In Case You Haven't Heard...

What's all this exciting stuff going on in Mavenland?! Merchandise, Prizes, an adventure YOU get to make!

That's right, it's the return of the Manuscript Maven CYOA Round-Robin, where every day a new author adds a chapter to a story you choose by voting on your favorite plot twists.

(Click Here to read the 2007 Halloween story, to get an idea of the crazy-hilarious fun just ahead!)

How it Works:
Each new installment will be posted bright and early at 8am EST (5am PST). Be sure to bookmark ManuscriptMavens.com because the voting cutoff is 7pm EST (4pm PST).

How to Win:
Everyone who votes on a plot twist is eligible for a prize! That's right, we're awarding prizes every single day of the adventure. You must vote to win!

What about the Grand Prize?
All MaveFaves who vote every single day of the adventure will be entered into a special Grand Prize Drawing. We will send you the t-shirt of your choice from the brand spanking new Mavenabilia Catalog. Be the first on your cyber-block with a Nitcritty Kitty or Magical Mulch Pile printed on your chest. (But wait! There's more! Check out all 3 sections for the full listing.)

What's the adventure titled?
You decide! As before, on the last day of the adventure, we'll put out a call for titles. Leave as many suggestions as you can dream up in the comments. Winner gets a prize! (Of course!)

What's the starting lineup?

02/01/08
Historical romance writer Colleen Gleason, author of the Gardella Vampire Chronicals.

02/02/08
Jody Wallace writes paranormal comedy, fantasy romance, and Southern women's fiction, including A Spell for Susannah. She has also written several novellas for Red Sage publishing under the pseudonym Ellie Marvel.

02/03/08
Amie Stuart writes erotic romance for Kensington Press and futuristic urban fantasy, including her upcoming book Nailed.

02/04/08
Multi-published author, renowned speaker, and National Reader’s Choice Award Finalist Debra Dixon, author of GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict.

02/05/08
Deanna Lee is the author of numerous print and e-book titles, including Bounty Hunter.

02/06/08
Historical romance writer Karen Lingefelt, author of True Pretenses and past president of the Tampa Area Romance Authors.

02/07/08
Avon FanLit winner and Thursday Maven Lacey Kaye, president and webmistress of Seattle's East Side RWA.

02/08/08
Multi-published author for Steeple Hill Love Inspired, RWA Region 4 director, and RITA Finalist Terri Reed, author of Her Christmas Protector.

02/09/08
Friday Maven Jackie Barbosa writes both historical and contemporary romance with an erotic edge for Cobblestone-Press, including her May release Wickedly Ever After.

02/10/08
Mystery writer Julia Buckley author of The Dark Backward and the Madeline Mann series.

02/11/08
New York Times best-seller Virginia Henley, author of 25 historical romances, including Notorious and Infamous.

02/12/08
Agented, multi-contest finalist, and Monday Maven Erica Ridley, webmistress for the Tampa Area Romance Authors.

02/13/08
Debut Zebra author and Golden Heart Finalist Delilah Marvelle, author of Mistress of Pleasure.

02/14/08
New York Times best-seller C.L. Wilson, author of Lord of the Fading Lands and Lady of Light and Shadows and president of the Tampa Area Romance Authors.

02/15/08
Grand prize drawing and title contest!

Holy crap, that rocks!

Yes, we know. ;-) And you rock too, because your votes are what will make the story happen! Feel free to link to us on your blog or email the Adventure link to your email loops. We'd love it! Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your flock of pet Mynah birds--the more votes, the better the adventure!!

YOUR TURN: Test your Choose Your Own Adventure skills now. The moment you finish reading this post, you're going to:

A) Squee fangirl (or fanboy) about the must-see upcoming Adventure on every blog and email loop I know.

B) Throw out all my old clothing, coffee mugs, beer steins, etc, and replace everything I own with items from the ever-stylish Mavenabilia Catalog.

C) Post my own set of snarky CYOA options to the comment section of this post. Mua ha haaa.

D) All of the above, baby! I'm a MaveFave!!!

As always, the Manuscript Mavens would like to thank Chooseco for graciously letting us borrow the CYOA name. Choose Your Own Adventure is a trademark of Chooseco LLC, Waitsfield, VT. Check them out at cyoa.com. The trademark has been used by permission herein. Thanks, CYOA!

Ooohhh... Pretty....

In case you're wondering what I'm up to, I'm busy slaving away at this...

I welcome feedback!

Writing Weekends Galore

Slammed with client work at the moment, and dreaming of enough free time to read a page or two of research or bang out a character interview. This weekend I'll be going to the Donald Maass retreat, which I'm pretty stoked about. My retreat life has been unbelievable lately. To wit:

01/12:
TARA writers' meeting in Tampa, FL
Erica attends goals workshop
Erica presents website & online marketing workshop

01/18-01/20:
Debra Dixon retreat in Portland, OR
Erica attends GMC, Hero's Journey, and Black Moment workshops
Erica (and Mavens) present storyboarding workshop

01/26:
Donald Maass retreat in Ft. Myers, FL
Erica attends workshops

02/01-02/03:
Michael Hauge retreat in Lido Beach, FL
Erica attends workshops
Erica participates in round robin crit session
Erica does 4am write-a-thons
Erica does early morning writers-on-the-beach exercises
Erica stays up late for movie analyses and networking
Erica's head explodes

YOUR TURN: Whatcha got going on? Your weekends as crazy as mine, whether writing-related or otherwise? How's the WIP?

And so it begins

My pal Carrie Ryan posed a great question about beginnings over at the Manuscript Mavens blog today.

Here are a few of my thoughts about how/where I begin...

I'm a plantser (half plotter, half pantser) who likes to (mostly) plot out the story itself and then (mostly) pants each individual scene.

But even when I tried my hand at outline plotting and notecard plotting, typically the first idea that came to me and got me super-excited to sit down and write ended up being either the opening scene or the core idea of the story.

The story I'm writing now, I storyboarded with 2 of the Manuscript Mavens, but the first idea that sparked the entire story concept for me definitely turned out to be the opening scene.

The last two stories I turned into my agent were more high concept beginnings. I thought, "Hey, what if..." and ran with whatever crazy idea I came up with. Those stories were also storyboarded, but not until after the first draft was completed. (Both required rewrites.)

Even though I'm a storyboarding plantser, I don't necessarily subscribe to the belief that the first idea is a bad idea. I do, however, believe that brainstorming often elicits ideas on better ways to implement that idea and/or fresh new directions to take that exciting initial concept.

YOUR TURN: What about you? Where do you begin? Do you run with the first idea that comes to mind or do you spend time brainstorming, with yourself or others? How often do your beginnings change?

Confession: My love/hate relationship with revision

(x-posted from ManuscriptMavens.com)

Can we chat about my super-secret project? Very few ears have heard a peep about this story, and even fewer eyes have glimpsed any of its pages. Not so for my previous manuscripts, but this WIP is very different in many ways.

Plus, the more excited, challenged, and self-motivated I am to pull it off well, the more I find myself questioning... everything. When I finish a scene, I think to myself, "Well, it was certainly okay..." but who wants okay? Don't I want it to be great? Don't I want anyone who reads the partial to program my cell number on speed dial so they can call me up and gush fan-girl after they finish each chapter?

Well, yeah, of course I want that, right? (Despite the fact that I don't do chapter delineations until the story is complete.)

So, what do you do when there's a self-perceived disconnect between what you want and what it is? Me, I do one of two things when faced with cognitive dissonance. I either a) force myself through to The End (I swear you learn amazing things by finishing what you start) and then shove the MS into the Magical Mulch Pile under my bed, or I b) start tinkering.

Tinkering is very, very dangerous. Yes, you want to edit, to revise, to tweak, to make your WIP the shiniest, most amazing 400 pages of prose on the planet. But not at the cost of losing your ability to move forward.

I completed 30,000 words in 15 (non-consecutive) days. I started the day after Christmas, and by January 11th, was staring 1/3 of my book in the eye. Between January 11th and January 21 (10 days, if anyone's counting) I wrote... zero.

Not because I was being lazy or procrastinating or watching Law & Order instead of my computer screen. But because I went back to Scene 1, Page 1, Line 1, and started questioning myself. Was I sure it opened okay? What about the heroine's voice? What about the voices of everyone around her? What about the setting? Is it too much? Not enough? What about the tone? Is she reacting properly to everyone around her and day-to-day stimuli? Is she over-reacting? How quickly am I evoking reader empathy? Am I evoking reader empathy? ...and so on.

I stopped, dropped, rolled, and over-analyzed pretty much everything. Do I think the story is better? Yes. Do I think I should've done what I did? No. Not yet. I had crazy momentum, and I lost it. I gave up "the zone" to tinker with an opening I'm no doubt going to re-tinker once I hit The End. I could've put my angst on hold for another 60k. And should've.

As of this morning, I've talked myself into writing forward with this book (because already there's new crap I want to tweak in the stuff I just finished tweaking, but NO! Bad Erica!) and I intend to ignore everything I've already written until the finish line is in sight. (Feel free to beat me with wet noodles, machetes, etc, if I lose sight of that goal.)

There's another story I'm thinking about revising that I've even been advised against revising by persons (yes, more than one) whose opinion I trust. Why am I thinking about revising a perfectly fine story? Because I'm CRAZY. Help! Save me from myself!

YOUR TURN: When do you revise? As you go? At the end? Never? How often do you tweak? How deep are your edits? Is there something you wish you revised, but didn't? Is there something you edited until the sight of the prose made you nauseous? Spill! I want to know!

Evil Editor Goes to Church (Lady)

This Thursday, Evil Editor will be at the Church Lady's blog from 9am to 9pm to promote his latest book, Novel Deviations 3. (In case you didn't know, Evil Editor has a running query crapometer on his blog, opening hook snarkage, and submission Q&A.)

Office Madness: Before & After (Part II)

I promised pix of my newly reorganized office, and then I got crazy-busy and haven't completely finished moving/unpacking. As mentioned yesterday, I'm so excited about it that I simply can't wait to share photo evidence of the transformation with you!

Without further ado, viva la transformación of the Wall of Work!

OMG, Erica. Words fail me.

Can you even reach the research books above the top shelf, shorty?

Cube shelves assembled, desktop cut and placed, paint can handy...

It's starting to look like there's an office beneath the junk heap...

OMG! Desk space AND research books right where I can reach them!

Squee! Desk space and floor space. All in the same room! Hurrah!


YOUR TURN: So, are you as proud of me as I am? Can you believe the utter transformation of my office in less than a week's time? Yay, Target storage cubes! Yay, Home Depot slabs of laminated particle board! Yay, brand spanking new office!

Office Madness: Before & After (Part I)

I promised pix of my newly reorganized office, and then I got crazy-busy and haven't completely finished moving/unpacking. However, I'm so excited about it that I simply can't wait to share photo evidence of the transformation with you!

As you may or may not know, I'm a crafty person and giant scrapbooker, so my office has always been dual (triple?) purpose: working/writing, and arts/crafts/scrapbooking. (And to be honest, I use the artsy stuff in my work/writing life, too, when I'm designing or making story boards and collages and other stuff.)

Today, I'd like to show you what I like to call the Wall of Scrap. (Tomorrow will be the Wall of Work--stay tuned!)

How can you scrapbook in that mess?

Why does it have to get worse before it can get better?

Yay! Cube shelves made, table top cut and placed!

Oooh! Look, you can see everything, and find everything. Amazing!

What? There was a couch under all that crap? Huzzah!


YOUR TURN: So, whaddya think so far? An improvement to the Wall of Scrap? Can't wait til tomorrow when I get to show you the Wall of Work!

Workshop Wonderland

(full post over at the Manuscript Mavens blog)

On Saturday, I presented a workshop entitled Websites & Online Marketing to the Tampa Area Romance Authors. I've taught programming and database classes to IT industry professionals, but this was my first time lecturing non-techies on the Dos and Don'ts of website design and internet marketing.

It was both fun and a valuable learning experience. Here's why:

Things that went right
* I prepared beforehand by creating a detailed outline of my subject matter
* I created and printed handouts of a 23-slide Powerpoint presentation to accompany my lecture
* I arrived early, stayed late, and answered questions during breaks
* I had help organizing and collating handouts
* Great turnout (approx. 50 attendees)
* Open forum, listener interaction, ability to take and answer questions mid-lecture

Things that went almost-right
* Not quite enough handouts. Printed 5 more than the estimate and still undershot it. Felt horrible, as I know what it's like to be the person who doesn't get one.
* 95% of all questions asked were covered in the lecture, as prepared. Very few head-slapping moments for me as a presenter, as far as topics for inclusion go.

Things that went a little wrong
* Ceiling fan caught fire (smoke started rolling out) during previous presenter's speech. Oops.
* Dry throat the entire time b/c forgot to bring a water bottle.
* Feet hurt. Stupid to wear heels. Flats next time.
* Due to various snafus, not all attendees remained for the post-workshop prize drawing

Things that went awry
* Due to the amount of material I wanted to cover, my lecture took twice as long as anticipated. Oops.
* Frequently got off track during Part A of my workshop, because I told everyone they could interrupt me with questions at any time... and they did.
* Due to the amount of discussion topics in the board meeting that bisected my lecture, the second half of my lecture began two minutes before the entire day workshop was scheduled to end. Thus, scheduling conflicts made many attendees slip out early over the next hour and a half.
* Yes, I spoke for another hour and a half after the whole thing was supposed to be over. (You can't tell me this shocks you. You've seen the length of my blog posts.)

Things that could've been better
* Improved room layout (or speaker to back up a few steps). Felt like I wasn't making enough eye-contact with people to my immediate left and right of the horseshoe shape.
* Availability of an overhead projecter. This may have helped discussion stay on target, and would definitely have helped anyone who didn't get a handout. And I could've shown live website examples.

YOUR TURN: If you've ever presented a workshop (whether to writers or otherwise), please sound off on what went right or wrong, and what could've gone better. Same if you have ever been a workshop attendee--please give us presenters your suggestions! Oh, and did you vote for the Manuscript Mavens over at the Preditors & Editors' Readers Choice poll? (Oops, how did that shameless self-promo get in there?!)

P.S.
If you went to the workshop(s), please let me know what you liked and didn't like and any suggestions for the future!

Who put 24 hours in my day?!

(X-Posted from Romantic Inks)

I make New Years Resolutions every year. I'm an intrinsically motivated goal-oriented person, so I actually do daily, weekly, monthly goal-setting all year round, but I like the pomp and tradition of New Years Resolutions.

One of mine was to do a low carb diet for 2 weeks. FAIL. I lasted four and a half days. Partly because I'm vegetarian, and the joy of eating unlimited amounts of... well, cheese... paled after 72 hours. But I think the primary reason I failed was because other stuff came up that I wanted even more than less-snug jeans. For example, friends came in from out of state and wanted to go out to dinner. What should I have said, "No, I'll be too busy at home eating low fat string cheese"? Not this girl. Off to Evos we went.

(And besides, the jean thing could be due to the excessive heat of my overly zealous dryer, right? Right???)

Last year, my 2007 New Years Resolutions included "blog once a week" and "do something writing-related every day". (If you read the Manuscript Mavens blog, you already know I have strong feelings on the specificity, quantifiability, realism, and attainability of goals.)

This year, I did not make a comprehensive writerly list. Why? Because, pretty much my goal is: write. Write as much as humanly possible, given the obligatory things one must do each day (like earn enough $$ for the mortgage and trips to the grocery store for something to snack on other than cheese.)

Last year, I had a goal of reading an average of one book a week. I read 95 books. This year, so far I've read... one. Yes, a book. And if I don't meet the book-a-week average, am I going to beat myself up over it? Absolutely not. Why? Because every moment of free time is spent writing. I am not whiling away the evenings watching TV or DVDs. I am not spending my afternoons playing the Sims or Spider Solitaire. I'm writing. And it makes me happy. =)

Now, some of you may be aware of the ill-kept secret that I do plan to take over the world in the near future, and when I do so, I shall be sure to tweak the space/time continuum to allow extra hours for reading and blogging in everyone's day (and teleportation to replace long commutes and cross-country flights). But until then... here's me wishing you all the best in 2008, and may each of the 24 hours in your day be filled with things that make you happy!

Office Under Construction

I will be scarce for a few hours because in between work-work and client meetings, I am completely redoing my office! (I am sooo excited--I've wanted to do this for ages!)

Back as soon as I can with before/after pictures of The Hurricane That Was and The Fabulosity It Became. =)

3 Tips, Hooray!

This week on the Manuscript Mavens blog, the Mavens are running a week of writing tips + life-saving links. I got to write the first 3 tips. To read all three, click here. Only the first two are below...

Erica Tip #1: Every character hits the stage with an agenda

Think about this for a second. Most of us plot out extensive GMCs (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) for our protagonists. Many of us do this for the hero, heroine, and villain. Some of us create both internal and external GMCs for those characters. A few make sure at least a superficial GMC drives secondary characters.

But I say to you, the advice that changed my writing life in 2006 was that every character should hit the stage with an agenda. Every character. If there isn't something they want and a reason they want it, what the hell are they doing in the scene?

Bonus points if other characters' agendas directly alter, deepen, or conflict with your POV character's scene goal! (POV = Point of View, technically perspective if you're writing 3rd person)

Erica Tip #2: How to overcome critique defensiveness

This one changed my life in 2007, and I'll tell you why. I like to write. I write fast. I hit The End fairly quickly, all things being equal. I come up with a zillion ideas, and by the time The End hits, I'm ready to roll on the next one. I have never minded making line-edit level changes to a manuscript, but for the first 3 novels I wrote to completion, the moment I got a brutally honest (and extremely insightful) piece of criticism that undermined the entire plot, I chose to move on rather than rewrite the entire story.

My fourth book was a little different. First, I really liked the story. (For those other three, the crits illustrated to me how flawed the original concept was for plot and/or tone and/or character, and I didn't love the story enough to bother rewriting 100,000 words.) Second, this time the "please rewrite it" suggestion came not from a CP (critique partner) but from... my agent. Yeah. Hmmm.

Realizing she might know a thing or two about what makes a story sell and what makes it divebomb into the flaming fires of Drecklandia, I stared at the story I loved and gorged myself on Ghirardelli while waiting for enthusiasm to strike. (Note to readers: Ghirardelli strikes the tummy, hips, and @ss, not your enthusiasm.)

Here's the bit that changed everything: When I stopped thinking of what I had to do as this complete rewrite of 110,000 words I loved OMG whatever will I do, kill me now, lord, kill me now and started thinking to myself, "You know, it's not that I can't do it. In fact, I bet I can do it. It's a game, a challenge, nothing more than an easy-peasy writing exercise starring characters I know and love and a story world I inhabit when I sleep" that suddenly it became not only doable, but fun.

The next time you'd rather throw yourself on a machete than rewrite a scene, a chapter, or an entire story, remind yourself that you were kick-butt enough to write what you've already got in the first place, and that this is nothing more than a writing exercise you could do with your eyes shut. (Well, if you don't need to see the keyboard to type. But you get me.)

Because the truth of the matter is this: You do not HAVE to incorporate anyone's suggestions. Seriously. Even my agent tempered her edit memo (aka revision letter) with something along the lines of "All these are my suggestions/opinions, whether you do anything with them or not is up to you."

So, knowing that, what's stopping you?

Last month, Maven Darcy gave me a crit of one of my Touched scenes that would require a complete rewrite because it involved changing time/venue/setting. I was like, gaaah, do I really want to do this? (D happened to mention she even liked the current version, just thought it would be stronger another way.) Given that she liked the current version just fine, I wasn't inclined to stop what I was doing and completely rewrite it.

But... would it be stronger the other way? I didn't think so. I was pretty sure it would suck the other way. But I reminded myself that incorporating crits was nothing more than an easy-peasy writing exercise that in no way required the newer version to appear in the final story, meaning there was no reason not to give it a try. So, I tried it out. And Darcy was right. (Damn her.) The new scene was so much better, hardly took any time to redo, and I managed to keep a great attitude throughout.

Try this at home! You'll like it! =)

CLICK HERE to read all 3 tips + fave links!

28 ain't bad

I apparently live in America's 28th most literate city! Go, Tampa!

Top 100 most literate USA cities

Of course, I used to live in number 3 (Cincinnati) which means I've slid down a peg or two...

How about you? Is your home town crammed full of bookstores, or do your neighbors say things like, "Why read? If it's good, it's bound to come out on video."

Suggest a Blogger Feature

Help a blogger out! Go to Blogger's Suggest a New Feature link, scroll down to the text box, and put in a request to have Blogger automatically display future-dated posts marked "publish" at the future date/time. (Rather than immediately.)

WordPress and other blog systems have this feature, and it would rock my world if Blogger did, too. The Blogger team implements suggestions based on popularity, so... tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! Tell your pets! =)

Thanks bunches!!!

E

Hello, 2008!

Hope everyone's 2008 started off with a bang! Mine's starting off with much progress on the new WIP, which I began on 12/26.

S.C. stats as of 1/1
Scenes: 8
Pages: 49
Words: 15k

My goal is to write 1 scene per week day, with weekend days as catch-up days.

How about you? Tell me how you spent New Years Eve, and whether you're already full speed ahead on your Resolutions / goals for 2008!