Tag: q and a

  • Substack: How do you make yourself write when executive dysfunction is kicking your ass?

    This week’s Q&A is all about writing when executive dysfunction is in full force. Whether it’s ADHD, burnout, or just a foggy brain day, I break down the practical tools I use to keep writing: time-limited sprints, writing out of order, messy first drafts, and dictation. Plus, how to build a “low-energy writing menu” so you can still make progress, even on the rough days.

    Check it out on Substack: lizwritesbooks.substack.com

    Have a Q you want A’d? Ask it on Tumblr: http://lizwritesbooks.tumblr.com/ask

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  • Q&A: How long did SHEIKH take from conception to this point now (w/ your agent and full r/r request)?

    How long did SHEIKH take from conception to this point now (w/ your agent and full r/r request)?

    I wrote the first few pages (all of which got scrapped in the final version) in December 2013 as a timed writing exercise, then promptly forgot about them. I found them again in late May/early June and decided to hang onto them, maybe they could be a story.

    The actual writing commenced in July 2014.

    In August 2014, I submitted synopsis and 1st 3 chapters to Harlequin.

    Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest kicked off in September 2014. I entered the first chapter. Didn’t final, but I received a full request, and several agent requests. This is when I started researching agents.

    I began querying in mid-October 2014. Jessica was the first agent I queried and the first to request (that same day, even). Responses trickled in over the next few months.

    In February 2015, I received a revision request from Harlequin. Multiple pages of feedback on what I had done well in addition to what needed improvement. Great stuff.

    Jessica offered on March 4th, 2015. I accepted her offer a week later (THE. LONGEST. WEEK. EVER.) on March 11th, 2015. I finished revisions on March 18th, 2015. Tomorrow (March 25th, 2015), I’m starting a new book.

    And that’s where we are now.

  • Q&A: Song recommendation, PLEASE!

    Song recommendation, PLEASE!

    OK, fine. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kixFJCrqK4

  • Q&A: Are you a F/T writer right now? Or balancing a day job with the writing?

    Are you a F/T writer right now? Or balancing a day job with the writing?

    I have a part-time retail job.

  • Q&A: I’m curious about your writing process.

    I’m curious about your writing process. Do you try to reach a word goal every day? What keeps you going when you have an “off” day? How much time do you spend writing and how much time do you spend doing other stuff (not really social media but research and planning stuff out?)

    My writing process is always evolving, but here’s what works for me now:

    I set a daily word goal and also a daily time goal, with the understanding that I’m free to call it a day when either of those are reached. ie, 2.5 hours or 2,000 words, whichever comes first. This helps a lot on those days when motivation is in short supply, because I know I won’t be frustrating myself for 10 hours trying to achieve a word count goal that’s just not going to happen. 

    I also really like deadlines. I don’t always meet them, but I like having them. Because honestly, if I could spend 2 years on a book, I would. More, if I could get away with it. Because there’s always something to fix, something I could do better, some area of doubt or insecurity I can’t seem to get over. Having a deadline helps me focus on getting it finished and let go of getting it perfect. 

    Another thing that helps with off days is that I put a time limit on indecision. When I can’t figure something out—like right now, I don’t know what I’m going to write next, I keep waffling—I give myself a few days to try and get some clarity, but no more than that. A wrong decision is better than no decision at all. I can’t just stay stopped because I don’t know what happens next. Eventually I have to start moving forward again. 

    The time thing is always a struggle. Jennifer Crusie did a post a long time ago about time management, and how sometimes the things you say are important to you are never made a priority. Writing can be like that if I let it. It’s so much easier to go on Twitter and talk to other writers about writing than it is to stay off Twitter so I can get some writing done. I’m on Tumblr right now, answering questions. Because writing is hard and this is easy.

    But I do make an effort. Some weeks I make a better effort than others, but I try. The breakdown of how I use that time follows the same logic of giving the most important things the most hours, and spending the least amount of time on the least important things: Writing > Editing > Reading > Generating Story Ideas > Planning and Analytics > Everything Else

  • Q&A: My critical critique partners is pissed I got an agent

    I’ve had this friend for years, we used to write fanfiction together when we were kids but now we write our own stuff. I let her critique my writing for years and she was always so critical. Almost mean about it. To the point where I would stop writing and move on to something else. Then I got this idea for a new book and didn’t tell her about it until I signed with an agent. Now she’s pissed bc I didn’t trust her enough to get her input. But I was afraid her input would make me stop. Help. 🙁

    First things first, congratulations on your new book! Sounds like you created something really great.

    And good for you, too, for not stopping this time when you felt insecure about your writing. That takes a lot of work, and you should be proud of yourself.

    Now. About your friend. 

    Are you sure you are, in fact, friends?

    I don’t mean that in the sense that one of you has done something un-friendly to the other, or anything.

    But sometimes writing friends aren’t really friends. They’re writing friends.

    Meaning the foundation of the relationship is writing and sharing writing and critiquing writing and promoting writing, with no other common interests. You may be friendly with each other, but you’re not exactly friends.

    Which would make her reaction make sense. Because in her mind, writing a book, getting an agent, might have been something she thought you would do together, and you cut her out of the process, whether you meant to or not.

    That’s one possibility.

    Another possibility is that you are friend friends, but are no longer compatible as writing friends. 

    Maybe you were compatible as fan-fiction critique partners because you shared a love of that particular fandom, but aren’t necessarily fond of each others’ original writing. Or maybe you grew older, and your tastes grew apart, and neither one of you are willing to admit it yet.

    I say this because it happens. Kind of like how your favorite author or favorite series one day doesn’t work for you anymore. And at first you’re mad at the creator, but eventually you realize it’s not just him, it’s you, too. You’ve changed. 

    Maybe she’s mean in her critiques and supportive of you giving up those other books because she’s trying to guide you back to a style of writing she enjoys, like what you were writing when you met in fandom all those years ago. She wants to enjoy your work again, but she can’t, and she erroneously thinks it’s your fault.

    And maybe the reason you didn’t tell her about this new book is because you knew she wouldn’t like it, knew she would try to talk you out of it, and likely succeed. Maybe in “hiding” this book from her, up until the agent stage, you were really just acknowledging what she couldn’t—that you’re not really compatible as writing friends anymore, and working together as closely as you used to only causes more harm than good.

    Which is why knowing the difference between friend friends and writing friends is so important.

    Because if you’re writing friends who are no longer compatible as writing friends…well…

  • Q&A: Why aren’t you published yet?

    Anonymous asked:

    Forgive me for asking (and if you don’t want to answer, that’s cool) but…..why aren’t you published yet?

    And a follow-up from Anonymous, Jr.:

    After fifteen years of noes, do you ever feel like it’s NEVER going to happen?

    I’ve been sitting on these questions for a while because I didn’t really know how to answer them. But they are great questions, the kinds of questions we all want to ask at one point or another, I think, but are afraid to because what if the answers are depressing? What if the answers are not what we want to hear? What if they show us a truth we can’t handle?

    And so we go to other people, people maybe we don’t even know, and we ask them if they ever felt what we felt, because if they felt it, too, then maybe everything will be OK. Maybe this doubt thing is normal. Maybe it doesn’t mean I’m doing everything wrong, that I’m not really supposed to be a writer, that I didn’t miss my calling as an occupational therapist like my mom keeps saying.

    So here’s my answer:

    Of course I have doubts. I have doubts all the time. Doubts about the big picture (What if I never sell a book? What if I sell a book and it bombs? What if I sell a book, it does OK, and then the next one tanks? What if I sell one book and can’t sell another?) and the not-so-big picture (What if my voice is abrasive? What if my characters are unlikable? What if this plot twist I love is cliche and I don’t know it?) and the why-are-you-even-worrying-about-that-shit picture (What if that word doesn’t mean what I think it means?).

    Doubt happens. Book deals, a gazillion social media followers, none of that eradicates doubt. It may hide it for a while or take the sting off of it, or whatever. But it doesn’t get rid of it. Ever.

    So I guess the real question you’re asking is, How do you keep going when doubt tells you it’s never going to happen?

    And the answer is: you just do.

    You end one book, and you start another one. One foot in front of the other. Just like that.

    I don’t have any one-size-fits-all answers for why I’m not published. Each book has its own answer, sometimes more than one. In the early days, it was because I wasn’t good enough. The writing wasn’t up to par. The ideas weren’t idea-y enough. Badness all around. (Actually, that’s not just relegated to the early days–I’ve written some stinkers in the past year or two.) Other books were too similar or too different or the wrong genre. I’ve written young adult novels that everyone thought sounded too old, and adult novels everyone thought sounded too young. And some books aren’t published because, well, I didn’t try to publish them, so who knows how they would have turned out.

    But I’d say in the majority of cases, the real reason was because doubt got in the way. And when it did, I gave up.

    That book I didn’t think I could write? I didn’t write it. That agent who in no way would want my book? I didn’t query him. That editor who begged on her blog for a book exactly like mine? I wrote off as just saying that to make people feel better.

    I’m almost ashamed to admit it. But there you go.

    I was Doubt’s bitch for so long, guys. Too long. It wasn’t until I hit a rough patch in the early stages of writing Cate & Chuck–which, by the way, will not be published because it’s one of the stinky books–that I said to myself, “OK, so you know what happens if you quit. Wonder what will happen if you keep going…”

    I’d love to be all cheerleader-y and tell you that if you just! keep! going! rah! rah! rah! things will work out and you’ll be published and you’ll never ever feel doubt again.

    Sadly, that’s not how it works. Scary thought time, but the odds are against you ever getting published. And for those who do get published, the odds are something like ten-to-one against seeing a second book in print. Reality is a harsh motherfucker.

    But I don’t keep going just to capture some fickle dream of being published or whatever. I keep going because I want to see what happens if I don’t stop.

    And if in fifteen years from now, I’m still answering this question, well, shit happens, I guess. I’m sure it’ll have been one helluva ride.