Category Archives: The Dream War Saga

Drafting breaks my brain.

This is my brain while drafting:

I don’t think I’d feel quite so broken and helpless if I knew what was holding me back from writing the last 30,000 words of this book. But I don’t know. Am I trying to force the characters to do something they don’t want to do? Maybe it’s a plothole I haven’t realized is there yet. Whatever the issue, my CPs and my editors can’t fix something that hasn’t been written. My job for the next couple of weeks is to ignore the problems I can’t find and write.

For this draft, I allow myself to write crap. I allow scenes that will probably get rewritten or deleted and dialogue that jumps all over the place and scene breaks that come too soon because I’m just fresh out of steam. I allow this draft to be a disaster because at least when I finish I’ll have a draft. And that’s more than I would have had otherwise.

Wish me luck!

Stuck and unstuck.

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Truck Stuck in the Mud (c) Nico van Diem

Whether or not it’s truly writer’s block, sometimes you get stuck. Maybe you don’t know where you’re going. Maybe the characters are giving you trouble. Maybe you know your characters and where you need to go, but you’re not sure how to get there. Whatever the issue, sometimes you’re looking at your book and curing the idea that brought you to this point. Especially if you’re stuck and one a deadline. Cause, you know, that’s TONS OF FUN.

In case it wasn’t obvious, that’s where I am right now. Stuck and on deadline.

Granted, it’s not a tight deadline yet. I still have wiggle room. I also have a pretty strong lead. Most of the first draft is already done (thankfully), I just have to figure out how to piece the rest of it together. Which is why I love editing so much better than drafting. When I’m editing, I’ve already made it past the worst of these puzzles and the crossroads where I could split off in a thousand different directions. Options are nice, but they can also be paralyzing. Maybe that’s what’s paralyzing me now.

Whatever the problem is, I have to figure it out, push it out of the way, or go around it. I’m diving into the second book in The Dream War Saga again today and I will finish it before deadline. Because I refuse to let it beat me!

Hold me to that, people. Don’t let me slack off!

Cut, chop, snip, slice.

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Scissors Cutting (c) Pam Roth

My project this week? Seeing how much I can cut out of a book. It’s not something I’ve never had to do before, so this is definitely a learning experience. Luckily, I have two incredible editors and a very patient agent who are going to help teach me how to spot the words/phrases/paragraphs/scenes that may have seemed necessary while I wrote it but are actually… not.

This is where holding on to that saying, “Kill your darlings,” comes in handy. Because, think about it. If you put a character or even a word into your book, it becomes a darling in some sense. Cutting them is never easy.

This is one of the MANY reasons it is so important to find people to work with who you trust and whose input you can recognize as valuable even when you start falling into that emotional, defensive hole where everyone is wrong and your book is perfect, damnit! It’s not, but it will get close if you trust the editors and the agent who have taken you under their wing.

Now, I take a deep breath, turn on Track Changes, and hope for some magical fairy to come along and highlight all the things I should cut so I don’t have to think about it…

Sing revision update #7: Round 1 is DONE!

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Champagne Clink (c) Roger Kirby

You guys, yesterday. Yesterday was a day of days! I sent off my first round of edits on Sing, Sweet Nightingale to my editors and my agent! It is done!

Seriously. I finished! It was starting to feel impossible, but I did it. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

After I sent off the email, I read a book. Like, one I hadn’t written! That hasn’t happened in a long time. After that, though… That’s when I started doubting my sanity because I just kept wandering over to my computer and opening up my folder of writing projects and scrolling through it trying to decide what to work on next. And not just next. I wanted to work on something right that second.

Some advice from me, learn how to take a break and celebrate your triumphant moments! Even if you have to force yourself to do it. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself at your computer on a night you should be taking off staring at your next WIP.

As great as my enforced night off was, I’m very excited about the three projects lined up on my To-do list. Just to give you an idea:

One of them is a contemporary I co-wrote with my bestie Lani Woodland. The characters in that book are so adorable just thinking about them makes me happy!

The second project is The Dream War Saga Book 2. It’s already halfway done, but I need to finish it so that it can start going through the same rounds of edits Sing is suffering now! I’m really excited about the way this series is taking shape and I can’t wait to see it fleshed out and finished! Eek!! 😀

The third book on my To-do list will probably have to stay on the back burner a bit longer. While my agent is waiting for revisions on my contemporary with Lani and my editors are waiting for the first draft of TDWS Book 2, there are no expectations on this still untitled project. It’s completely captured my imagination, though. I have it half written and I so want to go back and finish it! Soon. Definitely (hopefully) soon. And, actually, it’s kind of nice to have a project with no deadline in sight.

So, that’s what I will be working on in the meantime. Look for more Sing revision updates when I receive my next edit letter. Hopefully this one will be 1/10th as long as the last one. Probably not, but I can dream, right?

Sing revision update #6

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OMFG. I am *THIS* close to finishing the first round of revisions on Sing, Sweet Nightingale!

THIS CLOSE! Pinch of Sunlight (c) Dani Simmonds

Seriously. That close.

So close, in fact, I almost convinced myself it would be a good idea to give up sleeping last night to finish it. I’m glad I didn’t manage to make myself think that was a good idea (I need sleep or I am an awful person), but now I have to sit at my day job and try NOT to work on my book because I have ALL THE THINGS to do this week at work and it’s not going very well and I feel like I’m going mad because all I want to do is go hide in a Starbucks until the book is done!

*deep breath*

On the plus side, I think I should finish tonight! Then all it needs is a read-through to make sure I didn’t skip anything thinking I would go back to it and then forget… I do that sometimes. And then it goes off into cyberspace to my editors and my agent and OMG! Round one DONE! That will be a freaking milestone of epic proportions and I am thrilled to be almost hitting it!

Do I get to laze about after that? NOPE. I have another set of revisions to work on and Book 2 of The Dream War Saga to finish and a WIP I really, really want to dig back into. And, of course, a day job I have to try to keep myself from getting fired from.

Ahh, the glamorous life of an author!

*dives back into the day job*

Edited to add: (5:27 pm)

AHH OMG IT’S DONE! Read through here I come! Then all that’s left is to send it off! YAY!

Sing revision update #5

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I think the end is ACTUALLY in sight this time.

Last night I managed to work through the chapter where everything collides. Lots of things happen, lots of things need to be dealt with, things, in short, are simply everywhere! Some stuff, as well. But I got through it and now I’m on the other side of the mountain, teetering as I peer into the valley at the bottom of a very sharp decline.

How fast can I wrap everything up? My goal is to have it done by Friday night. I hope. If I do, I get to read This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith, which I forgot I pre-ordered! Yay incentives! If I do that, I might also let myself have a weekend of doing nothing. I haven’t had one of those for a while.

Wish me luck! It’s time to gather up all the threads I laid out during the course of the story and try to tie off as many of them as I can. Not all of them, of course (where’s the fun in that?) but most. 😉

Sing revision update #4

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I am in the home stretch!! Or, at least, I think I am.

Honestly, it’s hard to tell. Every time I think I’m getting close to the finish line, I swear the damn thing moves! It definitely did yesterday. I was sitting there looking at this chapter going, “Am I really close to (insert important moment here)? How’d that happen so fast?”

I stared at it. And stared at it. And the other people in Starbucks must have thought I was completely zoning out because I kept staring at it. Until I finally couldn’t deny the fact that I needed at least one more chapter in between those two points.

I grumbled for a little while and bought myself another drink and then inserted the placeholder for the chapter. Now I just have to go back and actually write it. Which is kind of the important part, I guess.

Without my ridiculously incapacitating illness this past week, I’d probably be done with the revisions by now. But that is not the case. Since I’m back at the day job this week, I’m hoping to be able to finish by the end of the week. I hope. Have to, really, because deadline is approaching and I have other projects that need my attention. Like book 2. And Secret Project # 1. And Secret Project # 2. And all the other things I have going on. I like to keep busy. 🙂

So wish me luck! I’m diving back into the trenches as soon as I get off work today. Hopefully the finish line is done jumping around on me.

Today is the day I start playing catch-up.

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Catch it! (c) Mateusz Stachowski

For the first time all week, I almost feel like my brain is a brain and not a pile of steaming nothing locked inside my head. Excepting a stiff neck, a slight cough, and a runny nose, I’m almost better! Kind of. I did sleep until 10:30 in the morning today, which is really weird for me, but maybe that’s why I’m feeling a little better than I expected.

My day job is closed for Good Friday, so that means I have today, tomorrow, and Sunday to play catch up and revise the rest of Sing, Sweet Nightingale. There’s still a lot of work left and, of course, the chapters yet to be written are the more complex, emotional, conflict-ridden chapters. Well, no one ever said being an author was easy, right? Not like it’s an office job where your work load can be handed off to someone else if you’re sick and a deadline is looming. And I wouldn’t want it to be anyway. But, still, I’m a little worried everything I write this weekend will be complete and utter crap. Although my brain is more awake than it has been the rest of this week, I still wouldn’t say it’s working at full capacity.

So, wish me luck! Into the trenches I go. After, you know, food of some sort. 🙂

Getting back into the swing of things.

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Forest Playpark (c) Colin Brough

After a week away from life, this is my first day back at everything. I got back into my revisions on Sing, Sweet Nightingale over the weekend, but today I’m back at the day job, too. and it’s been a busy, hectic Monday. Definitely a Monday.

Getting back into life after a week in the fantasy land of traveling, cover shoots, cool weather, and family visits has been hard, but it’s something I’m going to have to get used to. Lots of traveling this year and probably even more next year! Letting myself slack off too much before getting back to work isn’t a good idea. Even if it seems like it at the time.

But how do you do it? In theory jumping right back in is great, but actually making your brain cooperate is something else entirely. My recommendation, and what worked for me this weekend, is having a routine. near the end of December, I started writing at Starbucks with my Surface. I would go to the Starbucks around the corner from my house and sit there for hours until they kicked me out or my brain started sending smoke out of my ears. I’ve done it so often since then, that it’s pretty easy for me to get down to work once I get to Starbucks. Unless something is actively distracting me (like someone sitting there talking to me), I’m usually pretty productive at Starbucks. Whether it’s a place, a time, or a soundtrack, setting up your own routine can be incredibly helpful when you’re suddenly coming back to work after days or even weeks away from your words. It doesn’t make going back to the day job any easier, but that’s a completely different problem. 😉

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I’ll check in again later this week. <3

My trip to DC! Or the parts I can tell you about anyway. ;)

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My photographers Jeremy West, Jeffrey West, and Lauren McCall testing out the flash

I can’t tell you much about my cover shoot, but the process was fabulous and I want to make sure I officially thank the entire team responsible for the amazingness of the day. My models were all FANTASTIC, the photography team was totally behind the vision for the series, and my editors were as excited to see everything start coming together as I was. THANK YOU EVERYONE! I will remember this day for the rest of my life and the awesomeness of it all is hard to put into words.

In addition to the day of photo-shooting, I also got to spend a few days visiting with my editors, my family who lives in Maryland, and wandering around DC! By the end of the trip I had more than one person tell me I could come stay with them if I felt like moving and it was SO HARD to pack my bags and come back to Florida. Luckily the weather has been nice in Florida this week (meaning low humidity and tolerable temperatures), so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

I wish I’d taken more pictures of Maryland, but most of the non-photo-shoot pictures I have are from my day sightseeing in DC. To take a look, just click the link below!

I can’t wait to see the cover for Sing, Sweet Nightingale (hopefully by the end of April!) and am so excited to share it with you all (definitely at the end of May!). Check back on the blog for more updates and information as it gets closer to that time! <3

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