Adult Ed

It's looking like I'll be teaching a writing adult ed class this fall. I've been pondering the possibilities for a few days, and I think I'm going to go with Write That Novel! (or something close to that, anyway). I'm thinking a 6 week class, meeting a week for two hours a session. There will be handouts and, hopefully, much discussion. :)

I have to clear everything with the coordinator, but this is my current 6-week lesson plan of action! :)

Week 1: Decisions to Make Before You Actually Start to Type

• Writing Isn't Easy, it's WORK
• Creating Dedicated Time and Space to Write
• Nailing down the Concept
• Choose the Right Genre
• Choosing a Workable Yet Sellable Length
• WTF is POV?
• Tense and Tension
• Your Unique Voice
• Daily Word Counts
• Manuscript Format

Week 2, Part 1: How Much Structure Do You Need?

• Building the Framework of Structure
• Winging it vs Pre-Planning
• Types of Outlines and Methods
• The Hero's Journey
• When it's Okay to Go Off Path
• Where to Put Key Events, Inciting Incident, Etc.
• Characters, Part One: Protagonist and Antagonist

Week 2, Part 2: The Opening

• Where Does the Story Start?
• The Opening Sentence, Paragraph, and Page
• Characters, Part Two: The Supporting Cast
• Frontloading Narrative
• Keeping it TIGHT

Week 3: Getting Past the Hump

• The Muddle in the Middle
• Writing And Story Fatigue
• Life Distractions
• Getting Lost While Staying On Track
• How Your Structure Can Help
• Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard

Week 4: Finish That First Draft!

• Keep Pushing, Even if it Sucks
• Ratchet that Tension!
• What Does A Climax Need?
• Denouement, or Letting Go
• Checking Your Story Threads
• What if You Missed Something?
• Set it Aside. Yes, I Mean It.

Week 5: Revision

• The Read Through
• Taking Notes and Making Them Work For You
• Writing Groups and Taking Critique
• Spelling and Grammar Check
• It's Not a Baby, It's A Book
• All Things Serve The Story
• Kill Those Darlings
• Tighten, Tighten, Tighten

Week 6: The Art of Getting Published

• What do YOU Want?
• Traditional, Indi, and Vanity Publication
• Formatting Your Manuscript
• Querying Agents
• How New York Works
• Submissions
• Contracts
• Marketing
• Getting Paid
• Start The Next Book!

That's what I'm thinking. There's a LOT to cram into a 6 week class.

Any thoughts?

For a mere ten dollars

I meet with my writing group twice a month for lunch followed by much gabbing at Borders. We critique each other, support and encourage each other, and do our best to keep each other accountable because, let's face it, we're all mired with life upheaval. Grandkids. Grown children moving back home. Job changes. New romances. Illness and injuries and car trouble and, well, life.

In short, we've been slacking with our writing, all of us so we've devised a plan. Create a writing goal. Hit it, there's no penalty. Miss it, pony up $10 toward a writing retreat.

My goal is 8 more finished chapters of Stain by our next meeting (the end of this month). I'm CHEAP and there's no way I'll have to pay.

No freaking way.

Speaking of Stain, I'm working at integrating the Pavlis Accords and other important events into the narrative, not as flashbacks but as intersecting story. It's coming along really, really well.  :)

Now that February is over...

Let me just say that it sucked. Mightily. With great, heaving amounts of negative-displacement-pressure. 

Like an open airlock into space.

Well, maybe not *that* bad, but still. February sucked.

I don't know if it was the weather, too much caffeine, hormones, or the drastic revisions to M that I struggled to wrap my brain around, but I spent pretty much all of February in a pissy little funk. Sort of depressed. Kind of angry. Incredibly lazy. I watched too much reality TV - things like Worst Cooks in America and Next Great Baker. I napped. I grumbled. I played Spider Solitaire. And that was pretty much it.

I didn't really write anything other than going over and over and OVER M's Chapter !(@*$&@ 7. I didn't really sew anything other than what I had to sew for class - and last week, I didn't even do that. I ate crappy (which didn't help) and barely exercised (also didn't help) and generally just sat on my butt being a grouch.

Last week, though, as February started to wind down, my mood began to lift. A little. I sewed. A little. I wrote. A little. I cooked with vegetables a little. But I was still a grump.

This past weekend was my guild's annual quilting retreat where we quilters invade a lakeside conference site for a three-day weekend of sewing. My roomies were all friends (Deb, Vicki and Jennie) so that was good (other than the lingering terror of sharing living space with others), but I'd never gone before and I don't do well in new situations. I also don't handle crowds well, I'm just too introverted, and I knew there were going to be a lot of people.

Daily, as the retreat approached, I told Bill that I didn't think I was going to go. And he would inform me that I ought to, it was already paid for and, besides, what's the point of trying to make friends (something I'm not particularly good at) if I never go to things where said friends will be? (I think he was looking forward to getting my grumpy self out of the house for a few days, to be perfectly honest.)

I'd decided that I didn't want to inflict my pissiness on the quilt ladies so I gave myself a deadline. If I wasn't in a better mood by that Friday morning, I wasn't going to go. Period. I even warned a few people that I was grumpy and might not come, but everyone insisted that I should because what's the point of a bad mood if you can't share it and, besides, it gave them an excuse to pick on me. Seriously. That's what they said. Come. We'll pick on you. It'll be fun!

Quilters are crazy.

Anyway, on Wednesday, my friend Tanya called to ask if I'd crawled under a rock and died (I'm usually in her quilt shop every couple of days or so to hang out or work or cut fabric or something), so I whined to her on the phone about being cranky and anti-social. Then I went over to her shop and we sat and talked and I bawled a bit about nothing in particular, other than pretty much hating my mood (and my age and my weight and my book and y'all know the drill). And I felt a smidge better. Not much, but some.

Thursday came and my mood had another marginal improvement. Then, me being me, I just had to put my lower back out. Well, actually my gluteus medius & multifidus, er, the upper/side part of my butt and upward. Lemme tell you, pain is not a mood lifter, and I hadn't even done anything! Came downstairs, walked across the living room and whammo! Tambo broke her butt.

Chiropractor helped some, and, at Bill's insistence urging - and armed with ointment and ibuprofen - I went to the retreat. Sitting sucked. Walking sucked. And most everyone felt sorry for me. But everyone was super nice. I hurt, and didn't sleep very well. Saturday I signed up for a massage - had only endured one before and it was, well, meh - but the woman had been fussing a bit over me, she could see I was hurting (and, I swear, Deb, Betty, Bonnie and Janelle conspired against me, offering to loan me the money to pay for the massage and informing me I'd feel WONDERFUL afterwards) so I finally relented.

Never had a full-body deep tissue massage before and she worked on me for about an hour and twenty minutes. Hurt like hell, but afterwards I went and took a nap and SLEPT. After supper I got a lot of sewing done and even managed to finish that rotten Chapter 7. Sunday I felt worlds better (mood and back both) and, today - Monday - I have full movement, only a little ache when I sit too long, and even managed to exercise. Mood is pretty much awesome, too!

So, anyway, that's where I've been. Sitting around being a grouch butt until the quilting ladies talked me into getting massaged and maneuvered back into some semblance of normal.

Now that this long, rambling post is done, I'm off to write for the night's words, and, tomorrow, I'm meeting my writing group in Ames for fun, conversation, and critique. Woohoo!!

Writing Groups and Secret Project M

Okay. So, here's the deal. Yes, I am writing, rather a lot, in fact.

I joined a writers group, a real writers group of published and getting-dang-close writers a month or so ago and we meet every couple of weeks to critique each other and generally have a great time. We four are all ladies of mature temperament (if rather silly at times) and we get along great. We also really encourage each other to craft the best dang words we can. I haven't really been critiqued yet  - I'm in the muddy middle of M and don't want to lose momentum by revisiting my opening bits - but I've talked about the book, dissected and discussed it a lot, and the gals (S, S, and V) have just been freaking awesome.

Have I mentioned that they're awesome?

Anyway, I come home pumped and excited, which in itself is wonderful, and, when I settle in to write, I get lots of lovely words. Lovely, lovely words, and I'm now writing pretty much every day instead of just Tuesdays and Thursdays while The Kid is in class.

M is on Chapter 18 and a hair under 70,000 words (should pass that mark today) and churning right along like a good little machine. My agent loved the proposal I sent him months ago, and, honestly, it's looking like I might get a polished first draft by the end of the year. Seriously. Is that wild or what?

The only problems, if they even are problems, are two little issues. First, it's definitely NOT a Dubric book. It's likely going to be categorized as Women's Fiction. There's no magic, no anything even remotely spec-fic related, and not only is it mundane modern, there's only one POV: the protagonist. I found single POV really difficult at first, but I've kind of settled into it. It definitely works for this story.

Second, I'm writing it under a pseudonym. I have issues, okay? And one of those issues has consistently been the public nature of being a published writer, while I myself am a rather shy homebody who, well, gets a bit freaked out by the aforementioned public nature of things. While some close friends know I'm writing (and all of you blog followers, ha ha) very, VERY few people actually know what the book's called or is about or anything concrete. There are maybe 10 people on the planet who have heard the gist of M, let alone read any, and that's just fine with me. Will it stay that way? I don't know. I guess it comes down to how comfortable I am when the time comes.

But, anyway, I'm having fun writing, for maybe the first time ever, and it's pretty freaking cool. Lars, though, has been banging around my head these past few days after months of silence, so I'm thinking I'll revisit Stain of Corruption while my agent is out trying to sell M and, with luck, I can get it finished up and out as an ebook sometime next spring. No promises, only hopes. There's still a lot of story to tell in the Dubricverse, I just have to get the guts to tell it.