Nancy S.M. Waldman

Recipe for Revision

nancy — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:28:31 +0000

For the last week or so, I’ve been working on the novel I wrote in November during NaNoWriMo. Today I admitted to myself, that while effort has been expended [passive voice has been used], I’m flailing. I’ve been changing this, changing that, working obsessively on that all-important opening scene, but with very little strategy in mind.

My novel’s in pretty good shape considering it was written in a month. I started at the beginning and moved through it in an orderly way. I used Scrivener, and as a result, the scenes are organized into chapters, the chapters into parts and the parts into a whole. I also have tags and keywords that will allow me to find things more easily than I’ve been able to do in revising other novels. I still enjoy the initial concept of the novel as well as the surprising ways it twisted and turned as I wrote it. I’m enthusiastic about seeing where this revision goes.

Of course, if all of that is the good news, there is bad news to follow. What I’ve discovered in the beginning revisions is that the protagonist doesn’t have a strong enough personality to carry the story. It’s essential that she’s be vivid and interesting and different and memorable. So far, that’s not working as well as it needs to. The other major change is that the novel needs to be in first person rather than in the third person point of view I wrote the first draft. This means that every scene must be completely rewritten rather than edited, but I’m up for that. Some scenes written from other characters’ point of view will have to be cut and the information shown some other way, but at least it’s just a few instead of huge chunks of the novel.

Bad news, but not fatal.

So here’s my initial strategy:

Set aside the first scene for now, assuming that the necessary starting point will become more obvious as I work and refamiliarize myself with the whole story.
Do a story board of the novel as it is now—make it quick and simple so as not to get bogged down in what might be less stressful and more fun than the actual writing
Work on a more complete character profile of the MC knowing what I know now—the one I did before writing it is out of date. I need to remind myself of what’s in the story now and incorporate all that into the character from the beginning
Make a map of the world so I can better visualize the characters, action and time frame
Write until it’s done.

Keep you posted…

Nuanc Book Designs – “Eye Contact”

nancy — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:41:09 +0000

In October, I opened a shop of book cover art—Nuanc Book Designs—on Etsy. “Eye Contact,” pictured on the left, is the latest offering.

Designing the covers for The Speculative Elements Series from Third Person Press and its upcoming ghost story anthology, Grey Area, has been a pleasure for me. Because I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on them, it was only natural for me to design more and more! The Etsy shop is the result of all this creative overflow.

Designing covers is a great way for me to meld several of my interests: photography, digital art, drawing, lay-out. And fonts, of course. I’m genuinely font-obsessed. I use my photographs for most of the covers, though this latest one is a departure from that. It’s an original drawing of mine.

Each cover comes in a front cover only Ebook or full cover Print and Ebook versions.

Once a cover has been purchased, it’s retired from the collection.

Take a look at the shop and do come back often if you don’t see something that fits your book. New ones pop up frequently.

Happy 2013!

The Pitch

nancy — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:52:57 +0000

After posting about “the pitch” for my novel-in-progress earlier last month, I thought I should share what I came up with. Finally got this the way I wanted it around the end of the first week of NaNoWriMo.

As for the book itself, I’m still not sure about my title, “Plasticity.” I like it and it fits the subject matter, but it probably sells nothing. Perhaps that’s something to worry about three years from now when I’m still whipping the story into shape. Or…maybe it could be the title of the series. Hah. I know what that is. It’s my Delusions of Grandeur, which rise to the surface when I’ve just completed a first draft…of anything!

Here’s my pitch:

A young scientist reluctantly returns to the colony of her birth to stay with her estranged mother while recovering from a serious brain injury. She soon discovers that a native life form—reviled in the colony as infectious vermin—is a sentient species with great potential for good…and evil. Though her credibility is questioned at every turn due to her shaky mental condition, she takes up the cause of those ostracized because of their association with the species, the elusive Liminalis.

Day 6 – 30 Nano Post-Mortem

nancy — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:57:52 +0000

The thing I’m most proud of after successfully finishing NaNoWriMo is that I made no foolish pledge to blog everyday during the month. The first five days I wanted to. It was a good feeling to complete my main course and then finish off with a little blogging dessert. But after day five, the novel filled me up. I got a lot of pleasure knowing that I hadn’t made a stupid public promise to blog the process!

Now, having completed the month in fine form and having had a couple of days to chill, I want to remove the corpse from the vault, cut it open and see what’s inside. I don’t mean to autopsy my novel, for it is not dead; no, it’s a fully-formed, wee babe sleeping quietly in the nursery. I know I’m confusing the metaphor, but hey, it’s all about birth and death, two sides of the same coin and all that. No, I mean to autopsy the month itself.

But first, my Nano medical history. I’ve done Nanowrimo since 2002, and my first year was a blissful gift. I had a novel waiting to come out and come out it did. It was wonderful to write that story at that time. It was wonderful to experience how many words have to be thought up and written down in order to make a novel. It was amazingly wonderful to write that many words in such a short time span (though that novel went on and went up to 135,000 words at its most bloated). I was hooked.

The next five years were good, but not as great. The second year was like pulling teeth. The third year I bit off more than I could chew. Nano four through six, I, uh, I really sank my teeth into— Okay, enough with the mouth cliches! Four through six were the years of the Fevran Trilogy, my first foray into science fiction. I think about those books more and more as time goes by and may go back and attempt to whip them into shape. At the time, however, I didn’t feel confident in my ability to write in that genre, so I needed to learn more before tackling them.

I attempted Nanowrimo in the seventh year when I knew I’d be out of town for half the month and got less than half a novel written. The next year, my eighth, I broke the rules, but finished the novel. That’s a fantasy novel for older children that I completed, but have yet to market. I excused myself from the November melee for 2010 and 2011 because family matters far away kept happening in that month.

Having said all this about November novelling, I have to point out that I was writing and learning my craft during the rest of the months of all those years. But, I focussed on short fiction, as well as editing other people’s work in my Third Person Press role. I missed the speed-writing of Nanowrimo and the challenge of writing a longer piece, though, so this year, I selfishly protected my writing month, determined to write another novel.

And that’s what happened. The month went so well that it reminded me of my first time, back in 2002. That same creative-flow *glow* infused the whole process. But it was also very different because I had something I didn’t have in the beginning: experience. I was aware everyday (and I wrote every single day of the month, something I’ve never done before) that I kind of…knew what I was doing. That’s not to say that I didn’t make wrong turns, hit dead-ends, have a head-on collision or two, litter the landscape with absolute crap and turn on the auto-pilot here and there. I did. But a first draft is always a auto-repair job. Overall, I felt that I had avoided many of my global mistakes of the past. Here are a few of the ways I managed that:

I thought about the concept for a long, long time and therefore knew it wasn’t an impluse. I wanted to write this
I planned it ahead of time to the best of my ability, which is not the same thing as knowing exactly what’s going to happen every step of the way
I knew that organization of information is a huge part of feeling that you have a handle on a writing project this large and got the right software to facilitate this
I left my emotions outside the office door. For the first time, I had no real angst about a novel. This means not allowing a bad writing day to affect my momentum, trusting myself to have the capacity to figure it out, and being okay with a less than perfect first draft, every step of the way

It was a good month and I’m very grateful to have a new finished first draft snoozing in my novel nursery. I have a lot of work ahead of me to raise that baby and help it grow into a stand-alone adult. But I’m looking forward to that challenge, and I know this because another bit of wisdom rose to the surface from this month.

One day after having finished my words for the day, I was relaxing with an iPad game, feeling pretty darned satisfied with myself, when a sheepish self-truth asserted itself:

I don’t challenge myself hard enough, often enough. I could write like this more of the time, maybe even most of the time. I could be way more productive. I can, and should, do more. It’s not that hard.

I started this post-mortem with kudos for not expecting too much of myself (not trying to blog everyday and write a novel in one month)—ie, knowing my limits—but end with an entirely different message. The lesson is to push beyond self-imposed limits. Writing a novel in a month would have once seemed impossible and it doesn’t anymore. I must challenge myself to do more in order to find out what limits are reasonable and what are only self-protective, ingrained habits keeping me from accomplishing what is possible. Then, when it’s almost time for my actual post-mortem (realizing that I may not get any advance notice), I won’t have nearly so many regrets.

Day 5 – Showing Character

nancy — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:20:24 +0000

from Astute Graphics

Today, my main character showed her character.

Up to now, she’s been more self-involved and confused than anything else—for good reasons—but, that had to change. Even though she still has more questions than answers, she reached a point where she had to take a stand, to declare herself on one side of the conflict or the other. I’m proud to say that she did it unflinchingly, in a way that provides no possibility of turning back. She can’t undo what she did today.

Though I’m not writing a story about a superhero, I like to think this picture shows what she felt like when she finally revealed herself.

Haha, the plot finally begins to thicken and roil.

Day 4 – Getting to the Point

nancy — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 20:22:45 +0000

courtesy of |Chris|

Today, I could not get to The Point.

I planned on writing the MC’s Fateful Decision. That point at which she makes a decision that will forever change her life and set up the action for the rest of the book. Without this, I could ramble on about the situation she’s in for chapters and chapters, but there would be no point, would there?

I know what her Fateful Decision is. I know I want it to happen as soon as possible, so I was shooting for it to happen in Chapter Three, third scene. How’s that for planning?

It’s great, except, it didn’t happen.

My character took forever just to get to the place where she would find out the answer to her questions so that she knows what stand she has to take. And then, she arrived tired and hungry at night, so I had to get someone to feed her and find her a place to sleep. No, no, no. That will never work. That’s one of those scenes that isn’t going to make the cut.

Pacing is important, but, this is Nanowrimo. No real editing allowed. I have a Daily Word Count quota and do NOT want to get behind. You just have to keep going even if it doesn’t go as you thought it would.

So okay. I can’t go back and rework it now, but I could and did start that scene over in the middle. I had her sleep on her journey (one line, “she fell asleep in the tree” or whatever) Then, she arrives at the place at a time of day when—without delay—she meets the proper character and will find out what she needs to know, and see what she needs to see in order to crystallize her resolve and energize her motivation to make her stand, thereby setting up the action for rest of the book.

*whew*

I’m disappointed that didn’t happen today.

I really hope she gets a move on tomorrow. Otherwise, what—or where’s—The Point?

Day 3 – The Fun Part

nancy — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:15:05 +0000

photo courtesy of practicalowl

Yesterday, my MC was walking home from her job, exhausted and worried, when she suddenly decided to climb a tree. They are huge trees with low, sturdy, spreading branches. Of course, she would want to throw her leg up and hoist herself into one of them! But it came as a surprise to me.

It’s one of the great things about writing fiction. The surprises.

See, I’d only just made up that tree. I’d thought about the setting of my novel a lot. If you write fantasy or science fiction, that’s the extra work that has to go in ahead of the actual writing. But the details go in when you do the writing. So. Javali trees it is. And once I’d given them a name and described them, my character could not resist the impulse to hop up and explore what was up in that dense, draping vegetation.

I did not plan that. It just happened. And not such a great decision for this character anyway, since she’s suffering from frequent seizures. But, a lot of great stuff happened in that scene, stuff that will inform the reader and advance the plot.

So, this is just a shout out to all the characters out there who, once they inhabit the world we writers have planned, make the decisions that carry the story forward. This is the fun part, kids.

Day 2 – Scrivener

nancy — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:01:58 +0000

Two days in and all seems fresh and full of potential. I did have trouble getting started today. Not serious trouble. Once I decided it was time, I buckled down and just did it. But I certainly didn’t wake up feeling that I knew exactly what I would be writing today.

I’ll let you know when that day comes.

I worked on the Pitch again. It’s getting closer. Still not ready to post it on the Nanowrimo site, but I’m happier with it. It’s a good exercise. I feel that I’m narrowing in on the crux of the plot. Try it if you haven’t already.

I posted the Scrivener logo on this post because that’s what I’m using to write my novel this time. I had the software on my old Apple laptop and I used it anytime I wrote on the Apple which wasn’t that often. I liked it, but it didn’t work that well for me since my desktop is Windows and at that point, they didn’t have Scrivener for Windows. Well, now they do! So far, I love it. I did all my planning: notes, character sketches, research bits and pieces, outlining (what there was of it) during the summer and early fall. And now that I’m finally actually writing, it’s all there. I can flip back and forth easily between the character notes and the writing or put it in note card view to see at a glance what’s going on and why. Here’s a screen shot of the cork board of the first chapter.

That floating window is a list of all the keywords. Once things get really complicated, I’m going to be happy to have those available when I want to find out what the heck I named that character or that giant tree. Things get lost in novels, especially when you are writing fast. The more you can do to organize the information as you’re going along, the more likely you’ll be to edit that baby later.

Scrivener might help you too.

Day 1 – A Pitch in Time

nancy — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:33:11 +0000

And so it begins. It’s 3 PM and I have 1885 words written. That’s a prologue, Chapter One (three scenes), and one scene of Chapter Two.

I was surprisingly anxious about beginning, but found it neither too hard nor too easy. Maybe that’s what we call “just right?”

Yesterday, I worked on the Pitch, but couldn’t make it as succinct and gripping as I’d like. I’m going to work it over every day until I feel it’s right. Maybe that can serve as a compass to tell me whether I’m still on the map.

The map, the map…I need to make a map of my setting.

Impressions as I wrote:

Everything needs saying all at once.

It’s hard to know where to start.

Writing a novel after many short stories feels luxurious and a little bit self-indulgent.

I don’t know if it’s any good or not.

It’s harder than it ever was not to go back and edit as I go.

A Month of Words

nancy — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:46:39 +0000

Starting tomorrow, I’m back! Nanowrimo begins at midnight tonight and I’m ready to do my first intense month of novel writing since 2009. I started doing Nanowrimo in 2001 with my first novel, Pray for Rain. Since then, there have been six other “wins.” That makes me a self-appointed Nanowrimo veteran.

In case there is anyone out there who doesn’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s an idea, a concept, a month-long event, a website that has grown from 20 something people in the Bay Area of San Francisco in 1999 to hundreds of thousands of avid subscribers around the world. The idea is to write 50,000 words of a brand new novel (no starting ahead of time or working on a work-in-progress) in the month of November. That’s 1667 words a day and the rewards, while often abstract, are immense.

In 2008, 2010 and 2011, I was unable to participate fully due to family obligations, so this year, I asked my family to pretend I don’t exist and have committed myself to write a new novel. I have a title, plot, characters, and even a book cover. I’m using Scrivener software to help me organize everything. Today, the last full day before the actual writing begins, I’m doing more research and am working on The Pitch.

I was listening to this Writing Excuses podcast the other day and got some very simple, but supremely logical and valuable advice from the guest Janci Patterson: Never start a novel without having the pitch firmly established. If you can’t say what the novel is about, it won’t be impossible to write, but it won’t be as easy, you’ll lose your way more often, and the rewrites just might kill the project altogether.

I’m no detailed outliner. Part of what I love about writing is what I discover as I write, but that’s not the same thing as winging it. I have learned that I have to have a map (literally or metaphorically or both) and I have to know who is taking this journey and why. A good pitch will cover all that succinctly and enticingly.

Mine’s still not perfect. Gotta go.