Reboot, Relearn, Recreate

Our chapter had an all-day workshop yesterday with Bob Mayer. It was structured to have appeal to everyone regardless of the stage their career is in. We covered story structure, POV, dialogue, setting as well as the state of the industry today, and the future of publishing.

It was a good time to sit back and go over the basics as well as learn a few new things. My purpose going into each workshop is to look at my work from a different perspective at the end of the day, and to possibly learn something new.

Today was no exception. In this industry, in order to be successful, one must constantly shift with the publishing tides. To become a hybrid, either in the way you get published, or in what genre you write, or both. Regardless of the direction, there are things to be learned and in most cases, the learning curve is steep.

By day's end, I was exhausted, but energized at the same time. I am confident in the direction of my career now, and eager to finish my WIPs.

It was a very good time to reboot, relearn and recreate.

Back To The Drawing Board

Like most authors, I'm constantly searching for new ways to approach my craft. I take online and in person workshops, read articles on how to show vs. tell, enter contests for published authors showcasing their new work. Since I have been published for four years, some folks think I don't need to do this anymore since I must know it all by now.

If only it were that simple.

I had an idea for a contemporary two years ago, which was to be part of a trilogy. I wrote the manuscript, found an agent to peddle it for me, had it sent out all over the place, and got no bites. I fired the agent, took a look at the editing notes the agent only gave me after the first round of rejections, and revised the manuscript. I then sent if off myself to another publishing house with whom I've had some dealings in the past. Their acquisitions person got back to me saying she'd love to work with me, liked my work, but wanted me to change the beginning, middle and end. I told her I'd get back to her, and promptly filed the manuscript away for a rainy day.

It's not raining, but we did have a freakish snow storm here in Ohio over the weekend, so I thought it was a perfect time to pull it out and take another look at it. After reading the first twenty pages, I realized I hadn't run the document through my checklist, since some of my taboo words showed up with an uneasy frequency. Maybe the acquisitions editor wasn't so far off the mark after all.

I still think I'll send it elsewhere when I deem it ready to go again. And I'm not writing books two and three in this trilogy until the first one finds a home.

The Road Not Taken

I recently took a workshop on writing. After all these years of writing and being a published author, you'd think I'd have seen and done it all, but that's not the case. Everyone needs to work every day on improving their craft, and I'm no exception. I wanted to up my game, and being forced into seclusion with my bum hip gave me a perfect opportunity to mire myself in this course.

So what was the outcome? I began to look at my work in a totally different way. My process is to write a quick first draft, then go back over it time and again, searching for overused words, jumps in the timeline, inconsistencies, equal representation of the senses, etc. Each pass brings me closer to a finished product, but it's time-consuming. Now, with this workshop, I have even more to look for. I need to find power words and try to position them appropriately. So, I'm now looking at every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter hook. It's tedious, but in the end, I think it'll be worth it.

My first project using my newly-minted technique is for the upcoming book 8 in the Cotillion Ball Series. This one's about Pepper, who is a totally different heroine from my usual young, feisty women. She's been married, has 3 children, and her husband was killed during the first battle of the Civil War, so she's learning how to live on her own. And how to find love again. I'll be the first to admit this book took a lot of work–not just the research about the Civil War battles that took place in 1862 and 1863, but what it was like to be a single parent raising three young boys. I had to interview some mothers who were in similar situations in order to understand the tremendous inner strength involved.  I'm happy to say A Widow's Salvation is now finished, except for one final read-through, and I'm on to the next.

Which is what, you might ask? I have a contemporary story finished, and am in search of a good agent to market it for me. But, since it's been over a year since I wrote and rewrote the story, I think it's a good project for me to look over with my new set of workshop eyes. Give the manuscript a new life, take it down a different path. I've always been adventurous and the road not yet taken seems like the right one for me at this stage of my career.

I'll let you know how it works out.