Bit of Good News

I've been racking up the rejections lately. Doesn't matter how many times you do it or how many you manage to collect (I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of 350, now), they each still have their own little sting.

And given I had received requests for this manuscript and, ultimately, rejections on many of those partials after the agent had read the first few pages or chapters, I was (still am) thinking it may need some deep revision/alteration. (And we won't go into what number revision that would be.)

But today I received an encouraging note from the assistant to a prominant agent. She said she had enjoyed reading the first 50 pages of SAFE and would like the full manuscript.

A long way from that agent's desk, I know. But a step in the right direction. Baby steps...they'll eventually take you there.

What baby steps have you taken lately?

Joan...still putting one word in front of the other.

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That Funky Feeling

It's been following me for quite a while, a little like that cartoon raincloud follows a character, threatening to drench them just before splitting them in two with a stroke of lightning.

Occasionally, I out run that cloud, take another step forward in my story. That's when I think I'm on a roll, that I've escaped it for good. Which is exactly when things start to slip again.

It's okay. I've come to accept the lulls in my writing process. I have grown to trust the fact that I'll come back around to the sunshine in time. What I'm still not so good at is the wait. I feel anxious and preoccupied and moody when I can't get a story right. I know my rough spot at the moment is partially caused by the new job, partially caused by the many recent rejections from agents and partially because this story is complicated and difficult to write...but that does nothing to quiet those little doubt demons.

And that's where I'm at now, antsy and unsettled.

What do you do when that happens? How do you quell the little Mexican jumping beans in your belly?

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Dun-dun-dun-duuuuuuuuun....

You know what I'm talking about--that music in movies that amp the watcher's tension. We all know it's there, we all know it starts out soft, then deepens, then intensifies until it's all but blaring by the time whatever event is building in the movie climaxes.

I'm watching Double Jeapordy tonight. I really love this movie. I'm not sure why--I'm not one to analyze much. Especially not movies. Somehow I find using movies to decipher turning points and character development ... confusing, to say the least. Of course Ashley Judd is an incredibly strong, charming and versatile heroine, with a compelling mission--actually a dual mission, a truly evil villain and incredibly high stakes. And the tension ... constantly rising and becoming more complex.

But what hit me as I was watching it was the music during a scene where Ashley Judd, out on parole, had broken into a school to obtain the name and address of her target. Of course, the cops come and she's at risk of being exposed. If she's caught, she goes back to jail.

The music during this scene escalated from a low, barely noticeable background in increments as the situation became more dyer -- she hears a car outside, she turns off the lights, she continues to search the file cabinets -- more frantically now -- to get the info as she hears them enter the school and their voices and footsteps get closer.

And what I realized was that the music in movies is the equivelance of emotion in novels. The inner tension in both mind and body rise slowly and continue to amp as the situation becomes more risky, more complicated. To do that, I use internals, utilizing deep, third person pov and mix them with graduating physical responses to that stress.

So...how do you do it?

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Playtime's over!

So, I go back to working full time (+) tomorrow. (The + is for call I have to take after hours.)

I have mixed feelings about it, and I'm sure there will be good moments and bad moments, but I'm confident I'll do fine. It's not forever, I keep telling myself. I've got all my positive messages worked out for those rough times I'll inevitably encounter.

I'm definitely going to have to shift my writing schedule around a bit, but again, I've got a rough idea of how I'll make it work. I'll have to see how the day flows before I know if it will pan out or not.

Some of the changes I'm planning:

• I'll shift my writing from mornings to nights on most days.
  
• I'll brainstorm at work.
  
• I'll utilize my alphasmart and my flypen for on-the-go story/character development.
  
• I'll set aside specific time on the weekends to write.

How do you handle life shifts when those changes force you to make changes to your writing habits?

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