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1.

I have cut some more.

I must stop letting my ideas get in the way of my narrative.* I let this happen too often and it wastes too much time that I could otherwise spend actually writing.

2.

Yesterday, I ambitiously told brian_ohio that I was planning to finish my novella on July 15^th, and start revisions for it on August 1^st.

Now I actually have to do it.

Incidentally, he wrote a hilarious account of how Kaz’s Summer Camp is going, and you can read it here. It comes with Pictures!

* Courtesy of a David Mitchell interview I read today.

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Kaz’s Summer Camp Week #4:

My short story has rapidly expanded to novella length. This will be the first of my many goal revisions. Sigh.

I wrote 3791 words. It would have been 4k, but I junked the last scene because it was not taking me anywhere.

2.

Haven’t written today. Junked that scene. Must do better tomorrow.

3.

Finished cousin’s wedding sampler. One down, and one more to go.

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#agentpay: Why I'd rather pay a reading fee than pay my agent by the hour

Nadia Lee:

If people want to spend their money on sending out query letters that they spent an hour on, it's their prerogative. But it's a thankless job that agents must do, and the probability of them finding something worthy of a partial / full request is pretty slim. So why should agents' clients bear the cost of agents reading unsolicited mails (among other things) by paying higher commissions? It doesn't make any sense.

If reading fees are low (like a buck or so in my example), standard and industry-regulated, then there will be much less potential for abuse.

She’s absolutely right.

And here’s an argument I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else: I like knowing up-front what my commitments will be.

If I have to pay Agent So-and-So $x to query her/him, I can decide beforehand whether I think the chance of getting Agent So-and-So as my agent is worth $x.

But I cannot tell whether the deal My-Agent might get for me is worth the y hours multiplied by her/his hourly rate until the final contract is signed. I also think that an hourly rate is far more subject to abuse than a reading fee.

As I said earlier, a reading fee is up-front. You can do your research, and then decide whether Agent So-and-So rates $x to query. It’s just like paying to enter a lottery. With your research, you have some idea of the likelihood that the agent will/will not take you.

Hours, on the other hand, can be padded easily enough. You’d have to work really hard to figure out whether your agent is padding them or not. It’s not like you can keep an eye on them over their shoulder.

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I suspect plotting is not as good for my writing as I’d like it to be.

I’m working on The Molting – I may change this to The Revolting Story just because – and I’ve realised that the one thing that’s utterly absent from my Hurricane Forever draft is what people are thinking.

I have what they say, what they do. I don’t have the whys, and I don’t have the ‘how they get theres.’

2.

It worries me. Oh I’ve always had scenes that were just dialogue and nothing else.

But I’m pretty sure that the Hurricane Forever draft is nearly 50k of dialogue and nothing else.

3.

Nadia was telling me about book journals the other day.

The idea is that you write a few lines about what you’re working on each day. Ideas you have for the next few scenes. Key things that you are currently working on in  the novel. Stuff like that .

I wasn’t going to do one for The Molting. I planned to trial this with my next novel – not being keen to try this again so soon after the recent failure of January-in-February with journaling. But I felt the urge, and so, why not? If I don’t keep up, that’s okay too. It’s more important that I keep up with my story, after all.

If the only time I journal is today, well, at least I discovered that The Molting is sooperman’s story more than it is sooperwoman’s.

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I used to feel guilty about the fact that I simply didn’t have the same interest in history other fantasists had.

I stole bits and pieces for worldbuilding as I came across them, but I never felt the need to go hunt them out. I read historical romances, but they invariably have Regency settings, a fondness I have courtesy of teenage years spent inhaling the likes of Johanna Lindsey and others.

But the reason is simple: my passion is the future, not the past.

And I shouldn’t feel guilty about it at all.

2.

Farhan Manjoo at Fast Company:

These frosted-glass doors, and similar ones all around the world protecting other caves of Apple thinkers, are emblematic of Apple's fanaticism for secrecy. But those doors are more than mere paranoia. Apple sets its own agenda and tunes out the tech wags -- competitors, industry observers, analysts, bloggers, and journalists like myself -- who constantly spew torrents of advice, huzzahs, and brickbats in its direction. Behind its doors, Apple can ignore us all.

The article offers ten lessons other tech companies can learn from Apple.

I think that the one lesson a writer could learn from Apple is that you need to protect the work.

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1.

I have had enough local anesthesia and painkillers today to fell an elephant. Well, at least a baby elephant – I am a smaller than average human being.

I also now have to have gum surgery sometime in the near future, after which I will be able to say that I’ve had every kind of non-immediately-life-threatening (maybe non-life-threatening too) problem requiring some kind of dental treatment.

Bah.

2.

My mama soothed my pains with 2 new pairs of shoes.

Life is better.

3.

I have decided to rename The Molting to Molting the Revolting* in honor of a certain animal in it.

I am blaming my lack of progress today to the painkillers and anesthesia – see above – but the truth is I am suffering second-day jitters. This is after the initial euphoria of ‘OMG, something new!!!!’and just before ‘OMG, I’m in over my head!!!!’

*I’m kidding, but it does have a certain ring, don’t you think?

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The Mathematics of #agentpay : It's not a 5% increase, it's a 33 1/3 % increase! (tags: writing, publishing, agents, salary)

Writers are often accused of being unable to do math. Writers propagate this belief with claims of ‘I’m a writer and therefore I can’t do math.’

It usually irritates me, but there are days when I think it’s true.

Today is one of them.

A friend sent me a link to Writer Beware:

So what's the answer, for agents and others who think the current system should change? A commission hike is the most obvious solution. During the 1980s and 1990s, US agents raised their commissions from 10% to 15%; it seems to me that an increase to 20% could be undertaken with relatively minimal pain on all sides. This would acknowledge the ways in which agenting has changed and expanded, but wouldn't unfairly burden writers.

Should the agent commission increase to 20%, the author pays the agent 5% more.

But an agent who’s getting 20% commission from all her/his clients is getting 33 1/3 % more overall compared to an agent who gets 15%.

This is the math:

20/15 = 1 1/3

It’s true that agents probably have to do more these days. But that holds for authors as well, and I don’t think we are getting paid any more.

As for the billable-hours suggestion, I do think I’d rather hire an entertainment lawyer to deal with contracts and such. With the deal in hand, it means that I will definitely be getting some money at some point.

Paying your agent by the hour simply does not incentivise your agent to sell your book quickly, or even at all. I suspect, though I cannot say for the sure, that the number of fraudsters will up and quickly should there be such a switch as well.

PS This is cross-posted to all four of my blogs. Feel free to comment anywhere you come across this post.

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Kaz’s Summer Camp Week #3:

I finished my draft zero of Hurricane Forever – not the real title FYI – yesterday.

It is an awful draft. I’m so desperate to fix it that I sent it to two kind souls – Maili and Liz – who can store a copy so I can temporarily delete it off my hard drive. If they decide to peek, it’ll probably make their eyes bleed.

Hmm… Not sure if it’s a good idea to let people have blackmail material. But it is done.

Today, I started the short story, The Molting, that I was planning to write next month. I’m now hoping to finish it by 2^nd of July, as there’ll be wedding madness (thankfully not mine) from 3^rd-11^th of June, entailing flights and gowns and stuff.

2.

Extract:

“You are very difficult, you know.”

“Coming from you? Who hired me to manage you so other people would find you easier to deal with?” 

His mouth dropped open. “What did you just say?”

3.

I already had a draft of the first section – so I’m now just revising what I had as I go along. That’s about 1300 words of revisions, and I’m about ready to take the leap into new material.

I only have new material because I had an epiphany this morning. But I’m pretty sure it can carry me through to the end in one draft, so that’s okay.

4.

I talked to Elise Matthesen, who has kindly given me permission to use some of her beautiful work in The Molting.

I had an epiphany about it. It entails tossing out all the worldbuilding I did for it, but that’s okay.

I suspect it’s not quite fantasy any more though. Or SF, which might be an issue as I was going to use to ‘audition’ OWW.

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Draft

1.

So, I have a draft of Hurricane Forever.

2.

It doesn’t actually feel like an accomplishment.

Right now, all I wanna do is revise it.

And yes, I did finish it less than 24 hours ago. Actually, maybe less than 12 even.

3.

I’m actually itching so badly to revise it that I’ve actually had to send a copy to two wonderful, wonderful friends (@LizUK and @McVane) so I can delete it off my hard drive for the time being.

4.

The thing is, it feels like it’s just the first step. I suppose it IS just the first step. I mean, it’s going to need at least two rounds of revisions before anybody gets to read it.

Or before anybody SHOULD read it. If I send it out before that, I’d be an idiot to let anybody, and I do mean anybody, see what a terrible writer I am.

Now, if only it didn’t give me this Insane urge to revise. NOW.

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1.

And it is done.

I would roll over and go to bed, but I’m not tired.

I didn’t expect to finish quite this quickly though.

But then, I wrote the last sentence and realised that the rest of the planned chapter would be superfluous.

2.

I may actually unpack today.

To prevent myself from attacking Hurricane Forever with a red pen. That would serve no purpose here.

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1.

I hate my novel and I don’t care who knows it.

2.

I have begun procrastinating.

Tomorrow, I expect to finish unpacking.

And by the end of the week, I expect to finish my cousin’s wedding sampler. WAAAAAAAAY ahead of schedule.

3.

It does not help that I am about to be felled by the cold from hell.

I suspect that trying to prevent it from happening with an orange a day and lots of liquids has only put off the Inevitable.  

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1.

At this point, I feel like Hurricane Forever will never ever ever ever end.

God help me.

2.

I hate the weather.

And I’ve never suffered jet lag quite this spectacular.

I’ve slept days for two days in a row now. And when I say days? I mean days. Days as in 12 hour stretches of daylight, as we experience them practically on the Equator.  

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1.

Heading off home.

God I'm tired. Definitely won't be doing any writing on this flight.

2.

To be honest, I'm a little stuck.

But I am pretty sure I have a key called guilt.

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1.

This is my first post at Posterous.

If this works, it should show up at Blogger too.

2.

My update for Kaz’s Summer Camp, Week #2:

I edited about 6k in from a previous draft and wrote about 3700 words too.

I'm a lot closer to the end then I thought I was.

Tonight's the big move. Eek.

3.

Yes, I am leaving Life in the Cold and the Wet behind.

4.

A snippet in honor of above:

She sat up, reached over, and hit him. Hard.

“What do you want?” he growled into the pillow.

“Sex. Conversation. The naked man next to me transforming back into my doting husband. Just to name a few things.”

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1.

This is my first post at Posterous.

If this works, it should show up at Blogger too.

2.

My update for Kaz’s Summer Camp, Week #2:

I edited about 6k in from a previous draft and wrote about 3700 words too.

I'm a lot closer to the end then I thought I was.

Tonight's the big move. Eek.

3.

Yes, I am leaving Life in the Cold and the Wet behind.

4.

A snippet in honor of above:

She sat up, reached over, and hit him. Hard.

“What do you want?” he growled into the pillow.

“Sex. Conversation. The naked man next to me transforming back into my doting husband. Just to name a few things.”

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1.

Terrible weather.

A perfect day for leave taking.

Is it wrong that it was easy? It feels like it shouldn't have been.

2.

I hate packing. I would say that I'm never going to move again, but that would definitely be a lie.

3.

I am on track to finish Hurricane Forever by the end of the month. I'm progressing faster -- plotwise -- than I thought I would.

1.

I thought I should post an update, though there is little to say.

2.

Indeed, I have had little to write, only about a thousand words since Tuesday.

3.

At some point I will need to go back and edit a chunk of words I wrote in WriteWay a few months back, and slot it in.

In fact, I think I'll just do it now, and then go to bed.

It'll bump up my word count by about 11k, but I'm slotting it in primarily for continuity's sake. It fits in chronologically, and I am not yet sure that if any of it will make it into the final version.

ETA: Actually, a lot less than that. About 6k. Some of the scenes, I already rewrote in.

1.

First update for Kaz's Summer Camp.

2.

From Hurricane Forever:

The older man’s face flushed, in renewed anger. “I won’t be your pawn.”
“You already are, and if you do not act, you will only remain a pawn.”

3.

I'm just past the 100 page milestone -- I don't write in manuscript format, but 14pt Corbel spaced 1.15.

Somehow this is more monumental than the 35k I'm nearing.

1.

Still slow going.

2.

Thinking about what I do know about my sooper woman.

And realising that I made her weak.

She is strong because she fights for her beliefs, and her belief is absolute.

3.

Haven't started anything for June yet.

But I want to finish at least an entire row on Mother Maya first.

4.

Incidentally, I'm giving away a copy of Tabitha Suzuma's Forbidden on my other blog.

1.

I'm doing Summer Camp with Karen Mahoney.

My goals are:

At some point, I need to start my Sooper Sekrit Projekt with Nadia Lee. We are sacrificing blood, sweat and time, in order to achieve World Domination. Stay tuned.

June:
Finish Hurricane Forever. About another 20-30k.

July:
Ignore Hurricane Forever.

Pretty sure this will be the most difficult one, but this is the most important goal for July. If I don't complete the others, I guess I'll have had my first real writing vacation in I-don't-know-when.

Write a short story, maybe 10k.
Fiddle with my would-be magnum opus.

August:
Write a synopsis for something. I don't care what, so long it's not Hurricane Forever or my would-be magnum opus. I just want to have something for my underbrain to chew over whilst I revise Hurricane Forever.

You can sign up until June 8th.

2.

I'm at 31k, or so.

A little stuck, but we'll get there.