‘Grow’ Category

  1. The End And The New Year

    December 31, 2011 by Megs



    Once again, I grossly miscalculated. This time the miscalculation worked out in my favor! I’m so much closer to the end of the book than I thought! While exciting, it’s going to take some elbow grease on my part. I have to write the last seven chapters from scratch, and unlike when I wrote the final 7k the first time, I don’t intend doing it in a day.

    College is back in session on the 10th, and I intend finishing the first round of revisions on the 5th. It’ll be great having it out of the way! By my initial calculations the revisions would take eight months. I’m pleased that I’m finishing three months ahead of schedule! Once I bucked up and resolved to revise 7k a week things really got going!

    My critique group, provided nothing comes up between now and then, will finish going through it around February 14th. Accidental perfect timing on my part because it’s the exact date of the 20 year anniversary. I might need a cupcake. ;D

    Overall, I like the new direction Darkmore went in. I’ve said before the first draft wasn’t bad it just wasn’t the right. Of course, that’s just conjecture on my part. Darkmore has drifted from straight up romance and naughtiness all the time to a bit more of a action-romance still with the same naughtiness. ;D Instead of things concluding with a mere whisper of a warm fuzzy, I’m hoping that the new conclusion reads with the same emotional punch I’m visualizing. I want people cheering with the new ending instead of settling down with a ‘oh isn’t that nice….’

    I’m also kind of tired of being totally spoiler-free with talking about my stuff. I want to tell the world with all the tasty bits! I realize in the game of publishing that’s not a good idea. Alas!

    Also, I’ve busted out my calendar and blocked out my writing schedule for the new year. The table breaks down as follows:

    January 5th Darkmore Revision 1
    January 19 Darkmore Sequel Synopsis
    January – End of April 10-9 Revision 4
    May 12th 10-9 Sequel Synopsis
    May – July Draft Grow
    June 6th Submit Darkmore
    End of July – Mid September Expand Pawn Takes Rook
    October – First Week of December Revise Americana Fairytale
    December 5 Submit 10-9
    December 22 Americana Fairytale Sequel Synopsis

    Table Code Here

    Posting it here for accountability sake, plus I’ll stick it up on its own page so I can have a check off list as I go. I’m happy about it. I’ve managed to fit everything in I wanted to do in 2012. I guess it’ll be the Year of Revision and I can only imagine 2013 will be the Year of Writing.

    Happy New Year everyone! May you accomplish all of your goals!


    Category 10-9, Americana Fairytale, Darkmore, Grow, Novellas | Tags: ,,,,,,, | No Comments

  2. Finally! A Dent!

    October 23, 2011 by Megs



    I had forgotten I used to post progress meters of editing as well. It’s back! And I like that I can actually see some honest to goodness progress instead of the bleak grind of my Word Doc. When all is said and done, 45 chapters of Darkmore’s first round of revision is only an estimate. I have 36 planned but it depends what I split up, what I combine, and what I cut all together.

    I’ve made myself the goal to edit 7k a week, 1k a day. Similar to my writing habits of writing 7k a week from scratch. I haven’t been able to write consistently for about a month and it’s been making me pretty batshit. I’ve decided that if I’m going to keep the pace I need to get up earlier before my day gets bogged down with other necessities like school, homework, and going to the gym. Because at the end of the day, my brain is too scattered to concentrate. Monday through Friday I’m up at 8:30 and my butt is in my chair till noon. Saturday and Sunday I ‘sleep in’ until 9 and pretty much play things by ear. I still have time for all prior commitments and it’s done wonders for the cantankerous mood that had me by the throat for the last month.

    Considering with Darkmore, I had to redraft the first quarter of the book and it was a hell of a grind. I’m finally at the chapters of the story that I’m keeping largely intact and just editing for context to fit into the revamped beginning. A lot of dialogue’s been cut, rewritten, or had other characters say a different character’s lines. A lot of Sevon’s opinions or decisions were flopped around at this point in the story to make sense with the whole.

    The best part about it is I don’t hate it anymore. When I was writing the beginning I was like ‘My God! I’m such a useless hack! I don’t know what I’m doing! I need a tub of Haggen-Daz STAT.‘ Now… Thanks to my beloved crit group of The Traveling Gypsy Writers on Facebook, I realize no really I don’t suck that bad. Hurray! :D

    And NaNoWriMo is only nine days away aaaaauuuugh. I’ve decided to suck it up and just edit Darkmore for it. Cheating? No. Why do you say that? I’m not cheating. Noooooo… But I’m going to vow to myself next book I’m doing is Grow. That bastard is getting written one way or another!

    You heard it here first! Tune in next time!


    Category Darkmore, Grow, News | Tags: ,,,,, | No Comments

  3. Piling Things On My Plate

    September 21, 2011 by Megs

    NaNoWriMo is six weeks away and I am the first to admit I am completely unprepared. I have notes on a dry erase board of telling me to check into X, Y, and Z that have been there since the summer. The book I’m doing this time called Grow, is an idea I’ve had in my head for four years, and it was initially meant as a gift for my mother. I had a false start with it back then, well, in all fairness I had come up with the idea two hours before NaNoWriMo 2008 kicked off at midnight November 1st.  I was full of false bravado of “Oh hey, I can do that!” A little easier said than done back then.
    My mother and I still once in a while discuss Grow. It’s kind of a once in a blue moon thing. When I had started school this semester she said to me point-blank “When are you going to finish Grow?” and I said confidently “This Fall.”

    Grow is similar to 10-9 in the years from Conception to Completion. 10-9 was the famous six years of false starts, rewrites, lack of confidence, and then just finally getting down to it. 10-9′s completion was also fueled by a friend’s comment that said “Let’s face it. You’ll never finish it. It’s your life.” Filled with righteous indignation I immediately thought, “Oh I’ll show you, Mr. Smarty Pants!”

    I spit out 10-9 from December 2009 to May 2010. I held up the box of the draft to my friend and he grinned. “Gotcha,” he said. And thus began my long history of writing things on dares. Because I can do it. And I will win.
    Grow began humbly, but it was the first flash of my mother discovering I could tell stories. In a way, Grow molded into something that brought us together. Somehow, the impetus of wanting to share this with my mother should be the thing that makes me bust ass on it. But it isn’t. I have yet to be dared to finish it. I have yet to have the gauntlet thrown in my direction.

    Thus, I’m unprepared. But isn’t that how NaNo goes anyway? It’s like surfing. You body surf the waves to learn the tides. Polite company calls that drowning. So NaNo you pretty much drown for a while until you figure out how to get on your surfboard of plot and claim the half-pipe.

    As for 10-9, who’s still sitting on a shelf after Awesome Rejection Critique… I know what must be done. I was struck with a fit of temporary insanity and just sending it on to the next publishing house without any revisions suggested by the critique made hoping they would take it as-is. Here’s the kicker. The Awesome Rejection Critique came from a company I had sent it to them twice. They did express that they could be interested in 10-9 down the road once I had clarified some bits and they had another look at it. Key word is could. Not a promise of acceptance.

    So my master plan is to do the edits, and ship it back in for three times the charm. Maybe lucky number three will be what does it.

    On top of that… I’m creeping bit by bit through editing Darkmore which is also for the same company. I’ve revised nearly 20k. That’s progress I suppose. I need a magical Time Management Fairy. Or 100-hour days would be spiffy.


    Category 10-9, Darkmore, Grow, Real Life | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  4. My Love Letter To Joseph Conrad

    January 27, 2011 by Megs


    Progress on Darkmore

    45419 / 72000 63.08% Done!


    As far as Darkmore goes we are coming down to the last pieces and parcels. With eight chapters left I’ll be finished weekend after next if I take it slow. This one? I doubt it’s going to get up to 72k but damnit I’m going to try! I’d like to have material to take away instead of pack on.

    Looking back, save the tooth pulling beginning that dug up some dark places in my head Darkmore’s starting a trend no matter the incarnation it’s always easy to write. Yeah there was a bit of a 10k detour with Ramone and Kaltag but once I got in my head what to do with Sevon it just all.. clicked. The set dressing is all there. It’s just to get the people in it to speak their lines and fill the place with life.

    I wish I had the luxury this time around to say when Darkmore is over with I’m going to sit on my ass and do nothing for a while. Maybe read the eBooks on my Nook I’ve been neglecting. But nope. It’s still asses and elbows with school and one of my classes is Fiction Writing which requires me to keep writing something. The thing I’m doing for class is tentatively titled ‘Perfect Ten’ or ‘P10′ about space pirates on the quest for genetic perfection. With my inklings of notes and ideas I’m kind of doubting just how much of it involves gene splicing but instead relationships between the natural versus the manufactured as well as friendship versus romance.

    Did I mention it’s about space pirates? It’s not supposed to be terribly deep and moving but vapid fluff. Because! Space pirates! And here I go again tossing around Industrialism versus Colonialism again. Joseph Conrad is a hell of a drug. Heart of Darkness will ruin your mind. Ruin it!

    Even Darkmore has Conrad-ian undercurrents. I need a new theme to harp on. Why can it be something like… Redemption? True Love Waits? The Truth Will Set You Free? The next book I have on my To-Do list? Yup. Reeks of Conrad-ian themes. Pretty literally too.

    Why Conrad so nifty? And why do I not actually like Apocalypse Now? It’s a mystery. A mystery.

    The horror… The horror…


    Category Babbling, Darkmore, Grow, News, Real Life | Tags: ,,,,,, | No Comments

  5. Mythic Structure! It’s SRS BSNS! >E

    May 26, 2010 by Megs

    I must repeat I seriously suck at self imposed vacations from writing. I apparently think too far ahead about what lies ahead and I end up getting all anxious about it. Yesterday, no lie, yesterday I was seriously nervous about when it came time to do Grow in Mid-July because I didn’t have a plot yet. Did I mention I had until Mid-July to think of something?! Honestly!

    Yesterday, in watching Episode 2 of Life After People and learning all about the rabies virus I said hmm this is interesting. But what the hell to do with it? Today enter Episode 3 and a few factoids about Angkor Wat and the wildlife that lives in the ruins today and suddenly the lightbulb goes DING~ Ding in the stupidly simple way that I decided I wanted some character fighting some rabid creature living in ruins. Truth be told it was ripped right from the fact that two Bengal tigers mauled some guy because they were living in a temple not to far from Angkor Wat and he basically had a really bad day.

    I was like… Rabies + Critter + Enclosed Space + OHNOES = For…? And settled on for a thing! What thing! I don’t know! They’re in the ‘temple’ to get a thing!

    So I successfully had crafted a scene I wanted for Grow and I commenced rejoicing because The Spice was flowing. I went to make notes of this charming little scene… And the next thing I knew I had the first 19-ish chapters outlined. Holla! Or should I say Mythic Structure saved my ass, yo. Gasp! Dare I say I’m actually paying attention to all of these silly books I’ve been reading? Seriously.

    I’m actually so ready to get cracking on Grow now that I have a plot I’m actually forcing myself to hold off for a few more days. Actually in the span of the outline Grow picked up three more characters, two from the three year old draft and one brand spankin’ new. One of them got a bit of an attitude adjustment, one had a whole change up (prostitute to semi-crazy oracle type, say what?), and one I already want to die in a fire. The last is rather delightful… And reminds me of dear sweet Benjamin Linus of the departed Lost. I can only hope to write a villain/anti-hero type with that much to despise and love about them all at once.

    In other news just an hour ago I submitted for my free proof of 10-9 from Create Space with the coupon code from winning NaNoWriMo last year. I had almost forgot I had it until I remembered I had like… a month left before it expired. Oops~ I figure it’ll be something nice and sturdy to mark up on the go before I shop it to publishers. I actually skimmed the first five or so chapters and know RIGHT off the bat the later chapters are considerably weaker than the first ones… of course I have also been rewriting the first handful of chapters for years. Naturally they’re going to sound better than the new material, because GASP it’s new! Fresh outta the box!

    Holy crap. I’m headed to bed and hopefully to shut up geeking about my flower children and military boys!


    Category Babbling, Grow, Real Life | Tags: ,,, | No Comments