The other day, I went through a ton of my old notebooks to find the notes I made for the Always Read the Fae Print sequel.

Surprise number one: I actually found them.

Surprise number two: I also found the notes I made for the first book.

Back then, it was just named “Lillian fantasy” or “Lillian story” and Lillian was in college, studying Something Vaguely Scientific. I was still debating whether she should have burns or hellhound bites. There weren’t any fae yet — I had no idea of the antagonists or who/what they were after, though I did have an idea fo the first scene. (That one actually stuck for the length of the adult version.) At one point, I decided the story needed dragons.

Arjan started off not with a personality or role in the story, but with the following note:

For Lillian story – crush name = Jelle? Arjan? Something very Dutch but simple enough.

Another bit of insight into my thought process:

What kind of critters – made up? Base off existing goblin type things? Research. Also: WTF is actual plot/motivation?

Flipping ahead a few pages, Lillian is still in college instead of working at the restaurant, but I can see the actual plot coming together. The way hellfire works, how her scars tie into the plot, how her dad the warlock sets things in motion, the first incarnation of Merel/Femke (as ‘witch type person’)…

And at the end of that page, I remind myself that I don’t want to make it too YA-y. That went well.

As for my other books? Heirs started out as an adult novel as well. It was going to be very noir and dark. (Um, notsomuch anymore.)

My traumatized, reclusive, messed-up Cally from The Hands of Cally Wu started out as your basic sassy kick-ass urban fantasy heroine.

I love seeing how these things come together. It also really helps me when plotting my next projects: when I’m particularly attached to a concept or plot point that just won’t work for the book, or when I despair at my lack of plot or the flimsiness of the story so far, I remind myself how much these other books changed before I even put a single letter on paper. It helps so much in powering through and getting the story to what I need it to be.

1. Beth Revis‘s Across The Universe just hit the NYT list at #7. MY BETHLING IS AN NYT BESTSELLING AUTHOR, Y’ALL. I am geeking out over this like you would NOT believe.
2. The first 250 words of Always Read the Fae Print are entered in January’s Secret Agent contest over at Miss Snark’s First Victim. Comments are super nice and helpful! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside yesterday. People rock.
3. This means I can also go crit other people’s 250 words soon (which I plan to do right after I catch up on yesterday’s Modern Family) — I love critiquing.
4. Always Read the Fae Print is fully overhauled to YA and enough time has passed since the holidays that I felt safe in climbing back on the querying horse. Nerve-wracking? YES. But I love putting my work out there. So even spending my days chewing my nails down to the bone makes me a little bit happy.
5. This is my current TBR stack. It’s a little big. Usually I despair at the sight of it — I won’t be able to get through these in a THOUSAND YEARS — but I’m so damn chipper right now that all I can think of is, “I’m going to be REALLY ENTERTAINED those thousand years.” (OK, I also think that I really need to pop by the Ikea soon because I’m running out of space, but that’s secondary.)
6. I have fancy book ideas. Many of them. Some old, some new. Some involve vampires. Some involve sleep paralysis. Some involve climbing. Some involve fictional TV shows. Only very few involve siblings, which is a nice change of pace for me. Thinking about them makes me happy.

While I’m aware that I have some very legitimate attention span problems, I’m sure this dilemma is one that every author in the world is familiar with: what the heck do I work on next?

In my case, I have several novel-length projects clamoring for my attention Right! This! Instant! Normally, I would simply finish one project (in this case, Heirs) and then figure out what needs to happen next, but this post by Rachel Aaron made me want to take a step back and consider my options.

1. Heirs: This draft is about 20k away from being done, and I hate leaving projects unfinished. It’s the first in a YA urban fantasy trilogy, and I think the different perspective of the MC – he was forced out of the demon-slaying biz after he became deaf but desperately wants back in – might just pique agents’ attention. Plus, trilogies are hot. Which leads me to…
2. Yunupaya. Or Stranger. Or the half-dozen other crappy titles I came up with for this as-of-yet-unwritten YA sci-fi trilogy which I’ve been playing with for over a year. I’m super excited about it; I think it hits a good mix of original and commercial. This was supposed to be the project I’d start on after Heirs.
3. The Newest and Shiniest of All Projects: This one only popped into my head this week, and it’s taking over the neighborhood. I can’t say too much about it yet, but it’s a standalone YA paranormal/fantasy which is a bit more real-world-based than most of my other fantasy projects. It’s also currently bouncing up and down going “I’m THE ONE! WRITE ME. WRITE ME NOW.” Every book does that in the beginning… but every time it feels right. And I really think this could garner a lot of interest.
4. The Hands of Cally Wu: Did I mention I hate leaving projects unfinished? I was supposed to edit this in November. I, uh, didn’t. Basically, I do really love this book and want to mold it into something better than the pathetic excuse of a first draft it is now… but it’s not my regular genre/style, and I worry that I’d be wasting time I could be spending on other books that are in my genre, which would be more useful to my career in both the short and long term.
5. Always Read the Fae Print. Yes, okay, so I just turned down an agent offer. Yes, I’ve queried more agents with this than I care to admit. Yes, I’d pretty much given up on this book… but I really think it could work as a YA. I’ve had that thought for months and months. It means rewriting the whole darned thing, but it’d open up a lot of other avenues. I don’t want to rework a project to death; I know how important it is to move on to the next book. At the same time, there’s life in this project, and I don’t want to give up if it still has a chance.

As you might’ve noticed, I’m trying to take a very objective, commercial view of these projects. Let’s be honest here, my current number one priority is getting an agent.

I’m not selling out: whatever choice I’ll make, I’ll be writing a book that I love and want to write. It’s just that, well, this one is more commercial, and that one’s more interesting, and this one is so close to being done, and this one is more in my regular style, and this one could be The One but it’s kinda different from what I usually write so what if people wouldn’t like my regular work…

… Yeah, this is why getting an agent is so important to me. I always struggle to know what the best course of action is, and it would be such a huge help to have someone else to discuss that with.

Basically, I need a goal. I don’t work well without one. And right now, I’m floundering.

So how do you decide what to work on next? If you’ve got any pointers, I’m all ears!

This is going to be one of those self-absorbed posts about feeeelings. Be warned, all ye who enter here.

So, I’m a big proponent of Doing What It Takes To Get Stuff Done. This actually doesn’t turn me into a complete drill sergeant. It does the exact opposite: I try to be relaxed, zen, accept my shortcomings, and not force myself into doing something when my body or brain say it’s wrong.

I know, it’s amazing how I get anything done at all.

The thing is, I’ve got this annoying brain that doesn’t work like most people’s, and when I try to fight against it, bad things tend to happen. The worst time in my life can be traced right back to that. When I started to accept my limits, life got better. I got things done, and actually felt like a human being in the process. Score!

What this means is that after any major project, I need to rest a while. Sometimes for a few days, sometimes for a few weeks. I’ve had to account for this when planning my schedule. (Yes, I plan my writing schedule months in advance.) I rarely let myself take more than a month off, and I usually do get things done during that time – they’re just small things. A sketch here. Editing a short story there. Brainstorming. Editing for other people. When I try to do more than what I’m capable of, my brain lets me know, and I shut down. If I keep pushing myself, Bad Things Happen. I can do it when a deadline is looming, but I pay the price later, with long stretches ofhighly frustrating inactivity.

Anyway, When I’m up to writing or revising again, I get antsy. My brain won’t shut up about this or that book, and I know it’s time to get back to work. I’m pretty much in that state right now – the only problem is, I’ve already got work to do. August was reserved to work on The Audio File – the graphic novel project I’m doing in collaboration with K.V. Taylor. I’m excited about it, it looks fun and challenging, and I’m making good headway on drawing the first page.

Brain sez: not enough. It’s already been eagerly plotting the YA sci-fi I’ve mentioned here and there, which I started in November ’09 and subsequently scrapped. Some brainstorming with Jodi Meadows helped me put some things together, reading The Hunger Games got me extra excited to be digging into the YA game and helped me rethink my main character’s motivation, and I’ve been scribbling notebooks full of plotting.

I told my brain, all right, I can keep plotting eagerly, so I can start writing this book when I return from my September vacation. (I’m going to Australia for like a month. How awesome is that?)

But no. Yesterday evening, the brain decided that if it can’t write the YA sci-fi yet, maybe shifting gears to editing The Hands of Cally Wu would help. After all, the writing style can work, but needs a lot of polishing, and I still need to work on the pacing and introduce some plot points earlier on, and -

No, I chastised the brain. August is for Audio File. Besides, if I take on any other major projects, I’ll just need to put it on hold during Australia (!!!) and pausing a project midway is the fastest route to doubting yourself and wanting to give up.

The brain grumped. The brain went to sleep. The brain woke up after an hour of sleep and said, “You know, that urban fantasy trilogy you’ve been brainstorming for the past year and a half? It could work as a YA.”

I laughed, turned over to get back to sleep – and realized it was right. Sleep-deprived Tweeting from my cellphone ensued.

The thing is – this solves so many of the problems I’ve been having with the book. It introduces some others, but those are easily solved. It changes the tone, but that’s not necessarily bad. The characters are younger, and therefore different, but it just makes them more interesting/deliciously angsty. There’s more conflict. And more importantly/annoyingly, since I’ve already done a lot of plotting for this book, it’s just about ready to be written now. (I mean, several hours of non-stop brainstorming will help you convert a book to YA in no time flat.)

So when I’m normally cursing my brain because it’s not letting me be productive – sometimes it it does the opposite.

And at the least opportune time, too. Is anyone surprised?

This week, I came up with a genius idea for a story. (We’re still in the honeymoon phase.)

The only problem: I’d need to be a genius writer to pull it off. It’s so far outside my comfort zone it’s not even funny–and you can read that line in more ways than one, since ‘funny’ tends to be my comfort zone.

This story would, instead, be a cracky experimental thing that would leave little to no room for humor, characterisation, or a linear storyline. Just typing that sentence has me shuddering.

Still, I’m very intrigued by the idea, which means I’m jotting down notes here and there before I ship it off to reside with all those other ideas that made me go, “Cool! But not right now.” I’m sure it’ll make good friends with the semi-literary sci-fi novel about clones and theology.

(That group, by the way, is a different one from the stories that make me go, “Intriguing! Once I figure out what it’s about, anyway.” Because that one YA novel that’s 95% contemporary with a 5% slice of unattractive aromantic non-abusive guardian angel probably needs some rethinking in terms of plot focus.)

I know I’m far from the only writer to do this. Sometimes the story requires more skill than you’ve got right now, or more research than you can afford, or sometimes it’s just not what you’re focusing on right now. What kinds of stories do you have saved up for the future?

So, so much drama.

This is the start of the second scene in the book. The MC, Cally, has demons in her head. They’re not very nice.

She also has a sister, Viola. She is nice, but doesn’t last very long.

      That was then.
      This is now.
      This is me, eyes fluttering open. I suck in air through shallow breaths, the cold stinging my throat, my face numb.
      White everywhere. Snowflakes cling to my eyelashes. A few feet away, something dark and shapeless lies on the ground. Red stains the snow, spreading out like an oil spill.
      My vision sharpens—and I remember.
      Not all of it. But enough. I remember a gunshot, and voices in the distance, and I remember hitting the ground (though not why).
      I remember blackness overtaking me; I remember Viola.
      Viola.
      I cough and roll onto my stomach, forcing myself up to all fours.
      Like me, they don’t know what happened, but they laugh anyway. They laugh at Viola’s cane, elegant mahogany half-submerged in the snow, and the way pale fingers rest immobile on her chest, forming claws, like it would’ve helped.
      Shut up, I tell them, and keep moving.

I’m also using a fancy little word meter:

You can find it in the sidebar, where I keep track of my March progress.

This book started off weirdly. A few months ago I watched Paranormal Activity, which gave birth to a particularly annoying plot bunny. I toyed around with it a bit, tried to think of a proper plot, and eventually decided it might do well as an atmospheric mini graphic novel. It never happened, and I couldn’t settle on a satisfactory plot (I knew what needed to happen but not how to tell it), and I decided the character might end up doing better as a secondary character in my Heirs trilogy.

More recently, I came up with an entirely new idea, kind of a subversion of the urban fantasy genre. It had a few plot elements in common with the original graphic novel idea above, and after one or two days, it clicked: I could combine the two.

So I did.

At which point it decided it was no longer a graphic novel or urban fantasy subversion, but instead a dark fantasy/family tragedy mix, and wanted to get written ASAP.

You know the rest!