Another crazy week of trying to write with no time to do it. Hope you’ve been more productive than I have. I’m stuck in Chapter Ten Hell and I can’t get out. It’s a kissing scene for God’s sake. How hard are those to write? This is insane. I’ve never had this problem before. I feel like men feel when they can’t … um … perform, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, on to this week’s post. There are nine items below. Talk about what interests you, ignore what doesn’t.

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1. BUT SHE DID IT!

An editor at Edittorrent had a great post up about unpublished writers who complain about the published “getting away” with stuff in their books:

I have noticed a sort of interesting attitude in some submitters. It’s that the trick is “getting away with it”. You know, say I point out that a four-page long prologue all in italics (because, I guess, it takes place in the villain’s head) might be kind of annoying. (I’m making this particular issue up, as the attitude is the important thing.) And the submitter comes back with (rule #1– don’t argue when you’re being rejected… it doesn’t help), “But (insert bestselling author’s name) got away with it!”

Is there something you’ve seen in a published author’s book that you’d love to “get away with” doing, but you know you can’t?

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2. AMAZON, E-BOOKS AND YOU

The Author’s Guild went after Amazon, accusing them of trying to monopolize the e-book industry by cutting e-book prices on Kindle.

Check it out:

“Amazon’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. It dominates online bookselling and the fledgling e-book industry. At this moment it’s trying to cement its control of the e-book industry by routinely selling e-books at a loss. It won’t do that forever, of course. Eventually, when enough readers are locked in to its Kindle, everyone in the industry expects Amazon to squeeze publishers and authors. The results could be devastating for the economics of authorship. Amazon apparently fears that Google could upend its plans. Amazon needn’t worry, really: this agreement is about out-of-print books. Its lock on the online distribution of in-print books, unfortunately, seems secure.”

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3. WHERE YA AT?

Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith posted four terms in the revising process that I thought were pretty cool. At which stage are you in you WIP?

REDRAFT: That’s when you take the typing you have done and toss it away, then write the story again from your memory of the idea. When you are redrafting, you are working from the creative side of your brain.

REWRITE: That when you go into a manuscript after it is finished in critical voice and start changing things, usually major things like plot points, character actions, style of sentences, and so on. When you rewrite like this, you are working from the critical side of your mind.

TOUCH-UP DRAFT: When you run through a manuscript fixing small things, things you wrote in notes while writing, things your trusted first reader found. Often very small things or typos. This draft takes almost no time, often less than a day for a full novel, sometimes only a few hours.

SPELL-CHECKING DRAFT: Since so many of us work with our grammar-checkers and spell-checkers off, we need a spell-check draft, often done before given to a first reader. This often takes a an hour or so for a full novel.

I’m somewhere between a Redraft and Rewriting. I can’t make up my mind because some stuff is good as is, while other sections need to either be deleted completely, or just tinkered with.

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4. WRITING AS THERAPY?

Laura Vivanco at Teach Me Tonight recently quoted from Romance author Valerie Parv’s MA thesis titled, “Healing Writes: Restoring The Authorial Self Through Creative Practice.” One quote in particular got me thinking:

I began to consider how writers including myself might frequently revisit themes and ideas which resonate with our lived experiences. I call this restorying, an unconscious process whereby aspects of one’s life history are rewritten through one’s creative work to achieve a more satisfactory result.

Is there a pervasive theme that keeps coming up in your work? One you recognize as a part of your life story that you may be trying to perfect or gain closure on? For instance, I know of one author who consistently has an evil father figure in her books. Another writes heroines who are usually sexually repressed, if not frigid. Then there’s the author whose heroes always cry. No matter what the book is, they’re usually bawling about something. In my own work, I notice one or more of my characters are always seeking forgiveness and redemption. Why? Hell, if I know. I’d probably need a year’s worth of therapy to figure that one out.

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5. BLAST FROM THE PAST

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6. WELL, DAMN….

Angela James had just announced that she’d joined Quartet Press and they were open for submissions, but a little more than three weeks later they now say they’re closing down. This has got to be the fastest e-pub disbandment in internet history. It’s really too bad because they looked promising.

For a variety of reasons large and small, Quartet Press has decided to discontinue operations. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a hard-working team, and the support of the community, things just don’t work out. This is one of those times. It’s disappointing to all of us, but it’s reality and we will all move on.

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7. WHAT’S MY MOTIVATION?

An agent recently asked an interesting question:

“As a writer or a publishing [professional], how do YOU keep yourself motivated when you feel like quitting?”

For me, it’s simple. What the hell else am I going to do? What the hell else am I good at? After about ten minutes of drawing a blank, I bury myself in something that will distract me from thinking about it, which makes me realize how pointless it is for me to consider not writing because I eventually come back. Trust me, if I could walk away from writing without all the psychological voodoo, I would. But I’m married to it … unfortunately.

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8. THE END GAME

Editor Alan Rinzler, posted this handy bit of advice to those of us who seem to be having trouble reaching THE END in our WIPs.

5 tips for finishing your book

1. Accept endgame writer’s block as normal and common, something that happens on occasion to all authors, even the best and most experienced.

2. Reconsider your core idea, your starting-out concept and see if it fulfills your original outline. If you didn’t have an outline to begin with, make one now.

3. Get help. That’s what editors are for. Successful writers seek out and listen to professional feedback — from their publisher if they have one, or from a well-qualified trustworthy independent developmental editor.

4. Dig deep. Be willing to listen to others about your self-defeating behavior. Friends and family, editors, publishers, or on occasion, psychological professionals, can be the source of honest and supportive feedback.

5. Be patient. Wait it out. The outline and revisions take time. Sometimes this process needs to play out at its own pace to develop traction, take hold, and stick.

His entire post is worth a read. It’s a keeper!

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9. WHO’S THE HOTTEST TV DOC?

From twenty years ago to today, which one of these hunks would you like to take your temperature?