My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amediting #NCIS

Well, I finally did it. Between the packing and insomnia and just general blahs, I’ve hurt my back. When I twist it funny, I usually turn introspective and think about what I should be, could be and want to be doing. Anything other than the pain.

But writing can be a painful experience not unlike a back ache and it makes me wonder why so many people continue if it is that painful. Sure, getting the voices out of your head and on screen or paper is the best way to come to grips with the writer in you but if it’s downright painful…nah…I don’t get it.

Yeah, I get the part that the plot needs to be just so and that the grammar Nazis might be out to get you. Yes, you want everything perfect but at what price? Yes, writing is my life but my life is rich and full and so much more than I ever expected when I was twelve and started on this journey. I’ve also learned nothing is perfect as perfection is an illusion slung by those who feel they are perfect. Pity them as they miss out on so much with their search and illusion of perfection. I repeat, nothing is perfect. Right now, the height of perfection to me is getting the words down on that screen during this chaotic period in my life. Editing will come later. Submission will come later as will publication.

So no, I don’t see these down times as bad per se but more enlightening. If I’m not writing or sitting in my chair every waking moment, I’m studying through a variety of online classes, movies and TV series. With my current back ache, I can’t stand to be in bed too long as it makes my back hurt more but I can’t walk much either. There are some times when I can’t sit up for long periods and all I can do is be in bed. I’m happy that this time I’m up more than I’m down.

The one thing I can’t control however is my wandering mind. Pain does that to me and the main thing it hurts is my focus. And in writing, focus is everything. One must focus on their story in order to get it down and as correct as possible. One must love their story and nurture it from cradle to grave and beyond. It is why writers’ write.

When focus is just beyond my reach, I don’t let my mind flounder and figure out ways to make me miserable, yes writers have that wonderful knack for doing just that. I find ways to expand my mind. And like many writers, I binge on TV series. For the last few months, whenever I’ve had insomnia, I watched NCIS from the start to the current season.

And all I can say is wow. Wow because I can’t believe I missed an awesome series all these years but watching those character arcs as well as the storylines themselves is a chance to learn about characterization. The setting is pretty much the same and there are very few episodes when it comes into play. When it does, it changes the whole schematic of the series but I digress.

Watching the characters’ grow is something I can’t always get from a writing craft book as I’m a visual person. See things on the screen and suddenly, I get some portion of character building that I didn’t get before. It helps me on so many different levels as my books are all about the characters. Sure setting and plot are there too but they all enhance the characters. Having character driven plots is brought home in a weekly series. Alas, now I have to find another series I can learn something from to watch.

I forgot my love of TV being here in Europe for the past 5 years. My husband could never understand why I liked to watch TV and while here, I got why he didn’t so even though we have cable, it’s rarely watched and just part of my internet package. However, over here, I realized that by not watching TV, I’m not as creative as I once was and that bums me out horribly. I think I’ve always known that as I love to go to the movies, have a DVR night at home with my youngest who’s an actor and all those things that stimulated me.

I’ve always said that you can find an idea anywhere and it’s so very true. I still can take a walk, come back and write down at least three to five ideas for a story. Years ago, I would have taken at least half of them to develop. Now, I’m lucky if I find one that makes me see the story when it takes me. And it’s all because I haven’t been poked and prodded through outside stimuli as before.

If nothing else, that is what I’m looking forward to…a rousing time with my writer friends, family and more…as well as being back fully on the writer’s train. Imperfections and all. And I’ll remember this year, it will be all about me and my writing. See you all next week. Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amediting

I had a migraine yesterday and my head felt like it was going to explode. It’s been years since I’ve had my last one but since I’ve been extra stressed these last few weeks, I guess it all caught up with me. Add to that a whole slew of hot flashes, which I haven’t had in a long time either, and my body was just done.

So I decided right in the middle of all my head throbbing that I needed to concentrate on all the good things going on. Yes, there are stressful things happening in my life but none of them are bad. I’ve been stressed for coordinating a cross-country trip from Washington DC to home. Now, this is something that I’ve been waiting for a long time and it shouldn’t stress me out at all.

No, it should make me happy that I’m going to see relatives that I haven’t seen in years. We need those times to bond with family and that is nothing to stress about. Sure, it’s hard to pin down my husband and get him to make decisions. But I can try to make some preliminary decisions and present the package to him. And while I don’t like to be in charge of everything, I can handle it for a little while before I throw in the towel. If nothing else, I will know that things have been done correctly and not haphazardly thrown together just to get them done.

I see my writing like that. I write fast and sometimes, I wish I wrote slow, really slow. I’ll be honest, I have slowed down from what I used to do. I try to put it down on the screen correctly just once. But sometimes my head and my hands get ahead of what I have planned and it is more like a data dump yet better formed. On my very best day ever, I wrote over 13k words and then I couldn’t do much for a while.

Yeah, I used to be the data dump queen, at least in my mind, and I couldn’t understand why things weren’t flowing like they should. So I do know that I’ve become better over the years. And to be honest, I love writing fast. I mean if I didn’t, I would not have completed 50k in January and that’s what I did. Sure, like I’ve said before, I know that a whole lot of editing will be going on but at least it’s down and on the page.

I really am a big believer of the Nora Roberts’ philosophy of ‘I can’t fix a blank page.’ It is the one motto that every writer needs to take to heart. None of us can fix it if it isn’t down to fix. None of us can get better if we don’t try again and again and again. And it doesn’t matter what you are trying. It could be life, it could be baseball or rugby or it can be writing. Doing makes perfect and putting it on the page is doing.

I guess my thought for this week is that one needs to do, no matter in what, in order to accomplish what one wants. And believe me, I’ve waited a long, long time for my writing career to take off.

This year, it will be all about me and my writing. See you all next week. Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amediting #amstressed

I have been in writer’s hell. And no, it isn’t about the writing either.

We finally get to go home and while it’s sad for my husband, I’m in heaven in so many ways. Now don’t get me wrong as I am sad to be leaving my fabulous flat with the horrid location and the many friends I’ve finally made here. For me, it means that I can finally concentrate on my career with my goals.

See, when I’m in the States, I can do that easily as there is very little time I have to spend on my husband’s things. Here, it’s been all about him and while he doesn’t see it that way, it’s just the way it is. I’ve had to deal with things over here that I would have never had to deal about at home.

I mean, I don’t have to file health insurance claims because those are all done automatically in the US. Here, because we have private insurance, it has been my job to get all those things together and file them. Here, I have to remind the husband to not forget our train tickets so we can get around. At home, if I use his car, I fill it up with gas and we’re good.

There are so many no-brainer things that must be done here that it’s driven me crazy the whole time we’ve lived here. I’m constantly sending the DH lists on what to get at the commissary. Or remind him that we need things from the pharmacy. At home, I can just go pick them up myself. Here there is a total reliance on each other to do what the other asks that it can be…well…disconcerting. I hate being separated by the language thing and though many would say that it’s my fault, I was already learning a language when I arrived and didn’t want to add to that confusion.

So, we’re finally getting ready to go home and I have deadlines I need to meet before we leave. I am also the coordinator of all things travel, this includes coming up with the ways to get between places as well as lodging that can include a pet and other considerations. Again, not that it’s rocket science or anything but I already had my own deadlines and now I have our deadlines. And our deadlines have put me into a writer’s hell.

Why you may ask. Well…first, it makes me stressed and I’m not sleeping…then I’m thinking too much of all the things that can go wrong. Yes, yes, I know I can do it all but it has just hyped my stress level out of this world.

However, that being said, I am also finding my solace in writing. Meaning, I’m producing a lot and some of it isn’t as good as I want it to be. I guess I’ll be editing lots more.

But that’s okay…at least I’m writing.

See you all next week. Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amediting #brainstorming

This week has been a joyous week in my writer kingdom.

I am going on a writing journey. No, seriously, I’m flying to Spain tomorrow to spend a week with one of my writing besties, Nina Croft. Drop by and see this author’s amazing books by just clicking her name. You’ll go to her website and see some pictures of where I’m staying. I’ll be on her almond farm a whole week.

We plan to sprint, write, brainstorm and do all those wonderful things that writers do when they get together. It will be amazing and awesome and just downright fun. I’m getting more excited as I type this. And yeah, this is being done early as in early Saturday morning because I leave Vienna at 8:50 am. Check my Facebook Page to see what I’m up to in the writing department. I guarantee that I will be posting a few things here and there.

As if my trip weren’t enough…remember last week when I submitted a proposal to my agent? I said that I was hopeful because it was one of my favorite stories. All right, I might not have said it exactly that way but that’s what I meant. And you know what? That enthusiasm paid off as that’s the next series my agent wants me to pursue. I know you can’t see me but I’m truly jumping for joy. This is so awesome! You have no idea just how much I love that story.

But now the hard work comes in. I have to finish polishing the first novel and believe me, it’s not going to be an easy task. I’d been working on it off and on for a few years. Part of the issue is that I made up a language and then realized I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. At least I tried. Then I realized that I needed to take a language I knew, or wanted to know, and bastardize it a little. Or a lot. I think I’ve finally come up with a solution that will work well for me.

Unfortunately, these things take time and as soon as I can get that first book to her, then she wants to shop it around. That means, Deceiving the Scotsman has sunk to second spot and won’t be worked on as much as I thought. I’ll still have it as my NaNo book but the priorities have changed a little bit. This is good because it isn’t boring and makes me do some juggling.

See, I’m a writer that loves to be extremely busy but I do have to have a plan. One of the things that will happen this week with my friend this week is doing some planning along with brainstorming. There is nothing better than having another writer face-to-face to work out some problem you’re having with a project.

So, I’m happy and jazzed about a variety of things. I’ll keep you posted on all of them. See you all next week. Until then…

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amediting #nanowrimo

This week has really kicked in for me with the ‘I am the master of my fate’ mentality. While I did do quite a bit of writing last week in preparation for NaNoWriMo, that stands for the National Novel Writing Month, it’s nothing compared to the kick in the butt November 1^st brought.

Last week I finished up with a proposal to my agent. I sent her a series I’d been sitting on a long time. The first book isn’t quite done and the language isn’t quite finished. It’s epic fantasy with a romance quest at its center and while I shelved it so very long ago because of there being no market for it, I don’t know why it set there because the market changed.

Sure, I know the book isn’t quite done yet but it has won awards and every editor I showed it to asked about it. But still, I sat on it. And sat on it. And then some more. When I talked to my agent over the summer about my contemporary erotic romance series, The MacKenzie Clan, she reminded me that it was time to also think of my next big project.

Ugh, I thought as I was already struggling with Book 2, Deceiving the Scotsman, in the series because I just couldn’t feel the characters or the story. Not like the first one. I’d already done the synopsis, the blurb, long and short log lines. I knew where that book was going but it just wasn’t coming to me. I had worked on it a few years ago for NaNoWriMo and afterwards edited it and tossed over 50% of what I wrote. Man did that hurt.

Sure, the story had gone through a major rehaul, which it needed, a new title change and basically, a whole new set of characters because what I first proposed to my agent got nixed. I had actually wanted to kill off a character in the first book. I was told by not only my agent, but several critique partners, that readers would have a vested interest in that character and there was no way I could kill him off so his wife could go with another man.

Hence, the chopping and trying to put together a manuscript that just might have some redeeming things that can be added to this second book. And that is probably the problem. I had a whole other book in mind and suddenly, it’s not the one that’s going in the series. To say I was bummed in the least is an understatement. I definitely needed to think about a whole different series.

So, I pulled out the epic fantasy romance and read it again. Somewhere along the way, I realized just how good this story was and why I loved it so much. I read through it and fixed some minor things as it had been thoroughly scrubbed and clean when I shelved it. Then I did an amazing thing. I started working on a second proposal that is another fantasy romance. It too had won writing awards in its day but it was another I shelved because my first agent told me it read like a young adult novel.

Uhh…no…it read like a fantasy novel and I didn’t realize at the time the woman had no experience with a novel like that. It took got put away, thinking I’d never finish it. Yet, I’ve decided I’m going to work on it too. Matter of fact, I plan to submit the proposal tomorrow. It had a little more cleanup to do as only the first chapter was really 100% in my mind. Also, it was a little bare in the synopsis, blurb and tag line areas that I had to put some time into.

I know you’re wondering just why I’m tell you all of this at all. The very fact that I’m participating in NaNoWriMo is embracing the whole ‘master of my fate’ thing to the fullest. If I hadn’t been planning to participate here, I wouldn’t have started looking at Deceiving the Scotsman to try and figure out how to tackle the problems of learning to love the characters again. I wouldn’t have been thinking about submitting not one but two proposals to my agent.

I wouldn’t have thought that I could do any of this until I totally grasped the concept of ‘I am the master of my fate’ to the fullest. Again, only I can change the lack of writing. Only I can make the magic happen again.

Right now, the best thing that NaNoWriMo has done for me is to create a passion for something I love. Sure, reading all the craft books doesn’t hurt but there is nothing like NaNo to get your but in the chair because you are competing against yourself to finish a novel in a month.

Heck, if I do it right, I can have this thing cranked out in about 10 days at the max. That means I’ll be able to start another book as well. Today I’m into it for over 1800 words and that’s more than my NaNo minimum. But to do this project well and start a second novel, I’ll need to be doing about 9k a day. I’ll keep you posted.

See you all next week. Until then…

Lynn 

An Apology ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amreading #amwriting #amediting

Hi everyone!

I wanted to apologize for not having a Monday's Austria Scoop or My So-Called Writing Life columns this week. I started with a bang and had no internet all of Monday and most of Tuesday. Today comes along and we're having thunderstorms.

To top it off, I'm heading to a conference in Munich and was going to notify you that next week I was taking vacation. Unfortunately, that turned out to be two weeks.

But I can guarantee you that on Monday, July 20th, you'll be in for a special treat with Monday's Austria Scoop. You'll be going to an Austrian wedding with me, complete with pictures that I'm allowed to show and I'll even explain some of the traditions I learned about during the whole wedding process as we've, my DH and I, have been privy to a lot of the happenings.

Also, on Tuesday, July 21st, My So-Called Writing Life will have a run down on conferences and what an author can expect about them. There are so many out there and it all comes down to what you need or want. I'll go over some of the better ones and tell you all about my experience in Munich.

Talk to you then and hope each one of you have an awesome time until I return!

Lynn 

My So-Called Writing Life ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #amwriting #amediting

Well, it’s the last day of June and I’m still struggling to get the report I promised done as well as up. When I started rearranging the date, I found that there was a lot more good information there than I expected.

To give you an idea of what I’m going to give you on Thursday, you will be getting a list of single day promotions, multiday promotions and the list of those who rejected me or didn’t get back to me. You will also get the timeline of when things started, ended and what days I had bumps in sales. I will tell you who I advertised with on those bump days and while that day might have several places I went, I should be able to give some insight on just who gave me that bump.

And yes, there are some definite bump producing advertisers in the list. Amazingly so. Like I said, I was really surprised when I started putting the data together this past weekend. I would have had it done but this week is one of the few weeks that I even have anything to do with what my husband does for a living. This week, there’s dinners out, ambassadors’ parties to attend and so much more as he has meetings/conferences here in Vienna.

That said, most of my writing has been blogging and articles or interviews this past week. Yeah, the boring stuff. I did a few things on some stories but not a lot and in one way that makes me very, very sad. Yet, it’s not often I get to do anything with my husband regarding his career. The reasons are many: they only have a couple of meetings a year where Americans are involved and budget cuts.

See, I used to get invited to everything. Or at least for that first year. Then the budget cuts started and the people who planned the parties realized that they could do a cheaper party if no spouses were invited. So they stopped inviting us altogether. Now, it made me angry because that was one of the biggest reasons I came here with my husband. He thought we’d be entertaining a lot and that I’d need to do the social thing with him.

But au contraire, it wasn’t to be.

I did tell him tonight that I was going to take him to a writers’ shindig because then he could feel like I do. LOL! Lots of people I don’t know, all saying hi like they know me, and more food than you can ever imagine. None of which I really ate because I want to be home having my own 4^th of July celebration. And it’s times that this when I dream of home more than usual. I’ll miss everything you’re enjoying, so think of me this Saturday.

I’ll be posting the marketing information Thursday. Promise. Until then…

Lynn