She LIVES!

January 13.  Where does the time go?  Seems like only yesterday it was November 26, the day I COMPLETED MY FIRST DRAFT. Life has been a blur since then, what with the holidays and myriad of other activities that helped me forget (or at least granted me temporary amnesia) that I had spent a month pounding out 50,000 words.

The first draft is done.  Somehow, despite not having the faintest idea how I was going to tie up the myriad strands of my story, I managed to deal with my red herrings, double the tension and finally resolve everything into a rather tidy ending. Finally, 94,500 words later, I got to type the magical words “The End” and close my laptop for a well deserved rest.

Well, nap time is over folks. I have a second draft and (GULP) edits to conduct.  That starts with a full read through. Page 1 to page 447.  To aid in the process, my darling husband Jim printed out the full manuscript this evening.  Isn’t my baby pretty?

Now, the brutal part:  to cut out the dead wood and add the essential descriptions that make my story shine.  I head off into the ominous evening armed with two weapons:  my red pen and the belief that I can do this.

It is a daunting and scary process.  I think I did a good job on the first draft.  At the risk of sounding unbearably pompous, I think have the makings of a damn fine gothic Victorian novel:  blackmail, secrets, death and forbidden love…plus enough red herrings and plot twists to keep the reader interested until the end.

But first I need to refine it. My baby is a diamond in the rough.  She is not ready for her introduction to society.

Time for finishing school.

3079 today!

That’s right!  I made up some ground today!  8753 baby!  AWWWW yeah…

I’m wiped.  Time for a run.

Back to it!

After a night off for elections, I’m back to work!  Total word count so far:  5674!

This doesn’t count the massive amounts of reworking I did in my head today, reworking parts of my heroine’s character.  I really like where things are going.  We’ll see how things play out from here.  I also know what drove my hero and heroine apart in the beginning, and the driving force behind my heroine’s personality.

A lot of progress today.

It has been difficult to get back into the swing of things with this second half of the book. I left at a blocked point back in August, and I knew I had a lot to work through before the story was going to flow more easily. Today I made significant progress, more than a mere word count can show.

All right, enough writing.  Time for a late dessert, a little cuddling with my hubby, then bed.

4,001 so far

4,001 words so far.

I’ll take it.

Here we go!

Due to a host of reasons, among them rampant procrastination on my part, today I begin NaNoWriMo.  If all goes according to plan, I’ll hold a completed first draft in my hot little hands come November 30.

GULP.

Here we go.

I’m back!

Life has been busy, necessitating a break from writing. However, I’ll be back on the wagon come November 1.

All right all, let this be notice to you:

come November 1 I am doing National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo. The goal: to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I’m going to the second half of my novel. If all goes well, I’ll have a completed first draft in my hands come November 30.

I’m excited and terrified to get back into writing. I’m sure some of that will go away once I get down to business. Or at least, I hope it will.

I’ll be posting a lot more in the coming weeks, so check back often!

Saratoga Springs and the rules of faro

The last few weeks have been all about background research. Having discovered that I desperately needed background information on Saratoga Springs, I dove right into old newspaper articles, guide books and local anthologies to bolster my limited knowledge of that storied town. I even solicited the help of my husband Jim on a Sunday afternoon jaunt. Together we toured the Saratoga Springs History Museum in the Canfield Casino, made the rounds of Congress Park, enjoyed a delicious repast at Mrs. London’s and generally familiarized ourselves with the town.

That done, I went home to bury myself in books:  “Such Was Saratoga” and “Saratoga Lost” were new reads, and I reread “The Hudson-Mohawk Gateway”.  I feel I’ve re-immersed myself in the feel of those times. I can feel the heady atmosphere of a town that has it all:  gamblers, grand hotels, temperance leagues and healing springs.

Slowly but surely, the second half of the book is coalescing. My research is doing its job:  every fact I absorb weaves itself into the tapestry that will be my story. Soon, I’ll reach that critical number and I’ll know it is time to start writing again.

Until then, I research. Next up: the rules of faro, a card game that was one of the most popular at gambling establishments. It was also one of the easiest for the house to fix. Beyond that, I know little. But soon, I’ll know the rules as well as any hardened 19th century gambler.

Who knows?  Maybe I’ll host a game night and subject my friends and acquaintances to my newfound game discovery.  Just a friendly game of course.

Research

I did most of the research for this book 3 years ago, before I wrote my first novel.  I LOVE researching background – there’s a wealth of information and stories to stimulate the senses and pique one’s imagination.  Perhaps that’s why I love walking through old cemeteries so much – I love looking at tombstones and imaging the life stories of those whose remains lay before me.

Tonight, I realized that I need to do a little more research regarding Saratoga Springs NY circa 1896.  It makes my little researcher’s heart pound with joy.  Really!  So I’ve inter-library-loaned a book on Saratoga Springs from the library, and started my Google searches. Tomorrow night, I’ll be perusing New York Times Articles from 1896, wikipedia entries, and any other credible sources that can give me a general background of this upstate New York community.

Why am I doing this?  Because reading over the last two scenes I wrote before break it became obvious that while I know how the last third of the book will turn out (well, I know what needs to be unveiled, some of the mechanics of the final scenes have not been revealed to me yet), I need more to happen between my characters before that resolution. This is where my hero and heroine get to know  each other again. This is where the plot thickens. This is where the grand adventure happens.  Barriers will be torn down, connections will be made, red herrings will be thrown!  Ah, the excitement!

What am I missing then?  The context!  WHERE this is happening is integral to the story.  I can see that much, with the hazy sort of realization that writing a novel entails.  The writing process is akin to raising a child.  You have some control over the basics, but at some point, it is out of your hands. The child, or book, takes on a life of its own.

My child needs to know more so it can grow into the full-blown story I know it can be.

So tomorrow night, I’ll be immersed in the nineteenth-century, absorbing all I can about the gamblers, the locals, the spas, the hotels…the essence of Saratoga.  Once I have the essence of Saratoga, I’ll know what the next step is for my characters.

Writing a book for me is all about faith.  It is about taking steps when you aren’t consciously sure WHY you are doing something, but you do it anyway, because you know you need to do it. It is an awesome and humbling process.

I’m ba-aack!

Vacation was wonderful.  Ah, I miss it already.

But now it is time to get back to work.  Too bad I don’t have any motivation to do so.

Hello?  Motivation?  Where are you?

Come back!  I need you!

Now I can go on vacation

50,000 words baby!

That’s right, I did it!  Go me!

Now, time to pack.

See you next week!