Every day, I want to write 3,000 words. But a lot of times, this doesn’t happen. I just can’t write that quickly some days. Sometimes the inspiration doesn’t come, and I need to take a break—go for a walk, catch up with friends and family, something. If I’m working on a difficult scene, it’s hard for me to turn my inner editor off, and often, I don’t want to. I want to focus on my words and get down exactly what I mean to say, while I still have the inspiration to say it.

I understand the concept of turning your inner editor off, especially if you have trouble completing a first draft or just want to get it over with. Most, if not all, problems can be fixed with revisions. I guess my writing style is just different.

Overall, it usually takes me about three months to write a first draft. Which is not as impressive, but it works for me.

Any of you doing NaNo? Let me know so I can cheer you on!