Jen's Writing Journey

I left a novella of a comment on a blog post yesterday, responding to the question of whether I am a monogamous reader. Again, because of my comment promiscuity, I can’t remember which blog.

I try not to read more than three books at once because I can’t always follow the stories very well–they start to merge after a while.

But the question made me think about writing. Can you write more than one piece at a time? If so, how do you keep everything straight? If not, how do you deal with the fits of inspiration for new stories while you are solidly entrenched in the current one?

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A while back, I posted a comment on a fellow writers’ blog about my thoughts on the use of song lyrics in a work of fiction.

Turns out I was wrong, although my advice to ask a lawyer familiar with intellectual property issues would have led this writer to the correct answer.

My promiscuous attitude toward blog commenting has come back to bite me. I don’t remember which blog I commented on, and I can’t find it in a Google search or by using Backtype.

My hope is that the erstwhile author visits me on a semi-regular basis and will find these links to two posts that discuss the issue of song lyrics in a work of fiction:

Rachelle Gardner’s Potpourri of Questions and Answers

Song Lyrics in Fiction: What Writers Need to Know

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I decided I needed to do something different with my writing, so I decided to try yWriter.

yWriter is a free writing program that organizes your writing by scene and chapter, allowing for easy moves and renumbering.

The interface is a bit hard to get used to, and I will readily admit that I was not yet thinking of my WIP in terms of scenes when I began using the software two weeks ago. I am still in the mode where I am capturing the story as it comes to me. I will be more ready to think about scenes and motivation-reaction units in revisions.

Right now, I’m not sure it is the best choice for my first draft, but I love being able to shift scenes from chapter to chapter. Perhaps if I were not flying by the seat of my pants, I would be more able to relate to yWriter. It seems like a very valuable tool for an author who has a solid outline (or any outline that exists outside of her head).

Some comparable products include Storybook (open source), Story Weaver (commercial), and Dramatica Pro (commercial).

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Here is this week’s batch of writing resources. Happy writing!

Fiction
Talking about Talking
The editors at The Blood Red Pencil give some good tips for ensuring dialogue that sounds authentic but not as boring as the average conversation. Don’t believe me when I sat the average conversation is boring? Record one or two and transcribe them. Then imagine if you were reading that as part of a story. Boring and full of ums and ahs, I will bet.

Essential Elements
What keeps you from putting down a book? Plot? Subject matter? Voice?

Freelancing
How to Budget for Business Taxes
Things are so much easier when your employer takes your taxes out of your paycheck. As writers, though, we are our own bosses. Thus we need to make sure we attend to our taxes each time we get a payment, whether it is for royalties or the the sale of an article.

Estimated Taxes for Freelancers, Part 1
More on taxes. I know, it’s kind of boring, but it’s really important. Here, Allison Boyer covers quarterlies.

What to Do with Unsold Articles
We’ve all got them, those articles that just didn’t work out for a project. Allison Boyer shares some tips for giving those unsold articles a new life.

General Writing Tips and Info
10 Free Things for Writers
Who doesn’t like free stuff? From an ebook and newsletter to free photo and image manipulation.

8 Great Tips for Blogging
Freelance writer Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen synthesizes the Huffington Post’s tips in an easy-to-read primer of effective blogging.

10 Things to Expect from an Agent
A good description of what is reasonable to expect from your agent. For the unreasonable, go to Rachelle’s April Fool’s Day post.

Media News
Bring Back Yellow Journalism
Who would have ever thought we would see that title? In this article, Jack Shafer examines the facts about this much maligned period of inaccurate and falsified news stories and makes a rather compelling argument that some elements of yellow journalism are actually preferable to the often boring, and hard-to-achieve gospel of objectivity.

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Earlier this week, Jessica Faust posted a request for Agentfail stories at the BookEnds, LLC, blog. It was a chance for writers to respond to the #queryfail day on Twitter that many of them had been so horrified by.

Most of the responses were as full of vitriol as these same authors accused #queryfail participants of. But a few nuggets came out of the maelstrom of hurt feelings and repressed anger.

One was a lack of responsiveness. Writers hated that a query doesn’t receive even an auto-response so they would know it had been received. They hated that agents play the no response = rejection card. Even though we all understand that agents (and editors for that matter) are overworked, it can be frustrating not to know when to cut your losses and submit somewhere else.

My questions for you are:

1. How do you know when to cut a submission loose and move to another agent/editor?
2. How do you keep track of submissions so you can maximize your submission cycle?

On a related note, #queryfail 2 is planned for April 17. Check it out on Twitter.

Edited to add: Here’s a link to a post on tracking submissions.

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After hosting Pop Culture Curmudgeon over at WordPress for a month now, and I’m really liking WordPress. I miss some of my Javascript tools, but the built-in stats tools are awesome. Much easier to read than Google Analytics.

I’m feeling the push to move this blog over to WordPress, too. Thoughts?

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I read my first ebook over the weekend, Pride by Rachel Vincent. I used the Kindle app for my iPod Touch, and I thought it was a great experience. Except for one thing.

I stayed up until 4:30 Friday night trying to finish the book. I knew that I was getting close to the end, but I didn’t know exactly how close. I finally gave up and got a few hours of sleep before I had to get up with the dogs. After I got them fed, I settled back in and finished reading. I got to the end of a chapter with a bit of a cliffhanger, and I turned the page. The next page was nothing but copyright info. I’m pretty sure I screamed “No!” in a voice reminiscent of Monica Geller. (I think it was on The One with the Ball, but I’m not sure.)

I had no idea I was on the last page of the book! If you double-tap on the page, you can see how many pages you have left–and boy does it sound weird to be on page 2,500 of 6,578–but that status indicator doesn’t come up every time you turn the page. I felt some of the same horror when I read a paper book and find out that it has a huge appendix at the back, so the story ends sooner than I was expecting.

Other than that though, I enjoyed reading my ebook, and I plan to read more. It didn’t drain my battery, and the backlight didn’t hurt my eyes. I think this ebook thing might work.

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