Carol Callicotte

Author

Goals 2009 January 16, 2009

Filed under: Goals,Projects,Writing,Writing World — A French American Life @ 12:51 pm
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Tis the season to set goals, and I have several for writing. I’m being general here, but my specific goals are S.M.A.R.T. – as discussed in a previous post – and pinned over my desk!

•My biggest goal is to find an agent for CHEATER. I love this book, and I really believe it has a good shot at finding a place in the market.

•I’m calling this the “year of rough drafts.” I have so many ideas floating around in my head. Some of them I like more than others, but many of them have potential. They are in different genres: Contemporary Fantasy, General Fiction, YA, YA Fantasy, and Travel Writing. Which doesn’t bode well for starting a career, I know. I’ll have to pick something and stick with it for a while if I really want to succeed in the published market. But I’m still, in some ways, finding myself as a writer. Aren’t we all, to some extent? I want to take time to experiment in different genres, different voices, different story lengths. I’ve set some specific goals for which ideas I want to make into rough drafts of both short and novel length stories. I write roughs pretty fast, so I think I can complete several this year.

•Enter some contests. There are some great ones out there. I’ve got my eye on the Golden Heart, and I’m researching some others.

•Blog 2-3 times a week.

•Continue to study the craft through books, classes, conferences, and continuing with my two critique groups.

Now they are out there. There’s no turning back!

 

The Mid-Book Blues

Filed under: For Writers,Projects,Writing,Writing World — A French American Life @ 12:31 pm
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I started out so in love. We clicked. We understood each other. It felt so right. What happened? I just don’t understand! We aren’t communicating anymore. We’re not excited to see each other. There’s no more losing track of the hours as we spend time together, instead, I’m watching the clock.

It’s the mid-book blues.

I’m banging my head on my desk trying to get back to that place where everything felt so good with my book, but I’m just not rediscovering the magic. This has happened before, so I know this feeling will pass. But still, it’s so frustrating. One of the writing instructors at UCSD Extension used to offer a class called “Unmuddling the Middle” which I thought was a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, it got cancelled the two times I’ve tried to sign up for it due to non-enrollment – I suppose people are either so muddled they quit writing, or they’re finding their own way out. It’s a phenomenon many writers experience, and each writer has their own method of dealing with it. As for me, I decided to put it aside and let it breathe a bit. I’m blogging, working on other stories, and reading Anne Lamont’s Bird by Bird, all in hopes of triggering my imagination and drive. Later, I’ll take a look at what I’ve already written and the notes I made on it, and I’m confident sparks will fly once more.

 

Work in Progress August 28, 2008

Filed under: Projects,Writing — A French American Life @ 5:10 pm
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My current work in progress hit 25,000 words today.  Almost 100 pages.  I remember when my first draft of CHEATER hit that landmark; I was in awe that I’d written so much.  That was almost 3 years ago.  I’ve learned a lot since then, and now, it seems like not such a big deal.  I see it as unpolished, just very basic ideas, and I know a lot of it won’t make it to the second or third drafts, let alone the final version.  I know I’ll be picking it all apart and poking and prodding at it before too long.   But I think, tonight, I’m going to take a little time to just kick back and enjoy reaching this point.

 

Productive Days August 19, 2008

Filed under: Projects,Writing — A French American Life @ 4:52 pm
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I am flying along with my current work-in-progress, averaging about six pages a day (around 1500 words).  It’s a “skeleton” – a very rough draft – but I’m thrilled with the progress.  It’s been a while since I’ve felt this inspired.  Though writing YA has a consequence I did not expect – all this thinking about high school has brought on night after night of dreams that I’m back in my teenage years, walking those dimly lit high school halls, suffering through thousands of long forgotten insecurities, and often forgetting to do my homework (the latter was not part of my real high school experience!  I was a good little girl).

Writing regularly again has been like Draino for my creative process.  The pipes are now unclogged, and I’m being bombarded by cool ideas that I want to pursue.  One that I’m particularly excited about is another urban fantasy/paranormal sort of theme.  And lots of others are just fun to think about.

 

Fantasy Writers Research, Too August 13, 2008

Filed under: Cheater,fantasy,Projects,Writing — A French American Life @ 1:09 pm
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Yep – we may create our own worlds and our own rules, but that doesn’t exempt us from research.

Here is a list of some of the things I researched while writing my urban fantasy, CHEATER:

• Traditional and contemporary beliefs about death, the gods and angels of death, and the afterlife, including Celtic, Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Norse, Aztec, and Christian.

• Con artists and their “art”, famous cons and schemes, famous con artists

• The Grim Reaper – folklore, history, and portrayal in literature and film

• Death and mortality rates

• Traditionally held beliefs about Limbo

• All sorts of cool techy stuff like hacking into computers, tiny digital cameras, internet scams…

• Slot machines

• Blackjack

• Las Vegas and Death Valley – that was a fun trip!

• The Lake Havasu region

• Several locales around sweet home San Diego

• Casinos, their rules, their layout

• The Etch A Sketch

• My jobs, that have offered wonderful insight to the inner workings of a bureaucracy (including a nice collection of memos that served as inspiration…)

• Poker

• Charles Babbage, his Difference Engine, and his Analytical Engine

While 95% of what I learned didn’t make it into the book (sometimes 10 hours of research becomes 1 line of text), most of these things play a role. Are you intrigued yet?

 

Young Love August 8, 2008

Filed under: Projects,Writing — A French American Life @ 1:13 pm
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I’ve started work on a new story that I’m pretty excited about.  My mind and pen have been wandering aimlessly for a while now – I’ve spent months mulling over ideas and then rejecting them because they don’t feel “right.”  This new one is something that was actually inspired by a dream.  It’s not an urban fantasy/paranormal – like CHEATER or a few of the short stories I’ve done lately.  But, we’ve had the most AMAZING week getting to know each other, and, I’ll admit it, I’ve fallen in love.  (See my previous post where there is a link to another writer’s blog on how writing a book is like falling in love.)  It’s a YA story, a romance.  So a warning to my young friends out there (and your parents) – I may need some test readers in the next few months!