pbray

I tweeted the other day that I feel like a badly written timeslice algorithm--there's never enough cycles to go around. Whatever I choose to do, there are multiple other things that aren't getting done, and I never seem to catch up.

Of late my writing has been the thing shortchanged. I don't have a deadline I'm working to, and thus it's easy to focus on the other parts of my life that do come with pressing deadlines.

A while back I was invited to attend a writers retreat, and at first I was enthusiastic. Then the realities of trying to schedule this around the day job started creeping in. But in the end, I realized this was something I needed to do, for myself and for my sanity. With a little schedule juggling, I crossed my fingers and said yes. Then I went ahead and booked the plane tickets, so I'm committed.

So now I have a deadline. Three months from now I'll be hanging out with other writers, discussing our works. So I damn well better have something that I'm enthusiastic about working on and sharing.

And cross my fingers that the day job doesn't get any more insane.

This summer I was a guest lecturer at the annual Odyssey Writing Workshop. My talk was on writing a series, spanning everything from why you might want to write a series, the pros and cons of doing so, the various types of series, to plotting techniques for both individual book arcs and series arcs. Along the way I shared bits of wisdom from my own experiences and those of fellow writers on how to (and how not to) write a successful series.

The lecture has now been distilled into a two-part podcast at the Odyssey Podcasts website here. Look for podcast 67 (Part 1) and podcast 68 (Part 2).

And my thanks again to Jeanne Cavelos for inviting me back to Odyssey, and to the students who made it such a great experience.

When I was at Odyssey last week, one of the comments I kept hearing from students was how much they enjoyed the in person aspect of critiquing, and how they struggled to find suitable writers groups in their hometowns. I sympathized with their struggles-- in Binghamton I'd been part of an active critique group that had started with my best friend and then our primary recruiting ground was Waldenbooks employees who were also writers (I'm looking at you Joshua, Tracy and April...) But when I moved to New Hampshire, it was only through the kindness of a mutual friend that I connected with local genre writers. Strangely enough we found that we'd all been at Boskone just a few weeks before, but hadn't run into each other. The next time I go to a con, I'm wearing a shirt that says "I'm from New Hampshire" to make these connections easier.

But rather than relying on cons, what we need is an online matchmaking tool that hooks writers up with potential critique partners. Modeled off eHarmony, where you begin by entering your geographic location and genres and then answer compatibility questions such as:



Really the only surprising thing is that no one has thought of this before.

Kicked off the weekend with a writers group meeting last night, where one of our members revealed fabulous news. Much time was spent bouncing up and down with glee. Alas she's not ready to go public, but when she is, we're planning a proper celebration.

Need to finish proofing the galleys for AFTER HOURS, then getting together Sunday with Joshua to collate our changes. Having both of us independently checking the entire manuscript, plus each of the individual authors looking over their own stories, should ensure that we catch as many mistakes as humanly possible.

And oh, yes, I'm also finishing polishing up the new proposal so I can send it to my agent.

Other than that, a lazy quiet weekend planned. :-D It's been that kind of month, so it's no wonder that I haven't read a single page of published fiction since October.

Yesterday, in the span of a half-hour, I came up with not one but two new story ideas. Different genres, different tones, even different POVs, the only thing they have in common is me.

I drove to the Cybercafe, whipped out a notepad (silly me, I'd left the laptop at home since I was supposed to be running errands) and wrote them up.

This is the part of being a writer that most folks don't understand, as they sidle up next to me at parties and offer to let me have the privilege of writing up their great idea. Having ideas is never the problem, the hard part is picking just one to work on.

When you go to the shelter, you can't take home every puppy you see-- you've got to pick one. And the same goes for story ideas. Even if I live to be five hundred years old, I'll never have time to turn all of my ideas into stories. So I have to choose carefully--adding up all the disparate factors from my passion for the story to market conditions and timing-- a cool idea for a short story can be tucked in between contracts, a three book series can not. I'll ask friends and colleagues for their advice, and then, when brain and heart agree, it's time to start writing.

And to hope that this puppy will be easier to housebreak than the last.

Yesterday was a good day-- heard from my agent arcaedia that she likes the new project. And I managed to finish off a short story, my third attempt at the short format this summer. Not quite sure what I'll do with it, but it was an interesting exercise.

Although the short story would serve as a springboard for an entire novel, so I didn't stray too far from my roots. I suspect that if I'd been a student at Odyssey this summer, rather than writing a dozen short stories I would have produced the openings to a dozen different novels :-)

Now it's Saturday, the rain is pouring down so biking is off the agenda (although frequent trips to check the basement for water are now on the agenda, thanks to the memories of the 2006 floods.) Not quite sure what I'll do with myself, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

What could be cooler than this?*

Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop 2009
Odyssey is one of the most highly respected workshops for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror writers. Top authors, editors, and agents serve as guest lecturers, and fifty-three percent of graduates go on to be published. The workshop, held annually on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, combines an intensive learning and writing experience with in-depth feedback on students' manuscripts. Odyssey is for developing writers whose work is approaching publication quality and for published writers who want to improve their work. Director Jeanne Cavelos is a former senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell and winner of the World Fantasy Award.

This summer's workshop runs from June 8 through July 17. Guest lecturers are bestselling author Jeffrey A. Carver; award-winning authors Melissa Scott, Patricia Bray, and Jack Ketchum; and Ace/Roc Editor-in-Chief Ginjer Buchanan. The writer-in-residence is New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn. The application deadline is April 8. For more information, visit www.odysseyworkshop.org or call (603) 673-6234.


*And, of course, you'll get to meet me :-)

Anyone who's tried to balance a day job with writing knows how hard it can be. Sometimes the impact is easy to see--working a 14 hour day makes it difficult to find the energy to write at night.

Sometimes the impact is more subtle. When I first graduated from college and started working as a programmer, I stopped writing. But as I moved up the ladder to the point where I was managing programmers rather than getting to do the fun stuff myself, I once again discovered within me the desire to write.

It took me a while to make the connection. To realize that I was a creative person, and if I couldn't satisfy my creative urges in one venue, I'd turn to another.

Fast forward to last Friday. In my new assignment at MegaCorp, I've been asked to come up with the most efficient method for processing currency adjustments. After a couple of attempts, I created a script that produces the right answers, but it takes too long to run.

By coincidence, after the early morning writing session on Friday, I'd been stuck on a plot point. Normally this would mean that throughout the day my subconscious would be working on the plot point. But instead it had been preempted by the programming challenge. When I had the "Ah ha!" moment and reached for my pen, it was not to jot down ideas for the next scene, but rather a new idea for setting limits to the data blocks being calculated.

Even after I'd gone home, and immersed myself in the story once again, it was hard to get my brain back into writing mode. The creative idea generator wanted to solve the programming problem, and I had to tell myself that it was the weekend and I would not under any circumstances allow myself to power up my laptop to work on the day job.

Fortunately the opportunities for creative coding are few and far between, otherwise this balance would be even tougher than it is. But perhaps this explains why Einstein did his best work when he was employed as a patent clerk :-)

and eventually they add up.

This month I've rejoined novel_in_90 and signed up for a cancer fundraising ride in July, and my reasons for doing both are the same--I needed goals.

As I've mentioned before, ever since I began supporting the corporate finance databases, I've had trouble balancing the day job and the rest of the life. My DBA responsibilities now involve scheduled work several nights a month as well as the occasional weekend. This was prime writing time, and I found it hard to get into a writing routine, especially in the absence of an externally imposed deadline.

Similarly, this year's bike trip isn't until September. Which seems very far away, and thus I've slacked off on the training, letting myself take a pass when it was too hot/cold/wet.

But time is slipping away, unnoticed, and I realized that it was June and I had nothing to show for the past couple of months. So I gave myself goals. First, Novel in 90, which is a commitment to write at least 750 a day, every day, with the ultimate goal of 67,500 words in 90 days. It worked for me last summer when I was finishing up THE FINAL SACRIFICE, so I decided to give it another spin.

Since Saturday I've written 5,750 words. That's an entire chapter that didn't exist before. All because I was no longer waiting for the right time. I'm not even waiting for the right words. In true Nin90 spirit, I've written paragraphs that I knew were crap, just to keep moving. It's the end results that matter, words on pages. I once heard Nora Roberts tell a room full of writers "I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank page." I'm following her example, and so far it's working.

I know I won't get to write every day in the 90. But I'm committed to try my best, and to keep making progress. Small, manageable goals that will add up to the whole.

As for biking, rather than training for a week-long trip in September, I'm now focused on training for a 1 day ride in July. By giving myself a short term goal to work towards you can bet that I'll be out on the road this weekend, regardless of the weather.

Now if only I could figure out a way to write while biking....

Becoming a published author involves mastering many skills, one of which is learning how to write a synopsis for your book. If you've never seen one before, this can be a daunting task, so jpsorrow put out a call for his friends to share examples, and declared that March 18th was S-Day.

For my part, I've posted the synopsis for THE FIRST BETRAYAL, the first volume in The Chronices of Josan series. Because this was a proposal based on sample chapters rather than a completed novel, the package included detailed background information as well as summaries for all three books in the proposed series. In order to avoid spoilers for either THE SEA CHANGE or THE FINAL SACRIFICE, I've removed those sections from the synopsis posted on my website.

At the time the synopsis was written, I has only writen the opening chapters of THE FIRST BETRAYAL. Astute readers will notice differences between the synopsis and the final book. I like to think of the published book as the "Director's Cut" of the story.

You'll also notice that many of the details in the synopsis never made it into any of three books, such as Prince Lucius's family tree, or the detailed history of the Ikarian empire. This is an example of world-building--as an author I need to know the underpinnings of the world and civilizations that I've created, but it's not necessary to explicitly include these in the story.

In his livejournal announcement jpsorrow refers to synopses usually being 3-5 pages in length. This is where I beg to differ--while shorter is generally better, synopses come in a wide variety of lengths, depending on the project and the author. The synopsis for THE FIRST BETRAYAL was the longest one I've ever written, mainly because it wasn't associated with a completed novel--there had to be enough detail in there to convince the folks at Bantam that I had enough story to sustain a multi-volume arc. Luckily Bantam liked it, and as you've probably guessed, they bought all three books in the series :-)

So, without further ado, click here to read my synopsis. Then take a look at the links posted below, to find more examples.

Enjoy!

Plot Synopsis Project participant links:

For more examples, check out the links below. Note, authors are posting throughout the day, some links may not be immediately available.

Edited on 3/24 to add permanent links to the blog entries.

desperance Chaz Brenchley's entry
Mike Brotherton's entry
Tobias Buckell's entry
scbutler S.C. Butler's entry
Barbara Campbell's entry
davidbcoe David B. Coe's entry
jennifer_dunne Jennifer Dunne's entry
sleigh S.L. Farrell's entry
difrancis Diana Francis's entry
frostokovich Gregory Frost's entry
Felix Gilman's entry
jimhines Jim C. Hines's entry
jackiekessler Jackie Kessler's entry
mindyklasky Mindy Klasky's entry
madkestrel Misty Massey's entry
mizkit C.E. Murphy's entry
naominovik Naomi Novik's entry
jpsorrow Joshua Palmatier's entry
Maria V. Snyder's entry Link takes you to Myspace page, then search for 03/18/08 entry
smokingpigeon Jennifer Stevenson's entry
msagara Michelle West's entry
ladnews Sean Williams's entry