I have to admit it: I’m one of those writers who doesn’t really do much of anything until I absolutely fall in love with an idea—anything from a character to a scene to a setting. My ideas come from dreams, friends, books, movies, TV, etc. But until an idea really grabs me, I can’t sustain my interest enough to spend three or four months on drafting.

But man, when that idea strikes, it’s hard to make myself do the normal day-to-day, keeping-the-house-clean, being-a-mom stuff. All I want to do is write, and yet no matter how fast I write (my record is 5000 words in a day), it’s not fast enough. The rest of the book stretches out in front of me, scenes and lines and snippets that threaten to slip away before I can get there. So I race on.

An idea struck three weeks ago. So far, I’ve gotten down almost 23,000 words. (Woot! Check out my progress bar in the sidebar.) I’m excited to be drafting again (first time since April), and if I finish the draft by October 21, I’ll have drafted three books in a year. That’s pretty cool.

It’s interesting how different each book is, you know? Not just plot-wise or character-wise (although these three books have the same hero/heroine), but process-wise.

This time around, I’ve accepted that what I like to get in there are people, action, dialogue and plot twists. Cool. On my last MS, I tried to get everything in there on the first draft—sensory details, settings, character descriptions, etc. etc. This time, I’m embracing my favorite parts—I mean, I’ll put in the other stuff as needed, but if a scene is all dialogue/action, and it takes place in a vacuum, I’m not going to cry about it in this draft.

For me, that’s stuff I can add later, in each layer of editing. In fact, I’m taking this week off drafting to go back to the first MS I wrote during this year to add in more of those descriptions and sensory information, since the second half of the book is rather bereft of those (silly me, thinking all the character and setting descriptions were established in the first half, and we wouldn’t need anymore after that!).

How about you? What inspires you? Do you try to get everything in one draft—and if not, what do you leave out to add in later?

This week is probably going to be a bit of a catch-all week as I try to get things done between editing bouts and housecleaning—and, of course, working on the PDF from our website series. But next week, we’ll start another new and awesome series. I think .

Photo credits: matches—Kicki; inspire—Mark Brannan

Last month (is it August already?!), I participated in a writing challenge hosted by Tristi Pinkston. Well, actually, I did almost no writing, unless you count rewriting, but then again I did have two family reunions, a road trip, moving my sister and a long visit from my family in July, so I tried to take it easy on myself.

Yeah, apparently I don’t know what that phrase means.

So I had to lighten my own load with revised goals the first week of the month—and I’m glad I did.

1. Edit 350 pages of my MS. Woot! I mentioned this before, but not only did I finish the two rounds of editing, I added a bunch of words (side note: once I had a writing client inform me that you cannot use “not only” without the accompanying “but also.” Riiiight.). I’m still working on cutting. Well, not really. I’m working on getting chapters to critique partners, still. My mom read it and liked it, though .

2. Read my library books:
   • Bedford Square (Anne Perry comes very highly recommended—and this counts for the Summer Reading Thing.) Read, now to review.
   • Death in Holy Orders Decided I’d have to check it out again.
   • The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life Skimmed. Some chapters might really be useful enough to read again, especially the chapter on “Transcendency.”
3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.: Lockdown, reviewed last week! Hm. . . . two challenges this summer. Have I ever met a challenge I didn’t like? (Oh yeah.)
4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.) Mulled like cider, baby. (Um, wow . . . let’s just move on.) I have most of the book outlined, though I still need to clarify a few things and work on the conclusion. Still doing a lot of research in this area, and I definitely want to brush up in the genre before I nail down the characters and events, but I’ve already written a little of the opening. It was tough going, though, and I don’t like fighting with my writing from the beginning, so we’ll see.
5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits. Thankfully, there wasn’t much demand in this area.

Even if you weren’t part of the challenge, how did your writing (or your vacation ) go for July?

Photo credit: Richard Dudley

Coming up this week, more deep POV techniques: conveying the view from inside your character’s head and doing that in “real time.”

Woot! I just finished the latest round of revisions on my current project. I’m really glad I undertook this latest round (although actually it was two rounds at once—not my best idea ever; very easy to forget where you are in the book that way!). I’ve made some semi-major changes and strengthened and clarified a lot of things. It’s a stronger book for my efforts. And I switched the titles for the sequel and this one, since I think they actually fit the books better this way.

But now I have another problem: it’s right around 101,000 words. In seven or eight rounds of revisions, I’ve added 12,000 words. So my next goal is to trim it back to 95,000 words, max.

Sigh. It’s such a burden to keep having good ideas . I’m surprised that I’m still having ideas on this book, since I finished drafting so long ago (or it feels like it’s been so long). I’m starting to wonder if it’ll ever be “finished,” or, like George Lucas said (quoting someone else), it’ll be abandoned, never finished.

Do you find yourself having to cut or add words during/after revisions? What do you think is the best way to cut—go through and take out a few words here and there, or cut whole scenes? How do you know when you’re done? How is your writing progress coming along?

Photo credit: Richard Dudley

Note: coming up in our deep POV series this week: Getting into our characters’ heads in two different ways!

Well, we’re almost a week into Tristi Pinkston’s July Writing Challenge. I admitted when we started that my goals were rather lofty, especially given that I’ll be spending the rest of the month with family in town. Plus, my library due date is fast approaching. So I’m revising my goals a bit, and reporting on the progress I’ve made so far.

1. Edit 350 pages of my MS:
   • Go through my writing partner’s notes on the last ten chapters. Down to the last five!
   • Go through the second half of the book last eight chapters again to make all my planned changes, add two scenes one scene to go! and cut out the parts people skip
   • Get as many chapters to my critique partners as they can stand.
2. Read my library books:
   • Bedford Square (Anne Perry comes very highly recommended—and this counts for the Summer Reading Thing.) Read, now to review.
   • Death in Holy Orders (Ten guesses why.)
   • The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life Skimmed. Some chapters might really be useful enough to read again, especially the chapter on “Transcendency.”
   • The rest of the books will go on my “to be checked out again later” list.
3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.
4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.) (Mulling away!)
5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits.

Even if you’re not part of the challenge, how is your writing (or your vacation ) coming along?

Tristi Pinkston is hosting a July writing challenge! For the month of July, we’re setting goals for what we’d like to accomplish in our writing projects, whether that’s words written, pages edited or even research done.

July is set to be a pretty busy month for me—festivities for the Fourth of July (seriously; my husband just called and said he got us tickets to four different events next week), my family here for most of the month, two family reunions, a road trip. . . . I think I’m getting a little ambitious. But we’ll try, anyway!

1. Edit 350 pages of my MS:
   • Go through my writing partner’s notes on the last ten chapters
   • Go through the second half of the book again to make all my planned changes, add two scenes and cut out the parts people skip
   • Get as many chapters to my critique partners as they can stand.
2. Read my library books:
   • Cover Her Face (PD James—the literary edge of the mystery genre. Or so I’ve heard.)
   • Bedford Square (Anne Perry comes very highly recommended—and this counts for the Summer Reading Thing.)
   • Never Street (An actual PI likes Estelman’s PI portrayal.)
   • Death in Holy Orders (Ten guesses why.)
   • Farewell, My Lovely (Obviously I’m on a bit of a classic mystery authors bent.)
   • The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life (I haven’t found a lot of Noah Lukeman’s stuff helpful, but I’m giving him another shot.)
3. Read at least one book off my Summer Reading Thing list.
4. Continue to mull over the exact plot, premise and motifs for my next WIP. (If I’m feeling really ambitious—or, y’know, stuck on a long road trip—even outline one book or the full story arc.)
5. Stay current on critique partners’ edits.

This is a great way to help us reach our goals. By writing them down, we have something concrete to work toward. And part of the challenge is checking regularly at Tristi’s challenge blog, where you get accountability and encouragement. And at the end of the month, we report to Tristi for our final dose of accountability. All of these things can help us achieve our goals.

So what are your writing goals for the next month (well, five weeks—my goals start from today for me)? Share them in the comments or on your blog to participate in the challenge!

Photo credit: Richard Dudley