Bad habits

I’ve noticed I’m a great big failure when it comes to forming good habits lately.

I haven’t balanced my checkbook in months.
I keep forgetting to blog.
I’ve been having upwards of 5 cups of coffee every day. (*twitch*)
I haven’t been writing EVERY day.
Or editing all that stuff I said I would.
I’ve been re-reading books instead of reading all the new ones on my TBR pile.
I’ve bought a few books, then thought, “Jeez, I’m never going to read that one.”
I had pizza for lunch.
My gym membership card has dust on it.
So do my gym shoes.
And my duster.
And my vacuum.
I’ve been leaving dishes in the sink.
I haven’t been self-promoting very much — I always see those self promo threads on message-boards or Amazon or whatever and think “Should I?” but then I walk away. There’s a fine line between self promo and douchebaggery, and I tend to overshoot. Best to just avoid entirely unless you have the delicate skill of Self Promo, and I do not have it.
I’ve been watching TV shows ONLINE instead of when they come on, thus torpedo-ing the Nielsen rankings of my favorite shows.
I’ve been playing far, far too much Left4Dead (new patch tonight!).

So what about you? Someone else tell me their bad habits so I don’t feel like the only doofus around.

Ugh

My floor here at work has the worst coffee ever. Worst. Bleh.

(And yet, I still drink it. Smart? Not so much.)

Editing. Again.

Am editing UNNATURAL again. Well, except now it’s called VANISHING ACT but my brain can’t seem to wrap around that. So what is more glamorous than reading and editing a manuscript twelve times?

Why, thirteen times!

Luckily, my agent’s notes were spot on, so this draft has been fairly painless thus far. Sure, I bitch, but if I didn’t, what could I possibly talk about?

Other than that, no news on this end. Glad that Mercury is no longer in retrograde.

(It’s not…is it? Eep.)

Mean to books

I just bought a stack of paperbacks at the bookstore the other day. Even though I have a Sony e-Reader (and love it), I still make a ton of purchases in person. There’s just something about being able to pick up and hold a real book.

Anyhow, I’ve been slowly digging myself through my new purchases. I’ve been reading HUNTING GROUND by Patricia Briggs for the past few days. The cover is lovely – purple with some shiny stuff on it, and a painting by Dan Dos Santos (who can do no wrong).

Three days in:

– Multiple pages are dog-eared & bent
– The spine is cracked in 3 diff places
– The entire spine has a roll to it
– The book cover is bent and sticks up

My husband cannot believe I am so cruel to my books, especially since I write them. Me, I just think it’s a sign of a well-loved book. Some of my favorite ones have been read and abused so many times they are held together by duct-tape.

That’s when you know it’s a good read.

Nerd Superbowl!!!!!

New season of Survivor tonight!

OMG!

So EXCITED!!!!!!!!!11!!!!1! Who’s watching???

Promo, promo everywhere…and not a drop of content.

So today, I am in a cranky mood. I told Ilona it was because I had bad author dreams. I dreamed that I opened the latest issue of Romantic Times and saw my book had a 1-star.

(Those of you that read RT know that they don’t 1-star anything. But I had one. Lucky me!)

Clearly this is a sign of encroaching author-beast-dom. I recognize the signs, even if I don’t know how to avoid it.

Galleys are almost done. Once I have them out the door, I can return to working on my new story, which I am (quite objectively) calling MY PRECIOUSSSSS.

Cover Art

(Well, not really)

Meljean Brook has done a revenge post on my cover art over at The Odd Shots.

*shakes fist*

(It’s pretty brilliant, no?)

I am heading to the bookstore tonight with the full intention of having a bookstore accident. I am planning on doing at least $100 in damage and I won’t be satisfied otherwise!

Anyone have anything exciting on their to-buy list at the moment?

Today is my day

Over at Odd Shots. I raided Meljean Brook’s SECRET DELETED SCENES and uncovered a most interesting tidbit that I shared with the group.

(Meljean is such a good sport.)

Galleys

Just heard from my editor’s assistant – galleys for book 2 (and the final stage for both books — at least on my end!) are heading my way for a Thursday delivery.

Hmmm.

Work on galleys or watch Supernatural…?
Work on galleys, or watch Sam and Dean?
Galleys? Winchesters?

Oh decisions, decisions.

I can make you love me, little story…

For me, writing starts with a scene. I’ll see something in my mind so clearly that I won’t be able to get past it unless I write it down. And from there, the story spirals outward. Somewhere in the middle, I’ll outline to make sure I don’t forget anything, but overall it’s an organic process.

But with books under contract, this doesn’t always work. You have to turn in something early (sometimes months and months early) before the writing has even started. You essentially have to draft the story in short form (my synopses are usually less than 5 pages), sit on it for about 4 or 5 months, and then you get to write it.

This is troubling for me (and anyone else that is an organic/pantser writer). You can outline anything in the world that you want. Coming up with stories is sometimes the EASY part.

Getting enthusiastic enough about it six months down the line? Enthusiastic enough to spend 90k with it? A little tricky.

I’ve run into this situation before. Right now, actually. I promised to write a story about a certain topic (nothing contracted, mind you, just a side project) but that was MONTHS AGO, dude. And I’m not excited about the story. But it’s something I want to try, so I knew I had to give it a shot.

And now I’m 9k in and absolutely loving (LOVING) the story and the characters. But it wasn’t easy to get to that point. I had to break myself in.

First step: Visualize.

I’m a big fan of visuals. If I don’t have a mental image of the character already, I flip around the internet looking for something to associate with the character. Sometimes it’s a picture of really great hair. Sometimes it’s a hand holding a sword. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. It needs to be something that evokes that particular story with me. For a long time, I made Livejournal icons for different stories and went with those – well, until I stopped paying for livejournal (*shakes fist at paid accounts and all their goodies*). Now, I switch out my desktop background on a regular basis with different thematic pictures that represent my story, and I pick actors that might share mannerisms or a photo that makes me think of the character.

And okay, sometimes I use Dean & Sam & Castiel as inspiration. A lot. Don’t hate!

Next Step: Getting to know you.

If I’m going to write a story about these two chuckleheads, I have to know them. Again, not part of my normal process. I do astrology charts (even though I feel dumb for doing so), I pick a tarot card for them. I pick an archetype and flesh it out.
And then I write a long, tl;dr boring-ass essay about their history. The end. I’m not picking what kind of ice cream they’d like, or what kind of tree they’d be if they were a tree…I hate that stuff. But I find that if I write out a character’s history, it changes their personality. Maybe I wanted Olivia to be light-hearted and sassy, but when I write out her history…she is anything but the laughing type. That’s ok too. All you need to do is learn enough about them to wiggle your way into the story.

Third Step: Slog your way through the beginning.

There’s really no way of getting around the writing. The first two steps were mostly cat-waxing and author noodling. They’re a big waste of time except for one thing – they mentally prepare you to dive in. It’s kind of like sticking your toe in the pool. You know it’s cold and you’re going to hate that dive in, but you’ve got to do it at some point.

So you just start writing. And it sounds awful as it makes its way on to paper, and it IS. There’s no getting around the awful. But you have to keep writing. And keep writing. And somewhere along the lines, you’re going to get excited about these characters. They’re going to matter. You’re going to have FUN sending them through the wringer.

Just write. I guess I could have summed this post up in two words, right? But keep on writing, because if the fun doesn’t come to you, you have to go to the fun. Or something. You can still make it work, even if you have to come up with a different ‘method’. All that matters is getting the story down on paper.

And this is all very srs bzns stuff, isn’t it? Blah. For silliness, check out http://www.theoddshots.com.