Things I went back and added today

Editing-wise, I'm on chapter 13 of "Brake Fluid", page 54/112 (single spaced), and I finally crossed the 50,100 word mark. I also keep hopping around through the entire story so I can add-in, or double-check the consistency of a few things.

Things I added in today:

The Jack of Clubs

Smelling food before eating it

White bread instead of multi-grain

Eric Clapton, Louis Armstrong, Simon & Garfunkel, Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Little Big Town, Travis Tritt, White Town

Birch trees

A simile involving a refrigerator and the phrase "badly-Botoxed-wrinkle"

Many references to karma

A tall-boy beer can

3am, November, a pair of boxers, an old t-shirt & a chipped tooth

A few more 'unspoken rules of riding shotgun' and making sure I haven't repeated any

Making sure the term "charity-case" is sprinkled throughout one character's dialogue


I'm also trying to remember to hyphenate terms like, 'deliciously-evil-Triss-smile', though I know I'll end up doing a search/replace eventually to be 100% sure I've caught them all.

Oh, are there any music-nerds out there? Can you figure out what playlist I'm talking about here? As in,  every artist listed here each has one song with the same common factor.

Any guesses what that common factor is? I'll give you a hint, it's weather related:

I lurch forward and grab her phone off the console. It scares Triss enough that she pulls her hand off my knee. I scroll through the playlists. Different ones for different moods, and right now I want to just wash away the dead air in this car.

One playlist leaps out at me, and I choose it without thinking. One with hundreds of songs. I pick the first title, and hit play, but a few bars in, I click to the next song, ‘cause it’s not quite right. I can’t find what I’m looking for. Garbage, Billie Meyers, Counting Crows, Taylor Swift, Matchbox 20, Collective Soul, Creedence Clearwater, Pink, James Morrison, The Rolling Stones, Eminem, John Mayer, Fat Joe, Dianna Krall, Ashanti, Bif Naked, Mary J Blidge, Dire Straits, Ace of Base, Billy Joel, Dave Mathews. Finally I land on Guns N’ Roses. This one. This will do. It will blast the awkward weight away so I can breathe again.

Triss turns the volume down as soon as the first string of notes from the familiar song scratch through the old speakers.

Sometimes *breaking* is a good thing

Have you ever opened the box for an IKEA bookshelf, or a new BBQ, ceiling fan, or something else you have to build yourself and realized it's missing the set of instructions?

So, you end up standing there with a picture on the box of the final product, a heap of random parts, a rubber mallet, a screwdriver and a set of pliers in your hands, and you have no idea what to do first.

I've had a lot of things on my brain lately, almost all to do with writing.

And I'm a self-admitted failure when it comes to multi-tasking.

Too much thinking means I'm not doing anything, I'm just standing there with my brain going around in circles*

A few night ago, when I should have been fast asleep, my single-geared-brain was stuttering away over this post about how to fix "Simon's Oath".

Thanks to all your wonderful comments, I took the time to cut/paste all the agent feedback into a single Pages** file and moved all the pieces around so I could see the big picture. Then I shoved it in the back of my head to stew for a while.

...and proceeded to stall-out on my "Brake Fluid" edits because "SO" was still sucking down too much fuel.

...and yes, Simon's character arc at the end still doesn't work for YA, but I discovered a deeper flaw in the story.

Narrative style.

It's too distant.

When I analyze all the separate comments, that is the overarching problem.

I've been stuck with a heap of parts and no set of instructions, but suddenly, everything clicked together and I could see the order in which it needed to be assembled.

Too bad I'm going to have to smash the hell out of it with a rubber mallet so I can take it apart and put it back together correctly.

No, I'm not changing the POV from 3rd to 1st, though I certainly did toy with the idea. I'm also not going to stop the alternating viewpoints between Simon & Hector. What I'm going to do is re-write about half the scenes from the opposite character's viewpoint, then tighten the entire story so the narrative is a closer 3rd person POV.

BUT, now that my brain has solved the "SO" problem and is running again properly, I'm back to working hard (and single-mindedly) on my "Brake Fluid" edits. "SO" can wait, at least until "BF" is cleaned up, and I've already decided that I'm going to devote this year's NaNo time/energy to writing the first draft of "Afraid of the Dark" (which still needs a new title) 'cause I've got a character in my head that's just dying to peck it's way out*** ;)

I think after that point, I'll have enough distance from "SO" that I'll be able to smash it up with precision rather than haphazardly whack it to bits out of pure frustration. After all, it takes just as much skill to take something apart as it does to put it back together.

And I still do believe in this story. I think it's worth saving, even if I end up having to re-write most of it. I don't mind making big or scary changes as long as the heart of the story remains intact.

...and from all the car references in here, you can tell I'm completely back in "BF" mode...

Yup, my simple brain can only do one thing at once.

Thanks everyone :) All your comments really helped re-energize me.




* this would be an excellent time for a couple of dumb-blonde-jokes ;)
** no more evil Microsoft on my computer
*** pun intentional. You have permission to smack me with a rolled up newspaper.

TEN

I'm not a book blogger. I don't like the politics involved in definitively saying a book is good/bad because everyone's tastes are different.

Occasionally I will mention a book I have particularly enjoyed, but for the first time, I'm going to talk about a book that isn't out yet, one that I'm excited to read when it does come out on September 18th.

"TEN", by Gretchen McNeil.

And not just 'cause it comes out a few days after my birthday (which it does).

I'm looking forward to this because it's loosely based on an Agatha Christie book.

Why does this matter? Well, between the ages of eight and eleven, I spent a week of every summer at my grandparent's house slowly working my way through every single Agatha Christie book.

Yup, I've read 'em all. Even the books she wrote under a pseudonym. I've also seen the play 'Ten Little Indians' six times, and a couple of other Christie books set on stage.

So, I've been deadly curious to see how this story has been re-envisioned since I heard about it.

For those of you who love blogging about books, and those motivated by awesome prize packs, Gretchen McNeil has set up a unique system to promote this book. I hope you all pass the word around. Video about it is here.

As a writer, I highly respect the effort McNeil has gone to to increase her online presence. Not only does she have an active website, she is one of the founding members of a YA writer's vlog (video blog) channel/group that's been running for... 2 years? Maybe longer... called YA Rebels which I've been following, on and off, for well over a year. In fact, I almost quit being an anonymous/faceless blogger by auditioning to be a member when they had a call out last summer.

Too bad I was at the family cabin the week it was announced. Normally I love being forced to give up internet for a week (a nice way to re-set ones priorities), but unfortunately, being away meant I found out about the call for auditions after it was already over.

Besides, I think you'd rather look at the cute-cartoony-black-cat-face than my own mug-shot ;) Especially after I donated (nearly) all my hair last September.

Anyways, I seriously hope you guys spread the word.

Since Twitter scares the hell out of dyslexic folk such as myself, I'm not eligible to win any prizes, so this post is about all I can do, other than pre-order "TEN" on my Kindle :) So you know I'm being 100% genuine in posting/promoting this. I really hope the books sells well.



Now, SERIOUSLY, I will hide in the other room and work on 'Brake Fluid' edits... argh. Too many excellent distractions... and two not so good ones in the form of: a) a blue heron eyeing my koi pond, and b) a deer emptying out our bird feeder again... sigh. At least Eva-the-beagle gets a kick out of chasing them away...

...and back to normal

I've been a little more out of touch recently 'cause, just this past Sunday, we hosted a birthday BBQ for 4 people who were all turning the same age within four weeks of each other. I was included in that count even though my birthday isn't until September.

I've spent the last couple of weeks furiously de-witching the yard so there would be enough clean areas for almost 40 people to park their cars, wander around, sit, eat, drink, and be merry.

...of course the lawnmover had to break the day before the party (the start cord ripped right out) and a  few other little incidents which (fortunately?) meant a few less people showed up than we were expecting. We were planning for 45 ish, though more than 60 were originally invited.

It was a blast. No rain, no heat-wave (like they had been predicting), it was a nice, cool west-coast summer day, partially overcast with sun in the afternoon/evening. We had music going from 11am onward, had a giant fire around 8pm, and just hung out, chatted and had a wonderful time.

I think the best part about it is, we've been invited over to a lot of people's houses this summer and last summer, and were unable to reciprocate due to the witchy-ness of our house/yard. Also, our BBQ was natural gas up until Friday evening... the party was finally a big enough excuse for me to get on the phone and call around to see who could convert it to propane. It's pretty hard to BBQ without a BBQ...

Also, a few family members braved the ferry to spend the day, including my sister and cute nephew, my husband's parents, and two of his cousins, all of whom have never been to this house before.

My husband's brother and his wife also came over the night before and stayed with us, thus helping with the set-up, which was awesome. They're a super fun high-energy couple, so we always enjoy spending time with them.

Now that the party-of-the-summer is over, and the cleaning up is done (yesterday), today I am sequestering myself on the sofa with the (borrowed) laptop so I won't be distracted by email/internet/comics/etc and I'm going to bust my butt getting 'Brake Fluid' edits done.

I want to have it out to readers by the end of the month, and I know there's still a lot to go :)

...but first, I know there is email building up in my inbox that I've been ignoring for over a week... first things first ;)

Closing in on 50,000

'Brake Fluid' edits are going pretty well. I've been having... probably an unhealthy amount of fun adding music references/lines into this story.

I know I had a post about this before, about how music has kindof taken over this story, even though I'm not hugely into music.

I did play classical piano when I was young (even in a few competitions), I played clarinet during grades 6-8, I even tried learning the guitar once, but quickly gave up. I found it a very frustrating instrument. Bass would have been better, probably, since a good bass line will quickly convert me from a passive listener into an active one.

But even with all that, music was never something I was really passionate about. I enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun playing certain kinds of music (Bach and Chopin, oh how I loved you) but I didn't live and breathe it. I wouldn't die without it.

I think this works well, in the terms of writing this story, because Triss is obsessed with music and the MC is not. I can tap into the part of my brain that felt the freedom and joy of expertly flinging out wild runs across the keyboard, but also the 'meh' attitude of simply enjoying music as background noise.

Certain songs I'm referencing are very important to me, certain artists or bands that trigger an emotional response no matter how often I listen to them, trigger memories of times, places, and people they're associated with... but a lot of other songs are simply referenced because 'they sound good' and that sound suits the mood of the scene.

I also don't want to overdo it, but there are a few songs littered throughout the story that are specifically there to hint at Triss' emotional/mental state of mind (since the MC is a clueless moron). Like, "Last Kiss", the version by Pearl Jam, and a (slightly) obscure song called "Breakfast at Tiffany's", which has been covered by a ton of different bands. "Everything" by Bif Naked is another one, which slid nicely into one of my favourite scenes for a couple of different reasons,"November Rain" by Guns 'n Roses, and Stabbing Westward's "Save Yourself" are also pivotal where/when they show up.

Truly, I don't think I've ever put as much thought into the emotional triggers music can produce since I was a kid, where I could pour all my sorrows and triumphs out through the keyboard. Before I learned how much more fulfilling writing could be.

Right now I'm about halfway through the story. I think, based on what still needs to be filled in, moved, & re-written, it will be around 55,000 when this first/major editing pass is complete.

How is everyone else's progress?