Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Plan

Wait... what plan? Was I supposed to make that?

I always go through life largely flying by the seat of my pantslessness, but it is rare when I am trying to keep so many balls in the air at the same time, and I AM NOT A CLOWN. (though I DO have a really good clown FACE (though not like that scary clown *shivers*) if you ever meet me in person and want to see—but I digress). I have rather infamous (among my immediate family) tunnel vision and really only do one thing at a time, so this whole multi-tasking thing has me a little flummoxed.

So let me describe my balls *cough*

The Cozy Mystery Ball

Say! That sounds like a REALLY fun party! I ought to have one! But at the moment what I mean is this... Four FABULOUS members of the WORLD'S BEST writer's group gave me feedback on my Cozy chapters revision—one sent a series of suggestions on Saturday that I am keeping in mind—all more general. THREE sent line revisions and questions in the form of track changes... so I spent... maybe two hours yesterday going paragraph by paragraph, looking at all four versions (their three, plus MY hard copy that I'd made notes for other the other suggestions, plus a 'sentence simplification' that was more general feedback from one who ALSO sent the line-edits) SLOW going.

I DID learn some things about British English versus American English (Natasha and Tara both learned BE, living in India and Wales respectively) and some things about colloquialisms. A few times they cracked me up when more than one would point at the same thing. Tara kept me motivated by snorting. I always like a good snort. And at the moment I feel like chapters 1 and 2 are SIGNIFICANTLY clearer, better, cleaner, than they were this time yesterday. I still have 3 and 4 to get through this way, then a final polish, before sending the chapters back to MY AGENT on Wednesday night (or such is the plan).


The Legacy Query Ball

I know, right? Who would want to go? I hear it is entirely clothes dug out of rejection bins at second hand stores, and food salvaged from the McDonald's 'over time' can.

Legacy is my completed novel next on my revision list. I didn't want to start REVISIONS because if I get the cozy gig, it would interrupt, which I find counter productive. So I thought, HEY, I'll write the QUERY. You've already heard me whine here... I can't write a query to save my life. Ive had five different ABNA friends give me some VERY helpful feedback (I love these guys), but unlike the writing, where I can SEE the improvement, because I KNOW what I am looking for—I have a harder time identifying better versus worse on the query. I actually maybe ought to put on my copywriter's hat from YEARS ago, though I remember there was a reason I actually ended up working in account service rather than copywriting... you know... the hard time getting to the point thing...


The CONFLUENCE First Chapter Ball

I have a REALLY COOL think happening here. I'm VERY excited. Chimera Critiques gives away a chapter critique every so often, and I have WON one! http://chimeracritiques.com/ They are going to review my first chapter of CONFLUENCE and tell me where I am missing the boat, because honestly, I think I must be... I think I need to dive in faster, but for the life of me, can't figure out how. So I encourage YOU to go check them out, and I will report back after the (hopefully not horribly painful) feedback I get from THEM. But then I will know what to do... and I will be obliged to FIX IT. *sigh *


Bouncing Balls

Deniability still looms...  Needs blanks filled in.
Illusions needs typing...  *sigh*
Guest Bloggers are waiting for SERVICE... which I don't mind providing, but it stresses me out a little to be responsible to anyone else. Harder to wing it when I'm playing with somebody ELSE'S balls. *cough*

And then I have the two NEW books that keep pestering me... the ghost story and the Armageddon one... the former would be a delve int YA, and is more solid in my head—that said, that also makes it PERFECT for a NaNo book, where the Armageddon is tricky and complicated (and fairly delicious)-so a far bigger commitment—CONFLUENCE complicated... (though hopefully I've learned enough that it wouldn't take me 2.5 years to write this time)


And finally... because I've had so much time on my hands... I've made the request and been added to the Urban Dictionary... as the Watery Tart, of course... They said it might take a few days, but I figure at that point, I can officially claim I'm famous *snort*  Girl's gotta have priorities, I figure...

12 comments:

Fire and Ice said...

*snort*
Are you really going into Urban Dictionary? Thats awesome!

I too enjoy Tara's *snort*s...they keep me laughing.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this time the editor loves it and wants it published now! *crosses fingers!*

Leesh

Hart Johnson said...

I AM! There is an application process where you have your definition approved, but YES, they said Watery Tart (which is there under Monty Python and a really distasteful other definition) will now include ME!

Thanks for the luck, Leesh!

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

This is a LOT of stuff going on at one time! But I don't know anyone else better to handle it...

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder

Jessica Bell said...

Where do you find the time? And how do you manage to keep up with so many projects? I reckon I'd have a freakin' nervous breakage. LOL

Don’t miss out on my contest!

Megan Bostic said...

Good luck with all that. Where I've gotten better at query writing, I still totally suck at the synopsis. I would rather shove bamboo shutes down my fingernails than write one. :)

Hart Johnson said...

Thanks everyone! I just need to remind myself to focus on one at a time, and not choose the next one if it won't fit in the time I will have, but I'm clearly a little baffled at the moment. This business is so much 'hurry up and wait!"

A huge part of it is nothing is ever DONE, until it's published, so there is always more to do on EVERYTHING.

Megan, I am totally with you on the synopsis... VERY painful!

Not Hannah said...

I hate it when my Muse refuses to stay put in my brain. At least you have a Plan to deal with yours. (I just stump around grumpy about it most days.)

Steel Magnolia said...

Keep all those balls in the air. You are amazing ;-) ... and an inspiration!

Hart Johnson said...

My Muse is more stubborn than anything else. He will stay put like I tell him to, but then he gets all warbly and mind-bendy when I try to redirect him AGAIN. "You told me to dance like you like, love... I'm dancing. You can't just make me build a fence now." teehee

Alex--with you on clowns! My friend Tracy has an email that signs off "Clowns are scary as hell." Always makes me snort.

Thank you everyone! I just need to organize my minions to hold my balls FOR me!

Roland D. Yeomans said...

Don't forget about tomorrow's PRIMAL SCREAM! Blogfest. I had to enter early due to work constraints. Roland

Unknown said...

I don't know how you do it. Good luck. If you need anything, holla' at me. *winks*

Helena Soister said...

I DREAD writing queries and even a short synopsis. I've written long chapters in less time than it's taken me to compose the intro to a query. Your diligence is awe-inspiring!