Writing a novel – Page 5 – Marie Alice Writes & Reads

To Make A Long Story Short

New Year, New Writing Goal

It’s the beginning of the year 2021. A year of transition, of new hopes.

And a year for finishing some writing projects and starting new adventures.

The writing quest is a never-ending one!

In Short

I geared up. Pen, paper, writing motivation at its best. Ready to planned my writing year and write down my 2021 writing goals.

But one mama writer with a young kiddo at home does not simply sit down and write.

To make a long story short, victim of a hot chocolate mess, pipi mishaps and a felt pen artistic project, the living room couch was drying after a thorough clean up, so I cleared a space on the coffee table, otherwise crowded with art&crafts treasures, grab my rather dull-in-comparison pen and made my first attempt to get to work.

Only to be invaded by a kiddo with a great idea: make a nest for mummy (kiddo watches Peppa Pig a lot), then dress her up for winter… inside.

Since the beginning of the confinement, I’ve learned that the « Mama is trying to work, could you just give me a moment please » argument takes way longer to implement than simply take ten minutes to play.

Plus, I taught, daycare will start again very soon and I’ll have to go back to – everything; day-job, launch the new business blog, finish a YA novel, self-publish another one… alouette!

May as well enjoy the time we’re spending together.

Long story short, yes-yes-yes, I remember. Now, sitting there, surrounded by an over-happy bundle of joy, the one thing left to do was looking out the windows at the neighbor’s bare trees.

Flabbergasting, am I right or am I dang right? But I have point, I swear.

Right there, sitting on my living room floor, I realized that simply do nothing else than taking in the beauty of bare tree branches and the daylight sky, is something I haven’t done in a very, very long while.

Strangely enough, it was like going back in time, when I used to just sit outside at home, looking out a window and daydream the hours away.

I forgot how both peaceful and inspiring it was, to open my heart to the moment.

Kiddos are amazing teachers, aren’t they?

Writing Goals for 2021

Setting writing goals is a must-do for me. This year however, I also have a publishing goal. Aaaaahhhhh!

Indeed yes, this year on my writing quest, I will enter the Self-Published Author Realm. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

It means learning and prepping so many new things. Since I’m easily overwhelmed, planning is an absolute necessity.

I’ll be drafting less and revising way more this year. It still writing

Finish Revising, Editing, Copyproofing the YA paranormal Redstones House (despite the title, it’s written in French), so I can finally send it to traditional publishers (that only took a year and a half.. *sigh*… but it will happen nonetheless!)
Finish re-writing La tour de Norwood. Can you believe it, after all these years working on this project, I’m still not so sure about the title.
Start re-writing the BIG fantasy series that’s been sitting there for almost a decade now. Time to retrousser mes manches and write it. That writing project is a major one for me. Maybe THE major one. I doubt I will ever get myself into such a big writing project again.
But then, who knows what the writing future holds!
Finish drafting a mystery-fantasy-with-a-retro-twist MG novel. This one is super exciting, although it might take several months before I get to work on it since I’m planning to…:
Write and self-published a RomComXmas novel! That’s the big 2021 both writing and publishing and marketing challenge.

It seems like a crazy amount of work. Maybe it is. A lot of these writing projects are well underway. I simply haven’t put in the time required to finish them.

Something I believe I’ll be able to do but for which I’m NOT gonna crazy stressed about. In 2021, my most important writing goal is to have FUN writing.

Dear fellow writers, I’m very grateful that you had take the time to read this post.

May all the good words be with you.

Diary of a Writing Project: Burden of Words

Agatha Christie once said that she « accepted the burden of a profession ». Like it or not, in the writing mood or not, she would sit down and write.
And she would keep writing even though she didn’t like what was happening on the page.

Now, it’s one way to look at what needs to be done to be a professional writer I guess, but one that never cease to haunt me.

Sit down and write, I say to myself almost every day, even if the words are bad, even if you’re constantly interrupted, even if you’re not in 1920 and the world of books has changed a great big fridgin’ deal since then.

However, in the past few weeks, I kind of look down on my writing ambitions. After all, let’s be real, it is in fact crazy to want to earn a living writing novels.

I found myself many, many other things to do. Finding a new day job, chores… the usual excuses.

If I had a word for all that time I’ve waisted making excuses instead of getting to work, the YA paranormal revision would be done!

Hard at Work… Almost

Continuer la lecture

How to Simplify the Written Words? A Writer Impossible-to-Answer Question!

While looking at the computer screen, struggling with my seasonal down-with-the-writing-motivation, trying to get on with revising the YA paranormal project (I think I have a title, hooray!), I wonder.

I wonder about many things. Among them, how to simplify my writing in the first draft. In order to spend less time revising – or so I wish.

Of course, the novels – most of them anyway – we read are polished work. Writer, editor, proofreaders have work on it. It’s as good as it can get.

After I’m done with the revision, more work will have to be done. There’s more revision to come, and proofreading. Hours and hours of proofreading.

End my wondering. How to simplify my writing? Is it a simple matter of writing shorter sentences, or outlining more thoroughly?

The good thing about toying with a Christmas rom-com writing project is I get to try out different writing approach.

I like the pastiche method very much. Putting myself in the shoes of successful authors I like and don’t like, all with very different voices, just to test out the chosen rhythm, words, general treads of the story.

It shakes up my own writing rhythm. It forces me to think more and to get as far as possible from writing comfort zone.

But it’s also a very good way to procrastinate on the revision…

A Good Bad Idea

With the revision, I had a good bad idea. To rush into action second characters. No matter what I tried, it sounded forced. And the writing was baaad.

Back to the original idea, which still need to be re-written, but now, the goal is clearer.

Deleting paragraphs of legitimate bad writing, strangely enough, usually gives my writing motivation a second wind.

Dear fellow writers, I’ll keep you posted.

Once more, thanks for reading the rambling. More than ever, I’m grateful for your time. What a crazy quest writing novels is!

I hope you’re well, healthy and I hope all the good words are with you.

Take care!