Carol Callicotte

Author

Goals September 15, 2008

Filed under: For Writers,Goals,Writing,Writing World — A French American Life @ 5:40 pm
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As a physical therapist, I’ve had to learn how to write goals to make sure health insurances cover my patients’ therapy. Saying: “Mrs. Smith will be able to walk better” just doesn’t cut it. Goals have to be specific, objective, measurable, realistic, and timely. An example that works would be: “In three weeks, Mrs. Smith will ambulate with minimal gait deviation using a single point cane and stand-by assist for 1000 feet.”

Now, before you all nod off, and believe me, I know that sounded excruciatingly boring, there is a point to this. Learning how to set goals can help writers. My long term goal is to be a published author and to write and publish throughout my life. (Yes to the smarty pants out there – I do realize I didn’t put a time frame on that one. Otherwise, it is a specific, objective, measurable, and realistic goal!) So, for me, simply saying, “I’m going to finish a novel someday” just doesn’t cut it.

There’s a system out there that is very similar to what we use as physical therapists: SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic (Relevant), and Time-bound. Like the PT method, it works for setting writing goals: “I will write 25 rough-draft pages in my YA novel by this Saturday.”

When I first started writing, my approach was much more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants: “I think I’ll try to write some this week, if I feel inspired.” “I hope to finish a novel someday, maybe try to publish.” I found day after day passing me by, my pen untouched, my brain untapped. Not the best approach for one who really hopes to break into the writing business. I’d resisted setting goals, fearing it would squelch my creativity. In fact, I’ve found that making daily goals for my writing has been liberating rather than confining. Writing every day keeps the cogs of my mind lubed and moving, so that when I do sit down to write, things flow much more easily than they did when I randomly sat down to scribble something out, usually under the pressure that I needed to have something that night for my writers group. When I set a daily page goal for myself, I’m able to relax and write. Before, I would rush through a scene, trying to just get it done. Now, I’m able to relax and immerse myself into what I’m writing. I feel my characters out, dig deeper into their emotions, let things just flow, and then suddenly, I see the little star I drew at the bottom of page number X, and – I did it! I made the progress I’d hoped to make that day. It means a small victory every day, and I can leave the self flagellation (I really should be writing, I wasted all my time today, etc.) behind.

Though I’m yet unpublished, I treat my writing like it’s a job. Luckily, it’s a job for which I have endless passion and plenty of drive. I love hearing what published authors have to say on balancing the creative process with the more objective side of writing – understanding the business, finishing projects, knowing what you hope to accomplish. It takes strength in both to make it in this field.

By the way, one of my goals for today was to write a blog on writing goals. Done!

 

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.

 

Word Count August 26, 2008

Filed under: For Writers,Writing,Writing World — A French American Life @ 12:34 pm
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For those of you who, like me, have been confused by word count expectations for novels, agent Colleen Lindsay of FinePrint Literary Management has an excellent post on this subject.  The numbers I’ve heard vary widely depending on the source.  Thanks to Colleen for giving us some solid guidelines.

 

Discussions this week in the writing world August 23, 2008

Filed under: Censorship,Writing,Writing World — A French American Life @ 3:00 pm
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There were quite a few interesting conversations going on in the blog world this week. I’m late posting links – I needed some technical assistance (meaning my husband) and Stephane’s had a long work week. But, better late than never:

Nathan Bransford, a literary agent with Curtis Brown, posed an interesting question on what is and is not a publisher’s responsibility. He cites two recent events: (1) a book Random House chose not to publish, citing fears of backlash and possible acts of violence and (2) a book Simon and Schuster did publish – a less than truthful smear of Barack Obama. At the heart of the matter – moral responsibility and questions of censorship. Check it out, here.

Another blog that caught my eye was posted by The Rejecter, another literary agent. Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, is apparently being returned to stores at an unprecedented rate. I’ve never even thought about returning a book simply because I didn’t like it – I tend to sell those to a used book store or donate them to the library. The Rejecter hosted a discussion on the practice of returning books to the store for a full refund, and the implications of this practice, here.

 

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?

 

Writing Process August 11, 2008

Filed under: Writing — A French American Life @ 2:54 pm
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My non-writer friends often ask me, “How do you go about writing a book?”

I used to think writers plunked themselves down, pen (or keyboard) in hand, started on page one and continued on through the end and then – voila! A book! Non-writer friends look at me a little funny when I say things like, “I don’t always know what will happen when I start to write.” Or, “My characters don’t always listen to me.” Or, “Yes, I finished my sixth draft, but I still have a lot of work to do.” Or, “I forgot to eat yesterday; I was writing and all of a sudden it was one a.m.”

I don’t fault them for their confusion. It confuses me, too.

The writing world likes to divide us into “outliners” and “blank-pagers.” This artificial division oversimplifies things. There are too many of us who are somewhere in between. Sometimes, I sit down with a blank page, let my imagination run, and I’m amazed where I end up.

While working on CHEATER, I bombarded my husband Stephane one day with this: “You will never believe what happened today. Sydney found out that so-and-so is actually so-and-so, and then Arthur said blah blah blah, and then this guy showed up, and it turns out that he blah blah blah…”

Stephane squinted at me and said, “Are you talking about your characters?”

I nodded. “Yeah! Can you believe it? I couldn’t!”

Of course, I was half-joking, but the fact is that sometimes my characters take and over surprise me. And sometimes, several scenes start flying through my brain and so I jot down a few notes and this becomes an outline; a map to follow. So it goes for me.

My first draft is always a skeleton – it has the bones but is missing a lot of the meat and the style. It’s accompanied by an ever-expanding outline of ideas and storylines that I’d like to follow. Sometimes I try to rein my characters in and whip them into place, and sometimes they run wild and it’s all I can do to keep up.

I like to think of it as the competing sides of my brain striking a healthy balance. I’m ridiculously driven, logical, and organized, which helps me tie up all those loose threads in my stories and to finish what I start. But my creative side is in there too, and when I let that loose and allow things to develop organically, I get some of my best stuff.

Finishing a book is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and it took my whole brain, a lot of tears, sweat, and some blood (damn papercuts) to do it.

But this I know for sure: Finishing a book felt just as good, if not better, than scoring the game-winning basket, acing that microbiology final, and getting my physical therapy school acceptance letter. No matter what happens with CHEATER, I will never forget the feeling I had when I first saw a book I wrote printed out and nestled in a manuscript box.

 

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!

 

Something fun August 6, 2008

Filed under: For Writers,Funny stuff,Writing,Writing World — A French American Life @ 6:02 pm
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I just came across this hilarious post on how writing a book is like falling in, and then out, of love.  Check it out!

http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/36896.html

 

Why I Write August 5, 2008

Filed under: For Writers,Writing,Writing World — A French American Life @ 8:46 pm
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Because things don’t seem quite real until I’ve written about them.  Because I can’t not write.  Because it gives me a deeper understanding of our world and the human experience.  Because I love words.  Because a well written sentence, a well chosen word, gives me a rush of happiness.  Because I want some part of me to live on when I am gone, even if it is only my family that reads it.  Because it’s cheaper than therapy.  Because of the high I get when I’m writing – I feel like screaming and crying and laughing at the top of my lungs, and at the same time like sitting peacefully and watching the world go by.  Because I am happiest when I’m lost in the worlds I create and letting my characters’ voices flow through my pen.  Because I think I’m good at it, and I want to do something I love and something I’m good at for a living.  Because I don’t want to look back on my life and wish I’d followed my dreams – I want to follow them now.  Because only when I am writing am I truly, fully, completely me.  Because the craft of writing fascinates and challenges me.  Because this is what I want to do more than anything else in the world.