Passing through the gates of knowledge

Yes I have gates on my mind. While I have prepared for the upcoming conference I have been bombarded with ideas for a new book I am writing. I feel bad because in between what needs to be done there's little time to actualy time to sit and give this book the time it wants. I am also working on a second set of MS's and characters to accompany my first and premiere series The "Prophecy Rising" series.

It's been an interesting year. I've learned alot about writing without writing much. While I will allways be learning something new in the realm of writing I feel as if i have passed through the "begining writers gate" and into the realm of seasoned writer. I feel as if I can now look at a piece of work and identify what might need work, and what is good. Sadly it is easier to look at someome elses work than my own. Probably because I am "in love" with my prose and it hasnt worn on me yet. (Although by the time I am done editing like I am on Emergence I am sick of it.)

I have also passed through the "know nothing about submitting gate" and started to shop my MS. I am pretty sure I won't make a fool of myself when i send something off now. I can rattle off the industry standard guidelines for a "standard submission" without thinking about it.

Last but definitely not least I have passed through the "knows nothing about plotting and pacing a novel gate". I now have the knowledge and skills I need to take an idea and develop it fully into a real story. I have evolved from the just write a cool story to I can write a cool story that people curse me because they are still awake at 3:oo am.

While these last seven years have been long and I am impatient as I wait to get an agent, I have learned so much and passed through many gates on my way to being a published author.

P. S. Gates are SO relevant to my YA fantasy/SF WIP. :)

How I Became a Writer. Part 3

With one manuscript finished I opened another short story called Foxproof and started re-writing it. This one was more my style with agents and bad/good guys. (not that I didn't love Amalathea, still do and will definately rework it at a later date.) I started to write it and as I would hit a wall or get bored with it I started more stories. Within a few months I had a few completed rough drafts and a few more stories started.

After a few months I decided to pull out my old MS, (Dominion Day)the one I wrote in High School. This was definately a favorite of mine. But a challenge since the origional storyline was actually very simple. With the other story's finished, I sat down with the origional MS and the partial rewrite I did after HS and began to write the story out.

Now, the origional story was supposed to be two books a present the problem and solve the problem set of books. I couldn't immagine something longer than that. The first story was of a guy and girl who are agents they marry and have kids. The second about thier kids after the couple die.

Well, about halfway through the book, a scene appeared in my head where my main character got religion. This scene literally turned the book upside down. It went from a 2 book set to a 5 book series. With the change in my character the story became much more complex. Scenes popped in my head like popcorn and there were a few days where I wrote 20 + pages a day.

About this time I was in church and they started asking if anyone had good news. I kept feeling I should tell them about my finished manuscripts. So after battling with my inner voice that was insisting that I say something I did. After Relief Society, (a church meeting) A woman aproached me as I waited to leave the classroom. she introdouced herself and said that she was interested in writing and wanted to talk sometime. It took a few months to actually talk but we hit it off on New Years Eve. We have been best friends ever since. We exchange writing talk about plot, and characters. We found out about the LDStorymakers conference and went to it together.

She was the first validation that what I had, inspite of the grammar problems, was good work. She also worked with me on those grammar problems and helped me develop a thick skin for critiquing.

So as my friend and I continued our writing careers together, the MS's I was working on began to evolve and become pieces of work that were slowly becoming better.

Acceptance and sorrow.

I knew it. Right on time. I begin another writing challenge and the adversary has blown me out of the water again. No, this time my family is intact. But my book leaves something to be desired. I knew that when I began Emergence that Latent was going to be a bear to write, and true to form it has. The problem with Latent is while some of it is vastly different some of it has remained the same with very little change. Writing that mixture of change and same is difficult.

As it stands I have had to accept that Noble my MC is no longer an Agent and this changes EVERYTHING. All of Noble's adventures were based on the fact that he was an agent and now none of that is relevant. Granted the opposition he faces in books #3-#7 from becoming a good guy is enough material for me to RE-WRITE everything. But there is so little opposition in book #2 that I am feeling if I force it that it will look like I forced it. I have an antagonist and he does some pretty good damage in #2 but he isn't around every chapter and when even the writer looks at the page and thinks it is boring it probably is. I also have scenes that HAVE to happen in this book that I worry aren't the same level of book that Emergence is.

Second I have a cool character with his own book that I added into the series because I wanted the MC's to meet but in the new rewrite I can't seem to add him in without seeming again like I forced it. His story stands on its own and I'm not worried that he will disappear but I am saddened that I might not be able to add Foxproof in as Book #4.

I know everything will work out. It always does, but in the meantime I will feel a bit of sorrow at the situation presented to me.

Love of Writing...

WhoooHoo!!!!!
As much as I love the revising process,

( I know some of you are thinking I am crazy, but hear me out, I love reworking my books, I love making everything better, sound better, be grammatically correct. )

I LOVE writing!!!!!!! As I wait to hear about my MS I needed to do something, so I began to plot the next two books. Then in a moment of inspiration I started the second chapter of the third book and what can I say but WOW! I love that everything just flows when my muse is happy. I have written seven pages of my new book and I love it. I love the new enhanced storyline, I love that everything sounds better.

I love to Write!