Hope Floats August

No, this is not a corny Sandra Bullock movie.

Sometimes the only way to rewrite something is to start from scratch.
Luckily for me, this is not one of those times.

I have gone back to the outline on The Occupant after having received fantastic (and plentiful) notes from my crit readers (Thank you, ladies!), and I am now more closely aware of where the manuscript needs adjustment.

At this point, however, I have no time off this week, a writers conference over the weekend, and then back-to-school paperwork and supplies to obtain - so I'm guessing it won't be until August 22nd (the first day of school) or the 23rd more likely, before I am back to work on a regular basis.

The Occupant will just have to wait until then.  Oh, August.  You are a veritable black hole.

I hope, however, that with this time away, I will be able to gain even more perspective on the next rewrite - which, as far as I can tell - is going to be extensive.

I am aiming to have the second draft completed and ready for agent notes by Christmas.
And who knows, maybe I'll have word on other projects by then.

One can only hope.

3 Views to 14,000 Hits - But Who's Counting?

I'm only 3 views away from 14,000 hits on my blog.
To some, that's chump change.
To me, that's a milestone.

So, not to sound all self-congratulatory and self-centered, but...

YAY me!

Okay, moment over.
Back to self-loathing and self-deprecation.
It suits me better.

Anyway, here's a big THANK YOU to all my blog readers.
It really does mean something to me knowing somebody is getting something out of it.

Love and Stuff,
Anne

Gambling

If you are a child of the 80s you've heard the song, "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers.
I'm not a country music fan (not by a long shot), but my parents were and I've heard this song more times that I can count.

The one good thing about country music, and this is a stretch for me to admit there is one, is that their lyrics tend to have meaning behind them.
I can't say a lot of alternative rock has depth of lyrics, but some of them do, just as some country music does.
Anyway, the particular verse that comes to mind today comes from Mr. Rogers himself.

"You gotta know when to hold them.
Know when to fold them.
Know when to walk away.
And know when to run."

He's talking about cards, of course, but he could also be talking about life, relationships, you name it.

In my case, he's talking about my WIP, The Occupant.

I spent weeks creating a rock solid outline.  Rock solid.
I used bullet points, I used index cards (something I never do), and I plotted that book down to every beat.
The problem with that is now that I've completed the first draft of the book, it's a rock solid draft, except I was so efficient it hitting all the plot points from my rock solid outline I'm about 50 pages short.
That's approximately 15,000 words (more or less) that I need to add.

And in order to do that, I'm going to have to rip this rock solid draft to shreds, and probably start all over again.

Dammit!
Dammit!
Dammit!

Or, maybe I don't but I'm too close to it now in order to see how.
I've got the draft with a few writer friends who can perchance give me some direction but in all honesty I know it's up to me.

Dammit!
Dammit!
Dammit!

So, I'm going to follow Mr. Kenny's advice and walk away, just for a little while.
A week.  Maybe two.
Then I'm hoping when I come back to The Occupant I can look at it with fresh eyes.  Oh, I have no troubles coming up with scenes and plot points to add to the draft, but the freaking outline is so rock solid I have no idea where to put them!

Dammit!
Dammit!
Dammit!

I've been going so hard marketing Shut Up, rewriting The Line, and then writing The Occupant that there hasn't been a week or two that I'm not sitting at my laptop a couple hours a day.
The idea scares me.
How can I just walk away and do nothing when I have so much rewriting to do?

But I must.
I need clarity.
I need a break.

Dammit!
Dammit!
Dammit!

And who is to say after I come back to rewrite The Occupant I will have any clarity and I didn't just waste two weeks of possible writing time?

It's a gamble.

In Depth Author Interview with Anne Tibbets

Please lend your support to a wonderful blogger and my dear friend, writer Heidi Horchler, who was kind enough to interview me, in depth, about my process, my opinions about the self-publishing craze, and about me. :)

Here's the link: http://westceltgypsy.com/2012/07/22/meet-the-writer-anne-tibbets/

Blood on the Wall

I wish I had more time to sit and really think about this, but since it's summer and my writing schedule (as I have been blogging) is sporadic, I haven't had much time to really think about what I'm writing.  In fact, I had a few moments to write yesterday (compliments of a waterfall track on my iPod recommended by writer friends Jessica Brody and Robin Reul) and I managed to get the first draft all the way up to the scary climatic chase which takes place in the "ghost" mystery I've been working on, currently entitled "The Occupant."

But I can tell already I'm in for a massive re-write for Round 2, and here's why:
1) The word count

- As I've preached and preached until I'm blue in the face I don't "believe" in word counts.  I believe that a story has it's own length and I don't understand why all YA books have to be between 50,000 and 90,000 words (or more).  I just don't.  That being said there are many in the professional side of this business who still believe that word counts are necessary and an intricate part of selling a book, so I've got to succumb to this particular dogma even if I think it's hogwash.

Now, the problem is that I'm all the way up to the climatic chase scene and I'm only at page 125.  That's a problem.  This means that there is some massive amounts of flushing out that needs to occur in Round 2 and that as it exists now, Round 1 is just bones and skin - no muscle, no meat, hardly any heart - if you'll forgive the metaphor.  So...

NOTE TO SELF: Add meat.

2) Character choices

- As it stands in the outline, the main character is a hard core teen reporter who is determined to make her mark in her small town so she can graduate and attend NYU where she is sure all the best stories in the world reside, and given this hard core character I've created she makes some rather, well - I don't want to say questionable, because that implies she's shady, when she's not - but she makes some curious choices when she realizes she's being pursued by an astral being and some of my writer friends aren't buying her responses.  BUT, since I haven't really had TIME to sit and read it all the way through to gage whether or not my writer friends are correct (Psst - they probably are!) I have left the draft as is, odd character choices and all.  So...

NOTE TO SELF: Question character choices

3) Spookiness

- I'm not the skittish type.  Even though I don't like spiders, snakes or large bugs I'm not the type to run off screaming when faced with them.  In a crisis I tend to think more clearly than at any other part of my life, and this is a good thing because I've actually saved my daughter's lives (both of them on separate occasions) with my level head.  No joke.  One from drowning in my friend's pool when she was a toddler and the other from choking to death just last year.  I've run into smoke-filled houses to open my elderly neighbor's fireplace flue, and I've faced off with a growling and snapping pit bull.  I've also experienced things in my life which I cannot explain, namely some spooky goings on that have made me question the existence of ghosts.  I'm not saying they are real, but I'm not convinced they aren't.  Now, since I've started writing this book it has come to my attention while writing it that I may have made it only slightly spooky - not all the way spooky because well, I don't spook easily.  I'm going to have to take a serious look at my main character's reactions (see #2 above) and also raise up the spookiness quotient because it's a GHOST STORY - it's supposed to be scary, and I think as it stands now - it's not scary enough.

NOTE TO SELF: Turn up the spooky to scary

SIDE NOTE: When I reached the chapter break where the chase and climatic "battle" is supposed to take place, guess which chapter break it was...Just guess!  Chapter 13.  And I didn't even do that on purpose! Cooool.

Anyway, I know I am getting ahead of myself seen as how the first draft isn't even finished yet, but I can already see the writing on the wall, and since I'm supposed to turn up the spooky to scary, the writing on the wall must be in blood.

Now, it's time to go bleed.

Get Thee to a Nunnery

Oh, Ophelia - if only you'd listened.

I am once again reminded of my summer schedule woes.
Today was errands day - REALLY exciting.
I'm sure you are thanking yourself right now how you took time out of your busy lives to read this blog post to learn that I went to Costco, the Post Office, and to the grocery store.
Yippee-ki-yay!

The good news is, however, is that a writer friend shared with me her "secret weapon" for dealing with a noisy house and not being able to concentrate, it's an MP3 track of a waterfall.
That's it.
Just a waterfall.

It's supposed to work as "white noise" and put your brain in the "Alpha Zone" (which, I think means at optimum thinking capacity).
I'm going to give it a try once I catch up on housework.

I'll consider the MP3 my nunnery...which I take to mean a quiet, serene place where you take vows of silence and work diligently without complaint.

Ahhh.
Sounds like heaven.

Except the part where there's no men, a vow of poverty, and no sex.
That parts a bummer.

"Great" SHUT UP Review!

A "great" review from Abbey Ann's Bookland!

Here's the link: http://abbeyannsbookland.blogspot.com/2012/07/review-shut-up-by-anne-tibbets.html

"A Must Read for Everyone! Grade: A+"

A wonderful review at Books are Wonderful Magic!

Here's the link: http://booksarewonderfulmagic.blogspot.com/2012/07/review-shut-up-by-anne-tibbets.html

Guest Post on 'Rules' in YA That Need to be Tossed

I did a guest post for Literary Coach Erin Reel's website where I go 'off' on three "rules" in YA lit and why we should toss them in the paper shredder - WOOT!

Here's the link:  http://thelitcoach.net/three-ya-rules-and-why-you-should-break-them/

Leave a comment!

The Good, Bad, and the Counting

The good news?
My writer buddies have given me fantastic (and encouraging) notes on the first 8 chapters of my work-in-progress, "The Occupant."

The bad news?
I DON'T HAVE TIME TO FINISH IT!
Argh!!
Summer!  The BANE of my existence!

6 weeks left.
But who's counting?

Review of SHUT UP at Adventures in Biblioland

3 1/2 Stars for SHUT UP at Adventures in Biblioland!
I'll take it!

Here's the review: http://fauvely.blogspot.com/2012/07/book-review-shut-up-anne-tibbets.html

"Shut Up is a MUST READ...!"

What a sweet review!

http://kristenmomof3.xanga.com/765178405/shut-up/

Summer Expectations

I wrote today for the first time in a few ages.
Ahh, the relief!!

True writing - not re-writing - which I find equally satisfying, but not nearly as difficult - but actual new words on paper writing.

The supernatural mystery, the previously untitled Work-In-Progress, now with the [working] title of "The Occupant," has an additional five hundred words that didn't exist yesterday.

It's not a lot.  Only one scene more.
But it's more than I had yesterday, plus a title.

I'd say that's a good summer day's work.

I'm off to celebrate with a marshmallow. :)

"Shut Up" Review at Cat's Thoughts

Another great review of "Shut Up" - this time from Cat's Thoughts.

Here's the link: http://www.thinkingcatblog.com/2012/07/book-review-shut-up.html

Summer Dreams

It's starting...
What I've warned you all about...
That terrible thing that happens to me when I don't write...
I can feel the itch.
It's not intollerable yet.
It's barely a blip.
But it's coming.

The good news is, I have some time set aside this Friday for writing.  I'm not entirely sure what I'll be working on yet - it could be any number of things - but I am hoping it will be enough to scratch the itch before it becomes a full-on rash.

The bad news is, it is only Monday, and Friday feels a long way off.  I might have to start working nights in small increments, perhaps hour sessions.  This is a bit of a shame as I don't usually get really going until the second hour, but I can dream, can't I?