So I’m finally past the short story edit. Wand of Ash is back to the editor. All the bulk order cards I had have been submitted to the printer, and I’ve been getting out of bed at least by 0430 on weekday mornings.
I’m finding that on weekends I stay up too late and cannot get up so early, but on Monday morning I’m back to schedule easy enough so I’m not going to worry about it. Sleeping in on weekends will be my little splurge.
Yesterday I posted the first five pages of my novel wip (Symbiosis) so I could get an idea of reader perception about genre. This was very informative to me, although it confirmed what I already suspected to be the case. So after the feedback began, I made some revisions and posted the revised first five. So far feedback shows I’m moving in the right direction but may not be there yet.
If you’d like to participate in this little experiment, the pages of each version are here, and the password for both is “merrymeet”:
http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/genre-in-five-pages/
Why is this important to me? I’m concerned about it because when I begin submitting this book to agents and editors they won’t have the benefit of cover art to set their perceptions. They’ll only have the pages I send. If I’m calling it ‘Speculative Fiction’ and it seems after the first few pages to be firmly ‘Paranormal Romance’ then this is going to most likely be a problem.
If I can’t get past this perception issue with the revisions I’m making now, then I’ll either need to accept that the story is ‘Paranormal Romance’ and make it conform to that genre, or rewrite to the point where it is no longer perceived as such, or scratch this one altogether and move onto the next one. It’s something that’s been bothering me for a while.
It also has impact on my long-term career goals as a writer. Not that there’s anything wrong with any genre, but the other stories in my head are less of romance influence and more of other influences. And Symbiosis definitely does not conform to the romance genre format. It might mean skipping the publication of Symbiosis until after the next one is out there, or going with a different pen name for this particular story.
This may be a needless worry on my part, but until I can find someone in publishing (in the genres I intend to make my career) to give me some insight, I’m going to go on my own gut feelings about this.
Weekly Goals
- Wake up at
04450430 each morning - Finish revision of first chapters SYMBIOSIS to better reflect genre
- Pick up where I left off on rest of Symbiosis editing before short story edit project began (still have to locate that point…)
Annual Goals
- Finish polishing Symbiosis so I can send it on it’s way to the next phase of life
- Begin readings at a public venue for our local Friday Fictioneers
- learn to convert to ebook format
- Compile all the flash I’ve written so far into a collection for Kindle
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Do you set goals for your writing career or take each day as it comes your way? I’d be interested to hear your plans for the week or the overall plan for your career if you have one.
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Gosh, this post is getting long… sorry about that. But I only have a few more things to add. Tomorrow’s guest is Lisa Bouchard and she’s going to tell us about her early rising schedule. She gets up at 0400 to write before her household wakes.
And on Thursday, this week’s pitch will be mine for Symbiosis. I’m looking forward to everyone’s suggestions and input!
It makes sense to me to set lifetime, long, and short goals to create a plan and adapt that plan to what I finish. I believe the adage “Plan your work and work your plan”. I get so much more done if I work from a plan. My books are finished much more quickly when I have an outline to work from. Being organized doesn’t squelch my creativity like many may think. I think this is a big part of the reason I’ve never had writer’s block.
As a general rule, I try to go for 1k words a da but that varies wildly. I agree with Donna about making a plan and then adapting as time goes on. I find that not just setting goals but going back, revisiting them, and reporting on my progress helps me get the most out of the plans I make. That’s why I started my blog, so I could check in with other writers and show myself what I am accomplishing.
Okay, don’t hate me, but I like the first draft better – especially in sequence of events. The squirrel incident needs to be where it is in the first draft, not on the highway. And I like him passing her, coming up beside her, the scent, etc – none of that reeks romance (sorry for the pun) but you’d just have to lose a few innuendos – have his map behavior make her curious not “interested”, Maybe lose the reference to The One and her feeling haunted by him, the develish grin, anything that even hints at a sexual or romantic pull – and use “It won’t let you go” instead of “he”, I assumed Beast was talking about the knowing, not the man.
Remember, you will have the first couple of chapters to make your genre clear. No one is going to put it down while there is question, and while the first version does overdo the attraction a bit, it flows better, and will flow better even without the hints of romance.
Just my thoughts.
what is speculative fiction? how is it different from fiction? doesn’t all fiction speculate? i’m clearly asking from ignorance because this is about the third genre i’ve never heard of but saw referenced in the past month.
oh, how do i get the password? can you e-mail it to me?
brainsnorts(a)comcast.net
Rich, the password is “merrymeet” for both of them.
It’s not different from fiction, but it’s an umbrella term to cover the genres of fantasy, scifi, horror, magical realism and the blends of those genres. There are a lot of subgenres to all of them and spec fic covers it all. It does not cover the genres of romance and literary fiction, though.
LOL, I don’t hate you Judee. Quite the contrary – I love you for taking the time to give me your opinions
I’m undecided about what I’ll do at this point, but I have both versions saved in my files. What I’m thinking I could do that will work better than reworking this chapter, is to start the book somewhere else. Either before or after this point, where there will be better opportunity to focus on the elements of the story that make it the genres I want to call it.
so it could be anything that’s kind of unreal? anything that involves anything that’s not a reality kind of drama? i ask because we have a type of essay we teach called “speculative writing,” so i didn’t know if there was a similarity.
thanks. was it there and i missed it in the post?
I don’t always have a daily wordcount, but I always have goals and a plan for the week. However, if I am going to meet the annual goal I have of getting Symbiosis edited, then there’s a minimum amount of work I have to do on it weekly to make that deadline. When I fall behind it makes the daily minimum more critical (as it is now, while I’m falling further behind as I figure out how to handle the beginning chapter of the book…)
That’s not why I started my blog, but it’s entirely the reason for my Monday posts so if you want to leave a link to your check-in on your blog, feel free to do that here
Being able to see what I’ve done or not done during the week helps me stay on task, too.
That could definitely work – then you could leave in the romantic stuff if you wish – just please, do yourself a favor and drop the devlish grin, it’s a bit too much.
Since I’ve started doing this Donna, my creativity has actually increased, which surprised me. I’d also since begun outlines and synopsis for the stories I’m building and was equally surprised at how much better that is going too. Being organized does indeed seem to help
Thanks for commenting!
Hahaha! Are you sure? Oh I am so lucky you didn’t see the first draft!
LOL, yes. Right before the links
Yes, I think that’s a very good way to summarize it. Must be one and the same as your essay types.
in the speculative essay, kids are given a situation. for example: “you come home from school, nobody is home, the front door is open. house is empty.” then they have to make up a story that starts before that event, goes through that event, and then continues to an ending. so there’s nothing about real/unreal. just to “speculate” and imagine what could have caused the empty house and where it will lead to.
yes. that’s called “a dope who didn’t read carefully!”
I applaud your structure, unfortunately I am not the same way. I would fall behind on a regular basis & get discouraged. But then I am just coming back to writing after a many year hiatus. Right now, I’m writing as the mood takes me, although I am at my computer every day & try to write something every day.
I know many people who seem to operate just fine with no schedule at all. The key seems to be in figuring out what works best for each individual, and I was surprised to find out that things like outlines really do work better for me. Until recently I pantstered everything. Now I pantster between the outline headings
I finally made it to the experiment… I kinda liked the first beginning more, as the second felt rushed in comparison. But then I’m against all labels, LOL!
Anyway, both would fit into speculative fiction, the first as UF meets PR, the second as UF meets Magical Realism.
I know what you mean with romance being part of the plot but not integral, I’ve had a male reader labeling Air as “romance”, because being character-oriented I mentioned relationships and people falling in love (but a romance reader would have hated me if I had labeled it “romance”!)…
But then, I’m the one who went indie because I didn’t know how to pitch my adult unconventional fantasy that didn’t fit in any preconcieved genre (and still have problems tagging and categorizing it on e-retailers), LOL!
Thanks, Barb! And right – even if I went Indie with it, I’ll still need to know how to categorize it when it comes to targeting marketing. Of course, *I* do call it something in particular (fantasy/magical realism), but if readers perceive it differently then that’s where the conflict arises. I’ll have the latest work-up of the beginning to post this coming Sunday. I think it’ll be more firmly rooted in my desired genre now.