My Writing Process Blog Tour

It is my turn to post about my writing process! Thanks to Keely Brooke Keith for tagging me to post this week.

Next, for the questions I answered:

1) What am I working on?

I am working on publishing Second Chance next month on July 15. Currently, I am also rewriting a novel called Solid Ground, a story about weather curses that also focuses on many themes found in realistic fiction. As for my editing project, I am working on hand-edits for Chains, a novel about an abusive relationship combined with a love triangle.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

This is difficult for realistic fiction, but I often layer and combine different ideas together in unique ways so as to not tire out a theme. For example, my project Facades combines themes of life and death while incorporating a photography project set in the main characters’ sophomore and junior years of high school. Chains’ combination about an abusive relationship from dual perspectives and its love triangle is unusual, and I enjoyed writing it. Most of my projects involve exploring combinations of events sparked by my imagination.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I write to bring awareness about certain difficulties people go through. For example, I write about abuse in several different forms, divorce, single-parent families, etc. I do this to personally learn how to understand people who go through these situations better, and in the hopes that my readers will learn to better connect with more fellow human beings as well.

4) How does my writing process work?

It looks different every day. For example, some days I wake up in the morning and write the moment I’ve finished brushing my teeth, breakfast in one hand, pen in the other. I normally write by hand, but if I’m doing rewrites I always use my computer, so it depends on what project I want to work on that day. To tell the truth, I could use a better balance between all my projects, but I tend to go with what I feel like that day since I don’t really have any deadlines. Every day, it looks different. Some days I crank out five thousand words, and others I barely manage one hundred. On other days, I don’t write anything at all. It can be difficult to find time to write in between rock climbing, church duties, and school, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Finally, I'm supposed to tag three people to be up next, but I only have one's info currently. I should get it from my other two friends soon and will edit in their info when I have it!

Next:

Anah Spiers

In her non-superhero life, Anah is a student at the University of Northern Colorado, studying semi-hard as an English major with a minor in writing. Although she’s always liked English, she never really considered writing outside of class until high school. Once she joined the seedy world of online writing websites she discovered her true passion: writing fiction.

Ever since then, Anah’s been writing about hot guys, monsters, and all-types of apocalypses. Her favorite genres are dystopia, paranormal, and futuristic fantasy.

While she’s never finished a novel, she completed various short stories. Her short story, Dusk Light was picked as the winner of The Dark Unwinding Contest by Sharon Cameron on figment.com.

Anah is an editor and graphic designer for The Crucible, the student literary and arts magazine on her campus, as well as a blogger for the writing website, Hexbound. When she’s not sitting in class or making flyers, Anah is preparing vigilantly for the zombie/alien apocalypse, composing music, playing viola, and attempting to learn how to art.

Truth Thursday: Book Finishing Blues

There comes a time in the writing of a book where an author finally finishes writing the last words of a novel, sits back, and stares at the page (or screen, depending on what medium was used) and realizes: "Wow. I just finished writing a novel."
I'm personally not an extremely excitable person. I feign excitement a lot, but only if I'm around other people. If I'm sitting by myself staring at my computer screen, then I don't get excited at all. I continue doing whatever work needs to get done without getting excited. When I got the email offering me a publication contract, I was so nonchalant about it that probably no one guessed I had just gotten one of the most important emails of my life.
The same feelings sat with me as I finished the rewrite of Solid Ground. This book has been with me for so long. Almost 7 years ago in fall of 2007, I began writing about Vivie, her family, and her friends. The journey continued until my freshman year in high school, April 2009. Eight books and many dead pens later, the series was finished. I moved on and began writing other projects. But in 2012, I decided that there was a lot of potential in the series of books I had finished. Yes, a lot of material would need to be thrown away, but much of it could also be reused. So that was how I began rewriting Solid Ground from scratch. Two days ago, I finished the rewrite, which is about two years of work on this project. It was strange, because I didn't really feel anything. I just sat and stared at my screen with several thoughts running through my head.

Truth Thursday: This Annoying Dilemma

Now that I've signed a contract and I have a publishing company backing my novel Second Chance, the natural thing to do after publishing book is to publish a second one. There's just one problem. I have a bunch of drafts lying around, and no idea which one I want to experiment with next.

So, since I have conveniently managed to write mock query letters for these projects, why don't you guys help me pick?

Truth Thursday: It's Hard to Focus

When I say it's hard to focus, I mean it in two different ways. For one, it's hard to concentrate when actually writing material. For another, it's hard to focus on just one project. There's always so much to work on and so much to do.

At the beginning of the year, I was working on editing Second Chance, which must have worked, because now it's getting published. I have also been working on its companion novel, Impact. But I got distracted and continued some work on a project I started in 2012 temporarily titled Redemption, not to mention editing a novel I finished in 2012 titled Chains, rewriting a novel I finished writing in middle school titled Solid Ground, and writing the sequel to a novel I finished in 2011 titled Transparent.

As one might imagine, by trying to focus on all of these things, I've gotten none of them done. Impact should be a bigger priority because it's the companion novel to something that's getting published very soon. But I'm being pulled in so many directions because I don't want to lose my ability to create new material, and I don't want to lose my ability to edit well. I want to exercise all parts of my brain, but it's very difficult to juggle. I don't exactly like carrying around 2 binders and 3 notebooks everywhere I go. For one, it's heavy to do so, and for another, it's difficult to actually get something completed due to this problem.

So what did I do? I didn't write for a little bit because even though I love writing, it really can become a stressful activity sometimes. I dipped my toes back in the water this week editing Chains during some down time and writing a little more of Solid Ground. Taking breaks from editing usually isn't a big problem, but taking a break from writing or rewriting something is, especially when a huge chunk of material has already been written. When the motivation to write comes, first I reread everything I've already written to make sure I don't write any inconsistencies or double-up on similar events. But by the time I do that, sometimes I've run out of steam to actually write the piece. This is incredibly frustrating and is holding me back from finishing manuscripts. So what is a girl to do?

To be honest, I haven't figured that out yet. But I thought I would mention this is a problem because I know many other authors have to deal with it as well. So, how truthful is this post? Do you deal with similar situations when you write, or have you heard of writer friends who have the same issues?

Wacky Wednesday: Edit Minion

Edit Minion is a resource for cleaning up writing in terms of looking for repeated words, phrases, and even things that may come off as cliche. For example, I asked Edit Minion to help clean up the first chapter of my novel, Facades, and received this screenshot.

(Yes, "toilet" made it onto the list.)

As needed, the user can ask Edit Minion to look for certain things such as possible homonym issues, passive voice, adverbs, weak words, etc. An example of what that looks like in my own writing is below.

Personally, I find the color coding really helpful, and I'm definitely going to be using Edit Minion for final cleaning up before publication! I definitely recommend it. It's a wonderful resource. Nothing is saved on the website, so it's safe for use without copyright infringement worries!

And, as proof that I have improved as a writer, I dug out some writing from when I was 13 and stuck it into Edit Minion. Excuse me while I cringe.

I would say that Edit Minion accurately reflects how much I've put into a project and refined it, so why not use it to your own advantage? It'll really clean up your work, and you'll feel happier once you play around with it as well.

Happy writing, everyone!