The Next Big Thing

I was tagged in this weekly bloghop by Annie McMahon and Beth Fred, so here goes....

What is the working title of your work-in-progress?
The Sidewalk's Regrets

Where did the idea come from? 
The initial spark came from a documentary I saw about a musician friend of mine.  Something one of his ex-girlfriends said about him really struck a chord, and by the next day, the whole book had already kind of coalesced in my mind.  Oddly, when I finished writing the book, I watched the film again and couldn't figure out what it was that had meant so much to me on that first viewing.

What actors would you choose to play your characters in a film version?
I really couldn't say.  Because this is a book about rock music, most of the characters were inspired by musicians I know.


Write a one-paragraph summary
Seventeen year old Sacha McLeod has never had time for rock music.  She's far too busy practicing her violin, focused on the next competition or workshop on the horizon.  But when she hears Dylan play the guitar, the energy, violence and unpredictability of the music thrills her and she falls hard for him and his wild, inventive sound.  When her plans for the summer - and her self confidence -  are shattered, she throws everything she holds dear aside to jump at the chance to spend time with Dylan in the city.  She's expecting an idyllic summer, filled with romance, passion and music.  When she finds herself playing second fiddle to Dylan's newly acquired drug habit, she realizes that despite what all the songs say, sometimes love isn't all you need.

How long did the first draft take to write?
I think around six weeks.  The revisions have taken much longer....


What other books would you compare this to, in your genre?
I really don't know.  There are other rock band books out there, like Five Flavors of Dumb, but most of them don't delve quite so deeply into the darkness as this book does.  And underneath it all, this is actually a love story and there's a ton of those out there.  


Who or what inspired you to write this book?
As I mentioned, the documentary I saw.  But also, I've spent most of my adult life around bands.  I'm a passionate music lover and will follow my favorites to the ends of the earth.  My best friend's a rock star.  My partner's a sound engineer.  I've spent hours at gigs and soundchecks and in studios.  I know this world and wanted to write something set within it.

What else about this story might pique the readers’ interest?
There's a kind of love triangle in there, but the third corner isn't just one person, it's several people, and a thing.  How's that for oblique???

I'm tagging for next week:

Lexa Cain
Natasha Hawkins
Viklit
Natalia Jaster

Informal break

Just a quick heads up.  I'm doing NaNo again this year, and because I know from experience how crazy it is, I'm probably not going to blog a lot during November.  I'm not going to say I won't blog, because if anything strikes me as being especially blog-worthy, I will dash off a post.  But I won't be sticking to my every-two-days schedule.

I'm sure everyone's heartbroken about that too....

So who else is doing NaNo?  Tell me about your process.  I'm the crazy one who goes in with a half-assed idea and just starts writing.  I haven't even been thinking a whole lot about this one at all, because I've been scrambling to get through my last few chapters of revision on Sidewalks before I start.  So no outline to speak of.  Just three very different characters.  I can't even decide whether I want to write in first or third person!

Would it be weird to have one POV in first and the other two in third?  I might try it.  That's the awesome thing about NaNo.  You just throw words at the page with abandon.  Most of them will need changing later, but at least you have the clay to mould.

Are you going to take the plunge?

Contractions

I've been doing a bit of beta reading the past few weeks, and one of the things I've noticed in all the manuscripts I've read is the lack of contractions. There's nothing like a present day teen saying "I am going out, Dad.  Do not wait up for me." to drag me out of the story.

Everyone uses contractions when they speak.  If they don't, it's because they are emphasizing something.  When you write dialogue, and even in first person narrative, you need to use contractions or it sounds stilted and unnatural.  And you don't want your characters sounding like robots, right?

At school you were probably taught that in writing, you don't use contractions.  Writing is formal, and you should use the full words.  Yeah, that was probably true in the past, but these days, writing is much looser and freer and voice is everything.  And the voice feels unnatural if you don't use contractions.  Especially in YA.

So don't be afraid to thumb your nose at those teachers you had back in the fifth grade.  Writing 'you're' instead of 'you are' is not going to send you down the slippery slide to writers' hell.

Do you use contractions?

Questions and answers

My friend Jolene Perry posted this Q & A on her blog today and asked that people who read it answer them too.  So here goes....  A mini-interview!  If you like it, please consider yourself tagged and you can  answer the questions on your own blog!  Or in the comments.  Whatever floats your boat....

Do you listen to music while you write? Before you write? Or neither?
It really depends on the book.  Usually not.  Music is always really important to my books and there are always specific songs I reference in them (even if I don't say exactly what they are) but I need to listen to music when I'm not writing.  

Do you work on one project at a time? Or many projects at a time?
I tend to focus on one novel length project at a time.  But I do write short stories sometimes while mid-novel.  I also usually start at least thinking about my next book as soon as I've finished my first draft so I have something to work on while I let the novel rest.  And I usually start writing that new book as I'm finishing up edits on the last one.

Do you know when you've started writing something special? Or do they all feel special?
No.  I don't have a lot of perspective on my own work.  I know when a scene feels amazing as I'm writing it, but I'm never sure anything I write is anything other than ordinary until I've had time away from it.
Are there projects that you couldn't imagine changing anything in the story? And on the opposite of that, are there projects where you could shrug about change and jump in and do it?
No to the first question and yes to the second.  I know my weakness as a writer is in plotting, so I never take anything as being set in stone.  Everything and everyone can always be changed.  That's why I value my crit partners so much - they always know when I need to change things and nudge me in the right direction.

Do titles come easily for you? Or are they more difficult?
Sometimes they're easy, but most of my books spend a long time being called just 'Chris' or 'Casey' or 'Liz' until they find their title.

Did you know you wanted to be a writer when you started your first book?
I think I always secretly wanted to be a writer, but it wasn't a 'real' job so I never admitted it until recently.

Do you think your first book will be published? (I know this is a REALLY rude question to ask someone who is working on their first book ;-)
Absolutely not!  My first book is buried deep in a drawer where it will never see the light of day.  In fact, I should destroy all evidence of it in case I die and someone finds it and publishes it to spite me.  

Are there favorite places in your house where you like to write? Or do you get more work done when you go somewhere else? I tend to get more done if I get out of the house.  I like to write at the library, but unfortunately it's not that practical to go there all that often, so I usually write at home.  My desk is in the dining room which is also a major thoroughfare, so I get interrupted a lot.  Except when I write at 5:30am.


So there you have it!  What about you?

Embarrassing....

I'm one of those annoying people who notices spelling and grammar mistakes everywhere.  My teeth go on edge when I see a sign with a misplaced apostrophe or a blatant spelling error.  Every time I've been to the gym recently I've been confronted by posters someone put up about a lost necklace with great 'centimental' value.  There's no pen in my gym bag, thankfully, so I've been able to resist correcting every one....

So you can imagine my humiliation when I opened the newspaper on Saturday and discovered that in the ad for my cinema, there was a misplaced apostrophe in one of the film titles.

I don't make up the ads, but I do proof them, and I can't believe I didn't see it.  I'm such a stickler about these things.  And then a customer actually talked to me about it too.  Several other cinemas are also showing this film, and apparently everyone had made mistakes in placing the apostrophe on this film title.

You'd better believe that's going to be fixed before any ads go to print this week!

Do spelling or grammar mistakes in public places make you itchy too?

Always the way...

About a week ago I had a short story accepted for publication.  I haven't been sending stories out much in the last year or so because I've been focusing on writing novels instead.  But the theme of this particular journal was a perfect fit for one of my Beach House Stories, so I submitted it.

Yesterday, that same story was requested by another publication I'd sent it to months ago.

Isn't that always the way?  Months and months of rejections or stony silence, then two people want the same piece at the same time!  It's not the first time that's happened to me either.

Ah, well.  At least it's getting published, right?

Too long?

I'm still revising Sidewalks, and based on notes from my CP, today I wrote an entirely new chapter.  This new section is going to need at least another half chapter to bridge to where I need to be, so all up I'm guessing it's going to add another 3-4K to my manuscript.

And it's already around the 85K mark, which is longish for YA, but fairly typical for me.  All my books are around the 85K mark.  I just don't seem capable of writing anything shorter.  I usually have about 65-70K when I finish a first draft, but the revision process always beefs things up.

Is this too long??