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Archive for the ‘writing’ Category

It seems that I pour all of my writing energy into books now. And instead of social networking, I’m socializing. I miss blogging, though. I used to love it. I can’t believe that the whole Dating Amy project will be ten in 2012. Do you know some of those guys I dated still call? Mind-blowing.

I sent my first novel, a young adult paranormal romance (not about vampires), out into the wild a week ago. I had bragged that it only took me two months to write, but then it took me eight months to revise so I shut up.

Writing my first novel was incredibly difficult and one of the hardest things I’ve ever done creatively. I keep pestering more prolific writers (aka ALL of them) to assure me that the first book is by far the hardest and the response seems to be that they’re ALL hard, but I guess I went deaf in that ear.

Having said that, I love my book. It’s sweet and funny and rock and roll, and it rubs up against being almost literary, so yeah.

Speaking of young adults and paranormal stuff I love: Have you been watching American Horror Story?

Anyone who knows me knows I love horror movies. I see pretty much everything. So of course I checked out FX’s fall offering American Horror Story. I watched like two episodes but even the credits had me lying awake at night, so I declared a ban on it, ’cause I don’t need that shiz.

But my writer friends protested, saying I needed to push through because it’s the best new show out there right now. I asked if I could skip to a recent episode because I knew there was a huge event caused by the teenage character I like, Tate, and my writer friends vetoed that. They said I had to watch the whole thing. So I forced myself to get though it and now it’s my favorite show.

It’s incredibly good. It borrows from so many horror movies that it’s an original. Francis Conroy from Six Feet Under is the older version of the housekeeper that is also played by the gorgeous Alexandra Breckenridge–whether you see her as sexy or geriatric depends on the character’s mindset at the time. This is also Jessica Lange’s first-ever television role and it’s perfect for her. Most surprising is the troubled teenager Tate Langdon, her son. Somehow the writers have made him a sympathetic heartthrob, even though he’s a crazy murderer.

I told Mark, one of my author friends, AHS makes the characters so sympathetic and real that it’s tough for me to watch.

His answer: It’s the New Horror!

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Amanda Hocking, the 26-year-old Minnesota woman who published her YA paranormal romances to Kindle when she couldn’t get a traditional publishing deal and sold over a million copies on Kindle, got a $2 million four-book deal with St. Martin’s today–ironically the publisher that Eisler walked away from a $500,000 deal with a few weeks ago.

From earlier this week: If Self-Publishing is So Great, Why is Amanda Hocking Leaving It?

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My mini bucket list is silly because 1) I am not including anything personal on it since I don’t roll that way on the Internet anymore. 2) It doesn’t have an end date and 3) It does have an end date, which is the nebulous “whenever Mad Men comes back on.”

Anyway, I checked a big one off today: Write young adult paranormal romance novel in two months.

Done.

I started writing this book (not announcing the title yet), my first novel, on January 10 of this year. It still needs a lot of work, but I did finish it yesterday. It’s currently 270 pages.

The most important thing I learned is that I can write like a fast mofo when I have to and that it’s really not that hard.

At first I was proud of myself for writing maybe 800 words a day, but now I see that 3000-4000 is not unreasonable at all, especially if you’re not doing other writing work.

I relied heavily on Write or Die and also having a writing buddy, Michelle. We met on twitter and wrote together mostly every Tuesday and Wednesday, with other check-ins throughout the week.

Twitter is great for this kind of thing. It is filled with writers who have nothing but time on their hands. Kidding, but it is a great hangout for writers.

Stephen King recommends that you don’t spend more than three months on your first draft because you lose the energy and enthusiasm for the story. Now I get what he’s saying. I felt really immersed in my novel’s world since I cranked it out so fast.

Not gonna lie, though. I couldn’t have done it if I had been working on other things. Writing a book is freakin’ hard.

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Good God. I’m coming into the home stretch with my young adult paranormal romance.

I’ve written 175 pages in the past six weeks. That is lightning-fast for me, because I am not a speedy writer. I really wanted to get to 300 pages and finish by March 1, but sadly it looks like that is not to be. Damn February and its short number of days. It would have been so excellent for me psychologically to be done before I flip the calendar over, but there’s no way.

Oh, but I love my characters and their swooning and their problems and their magic! Good times. I cannot wait to start editing. I haven’t let myself read anything I’ve written so far, so it will all be (sort of) new to me when I read it–the second week of March, I guess.

After the YA PR is written, I will attempt to get on the Stephen King-recommended schedule of writing in the morning and editing in the afternoon.

The next project I want to write will either be the L.A. memoir (which I think I’ve written 200 pages of?) or my self-publishing experiment, which I’m thinking may be part of a true-crime book I wrote from 2008-2010. No one knows what to do with it, including me. I tried to integrate a relationship memoir with this ripped-from-the-headlines story and… it hasn’t worked yet. Although everyone who’s seen it has said it’s an intriguing idea.

Also, I’m getting a lot of love from the independent film community and I’m not quite sure why that is. Big sloppy love right back at ya, though, guys. I’m a great believer in the cosmic flow or whatevs, so there must be a reason that in the past couple months I’ve 1) Broken a news story about a classic Seattle theater closing, 2) Been mentioned by the Independent Film Channel and 3) Been given a pep talk by one of my favorite filmmakers, indie upstart Kevin Smith.

I don’t know what it means, but it means something and I’m gonna figure it out after this teen novel is done.

Until we meet again, I’ll be off surfing the universal waves and typing ’til my arms fall off.

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So I’ve been laser-focused on writing this young adult paranormal book. I started on January 10 and I have about ten of the twenty-four chapters done. I see that I’ve written in my calendar under February 16: “Have YA novel done.”

That’s cute.

I am planning on having the first draft done by the end of this month at least, though.

I can tell I’m serious about this book because I’m not hanging around on the Internet all day and not watching any TV at night. I’ve also quit drinking wine–at home anyway. I’ve been hanging out at a really nice bar where I can write and have a glass, but it is not the same, believe me. I’m more productive when I’m out.

Weird.

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My author friends are up in arms over the whole ebook thing and the decline of traditional publishing. No one knows what’s going on, including The People in New York–the publishing houses, editors, agents–and they’re the people we rely on to guide us.

No one knows what the publishing landscape is going to look like in the future, even the very near future, and it’s scary. Libraries are reducing hours or closing, independent book stores are like endangered species, Borders is in big trouble.

Authors rightly see it as a threat to their livelihood. And I agree. It’s really scary. The economy in general is terrifying. Even in my little neighborhood, it seems like anything having to do with the arts–the used CD store, the classic cinema, one of the two used book stores–is going under.

I don’t like it either. It’s the end of an era. Worse, it seems like the the impersonal (Amazon, Starbucks, WalMart) and the unprincipled (banks and their bonus-receiving executives) are thriving.

But other than supporting the small businesses with my money, I don’t know what else I can really do. It seems like being fearful and bitter about the future just doesn’t help.

And I do feel ridiculously optimistic about the future of publishing. I think the whole ebook thing is exciting and I think self-publishing (which does best with ebook format) seems really cool.

My traditionally published friends look like they’re going to throw up when I say this, but I really want to try self-publishing.

Not sure which of my darlings I’d be willing to send off into the wilds of Amazon.com to see if they could survive, but it’s definitely an experiment I want to try this year.

This Minnesota author Amanda Hocking couldn’t get published, so she did it herself and has sold 500,000 paranormal books for teens in less than a year.

I read her first book Switched, which is a fairytale-ish book about (not-ugly) trolls. I liked it a lot. I’m not positive I’d have the courage to self-publish, though. I’m not sure if my theoretical optimism has caught up with actions quite yet. We’ll see!

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I love this blog post by urban fantasy writer Stacia Kane about how people react differently to you once you’re published.

Honestly, I thought I was just being paranoid. I’ve never heard it put so clearly before. The context is how it’s hard for a writer to publicly review other author’s books once they themselves get published, but the experience she describes applies to most authors from the big six NY publishing houses, I reckon. Although let me say that I am so glad that I am published by a major New York house. It has changed my life for the better in many ways. But…

You have no idea how lonely writing is until you’ve done it. Especially not after you’re published. Especially not after you’re NY published, and most especially after people seem to think you’re actually successful, when everything you say is scrutinized and people don’t know how to respond to you or simply don’t understand where you’re coming from. Suddenly enemies pop out of the woodwork; people you’ve somehow upset or offended without knowing how, people who think you’re a crazed egotist.

I know that I was completely blindsided by any sort of reaction to me, especially since I had no warm-up period. I was just a blogger who suddenly had a book deal before I had written an actual book. I don’t think at that time I had ever even met a published author before, much less thought of myself as one.

I have the following happen all the time. Note to all aspiring writers: If I’m giving you advice, it’s because I like you. Really, really.

You offer someone advice and they snap and get defensive. Someone else says the exact same thing and they’re thanked.

This too:

You ask an innocent question and it’s taken as berating. You answer someone’s question, thinking maybe you can help, and suddenly everyone thinks you’re totally full of yourself and are swanning around like you know everything. They resent you for it. They go out of their way to slam you for it.

This is why we published writers cling to each other like Grim Death:

You talk to your husband or your best friend or whatever, and they help. But you know who actually understands? The only people who actually fully understand, the people who can confirm for you that you actually haven’t changed and aren’t being an egotistical shithead? That it’s not you, it happens to everyone? Other writers.

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Just wanted to write a quick update before I hide my wireless router from myself for the day so I can get some book writing done.

I’m starting to feel more embarrassed than usual when people ask me how the book is going, because I keep falling in love with and then completely dropping manuscripts. I wonder if people are thinking, “Amy is really flaky.” I mean, they probably think that already. What kind of linear progress and constancy would you expect from someone who first got published for writing about going on 50 dates?

I also wonder if people think I can’t publish again. That DATING AMY was a one-time thing.

It wasn’t, or at least I don’t think it was. The thing is, it’s hard to know which book is going to be the most viable. Financially, I mean. I read this really brilliant quote on twitter last year that writing a novel is like filling out a lottery ticket for two years.

I don’t know what’s going to take off in the marketplace, but I can at least make an educated guess. The last two books I was working on (since 2008? Ish.) were memoirs, and even though I love them and other people love the idea of them, I am not completely certain I want to risk all my time and pin all my hopes on memoirs. As far as I know they’re not selling to publishers really well. By that I mean they’re not hot.

So I have switched yet again from my memoir about Los Angeles (which I LOVE, by the by, and have written 200 pages of since November 1), to a young adult novel about witchcraft, kinda. It’s my first YA and my first try at fiction. And… now I even sound flaky to myself.

Sigh.

I’m also completely enthralled with the idea of self-publishing, especially for paranormal books, because you could crank them out like an old-fashioned serial without the two-year publishing time lag. The entrepreneur in me gets all excited about selling books directly to readers through Amazon, etc. Also the 70% royalty rate is the bees knees. (The usual with traditional publishing is like 8-12%)

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I am not what you would call a particularly fast writer. I have always been more about quality, ruminating, and yes, daydreaming.

I consider myself an artist, but writing for a living is often about just cranking stuff out. Most of the full-time authors I know deal not just in quality, but in quantity–I mean even if you have a bestseller on your hands, the money is spread out over a long time, the publishing cycle (and therefore the frequency with which you get checks) takes years, agents take their well-deserved cuts.

You have to have several books in the works at one time, all the time.

Anyway, I used to really pat myself on the back for averaging maybe a page of quality work a day, rewarding myself with wine, men, song and Felicity marathons for any day I reached five hundred words.

Then I fell in with a fast crowd, people who write a thousand words before breakfast and then come home from their day jobs and write a thousand more. They got me into NaNoWriMo where you’re expected to write 200 pages in a month.

They introduced me to Dr. Wicked. His Write or Die is hard-core. It’s for people who like punishment with their prose and really, all writers are masochists, so it’s a natural fit.

I set my ‘Consequences’ to Kamikaze and my ‘Grace Period’ to Strict, so that if I pause at all in my 20 minute session my screen goes pink, then red, then it starts to delete my previous work. You have to keep going or perish.

I wrote 2500 words yesterday and I’m never going back to my cushy ways.

[hilarious BDSM joke pending]

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The first writing job I ever had was for a music magazine in Los Angeles. I reviewed local bands at clubs about three or four nights a week. I cannot wait to get to the part of this current memoir where I revisit those years.

Half the time I bitterly complained about it–I didn’t like the way the music industry worked, I didn’t like the constant hustle, I didn’t like having to work temp jobs to make rent.

Looking back, of course, it was the most fun I’ve had as a writer by about a million. The Dating Amy project was fun in its own way because it was so high profile, but I was basically writing about regular guys in Seattle. Performers in Los Angeles, on the other hand, (and even the other music critics) were bigger than life. Because that’s the way people roll in L.A. The city itself is bigger than life, so it’s flaunt or perish.

This [as-yet unnamed] Los Angeles memoir is the most fun I’ve had with book writing, for sure. I’m working from about 50 journals I kept and even those read like gossipy paperbacks. They’re my bedtime reading and they’re keeping me up until 3 a.m.

I apologize in advance to the many, many musicians, writers and photographers I knew from the mid-to-late 90s.

Just kidding! I love you! Well, some of you!

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