Taking a Story to the Bones

I can't tell if that title sounds just dirty or ominous or both or ominously dirty... you decide.

So, I'm working on a... reimagination of Secrets of Skin and Stone and it may incorporate but not gut Promises of Light and Dark.

Part of this will involve bringing in the larger story that I didn't even imagine when I started writing SECRETS... and it wasn't until Sarah asked me to open up SECRETS for the possibility of a sequel that I realized it wasn't just a single book. It still will read as a stand-alone in the end, I'm hoping, but there are other people involved that I never hinted at when I wrote SECRETS.

I've mentioned this before, but in case this is your first time here... my agent wants me to write a version of SECRETS for the film agent with her agency to present to producers. It needs more... plot points that involve action. So, I've got her notes on what several sources mentioned needs to be in the final draft and I'm working from that.

This will take SECRETS down to the bones of what it's about. I've never actually done a revision this deep. Of course, I'd never done a chapter-by-chapter summary before Sarah asked me to. There's nothing saying I can't do it, so I might as well try.

It comes down to "what's sacred" will stay in, but everything else is up for grabs. If you've never read Maggie Stiefvater's thoughts on revision, you should check out this post. It's brilliant.

So, what's sacred in SECRETS?

I told Sarah when we first started talking about SECRETS that there was one thing I would fight for... that I refused to sell my book to an editor who'd take it out. I was absolutely adamant on this one single point... You'd think it would be about Gris being a gargoyle. It isn't. That's not actually sacred. He's a gargoyle as a foil for Piper's issues... which are sacred. I told Sarah that I absolutely wouldn't tolerate having the cutting scenes tamed for public consumption. I knew that they made SECRETS a bit edgy but, if anything, I wanted Piper's OCD to be that way. I wanted readers to know that OCD is not simple and pretty.

So, Piper's cutting and her OCD are sacred.

Nothing else is sacred.

Everything else can be cut.

Those are the bones of the story.

I have to keep telling myself that.

Voice is king.... voice is always king. I'll revise until the voice is as strong as it is in this version in the new one. That's the other thing I keep telling myself.

So, my goal, to start off, is to go from Sarah's notes and chapter notes (my agent is a super hero, btw) and write a new chapter-by-chapter summary of this new SECRETS. It'll steal some from SECRETS... possibly some aspects of PROMISES but I want to add a lot more of an ominous feel to it as well as more action. Gris has some cool powers as a Watcher that I under-utilize. I need to really grab those and hype those up.

It needs more cowbell. More violent cowbell. If you don't understand the phrase: more cowbell--> Go HERE.

When I wrote SECRETS I only knew what was happening in Hidden Creek, Alabama for the few steps ahead of what I was writing. Now, I've written out PROMISES and I've written out a chapter-by-chapter summary of Betrayals of Blood and Spirit (the third book in the series... should it turn into a series.) I now know exactly what is happening in Hidden Creek. I've seen what is lurking in the corners.

I feel almost as if I've been given a unique gift in some ways... how would you rewrite the first book in a series if you knew exactly how the rest of the books went? Because of knowing this, I can knock out continuity errors, plant more hints, and really focus on what is sacred and where the action is.

It's a gift.

It's still scary.

I might have a breakdown.

I'll probably need lots of Mountain Dew.

In other news, I sent Sarah Sentinel's Run. That was also scary. I keep hoping such things will get less scary, but having a story bleed out of your brain onto the screen and then sending that off for someone to like or not like... it's a strange process. The world of Sentinel's Run only existed in my mind but it felt bigger than that. It always does. So, showing someone else that... it's always a little freaky.

Okay... back to that chapter summary. *takes a deep breath* *dives in*

The Art of Deletion

So, I mentioned that I've been working on Curse Me A Story this previous week while Sarah was busy with BEA. I finished converting it to first person POV from third person POV which went well, and I like it. I like it a lot actually. It does create a quandary, though. Well, two quandaries.

The first quandary isn't necessarily a quandary so much as something I've noticed, I suppose. In a first person POV, even sex that is off the page... isn't quite so far off the page. In Curse Me A Story the characters are married and it's very, very off the page, but switching it from third to first person seems to drag it closer to the page itself. You're buried in the characters' thoughts so it makes sense that something as big as sex... wouldn't just stay in the background. Still, I hadn't realized that would happen, and I'm not sure what to think about it.

The second quandary is also due to the absence of the prologue and not just because of the conversion. (BTW I love it without a prologue. Sarah was soooooo right.) With the change to first person and a bit more inner dialogue, my first four chapters feel info-heavy even though I'm not sure that I added all that much. So, I need to work on those now and that might be a process that I come back to before Sarah and I tackle pitching Curse Me A Story (eventually.) (Sarah asked me to do this revision of Curse Me A Story back in January before she'd seen SECRETS and then she fell in love with SECRETS so we've been working on that.)

Adding elements to a story has never been a problem for me. Deleting excess... is much harder. Cutting without destroying flow? Oy. Snipping out unnecessary inner dialogue... makes my stomach cramp. I mean, when it comes down to character development... what is unnecessary? I'm trying to figure out how one does this. I'm convinced it must be an art. I've heard of writers highlighting everything they think is vital and then doing a cut and paste into a new document. I'm tempted to try that. Also, I'm terrified of that. LOL.

My goal, for today, is to cut 1K from the first four chapters. Ideally, I want it to be around 73K--which is where it started out the week. It's at 74, 693 words right now.

I did a read through on my Kindle and I've got around 200 notes to address too. Some are quirks left over from the conversion. (These quirks are hilarious to me because it sounds so disembodied when they turn up.) "I told himself not to worry." "My hand brushed her hair from my face." They're sort of creepy and funny... but I'm choosing not to share them with beta readers. I'm selfish that way.

In writing news... which isn't really news, Sarah met with the agency's film agent while at BEA, and they discussed my book and I'll have notes from that conversation as soon as Sarah recovers from the long week. I might be doing some requested work on SECRETS when I get those. So, I might be out of the cursed castle and back into Hidden Creek again fairly soon.

Being agented is different. You can't just pick up something random that you've worked on once upon a time and play around with it to your heart's content. It makes me grateful, once again, that this process took as long as it did. I have all these completed manuscripts behind me that I wouldn't have the time to just write "just because the story was there and I felt like it." Don't get me wrong, I love the SECRETS world of Hidden Creek. I love Piper's and Gris's voices. If I'm going to keep getting dragged back into a world... well, this is awesome, but it is different from how writing is before you're agented.

*Wendy looks at her dystopian and sighs*

In March, Sarah warned me to write what I wanted because it might be the last time I could work on whatever I wanted. Instead of working on the dystopian, I dove back into Hidden Creek and wrote PROMISES. I don't think Sarah regrets that because it fleshed out the world and there is the possibility I might make changes to SECRETS based on PROMISES. I don't completely regret it, but there is some part of me that keeps looking at the dystopian I want to work on and wondering if I actually need to sleep ever. I keep having crazy thoughts like, "If I work on SECRETS during the day in June, I can work on Sentinel's Run at night instead of sleeping."

Writers are crazy.

I'm the king of crazy... err... queen... or whatever.

Okay, well, that 1K isn't going to delete itself. Unless there is a massive harddrive failure... in which case... *knocks on wood*

I hope you guys are having a good weekend.

What's in a name... besides EVERYTHING!

Okay, so *deep breath* Sarah the Wonder Agent wants me to write up a summary for the third book in the Secrets of Skin and Stone series of books. The film agent with the agency feels like the plot for the first book might not be big enough for a film, so she is currently reading over the second book, Promises of Light and Dark, along with Sarah. Since producers sometimes combine a series of books into a single film... they'll need to know the plot of the third book.

The third book.

The one I haven't written... other than about 500 words which wouldn't let me sleep.

So, I'd be writing... wait for it... a plot summary.

*Wendy runs screaming across the internet clutching her pantsy nature to her chest*

Everyone I told this too has reacted with mad laughter and even some snort laughing. I've gained a bit of a reputation as a straight pantser among my betas... especially since everyone finds it unreal that I don't know how a book ends until I get there and I'm breathing down its neck. My husband suggested I'd have more luck just writing the entire third book before the Sunday deadline.

He might be right.

I'm determined to try, though. To that end, I need to settle on a name. (Not that it won't ever be changed... but I like to have a name in place so that I can make sure I tie it in nicely throughout the book. I hate when a book doesn't fit its title.)

Okay, so it's the third in the series and I like the structure I've got going with the other two:

1) Secrets of Skin and Stone

2) Promises of Light and Dark

So, for the third, I've picked two different names but I'm open to suggestion if you all think these are stinky.

Whispers of Sin and Salvation

Whispers of Good and Evil

Do you like either of those? Or do you have suggestions?

Thanks, everyone. *blows kisses to all of you*

ETA Amalia suggested something with "Fate" and I'm liking:

Fate of Flesh and Spirit

What do you think?

ETA AGAIN: HOLD THE PHONE... actually my good friend on Twitter and beta reader @TechSurgeons came up with the right title (of course, he's cheated and read the two previous books so he had a head start on most of you.) This works on a few levels that only beta readers might get, so it's perfect for my working title.

It'll be titled:

3.) Betrayals of Blood and Spirit

Thanks, everyone who played along for the short burst of time I was working on this. *hugs all around*

On this my thirty-fifth birthday....

I expected to be depressed today. Not because I'm growing older. Growing older feels like a right and a privilege. I've lived long enough to live... so why not earn some wrinkles? It's that number. Thirty-five. Ever since I was a girl, I'd planned on two things: to be a mother to five kids and to be done with that by thirty-five.... because thirty-five is the age when you get extra tests when you're pregnant. Most of you know that our risk of Autism in a third child is so high that my husband doesn't feel right about having more kids. (I waffle between agreeing with him.) The fact that I've had and continue to have miscarriages (despite taking precautions) just really twists the knife on this.

So, as this day approached, I expected this feeling of dread to continue to build and to be depressed today. I expected to just want to crawl into a corner and wait for this day to go by.

As I was driving up the hill into our neighborhood after dropping off the kids... our SUV was chugging a bit and I thought, "Today... I'm so thankful for this car. Thank you, God, for this car and that it's running." I thought of the two booster seats behind me. "Thank you, God, for the two kids that I have... and that T didn't fight me on going to school or wearing different shoes because his had mud all over them. Thank you for B who made her brother breakfast this morning. Thank you, God, for my husband... who has gone to work all these years without complaint to support us... and for the fact that he has supported everything I've ever chosen to do... from painting to writing to staying home."

On this my thirty-fifth birthday, I have a lot to be grateful for. I have a lot that I'm grateful I've lived to see. I expected to wake up and feel the loss of what I can't have today... and, instead, I feel so incredibly grateful for what I do.

Life is too short to wrap yourself in grief and let it rush by you. It's too amazing to wish it away. It's a breath. A heartbeat. A dream. And then the moments are gone and you wish you'd done something more than let them pass while you were busy regretting them.

On this my thirty-fifth birthday, I'm grateful to be thirty-five.

I really am.

Anyway, I'm going to work on Promises of Light and Dark today because that sounds like a nice way to spend the morning while my kids are at school. I finished my read-through of Secrets which helped me nail down the voice quirks and I started revision on Promises Tuesday night. Every so often when I'm writing a book I have this refrain in the back of my head: "I hope this works... I hope this works... I hope this works..." as I'm writing. It's not until the revision and I'm reading and the story rises out of the words that I can tell that it's actually working.

I was in a pretty good mood for a lot of yesterday because of that. There's a bit of a "hot damn, it's working" feeling... which... I swear, Mom, the profanity is justified here. Writing is sometimes like magic that you're afraid if you squeeze it too hard, it'll die. It feels like a tightrope between just enough words doing hard work at description and filling in the spots that need them and not too many words conveying emotions. So, when it works... and you can see and feel what's going on in a story... it's very "hot damn." I got that feeling about two pages into Promises and it was a relief and a bit exhilarating. I didn't want to slow down on reading to do revision. Nobody but me has read it yet, so we'll see if that feeling continues. Still... it works! *shakes you* It works! I'm not a hack! Not today!

So that's how I'm spending my Thursday and some of my birthday. Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Days You Wish Your Characters Were Mutes

I'm mostly kidding.

I'm working on revising Promises of Light and Dark this week (I finished it on Saturday) which means I'm running through Secrets of Skin and Stone to get the voices in my brain for a read-aloud revision this week.

Normally, I can keep little character idiosyncrasies in my head, but having Piper be born and raised in Hidden Creek, Alabama where Gris was raised in Atlanta and has traveled around a lot to large cities... their speech patterns are different. As I mentioned, this book is in first person POV with alternating POV between the two. I have to make sure that Gris's chapters don't sound like Piper's chapters... and they both are consistent through the books. So, I've been going through Secrets of Skin and Stone and creating lists of the commonly used words and words they don't use for each of the characters that have chunks of dialogue. I also have an "all" list which includes all the southern speech quirks that apply to everyone. (Y'all, Ma'am... and so on.) Piper's and Gris's lists are very extensive.

Here is where I am for those two at half-way through the book (I think I've caught most of the major ones, though.):

Gris: Leastways, sweetheart, reckon, course, darn near, right (as in right near, right obvious, right awful, right sorry) fine, likely (instead of probably), alright, ought, clear out, NO fixin’ to, sorta, Great night in the morning, hell-fire, downright, holy hell, heck, anyways, overly much, real vs. really, yeah/sure vs. yes, bike vs. motorcycle, Mmm hmm, smidge, I had a mind, plenty, say so, partly, ‘member vs. remember, figure vs. think, scraping of, huh, skirt the edges of, as all get out, pissy, heap, bent, ornery, wholly vs. completely, just see if I wouldn’t, DOESN’T say though, by any stretch vs. by any means, fierce vs. brave, for darn sure, on account of, get a handle vs. get control, yonder, sides vs. besides, sweet, were something else, best (best stop, best not), holy crap, gotta, such as it is, and then some,

Piper: ‘Cause, though, real vs. really, downright, course, shoot, fixin’ to, flat-out, sorta, Holy frak, messing with, hide nor hair, all sorts of, alright, much of a, ought, sucked eggs, yeah/sure vs. yes, fine then, nah, fault vs. blame (you can’t fault), gotten, every now and again, all that, most often, paid no mind, anyways, nothing short of, fairly, C’mon, if it came right down to it, darn, weird, freak, amazing vs. awesome, Good night!, aggravating vs. annoying, smidge, leastways, particularly, neither vs. either, Heaven knew, heaps vs. loads, sensible, ‘neath, sticks yourself into commands (hush yourself, stop yourself), wrangled vs. wrestled, great green earth, lick of sense, by your leave, Umm, “his fool head off”, “some kind of”, look a treat, “Oh almighty no”, chucked vs. threw, shut my mouth!, tuck away food vs. eat, sorry (sorry tail, sorry fool), seeing as how, get purchase, tore off of, ain’t,

Some of these quirks I'll have remembered or might have worked their way in when I did the read aloud. (Piper's voice is very distinctive and persistent in my brain.) Still, I think it's a useful list and there is no way I'd be able to remember ALL that. I'd forgotten that none of them say "awesome" and you've probably noticed from how I write that I typically use that word a lot.

I've also been doing a cheat sheet of eye colors and random little facts that I know come up in the second book.

I'd planned to shelve Promises of Light and Dark for six months after I'd run it by some betas and my sisters, but Sarah asked to receive a copy to maybe slide by the film agent at the agency. (Having your agent follow your Twitter feed is useful... but also means you can't sneak projects by... which is also probably useful. LOL. I'm learning a lot about the film rights aspect to this business which is fascinating and strange, btw.)

So, I'll be busy for the next two weeks probably with this revision. You can openly mock me for my blog posts which will probably be a cross between my regular speech and Piper's. *head slap*

BTW... creating this list really made me wonder what my own personal speech idiosyncrasies list would look like. I know I say the word "awesome" overly much... and my kids use the word "actually" like it is actually going out of style and I know they got it from me. "Holy crap" would also make my list. My internal dialogue and written thoughts would look much different... that's another thing that's significant when you're writing characters in first person with distinctive dialogue voices... they're not quite the same inside their heads. You drop speech hesitation (umm... hmmm) and decrease their polite speech quirks. Piper is much less polite in her head. I am too, btw. I swear a bit in my head. *hangs head in shame*

So... that's what I'm up to. Revision. Revision. Revision. Voice. Voice. Voice.

I'm still really hoping that my brain doesn't latch onto book three, though. *fingers crossed* As much as I like Hidden Creek... I really want to work on my dystopian before I have to change my dates in the manuscript to make them actually take place IN the future. (Mostly kidding... I think my characters aren't even born for a few years yet, but still... I really want to finish this book!)

Have a good Tuesday, everyone!

What I Love About Hidden Creek

Okay, so I know I complain about the fact that I'm working on the sequel to Secrets of Skin and Stone when I'd planned to be working on my Dystopian. I know I whine about being stuck in Piper and Gris's heads because the southern accent is sometimes so hard... and Piper's OCD thoughts sometimes feel too heavy to work with... but I was lying in bed just now and thinking about how much I love the way these books work.

For those that don't know, both these books are in first person POV which alternates between Piper and Gris. One chapter inside Piper's head... and then one inside Gris's. What I love about this is that I can explain why Gris is about to do something in his POV... and then have him doing it while in Piper's POV and have her completely misinterpret his motives. This also happens vice versa of course. Also, I can have them both trying to figure out other characters and have Piper's thoughts sooooo obviously female and Gris's just the opposite. It feels like, as the Writer/Reader, we are the only ones who know all the secrets. It's very secrety. I love knowing secrets like this.

(Knowing all the secrets is actually one of my favorite parts of being a writer. Seriously. You know them ALL. Well, that and you can make up words and own them. Like "secrety." You all bought that because I'm a writer, huh? *fist bumps readers* )

Looking back, I'm glad I've done the books this way also because when you get a healthy dose of Piper's worries that her OCD makes her a freak... it's balanced with Gris's thoughts about how much he loves her just how she is. I like that. I know other people thought I was okay and loved me when I was a teenager but I was too wrapped up in my own OCD to see that. So, in this way, writing these books continues to be a bit of a catharsis for me. It's okay that I was the way I was. Seeing it through Gris's eyes has really helped me realize the truth of that. Piper's quirky behavior isn't as abhorrent or freaky as she thinks. She's not as obviously dark and broken as she thinks she appears... in fact, she's neither. When you ARE Piper... you can't see that. I wish everyone got a chance to see their character through the eyes of somebody who loves them.

So, there are things that I really love about writing these books and the way they are. I do love Gris's POV more than Piper's... and Piper's POV still sometimes makes me cry, but that's okay too.

Anyway, I'm still hoping to get out of Hidden Creek soon... despite the fact that I'm realizing if there is a second book... there is a third book unless I rewrite how I think this one will end. (Secrets of Skin and Stone was written as a stand alone, but my brain doesn't want to get out of Hidden Creek.) I'm hoping finishing this second book won't catapult me into the third book. I really want to finish off some of these WIPs this summer.

BTW, I've got awesome non-Secrets of Skin and Stone news that I hope to be able to share soon. Sorry for the tease, but even though I like secrets... I like being able to share them even more. (Hence why I'm a writer.)

In the meantime, I need to finish Promises of Light and Dark... hopefully today. *fingers crossed* It'll need a heavy revision for voice and to make sure I've threaded enough description and hints throughout, but the rough draft will be done. Yay! Then, maybe I'll be able to move on to my Dystopian. Double yay! Well... after I do a revision of it. Subdued yay!

High stakes, apple shampoo, grave-robbing, and a glimpse into the occult...

So, I'm still working on Promises of Light and Dark (55, 539 words right now) but I'm holding onto the hope that I may finish it in the next two weeks. It'll need to have a thorough revision before it's shelved for six months to "think about what it's done."

This isn't the first follow-up book in a series I've written, but it's the first book I've written when I hadn't intended initially for it to be a series when I wrote the first book. Writing in a series is different...

First of all there is the continuity issues. I totally forgot the name of one of my minor characters and had to cheat and look it up... then, I changed the scent of Piper's shampoo to strawberry. Luckily, I caught the shampoo thing and fixed it to apple. It's a little thing, but it's not... Gris has associated the scent with her for months.

I'm also trying to remember their dialogue quirks that I've established. For example: Gris never uses the word "though" and he uses the word "because" and "leastways." Piper uses the word "though" and drops the first of "because" and says "cause" and she sometimes slips in a "fixin' to." There are anybody vs. anyone quirks and folks vs. people to remember. Yikes... that's even before you get to their body language. With established characters with a regional dialect... it's a heap of yikes whenever I sit down to write. Their voices have to be consistent... and some of that is just going to have to be fixed in the rewrite.

Then, there is the stakes. In the first book, there was a murder mystery and the constant threat of violence hanging over their head. It's expected that there would be some escalation of what is at stake in a second book. I've escalated the emotional impact of everything because Piper and Gris are now an established couple and I've killed a slew of chickens; I'm about to do some grave-robbing; finally, we've messed around in the occult (thanks to some help from friends on Twitter.) Is it enough?

I just don't know.

Will I have to murder someone?

Maybe.

Last week I went to a book signing with my sister. Jayne Ann Krentz had a new book come out under her Amanda Quick pseudonym. My mom is a huge fan and so I grew up reading her books. For those who don't know much about her, she is a very prolific and established writer. (Her complete book list) She has several series of books set in established worlds with interconnected story lines. I simply can't imagine this. Several people there were HUGE fans and one of them had brought a little list of suggestions for her. Several had comments about her use of characters called "dust bunnies." It was interesting to watch her field questions about her "worlds" and know that writers who write series have that to look forward to. The thought of having to keep track of all that she does... makes my brain explode. Too many balls to juggle.

(BTW, my trip to Seattle did also provide the opportunity to try a Peanut Butter Bacon Burger. (Piper's Special) It was really good. I've conned several people on Twitter into trying one should Sarah sell my book.)

Anyway, so books in a series... are different. Really. And I really should be writing things down. (One of the few things relating to writing that I can't stand... it feels too much like work.)

So, my plans for this week are to continue working on Promises of Light and Dark and hopefully get some house-cleaning done. My kids have been very complicated lately so the house has suffered in a major way. They've made my brain melt. I swear, they have. This week has got to be better than the last two... right? RIGHT?