Writing

Today I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone. I submitted a short article to a parenting blog for potential publication. I'll hear back in 2 weeks. 

I don't know if they will accept it. I'm proud of myself for trying, though. Writing has always been a passion of mine but it's one I've mostly shelved as an adult. First to survive grad school, later because I had other priorities like frantically trying to find my husband, enjoying newlywed life, and learning to be a new mom. My raging perfectionism hasn't helped either. 

But my goal was always to write a novel, and maybe I don't need to aim so high to start. It seems much more doable to write a few short articles for websites... so we will give it a try and see how it goes. If nothing else it will get me writing again, and if no one wants to publish my stuff, I can always publish it here on my blog. 

Young Shelece Writing

I've been going through boxes and boxes of my old stuff lately... Things that used to be stored in my parents' basement.

I'm starting to think I never got rid of anything, ever. :) It's fun to see all the reminders of my past life, and also a little trippy. I thought a lot of this stuff was gone for good.

I found a ton of old stories that I wrote in my youth. In my elementary days, I went through a horse loving phase where I read and wrote about girls and their horses. Since I was a suburbanite with very little contact with horses, I got very creative sometimes. :)

In middle school and high school, I wrote comedy novels mostly. I really enjoyed reading through those... especially the comedy fantasy novel I wrote back in middle school. The plot is pretty loosey goosey and it was definitely written by a 13 year old, but you know what, the dialogue actually is funny. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it after all this time... but then, I am biased. :)

As I've gotten older, my writing has gotten more dramatic. It's funny, I tend to either write pure comedy or very dramatic. It's hard to decide which tone to take. Reading through my teenage writings that were almost always comedy... I wonder if that is what I should go back to! It is a lot of fun, and I do enjoy making people laugh.

A Million Beginnings

So, that writing challenge I am attempting...

It's in conjunction with a writing conference that is coming up, so my professor has interviewed a few different writers about their methods of starting a book.

One of them talked about writing multiple first lines, multiple beginnings, until something really clicks with her and sticks. I've been giving that a try. The challenge is to write a new opening line everyday for 30 days. I'm way behind on that, but I have drafted 5 or 6 different book openings at this point. The challenge is, none of them have stuck yet, but... it is helping me get my ideas out there and think through what I really want to write about. Hopefully one of these times something will click. Wish me luck!

Challenge Accepted

Here I am, fresh New Year's Resolution in hand to FINALLY finish my book this year.

And my beloved former Creative Writing professor from BYU shares a challenge on her blog. Will we join her and write a book together this year? By that, she means she is going to post step by step what she does as she writes her next book for publication, and she invites her blog writers to keep pace with her as they write their own books.

Challenge accepted! I'm really excited. I think this could help me out. If you'd like to check out her blog, here's the post.

The first step she talks about is coming up with a concept.

For me... I've sort of been trying to write the same story since I was 12 years old. (That means I have been trying for 19 years. Holy cow!) Over time, there have been a lot of changes to the plot lines, to the characters, to the setting. But it all comes from the same basic root.

What I need to decide is... is it worth continuing? Is there really something here, a story I can share if I only put my mind to it? Or... would I have more success if I threw everything out and started over?

I think I am going to take some time tonight to read through some of my drafts I've done recently and not so recently. Do I really need to start at page 1 (I am a perfectionist and I am very prone to starting over at page 1), or do I have some salvageable material here?

On the perfectionist note... I was reading up on my inspiration author, Laini Taylor, and I found this great blog post she wrote. She is a perfectionist like me, and her writing process sounds a lot like mine! She can't write a rough first draft and then go back and fix it. She likes to go back and fix things up as she goes, and the result is a stronger first draft that is easier to revise into a second. Somehow it's really comforting to hear that's her process... I'm not crazy to write the way that I do.

Laini Taylor Signing

Me and Laini Taylor (I need to work on my poses for these!)

A post shared by Shelece McAllister (@coolshelece) on Apr 22, 2017 at 4:59pm PDT

Today Hayley and I went to a book signing with Laini Taylor, one of our favorite authors. She's written the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy and now a lovely new book called Strange the Dreamer.

Waiting for Laini Taylor's book signing!

A post shared by Shelece McAllister (@coolshelece) on Apr 22, 2017 at 2:59pm PDT

 Before the signing, one of the librarians who organized the event interviewed Laini for about an hour on stage.

I've wanted to be a writer ever since I was 3 years old. Now I'm almost 30, and I haven't even finished the novel I've been working on in various designs since I was 12! Sometimes I get very discouraged and figure that won't be part of my life. But the truth is... that's still a dream of mine. I don't need to be a famous author, but I'd love so much to FINISH a book and get it published!

Laini's talk left me feeling hopeful and energized. A few key things she says:

• She doesn't like writing because it's so hard! She loves having written, but she doesn't particularly enjoy the writing process. Oh man, I could relate to that. There are some things I really enjoy writing, but when it comes to trying to write my dream book, it is hard work and I get so frustrated because the words don't come out the way I want them to.
• She never finished a manuscript until she was 35. There's still hope for me!
• She always thought of herself as a writer, even though for a long time she wasn't doing much writing. (Just like me!)
• She doesn't plot extensively. She isn't a total pantser--she has some plot points planned out but she doesn't plot out every detail. I've been stressed about this recently and trying to outline too much--this reminds me that I don't have to do that because that's what works best for some people. A loose outline is fine.
• Beginnings are hard for her too. They take her a lot longer to write than the rest of the book. She tried several beginnings for Strange the Dreamer before she worked out the best one.
• Her beautiful, poetic text does not come easily or on the first draft.

I think I've been inspired to get back to work!

Oh, one last side note on my pic with Laini--it's hard to take a pic with someone seated while you are standing! I sort of bent my knees and squatted next to her, but I felt so ungraceful and ridiculous looking that I cracked up. A little bit into my laughing, I heard her laugh a little bit too awkwardly--probably wondering what my deal was. But it worked out, because they got this shot while we are both laughing and we look very genuinely happy.

Medieval Scholar

Beginning last summer, I wrote this fanfiction of a movie called Secret of Kells--about Irish monks during the middle ages during the age of Viking attacks.

It was fun and it helped me get past my writer's block. I'd lost confidence in myself and in my writing, and writing something fun and no stress helped re-energize me and helped me get my confidence back.

Well... I'm laughing because today I was contacted by a grad student studying the medieval era. He wanted to cite my fanfic in a paper he's writing on the layman perspective of the middle ages versus the academic perspective, and he wanted to interview me. His main point is that laymen can learn a lot about history from fiction.

The interview was actually really fun (my first time ever being interviewed about something I've written! I had to squee a little bit at that) and he was very nice, even though I was very self conscious since my research was minimal to ensure historical accuracy.

NaNoWriMo

Every year, I try to do NaNoWriMo. Every year, I get off to a slow start, get miserably behind, and then give up.

NOT THIS YEAR!! I am determined to really put some effort in this year and make this happen. I've been exercising my writing muscles lately, so hopefully I'm in better shape for this event.

I'll let y'all know how it goes. :)

Outlining

Okay, one last thing. I was having a rough time outlining my novel, since I'm used to being a "pantser" and making things up as I go rather than plotting things out ahead of time.

But outlining the fanfiction was easy. At first, I started by writing out the events in the film that I wanted to cover. Then I realized that I was parroting the actual film too much... fanfiction is supposed to bring something new, right? So I started expanding things... and I started seeing the beauty of the outline. It was much easier knowing what to add in where, because I could see how it would add up in the bigger picture.

For example... there's a scene where an uncle gets very angry at his nephew for many complicated reasons, but the one he vocalizes is that the kid is drawing when he's supposed to be doing something else. Cue a much earlier scene I added in that explains why his artwork is so very upsetting.

Seeing the whole picture helped me think through what elements and themes were needed to tie together into the great whole.

Tl:dr version.... Outlining my fanfiction is converting me to outlining in general, and giving me insight into how to outline my novel better. I think for some of it, I need to work backwards. Begin with the end game in mind, and think through what would need to happen in the beginning to raise the stakes.

Hayley often quotes the Fantasy Fiction Writing Formula, a how-to book she loves, that you have to write a million words before you can be a good writer. This fanfic may be silly, but it does count towards million words, and I'm already learning a lot from the process. And, getting into the healthy habit of writing every day without stressing about it too much. The amazing thing is, I'm reasonably happy with my work, even though it's certainly rough and unpolished.

Growth all around. :)

PS: I'm up to 5 readers now. Yep, it's literally just a handful, but man... does that have me jazzed!

Lessons from My Experiment

So.... I promised myself I would never speak of my dorky fanfiction experiment again...

Apparently that was a lie. Huh.

I posted it up on Fanfiction.net on Saturday. I kept working on it during the weekend and it ballooned up to 6 chapters, but nobody was reading it. That wasn't a surprise. Actually, that was part of the plan. It's scary to let internet strangers read your stuff.

Last week during my grant writing madness, I also finally signed up for a DeviantArt account. That website is more geared to... well.... art, but there is a fanfiction section... I didn't get the account with intent to post anything. Actually, I didn't even have a fanfiction when I got it. I wanted an easy way to save my favorite pictures (there is some gorgeous work on there!) and pinterest wasn't cutting it.

During the process, I liked a fanfiction in the same category that I ended up writing in. Apparently in DeviantArt etiquette, it's polite to thank someone who favorites your work, so the author popped onto to my wall to thank me. I thanked her for her awesome story and admitted I like her version way better than the real thing.

And then I got brave and posted just the first chapter of my fanfiction. DeviantArt is way harder to navigate than fanfiction.net. I've been reading fanfiction since 2004 (at least, that's when I made my account!) so I know that site pretty well, and it's easy to upload stuff. (Makes sense, since it's an all-text website.) DeviantArt... man, that was a tough one. I thought of asking some friends for help, but I was way too embarrassed to do that because then THEY'D SEE WHAT I'D WRITTEN. Hahaha.

Anyways, author girl popped back up on my wall to thank me again for my nice compliment.... and she saw what I'd posted! And she submitted it to a fan group for that particular topic! And she favorited it, and told me she liked it and hoped to see more.

Do you see the exclamation points building!!! Hahaha... I liked that feedback way more than I should. By the end of the day, I had 3 readers. I mean, on the one hand that's like, pssssh, hardly anyone. But I am so excited anyway!! Three people read my work (from 1 o'clock in the morning, nonetheless) and they liked it!!

One of those people is THE number one fan of this fandom. No really, it's true. It's not the biggest fandom in the world... She has more fanart and fanfiction than anybody else, she's met the writers behind the scripts and even did an internship with them, so she knows lots of plot details no one else knows (because when she was geeking out over this thing, she was right there with the creator to ask him whatever questions she had and get real answers.) Anyway, I've read her stuff a lot and really liked it.

And she favorited my dumb little fanfiction! And talked for a while, I think our comments went back and forth for 4-5 times.

I was so excited by all this silliness, I ended up getting inspired to write a new, better chapter 2 than what I had posted on fanfiction.net originally. Already it has two favorites (from two of the three who liked the first one) and number one fan girl is now following all my posts on DeviantArt.

It's not a big deal at all so why am I so excited?!? (Oh yeah! It's because I'm a DORK!) Apparently I needed to get my writing up on the internet before this, I guess.

All in all... I think this is a good experience that will help me with my own book. It's giving me a little more confidence in my abilities as a writer. And it's helping me take a step back and analyze some of my strengths as a writer.

There's a lot I need to do to improve, but you know what? I'm semi-decent at tugging people's heartstrings. I know how to pack an emotional punch. I know a bit about human relationships and how we all get so tangled up in how we relate to other people, it impacts everything we experience and feel and do.

That's what I'm doing with this fanfic. And that's part of what I want to do with my book.

Part of my problem is that my two greatest strengths (well, at least what I like to write the most) are polar opposites: family drama and ridiculous off the wall humor. It's hard to mix the two without getting serious mood whiplash in the narrative.

Oh well. I'll figure it out somehow. :)

Fanfiction

Oh man, guys... This grant app is making me crazy or something. I'm smashing through all kinds of walls.

First, TVTropes, and now.... Fanfiction.

I've always been a casual fan of fanfiction. When there's a book or movie or TV show I'm particularly passionate about, sometimes I'll seek out fanfiction. It's hard to find good ones, but sometimes I'll find ones that expand the stories I love so much in new and exciting ways.

I've never tried writing fanfiction. On occasion I've let myself daydream about alternate plots to things, or what characters must have been thinking. But I've never tried fanfiction.

Until.... this morning, from 1 to 2 am, when I wrote a (fairly awful) first chapter of a fanfiction piece.... and POSTED IT ONLINE.

The craziest thing is that I've since added another chapter to it.

Probably no one will ever read it, which is probably for the best. I won't tell you what it is exactly, but it's a fanfiction of something that means it will probably quickly be buried in the archives of fanfiction.net.

It's a really rough thing that I just threw together (did I mention I wrote the first chapter... basically imagining the thoughts of a particular character and exploring his motivations throughout the main story. A lot of the real plot is rehashed. It's nothing to be proud of, but for some reason I am so proud of myself for writing it up and putting it out there.

I should be working on my novel outlining instead. But even though this is just a silly fanfiction piece... It's probably good for me to just be writing something! Exercise those creative muscles. Who knows, maybe it will help me with my book. It can be my warm-up lap to some real writing.

Nature Therapy

Today was a stressful day. The first draft of the grant app was due by the end of the day.

I made it! Whoo!

But man, was I wrung out by the end of the day. So I packed up a notebook and walked over to a park a little ways from my house... and just sat there writing for half an hour. Brainstorming novel ideas, working on my outline. It was wonderful, very peaceful with no distractions. So much easier to think in that kind of peace and quiet.

I need to do that more often.

Timeline

Today I took a few minutes to write out a rough timeline for my novel. By that I don't mean a scene by scene timeline of the plot, but a timeline of historical/personal events related to the characters, big life events like births, deaths, marriages, and divorces, as well as the big catalyst event that shapes the whole story.

It was incredibly helpful! I've had a rough idea of the backstory, which involves some things happening 50 years before the main plot. But mapping out the character details helped me realize it hasn't been a perfect 50 years... it's been 38. Otherwise, some of the adults who witnessed that main event would be way too old to be in the main story (possibly dead, in some cases). Pretty important to realize!! Besides, doesn't something happening 38 years later sound a little less contrived than a perfect 50?

The timeline helped me make some other useful connections too. For example, one character lost his son--but I'd never realized that his young coworker is exactly the same age as his son. So... maybe they have more of a father-son vibe to their relationship than I initially considered.

There's still a lot of ground to cover, but I'm already getting excited about this outlining process. Stepping back and seeing the whole picture gives a very helpful perspective that I think will lead to a stronger story. I just need to keep this up!

New Writing Goals

Today, clicking side links through a variety of writing articles, I came across this one:
How I Plot A Novel in 5 Steps. It has some basic ideas that I really want to try out! In the writing world, they talk about pantsers and plotters--people who just figure out their stories as they go, and people who plan everything out ahead of time. I've always been more of a pantser, but all to often I write myself into corners, or draft what I think is a great opening... but have no idea what to do next. That's pretty much where I am at the moment, actually. :)

This author likes to start her plot with two things in mind, the beginning, and the end. I usually have a beginning, a great idea of the relationship complexities of the characters, a more iffy idea of the plot... but right now, at least, I don't have a clear goal for the ending. If I don't know where I'm going, then how can I expect to figure out the rest?!?

So, first goal: begin with the end in mind. How do I want things to end?

Second goal: (dang it, this isn't in the blog post I linked to, and I can't seem to retrace my steps to find the right post)--write out a list of all the scenes that I already have in my head, things I really want to have in the novel. Just fling them out, in no particular order... yet. Then, once I have my list, take a look at my beginning and my end, and sort the scenes into an order that makes scene. Watch for unexpected connections between scenes.

Third goal: Start filling in the blanks! Take the approach of, so what happens next? And then? And then? Just draft it all out in a loose outline, so I have an idea where I am headed, until hopefully, I've got a coherent structure.

Fourth goal: Write this puppy out! Let's achieve that lifelong goal of writing a book. It doesn't have to be particularly brilliant, and it doesn't even have to get published (although of course, that would be the ultimate dream). Let's just start by getting one written!!!

Back in the Saddle

In January, I did an amazing job of making my writing a priority. I wrote 8,000 words in just three weeks (that's super fast for me!).

But then life got more hectic and writing went on the back burner. Meanwhile my awesome friend Hayley completed a full novel and started another one.

I want to get back in the saddle and get this thing written! So, I'm making a few goals to get there.

First... I got this online writing class on Groupon last year that I never finished about how to plot out your novel. I need to go back and pick up where I left off, and get an outline going to help keep me motivated.

I've heard good reviews for this other book called Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success (by K.M. Weiland). Maybe I'll give that a try. I could definitely use some help in the outlining department.

Then I need to set a daily goal of how much to write, and go for it! It's hard to fit it in in the evenings, what with FHE and institute and the Mingle and whatever. So... maybe I need to start writing in the mornings instead. I liked the goal of 1,000 words a day. It'll take some practice to build up to that, but I think I can do it! And, the final word count needs to be in the 100,000ish range... So if I'm disciplined about it, I could finish a first draft in roughly 100 days.

Let's do this!!

7,000 Words, Baby!

7,735 to be precise, written since January 1. My novel is 9,828 words long if you count what I wrote in 2015.

So obviously my pace has slowed a bit, but I'm still trekking along!

Online it says that Young Adult books usually max out around 80,000-100,000 words, so if we go by that, I'm about 10% of the way done.

Tonight I finished the opening segment of the book... a sort of extended prologue to what is going to happen for the rest of the book. It's incredibly raw and it will need lots of editing, but it does the gist of what I want it to. There's lots of good sand there for making castles later. And... I'm hoping if I complete the whole first draft before I revise (miracle of miracles), that I'll have a better sense of the big picture of the plot, so when I do go back and edit, I can tie it together more neatly and emphasize the themes I want more strongly and all of that good stuff.

Here's hoping I can keep keeping this up!! Sorry for all the blog updates, it helps keep me accountable if I keep reporting on my efforts. :)

6,000 Words

I've hit 6,000 words now! I'm still on a roll and hopefully I will stay that way.

There is a quote by Shannon Hale that I love: “Writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” That's resonating with me more deeply than it has before. Last night, I wrote a scene with a teenager character who basically spewed out a lot of exposition. It's not something I'm going to want to keep in the final draft, but it gave me a lot of insight into who he is and what his motivations are. I can see there are some flecks of gold in it that I could refine... later, but for now I'm charging ahead and still telling the story. When it's done, I'll go back and turn this sand into a castle.

License to Write

You guys, since New Year's Day, I have written 4,314 words in my book. 4,314!! This is a huge deal for me. :)

This is my goal for this year. My favorite part of this--you can't fall behind and you can't get ahead. Too often with things like NaNoWriMo, I can't keep up the pace and get hopelessly behind, and then I'm just so overwhelmed trying to make up for falling behind that I give up. This way, every day is a new day. I hit my target or I don't, either way I start the next day with a clean slate.

The biggest thing holding me back in my writing is typically my perfectionism. This time around, I'm letting that go. I'm writing this story for me and nobody else. I'm letting myself break rules and jump POVs and write heavy exposition in places, because you know what? It's a first draft. I don't know the full story yet, and if breaking some rules helps me figure it out, that's fine. If not everything makes sense, that's fine. I can go back on the second draft and fix it. But for now I'm just writing for fun, and it feels great. I really hope I can keep this up.

Published

Since I was a tiny little kid, I've always dreamed of publishing a book.

I was thinking more along the lines of an epic young adult novel, but... I think this counts too. :)

I got my free copy of the Family Life Education: the Practice of Family Science textbook today. They included one of my research articles as a book chapter. I'm especially psyched about this, because it's a textbook I used in my classes back in the day, and some of my professors will probably be using it in the near future here. :)

Sorry for all the pics. I know I'm a dork. :)

Now, to go work on that whole novel thing...

Throwing up words: My NaNoWriMo experience

This year marks ten years of me attempting to complete National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. They don't necessarily have to be good words... the key is quantity, not quality. Churn them out, and then go back and polish them up later.

I've never succeeded in completing this challenge. Part of it is time. To hit the goal, you should technically be writing 1,667 words a day--something that can be hard to squeeze in.

The other part is that I hate the raw writing that results. My usual process is to write a scene, then immediately rewrite it 5 or 6 times. A lot of time I'll end up with a couple versions that I like, and I have to debate which way I want the story to go. It's slow. It drags on. Just tossing words on the page without polishing them makes me nervous.

But... one of my favorite quotes is from author Shannon Hale: "Writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoving sand into a box so that later I can build castles." I'm trying to keep that in mind.

Just last night, I wrote a scene that was horrendous. Way too over the top dramatic (which is kind of weird, because usually I write comedy). So today I spent a lot of time thinking about it... and I came up with a way to do it better. :) So that flat out writing session is leading to better things. Progress!

Exciting News

So.... I got an interesting email today.

A couple years ago, I published a research article called "Examining the Early Evidence for Self-directed Marriage and Relationship Education: A Meta-analytic Study" in the Journal of Family Relations.

Today, I received word that the National Council on Family Relations would like to include my article in the next edition of their Family Life Education textbook... A textbook I used in a couple classes during my time at BYU.

 

 

I may be a little bit excited. :)