Ramblings of a wRiter

Back from NZ, not back here

Nicole R Murphy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:24:24 +1100

Retreat is over and regular blogging has resumed over at the new website - http://wp.nicolermurphy.com/ Hope to see you over there!

Did you think I’d gone?

Nicole R Murphy — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:45:54 +1100

Well, yes I have, and no I haven’t.

I’d stopped posting here before Christmas because I thought the new site was about to go live, and then I kept on posting there…

So at the moment, the new site is http://wp.nicolermurphy.com It will soon by simply nicolermurphy.com at which point this blog will fade from sight.

I’m not actually posting there much at the moment because we’re on the writer’s retreat. so if you want to read what I’m doing at the moment, http://fantasywritersonretreat.wordpress.com

My week in writing–an early edition

Nicole R Murphy — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:12:36 +1100

I normally do this post on a Friday, but I’m going on holidays this afternoon and the computer ain’t coming with me. So, here ‘tis.

This week I went through Battle for Odana and started doing some re-writing. It doesn’t appear to need any major work – although I did have to write in the closing scene, because I left it in a weird place. What it does require, however, it a lot of work at scene, paragraph and sentence level, which isn’t something that I usually have to deal with.

I seem to have left a lot of the descriptive stuff out of this book – it’s very action oriented which is great in terms of pacing, but there’s not a lot of sense of place. This is particularly clear in some of the transitions – I’ve moved into the next POV showing the next major point of plot but in the process, I think I’ve missed some of the colour and uniqueness of this work I’ve created.

In order to help get into that, my plan is that when I return from holidays, I’m going to immerse myself in reading fantasy. Epic, traditional – but not contemporary or urban. I need to get my head into the space of the type of language used in fantasy, so that I can more fully meet the expectations of a fantasy reader.

I’d like to print it out and read and edit it on paper, but the problem is that I go to New Zealand January 3 and I don’t want to haul a ream of paper around with me. So my alternative plan is to put it on my Kindle, and enlarge the font so I’m focussing on sentences in a different environment to the screen. I find that sort of thing is helpful for turning off the subjective and on the objective parts of my brain.

I want to have this book all polished and ready to be read by the end of January. I’m not sure exactly when next year my book will be looked at by the CSFG novel crit group (hopefully sooner rather than later) but I want to be well and truly ready for it.

It’s really testing me – my usual writing style is pretty clean and well suited to the urban fantasy and contemporary romance that I have been writing but it’s not quite right for this story. It needs to be more lush, and beautiful. I’ve never considered myself much of a wordsmith and so I’m having to reconfigure who I am as a writer in my head at the same time I’m working on this. A challenging task.

Anyhoo, that’s pretty much me done for the writing for 2011. It’s been a very full on year, with lots of new work created. I’m looking forward to taking a break for the next few days. I’m not thinking writing AT ALL. I’m going to take some books to read, but just fun, enjoyable, lose myself in them and not think books. Take a real break from considering this world, or any other, so I can return to it renewed.

Since I’m going to be much less online between now and middle of next week, I’ll say – have a fabulous Christmas, everyone. I hope that regardless of what you celebrate at this time of the year that it’s a time of laughter and love.

Fave viewing and music for 2011

Nicole R Murphy — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:21:57 +1100

I know, there’s till ten days to go, but I probably won’t post early next week, and then it’s yearly review time for me personally so… Yeah, fave viewing and music. I don’t watch a whole lot of tv and what I do watch is mainly re-runs – King of Queens, Roseanne, Married With Children. This year I finally gave up on commercial news and went to the ABC and I’m much happier as a result. Lots of information and quizes – RocKwiz, Insiders, stuff like that. Also Big Bang Theory, Castle, Mike and Molly.

2011 was the year of Downton Abbey. I set TiVo to record the first episode, watched it and by the end was madly, deeply in love – even though I wasn’t sure why. A blog post by someone about something else provided the clue – what attracts me most are stories about relationships and Downton Abbey is first and foremost about the relationships. I watched the entire series and am champing at the bit for the next one.

True Blood Season 3 – I know, a bit behind, but I don’t have pay tv so can only watch when the DVDs are released. Season 3 was, thankfully, a MILLION times better than Season 2. Finally, we got to see Bill actually be a vampire and you know, he kinda rocked it. Will never stop being Team Eric, but Bill grew on me by the end. Am kinda getting over Sookie though, which is a concern…

Sex: An un-natural history was presented by Julia Zemiro, who I have a massive girl-crush on. I watched it for her, and for the episode that featured my friends Kaaron Warren, Sean Williams and Marianne de Pierres. Overall, I thought the series a little lacking in deeper analysis and some of the organisation of topics didn’t quite work, but it was still a pretty fascinating watching experience.

I want to pay homage to some shows that didn’t debut this year, but which I love (and in one case is now going, sob)

As for music – I didn’t do as much new listening this year as I did last year. The band I did discover was The Jane Austen Argument and I’m looking forward to the first album, due out next year.

But really 2011 was the year of Amanda.

I went to Amanda Palmer’s concert at the National Gallery with two of my sisters and enjoyed it so much I took Donna to the ninja gig the following night. That was a night and a half – Amanda played on the carillon, found a cool Canberra band (name escapes me but was very theatrical and fun) and then the heavens opened and it PISSED down rain. We all gathered together under the carillon and someone stood on my thumb and so Donna and I ended up leaving early cause I was in PAIN. But I ended up just a couple of metres from Amanda and got to experience the purity of her voice and it was wonderful.

She’s my inspiration.

My fave reads of 2011

Nicole R Murphy — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:50:06 +1100

This is going to be a little more difficult than it was in the last couple of years because I haven’t recorded every book I’ve read. Therefore, I’m going on memory and my memory, quite frankly, SUCKS.

On the other hand, it does take a truly special book to hit my memory banks. Now, to make sure the books I remember I actually read this year…

1) The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin – I KNOW I read this book this year. It was just a few weeks ago. I’ve raved and raved about it. I absolutely adored it. Sorry, can’t be in the least bit objective about this one – loved it.

2) The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood – I loved this book so much I’ve gone and put some reviews of it up online. A confronting read that I’m still thinking about, yet also a great action-packed story that keeps you turning the pages. A real achievement.

3) A hot Roman centurion, a spunky Druid, lust and danger in Ancient Britain – what’s not to love? Forbidden by Christina Phillips was a great read.

4) Magic Dirt – the best of Sean Williams. As I said – terrible memory. So it’s a rare story that sticks and never lets go. One is Margo Lanagan’s Singing My Sister Down (OMG just thinking about it tears me up). Another is from this collection by Sean (which was published ages ago but I only got last year and got round to reading this year). Atrax was co-written with Simon Brown and it’s a simple story – a guy, doing a delivery run to the moon, finds out he’s got a spider in the ship. From that, it takes you to sheer horror – at least for this little arachnophobe. Lots of brilliant stories in here – Sean’s a master story teller.

5) Dead Sea Fruit by Kaaron Warren – speaking of master story tellers. Kaaron’s two short story collections have both taken out the ACT Publishing Award for best fiction and deservedly. Her stories are spine tingling because she takes the every day, normal stuff and spins the most incredible horror from it. And the writing is SUPERB.

6) Earlier this year I went on a MAJOR Mercy Thompson reading marathon. I’d read the first book a couple of years ago and enjoyed but never got round to reading the rest. Then I was asking about good love triangles, someone brought up these books and I thought – oh yeah, I’ll give them a burl. Love, love, love, love. This is the most recent book (published this year) and I loved it particularly because it was a change from the rest of the books. It was also a salutary lesson that you don’t need to write out EVERY sex scene – just the ones that are meaningful for the plot and/or character development.

7) The Rogue by Trudi Canavan – this is a bit of a cheat, cause I actually read it last year, being lucky enough to be one of Trudi’s advance readers. But there’s a reason Trudi has sold more than a million copies of her books in the UK (and I’ve done the math – that’s dozens of copies A DAY FOR YEARS!) – she writes fantastic characters and then takes them to hell and back and you’re waiting on every moment. I’ve been lucky enough to have already read the last book in the trilogy (not due out until next year) and man, are you all going to LOVE IT!

8) Hunger Untamed by Pamela Palmer – can’t believe it took me until this year to discover the Feral Warriors. Hot, hot hot HOT! One of my aims for next year is to overdose on the rest.

9) Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah Maclean – I’d heard about these books and was lucky to pick it up for free at the RT Convention and you know what – the buzz was worth it. I love Regency romance but I’m particularly taken with Regency with a sense of humour – one of the things I love about Amanda Quick. Sarah Maclean fit right in there and I hope to read more of her stuff.

10) Threshold by Sara Douglass – all right, so this was a re-read, but it’s been so long it counts. Plus this was the year we lost Sara and I really wanted to pay tribute to her and what she did for everyone in the industry in Australia. I may well not be where I am right now if not for her trailblazing. And it was one of my favourite reads of the year.

So there you go – ten books that I think you can read without being disappointed.

2011 Advent Tour post

Nicole R Murphy — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:56:58 +1100

The Advent Tour is organised by Kailana from The Written World and Marg from Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. When I heard about it, I thought it was a great idea – spreading Christmas cheer and joy around the world so I signed up.

My time to post has come at a fortuitous time because, quite frankly, Christmas hasn’t really been happening for me. Sure, I’ve been to some parties, and I’ve done some shopping, but the tree ain’t up and my focus is still very much on work.

So to get myself in the Christmas spirit, I’m going to focus on some of my favourite Christmas memories.

I don’t remember much as a child, but I do remember the Christmas when I was four. My next brother was three and the baby was just nine months old. Anyway, he got given this absolutely MASSIVE bright yellow teddy bear. It was bigger than him! And he was so overjoyed with it. I can still remember the big smile on his face. He kept that teddy for years – dressed it up, dressed it down, fixed it when bits fell off. A boy and his bear – it’s a wonderful thing.

The first Christmas my husband and I were together, Christmas Day was at my mother’s house. All my siblings were there too (a rare feat). Mum was handing out the presents and she pulled a pile of small presents out from under the tree and handed them to hubby-to-be and my three brothers, telling them to open at the same time. On the count of three the paper tore off, revealed a water pistol each. Needless to say, seconds later they were each commandeering a tap to fill said pistol and the gift-unwrapping for forgotten for a while.

The best Christmasses always seem to involve children. There’s a big gap between the first three children in my family (I’m the oldest) and the next four, and so at the point in time when I could have been getting too cool for Christmas, I was instead still being woken at ungodly hours of the morning by excited little people desperate to open their first presents. I’ll never forget the Christmas that my sisters (then three and two) actually got the whole thing – we were all up (I was 14, brothers 13 and 10) and Mum brought the girls into the loungeroom. They stopped in the door and those two precious little faces lit up as though they’d just seen a miracle.

My sister-in-law had her first child during my first year of marriage, so every Christmas with my in-laws has involved children. The year that they got the sticky lizards was particularly memorable (these lizards could be thrown at the wall, where they’d stick, but then gravity would start to slowly pull then down the wall, like they were walking). Those lizards didn’t just get thrown on walls – they went on the ceiling, on the staircase and then my older nephew worked out he could stand on the staircase, throw onto the half-wall near him and younger nephew could stand beneath and see if he could catch it. Ah, the squeals of delight.

There are some things about Christmas that I miss. My grandparents are all long gone. My parents are separated and so we never have the full family Christmas any more. But each Christmas brings with it its own memories and I look forward to see what this year’s will be.

You can read more Advent posts here: http://adventblogtour.blogspot.com/2011/11/announcing-2011-virtual-advent-tour.html

What has been going on in Chez Murphy this week?

Nicole R Murphy — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:53:27 +1100

This has been a pretty laid-back week, since I’m not in mad drafting mode any more. Yes, the first draft of Much Ado About Love is done. It finished at around 77,000 words – not too far off my aim of 80,000. And I know there’s at least one scene that needs to be expanded, so it will get closer. I’m happy with how it’s turned out so far, but will be interesting to see what editor brain thinks when I turn it on to revise it (and that’s going to be somewhere around March I think).

So this week started with working on Kenyon and Nami – the short story I wanted to publish as a thank you to the fans and to help promote the books. I did more editing, made some decisions and did the cover and here’s the result:

BLURB: Kenyon Audley isn't at all interested in his gadda heritage - instead he prefers to spend his time chasing waves around the world. In Japan, he finds more than the perfect wave - he finds the perfect woman. However, Kenyon's life is about to be tossed and turned as surely as his board on the waves and it will never be the same again.

The story is told through letters, found 30 years later.

This file contains two versions of the story - one the full version, the other the letters alone. You can read either or both.

It’s also available on Amazon, except you can’t set a book up for free on Amazon, so I have to wait for them to realise it’s available for free on Smashwords and to then change the price. Of course, if you want to pay 99c for a great story, then go for it but you can get Kindle version on Smashwords.

I’ve also made my story How Astrid Found Her Passion free as well – I don’t know if people buy 99c short stories. I need to do more publicity, I know that. In the meantime, I’m considering it all publicity for the trilogy.

Writing wise, this week has been about Battle For Odana, my fantasy novel. Ah, now that brings back memories. I first started writing this novel toward the end of 2008 (Secret Ones was done and being submitted and I decided it wasn’t worth working on the other two books of the trilogy until it sold). So I started on B4O. I got 30k in, realised I was writing the wrong story, went back and started again. I finished it at around 100k and figured it was going to be a stand-alone.

Then I sold Dream of Asarlai, and B4O was put aside until September last year. By then I’d delivered Rogue Gadda and was looking for my new project and thought I could easily polish this one to submission. Except it wasn’t so easy. Turns out B4O is a bigger story than I thought, and wasn’t going to be a stand-alone but a duology. I wasn’t ready to put that much work into a project so much different to the urban fantasy/paranormal world, so after getting the first draft of it done (which involved a lot of changes to the original story) I put it aside to start on the sequel to Dream of Asarlai.

For the next 14 months I worked first on that sequel and when it was put on hold then moved across to contemporary romance to keep the career bubbling along. Then, earlier this month, the call went out on the CSFG list for people to be part of the 2012 novel crit group and in a flurry of inspiration, I decided that I’d sent B4O along.

So now I’m going over it to polish and make it ready to submit for critiquing in February and here’s what I’ve worked out this week: this is a trilogy, not a duology. And I need to alter the style of my writing for this genre – it needs to be more lush and descriptive. And, more than three years after I started writing it, I still really like this story and want to see it through to its completion.

So my plan is to have the first book of the trilogy all polished and ready to go by the end of January. I’ve been plotting and planning and doing some research and refining things like the setting and the political system of my land of Taawhengi and I’m looking forward to diving back in and spending time with my characters, both the good, the bad and the completely unhinged. I’ll start the re-writing in January, after a break over Christmas, and with the FWOR retreat I’m sure to have it all sorted. Nice to have a slightly Maori-based book being worked on in New Zealand

I’m taking the challenge–are you?

Nicole R Murphy — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:21:20 +1100

A wonderful initiative by some fabulous go-getter gals has been started up. The Australian Women Writers Challenge is calling on folks to commit to reading Australian female authors in 2012.

Unfortunately, us girls don’t seem to get as much of a look in in the publishing world as the boys do. This is despite the fact the majority of purchasers of books are women and most of those working in the industry are women. While in romance it’s pretty easy, in other genres it can be really hard for women to get published and certainly getting noticed in reviews and awards is extremely difficult. Although I must say, being a girl in speculative fiction in Australia is a pretty good place to be :)

Also, getting noticed as an author when you’re competing against the big names from overseas can be difficult too. There are stories of booksellers saying they can’t sell Australian authors – people just won’t buy them. How utterly ridiculous. We’ve got some of the best authors in the world!

So, the challenge. We’re being asked to read as many Australian female writers in 2012 as we can. My plan is to use this as an impetus to read more widely this year – so much of my reading lately has been relegated to speculative fiction or romance and I need to get more ideas into my head. Because I’m an Australian female author, that means I get to have another special badge and I’ll be posting an indepth review on a book not of my genre here and at the challenge blog site.

So I’ll be taking the Dabbler genre challenge (I may well cross into Devoted Eclectic but we’ll see) and I’m setting myself the Miles challenge (read six, review at least three). I’m looking forward to discovering a whole host of great Australian writers that I’ve not read before and I hope that you’ll take it up and do so too :)

What challenges are you setting yourself next year?

Recap–first 8 weeks of habits and processes

Nicole R Murphy — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:01:18 +1100

I’ve decided to wait until January to post more interviews – not everyone I asked in the first round responded, and I wanted to give the next round folks a bit of time.

So today, I’m going through the first eight who had been part of the fun and I’m going to group their responses together here, so you get more of an idea of both the similarities and the diversity.

A big one – the old myth that you have to write every day? BUSTED. Not one of these writers does this.

Part A – Writing habits

1) What is your writing schedule?

Gillian – works in a block of time, but where that occurs in the day depends upon other priorities

Alan – tries to have two dedicated writing days a week, otherwise writes around the time available after running his business

Edwina – three+ evenings a week

Angela – works Mon-Wed, Thurs/Fri big writing days, will write amidst family-friend commitments on weekend

Andrew – sneak words in when can around business and being housedad

Anna – write every hour can steal between 6am and 5pm – evenings are for my beloved

Erica – five days a week, plus some weekends. Start 10am after dealing with business stuff

Christina – most writing done while kids at school and after errands run, then some in evening

2) Do you set yourself word count aims or time limits to keep yourself on track? What are your aims/limits?

Gillian – uses a counter and a spreadsheet to keep track of words and then uses tricks to keep going eg just need a few more to get to a nice round number, so let’s keep going…

Alan – writes whatever feels good. Chinese proverb – “Fear not moving slowly, fear only standing still”

Edwina – sometimes a quota, sometimes a deadline, sometimes story just needs to be left alone

Angela – writes in fits and starts, setting a word count kills the creativity

Andrew – unless there’s a deadline, don’t set goals – words will come or they won’t

Anna – use word counts to keep track of story and build to resolution. Once first couple chapters done, aim for 2000 words a day

Erica – if planning, hard to quantify. If drafting, at least 2k a day although trying to write faster and do more

Christina – I set my own deadlines – five pages a day, 30 a week, although publisher deadlines come first

3) Do you work on more than one project at a time? If so, how do you organise it?

Gillian – works on several projects. Might be researching one novel, writing another, editing some non-fiction.

Alan – where possible, stick to one thing at a time – currently writing a novel, helping develop a game and splits time between two, short fiction between major projects

Edwina – works on a number of projects at a time, a bit like a horse grazing, just moves to what appeals

Angela – Also does multiple projects, decides on which through what appeals and closest deadline

Andrew – this year working on novels and shorts, helps to put novel aside a week or two to work on shorts

Anna – No. Sometimes will do research or write down a new idea, but rarely stop on novel for more than a day

Erica – Not if I can help it.

Christina – Can write a new one and edit old, but tried writing two at once and brain almost fried!

4) If you have paid employment apart from writing, how do you organise your time so you can write?

Gillian – very carefully J

Edwina – writing, painting ceramics and silk dying fight for my spare time – housework comes dead last

Andrew – own business working at home so can organise how that work is done to free up writing time eg do a long day for clients today to free up most of tomorrow for writing

5) If you have family, how do you organise your time so you can write?

Alan – wife is an artist so fully understands the creative urge – both very supportive of each other

Edwina – just a dog and cat that have somehow worked out when on deadline and aren’t as annoying then

Angela – husband is very good but make a point of regularly getting outside and doing things eg walking, visiting family

Andrew – am housedad so can be hard to find time but often finding doing chores is great mind time for writing

Erica – I work when husband is at work. Try to avoid writing in evenings so can have family time

Christina – chn older now but when younger had lots of guilt over time spent. Holidays particularly difficult

6) How do you get family and friends to respect the writing time and leave you be?

Gillian – most respect, but some never work it out – use the broken record technique to explain over and over

Edwina – becoming increasingly rude works wonders! Helps if most friends are writers, they understand

Angela – lucky that success has convinced people this is serious and should be respected. Tells students to talk over with family, recommends the ‘If I don’t write then I’m not happy and if I’m not happy you probably won’t be’ argument.

Andrew – boys made a sign ‘Don’t disturb the writer, he’s disturbed enough’. Own worst enemy when it comes to online friends.

Anna – family have always understood this is my business. Husband is a great fender-offerer during the day

Erica – generally pretty good. Hardest part is making them understand working from home doesn’t mean I’m able to easily run errands

Christina – they know if I don’t write I become cranky and impossible to work with.

7) How do you ensure your health is a priority?

Gillian – Chronic illness so less energy than most; timetable, get help from friends, disciplined about exercise

Alan – Job as a martial artist and physical trainer helps, but make sure balance sitting at keyboard with activity, lots of walks with the dog

Edwina – I don’t – walk dog every day, but very bad habit of wandering to fridge when need a break

Angela – Yoga a couple of times a week to stretch out the back, walk in evenings with husband

Andrew – Ha! Eat well because enjoy cooking, but maybe next year…

Anna – treadmill, eat well, got an occupational therapist to look at workspace and abide by the rules

Erica – gym 4/5 mornings a week, walk to coffee shop to work, walk dog.

Christina – still working on it.

8) What do you do to keep your ‘well of creativity’ stocked up?

Gillian – Accept and enjoy who I am; when I’m firmly myself, I never run out of things to work with

Alan – I don’t know, it just is – brain is packed with ideas

Edwina – When things are quiet in the day job, I tend to get more ideas. Otherwise, I take lots of notes and don’t stress if I can’t think of something to write

Angela – don’t panic, just need time to rest. Read books, watch movies, go to museums, people watch.

Andrew – most of time isn’t a problem, but when I’m feeling blocked find another form of creativity eg illustrating helps

Anna – don’t tend to have a problem, but will regularly challenge myself to learn something new, live half year in UK so that is stimulating, read and watch tv

Erica – watching tv works for me, seeing other story arcs

Christina – read, watch movies, eat lots of delicacies from the bakery – well it makes me feel better!

9) How do you cope with the days/weeks that you just don’t want to write?

Gillian – unless there’s a deadline, I don’t write fiction on those days. There’s plenty other things to do.

Alan – I don’t write. Like physical activity, writing requires recovery time

Edwina – unless deadline, don’t. More relaxed about writing – like an old friend, don’t need to see every day but know I will see again soon

Anglela – I don’t – writing on those days turns out not to be productive.

Andrew – sometimes so busy I don’t notice, but family does and makes me write

Anna – doesn’t exist, I always want to write

Erica – keep going. If it’s a serious case of don’t wannas, put away and work on another idea for day or two to freshen up

Christina – used to procrastinate for ages but deadline won’t allow that

10) How do you fit other writer career commitments into your schedule so it doesn’t unduly affect the writing? Eg publicity, attending conventions

Gillian – Take notes whenever an idea occurs or new information – writing goes well when I return to it

Alan – Spread out wide enough to not really impact, and get a boost from conventions

Edwina – part and parcel of same thing – most publicity is writing, and conventions are inspirational

Angela – at the moment not too many publicity requirements and can pick and choose the conventions to attend

Andrew – not big on publicity, only go to one con a year. Thought of having to publicise self a bit scary

Anna – tend to do PR at end of day, when creativity is low. Monthly writer’s group is a wonderful recharge

Erica – writes off four weeks in middle of year for US conferences and time around book releases for PR. Lack of words during this negotiated into contract. Gives permission not to write so not a stress.

Christina – Do publicity in evenings. So far deadlines haven’t hit around a convention…

11) What changes have you made to your habits over the years? What are the mistakes that you used to make, habits that didn’t work for you?

Gillian – tried other authors ways and didn’t work. Have worked out what works for me and I’ll just stick with that

Alan – process had grown organically. Am now able to recognise a bad idea and not waste time on it.

Edwina – Prospect of losing eyesight a few years ago has made me more relaxed about my writing. Might not achieve what I originally dreamed but am enjoying it more

Andrew – worst habit was for 25 years I didn’t submit anything – my wife broke me of that J

Erica – first MS I wrote out of order – will never do that again. Also outline more now

12) RSI and skeletal problems are proving to be big problems for writers – what suggestions would you make to ensure up and comers don’t suffer?

Gillian – walk, stretch, don’t work for more than half an hour at a time, edit on paper so change posture, dance, eat chocolate.

Alan – martial arts classes – seriously, work great. And be aware of posture

Edwina – take sufficient breaks. Easier said than done, when using same muscle groups in day job

Angela – Calcium supplements, massage/physio, go for a walk for half an hour every day

Andrew – think about things like posture, exercise etc NOW, not when the problems start. You can write forever if your body holds up

Erica – move, regularly. I have strong hands from playing instruments – think that helps. Get a squishy ball and play with it often to make hands stronger

Part B – Writing process

1) Do you have a different process for writing short stories versus novels?

Gillian – absolutely. I live my novels, I write shorts much more cerebrally.

Alan – No, approach them both the same

Edwina – No

Angela – I probably do more planning for novels but haven’t finished one yet so not sure it works

Andrew – don’t think I do too much differently

Anna – No

Erica – No – I’m a structure queen and both have the same basic structure

2) Do you plan out your stories, or do you write organically?

Gillian – both – I do a lot of planning, but then the story takes over

Alan – Bit of both – start with some loose planning, then pants it

Edwina – sometimes a bit of both

Angela – I write organically; first draft is brain vomit, then considered thinking in revising

Andrew – I do a lot of research – will spend weeks diving into the world – not necessarily all will make into story, but will feel it when the time comes to write

Anna- have given up planning, story changes so much. Even when I have to do a synopsis for publisher, story rarely matches it

Erica – plan, plan, plan. Organic is for fertiliser.

Christina – Need to know hero and heroine well and a few plot points. Then it grows from there.

3) Do you wait to finish the draft before revising, or do you revise as you go? If when you finish – how do you approach it? If as you go – how do you approach that?

Gillian – I revise as I go and revise as I finish the draft – use revision to get back into a novel if life spits me out

Alan – mostly I want to get the story out but will revise a little. Once done lots of revision and uses beta readers

Edwina – I like to revise as I go, and revise several times after finished. I’m a great tinkerer.

Angela – Finish first draft quickly, put it away and let brain think on it, then come back and easier to recognise areas not working

Andrew – Revise as I go. Start each writing session going over previous work. Wish I could just go on, but can’t.

Anna – revise as I go but also push ahead. Call first draft ‘dirty draft’. Polishing is my favourite thing

Erica – because outline so fully, little revising needed of big picture stuff. Once written, will change format to trick brain into thinking reading something new and will revise on that.

Christina – edit as I go. Thought of having to revise an entire manuscript makes me ill.

4) How many times do you revise before you submit?

Gillian – I revise until feels whole and viable. Then I’ll have people read it, and will revise again. Sometimes have to be coaxed to give them up to editors

Alan – as many times as it needs. Some barely need any, some short stories can be tinkered with for weeks

Edwina – three seems to be the rule – 1) put stuff in, 2) take stuff out, 3) put stuff in again

Angela – when started could be 10-15 drafts, now generally around 3-4 although some stories need more work

Andrew – heavily revised by time written. Will get readers to go over it and revise on their recommendations.

Anna – until it’s done. I don’t know how I know but I do.

Erica – if time, will give to crit partner but otherwise once written – just a couple of passes

Christina – Because revise throughout, just needs a readthrough at the end.

5) How has your process changed over the course of your career?

Gillian – I trust other people (beta-readers, editors) with work more now, more willing to let it go

Alan – No, but ability has changed a lot

Edwina – Better at spotting what needs to be cut out. Working as an editor taught me a lot.

Angela – used to agonise over every work in first draft, now vomit it up means out of head and can go back to it with clearer more critical vision

Andrew – become thicker skinned and less precious. Readers and editors are usually right

Anna – I write more quickly but after 55 novels, I should!

Erica – Hasn’t really. Am more precise and confident

Christina – Used to endlessly tinker – now with deadlines can’t do that any more

6) If you’ve mentioned previously (or haven’t but think it’s true) that the process is different for each book, can you give some more details on how this is the case?

Gillian – each book is own universe and need to get that before can go on.

Edwina – I hope it’s quicker for each book

Anna – some books are easier to write. I don’t know why.

7) What’s the most difficult part of the book for you? Why do you think?

Gillian – Leaving it behind. It’s like losing friends

Alan – several instances but in truth, think that selling it to publisher is the hardest part!

Edwina – Finding time to get all the books I want to write written

Angela – I have issues with the sheer size of the novel – scary!

Andrew – maintaining momentum, and not getting distracted. Learning that a good idea will still be there has been hard.

Anna – the middle. The white hot enthusiasm of the beginning is gone. I used to abandon novels in the middle, but now I know this is quite normal

Erica – the outline. Writing is just technique but if the plot is broken no amount of classy writing will save it.

For the links to the full interviews, go here: http://nicolermurphy.com/page/Writers-habits-and-processes.aspx

This week in writing + thoughts on Dymocks self-publishing move

Nicole R Murphy — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:30:56 +1100

So this week, Dymocks (Australia’s largest booksellers) announced the long-awaited move into offering self-publishing. D Publishing has two options – one is that you use their software to typeset and publish the book, the other that they will publish and distribute the book for you. You can choose option a without choosing option b.

For folks that want to self-publish a book that won’t have wide distribution potential, this is a great thing. The software makes things like typesetting and coverart easy and allows you to choose either print, electronic or both. The price isn’t too bad either (you can have print books to sell for less than $1000). You can get all this done and then distribute the books yourself – a way to make Christmas gifts if you run a business, or to start up your own small business as a publisher and distributer. If you choose to have Dymocks publish and distribute – well, as I said, Dymocks is the largest bookseller in Australia and while you’re not guaranteed getting into the bricks and mortar stores, the potential is there which is all but impossible for you if you self-publish and then try to get Dymocks to stock it. And the books will be sold through the website, which is great.

I do have one issue with the D Publishing platform and that’s the rights they want to buy if you choose to publish with them. You can see it here in the publishing agreement – you can find that by going to http://www.dpublishing.com/help/faq.aspx and scrolling down to the heading “How Much Money Can I Make On My Book Sales?”

D Publishing want pretty much everything – not just print and electronic rights, but audio, multimedia, CD Rom IN ALL LANGUAGES, and pretty much all your subsidiary rights as well. Now, how are Dymocks going to publish you in say Spain or Germany or China? They themselves can’t, but they can sell your rights to those companies that can. Happens all the time in big publishing – HC Australia has my foreign language rights to onsell. Except that I KNOW HC does sell those rights. There is a person in the office in Sydney whose sole job is to sell the extra rights that HC Australia can’t use. Does Dymocks have such a person? Do they have the contacts? Do they attend the trade fairs to make the deals? I bet they don’t, and so they’ll have those rights of yours FOREVER – the publishing agreement allows for termination of the contract by the author only if the contract has been breached or if the book hasn’t been published in 28 days. Dymocks can cancel at any time they want. Liquidation of the company will also break the contract. But basically – as long as Dymocks remain solvent and don’t do anything stupid, they will retain all these rights to your books FOREVER.

I don’t know if this can be negotiated – I hope so, because it’s not a good deal for an author who wants to use this as a means of building their career.

If, however, you’re interested in doing more discrete publishing – a one off, a few books, something fun – then it could well be a great way to go about it.

***

This week, I’ve been continuing to work on the posture. I’ve rearranged my desk so my computer monitor is lower, I’ve taken the arm rests off my chairs and I’ve got a timer so I can only spend an hour typing at a time. It’s going to upset my muse, who likes to spent long hours tied to the chair, but she’ll have to get over it if she wants a body that still works in ten years time.

Having said that, I’m now just a couple of scenes away from finishing the draft of what I’m now calling Much Ado About Love. So that’s today, my friends. Today, the book will be ended.

What will I do then? I’m so glad you asked

I’ve got the gadda short story that was critted on Wednesday night at the crit group and which I am planning to self-publish before Christmas as a present for fans of the Dream of Asarlai trilogy. I did some re-writing of it yesterday and next week, I’ll be revising and polishing and I’ll hopefully have it up live by the end of the week.

Then it’s onto doing some thinking and planning for my new attack of Battle for Odana – the fantasy novel that won’t die. I first started writing it in 2008 and it’s been picked up and put down and had at least two very different drafts done in the past three years (in between gadda novels). I’ve decided to put it through the CSFG crit group next year (the same process that Secret Ones went through) and so I need to re-think and re-polish it. It’s the most complex thing I’ve ever tried to write and so I want to make sure I give it everything I have. It’s going to be the main project I work on at the FWOR retreat next month.

Have you not heard of FWOR? Go here: http://fantasywritersonretreat.wordpress.com/ Read some of the old posts. Oh yes, it’s every bit as much fun as it seems