Talk Back: What are your summer writing plans?

On my Kindle: Blood Oranges by Caitlin R. Kiernan w/a Kathleen Tierney

Talk Back – Tell us how you write!

Does your writing schedule change during the seasons, or does it stay pretty much the same?

Here in Seattle, schools are out and it means kids are now at home for the summer. When I was at home with my kids, summer meant that my writing time was short and I had to plan around them. Now that I am working as a teacher and that my kids are in middle school, things have reversed and it means that, starting Tuesday, I will finally have time to write more.

So I’m hoping to finish, or at least get the major part of the current project I am working on. I am a little worried that the summer weather and restless kids will prevent me from doing as much as I want, but that’s the plan anyway.

So how about you? Are summer more productive? Less? Distracting or a better time to focus? You tell me!!

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

Talk Back: do you track your manuscript rejections

On my Kindle: Once upon a Tower by Eloisa James

Talk Back – Tell us how you write!

As I’m starting the process of submitting my manuscript to agents, which I haven’t done in a while, my brain is leaving the “I’m awesome/I’m horrible” state to a more realistic “I’m normal” mind-frame as my rejections start piling in.

Yep it hurts. And that why stumbling upon an article about rejections by author Tobias Buckell really helped me this week.

Go ahead and read it. I’ll stay here and wait for you.

Done? Helpful isn’t it?

I never done much in way of tracking rejections beside making sure I don’t submit the same story to the same person twice. But now I’m thinking of using some kind of spreadsheet for life.

Just as a way of reminding myself that rejections are part of the writer job and that there will never be a time in my career when I will no longer get them.

So tell me… Do you track your rejection? And how do you do that? Spreadsheet? Notebook? Your bedroom wall?

The floor is all yours! Let’s hear from you

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

Talk Back – Do you like promoting your book?

On my Kindle: Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Talk Back – Tell us how you write! 

Oh I hear you all now.

Of course I hate the promo part of being a writer, you say. I’m an introvert! I hate having to go out there and try to convince people to buy my books!

I hear you because that’s exactly how I react if someone asks me.

Yet, I can spend hours on Facebook and Twitter chatting to stranger because well, I tell myself, they are potential readers.

I can spend hours looking on the web to see whether I should choose Instagram over Pinterest over Tumblr because hey, I have to stay on top of my promo game.

I can spend hours writing daily posts about myself on my personal blog because I think that’s what sells books (especially the part about choosing that very pretty picture that goes with the post which takes a long time to do).

And again I can spend hours designing the layout of my website, blog, bookmarks, ads and all that because you know how important that is!

And let’s not forget how I must go to writer’s conferences, dress up as a vampire, sample fancy drinks and frolic with cover models to increase my book sales!!! (Yes Honey, all writers HAVE to do this and that’s why I’m taking money from the kids college fund to go away and promote my novel! It will pay off in the end, don’t you worry!)

And guess what, I LOVE doing that stuff! Love it so much that I can lose myself in it. Love it so much that it is sometimes easier to work on promo than to write the damn book that never end.

So my own problem is that there is a huge part of promotion that is so much fun that it makes me think that I’m working, where in fact I’m just “playing author” while the real work (aka the actual writing of one book then another then another) is not getting done!

Hence why I reduced my online presence dramatically in the last year to focus on improving my craft and write more.

So tell me, how do you like the promo aspect of your writing career? Do you like it too much? Not enough? Things you love? Things you hate?

Your turn to talk back!

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

The distraction of shiny new writing things…

On my Kindle: Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie

Do you ever get super distracted from your WIP? Oh how I hate that!

I had a little time to spare the other morning before leaving for work and I started googling for publishing opportunities.I saw a call for short stories series and my mind started to play with that information.

What if I submit that short story I have? It’s almost ready! Then, I might have another book out there soon if it get accepted! Those stories are only 13K words!!!

Oh so attractive! And what a wonderful distraction from the monster beast that is my work in progress.

But I got to finish that first!!!

I get so distracted. I tend to jump on new things so easily in a “Oh, I can write THAT” fervor. Hence the paranormal short, the steampunk novel, the small town romance, the YA fantasy, all waiting to be edited.

Live and learn.

I MUST finish, edit, polish and submit my current project BEFORE I do anything else, don’t you think?

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

Happy Mother’s Day!

It would be impossible to say all the things that describe what a Mother is, and what her impact is in our lives.

One year, for my mother, I had my children write down why they loved their Grammy. We handed her a small bag filled with tiny slips of colored paper with endearments of every kind. One of her favorites, that brought a tear to her eye, was “She always smells so good.”

That’s what a mother is to me. She appreciates such little kindnesses in return for the amazing things she gives us.

Happy Mother’s Day from us all here at Musetracks.

 

Talk Back: Do you edit your manuscript as you go?

On my Kindle: “Super Secret Contemporary Romance” by Candi Wall and “Super Secret Pirate Romance” by Jenn Bray Weber – I’m Beta reading!!!

Talk Back – Tell us how you write!

You tell me: should I edit as I go, or will I write the whole dirty first draft, then edit?

You see since I finished my last manuscript, I have now started a brand new one. Well not so brand new since it’s the sequel to the previous one. Anyhow, as I was finishing that last manuscript, I got back into editing mode which I usually hate and towards the end, I was almost liking it.

Hence my dilemma, if I just go straight back to writing, I won’t be editing for a good 3 months. I will hate it again. And there is a nice feeling to get to THE END with a nice complete novel instead of going up and down in happiness with each draft (I’m done!!!! – but I am really done??)

But when I write the whole first draft without editing, the story grows on me and when I go back to edit the first chapter, I have a better sense of my story and characters – great way to put those unfired guns when you know there will be a gunshots at the end.

So I don’t know. I am 10,000 words into this story and I’m still going back and forth with this. I’ve tried to edit a bit, but my heart is not into it.

So what do you do? Are you consistent in your method or does it change with each project?

And by the way, if you need a little help with plotting, NYTimes bestselling author Bob Mayer was kind enough a couple of weeks ago to share his whole method on how he sets up conflict in his plots. Check it out – you’ll learn a lot!

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

Talk Back: Are you a happy writer?

On my Kindle: Blood Brothers: The Sign of Seven by Nora Roberts

Talk Back – Tell us how you write!

I do have to ask: what makes you a happy writer?

We had this meme from Chuck Wendig (and the associated blog post) circulating around the internet last week and it did get me thinking.

I can’t seem to find moments when I am truly happy with writing anymore. I remember the excitement I had when I finally told myself it was ok to try to write, and when I had, oh I don’t know 3 chapters written or so, I felt soooo happy.

I had spent most of my life dreaming of being a writer and believing that, because I never went to school to study writing, I could never get a book published, see a real book with my name on it in a big bookstore.

And I wish I could say that I was completely happy when it happened (and yes I was happy) but by that time I was so wrapped up in the crazies of the business side of it, that I was not as happy as when I sat down to write those words the very first time.

It took me quite a while to find my happy writing place again. It meant a lot of pulling out from writing groups, a lot of time thinking about what writing means to me and a total different mind-set where happiness comes from accomplishing my allocated daily writing time and spending time in a woken dream with my characters and none thinking about selling, reviews and money.

In Mr. Wendig’s words, for me happiness is when I “care less.” When I just write, have fun and leave the rest to the universe.

How about you? When was the last time writing made you truly happy? What do you need from your writing to find that bliss?

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

Talk Back: How do you celebrate writing milestones?

On my Kindle: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Talk Back – Tell us how you write!

What is writing success worth celebrating to you? And how do you celebrate those milestones?

I just finished my manuscript this week-end. By that I mean I finished the whole 90,000 words beast – 5 drafts and all and sent it to printing for a submission.
This took me way too long. All I wanted to do is prove to myself that I could finish something again (and by that I mean something an agent or editor could read) and I am now beside myself with happiness to see that I did it.

It took my a while and a lot of ups and down in the writing business to define writing success for myself. And now that I learned to totally separate the writing itself from the business side of it, I am in a much happier writing place.

So for me success is completion of a full manuscript ready to submit. And I did it. But I don’t know how to celebrate. All I can think of right now is grab a notebook and write another novel right away because it’s so much fun.

I heard of people going out for dinner, drinks, manicures. Having a party, doing something completely different for a while…

What about you?
What do you consider milestones? And how do you actually celebrate?

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

Talk Back: Do you track your writing progress

On my Kindle: A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

Talk Back – Tell us how you write!

Do you track your writing progress? Experts tend to say that to keep a habit it helps to track it. Do you agree? Or is this obsessiveness getting in the way of your creativity?

I can be quite an obsessive person when I tackle projects and yes I tend to track things. Perhaps too much, which tends to make me worry more about the tracking then the actual project. But some tracking has its use.

I’ve done various form of tracking. I have used a wall calendar to write down my word counts each writing day. That was nice to look at the wall and see how much I was doing each month (and that blank spot guilted me into writing every day).

I also used a running list of word counts with one column for the daily words and the other a cumulative sum of words, which was really motivating.

Now my focus is much more on making sure I spend an hour a day – 6 days a week – on my manuscript so I’ve again changed my tracking method.

My trusty writing tracking bible!

I now have a huge log book that is really pretty and will last me for years. I log each writing session with the date, the type of work I’m doing (writing, editing, polishing) and the time spent on that session.

So far so good. It helps!

How about you? If you track your progress, how do you do it? What works and what haven’t worked? And if you don’t, do you find it easier to just focus on the work?

Please let us know. It’s so nice to hear from you all!

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

Talk back: Is your writing a job or your hobby?

On my Kindle: Silk Is For Seduction by Loretta Chase

So today I’m asking you a very simple question: how do you consider your writing, like a job? Or a hobby?

My writing is actually a hobby for me. Shocking? Well there are all kinds of hobby isn’t there? And mine is more of the marathon runner kind instead of the week-end photography kind. I’m pretty obsessive about it and I practice writing every day.

The truth is, it’s when I started writing as a job that all things went pear shape for me…

Because I was so scared of it, it all started as a hobby. But then I joined writers groups where I learned that to be successful I had to treat it like a job. So I did and it worked. I sold my first manuscript to a NY publisher very quickly. And I worked at my writing job daily: 8-10 hours a day. The problem was that even though I worked the hours, the money just wasn’t there. Definitely not enough to support a family of 4 in Seattle in this uncertain economy.

My new job made my family very nervous.

So stress started piling up and words were now preceded with dollar signs and I just lost myself as a writer.

So I went back to school and now have a regular day job. And writing is done before and after work. I tell my family that my writing is my hobby. I do it everyday and very seriously but the “hobby” label make them breathe easier.

I found my happy writing place.

So what is yours? Do you need to treat your writing as a job to get respect at home and motivated? Or has it backfired on you? What is your experience?

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle