Whichever, my life is about to become balanced.  Summer was full of life, full of family, full of outdoors, travel and excitement. 

Next week I pass through the doorway to a different kind of life full of family and excitement.   This variety comes with coffee, jeans and sweaters, and solitude. [I'm ignoring the homework hassle that I know will commence, the early evening bickering and the early morning grouching, the absence-of-video-game whining...]

I like my glasses the way they are. You don't have to be naive to allow joy in your life.

So tell me, what are you looking forward to this fall?

What about you? Do you have a quirky word? What is it?

My curiosity is peeked…or is it peaked???

Are romance books for the romantic? Or are they for those who like to imagine it?

We have so many wonderful ladies in Passionate Critters who write romance. Young, married, career oriented, moms… It takes all kinds, and I love how we all come together with one purpose.

To spread a little hope, a little love.

Happily Ever After is for everyone. It's the dream my United States of America was built on. If I'm sounding all verklempt, it's because I am. I read romance because it reminds me of the hope I have inside of me. I write romance because I want to share that light with everyone.

Happy Valentine's Day!

With Love,

Bethanne

But what about when you’re tasting it for the eighth time that week, and this time, it’s under deadline? Talk about indigestion.

And that’s exactly how I see revision quite often. ..a third, fourth, or fifth helping of something that’s starting to make me a little queasy, and can’t I just have something new for once?

Here’s a better quote about revision from Pete Murphy:

“Rewriting is like scrubbing the basement floor with a toothbrush.”

Yes!

Like the rituals I mentioned in a previous post, as writers we all have our own revision methods when it comes to getting our manuscripts bright, shiny and out the door. Some of us are linear. Some of us are “whole picture” types.  And most of us? Well, we’re works in progress.

I’ve been reading  “Manuscript Makeover” by Elizabeth Lyon and she sees the process as two-fold. We’re either looking from the inside-out (watching for our nuances and our “voice”—the style that makes our works our own and what those agents/editors/and publishers seek) or we can work from the outside-in (where we get down to the structure of our paragraphs, our word usage, our structure).

Both views are essential, Lyons says, and both lead to better manuscripts. Check the book out if you get a chance. As a person going through SERIOUS edits on two manuscripts in the wave of two requests, I needed serious perspective.

Here at Passionate Critters, our revision style is probably as unique as we are. But we tend to fall into two camps. The “edit-as-you-go” writers, and the “get-it-all-out-first-and-revisit-later” types.

Debora is the classic write/edit at the same time author and says that she can’t really call her first draft her first draft. “Because my first draft goes through so many changes, it’s probably more my sixth draft by the time I get to it at the end.” She’s also a very linear writer—Debora writes her novels from start to finish and cannot do scenes out of order.

On the other hand, there’s Nina. She plows through her first draft very quickly (“But I do quite a lot of plotting first,” she says) and doesn’t edit along the way. Once complete, she reads the entire way through, making notes. Then it’s chapter by chapter. When it comes to cutting, she finds it easier to let go than to add. “I like to have a good few thousand words in hand so I don’t feel bad about dumping stuff.”

Rewrite dynamo Bethanne has spent an entire year and a half on one manuscript. (Dedication, much?!) She’ll read through once looking for the glaring grammar problems and line edits. Once that’s done, she does the chapter by chapter method. “Revisions are completed as I come to them, even if it means going back during the chapter sequence and layering in. I’ll forget otherwise.” She is also a big believer in skeleton plotting beforehand.

Stephanie hates the rewriting. “I feel like the effort has already been made, so I don’t want to rehash it again.” She lets her manuscripts breathe quite a bit, and says she sees so much more than she does the during the initial edits.

Vanessa has no problem cutting, either. “Unless it’s a character I’m attached to,” she says. “My darkest villain says some very lovely things, but they are often unnecessary.”

Vanessa likes the entire process, especially seeing what her draft has been before and what it looks like after. Just in case, though, Vanessa is known to save a million drafts.

“Just in case I do something stupid,” she says. And rewriting? "Rewriting bites.” (Amen!)

Jenn is another linear writer—from start to finish—who “semi-edits” as she writes. A self-prescribed “bare bones writer,” she uses her subsequent passes through her manuscript to add layers, grammar, and punctuation. When she has critiques, she works them in, but finds cutting hard to do while writing. "Ihate to see the word count go down!” she explains.

Rachel, the uber-producer, is decidedly non-linear.

“I will write the first few chapters, some middle scenes, and the end, not necessarily in that order, and fill in the blanks.” She sees her manuscript as a movie and different parts come out at different times. And edits? She fits them in as life allows.  Crits, she says, make editing much easier for her.

“What’s difficult for me in the process,” she says. ‘Is that when I rewrite something, I wonder what is wrong when I’m done. “

In the end, Rachel’s got the attitude right: “I try to be thorough, and yet remember the reason I write. Only so much can be given to the editing process.” 

Joyce line edits as she goes, then goes back chapter-by-chapter. Not content with a single pass-through, she lets it breathe a bit, and then starts the process over. Her biggest frustration is thinking she’s got something figured out—then encountering a character that won’t behave.

“I think I have a character figured out, and he’ll tell me something new when I’m done editing and writing, and I have to go back and change things.”

Another  challenge for Joyce? Knowing when to quit. 

“Sometimes I edit so much that I lose my voice and that makes me mad!”

And that leaves Harper… 

A grammar-fiend, I cannot go a paragraph without fixing commas, periods, or spacing. Typos mock me and I have to go back and get them. But it ends there. I don’t rewrite crappy dialogue or watered-down characters until I’m done with a section. When it comes time to get down and dirty in the manuscript, I look for a few key things the first pass through. (And I cannot edit on screen. Paper copies are a must for my own edits and for the crits I do.) 

I seek out all of my adverbs. Any time I see “quickly” or “slowly,” or others on my list, I highlight it. Same thing for “was.” When it’s time, those sentences get rewritten. Adverbs are good warning signs for writers—they’re usually overused and signify a weak verb (that needed your adverb in the first place!)

They also can be red flags for the ways we build sentences (subject ,verb, adverb , noun) and I try to vary that as best as I can. (I’m notorious for building “dependant clause, independent clause” sentences. Example: “A cat without fear of cholesterol, Garfield was notorious for his love of lasagna.” They’re everywhere in my writing!)

I keep a post-it pad with me and jot down words I think I’m overusing. (“Gaze” is one of them. Gag!) Then I’ll get in the document later and do a search for them. (I’ve come up with 12 instances of the word “quickly” in the first three chapters of a work once. Nice, eh??) 

The bottom line in revising is this: it’s miserable, but it’s necessary. So we suck it up. We perfect our methods…and we get going with our writing.

Kind of like the dreaded task of putting the laundry away after its clean, life (and writing) can’t really go on until we do!

Some of the best writers had them. Some of the rest of us still do.

Junot Diaz writes in the bathroom, perched on the edge of the bathtub to find enough solitude to finish a chapter. Janet Evanovich writes strictly from a visual storyboard. Stephen King writes ten pages a day, no matter what. Walker Papers author C.E. Murphy has a computer she writes from named Nook. Nook has no access to the internet, therefore saving the author from the temptation of checking the latest weather forecast in Dubai or looking up a recipe for Bangers and Mash. Agatha Christie once claimed she got her best ideas while standing at the sink doing dishes—she’s also claimed that eating apples in the bathtub helped her creativity.

Rituals and habits serve a variety of purposes for us, besides giving us an excuse to wear that shabby “Cosby” sweater we love so much. (“But it’s my lucky sweater! I have to wear it to finish my book!&rdquo They can be broken down into two camps, for the most part: Environment (nesting, lighting a candle, brewing a pot of coffee) or Behavior (each morning at 5 a.m., 10 pages no matter what).

These habits reduce some of the anxiety that inherently follows when we see the blinking cursor and the blank page…we know we’re safe because we have our lucky mug with us, it’s 9 p.m., and this is what we always do when we write.

Rituals increase our own power and control, and can’t we all use a little more of that in our lives? It’s a sense of ownership…this is our writing. Our world. Our time. Being in our little writerly nest makes us the empress, queen, and lordy mighty dictator for the few sparse moments we have before our kindergartner is attacked by the preschooler. Or before the “other half” needs to check the scores on last night’s game. Our rules. Our time. Nice…

Writers who live by their rituals suffer from less writer’s block, it’s true. Though it may seem like we’re living up to Natalie Goldberg’s “shi**y first draft” mantra, and writing pure junk, writing with a ritual tends to not place so much pressure on the time we are in the chair, keyboard at hand. We don’t have to be brilliant, we just have to be there with our favorite pencil and our Jimmy Eat World (or Bach, or Burt Bacharach) CD playing in our headphones.

So, while it’s still January, maybe it’s a good time to consider our own rituals—both the ones we keep and the ones we’d like to keep this year.

From our own group, here’s a sampling of how members of Passionate Critters create ritual when they write:

Vanessa keeps different playlists for the different books she’s working on. She has a single notebook she carries with her everywhere that houses her ideas, notes, scribbles, etc. Oh, and a complete tea service set up is a must when she writes. Complete with teapot, cozy, sugar cubes, milk, and a cup and saucer.

Silke has a “trusty moleskin—with me always,” she says. And coffee. Coffee is a definite must for her. Oh, and her partner can’t look over her shoulder as she writes. (I can relate. I’ll actually toggle away from my writing to whatever Internet page I happen to have open. No peeking!)

For Jenn, when it comes to naming her characters, she has a ritual she follows every time. She’ll write out each letter of the alphabet and give each character a name that starts with a different letter.

When it’s lights out for the kids, it’s “brilliance on” for Bethanne…who runs a house full of adorable kids and still manages to put awesome stories on to paper.  (I think she ought to host a mini-workshop on that alone. I have two and I want to pull my hair out some days.)

A night owl, Joyce finds the good times roll in the p.m. hours.  She’s also working on a new one for 2010: 1,000 words a day (you’re in great company…that’s exactly what Stephen King recommends in “On Writing&rdquo.

If you’re looking to get chummy with our little green friend, envy, you should take a peek into Rachel’s uber-structured, uber-productive system.  She’s up at 5.a.m and whether its having the laptop with her while warming the house with the wood stove, she’s always working. Always, it seems! Up until 1 or 2 a.m., she squeezes the most out of her days and has the productivity to prove it.

Nina doesn’t start writing a new project until she hears distinct conversations between her characters in her head—a great trick. How many times have we had a “great idea” and rush into the writing, only to have no clue what our characters sound like?

And as for me , well, I have a goofy sort of ritual. I have a red pashmina scarf/wrap thing that I started wearing around the office a while back while I edited. It was a joke, really. It was meant to keep people at bay while I was working on deadline and it seemed to work. It also earned me the nickname “The Red Baron” because I must have looked a little like Snoopy when he’s fighting on his dog house. So I took the scarf home with me and now I either have it on, or with me when I write. (I fiddle a lot when I’m thinking, so sometimes I just play with or chew on the ends. Eww. Gross. I know.)

My goal for 2010 grew out of my first few weeks here at Passionate Critters. Instead of a daily goal, there’s a “weekly goal” board and I’m finding it much, much easier to accomplish a weekly goal. I beat myself up when I fail at stringent daily quotas…but this weekly method? It seems perfect for a writer like me who can have slow days (500 long, arduous words) or Rachel-esque productive days (1,500+).

So revel in your rituals. Notice them. Appreciate the uniqueness of them. And use them. And if you don’t have any yet, create some. It’s a great month to get started.

Yes, I love those rainy days and nights.  There is something magical and romantic about walking in the rain with the one you love under a big umbrella. Even sitting by the window and watching the drops cleanse the earth and refresh the spirit. The most relaxing thing in the world for me is listening the gentle patter of rain against the roof or skylight just above my bed when wrapped in my guy's arms.

When was the last time you ran through a puddle – on purpose? Remember being a carefree kid and stomping in the puddle?

As for inspiration for plotting? Rain? Well, yeah. Just sit, listen and let your body and mind run wild through the drizzle. Put on your favorite rain coat and go for a walk in the summer rain – don't think about your troubles, don't think about your plot…just let the water sing to your soul. Running water can have an amazing effect on your imagination, if you listen to it. It's natural, it's a force of nature that can be both refreshing and deadly, depending on the circumstances.

Now take your character and put them in the rain. How do they react? Do you have the primadona who is horrified her hair will frizz? Are there bad memories of a storm as a child? Does your hero want nothing more than to drag the heroine into his arms and kiss the rain from her lips?

Next time it rains, make use of all of your senses and enjoy!  And to really set the mood – here's some inspiration from the Neil Sedaka.

There appears to be this great big misconception that it’s two spaces after a period.
It used to be two spaces.
It changed.

If you refer to the newer style guides, they all unanimously state one space after a period.
The 2000 and 2008 editions of the GPO Style Manual are unequivocal:

“A single justified word space will be used between sentences. This applies to all types of composition.” (Paragraph 2.49)

In chapter 6 Punctuation section 3 Typographic and Aesthetic Considerations, the Chicago Manual of Style states:

6.11 Space between sentences In typeset matter, one space, not two (in other words, a regular word space), follows any mark of punctuation that ends a sentence, whether a period, a colon, a question mark, an exclamation point, or closing quotation marks.

So there you have it.
ONE space. Not two.

The reason there used to be two spaces was because typewriters used a monospace font, and people thought it was easier to read if there were two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence.
Today things are a little different. While we still submit in monospace fonts (Courier / Courier New), the poor, hardworking copy editors absolutely loathe the practice of two spaces. They have to take them all out again before sending the manuscript to press.
Now, even if you do a seek-and-destroy… err… find and replace, things get a bit messy. Not because the formatting is being messed up, but these poor people (and you, the author) tend to use track changes.
Turn on track changes.
Go into your manuscript and do a find and replace on all the double spaces.
Choose “Show Revisions in Balloons”.
Welcome to Hell.

Do your copyeditor a favor — use one space only.

When I think about these two types of men, I can’t help but think about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Popular and controversial as it is, she did an excellent job defining the two extremes. And for once a beta ends up with the girl.

Far too often, I read alphas. I even write alphas. But Edward Cullen? He’s a beta all the way. Jacob Black? A total alpha who winds up without the girl.

Let’s look at the differences between the two characters:

Edward (beta): Vampire, cold skin, pale, rich, temperate, considerate of Bella. All aspects of his life are quietly lived.

Jacob (alpha): Werewolf, hot skin, russet skin (oh my, did no one edit the books for that word?!?!), poor, hot temper, thought of himself first. Puffed up about his abilities and his lifestyle.

I’ll be the first to admit, I loved Jacob. I wanted Jacob to win Bella over, because at several points in the series, I thought Edward was being a total passive idiot. Did he not want to be happy? Did he not recognize his own ability to protect her and make HER happy? BETAS! So self-sacrificing, but we love them anyway.

So, I guess when all is said and done, I love my alphas. It was nice to read the Twilight series and see how black and white Stephenie made the differences, not just in personality types, but lifestyles. It was nice to see the beta win, but I couldn’t help feeling like I need to read Jacob’s story now. But, of course, like any good author, I think that was probably Stephenie’s plan.

So, what kind of “man” are you? Alpha? Beta? Both?