L.L. McKinney

By L.L. McKinney

One of the many questions that rise for new writers after they’ve completed their first manuscript deals with conferences. Well, more than one question actually, it’s almost like playing Twenty Questions with yourself. Should I go? Are they worth it? Do I go alone? When am I ready? Which one(s) do I go to? How do I decide with so many options and not so much money? In just a few weeks I’ll be attending my first conference ever. Dreamin’ in Dallas, hosted by the Dallas Area Romance Authors. I’m so excited! I’m going with the writers group Novel Clique and I cannot wait to hit the road.

With my registration submitted and paid for, I’m left with polishing my pitches, shining up my manuscript—synopsis and query included—and making a list so I don’t forget anything when it’s time to start packing. But this is the end of the game and all of those questions from before, and more, have been answered. Let me say playing wasn’t easy, but in the end I’m glad I did.

The first questions I tackled were a pair: Should I go and am I ready. Deciding whether or not I should bother with a conference, and if I was in a position where it would benefit me, sort of went hand in hand. I couldn’t really say yes to one without saying yes to the other, so I decided to make sure I was ready before even looking at conference possibilities. How could I be certain of such a thing? I decided that when I was ready to query I would be ready for a conference. Now that’s just for me, and by no means am I saying that anyone else has to wait until that point in their writing before going to one of these things—there are plenty of things for people mid-manuscript to help them along—but that was the standard I set for myself so I could benefit the most from my experience.

Once I determined I was ready, and that I should indeed try to attend at least one conference, I then had to decide which one I’d attend. That turned out to be both simple and complicated. Simple because I narrowed down the rather long list of possibilities using the genre of my completed manuscript, complicated because there were still a lot of choices, and in the end I could only pick one for my first. While a lot of conferences would be a good fit for an urban fantasy, with hints of paranormal romance, Dreamin’ in Dallas has a really great YA focus. That’s everything Coveted is wrapped up in a pretty bow.

On top of being a good fit for my book, I needed to make sure the conference was a good fit for me, and by doing that I took a loot at who would be presenting, speaking, on panels, etc. Imagine my surprise when I saw that two of the three agents who would be in attendance were on my Wish List! That right there was the clincher. The chance to get an appointment with either of them, and maybe run into both at lunch, in an elevator, a hallway, whatever, was too good to pass up. The seminars and keynote speakers were an excellent draw as well. I did do my research before getting giddy about agent appearances alone, I wanted to go for more than just the appointments, even if they are ridicu-awesome.

The last question listed above deals with whom I would go. Even though I have no problem with attending a conference alone, it’s always more fun—and less nerve wracking—to go with friends or at least meet up with friends once you’re there. I’m blessed enough that I didn’t have to worry about finding someone to go to me. As I mentioned before, I’m going with the writers group Novel Clique. I’ve been attending their First Tuesday sessions, where they open up meetings to new writers every first Tuesday of the month, for some months now and one of those lovely ladies brought in a flyer for Dreamin’ in Dallas. Funny enough, we had already planned to attend a different conference together later on this year, but it turned out that DiD was just too good to pass up, so we shifted gears and mad plans to go to Texas.

Now, the conference later on is still in the works for Novel Clique, and due to finances on my end of things (I’m saving up to do a lot this year and that means I can only attend one conference before the summer) I had to make a choice between the two. In the end I chose for myself, even though it went against the initial plan for attending the other conference. DiD is a much better fit for me and for my book. As April first draws closer with each day I get more and more excited. I just hope I don’t do something silly like forget to pack actual clothes while I’m getting all of my writing materials together…

“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” ~Susan Heller

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

It’s not unusual for a topic in the writing world to catch on and spread like wildfire. People blog about it, then blog about it and finally blog about it some more. Well, it’s my turn and this week at Fiction, from the First Draft Forward I’m going to jump on the “Rejection” bandwagon and present a few viewpoints I’ve seen surface across the web.

First and foremost, rejection is something every writer has to deal with, point blank period. It’s an intimate part of what we’re trying to do—get our work published in some form or fashion—and it rears its ugly head in more than one way. We face rejection from other writers, from BETA readers, from editors, from agents and especially from ourselves.

There’s a popular saying that ‘you are your own worst enemy’ and it is so very true. I know I’ve dumped on myself, and my writing, more than anyone else, and more harshly than anyone else as well. I’ve also heard stories from fellow writers about battling their own downer demons that tell us we’re not good enough and we never will be. Some writers will keep their work hidden for years because they listened to those demons. We just have to face them, and ourselves, knowing our worth and the quality and potential of our writing.

Once self-rejection has been faced and overcome, the confidence to put our work out there rises. More readers means more opinions, good and bad. A negative review can feel like another type of rejection. It can even bring back that doubt from before, and we’ll want to take back everything we did in getting our stuff out there, but we can’t. It’s counterproductive to the goal, after all. If we can play past this stage of the game, the real fun begins.

Now that we’ve survived the critiques, be they from writers groups or online organizations, we’ve grown a thicker skin and an even greater confidence in our craft and ourselves. There’s been editing and revisions galore and the next step is The Big Leagues, querying and contests. Unfortunately, this also means big-time rejection. I’ve sent my letter out to a handful of agents, pitching a story I’ve poured a lot of time, thought, heart and effort into, but I haven’t heard back from any of them. Yet.

Even though I’m hoping for the best I know there is still a chance I’ll receive a rejection letter, probably several. But at this point I also know I can’t let it stop me. I love what I do too much to stay down when I get a virtual punch in the gut. That’s what those rejections feel like, at least to me. Like someone balling up their fist and just letting me have it so hard I hit the ground like a bag of bricks. After taking such abuse, it’s understandable that we’ll want to crawl away and lick our wounds somewhere safe and comfy where we won’t be hurt again, but tucking our writing under a rock is unacceptable. We have to pick ourselves back up, dust off our hurt feelings, put a band-aid on our wounded pride and keep right on going.

Just here recently I entered my manuscript Coveted, formerly Swayed, into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest hosted every year. This is probably the thirty-something-th contest I’ve entered; I stopped counting after twenty-five. Out of all of those entries, I have only won once. Uno. Un. Ichi. One. That’s at least twenty-four gut punches, because losses can be just as devastating as rejection letters. There hasn’t been a winner announced for the ABNA yet, and there won’t be until June, but I’ve learned that I made it through to the second round. If I hadn’t gotten back up twenty-four times, after every loss, I wouldn’t have made it far enough for that single win, which was completely worth the struggle to reach it.

“People's best successes come after their disappointments.”- Henry Ward Beecher

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

So, it’s been a while since the last time we spoke! If articles can count as conversation. I think they can, depending on the subjects breeched. While things were being handled here at Writer’s News Weekly I kept right on writing. A lot of what I covered hovered around NaNoWriMo—since the last post was during the first part of November—and managing to write during one of the busiest times of the year. Busy times equal distractions and all and I wrote about how to remain motivated in between family get-togethers and holiday parties. None of those pieces saw the light of day unless it was reflected off of my laptop screen.

Once things were up and running again, and I was informed articles would be posted once again, I pulled out the handful I already had written and read over them. Not a one could be wholly recycled for use as a standalone outside of that time of year. So I started to wrack my brain about a way to connect then to now without getting all long-winded and repetitive. It didn’t turn out so well until, in the wee hours of the night, an idea thumped me over my head. Use bits and pieces from those articles and sew them together as a sort of “Points to Remember” bit about how to stay motivated. I know it might feel a little disjointed, I mean they are sections of various articles cut and pasted together, but their underlying meaning is the same. Her we go!

If you’ve been working hard on your writing, or projects that surround your writing such as queries or synopses, don’t forget to take five. Five minutes, five hours, five days even. This isn’t the same as a first draft break where you start working on another project while you let the other one marinate. You have to walk away completely. Sever the connection, even if only for a short while. Don’t think about writing, don’t talk about writing, and don’t do any writing. That last one is very important.

Take a moment to unwind. Go on that date, go to that movie, go on vacation! I know someone somewhere is calling me out on points I’ve made in previous articles that thinking about writing is not the same as actually getting some words down, and it’s not. I haven’t changed my mind about the fact that writers write and thinkers think and the two are not one and the same, but there is a distinct point to my suggestion of time away from the pen or keyboard; this is after writing has already been done.

I took my time off because I believe overworking yourself in writing is just as dangerous as taxing yourself with physical task. If you’re working hard at something and don’t take a break you could throw out your back or pull a muscle. The writing bit is much less painful, but you end up in the same place, lying around and getting nothing done. I speak from experience in both points on that one.

After that well deserved break has been taken, don’t dilly-dally in getting back on track. I need to throw in a little heads up if I may. The road back to activity runs a very real risk of seeming like an uphill battle that no one in their right mind would want to tackle. My warning is this: Don’t let walking away stopper your creativity. Having spent some time doing anything but write, it will be tempting to continue doing nothing, but you have to fight that temptation or you risk falling into a slump where you can’t get back up and going again. Those are hard to come out of, believe me, I know. It’s why, every time I take a break, I already have my schedule of writing continuation waiting for me when I get back to my desk. In the end, what brings me back around is my love for the craft. I enjoy what I do and I want to keep doing it.

“I write for the same reason I breathe-because if I didn't, I would die.”- Isaac Asimov

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

Week two for NaNoWriMo is well underway, and I hope everyone is having a good time! Not to mention meeting those daily word counts. As of right now, I’m about one day behind. Actually, a little less than that, but I’m going to use the next stretch of significant free time that crops up to get back on track. It’s not easy, trying to get down 1,667 words a day. And I’m a newbie! This is my first year participating. I’m fairly certain I’ve said that before, but it warrants repeating because it is my newbishness that inspired this week’s blurb.

In deciding to take up the challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month, I had no idea that I signed a contract to make all the mistakes of writing a first draft over again. It’s not that I’ve forgotten what’ve I’ve learned, or that I don’t realize I’m doing something like using passive voice instead of active. Would you believe it if I said that I was falling into first-draft pitfalls on purpose? I know, it sounds crazy, right? Here’s the kicker, during NaNoWriMo, it’s not only expected that writers make rookie goofs, it’s encouraged. Oh the insanity! But it actually makes a lot of sense.

As I’m sure most of you are learning, right along with me as I continue to edit and revise Swayed, that there are a lot of things writers train themselves to indulge in or avoid when writing a first draft. Just simple dos and don’ts that go along with the craft of storytelling. I’ve delved into several of them in past articles, but I’m not going to list them here, because the point of this article is to toss those lists aside. I’m getting to said point, I promise.

Anywho, the more we learn and grow in our profession, the more we add to those lists, all the while not noticing that—if we’re not careful—those lists can eventually become long enough to trip us up. Participating in NaNoWriMo taught me this. With only 30 days to complete a novel, or a significant chunk of one, we’re left with very little time to do anything other than write! Everything else in life: school, family, work, etc aside. Those sentences go flying across the screen at a hundred words a minute (those rare moments when I’m in the zone) and there is positively no time for searching out newbie no-nos. At least not for me, I can’t speak for anyone else.

Oh I see those mistakes, believe me, I just can’t spend any precious minutes on sitting there mulling over a way to get rid of them and still make what I’m trying to say work. I just have to accept that it’s there, that’s enough for right now and move on. Especially if I have any hope of reaching my goal by the end of the month. Not being able to use what little knowledge I’ve garnered from fellow writers and professionals in the industry is driving me bonkers, but I’m managing because I understand a subliminal message this whole exercise is whispering to me. I need to get out of the way of my work and just let it flow.

Okay, for those who may be ready to just throw their hands up at what I just said, relax a little. I’m not saying that everything I’ve written about up till now, what to watch for while writing and editing, what to try to avoid doing during both, is null and void. Oh no. What I am saying is we have to walk a fine line between “just enough” and “too much”. Just enough self-editing as we go along will help us hone that magic eye where we can spot those pitfalls in writing and avoid them, but too much can bring the entire process to a grinding halt. The practice of just letting go this month made me realize that I may have been the cause of several blocks I’ve experienced the past few weeks in my work. In having to toss my writerly guards to the wind—I’ll definitely be picking them up and dusting them off again come December—it opened my eyes to the fact that I’ve tripped over my dos and don’ts lists several times.

For NaNoWriMo, don’t be afraid to throw caution to the wind. It’ll help ground us so we can see when we may be getting a little out of hand when it comes to following the “rules”. Plus, it’s a little fun in a literary devil-may-care sort of way, and it’s one of the only times where it’s okay to backtrack and pick up those old habits we were told to drop. So long as we can put them down again, afterwards. In the end, we’ll still have a first draft we can clean up and polish like all the others, even if it is a bit more dented since we didn’t avoid the potholes. Just get out of the way of the writing, otherwise the next time you trip over those lists and face plant, your work in progress just might run right over you.

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.”-Eva Young

“If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.”-Henry J. Kaiser

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

First off, Happy NaNoWriMo!

To all my fellow writers out there who are undertaking the wacky challenge of writing 50,000 words in just thirty days, I’m right there with you. I’m looking forward to this undertaking, it’ll be my first year and I’m ready for it. I’ve done my research, I’ve made my plot outline—for the most part—and I’m fired up. I’m expecting fantastic days when the story just flows and the words come flying out, but I’m looking for the days I know will come when I just want to give up. No, I’m not being pessimistic, I’m taking preemptive measures. As writers, it’s a given there’s going to be negativity heaped on top of us, from naysayers to our own insecurities. The best thing we can do for ourselves is the last thing most people want to do. Instead of waiting and hoping all of the nasty stuff passes us by, we need to assume it’s going to happen, and plan to get around it.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, I’m not saying anyone should go looking for bad things. When you look for something like that, normally it jumps up and smacks you in the face. Looking and expecting are two different things. Looking for something means seeking it out, expecting it means going about your business, but ready just in case. Those are key words, just in case. And we need to be careful, because negativity is a sly devil. Sometimes it’s active and in your face, like when your computer crashes or someone is less than pleasant about your writing. Sometimes it’s passive and slips in without you realizing it, like the self-doubt that creeps up during editing, or something someone might say to you.

“When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?” That question is bound to pop up at some point when it is announced that you’ve finished your first draft. To most of us who have decided that telling stories is the calling on our lives, this is a silly question with a simple answer; “I never decided to become a writer, I was born a writer”. Oh yes, the cliché fanfare begins, but does that make it any less true? People say they were born to do this or that all the time, born to act, born to dance, born to sing, etc, and no one looks at them funny. Most of the time.

For some reason, being born to write is seen as less plausible than most of the natural gifts out there. People except ‘more’ from those with talent, something they can physically interact with by watching or listening. What I mean by this is, it’s perfectly acceptable—and even expected—for children to want to be Mariah Carey, Michael Jordan, Jeff Gordan or Angelina Jolie when they grow up. Even though the chances of becoming a professional singer, ballplayer, driver or actor are just as slim as making-it-big as a writer, those dreams are respected, for lack of a better term. What’s the last movie you saw where the protagonist had to overcome obstacles and beat the odds to achieve their dream? I bet it had something to do with sports, singing or acting, maybe ever dancing, but writing? Not many movies out there about writers, unless something else is going on in the film.

I’ve touched on the subject of combating negativity in previous articles, about how to be your own cheerleader and the importance of finding like-minded people to interact with, but this goes a little deeper. Be confident in who you are as a writer. The value in your ability is not found in what other people say about your writing, nor in what other people think you are or are not capable of, but in the reasons you know you can do this. And I don’t was this to sound like just another “believe in yourself” speech. There’s a difference between believing and knowing, and I’m saying we need to know who we are as writers. Let me explain.

I cannot remember a single moment in my life where putting pen to paper was not a part of how I defined myself. I’m a writer. I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it a thousand times more. Birds fly, fish swim, I write. That is the natural way of things. Now, everyone who’s reading this, take the time to say something to that affect. Don’t just take in the words on the screen and say them quietly in your head, speak them out loud! You’re a writer, you were before NaNo started, you will be after NaNo’s done, and nothing—not dissapointment in yourself or disappointment expressed by others or anything anyone anywhere has to say—is going to change that.

As a writer--“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."-Oscar Wilde

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

As October slowly draws to a close, autumn kicked into full force. The leaves are turning and the air now has a delightful bite to it. Halloween (my absolute favorite holiday) approaches, bringing with it costumes, candy and harmless tricks. The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer, and the times are changing, quite literally. Soon we’ll all have to set out clocks back by an hour. Change is a good thing, both in life and in literature. I know how horrifying it is at first, but once we embrace it as writers, it can be one of the most powerful tools in that toolbox we discussed last week.

A lot of first time writers are afraid of change. I was no exception. Sure, altering sentences and shifting words around during the editing process was expected, but I figured the bulk of my story would be left in tact throughout everything. It makes me chuckle, sitting here thinking and writing about it. I believed my plot was rock solid, my carefully planned timeline was perfectly laid out, and that I wouldn’t have to make very many alterations at all—aside from the usual grammar and punctuation errors. I couldn’t have been any more wrong. Granted, I could have held to the “original” work and only changed typos and the like, but I went further than that and I’m glad I did. My first draft—correction, my second draft, is so much better than anything I originally had in mind. Granted, I kept to the plot quite whole, but I changed a number of things.

One thing I changed was my protagonist’s name. That took some doing. I know I’m not alone in loving everything about my main character. His strengths, his weaknesses, his fault, everything. And his name was no exception. After all, I had spent weeks coming up with the perfect one. Sadly, it wasn’t as perfect as I believed because I wound up changing it. The new name suits him quite well, too.

Along with my main character’s name, I changed his age. He went from being in his early twenties to being seventeen, and with such an alteration came a shift of character. Mannerisms were dropped and new habits were developed. It’s almost as if he’s a completely new person, and yet not. I can’t explain it any better than that, I’m afraid. I know that’s a rather ambiguous statement, and I apologize, but it’s the truth of the matter. Plus, when I changed my protagonist’s age, I had to change the ages of his closest friends. Three more characters shared in the alterations by proxy.

The characters weren’t the only ones modified, either. The timeline of my story itself was shifted. I had to account for school and absent parents in new ways. Beforehand, everyone was out of school and out of the house. Now, none of my characters have even graduated!

Even after all of this, I can understand if someone out there is going “okay, so you made a few small modifications. None of these is anything major.” I can tell you that changing a name is a very big deal, at least to me, but for those wanting something a little more grand, how about this. Next month is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. For those who do not know, it is during the month of November where thousands of writers from around the world undertake the task of getting down 50,000 words all in the spans of 30 days. The rules are simple, the work to be completed must be a new one with no prior words written. I’ve said it before that the book I’ve chosen to work on is Heritage Blade: Awakening. Yes, I’ve already started on it, and I’m over halfway finished, but I’ve discovered that the current story just isn’t working. The plot is taking it further and further away from what I had envisioned, so I’m going back to the drawing board for NaNoWriMo.

I’m rewriting the entire thing, from start to finish. The only thing that will remain the same is the characters’ names. Not even their relation to one another, for the most part, will stay in tact. This is a huge change. Thousands of words, already typed, set aside. Not thrown out, I’m certain I can make another story out of them, but not this one. This one will be reborn during November, and I honestly cannot wait to get started. This change, the largest one I’ve made by far, is also the best one. In the past I shied away from complete rewrites, but now I embrace them fully. At least this one.

Change is not always pleasant, but it is the only constant in life, and when it extends to literature it is downright beautiful. Stories are stagnant. Once they are finished they simply lie there. They cannot progress on their own, as the words do not press themselves to the page. Change is the only way a story can grow from mere potential to greatness. Change is at the heart of the revision process. Don’t be afraid of it, fellow writers. It can do more wonders for our tales than we ever imagined.

“The great thing about revision is that it's your opportunity to fake being brilliant.”-Will Shetterly

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

I hope everything is going well with the editing and revising of those works in progress. I’m so deep into my own rewrites that I’m up to my eyeballs in red ink. I’m incredibly busy in concerns to my writing, which is a wonderful place to be, and I’m glad we could be there together.

While trying to figure out just what to write about this week, I went fishing through a few handouts I kept from creative writing classes and writing group meetings. I found a list of books every writer should read if not own and was slapped with a great idea for one of the last two articles that will lead into NaNoWriMo. In one of the books on a list, that I’m going to provide, the perfect analogy for writing was given: that writing was just like every other job in the fact that tools are required to get things done. I’m not talking screwdrivers and wrenches; I’m talking words and basic know-how about grammar and the English language.

We’ll be here all week if I go into each and every tool that a writer needs individually, so I’m going to cheat a bit. The list of books I’ve given, which was given to me in turn by a wonderful group of gals known as Novel Clique, provides a detailed description of what it takes to fill a competent writer’s literary toolbox.

• On Writing by Stephen King (I’ve read this one)
• Writing Fiction: A Guide to narrative Craft by Janet Burroway
• The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
• Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas (This one is great)
• The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose, and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maas (Read this one as well)
• Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
• Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
• Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne LaMotte
• On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser
• Hooked by Les Edgerton (A-mazing)
• The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley
• The 4 A.M. Breakthrough by Brian Kiteley
• Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality into Your Writing by Les Edgerton (Also a-mazing)

Every book on this list is phenomenal. I’ve read a handful of them myself, I’m sure those few are easy to spot, and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch so far. These books say so much more than I can even fathom about the fundamentals of writing, and they cover more than I could hope to. They speak on how to stock our toolboxes, and how to use those tools proficiently as well.

Do whatever it takes to get your hands on at least one of these books. If you can’t buy them, get them from the library. There’s no shame in that, it’s exactly what I did. Still do. I recommend starting with Hooked because it talks about how to write a gripping opening that doesn’t disappoint, and that’s where every story starts, right? These books cover what it takes to tell a phenomenal tale, beginning, middle and end, and you will be doing yourself a huge favor—and helping your work out in a big way—by taking a peak. There’s a literary hardware store on each page, and no better place to get the finest tools in the business.

“A successful tool is one that was used to do something undreamt of by its author.” - Stephen C. Johnson

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

This week I’m going to briefly recap all of the things that should have been done as a new writer on the scene, which will lead up to a definite point on what we should be working for in the moment; trying to maintain. What I mean when I said maintain is to keep going, keep writing, keep working. Doing what we do requires a lot of work, and such a huge workload can be really intimidating. So much so that people feel overwhelmed and put it to the side to tackle later. The problem with that is, it might not get picked back up.

The first thing touched on in Fiction, from the First Draft Forward was the need to make time to write, and to read. We all know how important writing is, if we didn’t we wouldn’t choose to do what we do. If writing is important to us, we’ll make time to do it. A lot of people say “it’s not that simple” but I believe it really is. If you want to write, write. For ten minutes, for two hours. Not only is writing important to us, but reading is as well. When a writer reads, they not only get the base enjoyment of a good book, they add to their tools of the trade. Reading shows a righter how things are done, gives examples of what definitely works and keeps the ability to recognize a good story—told by others or themselves—sharp. When a writer reads their genre, it also provides a glimpse of what’s out there, what’s already been done and, in turn, what’s waiting to hit the scene.

Another issue discussed was the need to wait after completing that first draft. Some people like to dive right into editing and revising, but all of the books I’ve read on the editing process (which amount to about 12 so far) have suggested a waiting period between typing that last word and pulling out the little red pens. A few of the books say two weeks, some say six. I myself waited six weeks before I began to work on fixing up Swayed. We’re too close to our writing, so the objective of the waiting is to give yourself time to forget, so you’ll be able to come back to the project with fresh eyes and see the area that need tending to that you just glossed over before.

We took a look at the benefits of joining a writers group and the good it can do for a manuscript. Getting opinions on our writing will always help more than it hurts, so long as they come from a good place. It’ll tell us if that line that cracked us up is really all that funny, or if that leap the protagonist just took was believable. There are different types of writing groups and finding one that fits you individually is important. The last thing you want is to be a part of a group that doesn’t understand how your genre/voice works, so be careful when searching for a home.

Beat writers block was a topic one week, along with various methods used to get those creative juices flowing. Writing Alternate Scenes that may not be in the book, but can put the main character back in your head. Using Prompts or Exercises from prompt books or help books just to get going period. Problem Solving helps by writing down what it is we want to accomplish in the area that has us stuck—telling a secret, introducing a love interest or reacting to bad news—and then mapping out what we want to avoid in writing the scene. Just a few methods suggested to get back to writing.

The deadly deadline took the spotlight as more than something we have to get from agents or editors. We can give ourselves deadlines to finish sections of our works in progress, and even the revisions. Telling yourself that you’re going to have this much done by this date gives you an end goal that has more emphasis on completion than leaving it all up in the air. It’ll help you focus, it’s helped me focus, it’s helped many writers that I know focus. And focus is one of a writer’s best friends.

We took a look at the importance of cheering ourselves on. No one wants to see a book succeed more than the person who wrote it, so we shouldn’t be afraid to hype ourselves up about what we’re doing. Count out the successes you’ve had so far, they don’t have to be successes in the industry, just finishing your first draft is a huge success. You’ve gotten a lot farther than many. Which brings up another point we discussed, manifest that success. Print out your completed manuscript and hold it in your hands. I can say, through my own experience, it boosts your confidence as a writer and more. That’s the story you’ve decided to tell the world, no longer just an idea in your head, but a part of the physical plane. Celebrate! But be careful not to fall off the wagon.

The wagon of maintaining, is what I’m referring to. I threw out a warning not too long ago that this is the time when a lot of us slack off. The work is done, the story is written and now all we have to do is polish. Be careful, it’s much easier to let stuff get in the way of our writing now than it was before we finished that first draft. Editing, rewriting and revising are all a part of the writing process. In fact, some would say they are the most important, because it is during the polishing that the story inside all the gobblygook (yes I just said that) is brought forth and made to shine. This journey is a long and hard one, and we have to remain vigilant with our eyes on the prize so we don’t wander off the main road. I know it’s hard to visualize the destination, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there waiting for us. Maintain the focus, the drive, the persistence, the dream. Just keep going, no matter what looks like it might get in the way. Pick up that pen, power up that computer, and keep at it. Don’t let anything shake you, and no matter what, keep writing whenever you have the chance; a few minutes before work of class, that hour before going to pick the kids up or going to grocery store, the time spent in the doctor’s office waiting room. The beauty about writing is you can pretty much do it anywhere, so stay focused, work hard and maintain.

“It's not the hours you put in your work that count, it's work you put in the hours.” - Sam Ewing

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

I hope everyone is recovering from that unwitting trip into slacker forest, and if you didn’t go down that path, well done! I’m doing a lot better than I was last week. I’ve revised several chapters of Swayed and I’m over halfway through the entire manuscript. I’m working hard, and I hope you are too. I could be a lot further along than I am, but I am in the process of moving into a new house over twenty miles away from my old one, and I’ve yet to establish my quiet zone. That’s what I want to delve into this week, every writer’s need for a corner to crawl into in order to get some work done; that happy place.

My happy place was a workspace I had set up with a desk, several shelves filled with books that I loved, a few inspirational bits hung on the wall, like quotes and the letter I got when Writers News Weekly chose my column. All of that was shoved into one corner of the house that belonged to me and only me, along with one incredibly comfortable chair. I could go there, no matter what time of day, and escape from work, my family, life in general and just write. For hours I’d lose myself, without interruption if I was lucky. It was wonderful. Now I just have to re-establish it in my new home.

An area like this is a necessity, at least for beginning writers. We need to be able to disappear just for a little bit, shut a door and put up a DO NOT DISTURB sign. And once that place has been established, it has to be maintained. What I mean is, when we have that quiet corner for writing, all we should do in that area is write. Nothing else goes on in the happy place, except for activities that have to do with writing. Plot, research, outline, anything goes so long as it has to do with the current work in progress or future projects. No “business”, no paying bills, no compiling grocery lists, to-do lists, balancing checkbooks, none of that. Blogging is allowed, so is critiquing. Reading is also allowed. There should be no phone, landline or cellular. In fact, the only thing that makes noise should be a source of music if that’s something that helps get the creative juices flowing. And no one but the writer is allowed to tread there. That space is doggone near sacred.

It used to be that when I thought of a “happy place”, visions of sugarplums danced in my head. There were unicorns, flowers, fairies, bright colors and all that business. I know, it sort of scared me too. But the place I’m talking about is not imaginary. It’s very real; a physical location at home or out in the world, and what it provides is very real as well. And it doesn’t have to be an office or a workspace. It can be a cushy chair in the basement, a corner table at a bookstore or café, a pillow in the attic, so long as it’s some place you’ve set up as a gateway between this world and the one in your manuscript. We need that, that bridge. At least for now. Maybe that’ll change in the future.

When we reach that place in our careers where we can fall into our minds at the drop of a hat—no matter what’s going on around us—and remain there without life hauling us kicking and screaming back to reality, then we’ve internalized our happy place and the hidey-holes become obsolete. I’m not sure that ever happens, because I’ve yet to hear about a writer who doesn’t have a hideaway, but until it does, create and protect your happy place. No unicorns required.

“Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.” -James Russel Lowell

This week, Writer's Block NZ is hosting a fabulous book give away. She’s got an entry form all ready to go, just fill in the blanks and earn entries! Good luck to everyone who goes for it!

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.

By L.L. McKinney

Okay, so you’ve completed your first draft. You’ve printed it off, held it in your own hands and celebrated your accomplishment. Then you set it aside for a few weeks without cheating and peeking at it from time to time. After that, you took it to writers groups or handed it over to critique partners for some much needed and appreciated feedback as you set into the revision process. Now all that’s left is to fix typos, adjust punctuation and swap out a few words, right? Not really, no, but that’s the perception of a lot of first time writers.

When I first started writing, it was my viewpoint as well. I honestly believed that once I got my first draft done, the “work” was over. At that point all I would have to do was sit back and fix a handful of issues on each page. If I knew then what I knew now I would have laughed myself silly. Rewriting, revising, just about any bit of editing done to a manuscript is equally as hard as the initial writing. I actually think it’s a bit harder because there are a lot more questions involved; why the protagonist did this, why didn’t he go there, why was this allowed to happen, wouldn’t that complication give the story more conflict? On and on and on, there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. Every time I thought I answered one of those questions, two more would crop up in its place, and it kept going like that until I started questioning the validity of my work entirely. There was a glimpse of that crisis in last week’s article.

I can hear some people asking, “Okay, so what’s the point, El?” Sorry about the tangent. Anywho, the point is to not underestimate any part of the process. Writing off editing as easy is a death trap. The instant you start to think that you don’t have to put in too much work, you open yourself to subconsciously slacking off. You write less and less each day, each week, each month. You allow other issues that wouldn’t have stopped you before to get in the way of progress. You don’t hold to those deadlines you set way back when, because you believe that revising is not going to take as much time as you thought. This is a dangerous way to think, and this week I offer up a warning to avoid it altogether. For those who may already be lost in the woods, I offer a way to get back out again. Don’t worry, I’m pretty deep myself.

I didn’t realize just how deep until a few days ago, when I received an email from myself. Actually, I got it from my calendar on my computer where I had set it up to send me a reminder, but I digress. The message contained big bold letters flashing at me that a completely revised version of Swayed was due in a couple weeks. I’m barely past chapter seven in a twenty-three-chapter manuscript and I’ve been editing for almost two months now! Actually, no, I haven’t been. I’ve been meaning to, I’ve been getting around to it now and again, but all in all I’ve just been lazy. And now, I’m facing the consequences.

I’ll have to rush to meet my deadline, which means my work will be of poorer quality and I’ll probably miss issues I would have seen when calm and collected. Or, I’ll have to sacrifice every outing with the girls, every television show I planned to watch, every movie I wanted to see or book I wanted to read to get this done on time. Don’t let it happen to you; or, if it’s already happening, realize it’s not too late to pull yourself and your WIP together. I’m doing it myself. Let’s take out our planners and make the adjustments to our schedules. Apologize to friends and family, and take the verbal thumps that will come with cancellations—though don’t shirk attending weddings or birthdays or things of that nature, I’m talking lunches and dinners and afternoons at the café—because there’s no one else to blame for this but ourselves. In short, reassess yourself and your responsibilities in regards to your manuscript. It’s been said over and over again, no one is going to do this for us.

I know this week’s article is a little on the short side, and I apologize for that, but it’s like I said; I’ve got a deadline to meet and I’ve got to get down to business. Oh, and I put a WARNING sign in front of that slacker’s hole I just climbed up out of. Hopefully, no one else falls in.

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams

L.L. McKinney is a freelance writer, a published poet and a playwright. As an active member of First Tuesdays and YA Lit Chat, she is currently seeking representation for her young adult paranormal urban fantasy, Swayed.